What was your pivotal moment? When you decided for sure it would be guitar?

tinnitus · #1 09-13-2022, 09:49 PM

Maybe you didn't play any other instruments yet when you decided you would play guitar. Or perhaps those flute and tuba lessons weren't enhancing your dating situation the way you hoped they might. Was it a record you heard? Something you saw on Ed Sullivan or Hootenanny? The theme song to a spy flick?

Most of us are here (probably) because at some point we decided that guitar would be the thing (or at least one of our things).

I'd already had lessons on piano and French horn. But the lame fare my teachers gave me to learn was wholly insipid to my young mind. So, I got a ukulele and played by ear along with what I heard on the radio - only stuff that interested me. Got a paper route to finance new toys (model cars, a mini-bike, bass guitar, tube PA amp and a speaker box loaded with two 15" Jensens). Taught myself to play bass and figured that would be my gig forever.

Then I heard Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels and realized it would be guitar for sure. What a riff! 55 years and 8-10 cover bands later, it's still the guitar.

What was your moment?

Chipotle · #2 09-13-2022, 09:55 PM

I don't know if it was a particular moment, but when I was six my parents had me take piano lessons. I hated it. After a few months, I promised them that if they let me switch to guitar, I really really really *would* practice! I kept my word.

Mandobart · #3 09-13-2022, 10:11 PM

Guitar isn't the thing for me. Its a thing. I have always loved making music - whether it's violin, viola, mandolin, banjolin, mandola, octave mandolin, mandocello, bass or guitar.

Playing music, alone or with others, is one of life's joys to me, along with cycling, hiking, skiing, paddling, camping...

I don't see myself just doing one thing or playing just one instrument or just one genre.

I started purposely making music when I was 10. I don't remember when I decided to stick with it - I guess I make that same decision every day when I get up.

ewalling · #4 09-14-2022, 05:50 AM

Hearing this meant that after years of playing bits of this and that, I now knew what I wanted to do - or at least aspire to - on an acoustic guitar.

imwjl · #5 09-14-2022, 05:50 AM

When I was a freshman in college in the 1970s a few people on the dorm floor had guitars while I had a trumpet. The guy across the hall from my room showed me a few simple open chords and E shape barre chords.

Next step was getting a guitar. Too bad I fell for the theoretically superior Ovation vs "not what they used to be" D-18 I considered.

Decades later I'm still a chronically mediocre at anything music and a hobbyist but thoroughly enjoy my fooling with it. Some years I play enough to join some jams. Some years barely enough to keep tough finger tips. It's always great pleasure.

When I joined here I went through GAS, buying, selling, fooling with setups, file nuts and bridge work etc...., but ended all that when I fell for a beautiful Santa Cruz guitar. For 13 years now I'm totally satisfied with that one fantastic and versatile guitar.

Slothead56 · #6 09-14-2022, 06:05 AM

I’d always been a singer and sang in choirs and ensembles in high school. In the early 70’s I was part of a group that did mostly gospel music that included two guys on a 12 and 6 string. (I was also in love with one of the girls in the group, something that would spill over to college for the next few years.)

My folks bought a $55 Harmony Classic (with case) for a graduation present and that was pretty much it. The obsession took over and for the next 4 or 5 years I was rarely without a guitar in my hands.

Playing guitar enabled me to sing by myself. I started doing clubs and dorms on campus and kind of became “that guy”. A small but loyal following.

At the root of it though, it was pretty much about the girl…

Nymuso · #7 09-14-2022, 06:22 AM

When, in the early 60s, it occurred to me that pianos were not portable. Guitars were not only portable, they were relatively inexpensive and when they were out of tune you could tune them yourself. Sold.

J Patrick · #8 09-14-2022, 06:25 AM

…it was the moment that I busted through the head on the snare drum my folks bought me for Xmas in 1964….I played that thing constantly and about six months later I wore out the head…rather than replace the head they opted to put a guitar in my hands….

ifret · #9 09-14-2022, 06:31 AM

1973, in grade school, I was 9, a friend of my brother (two years older) brought his guitar to school and played. I went home and asked mom and dad if I could learn guitar. I then got into flute and saxophone (band, which I loved) and many other string and wind instruments. That friend ended up becoming a professional musician! My closest claim to fame was 15 years in the church guitar group (the friend also played with the group). I decided my day job would be a better living for me (CPA).

Gee Man · #10 09-14-2022, 06:50 AM

As a young kid I tried and failed at piano, violin and trumpet, in that order. I was going to give up entirely on playing an instrument, but my church organist mother insist I try one more, bless her soul. Being an up and coming juvenile delinquent at the ripe old age of 13, I chose drums. Well, I'll be darned if I didn't find out I had natural rhythm. I still play drums, but it became really tough through the college years where I was moving every 6 months to tote a drum set around. I also love singing. So, at some point I got a cheap Yamaha acoustic, a friend showed me how to read chord charts, a few song books with songs I knew, and I was on my way. That was close to 40 years ago now, and I still play acoustic guitar most days of the week. Less so, electric guitar, bass guitar and drums, but they all get played.

mr. beaumont · #11 09-14-2022, 06:55 AM

I had no real interest in playing an instrument until I was 12, and my best friend bought a drumset at a garage sale and announced at school he was starting a band.

Not wanting to be left out, and knowing my dad had an old acoustic stashed in a closet which he never played, I said "I have a guitar" and that was it.

That night my dad showed me a few chords, and I was hooked instantly. I pretty much knew right then and there I was going to play for the rest of my life.

CityPickn · #12 09-14-2022, 07:15 AM

I actually have a story for this. Bear in mind it's not the most pleasant.

So during covid I went to my uncle's to try and score some dope. His place was torn apart (drug binge rampage) and on the couch were 3 electric guitars. All had the pickups smashed with a screwdriver (there may have been a police bug planted in them....). I played around with one for a bit and it was kinda fun. Then I borrowed an acoustic from the library and looked up chords on Google. Then, since I liked it I bought a Martin. I have been playing every day since. That was the last time I ever saw or spoke to my uncle alive. He died 2 months later.

ozzman · #13 09-14-2022, 07:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CityPickn

I actually have a story for this. Bear in mind it's not the most pleasant.

So during covid I went to my uncle's to try and score some dope. His place was torn apart (drug binge rampage) and on the couch were 3 electric guitars. All had the pickups smashed with a screwdriver (there may have been a police bug planted in them....). I played around with one for a bit and it was kinda fun. Then I borrowed an acoustic from the library and looked up chords on Google. Then, since I liked it I bought a Martin. I have been playing every day since. That was the last time I ever saw or spoke to my uncle alive. He died 2 months later.

wow,that's a very different story. just play your guitar man. anyway I remember when a t.v. show came on called Secret Agent Man. opening theme was by Johnny Rivers. blew my 7 year old mind.I had watch it every time,but after the song I turned it back to cartoons or andy Griffith

Bob Womack · #14 09-14-2022, 07:45 AM

Moment? Moment?

I'm a slow mover, apparently. It crept up on me through the '60s when music became such a strong force in society. I finally got my parents to give me a guitar for Christmas 1970. Within a couple of weeks my best friend and I formed a band and played our first gig about eight months later. We were terrible, but got paid.

Bob

islandguitar · #15 09-14-2022, 08:03 AM

Yes, for me, it was actually " a moment"!

Freshman year in college......a dimly lit lounge.....couples spread throughout the large space in small corners in near darkness, talking and visiting on a Saturday night.
Throughout the evening there was a beautiful "record" of acoustic guitar music playing in the background from somewhere across the room....delightful, I thought.

At some point, perhaps a door or something opened and shed light across the room....to my amazement, the light shone off the soundboard of a guitar....... someone around the corner IN THE ROOM was actually playing guitar! I was shocked in a profound way....HAD to learn "how to do that" and immediately moved on this and got lots of help from classmates in the following months. It's been a part of me ever since!