When you started and what inspired you...

[MelodyMan]

Hey guys...just wondering when everyone started playing guitar or music in general and for how long?? Also, who/what inspired you to pick up an instrument?

I started playing when I was 12 and have been playing for close to 9 years now. I picked up the guitar because I discovered Metallica. I quickly learned every song I could get the tabs for. My taste has since broadened and matured to include many influences including vai, satch, gilbert, etc and a lot of non-guitar music. I pray to God my love affair with the guitar never ends...

[NEWYEARKID]

I started playing in 1978. I was lucky enough to have some really cool teachers who turned me on to people I would never have heard of otherwise like Al Di Meola, George Benson,Chet Atkins,Paco de Lucia.
I was inspired by most of the famous players at the time. It was a crazy time every few months something new was happening: Van Halen with tapping, Brad Gillis with the floyd Rose , Jeff Watson with the eight finger tapping, Randy Rhoads playing the first really sophisticated metal, Yngwie with his pedal tones, sweeping, dimished arpeggios, harmonic minor runs.
Then the whole west coast L.A. Scene hit: George Lynch, Warren Di Martini, Vitto Bratta, Reb Beach . I had burned out on "Hair Metal" and started listing to Fusion like Di Meola, Steve Morse, Allan Holdsworth. Stevie Ray Vaughn came out and just tore it up.
These days I'm inspired by all the great players from all over the world: Gutherie Govan(U.K.), Brett Garsed(Austrailia), Fabrizio Leo(Italy), Edu Ardanuy(Brazil) , Joe Bonamassa(USA)...theres a lot of great playing going on right now-its just not getting promoted.

[Mister CCJ]

I think the biggest reason for me to pick up the guitar was my father. He was one of the greatest guitarists in the area back in the late 70's and 80's. He died when I was 12 years old. He had tried to teach me a little before he passed away but I wasn't really interested. I guess when you loose someone close like that you tend to have a guilt that you didn't do enough for that person or you didn't appreciate them enough, etc. I realized when I was 15 after listening to tapes of him playing the rain song and europa and samba pa ti and little wing thats it was something I should give the chance I didn't before, for him and for me. I learned all those songs on a broken harmony guitar and later a squier strat note for note, just like he did. I played 14 hours a day the first two years. I stayed back in high school a year cuz i would cut and walk 8 miles to sam ash and guitar center and played there till school was out, then go home and play till i passed out. I guess I became obsessed. And i'll never forget the day this guy i was taking a few lessons from came over my house 2:00 am to let me borrow surfing with the alien and alien love secrets. That was when I knew that that was what was missing in my life. That was my dad and that was me.

Sorry for the long post.

[JJEMMER777]

Originally Posted by Mister CCJ

That was my dad and that was me.

Mister CCJ, your post grabbed my heart





I was young dumb little punk who liked Iron Maiden. (haven't changed a bit) I wanted to play what they played. If it wasn't for them I'd of probably never picked up guitar in the first place.

I knew this old hippie named ~crazy dave~. One night I was at his house (my parents would have killed me) He had an old "KAY". Emphasis on "OLD He used to try to play it, but it was broken up a bit, but he loved to make noise, lol. He needed money so I offered him $ 25.00 if he'd let me buy it. I knew he loved it and I felt bad about it, but at the same time wanted it bad! Reluctantly, he did sell it to me.

WOW - my first guitar. I thought I was soo cool I took it to the music store to see if they could fix it up to play. The guitar guy was like....."ummm, I'll see what I can do with it They actually got it to play pretty well. Put in some shims & new strings and threw in some knobs and other parts. Cost me $ 8.00 (I think they gave me a break ) I bought a Maiden tab book and I was off to the races! Woo hoo! Then after a couple months I was able to save up enough to get a blue Fender Squire strat ($ 175)

My first REAL guitar;-)
http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a3...oodolddays.jpg

After I got the strat I went straight to Daves apt and gave the "kay" back to him. I'll never forget the smile on his face. (RIP my friend)


Maiden (dave and adrian) inspired me and Crazy Dave let it happen!!

It wasn't till later on that Steve Vai came along, but that is a whole different story, lol.

wow.....sorry for getting carried away folks. Mr. CCJ's post reminded me of the importance of not taking for granted those you love.

[MelodyMan]

Don't be sorry, bro...that's about the best reason you could ever pick up the guitar. I'm sure your father would be very proud...

[Mister CCJ]

thanks man that means a lot

[MelodyMan]

Yeah, no problem man...actually, I grew up without my dad around the house and he played guitar too...I wouldn't say I picked it up because of him, but now I see that guitar could ultimately bring us a lot closer together...

I think jemsite just turned into Dr. Phil...haha

[mi2tom]

I've been playing for nearly ten years, I don't know what to say but I just feel like playing all the time

[guitar_chick]

Which time? I have stopped and started up the guitar many times since I was 12 years old. Originally it was because my parents are pretty involved church people (Roman Catholic). I never got into church much; I was pretty bored. The whole point being my parents would have church groups come over to our house a lot. The guitarists needed a place to practice, so they started coming to our house. I was enamoured with the six-stringed instrument right off the bat. Shortly after, my parents bought me a guitar, sent me to lessons, and I played in church too.

I have rediscovered the guitar and my love for it last September. I don't desire to play church music though. I have always loved Spanish/Gypsy guitar with the fast fingerpicking. My brother gave me a guitar on his last visit, and I wanted to impress the crap out of him the next time I saw him, so I began taking lessons. This lead to my introduction to the electric guitar. I've never even touched one in my life until last Christmas. My guitar teacher is an older hippie rock guy...he is cool as all hell. I will be 38 in a few weeks, and love the guitar more than I ever had. Ok, sorry this is long.

Sorry, I can't say it was Steve Vai or Estaban!

[buddroyce]

I started playing guitar when I was 17-18 after I was working in a guitar shop for a year or two. I kinda decided that I wanted to play guitar after dealing with them day in and day out. Inspiration wise it's hard to say as we used to leave a tape of instructional videos running on a tv we had there to promote our video sales, but I believe I really was inspired by Yngwie after seeing his Young Guitar videos (before it was actually released in North America)

[musicdr]

Started in 78 after seeing"The song remains the same" at the midnight movie.Now when a zep song comes up in our setlist I feel like a kid all over again.I'm still inspired by great guitar players and great songs, but especially by the muscians I play with.Nothing better than a tight energetic set or that magic moment when a song is written in 5 minutes at a jam session.For a hunk of wood with strings, the guitar has added more to my life than I can express in words.

[Algiman]

A friend loaned me his Rush - Moving Pictures tape, and I knew that I wanted to be able to play that kind of music so I finally picked up a guitar having thought about it for as long as I could remember.

X years later and I still can't play YYZ properly!

[Gurj]

I've wanted to play since I was about 6 or 7, but my dad wouldn't buy me a guitar! He was a typical asian dad who believed you should study and do little else!
Tbh, I can't really remember what attracted me to guitars at that age, but the need to have a guitar stayed with me. So when I got my first part-time job at 16, one of the first things I brought was a guitar and even though I couldn't play jack, I joined a band! We covered a lot of Iron Maiden, AC/DC, etc. My inspirations back then were stuff like Metallica, Slayer, Iron Maiden, Megadeth, Jimi, Slash, Clapton, Led Zep.

[Wolfram]

Women dig guys who play guitar...the choice to play one was easy.



Wolfram

[jemaholic]

1969- I was in Jr. High School and everyone was still reeling from Sgt. Pepper and Are You Experienced?

We were a three piece band bass drums & acoustic guitar called "Tree" and did our best to cover those records plus a new upstart band from England that was getting alot of press with a stupid name- Led Zeppelin.

I've told the story elsewhere on this site, but electric guitars were almost never seen at that time - at least in my circles - a friend's older brother had a REAL solid-body electric guitar-it looked like a strat (MIJ copy) and he agreed to sell it to me. I had to work all summer to amass all that money cutting lawns, delivering papers, washing cars, cleaning out neighbor's basements.....

Finally, I had saved a pile of money and my dad drove me to the guys house and I gave him my pile and he gave me the guitar. It only had 4 strings on it at the moment, but I still loved it. Sunburst. a curly guitar cord too. I had no amp yet. but so what? I had a REAL electric guitar!!!!.
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It was 1969.
The guitar cost $25.00
I was never so proud.

-jemaholic