Kind of curious to know what got people to start their journey into guitar learning and playing.
Mine wasnāt watching Mark Knopfler, Jimi Hendrix or āinsert any other famous guitar player hereā thing, although I do enjoy a bit of Dire Straits. But that never get me past the I really want to buy a guitar stage.
For me was a bit more silly in a way, after watching an Anime series called Bocchi the Rock that kinda sparked my interest in wanting to get a guitar in my hands and play.
I bought an acoustic guitar about 5-6 years ago, tried to learn a few times and ended giving up, so I sold the guitar after sitting in a corner for a while. After watching Bocchi the Rock at the beginning of this year, it sparked my interest again and I started to look at guitars again, this time electric.
Until a couple of weeks ago when I saw my dream guitar back in stock, bought the guitar on an impulse buy kind of thing and here I am now on my second week of learning and practising. Giving my best to try to stick to it.
Back in the 70ās when I started there was only 2 reasons to play guitar. Join a band and pick up chicks. It worked, played in 5 different bands, a duet and this month will be 40 years for me and the mrs.
I was always into keyboards, although I rarely had time to practice because of work patterns, including a fair bit of travel. But also because of laziness.
I had had about 3 formal guitar lessons whilst at school at the age of about 9, but they never continued for some reason. For a while we had a cheap nylon string guitar at home, but my elder brother broke the headstock against a door frame whilst pretending to be Brian May (or someone) so it wasnāt really anything I got to use much.
Roll forward about 20 years and my Brother-in-law ended up living with us for a few years. He had, previously, played electric guitar a bit, bit had to sell his gear because of some financial difficulties.
After a few years living with us, and working for me, he decided to start playing again, and I gave him a lift to the local music store so he could buy a new guitar and amp.
Whilst there, I was perusing the keyboards, but a guitar kept standing out to me on the wall, amongst all the other guitars. My Brother-in-law noticed and said āthatās a decent guitar. You should buy itā.
So.I did, and ended up with a nice PRS SE single-cut, which I would take with me when I travelled for business (at that time, weekly) and practiced in the hotel room.
Back in the mid 2000ās me and my friends got really into guitar hero. Weāve been fans of Rock from that period but I think guitar hero introduced us to a lot of the classics and expanded our love for the genre. 3 of us bought guitars and attempted to learn the real thing but all dropped off at various moments (I barely played a month before quitting).
One of my friends took it a little further, but not by much. Throughout the years he kept trying though at various parts of his life and never really getting too far. It was always in the back of my mind but the failure of my first try in my teenage years prevented me from trying again.
Fast forward to almost 2 years ago and that friend passed away from illness. Now, Iām no spring chicken for sure, but Iām still pretty young (32) and he was younger than me. I got to thinking about all the stuff heāll never get to do and all the stuff I still want to do, so the idea of picking it back up came into my mind. He passed November, his funeral was December, my guitar arrived January 6th of 2022 and Iāve been playing ever since.
You seem like a gamer so you may appreciate this. My friend used to always play this little tune from metal gear solid 4. Really simple and really short. For maybe the first 6 months of playing I used to end my practice session with playing that tune.
BTW, Iām a huge Final Fantasy 14 fan (FF fan in general really) so super jealous of your new strat. I showed it to a couple of my FFXIV buddies who donāt play the guitar and even they are awed by it. Also, thanks for the new anime suggestion, have you watched beck? Itās been a really long time since I watched it (mid 2000s), but I remember really liking it. If you are interested in another anime about a rock band.
Well after having my dreams dashed by my parents who figured a toy guitar for me and my younger sister would satisfy my desire (the thing was plastic with pink fishing line for strings and no, you could not get any kind of sound out of it!) I waited another 50 years (had lots of hobbies between then and now) when last November my husband suddenly decided he was going to buy a bass guitar and learn to play. The light bulb finally lit up and I bought my Squier bullet which I got in December but didnāt really get into for real till January thanks to a bought with covid.
I must say that though I am quite good at quilting, sewing clothes, crochet, flower and vegetable gardening, painting, and a poor attempt at writing, I have never been so satisfied as I am playing 8 chords and a few songs every day!
I wonder how much yarn I could sell to get me a second guitarā¦?
Iāve tried and failed to learn a number of times over the past 20 years and I think the goal has always been to learn to play some of the songs I love listening to. I think Iāve always been thwarted by wanting to jump right in at a complex level and not having the patience required.
This time is slightly different. The dream of playing those songs is still there, but thereās also the desire to do something fulfilling with my free time, where Iām learning something real, not just passively half watching the television which mostly bores me these days
I want to be able to compose music to my poems and think guitar is such a lovely instrument. Just a plain acoustic or classical guitar. I went for the acoustic guitar for several reasons. After just 2 months I am totally hooked and yet increasing day by day, as the training show results and the fingertips gets hardened. Just luv it.
I have a few tracks from The Primals on my list of want to learn, including āA long fallā. Been playing FFXIV for many years now, so I couldnāt resist when I saw the Strat, my FC mates were also in awe when they found out.
Never watched Beck, Iāll add it to my list, thanks for the suggestion.
For me it was my second go, I did a little bit when I was a teenager more then fifty years ago before real life took over.
So I am getting the Christmas decorations out of the cupboard in 2021, and spotted my old guitar at the back of the cupboard and thought I might give it another go, had look on the internet and came across Justin, the rest they say is history.
Michael
My desire to play guitar was kindled some 35-40 years ago when we followed a local pub band called Freeway.
They were a very good and popular covers band who always seemed to have a lot of fun when they were performing and that fun always spread to their audiences.
I was a member of a local Young Farmers Club and there was a big YFC Christmas bash every year in the Empress Ballroom at the Winter Gardens in Blackpool. There was a DJ and a band every year. I remember such bands as Showaddy-Waddy and another one was the Rubbetts (or something like that).
One year our club badgered the organisers to book Freeway and so they performed in front of 2-3000 people. They were nervous about it but it turned out to be a cracking ādoā! In fact, a lot of people said they were the best band that ever performed at this event!
The Empress Ballroom has a sprung dance floor and with a couple of thousand Young Farmers jumping up and down to Freeway on it, wow, did it move!!
Freewayās lead guitarist was a guy called Steve and he could play guitar every bit as good as the top guitarists.
I donāt know what happened to Steve, but I know the lead singer died about 15 years ago.
Many of you will have top guitarist as your hero but Steve is my guitar hero.
As a boy I learned piano (and had a year of violin which didnāt catch on), but by the time I was a young teen I had grown tired of the routine and outside pressure associated with my music instruction, so I quit. (This is something I regret.)
However, when I was 15 my family moved to Hawaii and I made some new friends, there. One of them played guitar. I thought that was pretty cool, so I asked my parents if I could get a guitar, and they were happy to facilitate and encourage that. I suppose that I came to guitar because I perceived it as ācool,ā and it was something that came from my peers (rather than parents and teachers), and I was at the right age and the right time (the 80s).
My path to the guitar is kind of an interesting one.
I grew up in a musical household. My parents were in a rock band when I was in middle school. My dad played guitar and my mom sang and played drums. We always had some kind of classic rock on in the house. At the time, I thought it was horrible and would go shut myself in my room to get away from the noise
I had a brief stint where I tried to play piano and I hated it. My younger sister also took piano lessons, but really seemed to take to it. At that point, I just decided that I didnāt have musical talent beyond a decent ability to stay on key while singing and just decided music was not my forte. I did a lot of community theater at the time and put my creative energy into acting.
Fast forward to 2020. During the pandemic, I had a close friend that picked up the ukulele. My friendās son was learning ukulele as part of his virtual schooling and my friend was learning as well to be able to help her son. She handed me a ukulele and taught me a few basic chords. For some reason something clicked and I was hooked!
About 5 months in to learning ukulele, I realized I wanted to play rock music. I wanted to be able to make the sounds I was hearing on the albums that I loved. I called my Dad and asked his advice about buying my first electric guitar. I was 39.
Almost 2 years (and a few community OMs) later, itās safe to say I found āmyā instrument. Iām at my happiest with a guitar in my hand and Iāll never look back. Itās never too late to start!
I was planning on going in October, but wonāt be able to due our little one being about 9 months old when the time comes. Iāll have to wait for next time.
I had long dreamed of playing and finally started but didnāt stick with it, multiple reasons, was a single father raising kids on my own, work was busy and guitar teachers insisting on teaching scales for no good reason all added to the difficulty.
Then about 15 years later a good friend of mine picked up the guitar and started playing, when i saw how well he was progressing I picked up my guitar again and this time was a lot more focused. And it stuck / worked really well. Been playing for well over a decade now and itās such fun.
As much as I was into music in my yoof (around mid 60s when I was 9 or 10) and to be honest the rest of my life, I never thought about playing guitar. Think I was traumatised by learning Trombone for about 18 months at Secondary school. Continued to love all sorts of rock and went to gigs but by 16/17 I was into bikes, beer and feathered things, if you get my drift. So loads of rallies loads of music but no thoughts of playing.
Roll onto to my 40th and my missus presents me with a Squier Affinity Strat and a Marshall Goldline amp (used and abused). Still not sure why, as I was bogged down with work and just restarted my martial arts journey after a short break and that went on for 2 decades. Might have mumbled āone dayā but still no serious thoughts about playing. So I owe her a lot!
Suffice to say I then wandered around the wilderness for the next 17 year, taking early retirement at 55 and finding Justin a couple of years later, after decamping from the UK and setting up home in Normandie France. And after so many start stop starts stops, I finally found someone with a teaching methods and structure to keep me focused and motivated.
Found this place (old forum) early 2014 and been here ever since. Now have a stable of 13 guitars too much gear to list here (See my LL if interested). Made some wonderful friends, recorded lots of dubious covers and generally had a ball.
And that pretty much sums up 27 years of why. And heck why not ? You know it makes sense.
