Long Answer: My father was a musician, he played keyboards (hammond b3 before I even was born), he had a collection of about 10 thousand LP´s (vinyls) !.. still I wasn't all in his style, he loved the beatles, I reallly dont like them! (but of course he had many other artists.. Santana (Abraxas and others).. but I wasn't allowed to play them, and he barely had time to listen to any.. so it wasn't until I was 17-18 when he died that I started listening to some... (Deep Purple, Yes, Santana, Bob Marley, etc.. though I had already heard them with friends)
But lets rewind... So when I was 9 I started piano lessons.. then the teacher had an accident, and guess who got the job as the replacement teacher?... my father! and after a couple of months I couldn't take it anymore! .. I was always nr. 2 in class!... a little chinese girl was a piano virtuoso! and my father wanted me to be better.. I just couldn't! So I quit!.. and decided to play something my father didn't know! ;)
Though he knew just one song (first half), of "Romance Anónimo", a classical tune, so he taught me that one first!, and there I was 11 years old and hooked to the guitar!
But Rock?
I remember the day I sat on the bus from school, listening to the radio (on a sony walkman!) ;) and there was the first airing of "Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit", September 91!, I was 12 (4 months before I was 13). it was a week or two before the release!.. so guess who was on the "CD Store" the release day!?... I didn't go to school just to get it!! :P (and the same day it got released Red Hot Chili Peppers - Blood Sugar Sex Magik.. we'll ok, the day after actually, but I lived in Spain, and Im not quite sure if there were released same day as the US, or some days after.. but I remember being the first in the store, when they just had the cardboard boxes there.. and was just opening them!..
But my guitar wasn't electric!. and there was not that much money in my house to get a new guitar (a year or so after buying me a classical), so.. lucky me!.. my uncle was a retired touring guitarist and he said that at his and my dads parents house (my grandpas), there was a guitar I could "loan".. but I had to be very careful!, cause it was very expensive!.. oh.. and an amp... to my surprise.. a Gibson Les Paul Custom (71-72 model) and a Fender Twin Reverb!!!! (69 model) wot?
so... I quit the guitar lessons at my school (there were very basic... just 5-6 chords, and play thousands of basic "almost church" or easy spanish pop like songs). and buyed a rock guitar instructional book, and learned to play alone in my room. (I believe I played like 4-5 hours every day! after school!) ;)
when I was 13 almost 14, I had my first band.. but then it happened again!.. you see the fender twin reverb, had no Distortion channel.. so I hadn't any!!.. I remember the only song I could really well (Under the bridge - RHCP) and that I could get the same kind of sound as the original!.. , was like the only one I could play with my band!.. (in fact was the first song we ever tried to play).
But we were at a Youth house of a kind, with 8 band rooms!.. so when we first arrived, I started to hear a guitar "Distorted".. and I said... wtf??... thats how I wanted to sound!! so I did knock on their door.. and after a while they opened, I asked how they got that sound, and they told me the secret!.. (a distortion pedal!) :P (oh boy... I guess they were laughing at me afterwards like spoiled little brats.. BUT.. I did learn something!.. and everyones got their start.. dont they?) ;P
So after a couple of months, I got to buy me my very first Boss DS-1... oh boy!.. was I glad!.. and guess what?.. I got playing the entire Nevermind CD, and then almost the entire Blood Sugar Sex Magik.. and also the entire Rage Against The Machine (debut album of the same name), some OffSpring (self esteem, come out and play, etc..), Basketcase from Green Day, some Stone Temple Pilots (Plush, Interstate Song), Pearl Jam, and those were the first years... then I remember liking and adding to the repertoir "The Riverboat Song" - Ocean Colour Scene, etc...
My uncle (the guitar owner) said that I could keep the guitar, if I played a new song each year he came visiting.. (he lived in Belgium, while I lived in Spain).. but I had to play it just like the record!.. or I would lose the guitar! :O so... I had to learn new things all the time! ;)
So.. Im 35 now! (36 next month), I guess I was not only a Gen X kiddo.. but a Grunge guitar player, and most likely because I was 11-12 when the grunge movement started (or took form worldwide at least), so Im not ashamed for liking Nirvana! ;)
Today is though a different story... I like from Jazz to Hard Rock (never really liked Black Metal though..), not Metallica, not Iron Maiden (oh my uncle bought a cd of them once... but It wasn't my style, though had some cool songs.. But I misliked all those kids wearing black tshirts with band names, stating they weren't sheep followers of a "Pop" culture, like Grunge was, but then you could spot one a mile away!... (I dont wanted to become one, but I accept them... as I like to say: Live and let die!.. haha, not a typo! ;), as long I got to live my life.. I let you "live yours".. until you die! ;)
And the last years I have been listening more to Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Tony McAlpine, Frank Gambale, John Petrucci, Guthrie Govan, Eric Johnson, Neil Zaza, Neil Schon, etc.. (to many to name!).. some acoustics like Don Ross, Andy McKee, etc.. but the "Virtuoso" guitar type of music.. and of course I did some basic soloing now and then, but I was miles away from being a "lead" guitarist!.. so now thats my goal!
thats why I joined guitartricks too... even being very basic stuff most of it.. I need to go trough the very basics to get a foundation of theory among other things... that as a self-learner I never did get proper music education.
;)
