Why did you start playing the guitar?

Fingerpicker

I started Spanish guitar at 9 with Thilo Runge in Durban. Gave up 18 months later, and re-started when I heard Bob Dylan playing "In my time of dying" and "Highway 51" (not 61) on his first ever LP, circa 1964. I just had to learn those songs..

By the way, to pick up chicks, is not a good reason to start playing the guitar, because you end up playing the guitar while everyone else is cosying up around the campfire. :(

(old forum) Poll Results: Why did you start playing the guitar?

My Mom/Dad wanted me to play an instrument: 1
There was a tune that I just had to learn: 8
To pick up chicks/guys: 4
My mates all played: 0
I started on piano, but the guitar was way cooler: 4
I just wanted a guitar: 10
Other: 18

Bob-Dubery

Well I have to have at least three reasons because there are three distinct periods of guitar playing for me.

1) I started wanting to play probably in standard 9. I finally got a guitar just after I left school, when I had a room mate at tech who could play and was prepared to show me some chords. This was when I was under the spell of first Dylan and then Clapton. Dylan is not a GREAT player (though I think he's better than he's usually given credit for) but I do wonder how many people he "turned on" (as they used to say). That period ended maybe 3 years later when I ran out of money in a fairly serious way and I sold off several possessions including my guitar (it was an Ibanez).

2) A couple of years later I was involved with a spiritual movement whose name and aims we need not go into here. They wanted to start a worship band, and somehow somebody figured out I could strum a guitar. I was suitably zealous and so scraped some money together (the organisation concerned chipped in a little as well) and bought first a Yahama acoustic that was fitted with an Ibanez piezo pickup. A little later I bought an Ibanez blazer on the never never (Hmmm.... it's wonder I still have eyes). This was when I learned the rudiments of finger picking. I am no longer involved in that organisation. That and a decision to study towards a qualification in IT effectively put an end to that period of playing.

3) Much, much later. Much.... I hadn't played guitar for years and years and years but got an itch to start playing again. I can't really explain why. I know it was Norma Waterson's recording of the Grateful Dead song "Black Muddy River" that I identified as the inspiration. So I went up to the nearest guitar shop (In Melville, now called "The Music Company" but it was called something else then) and said I was just looking and took a couple of guitars off the rack to see if I could still play anything. I found I still had a D chord and the G and C came back fairly quickly. I bought a Takamine that was at the top of the price range I'd identified for myself because it was the easiest of the guitars that I could afford to play. Probably it was a case of most of the guitars in the shop not having been set up - they all had actions you could use for suspension bridges.

What has made it infinitely more rewarding are the moments when, as Fingerpicker says, the rubber meets the road. Much more satisfying than noodling on the stoep at night when nobody else is around.

Bob-Dubery

Hmmm.... more votes than replies.

Come on y'all! Let's have the truth - no matter how sordid it is ?

singemonkey

X-rated Bob wrote: 2) A couple of years later I was involved with a spiritual movement whose name and aims we need not go into here. I am no longer involved in that organisation.

Ha ha! That doesn't sound like you at all... (from what you can tell from forum posts). Very funny.

Great that you're getting into it properly now.

As I said in another thread, I saw Jimmy Page with his Les Paul swinging between his knees in "The Song Remains The Same," and though, I have to learn to do that...

It took many years, and even a few bands, real and half-assed, before I finally realised that the only way to get good is to practise. Now I'm trying to get good.

Bob-Dubery

singemonkey wrote:
X-rated Bob wrote: 2) A couple of years later I was involved with a spiritual movement whose name and aims we need not go into here. I am no longer involved in that organisation.
Ha ha! That doesn't sound like you at all... (from what you can tell from forum posts). Very funny.

And true. I have, as they say in the classics, moved on.

Riaan

For most of my childhood, I was into drums. Then gradually, from about 12 or so, I started listening to other instruments after only "hearing" the drums for most of the time. The fact that my dad constantly listened - and still does - to The Shadows, of course meant that the guitar sound grew on me.

Roundabout St. 6 I got a cheap acoustic, a rather unplayable one that was impossible to keep in tune, with a neck that warped in all directions... ☹...it must have gotten wet at some point. My mother wanted me to take piano lessons, I wanted guitar lessons. Eventually a piano teacher offered to teach me a bit of guitar. First lesson was how to tune the guitar, second lesson was "Hansie Slim" on three chords, that even back then just didn't sound right to me - she obviously improvised. I was so pissed off with the choice of songs for tuition I never went back... ? Later, towards the end of high school, I saved up and got a Yamaha FG325 steelstring, which I still have and play to this day. It's still my favourite acoustic, and the one I automatically reach out for when I quickly want to check something out.

A friend taught me a few chords, and by then I'd discovered Pink Floyd. That was the critical event for me, no turning back after that...

As to the "why" part: I wish I knew! It was something instinctive, it just had to happen. I think we don't pick our instruments, our instruments pick us!

MIKA-the-better-one

I wanted to play to get girls , i was 13... the honest truth.......... sadly it never worked

PeteM

I had to vote other.
I was about 5 (1951) when I heard a friend of the family's guitar - tuned for lap steel playing, on an open D chord. Just stroking across the strings changed my life forever. I can still hear it now. I just had to play guitar.

I got a ukulele that Christmas (my dog has flees) and that was my pride and joy. I remember, it had a palm tree on the front. Nobody in my family was actively playing an instrument so I had to work it out for myself. The first number I played was 'Pop Goes The Weasel'. I picked the tune out and was able to work out the chords. G D7 G C G. It was stolen a couple of years later, so I was confined to playing a bugle in the scout band. Only five notes - damned boring but still music.
Only got my first guitar when I was about 12. I remember how excited I was that I was able to add bass to the chords. The first number I played was "Singing The Blues" and was able to play alternate root to 5th bass notes while playing the chords and singing the song. It was a Trek guitar with a mile high action and strung with what looked like bass piano strings. I remember I used to play the thing until the fingers on my left hand bled. Out of desperation, and with major angst, I eventually sorted out the action lowering both the nut and the bridge. Also got a book at the same time and from this I taught myself how to read music.

WantzChas

I started fairly late, being 17 when I started. My inspiration came from ACDC and John Lennon. Weird combination, but I had to be able to play Thunderstrike and Imagine.

Moved into a little Johnny Cash and from there Metallica.

Manfred-Klose

Was 14 started playing to impress the girls, i got so tangled in playing guitar that i would totally forget about the girls and rather play through the phrygian mode ?

I started for the wrong reasons, but luckily music made me a better person.

vic

Like Pete, I started out very young 4/5 years, when a farm worker, his name was "Rooi Koos", showed me the chord D (he called it die Kat pootjie! ?), an apt description come to think of it. Soon I could be strumming (boere musiek style) "Suikerbossie" using D, G and A. I watched Rooi Koos' strumming....I tell you the rural people had a unique way of playing, and I still use some of that strumming technique today. Thanks Rooi Koos.
So why did I start playing...it just happened because of Rooi Koos and I liked it sooo much.
Years on I was mentored by an older youngster who was at Varsity already, Kobus Becker, and we started playing local gigs and at concerts (1963) during his holidays....me on rhythm and Kobus on lead (Shadows, Duanne Eddy....). Wonder where he is now..? ?
Bottom line is I think one learns a lot from others and you also get inspired by others, albeit locals, friends or family.

Rob-dos

2 songs in particular made me want to swing a guitar around...

i went away on holiday to a place called rustlers valley in drakensburg with friends and for the first time 'listened' to a song that
changed me and made me think how is he doing that, i want to do that.. All Along the Watchtower

I then watched a dvd a few months later called The Song Remains the Same and i thought, i want to do that.. I 'listened' to
Since I've Been Loving You and its been full speed ahead since then..

FatBoy

My cousin used to play a great version of Me and Bobby McGee when I was just a lad (probably around 10). I never knew what the name of the song was, so I sort of "forgot" about it.

Then about 4 years ago I stumbled across the song again on youtube. I began singing along with it, but the beat felt wrong to me. So I borrowed my brothers guitar, googled the chords (and how to read chords hehehe) and started messing about. About 3 months later I was able to play a mediocre version of it, and its still my favourite song to play.

BMU

It was just programmed in there somehow. Weird since I'm not a gifted with a profound natural talent or anything.

I can't remember what triggered it, hormonal changes probably. ? I knew I wanted an electric even before I knew what rock music was. I started playing, then discovered Zeppelin, then Metallica. But the proverbial "stuf" really hit the fan when I heard Slayer. Then escalated by an order of magnitude when I heard Vai.

Seventhson

Slayer blew me away with there chaotic guitars and maidens complicated solos.

Keira-WitherKay

i started playing guitar at 15 when coincidentally i first started travelling abroad ....... and the travelling bug stuck with me so being a gypsy /world traveller i realised strapping a piano to my backpack was impracticle......... i do love piano.... so guitar became the only option........ although i did drag a double bass around the world for many years....... it was a custom stick bass that even folded to fit in a travel case...... custom built of course by an italian luthier ......

but yeah even gabriella for the mexican duo "Rodrigo Y Gabriella " states in an interview .."acoustic guitar equals freedom" so yeah i agree with that statement 100%... and proved in in last 20 years of travels

so thats why i play guitar

Banditman

There was just "something" about the sound of a guitar that grabbed me as a kid, & the first time I saw them being played I new I wanted one. It was the coolest-looking instrument I'd seen.

I started off with piano at 5 years, then got into violin as well. Step forward a bit & trumpet joined the mix (hey I like big band & swing), but I never started the guitar even though I wanted one. The reason was a kid's reason - the guitars they were teaching with at school didn't look right or "sound" right and the songs didn't inspire me at all. Of course, they were nylon-stringed training wheel jobbies & I wanted an electric. Got pretty skilled at air guitar though.

I'd grown up on rock 'n roll, surf guitar & The Beatles - my parents tastes didn't run to the psychedelic stuff or prog rock, but once I discovered those I was hooked. The first time I heard the opening riff of "Whole Lotta Love" I had to get an electric. Cliched it may be, but rock & blues in all its forms found an earth ground in me.

Got to uni still guitarless & became friends with a few guitarists, getting my friend Mark to teach me some basic chords on his Yam FG series. He also had a Hohner or Hofner Strat copy & a 40 watt amp which I gravitated towards. Playing by ear drove my music teachers nuts & it's still the reason why I struggle with sight reading sheet music, but it meant that (combined with the violin past) I found it pretty easy to adapt to fretting chords & single notes. I'd borrow his guitars on vac as he'd leave them in the storeroom at res.

From there on? Houston, we have lift-off.

govendl3

There was a 4 man band that we hired for a cousins 21st - I was 26 at the time I think
He was taking requests
So I requested Hotel California
And they did a great cover until the solo came where the singer just hummed a bit of the solo
I thought that was funny as sh!t, got me thinking
How hard can it be to play that, pretty hard cause I still can not play it perfectly
It was that and someone played me Nirvana unplugged around the same time, gave me goose bumps
I have only been around this rock and roll thing for about 4 years now, so fairly new too all of this
Now a bit of a nutcase for Floyd, Zeppelin, GnR, Hendrix, Satriani and I cant understand how I never "got" that music b4
PS I was a rap music aficionado prior, 2PAC and MnM still feature prominently in my play lists
Don’t kill me for that ?

Squonk

Led Zeppelin made me do it.

I was a complete music freak. I scared people in my primary school.
But because of no TV , I didn't see any guitars or guitarists.
My first touch was at a veld school camp (std 5 in those days) I saw and heard someone play guitar, a nylon and all he could play was "House of the rising sun" but it was incredible stuff.

The big thing came when I saw "The song remains the same" at the old Collosseum theatre in JHB. Rock and Roll spoke to me on that day.

The only problem I was into Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Jethro Tull and many other progressive Rock acts. So when I finally got a guitar, I couldn't play like Jimmy Page, so into the top of my cupboard it went for many years.

Eventually I understood that I had to start from the beginning and that's when the whole adventure began.

So for me it was Jimmy Page, or could it be that cute girl who had 'I would do anything for Jimmy" printed on her T shirt, that I stood behind waiting to see "The song remains the same" ?

G

i started out when i was 17 and didn't get very far. Now i'm 26 and trying learn more as a hobby to de-stress from work, and to finish what i started. Also when i'm good enough i just wanna sit around and jam ?