Tell your story

Jus woundering, how did you guys start out? what inspired you to satrt playing the guitar, bass, whatever, and well jus tell us your story!

I could play the piano pretty well, but the guitar player could get all the chicks because he carried his instrument everywhere. I couldn't let that happen :D

I started after I went to see a friend play some Nirvana numbers with his band. I just loved the atmosphere and felt a real admiration for the musicians on stage creating it.

As a kid I'd always loved the guitar....I think Mike Oldfield was my first real guitarist coz my parents frequenly played his records. And I enjoyed Simon and Garfunkle because their stuff was poetic and had feeling and attitude without being noisy and provocative. So after hearing my friend play i though 'Ive been waiting far too long to start the guitar, it's the intrument I truely love' so I went to my friend and asked him to teach me.

My brother started guitar and I followed not too long after. He quit but I didn't. I've always played alone except for a small band once but never performed on stage.

I got hooked on the guitar because when I played, I was in a world of my own. I was really teased at school and the guitar was for me a savior. It brought me joy when there's wasn't any. That's why I got hooked, the joy of playing.

The band that got me started was Metallica, then I turned to Yngwie Malmsteen, Satriana and Troy Stetina. Now speed doesn't impress me so I turn to guitarists like Jeff healy, SRV and other bluesman for new challenges. I'm slowly discovering the less is more approach.

I'm rediscovering the guitar. That's the greatest thing with an instrument. When you think you've seen it all, it comes out with something new everytime.

We'll, I've always loved music. I liked the guitar a lot two. I started taking lessons in grade two, but I didn't get to far, I think I must have got board of it or something. I only stuck with it for a few weeks.
Well two and a half years ago I had the choice betweena guitar or a dirtbike, of course, I took guitar. After a month or so of trying to teach myself I started taking lessons, and I still am. I've learned a lot.
About a year after I started playing I joined my highschools rock band. Most high schools have a Jazz Ensamble or a Classical Orchistra. This is a full rockband, horn section and all. I've learned so much in one year with that band, plus you get on the news and stuff, the only other way I could learn what I'm learning there would be to go and play bars, which would be too fun scince I'm only 15.
Im definately sticking with the guitar this time.

My father was an avid big band swing music (Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller etc...)fan. He wanted me to play the saxaphone, so I did. Then one day I heard the song Green River by Creedence Clearwater Revival. That was all she wrote for me. Man, those opening chops sent chills down my spine. Of course I was very young and impressionable but that did it for me. I've been playing ever since.
I started playing professionally when I was 16. I was playing the bars before I was old enough to legaly be in them. I've been playing in a blues r&b band for the last 4 years. I've played in country bands, Metal bands, classic rock bands, I even played a stand up accoustic bass for in a rockabilly band for two years.
It's been nothin' but fun. I still take lessons from a jazz teacher when I'm not gigging. I wouldn't have missed it for the world. :cool:

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Benoit
[B]
My brother started guitar and I followed not too long after. He quit but I didn't.

That would be about my story. Except I quit for awhile too, but then I started teaching myself again. And eventually got lessons.

metallica in 8th grade I believe...what was that...1991? Anyhow, that was it for sure. No real crazy Satch, etc until 1998, so even though I picked up the thing in 1991 or so (bought it with credit me and my sis racked up at the music store for renting my trombone and her clarinet? or flute? but it was an RG550, the lear previous model, and the only thing wrong was that the most forward pickup setting of the 5 didn't work...so I got a $1000 guitar for 350 or so of credit...no complaints there heheeh :), I never played much until 1999+ and even then not too often (just the odd "holy wars" or other ****, I never soloes before 1999 really...)

Now it's just all classical (guitar - the instrument not the music) mayhem...it's the best by far...I think I'll do some electric now for some easy fun...no wait first wark up with classical then put to shame with the lec ;)

I learned piano when I was young, dunno 5-6 years old a tiny bit maybe,then a bit later fur elise, etc when 11 or whatever...would go faster, my best friend could go double speed and faster, so we were already virtuosos ;), but basically Satch when I randomly shoce it for fre from cd house **** (you know) and got G3 live...I was gooked after cool #9 after one listen...also was first taste of speed licks.

Then the rest...but it's all Johnny baby :D Zyryab says it all...song of the gods...

Hey 'l, you wanna make a song with both of us soloing but wierd abrupt stops, and each guy has to juggle the stops with perfect timing along with the other guy ;) like paco and johnny...we could just send a beat and both solo or just make alternate tracks with solo instrument...

But I say for sure solo along to Zyryab, especially when you hear those ****ing masters blast you away completely - you can gain incredible amouints of speed if you are entranced in that kind of melodic inadvertedness...

...but solo **** I'm doing these days, sort of like Egberto Gismonti, just feeling your way down the song by total improv, with a guitar trio tinge - I have a good tone I think, but I need to learn some licks, I just go random and maybe do that lick a bit, but I never remember the licks I playh - it's all random - IO don't really memorize the fretboard, it's more intimate, I just pay close attention to the small things (the number of frets it would take to change your random amout, eg 2 or 3), just feeling how many frets it would take to get that next note, and you are basically lost to al other things or ways, and **** just happens and sometimes really nicely...

...but the best thing I think is just taking some of my **** and writing a score behind it - the soloing seems determinant...

I've nver written any songs before, but I have a feeling this is the cracking of the egg, when you write some bogus **** for whatevr placement in the song, then blend in other layers, you start to see things in a new way because now you are on the back of what you just wrote before, and it adds a tremendous momentum to things...the key to it all...

I was a child prodigy, playing Sweet Home Alabama before I could walk. Just kidding.

My parents bought me a Yamaha acoustic when I was about 16, but I didn't do much with it. I started playing seriously when I was about 23, with my new Takamine. Guitar "took me away, dragged me over the rainbow," to borrow a line from Neil. Been playing ever since, although it's more of a hobby than anything else. I love it, though.

Rock on,

DC"

Wow... Posporo, were you dictating that post?

Here's my story:

My friend is a classical pianist, and I always envied him because whenever we'd have parties or go to someone's house, he'd just sit at the piano and mesmerize everyone around for however long he would play. I knew that I wanted to play an instrument, but the only instrument I had ever played before was the viola in grades 7 & 8 in the school's strings class.

Then, in grade 11, in my English class we all had to do projects on different types of media, and someone in my class chose music. Can you believe that the teacher actually let him and a few of his friends play "Creep" by Radiohead, in the school? They played it in its entirety, including the crazy distorted parts (but not including the swearing). I guess that's the gifted program for you...(those of you who were in the gifted program in Ontario know what I mean).

Anyways, after hearing that, I was convinced to learn guitar. I went out and bought a Yamaha solidtop acoustic that I still have and that has actually managed to improve in sound quality since then. Then, about 3 years ago, I bought a Fender Mexican Strat, and about 2 years ago, I bought a Traynor YCV40.

So, that's my story...

Well, I’ve always been around music since I can remember. My mom was a big music freak and she would play nothing but rock music all day long. She said once, “that the only thing that would make me sleep though the night as a baby was if she played a led zeppelin, pink foyd, or a beatles album in my room.” This was until the 80’s hair bands became the big thing, because I hated it. So needless to say I wasn’t into music through those years, until I started hanging out with my cousins who were both guitar players. They introduced me to a lot of things in music. Then I got back into it at about the age of 14, when I got my first bass. A week later I started playing in a band, needless to say I wasn’t all that good. But I think it was an experience that made me the musician I am today. I didn’t stay in that band for much more than a few weeks. After that I started just playing and learning for the next couple of years, I even took up playing guitar. Until I got asked to play in another band, which I was much more prepared to play for. I got a lot of attention from this and I was asked to play in the school talent show, which I won that year. Since then I’ve just been jamming with random bands, making records, and just chilling out. I’m still only 22 and I hope I can continue to enjoy music for another 22 years.

Truth is, I don't really have any. I just learned to play the way I wanted to, and that's the way I like it.

About 2 weeks before 5th grade started (1991) I went shopping with my Mom for school clothes. We walked into a Music store in the mall and she bought me GNR's "Appetite for Destruction" (cool mom, huh? :)). This album seriously changed my life. I remember how utterly amazed I was at Slash's ability to wail. I'm not really into speedy stuff like yngwie, but I love guitar players who play with copious amounts of emotion. Anyway, Guns n Roses is still my favorite band all these years later, and Slash is the main reason I bought a guitar when I was 16. I got a strat knockoff and thought I'd be good to go. I was so wrong, I got frustrated after only 2-3 weeks of trying to play; thus the guitar sat in the closet. When I was 18 I went off to college and took the guitar with me. There was this dude who lived down the hall from me who had a pretty fender mustang. He had been playing for 8 years and was freakin' incredible. He showed me what tabs were and gave me a few pointers on playing, but again I got frustrated and didn't stick with it. The next year in school I randomly picked up the guitar again, and as the popular addage goes, "third times a charm". Two years and three new guitars later I'm still playing. For me it is much more much more than a hobby. It's a passion. I'm in love with the instrument and the way it can act as a window to someone's soul. Playing blues based rock (Clapton, Slash, etc.) is, in my opinion, one of the greatest things known to man. I know that I will be playing for the rest of my life and I can't wait.

For me it started when a friend of mine started playin guitar when we were about 14 and he got real good real fast,could play VH and Rhodes and that stuff but I didn't start yet and then all of a suden one night I saw Ritchie Blackmore on a Saturday night concert on MTV (ah the good old days!)and he just blew me away with the things he did and I asked no demanded to have an electric guitar.I took lessonsat a music store with a lousy teacher but my friend was leaving his teacher so he told me I could go to him and thank god he did.I learned a lot from my friend's teacher like how he treated his students which would help me when I finally taught students years laterand then when I stopped I regretted it but I bought a few books and picked it up from there.But to be honest I always wanted to play the keyboards like Keith Emerson but then I guess trying to play like Blackmore,Hendrix and Iommi isn't so bad either isn't it?