DonovanB wrote:

Alan Ratcliffe wrote: It has to be said (and I don't think anyone else has mentioned this. You cowards!), but another prime motivating factor was Athlone Girls High down the road from Athlone Boys ?

Thats why I played rugby.

Mister's Alan & Donovan.. Thats why I did both!!! Rugby for the girls to think 'damn, thats a rugged, well built guy', and then in the evenings I'd whip out the guitar and show them my softer side.. I got it down to a FINE art I tell you.., a fine art!!

Lacuna ZA wrote: I wanted to be involved in music somehow so I then thought of doing sound engineering.

Again, that didn't realize because my parents didn't think it was a good career choice.

My folks also thought so, but I persisted by bugging them, and it paid off!! hahaha

As for when I started to play.. It was a dark and stormy night. As the wind howled outside the holiday home we were staying at, I heard footsteps.. Everyone hid.., except me, I was drawn to this mysterious being that was approaching us.. It turned out to be Brian May, and he said "Johann, go forth and play guitar, you may never be as good as I am, but at least give it a shot!' hahaha

Nah.. I started when I was 12/13, same time I started to drum. Started drumming cause it's cool, started playing guitar cause you can play guitar at house parties and the girls loved it.. Vanity is a bad thing!! Haven't stopped since then!

heard some generic metal riffs which I thought were amazing. I really wanted to be able to rock out and do the whole head banging thing ( and play guitar at the same time)

Crossroads (Not the Britney Spears one > ) Steve Vai kinda sunk his teeth into me and converted me with that guitar duel at the end.

Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad - Japanese anime about a teenage boy who starts to learn to play the guitar and eventually joins a rock band. Really cool watching it now because I can relate to the character.

Guitar Hero - Believe it or not Guitar Hero was one of my reasons for starting. I felt like a guitar hero playing something like cliffs of dover and eventually that rockstar feeling ended up inspiring me to really play guitar because I wanted that feeling to be genuine one day. Plus watching the movies of Tom Morello rocking out that are one the game definetly helped. ?

Beck was really cool I won't lie ?

My uncle used to play in a band every weekend at a venue and my parents sometimes went and all those country tunes plus a very very world moving version of 'Cry to me' almost the same as the Staccatos version made me want to play....and one morning in Standard 7 I got up and I knew, I had to have a guitar... ?

This is an interesting question really. I have gone through 3 distinct bouts of guitar playing - probably with different motivations each time. The most interesting is the current phase. I started playing again after nearly 20 years of not picking up a guitar. Saying why is difficult. Maybe it was a mid-life crisis. Maybe I just wanted to be a guy and have some fun. Being in a financial position to afford a hobby certainly had something to do with it.

I've often "blamed" Norma Waterson. Her performance of Gerry Garcia's Black Muddy River (with Richard Thompson and Martin Carthy playing guitars) is what I identify as a trigger, as the inspiration (if I may be so bold). But it was probably more of an itch that had needed scratching for a long time and the itch had been getting more and more intense.

Music is a powerful thing for me, and the beauty of the guitar is that it allows you to perform music without huge outlay or needing lots of space or auxiliary equipment. I would probably enjoy playing piano just as much. But you have to buy a piano and have a place for it. Or buy an electronic piano. But then those aren't so easy to noodle on when you're watching TV, are harder to take on holiday etc. I like violin, but the guitar is an easier option for self accompaniment.

The guitar is a very handy, well evolved instrument when you start looking into it. So once I got to a stage where I wanted to play a little music for myself and had the time and a bit of cash to allow that to happen then the guitar was the instrument that would allow that to happen. Sure I'd played before - but a long time ago, and I had so little "muscle memory" or whatever left that the previous experience wasn't worth a whole lot anyway.

Motivations change. Now I like to learn and perform songs that I don't hear getting played a lot. I have no interest in playing Hotel California or The Leaving of Liverpool. Nothing personal, but there's plenty of people doing those. I hope that by learning and performing less commonly heard songs I might enrich a few lives in a small way - or even just my own. Singing a song where I can connect to something within that song, where the song resonates with something in me is a pleasurable and satisfying thing.

I watched The Song Remains The Same at a buddy's house. In between Robert Plant's simulated orgasms and the embarrassing castle scene, Jimmy Page was a god with that Les Paul at his knees.

But I've only learned a little discipline in practising now. For years I just didn't put in the work to get good. Somehow I just didn't "get" the link between practise and improvement. It feels like that's coming right now.

My dad played, so it was inevitable in the long run

I started on Piano and Saxophone, but i soon grew out of it I think 8)

I picked up my dads guitar in Std 9 and just started teaching myself.

It's been downhill from there. ?

The Song Remains the Same! Hahahaha, I had a very similar experience. That's going really cheap in DVD bargain bins these days, especially since that whole four-disc thing came out a while back. Man, memories...

Stratisfear wrote: The Song Remains the Same! Hahahaha, I had a very similar experience. That's going really cheap in DVD bargain bins these days, especially since that whole four-disc thing came out a while back. Man, memories...

I actually went to the Colloseum in JHB and saw 'The Song remains the same" with about 100 speakers all over the show. The whole thing was about bringing the concert to you. My life was changed from that day onwards.
Page and Plant are the reason I play today.

After seeing the film, I went up to "Hillbrow Record Library" and bought "Physical Graffiti". Drove my poor parents mad.

Whooot Whoooot! I still remember it like yesterday....my Dad and Oom Clive at Oom Tem's house in Parys. Oom Tem had a wicked cool bar at his house. They were always drinking Rum & Coke while palying darts. Strange sweet smell in the air....that I now recognize. ???

Constantly playing in the foreground....Led Zeppelin, Golden Earing, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Deep Purple, John Mayall, Cream, Uriah Heep, Jimi Hendrix, Black Sabbath, Wishbone Ash, Frank Zappa, Slayer [Grappie].....I'll sit here the whole night and mention music that I grew up with. Hehehe!!!

AND that is why the cat is equally dead and alive arghhhh I mean that is why I picked up my guitar. ?

Music plays such a big part of my life that I couldnt just listen to it, I had to play it too

Squonk wrote:

Stratisfear wrote: The Song Remains the Same! Hahahaha, I had a very similar experience. That's going really cheap in DVD bargain bins these days, especially since that whole four-disc thing came out a while back. Man, memories...

I actually went to the Colloseum in JHB and saw 'The Song remains the same" with about 100 speakers all over the show. The whole thing was about bringing the concert to you. My life was changed from that day onwards.
Page and Plant are the reason I play today.

After seeing the film, I went up to "Hillbrow Record Library" and bought "Physical Graffiti". Drove my poor parents mad.

What are you guys doing? I'm getting so nostalgic here I could cry! I also went to Colloseum to see it with my sister and her boyfriend and some other friends from the orchestra. I think we parked in Carlton and walked to the spot and on the way there they bust a pipe (actually a whole lot of pipes) and I nearly died and said what the hell are you doing and my sister said no problem, if we get bust we dont have to drive home and there's enough of us to have a jol in the station and mom and dad will sort it out in the morning anyway. Anyway, I didnt start playing guitar then I just tried to grow sideburns like Robert Plant but they didnt get so fluffy and when school opened the teachers didnt like it, so I laughed that off. So on the way back to the cars we got stuck in again and we did get bust except they took some to John Vorster and the rest of us to Hillbrow. So it wasnt such a jol. But it got sorted.

I think I posted in this thread a few weeks back but I cant remember what I said. So, one reason I started playing guitar (just dec 08/jan 09) is becasue I want to play in a blues band before I die.

I just enjoyed music so much that listening wasn't enough.
I'll be honest and say that the earlier stages I thought it was cool buy I grew out of that phase.

I guess it's equivalent to seeing a really attractive woman and wanting a little bit more than a conversation.

deanBailey wrote: I guess it's equivalent to seeing a really attractive woman and wanting a little bit more than a conversation.

BRIALLIANT! LOL that sums it up ? MY pops got me into it, he always jammed some clapton, i digged it, he gave me the option to get a guit for my bday so i went for it!
I am a lefty but my pops knew lefty guits where hard to get and alittle costly so he got me a right hand one and said "learn on this...you will thank me later" ? so now i play right handed ?

when i wasittle my dad on the weekends would sometimes put on a song on his jukebox called "Panama" by Van Halen i later learned that it was played by a guy called eddie van halen and thought that i wanted play like him then i also discovered "Hot for teacher" by the same band and it spurred on my decision to start

X-rated Bob wrote: Music is a powerful thing for me, and the beauty of the guitar is that it allows you to perform music without huge outlay or needing lots of space or auxiliary equipment.

Yeah right! At present I have three guitars in the house - each retailing for over 2000 USD. Plus there are three tuners, 5 capos, a pre-amp, 2 FX pedals (one of them on the large side), leads, humidifiers (4 that I can think of off-hand), straps... this is all getting way out of hand.

I Got sick of just listining to music I wanted to play it as well.
And my dad when I was young listened to clapton,hendrix,gary Moore.