Satriani
Love this question....
I am relatively new to the world of guitar if I compare the length of time I've played guitar to other instruments I play, but nothing can compare to the feeling of bending that note, feeling that groove ?
Gary Moore's "STill got the BLues" started my interest. Been a MASSIVE Queen, Bon Jovi, Def Leppard fan since I was a little kid, and I love all the guitar work in those bands, but Gary Moore's melodies just speaks to you.
Slash has awesome groove, infectious Riffs and is downright cool to watch.
Joe Satriani...... well, that's a topic for another day, I can't even get into that right now ?
NorioDS
Hey boet,
I've got some of his earlier, not-so-bluesy stuff if you're interested. It's nice but definitely not bluesy.
Styles
Hmmmm. . . yeah i reckon it was a mixture of seeing Slash ripping it up, having Angus duckwalk over my brain and getting my eardrums pummeled by Metellica and Megadeath.
Seeing Trevor Nasser definately had something to do with it as well ;D
LMinnie
My best friend Spyke.
Id always wanted to learn but never had the time or someone to teach me.
Enter Spyke and 6 months later we were jamming together.
Influences were basically 90's alternative/rock.Bush,Nirvana,Smashing Pumpkins,Offspring that kinda stuff
JoeyBones
Nigel Hendroff, Slash, Michael Guy Chislet, Lawrence Stroud (One of our church bands lead guitarists and Dirk.
All passionate about guitar and make their instruments sing.
Garth-S
A friend in high school who could pick up the guitar and play a heap of songs on request...
JoeyBones
How could I forget. The late Gilbert Stroud. He was my first guitar tutor and he was just brilliant. Dirk and a few other guitarists I know learned from him as well.
sepheritoh
It's been such a long time since I took up guitar first. I started out just fooling around camp fires and playing sing-a-longs. It was mainly folk music like Neil Young, Neil Diamond and Leonard Cohan stuff.
Later I really got interested in the lead guitar. My greatest early influences were 2 SA guitarists: Ken E Henson and Trevor Rabin. I liked them firstly because it was the first really great players I saw life (remember the cultaral boycott days). Trevor left the country and became one of the all time greats when he eventually joined Yes. Ken E played with Brian Finch in a small night club in Pretoria when I saw him first time. I think I saw him about 50 times in those days and could eventually probably copied every note of his.
The most obvious next step was to get into the people who influenced the people who influenced me. That introduced me to the blues rock greats like BB King and Eric Clapton, Jmii Hedrix, Robbie Robertson and many more. Later I got to really like Slash. Mainly because I thought the solos on November Rain was amongst the best ever. Although I enjoy Satch and Yngwie, I never really got myself into that shredding style. Oh yes, and who can forget the classic rock greats, Iomi, Gilmour, Blackmore and Page.
That's about the story of my life.
Renesongs
My older brother and his friends use to bring their LP's to play on my dad's Hi Fi system after school, mainly Beatles, Rolling Stones, Vanilla Fudge, Ogdons Nut Gone Flake - this one cat had a weird sci-fi LP called Axis Bold as Love By the Jimi Hendrix Experience - Man this was the music of the future. I bought a new steel string guitar from Paul Bothners Claremont for R12 about 2 months later, the guitar's action was so bad that I would only be able to play the intro and 2 verses of Hey Joe before my fingers would bleed. Jimi died tragically about a year later but he still inspires me. Over the years I have studied some of the blues legends that inspired Hendrix like BB King, Muddy Waters, Freddie King etc my favorites are Buddy Guy and Lightnin Hopkins. Out of the still living and breathing I have been inspired by Carlos Santana, (I used to be his clone), David Gilmour, Richie Blackmore, Eric Clapton, Larry Carlton, John Mclaughlin, Steve Vai and Eric Johnson, to name just a few.
Riaan
For me, it began like this: my dad is the world's greatest Shadows/Hank Marvin fan. So I grew up listening to guitars from a young age, though as a kid I liked the drums more. Along came Dire Strait's first album when I was in st. 5 ... Sultans of Swing was the song! Then, curiously, I heard the prog rock group Sky, with John Williams and Kevin Peek on guitars. This got me into guitars big time. A school friend taught me a little Spanish guitar riff, and I finally got a Yamaha steel string which I still have and often play. Then, I heard of a song called "Another brick in the wall" which of course promptly got banned in those days. All of us just had to have it for that very reason, and so I was introduced to Pink Floyd...those early albums (WYWH,DSOTM) shaped my musical and guitar playing mind for ever... Later the greats like Gary Moore, Brian May, Jimmy Page, Blackmore, Clapton, Lindsay Buckingham and so forth followed. Then I got into blues - Steve Ray Vaughn - I only began listening to Hendrix after this. After several years of mainstreem listening I began listening to acoustic virtuoso players like locals Steve Newman and Tony Cox (both world class players in my opinion), Adrian Legg, Lawrence Juber and Tommy Emmanual. Mauritz Lotz eventually led to Steve Vai, Satriani, Steve Morse and the electric virtuoso players. I find nowadays that I'm rediscovering the stuff I grew up with, and appreciating it much more now.
dirkv
Ok firstly, JoeyBones, dude you have no idea how much its means to me that i am one of the people that inspires you play!
i have to say the late Gilbert Stroud was the greatest musician i ever had the pleasure of jamming with and learning from! he taught me to love, i mean really love music.
i have been listening to Eric Clapton all my life, he is without a doubt my biggest influence. My other influences include Carlos Santana, Jack Johnson, Jimi Hendrix, Steve Vai, Noah Henson (Pillar), Lincoln Brewster.
Anybody who has a passion for music no matter what instrument they play inspires me to be better
JoEllis
The guy who absolutely inspired me to start playing was my uncle. I was about 6 or 7 years old and he had a covers-band that came to play at a dance in the town we were living in. The whole band came to stay at our house. When I saw my uncle up on stage with his Les Paul I knew that was what I had to do with my life. I got my first guitar soon after this and I haven't looked back.
My whole guitar-thing took a serious turn when I saw Eric Clapton's "Unplugged". It is by no means the greatest blues record ever, but it was the first time that I noticed that this music spoke to me. It was so different to anything I was hearing my friends listen to! Then I got into Hendrix, Floyd, Led Zep, Neil Young and Dylan and then into grunge and metal.
JoeyBones
dirkv wrote:
Ok firstly, JoeyBones, dude you have no idea how much its means to me that i am one of the people that inspires you play!
Anytime Bro !
You may not be the best guitarist in the world, but you definitely have the heart for it.
andrewjbryson
it went in this order
(notice how the guitarists get incrementally better)
Kurt Cobain
Richard Patrick (filter)
Kirk Hammet (metallica)
Toni Iommi (sabbath)
Dave Murray (maiden)
Marty Friedman (megadeth)
John Petrucci (Dream theater)
and finally got into the G3 clan (Satch, Vai, Johnson, Petrucci, Malmsteen)
and finally Guthrie Govan
glug
My Brother was best drummer at the national school of the arts a few years ago. All his band practices and gigs lead me to pick up the guitar. I then bought an acoustic Yamaha F340 and started learning but got no where after a year, i could only play a few Chords. The i stoped for about 6 months last month i bought an electric and want to get back into training my fingers. My 4 finger is so weak. especially when i play scales.
Oh yeah and Rodriguez Y Gabriella, love watching them play
NorioDS
Riaan wrote:I find nowadays that I'm rediscovering the stuff I grew up with, and appreciating it much more now.
That's been one of the best parts of this whole journey for me. All the stuff we used to listen to and love as a kid had all these amazing solos that I never even noticed. Practically virtuoso stuff, some of it and who knew?
Now that I can appreciate it, I no longer
like those songs, I totally adore them and wanna hump them ?
Music means a whole lot more when you can appreciate what goes into making it!
Spyke
LMinnie wrote:
My best friend Spyke.
Id always wanted to learn but never had the time or someone to teach me.
Enter Spyke and 6 months later we were jamming together.
Influences were basically 90's alternative/rock.Bush,Nirvana,Smashing Pumpkins,Offspring that kinda stuff
Ta, thanks bud! Still love jamming with you when we get the chance.
I can't really recall what inspired me.
My one friend at the time was keen to learn guitar and i think i just followed suit.
My love of guitar comes from the fact that i love music and i can think of nothing better than being able to recreate the music that moves me. This has now evolved into me writing pieces that move me.
arjunmenon
Wish i'd posted here earlier..
I was first inspired by the guitar player in my older brother's band. The band were doing Journey, Whitesnake and Van Halen covers when i was captivated by guitar music. However, the people who make me want to get better and better are (in no particular order) :
Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, John Petrucci, Paul Gilbert, Steve Lukather, Al DiMeola, John McLaughlin, Neil Schon, Eddie Van Halen, Steve Morse, Lee Ritenour, Tony MacAlpine, Robert Fripp, Adrian Belew, Nuno Bettencourt, Brian May, Jimi Hendrix, Marty Friedman, Dimebag, Jason Becker, Yngwie Malmsteen, Shawn Lane, Michael Romeo, Steve Howe, Gary Moore, Adrian Smith, Dave Murray, Janick Gers, Eric Johnson, Billy McLaughlin, Eric Clapton, Freddie King and John Lee Hooker.
PaulJ
Jimmy Page...Led Zepplin, as soon as I heard "In my time of dying' it was tickets for me,and that's when the obsession started.
dee
My first inspiration must be Jimmy Page as well. No other guitarist grabbed me as much as with the opening lines of "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You" and "Rock and Roll".
Jimmy Hendrix and Eddie Van Halen as well, and lately Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood. Not because of their technical abilities, but their pure style and attitude while playing. They make it seem so smooth and easy.
