How old were you when you first learned how to play the guitar?

[Mike239]

Originally Posted by JJEMMER777

Where are the:

I'm over 40 and im just learning now.

I'm over 50 and im just learning now.....options

From what I've been able to gather, it really doesn't matter what age you start.

There are 4 year olds that play better than folks with 30 years experience.

There are 40 year olds with 1 year experience that play better than 25 year olds with 20 years experience!!

It's doesn't matter how long you've played. *Passion* is where it's at. Especially when coupled with natural ability

Sorry for not putting those options in JJEMMER777 i thought the over 30 covered it guess i was wrong (i don't know if i can change it now, if theres a way just tell me and ill put the extra options in if you would like me to), and Et the jacksons great im going to have to tune it next time i practice again i think its a bit out but other than that its great.

[mi2tom]

I play the guitar when I'm 14 years old, just some strumming and deep purple's smoke on the water riff at that age

[slugman]

Originally Posted by the.godfather

I was 16 when I started.

So a later starter, thats for sure.

Hmm, I was 21 when I started. I thought I might have missed the boat, but then the next guitar player I met had been playing 8 years and was ~50. Soo...

There's a later comment about it not mattering when you start. Well I'd have to disagree, but only because I had a lot more free time in high school and earlier. I wasted most of it, now I get an evening every week to play, and I'm sure the time constraints will only get worse.

[fettouhi]

I got in this game rather late. I picked up the guitar around 15.

Regards

André

[Drew]

Originally Posted by bammbamm

"You practice every time you play your instrument"
Thelonius Monk

Thelonius Monk is the man.

I bashed away at my dad's guitar as a kid, and my uncle bought me a 1/2 sized acosutic as a kid, but really I didn't do more than just bang on it. I must have been 15 when I first began seriously playing, the winter of my freshman year in high school.

It was kind of funny, actually. I'd taken a "guitar" class in 8th grade, basically a two-month music class where we were supposed to learn how to play guitar as an introduction to music (it was some sort of rotating "exploratory" thing so we'd be exposed to a lot of different "extracurricular" classes, with things like gym, wood shop, etc). It was actually only supposed to be a one-month class, but due to a scheduling glitch my class got stuck there for two straight classes. I was horrible - I was easily the worst guitarist in the class.

Then, six months later, I picked up my dad's guitar and something clicked. A few years down the road, after I'd gotten heavily into more "lead" gutiar stuff (I was a big punk rock/Nirvana fan when I was first learning), I ended up jamming with the guy who had taught that class. I was gigging semi-regularly with one of the substitute teachers in the same school district (he was my brother's soccer coach, and we'd played a few songs together at a pasta party where they'd carb-load and watch Braveheart before games), and Tom invited me down to play a couple songs with him at some sort of a school function he was playing at, right at the end of the school year. I chatted with the guy I'd taken that class with, then plugged in and started playing, and he just looked at me like "...what the hell happened to you???!!" It was a pretty cool moment, and I think he was happy to see that, against all odds, he'd had a pretty big influence on me after all.

[Mehrunes]

Started playing when I was 14, the only reason I started playing guitar was because my mom wouldn't buy me a drum set, so the next best thing at the time was a guitar. I started playing with my sister's acoustic guitar that had a snapped neck and I eventually acquired an Ibanez GIO. I'm now 16 and I think I'm pretty good.

[sick-boy]

Mine is a sad and tragic saga.
I started playing when I was 12. I saw some crappy christian band that my parents made me go see, and I fell in love with the guitar players LP.
So I got a guitar, a crappy classical. Then I got some lessons, but I grew bored after about a year. I then picked up the guitar off and on until about six months ago I picked it up and really got into everything guitar.
I wish I would've kept up with it when I was growing up. I'd be a hell of a guitar player with 12 years of experience under my belt.
Instead I just fiddle around trying to figure out what the hell a scale is.

[geddygirl]

Originally Posted by JJEMMER777

Where are the:

I'm over 40 and im just learning now.

I'm over 50 and im just learning now.....options

From what I've been able to gather, it really doesn't matter what age you start.

There are 4 year olds that play better than folks with 30 years experience.

There are 40 year olds with 1 year experience that play better than 25 year olds with 20 years experience!!

It's doesn't matter how long you've played. *Passion* is where it's at. Especially when coupled with natural ability

I love your post! Here's where I'm at:

I'm slightly over 40 and don't know how to play the guitar at all (although I am incredibly passionate about music!). I was able to play a mean Scott Joplin on piano way before I could read a note of music. I began taking piano lessons around the age of six...and my 'well seasoned' teacher considered me a challenge, in that I played strictly by ear (I went on to become what she considered one of her best sight readers). Anyway, I always thought it would be great fun to learn how to play guitar, but I was surprised at how hard it was to get my fingers do what they were supposed to do on the strings! Taking guitar lessons has always been on my 'to do' list, yet it's something I've never done.

So back to what you posted: "There are 40 year olds with 1 year experience that play better than 25 year olds with 20 years experience!!"

That right there is enough to make me finally give it a shot. I'm glad I'm stumbled upon this survey!

[GilkyBear]

Started at 15, but I'm still learning...

[RCB]

13, now Im 31.

I believe (well a friend used to tell me) that Alan hollsworth started at 19....

[jemplayer55]

Uhh...... I don't remember...... (That happens when you're an "old fart")

[Mission1979]

I've got seven guitars, including one i've had since I was twelve. Also a Jem a Universe and an RG and I still cannot play. Keep giving it up and coming back to it!

[TAorama]

I started at 12 - now 38. I'll get the hang of it eventually...

[resha]

11 yo I think

[Dee]

I was 9, I think.