How did you first get into the guitar hobby/career?

[AtheistIan]

So, I wanted to see how you first found out you loved the guitar. I remember when I first started playing, I wanted a guitar so I could play 1 song, How Great Is Our God by Chris Tomlin, back when I was a christian. Joy and pride from succeeding in playing that song resulted in me wanting to try other songs on the guitar, and since then, I found out that I love the guitar more than I did the piano, and I used to play the keyboard/piano a lot. Now, I'm more skilled at the guitar than I am the keyboard and I actually plan on pursuing a career in guitar playing, maybe even become a country singer, even if I don't become famous. So, how did you decide you wanted to play the guitar?

[baimo]

I saw the Beatles on Ed Sullivan. Was 8 years old. Bugged my parents enough. Went to Manny's in NY and my parents bought me a Fender Mustang. And things evolved.

[flaggerphil]

I first became interested in the guitar when, as a child, I heard Chet Atkins play. Then came the Beatles. I was 14 when I got my first guitar back in 1964.

Oh...and for the chicks.

[devellis]

I think mine is a pretty common story. My buddies and I heard all this stuff on the radio that we thought would be cool to play. Eventually, one of us (can't remember who was first) got a guitar. We all gave it a try and, shortly thereafter, we all had guitars. I don't think it was any one song so much as it was the idea of being a "guitar player" that attracted us. I remember three of us trying to play a Beach Boys song by taking turns on the successive chords; so one of us played the first, fourth, seventh, tenth, etc. chord in the song; another played the second, fifth, eighth, etc. chord; and the last of us played the third, sixth, ninth, etc. chord. So, the chords were played, in order by Herb, Bob, Tom, Herb, Bob, Tom, etc. Needless to say, it was pretty chaotic and unmusical but a lot of fun nonetheless. I'm pretty sure each of us continued to play at least for several years and one guy got pretty good. It would be fun to "get the band back together" and see if there's anything we could play together, all these years (like about 45) later.

[6L6]

I was 11 when Elvis appeared on Ed Sullivan. That did it for me!

[ifret]

Was 9......loved John Denver, then a friend brought his guitar to school. That was it, had to learn.

[Gypsyblue]

Blame it on the Beatles.

I loved Elvis too, but I was a little too young to do anything about it.

[Bikewer]

I had little interest in music as a kid.....Rather unmusical family. Didn't even own a record player (1950s....)
My only exposure was TV and radio.
Had no thought of picking up an instrument till I was an adult. When I got out of the army in 1967, I fell in with a crowd of ex folkies from St. Louis' "Gaslight Square" era. Most everyone I knew, including my wife-to-be, played guitar.
I started to pay attention to all the great folk musicians of that era, and started to get the itch.
My wife had left "her" guitar with her ex, so we got her a cheap little classical and I started to fool with that using a "how to play guitar" book from the library.
Started to make good progress and bought my own, a little Yamaha steel-string.

I was about 25-26 at the time. I played the Yammie for a couple of years and we got a big income tax refund one year......Treated ourselves to a pair of Martins, a D-18 for me and a little 000 classical for her. That would have been 78-79....In there.

[roylor4]

I was born in the early 60's and I always loved music as a kid - almost every kind.

20+ years ago I got invited to sing at practice with a start-up blues band. We stayed together for about 2 years and i became proficient on the harmonica. I tried guitar, but it wouldn't take.

My wife took up banjo about 4 & 1/2 years ago. Shortly thereafter I picked the guitar "back" up (I had never been able to play more than a chord or two). 3.5+ years in and we gig out on a regular basis. My wife was and is my motive to play as good a possible.

[AtheistIan]

Originally Posted by frets4fun

Was 9......loved John Denver, then a friend brought his guitar to school. That was it, had to learn.

Oh my god! I love John Denver! I have been learning Take Me Home Country Roads, Back Home Again, Rocky Mountain High and Sunshine on my Shoulders. Good songs.

[Steve DeRosa]

Always had some kind of guitar on hand from the time I got a Mickey Mouse Club uke (the one with the crank-operated music box inside) for my second birthday - my parents told me that I used to "jam" along with Les Paul and Mary Ford when they had their TV show in the '50s - so I drifted into it naturally when I began taking lessons in 1962. Started out as a jazzer (my teacher was a then-teenage phenom named Jack Wilkins - still active, BTW) but also picked up a lot of the pop/folk/R&R/R&B making the rounds before (and after) the British Invasion; in many respects I consider myself fortunate to have started when I did - the breadth of music available helped me develop a very eclectic approach, and I've never been comfortable being locked into any one style...

[buddyhu]

There were guitars featured in the music I was listening to as a youngster (Beatles, Stones, Byrds, Rixky Nelson on TV, etc). My cousin bought an archtop of some kind, and he didn't know how to play it hardly at all, but he let me go into his room while the adults were talking and just do what I could do. I was enchanted. Then asked for a guitar of my own. And then the ball started rolling.

[Silly Moustache]

I grew up in the '50s and '60s just west of London. My mother had a wonderful singing voice but we weren't a musical family.

My sister was 9 years older than me and was training as a dancer and Ice skater who dragged me into her room to practice her routines. She had a Dansette type record playr ad she was deeply into latin American music - Edmudo Ros, Perez Prado etc.
Wehada TV back then and these guys were often on varity shows and I determined that Iwanted to play percussion in a band like that.



In the early '60s I was a drummer in a school band and we started gigging. I never thought about the guitars ... I was a semi-pro R&B and Jazz/blues drummer.

A beautiful black heaired dark eyed beauty latched on to me, and promised me all sorts of Lasvicious delights if I woud drive her (a long way) to a folk festival (Folk ?? festival??) to see a guy called Tom Rush, maybe it was '64/65?

I did, she did,and I saw Tom Rush, surrounded by adoring hippies. It probably took another five years and the end of my druming career but that day, and Tom Rush haunted me. I wanted to do that.

Took a long time.

[aknow]

My story is similar to that of Joan Baez. Although I was very good in school and very successful in sports, yet I was very shy. My older brother noticed that I had a good singing voice, (was taking lessons so my mom would force me to sing in front of others), he acquired a nylon string from a folk duo named Chad and Jeremy. My bro was a great guitarist, worked with Robert Stigwood, Poco, John Mayall, lots of other great musicians. He started showing me some chord basics, I started taking my guitar to school and playing on the quad at lunch. Before I knew it, we formed a Beatlesque band, and the girls especially, started coming to our performances at parties, school dances etc.
In 1969, I went to the Whiskey a Go Go and saw the original Fleetwood Mac with Peter Green, Danny Kirwan, and Jeremy Spencer. The owner of a go go, Elmer Valentine knew my brother, and took me backstage to meet the band. I told Peter Green that (after the show) I thought I saw God tonight and it is you. He took an interest, held my hands and told me to buy a Gibson SG Standard, cause I had/have small hands. The next day I bought a 1964 Gibson SG and a 1965 Fender Deluxe reverb from Guitar Center in hollywood, and began communing with another Greene, Ted Greene. I was really a guitar spastic at first, but Ted was extremely patient and insightful. Later, through other introductions, I started to get occasional studio jobs in Hollywood. I still play the SG and the Deluxe Reverb has been tuned up many times, my favorite amplifier. Later I returned to school, medical and chiropractic schools, and stopped being a pro-semi-pro musician. Playing guitar has been one of God's great blessings to my life, keeps me really normal, at least sometimes.

[Dru Edwards]

It was those Iron Maiden harmony solos that Adrian Smith and Dave Murray played.