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

[S420]

I was 12, I am 35 now. Hmmm......shouldn't I be better? LOL

[shredmaster]

i was 15, learned on my own. i'm 35 now....i can't believe it's been 20 years. you would think i would be paul gilbert by now...but life gets in the way. i can still hold my own but i should be much better than what i am. then again i don't play like i used to. getting back into it again though. i learned by reading the mags and watching others. never learned any songs all the way through, that bored me. i learned the cool parts and used that knowledge to turn the riffs into my own stuff.

steve

[guitar_chick]

Originally Posted by shredmaster

i was 15, learned on my own. i'm 35 now....i can't believe it's been 20 years. you would think i would be paul gilbert by now...but life gets in the way. i can still hold my own but i should be much better than what i am. then again i don't play like i used to. getting back into it again though. i learned by reading the mags and watching others. never learned any songs all the way through, that bored me. i learned the cool parts and used that knowledge to turn the riffs into my own stuff.

steve

I know what you mean, esp. about the life getting in the way part. I learned when I was about 12, and I will be 38 here in a month. I also, should be better than I am with all that time under my belt, but never took guitar all the seriously until last September. I got the fundamentals down pretty solid, I do read musical notation, but always sort of gave up for long periods of time when I hit barre chords. Now, I'm not sure why I thought it was so tough. It took me years to nail an F chord.

Now, I'm trying to motivate myself to learn scales, chord progressions, translation, etc... I want to learn how a piece comes together with the musical nuances. At first I was a bit intimidated by the expertise of the members on this site, but I am learning just by reading the threads, even though sometimes I horse around a lot.

[andy7jem]

Wow.......38

[guitar_chick]

Originally Posted by andy7jem

Wow.......38

Yeah, I'm old, yet proud. I get pegged for about 25 even with my gray hairs.

[shredmaster]

i read notation as well since i didn't want to be pegged as another "tab reader." not that there's anything wrong with that but i wanted to read music so i did teach myself that. when i write it's mainly for symphony type stuff...orchestra....mozart, if you will. i am unlimited when writing on staff lines and can do whatever i want. playing guitar is limiting. i can compose complex argeggiated piano runs or violin runs and pump it through the sampled rack units for the sounds. so i am composing, just not playing. i have some stuff that i'm going to be submitting to Disney. this is what i do when i'm not playing around with photography or video. If you click below you can hear a sample of something that i THINK is finished.......

http://www.steverotter.com/audio/opus7.wma

Steve

[andy7jem]

Originally Posted by guitar_chick

Yeah, I'm old, yet proud. I get pegged for about 25 even with my gray hairs.

Hee hee......i was just teasin' I'm almost that age




ALMOST

[guitar_chick]

Originally Posted by andy7jem

Hee hee......i was just teasin' I'm almost that age




ALMOST

It doesn't bother me, cause I'm full of spunk! I feel very adolescent sometimes.

[andy7jem]

Originally Posted by guitar_chick

It doesn't bother me, cause I'm full of spunk!

Oh boy That means something other than what you intended for us Brits

[guitar_chick]

Originally Posted by andy7jem

Oh boy That means something other than what you intended for us Brits

Oops, did not know.

Correction: I'm full of "vim and vigor"!

[andy7jem]

Originally Posted by guitar_chick

Oops, did not know.

Correction: I'm full of "vim and vigor"!

This makes you sound MUCH more respectable

[guitar_chick]

Originally Posted by andy7jem

This makes you sound MUCH more respectable

thanks

[DavyH]

Started at about 9 or so, repeated the same year's worth of experience until I was about 13 and then concentrated on the bagpipes (I kid you not) until last year. For various reasons I'll leave to your imagination, I was advised to stop playing said bagpipes and now only tutor and judge.
At that stage I started thinking seriously about playing guitar again and eventually ran across an immaculate Les Paul at bargain basement price.
Became a 40 year old beginner with good knowledge of music and sufficient technique to pick up better than I was when I left off.
I also discovered that, when in funds, guitars are like crisps (chips to y'all): you can't stop at one. Stumbled across Ibanez accidentally and fell pretty hard for them.

What is incredible is the amount of knowledge on the web. It's hardly surprising that kids like Matt Heafy and Herman Li are able to do what they can, since techniques which were previously exotic or unheard of are now freely available to everyone.

Monologue finished. You can wake up now and move on to the next post.....

[funkdubious]

I started at 15 after seeing the Guns n Roses video for Paradice City,one of the coolest vids ever,Slash rocked! The first guitar mag i got was guitar ftpm with Vai and Whitesnake on the cover.Loved Jems ever since

[Aziza]

Started with 16 and this sucks!!!!! My dad is a guitarist and he showed me some chords when I was 6 years, but after a week I gave it up Omg, I'm so stupid... I could be really better now