The tale of your guitar journey

[RVA]

One thing we all have in common is that we love to play guitar. However, we all got to this point in very different ways. I have read snippets of people's history with the instrument and would like to learn more. Here is mine.
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As a youth, I was subjected to piano lessons, recitals and all. About age 12, rock and roll sets in hard, an interest seperate from my parents. The Sex Pistols, The Who, etc. Friends start getting guitars and I want mine. It starts with an acoustic and the catholic school music teacher after school, but as soon as I learned to read the chord chart, I ditched him and the church songs.

My uncle lent me his 1963 Guild Starfire, and when he took it back when I was 14, I got a Strat, the black one you have all seen. As kids, we talked music, played guitar and wore concert T-Shirts. No sports for us.

Unfortunately, I was shy about my playing. No bands and primarily bedroom play. I brought an acoustic to college and continued playing recreationally, but after graduation, playing got demoted to ocassionally tinkering with the guitar in favor of law school, starting my own business, then living like a rock star without the guitar, and then marraige.

About 7 years ago, my wife saw my stress level and suggested I replace the after-work wine with guitar playing. I took my first lessons since that catholic school teacher, but soon after went back to self teaching, which was much easier this time with the internet! Then, I joined a forum, bought my second guitar, then my third, etc.

For the past 5 years, I have not missied a single day of playing. Although I wish I never stopped, I am happy I started again. I am rather certain that playing will be part of my life as long as my mind and body allow.

 

[eSGEe]

I did this

And this.....

Then THIS......

Then I stopped ....got a job a wife kids mortgages a "credit score" (ugh) started a company ----
at 40 I e canned all that and now I do this


Second childhood perhaps?

Still cant play for crap----- but it keeps me from murdering people ----so it is for the common good I do this....

 

[ChasFred]

When I was about 9-10 years old we went to see my Uncle Ralph, my mothers brother. He took me to the basement, all the houses in Baltimore had basements, the ORIGINAL Man Cave and played his guitar for me.
It was a Silvertone 1448 the Amp In Case model. He had sheet music laying all over the floor. He started playing and it was magic. He played jazz and standards. He was not a R&R kinda guy.
It didn't matter though, I was hooked. That Christmas I received my first guitar, a no name acoustic with a terrible action. It didn't matter though, I played till my fingers could not stand the pain anymore.
Uncle Ralph also introduced me to shortwave radio. So now today I am a licensed Ham Radio Operator "K5CYA", because of Uncle Ralph, and every time I touch a guitar I think of him. It is all his doings.

 

[Gahr]

I'd hardly call my guitar adventures a journey, I guess it's been more like a comfortable bus ride...

Anyway, this will probably be my longest post ever...

I grew up in a semi-musical family. I say semi because music was not really a big part of our lives, although everyone in my house except my mother sang or played an instrument. I have there older sisters. The youngest and oldest ones both sang in a very good choir. My youngest sister started taking piano lessons, my middle sister played flute (a recorder) and took lessons for many years, and my oldest sister had a nylon-string guitar. My dad played the piano. He was actually quite good at it, but he hardly ever touched it, except for around Christmas time when he occasionally would sit down and play some carols.

My own music "career" started in first grade, when I was six. I was a decent singer at a young age, and performed in front of the whole school, singing traditional songs from my town, accompanied by one of the schools' music teachers. I sang in the school choir for a couple of years and it was ok. We didn't have any regular practice sessions, and I guess that was one of the things that made it ok...

All kids in Norway learn to play the recorder in school, around the age of 10. And I had started taking piano lessons at the age of eight, because my sister did it and because my parents wanted me to. I thought playing the piano was ok, but I didn't like the regular practice routine, and I was very slow at reading music. I used to listen to my piano teacher playing the pieces, and I payed very close attention to how her fingers moved. I tried to memorize everything, and would only look at the sheet music if I had to. I was a lousy pianist, and hated playing for people. We used to have concerts for all the students and their parents a couple of times a year, and I was always pissed that I didn't manage to get sick in time to escape the performances. I played the piano for four years, and by that time I had also been playing handball for a couple of years. I was a pretty good goalkeeper, and my team was really good, so sports were taking up most of my time. i think my piano teacher was just as relieved as I was when my parents finally agreed to let me quit. Today I am sad I didn't keep up what little skills I had on the keys. I can still pick out very simple chords, but that is about it. And I still suck really badly at reading music.

In secondary school it is common that kids start learning guitar in their music classes. We are only taught a few basic chords, but for me that was enough. I had been listening to Pink Floyd for a few years, and I had recently discovered Van Halen so at the age of 12 I asked my parents for a guitar fir Christmas. Lo and behold! I got a nylon-stringed guitar, and started playing. For the first couple of years I didn't play a whole lot, and I never took any lessons, but I got a book that taught me a few things, and I figured out that If i stuffed the microphone that came with my neighbor's cassette recorder inside the guitar and turned the volume way pup, I got a "great" overdriven sound. It made me able to play the tapping part in "Eruption" and the riff from "Unchained" with distortion, and that was a revelation. I needed an electric.

One of my dad's colleagues had two boys my age who had started playing electric guitars. They were in my school, and I already knew them because of my dads' colleague. One of them liked Van Halen as well (Van Halen were never big in Norway), so we started hanging out. I ended up buying my first electric guitar, a really nice Tokai Stratocaster, from one of them, and we formed a band together. We called ourselves "Rat Salad" and all three of us played guitar. I had a classmate who played drums, and we teamed up with a bass player the brothers knew through a mutual friend.

We played a mix of covers and originals and saw ourselves as the Norwegian heirs to Lynyrd Skynyrd! We did songs by bands like Free, Skynyrd, Status Quo and Blackfoot, and naturally thought we were God's gift to rock 'n' roll. But with a 12 year old singer and no sense of dynamics were were hardly set for the stars.

I continued playing with the brothers for many years, and we teamed up with a different drummer, a keyboard player and a great bassist (who was really e smokin' guitar player). We started digging the Allman Brothers Band and played a lot of their stuff. After a while we got a little better, and our finest hour was opening for blues great Earl King (together with two other bands) when he played in my hometown sometime around 1991-92. We had some great times with that band, but because of university studies we drifted apart. I still think that band could have been pretty good if we had stayed together. After that band broke up I stayed at home for about a year more. During that time I started playing in a band with my best friend. He's a pretty decent singer, and a good frontman. Ha also owns a farm, and since they didn't have any animals left on the farm (his granddad used to keep cows), we decided to turn the barn into a studio and bar. We used to host big parties there, selling beer and moonshine, and we'd bring local bands (and our own band, naturally) and play until the wee hours. Those were definitely some of the best days of my life.

After I moved from my hometown Kristiansand to Bergen (where I still live) in 1993, I continued playing with some of the guys back home. I bought my first Gibson SG. I used to take really long summer and Christmas holidays, and we played like mad a few months of the year. For a long time I played in an Iggy Pop cover band where my best friend sang. We were pretty good, but never took anything seriously. After a few years in Bergen only jamming at home with a couple of friends, I joined a band playing originals only for about two years. My problem was I was getting twards the end of writing my masters thesis, and I really didn't have time for the band. This was in the spring of 1999, and after I quit, I didn't have a band until we started playing at the brewery a bout three years ago. I didn't play the guitar much for about ten years, but would do it occasionally, never forgetting how much I really loved it. Beer was my main hobby, but when I started brewing professionally, I had to pick the gitar up again. And MAN, am I glad I did!

After having worked for close to 15 years, I could finally afford buying some of the gear I had always wanted. In retrospect I guess I regret not taking my playing more seriously when I was younger, but I have so many fond memories of crazy times that it doesn't really matter.

 

[iblive]

I’ve liked music for as long I can remember. Late 60s it was the British band Status Quo doing “Pictures of Matchstick Men” that got me hooked on rock. However, it was CSNY @ Woodstock (I had the 8 track. To young to go to the show) that made me want to play guitar.... specifically acoustic. Like ChasFred, my first guitar was a department store model I think I dropped 25 bucks on. Had to have 1/2” action at the 12th fret.

My first “real” guitar was a 12 string Yamaha.... which was actually easier to play than that $25 junker. That was 1973.

A year later I purchased my Ovation and a 20w Traynor. Still have both. This was my goto guitar for the next 35 years.

In 2009 bought my first electric. A used G400. Followed by a Tele Clone that needed refinished. About a year ago I added a Hagstron Viking. And about Thanksgiving purchased a MIM Strat.

Like Adrian, I don’t consider myself anything more than an average bedroom player. Don’t play as much as I’d like to. But always am a happy camper when I do get a guitar in hand. Way cheaper than a shrink.

 

[Kerry Brown]

I was 13 or 14 and my parents decided I should learn a musical instrument. They had an accordion salesman come over and give a demonstration. I rebelled. I wanted to play guitar., specifically electric guitar. We went to the big city where I ended up with a semi hollow body and an amp. I have no pictures and no recollection of brands. I started taking weekly lessons from a local barber who taught guitar in a small room at a local hotel in the evenings. The lessons continued for around six or seven years. He gave me a good grounding in theory and stressed sight reading. I could pretty much play anything if I had the sheet music. My brother started taking guitar lessons as well as a friend. We formed a "band". We even played a few gigs like my parents anniversary party with my cousin on drums. My brother and I were invited to join a local band and played the local bars a few times. We were under age so that didn't last long. After going through a few guitars and amps I switched to acoustic. I wanted to do my own thing without a band. While in university I took some more lessons from an amazing player. I developed a life long fascination with the blues. I quit university to go logging. The money was rolling in and I discovered alcohol and drugs. That was the end of my guitar playing. In my thirties I kicked alcohol and drugs out of my life. I hit 50 and had it made, owned a couple of businesses, Porsche in the driveway, living the good life. I was bored and tired of 14 hour days, seven days a week. I sold the businesses, sold the Porsche, and started a consulting business that would pay the bills but at no where near the same level as before. I was the boss and only employee. I met a good woman who understood me and we moved in together. My father was diagnosed with Alzheimers. In my research I read that music was a good way to stave off dementia. I didn't want to end up like my father so I decided to take up guitar again. I bought an Ibanez semi hollow, borrowed an amp, and drove my wife crazy. She convinced me to take some lessons again so I hooked up with an amazing young local singer/songwriter. He ran a local jam and convinced me to start jamming. Ten years later I have a few guitars and amps. I like buying, selling, and trading gear almost as much as playing. I go to local jams once or twice a week. I'm trying to write some songs. I make just enough money to get by. I have a good woman. I have a hobby (music) that gives me a lot of joy. Life couldn't get much better.

 

[ChasFred]

On a GOOD day I might be a bedroom player like iblive and eSGEe, I am not much than a hack at present.
Life has taken me down MANY paths, most kept me away from my guitars. I never lost the attraction to them.
Now that I have reach a somewhat stable time in life I can get serious again about learning to play.

 

[Tony M.]

A very brief history.....
It's been a long strange trip so far.

More to come...

 

[chilipeppermaniac]

Brother Tony, So glad to see your pics. When I was missing my brother and worried something bad happened while we were on ETSG, I remembered that Myakka pic. BUT unlike this one, I did not see the Mcale name after Tony. Like the never quit guy I am, I even found Tony Chieffo on Facebook and inquired had he heard from brother Tony M.

So, part of my guitar journey has come back to the joy of knowing our brother is doing well and back here with us.

Having said that, I have to say my bond with guitar goes as far back as my first musical days despite not knowing any players names or instruments played.

To be cont.

 

[Sp8ctre]

My history is one of starting out excited and giving up...many times!

I have always LOVED music, rock music the most. My uncle who is about 8 years older than me was always in
some sort of band when I was growing up. He was also heavy into Drag Racing. He gave me my first Beatles
records when I was just 8 years old! I wanted to be like him.

My first attempt was in 4th grade. I was given a very cheap and hard to play acoustic and dropped off for
lessons at the YMCA. That lasted for about 3 lessons. Other kids in the class had electrics and small amps
and the acoustic was just to hard to play.

Fast forward to 9th grade...my uncle has a family, but still manages to play in a local band at small gigs.
He has a Les Paul Custom and a huge Kustoms Amp. I dig the hell out of it so he gives me a 1950's Gretsch
Anniversary model. I again attempt to learn...no patience and a thing developing for the ladies and cars
and the Gretsch goes back to my uncle.

In 1979 I join the USAF (I'm 19 now) and end up in Tucson Arizona. In 1980 my mom comes to visit and
I ask for the Gretsch back so she hand carries it out. I give it another whirl...still to difficult and I guess I
just had no drive to succeed. When I get stationed in Korea in 1982 the Gretsch goes back to my uncle.
...and sadly he finally sells it off to buy a Bass and I never see it again.

So jump ahead a lot of years to 2014. My daughter wants to learn guitar. My grandmothers ships her a
nice acoustic and she gives it about the same 5 minutes of effort I have in the past. I take up the guitar
here, but now there is an internet and I can find lots of lessons! However the acoustic is still not doing it
for me and I start my electric guitar acquisition phase even though I can barely strum a chord.

I soon find that there are forums to join and people to interact with and the addiction grows. I also learn
the VA will pay for my training on guitar through the 911 GI Bill. So I start lessons with Berklee School of
Music...now I have many friends and many guitars...but I still can't play a complete song!

 

[Tony M.]

I can't play a complete song either...

 

[Inspector #20]

Growing up the son of a back-up vocalist for Buck Owens and Merle Haggard, I was surrounded by music and musical instruments. By the time I was 10, Mom had her own recording studio and had been recording her own country and country gospel songs using The Buckaroos at Buck's Chester Avenue Studio in Bakersfield. I began plunking around on the guitar at about age 8, listening mostly to Mom & Dad's old 45's and 78's from the 50's & 60's, lots of Buck and Merle, and country music in general. All I could play were little one string melodies along with the records. My Mom's massive Alvarez 12 string was my first guitar.




About 1974, I saw the movie Vanishing Point and the guitar work in the song "Mississippi Queen" just blew me away. However, rock music of the 1970's was considered the "devil's music" and as such, I was not allowed to play it or listen to it at home. In 1975, my uncle came to stay with us and he opened up a whole new world of music. Zeppelin, Black Oak Arkansas, Mountain and many others were some of my early experiences. This got me really wanting to learn the guitar and I began checking out every book I could about guitar playing from the local library. I also began playing in some local garage bands in and around my neighborhood. By the age of 14, I was playing in Mom's "Wild Rose Band" on both guitar and bass. I had been given the 1961 Sears Silvertone my Dad bought for my Mom and that was my main guitar for many years.

By the early 1980's, I had progressed as a guitarist, despite a severe learning disability, dyslexia and introversion. What I learned I did so through sheer force of will and fear of failure. I played with many more talented musicians, but when I played, I played as if my life depended on it. I played with a suffocating desperation - I played with a insatiable need to perform. It was, as if, for those few minutes I spent on stage, that I, at long last, fit in and was a "normal" person. And, as I played, I became so saddened because I knew that, in only a few more measures, I would be returned to my former self.



Between 1982 and 1987, I played in a number of bands in Central California and opened for, or was guest guitarist for a number of bands through my professional connections. I also began working as a studio guitarist, despite not being the best or smartest fellow musically.




In January of 1988, I moved to Fullerton, California (111 South Acacia #2) and hooked up with a company the assembled stages and lighting for major concerts. I also played with various SoCal rock bands, worked as a guitar tech, did some studio work and tried to "make it big" in music. Between 1988 and 1990, I supported myself in this fashion and pursued a career in music.

In the spring of 1990, I moved back to Porterville, California, where I grew up, and tried to make sense of my life and a music scene that was traveling in a nauseating direction. Even though I became a police officer (out of sheer necessity) in 1993, I continued to play music, write songs and stay as involved as I possible could. In 2011, with 18 years of police service and 6 years of military service, I became eligible to retire under our city's plan and I walked away.



I continued to do recording work as a studio musician and played as a hired replacement in some local area bands. I would frequently work on music projects while visiting Mom's Ranch House Studio near Springville, California.

As a guitarist, I'm heavy handed. I have good vibrato, rooted in blues lick Pentatonics with elements of an occasional Arabic minor scale thrown in here and there. I'm not one with lightning-fast technique. A hand injury in 1999 almost cost me my left middle and pinky finger, so my playing is far less dexterous than it once was. I am more of a "T-Rex" than a "Velociraptor," or more of a Leslie West as opposed to a Warren DiMartini, if that makes any sense...

And I am still self-conscious as to how most guitars look so small on me....That factor, and my love of Page and Felder, started a lifelong fascination with obtaining my own EDS-1275.




Since that time, I became even more heavily involved in music, recordings, some session work and, more recently, in creating my own guitar line.




At present, I am writing material for an upcoming CD project and planning a joint venture music CD with my Mom. I greatly enjoy the fellows I have met during my association with this forum and I am happy to share and read all of your exciting stories!!!!

All the best to you in 2018...

 

[chilipeppermaniac]

In my early days, I listened to everything from How Much Is That Doggie in the Window? To Bad Bad Leroy Brown, Smokin in the Boys Room, Joy To the World, What's New Pussycat?... Then one day when I was about 8-9 years old, I was in the barber chair and on his radio I heard that immortal riff, Bum Bum Buh,,,,,, Bum Buh Ba Nahh,,, Buh Bum Buh,,, Bum Buh. Good Ol Mr Blackmore and Deep Purple.

A Few years later, I was waiting for my 8th grade band class to start and a friend had a Cassette recording of Running With The Devil and at that instant, guitar was the sound behind that magnetic tune. I was hooked. From there, my fellow 8th grade friend, Vick Hamilton got me into Ted, Alice, BOC, Santana, Hendrix etc. My Sister and other friends got me into The Stones, Aerosmith, Rush, Def Leppard, Styx,Tom Petty, The Who, Pink Floyd, Steve Miller, Yes, Iron Maiden, The Clash, Pretenders, Police, George Thorogood, Pat Travers, and when Stevie Ray came along, I gained good appreciation for his talent as well.

Through all these talented players came my love of all manners of guitar styles. So, I guess in a roundabout way, my story is the story of the 60's -80's greats and their influences on me.

At around 13-14 years old I tell mom I want to try to learn guitar and we rent a Yamaha with super high action and I start lessons at a store I could walk to after middle school.
I gave up playing until my Freshman year in college when I went and bought my used 1979 Les Paul Standard which I loved but never got good at. I did take it to my 2nd college and tried to make my hands as nimble or fast as my favorite players. I never did, and wound up giving up by 1991 when like a dummy, I sold my beloved LP and case for about $400.
Flash forward to about 1997-98 when I get my 2nd guitar ever. A 1989 Gun Metal Blue Strat. Once again, I gave up and sold it. Eventually about late 1999 I sat at a drum kit and had a blast. Bought my first kit and from the confidence gleaned on the kit, I bought another Strat which is the one I fixed the truss rod on. Anyway, from then till now, I have owned and still own numerous drums, basses and guitars. I will never give up playing again until I die. I do love playing and learning new songs.

 

[iblive]

I can't play a complete song either...

I can play one.

 

[Tony M.]

I started out with instrumental surf music,
Then there was some Stones, Yardbirds, Etc.
Then the late 60's west coast bands arrived.
That is where my main influences came from.
Jorma Kaukenon, John Cipollina and those guys.
Biker bars, Topless bars and topless biker bars...
Then I did a bunch of Deep Purple for a while.
(I was faster and cleaner then.)
Heavied up disco stuff in the 70's.
Followed that up with 11 years of weddings,
then a really good classic rock cover band,
all the church stuff and here I am,
still havin' fun.

 

[Sp8ctre]

I started out with...and here I am,
still havin' fun.

That says it all "Still Having Fun" that is my main goal and I'm accomplishing it!

 

[Tony M.]

The thing about the church stuff is 1 day it'll be another guitar player and a flute player.
Another time it will be a string quartet or maybe some horns thrown in.
Then it will be the church organ, 2 altos, a soprano and a conga player.
It's keeps you on your toes and you have to pay attention.

...and as far as the people I play with regularly, most of the music we cover
has no prominent electric guitar part, so I get to write and arrange an original
part for most of the songs we do, and since there's nothing on the original to
compare it to, it is never "wrong". It's a great niche to be in.

 

[Kerry Brown]

I'm loving these personal stories. Keep 'em coming.

 

[Tony M.]

I have always wanted to play in a band like Spyro Gyra,
that semi Latin Brazilian light jazz jammy kind of stuff,
but I have never been good enough to do it right.

 

[chilipeppermaniac]

WOW, I hadn't heard Spyro Gyra mentioned in forever. Talk about a trip through cobwebs.