# How did you get into playing Guitar ?



## Red Foreman (Apr 3, 2008)

With me,I helped a guy move and he gave me $40 and an old POS acoustic with action like a bow and arrow.I figuired what the hell I've got this guitar I might as well learn how to play it.That was when I was eighteen.


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## Vincent (Nov 24, 2007)

Ive been around guitar players all my life...my father plays and sings and he used to play almost every night at one point in time...used to camp all summer and they would jam all the time.

I never really picked the guitar up utill I was 12 or so (maybe 13)...I went to a friends house and he was playing electric guitar along to an old black Sabbath song...I tried to play what he was playing after watching him I was surprised that I was able to play it...Have not stopped playing guitar ever since that day...went out and bought an electric guitar from a pawn shop like 2 days after that.


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## zinga (Apr 22, 2007)

a guitar teacher came around the house one night i was 7 my dad let him in and he put that thing in my little hands and gave me a slide told me to go here and there on the neck and at that point i loved it but as things go we had no money at that time but i never forgot that night. when i turn 15 got a job bought guitar and never looked back. :banana:


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## mario (Feb 18, 2006)

There were a lot of music infulences before....but I must be honest. I saw KISS at the old London Arena when I was 14 years old back before "KISS ALIVE" hit huge. I was blown away. Right then..I knew I had to get an electric guitar.:rockon2:I still cannot say I am a huge fan of the band (although I love "Alive"), but they were certainly a huge infulence on me picking up a guitar.


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## jane (Apr 26, 2006)

i used to be a fan of alanis morissette and michelle branch. i wanted to learn guitar to write songs. i got my dad's old classical guitar (which he never really learned to play... lol) and fooled around with it for a bit, then got an electric 3-4 years ago. 

don't really listen to much alanis or michelle anymore... but still playing guitar. 

do i get a prize for "dorkiest story"?


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## Cadence (Nov 20, 2007)

jane said:


> do i get a prize for "dorkiest story"?


Gotcha beat Jane...

Fred Penner :smile:

My Mom had an old guitar kicking around that a friend gave her and she used to let me drag it out from under the bed, dust off the case and hold it in my little hands while I watched Fred Penner on TV and pretended to strum along. ...Then I broke the guitar, (I won't get into how) told my Mom the back 'just fell off' (it took me about 12 years to admit to her how it actually happened) but she wasn't as upset as I thought she'd be. It was so old and warped anyway...

Then in highschool when I really got into music (but not specifically idolizing any players), I wanted an acoustic and Santa delivered the semester before I took one of the two guitar classes my school offered.

Cadence


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## violation (Aug 20, 2006)

My step dad plays guitar and I didn't have too many hobbies so he suggested I give it a try. I didn't take it too seriously when I started... when I saw Zakk Wylde's solo on the Live at Budokan DVD I started busting my ass.


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## jane (Apr 26, 2006)

Cadence said:


> Gotcha beat Jane...
> 
> Fred Penner :smile:


Okay, you win :food-smiley-004:


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## zontar (Oct 25, 2007)

I actually don't know why I wanted to play guitar--I've wanted to play guitar as long as I can remember. I got a plastic guitar for Christmas when I was 5 because I wanted to play guitar. While it was a toy, it was better than most toy guitars. 6 strings, you could tune it--it was a decent size for a 5 year old, and it came with a cardboard tuning record & a song book. But I didn't actually start playing guitar until I was 11. My parents put me in piano lessons in between. My first actual guitar (I hesitate to call it a real one) was from K-Mart and was, as a book I later read called it, a "waste of good plywood."

I've played it ever since.


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## darreneedens (Nov 13, 2007)

My story involves me being a brat of a child haha.

It was coming up on my 4th birthday and my parents asked me what I wanted, I said a guitar. They thought this was weird because nobody in my family is really musical other than my uncle, who lived on the other side of the country at that point.

So anyways, my birthday comes along and my parents got me a "toy" guitar... it had 6 strings but it was basically made of cardboard.... and I FREAKED! I started crying saying I was a big boy and I wanted to learn to play real guitar... and they caught it all on tape. haha. The talked me down and told me that everyone needed to start on a toy guitar lol. 

When I was 9 I bought my first music book with paper route money and starting making up songs... the rest is somewhat history, but I always find it a funny story to tell.

Heres a photo taken after I was happy with my present hahaha.


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## devnulljp (Mar 18, 2008)

This guy:








If he can do it, so can I right?

Followed later by seeing a film about this guy, which changed everything:









If only the second guy had had that smoking guitar thing going on it might have saved me a few years (Hey, I was 8, gimme a break


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## Robert1950 (Jan 21, 2006)




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## PaulS (Feb 27, 2006)

My dad bought me a guitar when I was 12. it was cool for a day then it sat in the corner for a year. My friend at the time got a guitar the following year and we decided we were both going to learn. Bought a Mel Bays Chord book and we were off... He quit a month later but by then I had a few of my chords down and was determined to carry on. Then came the Beatles. I was hooked....


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## Tarl (Feb 4, 2006)

Got a cheap acoustic guitar for Xmas in 1969. My Mother's cousin taught, so I got cheap lessons for a couple of years. In 71 started a band in Grade 8 called National Muscle..........we played one school dance.....been doing it ever since.


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## fraser (Feb 24, 2007)

my buddy got some records- the first few sabbath and zeppelin ones, from an older cousin. i got the same records from my older cousins, but with some deep purple. i was about 10 yrs old, and i took my little brothers kay guitar and started learning stuff. i just really loved the tunes, and wanted somehow to be involved. my schoolwork began to suffer...............


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## shoretyus (Jan 6, 2007)

fraser said:


> i took my little brothers kay guitar and started learning stuff. i just really loved the tunes, and wanted somehow to be involved. my schoolwork began to suffer...............


Damn Kay guitars. They ruined my life too. Started with my sister's Kay. I lived on a one block street in the 'Shwa. It was kind of cool.We had a whole band on the street. The drummer's dad built a drum platform in their garage. The lead guitarist lived at the other end of the street. I was the lead singer but no guitar at that point. That was soon to follow. The gang that I hung with where starting to get influenced by the Dead and that whole Parsons, New Ryders, country bluegrass thing. That led to jamming bluegrass parties down by the Oshawa creek bonfires and everything.


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## al3d (Oct 3, 2007)

Yep...when i first saw Ace Frehley i was around 12 i think. after that my life was all about rock'n Roll. then bought the first maiden album and that was it....i was OFFICIALY HOOKED. i changed school at that time and met a bunch of guys who had started a few years back playing music, Sabbath, Kiss, maiden, Priest etc etc, early 80's metal stuff. First time i went to see them practive there was a TONE of babes there..that was it...PLaying music was Cool..AND it got your babes, so the week after that got my first Strat copy and a small traynor amp. Then addiction came, started to get more and more into gear and what's hot and what's not. need i say the traynor did'nt last long before i got my first Marshall Combo..


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## Kenmac (Jan 24, 2007)

Well, like Robert1950 and PaulS I was very influenced by the Fab Four as well. I was a little more than three and a half years old when they made their legendary first appearance on the Ed Sullivan show but I still remember it like it was yesterday. Both of my older sisters were freaking out over these four guys playing music on T.V., but the bug didn't really hit me until I was around 13 or so. More on that in a bit.

My first instrument was actually harmonica when I was eleven because my Dad played that and he taught me how to play. Then when I was out with my mom one day when I was 13 we were passing a music store that used to be in our area and I told her I'd like to take guitar lessons. We went inside and she told the guy behind the counter I'd like to take lessons so he led me to one of the guitars and told me to hold it, so I did but at that time I hadn't really had a "growth spurt" so my hands were a little on the small side and he even told my mom that he was sorry but my hands were too small for the guitar.

Needless to say I was pretty upset with that but four years later I finally did start taking lessons from a guy in our apartment building for a year and he loaned me a crappy acoustic to learn on. You know, one of those types where you don't want to hold down an "F" chord. :smile: After that year I went on my own and my first "real" guitar was also like Frasers and shoretyus', a crappy Kay electric.


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## shoretyus (Jan 6, 2007)

Kenmac said:


> my first "real" guitar was also like Frasers and shoretyus', a crappy Kay electric.


No my first was a crappy Kay acoustic. My first electric was my Tele.


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## nitehawk55 (Sep 19, 2007)

I was living in Soest Germany at the time I started guitar. I was around 12 and there were a few guys who played at the teen hut in the PMQ's . A fellow that lived in the appt. above me was selling a Hofner electric for 100 DM ( about $25 at that time ) and I managed to talk mom and dad into helping me buy it ( I had some money saved up ) . One of the local fellows gave me some lessons and I was on my way to becoming a famous guitarist sdsre , well not quite but i've had a lot of fun .
It was around 1967 there were a ton of great guitar/music influences at that time :smile:


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## Supro (Dec 17, 2007)

I recieved a Ukulele type guitar with 4 strings when I was about 8 for christmas from my grandmother....I played that using one string at a time for maybe till I was 14-15!
I had no notion of chords, I would zing on one string trying to follow the melody or singers at the time. What saved me was that I have a good ear, at 10 years old I took sax lessons and piano later on, but I always came back to that small 4 string!
Talking about Ace, my favorite song to play along was " I was made for loving you"!!
Imagine, on nylon strings, I actually developed my bending and vibrato on that!
My first real guitar believe it or not was at the age of 20 when I landed in Montreal from a small town and found my beloved strat in a pawn shop. At the time, I had no money, borrowed all I could, payed 700 dollars for it ( a steal), ate very bad for 2 months because of no money.....would do the same thing again.
So I have not been really playing since a young age and have grown exponentially in the last years.
I still have thay small guitar, although I just keep it for memories.


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## fraser (Feb 24, 2007)

shoretyus said:


> No my first was a crappy Kay acoustic. My first electric was my Tele.


my first electric was a 335 copy- cheaper n hell, sounded awful. was called a 'winston'. got it for 5$ at a garage sale-i painted it with baby blue swimming pool paint lol. after a couple years i got an el degas 335 copy, gave the kay and winston to a guitarless friend.


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## Kenmac (Jan 24, 2007)

But in your original post you didn't mention whether it was acoustic or electric. :smile: Mine was electric.



shoretyus said:


> No my first was a crappy Kay acoustic. My first electric was my Tele.


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## Gilliangirl (Feb 26, 2006)

My story's a two-parter. When I was 11 or 12 I used to babysit the kids across the street. The oldest one got a little guitar and a Mel Bay book for Christmas and when the kids went to bed, I picked it up and tried to play it. I kept myself amused for HOURS! I was still playing when Freda (their mom) came home. About 2 weeks later, Stephanie (the owner of the guitar) came over and said 'here, you play it 'cause I never really liked it anyway'. Freda had sent her over. So I played Skip To My Lou, Happy Birthday, and Edelweiss every day after school for weeks until my mom made me give it back. That was it for awhile.

When I was 16 my new best friend Nancy invited me over to her house one day after school and she picked up her Fender guitar and played For Baby For Bobby (John Denver) for me. I was so amazed that she could just make music out of nothing like that! I remembered how much joy I had got out of sitting in my room at age 12 playing that little toy guitar. I eventually got kicked out of the house and moved in with Nancy a few months later. We had alternate days off so when she was at work, I played her guitar (with her permission of course). I'd sit and play along with John Denver and Eric Clapton - 461 Ocean Boulevard. I quit school, got a job at Dog 'n Suds, saved my money and bought an $85.00 Mansfield, all before the age of 17.


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## Lester B. Flat (Feb 21, 2006)

When the Beatles hit in '64 I wanted to be Ringo. I got a toy drum kit for Christmas that year. The first I remember playing a guitar was for my grade 5 class, I remember playing 'Revele' on a cheap acoustic that belonged to my brother, but I still didn't really have the bug yet. In grade 7 I had joined the school band and was assigned a cornet to play but I was more interested in learning to play 'Winchester Cathedral' than anything the school band was doing.

After a few months of that I started asking my brother if I could play his new electric guitar which he had lost interest in. It wasn't long before I ditched the cornet and the school band and I was hooked on the guitar. The next year, at age fourteen in grade 8, I was gigging in a band. That was 40 years ago this fall. Time flies when you're havin' fun!


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## zontar (Oct 25, 2007)

darreneedens said:


> So anyways, my birthday comes along and my parents got me a "toy" guitar... it had 6 strings but it was basically made of cardboard.... and I FREAKED!


All right--another toy guitar!
Well mine was plastic--but like I said--6 strings.

I freaked--but in a good way.
I freaked even more--in a good way again-- when I got my classical as a gift years later.

And Gilliangirl--Dog N Suds--wow--that goes way back...
My parents used to take us there all the time.


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## Spikezone (Feb 2, 2006)

My Mom sings and plays organ, piano, and a bit of violin. My Dad, although he never had any training or played an instrument, is also VERY MUSICAL. I remember one day walking in and hearing him going up and down my Mom's piano keyboard playing major chords all the way up and back again. I was BLOWN AWAY! They always wanted us kids to play music (a notion I passed on to my three daughters). When peer pressure from playing the 'sissy' piano got to me, my Mom let me quit as long as I took up another instrument. We went to visit my cousins in Alberta one Christmas, and I discovered "Hello I Love You" by the Doors (not even really a guitar song), but I plugged in my cousin's electric Hagstrom (don't even know if it was in tune, and I sure didn't figure out any notes!), and played the s&!# out of that 45, over and over, bangin' away on the guitar and driving everyone out of the house. I WAS HOOKED! My parents were very supportive of me, and my brother, who took up the drums, and drove our band anywhere we had a gig within a 200 mile radius. They are THE BEST! Our first guitar/drum teacher was a guy named Don Groom, who claimed to have been the session drummer on "Eight Days A Week". I have no way of substantiating that, but I searched out his name on the net, and it turns out a guy named Don Groom played in a semi-famous band called The Outlaws in England in the early sixties (not long before I was taught by this guy), a recording band which included a guitarist who ended up living here in Port Alberni and was replaced by Ritchie Blackmore (!). The fact that Don was in this band lends some weight to his claim. My brother and I did our first public performance with a friend doing an instrumental 3-piece version of "Lady Madonna" (introduced by our school Principal at the Fun Fair as "Lady Godiva"-we were so pissed at him!). Now the legacy goes on, and I have one daughter who wants to be a professional musician, and the other two have taken their turns playing in school bands and such, so I am really proud of them and feel blessed to be able to pass on something as important as a love of music.
-Mikey


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## Spikezone (Feb 2, 2006)

P.S. I'm lovin' this thread! Great stories!
-Mikey


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## devnulljp (Mar 18, 2008)

Supro said:


> Talking about Ace, my favorite song to play along was " I was made for loving you"!!
> Imagine, on nylon strings, I actually developed my bending and vibrato on that!


Me too. Played classical for years (still do, just not as much), so I have this pretty wacky hybrid blues & classical finger vibrato, and can bend quite far too. 
Hell, I was trying to play Diamond Head riffs on my POS classical when I was a teenager.


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## marshallman (Feb 3, 2006)

I bought an electric guitar pack at Moncton Music Center when I was 13 with my paper route money. Never really got into it, cuz all I wanted to do was hang out with my friends, so I sold it.

7 years ago, my daughter was born, and I found myself at home alot strangely.:smile:

So I said, what the heck, I'll give it another shot...

Well today, I can't go to bed at night without having touched one of my guitars. So basicaly, I thank my daughter for discovering my passion.


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