why did you start playing??

this thread and im sure there has been a few of them by now i sabout the reasons you started this maddness in the first place. i would like as much honesty as possible but if your embrassed about dont worry.

for me i first started playing because when i was 11 or 12 my best friend got his first guitar and was taking lessons. well we decided to start a nirvana cover band he would teach me how to play and he would sing and i would play lead. we were going to be rock stars.

so thats how i got hooked it wasnt until high school that i realized what a rock star really was and then i decided i should become a musician rather than a rock star.

how bout you?

ummm..chicks dig it!

When I was about twelve, my friend informed me he was going to be starting guitar lessons. Even though I couldn't have cared less about music at the time, I didn't want him to be better than me at guitar. So I got my dad to teach me how to play a few chords, and I went from there.

I saw my brother playing, thought it was cool. Got lessons with is instructor, quit because dude was creepy. A few years later my brother has quit and low and behold there sits a lone guitar. So I strum.
The end.
Oh yeah, I started because the chicks dig it as well.

Boredom mostly.

It was just something that I had always wanted to do.

Mine is a bit embarrassing. :o I could have learned when I was very little from a neighbor, unfortunately I didn't take advantage of it. After that, I was pulled into r&b and hiphop (middle school, high school and a little at the beginning of college.. I didn't get into rock until I was 20. At that time that's when my interest really sparked to learn guitar, but unfortunately I didn't have a guitar to start so I never went ahead with learning. I took it for granted... I wish I didn't. When i turned 23, I had my daughter.. and well, you can't do much learning when you have a really young baby around. At that time someone named Miyavi became a solo artist and I had stars in my eyes when ever I saw him play... and he's been a huge inspiration to me ever since.

My daughter just turned 5, and more independent (I have lots of time now to learn when she's at preschool - and soon will be going to elementary school) so I took "her guitar" that a friend gave to my husband (a junior 3/4 acoustic guitar) and came here to GT to learn the fundamentals off of that little thing until I would get a real guitar. My husband saw me working on it and saw how serious I got about learning, so he took me to a guitar shop a few days ago and bought me my first guitar and I've been just learning as I go since then.

For myself... I don't want to be a rock star, or musician lol. Hmm but, maybe if I learned earlier I would have wanted ike that.. :D I just simply want to learn and be able to play the guitar. That's all!

I started playing because I had to..in a sense. You see I was raised on metal, and so my whole life I've been into metal and I learned that it is no mere music genre but a way of life. Some people get it, others don't, but those that do know exactly what I'm talking about. I was primarily a vocalist until about 17 and then I got my first guitar, and metal guided my hand to try and be the best metal guitarist/vocalist I can be.

My older brother bought me my first electric at 16
I was always fascinated by improvisation and still am.

I was always fascinated by piano players, and originally wanted to play the piano. That was out of the question; no way was I going to get a piano. But I've always been musically inclined, as I'd played wind instruments, horns in elementary school. When I was 12 and discovering rock, I decided the guitar was for me. I saved enough to rent a guitar and took a few lessons. Being able to read music a bit, I was bored to tears by the instructor, so I quit after about 3 lessons, and taught myself. about 8 years later, and about 3 years as a Bio major (with thoughts of going to med school), Lenny Breau (google him), told me my calling was being a guitarist. I immediately dropped out, and ran off to the Berklee College of Music where I learned how not to play the guitar as a performance major, then dropped out after 2 1/2 years. I got decent grades as a Bio major, but I was too wrapped up playing (with my guitar and my girlfriend :D ). Yeah, I wanted to be a rockstar also. (Lenny was a jazz guy, but he could play anything.) I used to hang out at a music store in Queens, NY where lots of guitarists hung out. There was this kid, about 5 yrs younger than me; most of us felt he had a lot to learn, then, one day we heard he joined a band. I can't remember the name of the band, but they hit the big time- coulda been Metallica or something like that. I have few regrets in life, but the one regret I have was in not joining many bands I was invited to play in. I just didn't have the stones to get out there cuz I was such a perfectionist and insecure about my playing no matter how good others told me I was. My only claim to "fame" is I'm recorded on some commerical records- don't know which ones. A good friend of mine was partners in a recording studio with the former keyboard player from the Tom-Tom club, and I was asked to lay down some rhythm tracks on recordings they were producing. hmmm...I'm blatering....

Anyway, 38 yrs later and a long layoff from playing, I'm baaack. Even when I wasn't playing, I was always thinking about it. Never marry someone that complains about what makes you happy!

My Dad took me to see Eric Clapton when I was 8... and that was it. Then I got sent for classical lessons, which wasn't exactly what I had in mind... :eek:

Looking back it's the foundation of my playing now, but I didn't appreciate it at the time.

There's a quote from the late Brad Delp that sums up my view of guitar playing now:

"It's not because I need the money for groceries. I tell people that it is the only thing that I can do that makes me feel 15 again..."

well some people at my work play the guitar and, after hearing them and listening to some rocking music... GO JIMMI! i brought a starte guitar (About 2 weeks ago!) and I am hooked :)

I grew up watching the Mickey Mouse Club (the original). I saw Cubby play the drums and after that I wanted to play the drums, so my folks bought me a guitar. My father told me if I learned to play the guitar, he would buy a drum set. Well, I wasn't interested in the guitar enough to do anything with it. So, I never got my drums!

I lost interest in music all together until my early teens. I then took a few lessons and learned the rest on my own. I am not a good guitarist, but I do enjoy playing and learning new things. I am now 59 years old and though I do very well writing songs, I only perform at church, reunions, picinics, and more recently the Peace Cafe in Dayton, Ohio and I maybe playing at Leo's Cafe in Cincinnati.

I never got a drum set and I really have no interest in playing the drums.

I grew up watching the Mickey Mouse Club (the original). I saw Cubby play the drums and after that I wanted to play the drums, so my folks bought me a guitar. My father told me if I learned to play the guitar, he would buy a drum set. Well, I wasn't interested in the guitar enough to do anything with it. So, I never got my drums!

I lost interest in music all together until my early teens. I then took a few lessons and learned the rest on my own. I am not a good guitarist, but I do enjoy playing and learning new things. I am now 59 years old and though I do very well writing songs, I only perform at church, reunions, picinics, and more recently the Peace Cafe in Dayton, Ohio and I maybe playing at Leo's Cafe in Cincinnati.

I never got a drum set and I really have no interest in playing the drums.

Originally Posted by: looneytunesI maybe playing at Leo's Cafe in Cincinnati.

Have you played at "The Porch" in Cincinnati? I was just there last month for a benefit. Nice venue. Check it out sometime. :)

The main reason is because I always loved Rock/Guitar-driven music and I had an older friend who played guitar, so I thought that was pretty cool. Another major reason is because Chicks dig guitar :D

Originally Posted by: ren

"It's not because I need the money for groceries. I tell people that it is the only thing that I can do that makes me feel 15 again..."

Man, that is so true. It's weird. You keep triggering memories from your teen years while you're going through various licks.
Like.. C chord... hmm, ...Christmas my first electric guitar...
D chord... . my first kiss... lead solo..vibrato, skipped off school that day...
E chord.. my first cigarette.

Originally Posted by: Kevin TaylorMan, that is so true. It's weird. You keep triggering memories from your teen years while you're going through various licks.
Like.. C chord... hmm, ...Christmas my first electric guitar...
D chord... . my first kiss... lead solo..vibrato, skipped off school that day...
E chord.. my first cigarette.

A couple years ago I was learning the solo to "You Shook Me All Night Long" by AC/DC around Christmas, and now the two are forever linked in my mind. It's pretty messed up.

A friend of mine plays guitar and she thought it was something for me to start with. So I tried to play on her guitar and she learned me some things and I was like yeah, this is awesome.. :cool:
So I bought a guitar too and I still like it :D

i love music,,and i try to learn all of music equipment,...
and......guitar is the best!!!


KEPP ROCK AND METAL!!!!