Enough about guitars, what Music do you play?

[ikravchik]

I find it disproportional how much people talk about the technical aspects of guitars here: woods, brands, shapes, bracing etc, and how little discussion goes on about the actual music that guitars produce.

So I want to ask:

What music do you play?

How many years have you been playing for?

Me:

I play blues, Arabic and Celtic music.

I've been playing for 16 years.

[Scotch]

Think you get to a certain point in guitar playing where it changes from technicallity to about the music.

I play Folk, country and traditional. Where I may tend to sing along with.

But tend to see myself as a guitarist first so play alot of contempary alter tunining pieces but 9/10 times I'm just experiment with sounds.

I will have been playing for 6 years this christmas.

[MBE]

I've been playing for 18 years. Classical, 6- and 12-strings fingerstyle folk/contemporary, variously styles of rock, funk, and blues-rock are my mainstays.

[icuker]

I've been playing for over 40 years. Hard to believe actually. I like to play the old jazz and pop standards as of late. I guess it's a sign of my age, liking that old music. What I like about it is that chordally it keeps moving.

I've also never been able to read music so I've begun to work through Wm Leavitt's book and the Mel Bay series. That helps when I need to figure out how some of these old tunes go from the written sheet music. Not all of them are on Youtube to listen to.

I guess the bottom line is that I like the guitar sounds of the 20's through 50's the best. That smooth sound.

[BluesyRob]

Mainly blues, rags, fingerstyle.

I've been playing guitar for about 15 years.

I've been a musician for 26 years (bass since age 14)

[jpbat]

I play my own little style of music.
Sort of french swing fingerstyle guitar.
I began 8 years ago.

[TOCS]

Around 2008/2009 I started a duo with a school mate with me playing drums and him playing guitar. I had no experience at all with musical instruments. We mainly played rock, metal and occasionally some jazz, funk, blues etc.

In the middle of 2009 I started teaching myself guitar picking up a cheap classical guitar and later that year at Christmas, a cheap electric guitar. From 2009 - 2011/2012 I mainly played metal, especially the more extreme stuff like death metal and thrash metal.

What really made me switch almost exclusively to acoustic guitar was when I heard Clarence by Isato Nakagawa. That happened in 2011 and that same year I got a low-end Ashland by Crafter acoustic guitar (which I don't own any more) and I started digging fingerstyle techniques quite a lot.

Prior to this I did try to play stuff by guys like Andy McKee and Antoine Dufour on my classical guitar but I found it really hard and realised I lacked the skill to do their music justice, so I went mostly electric even though I still listened to a lot of acoustic music too.

Fast-forward to now, I now own a proper acoustic guitar. Right now I'm trying to develop my sound by experimenting with different sounds, genres and techniques. I listen a lot to Michael Hedges, Steve Reich, various jazz legends like Miles Davis, John Coltrane etc. I really like the textures of contemporary music.

I've to give due credit to the thing that really made me start playing guitar though, and that is the video game Guitar Hero. After completing all the songs in that game on the hardest difficulty it really made me switch to real guitar.

[GibbyPrague]

Checkout my signature ...

[inadu ridge]

Classic Rock, Oldies, Folk
Been playing for 40 years.

These days I play acoustic versions of classic rock songs. I first picked up a guitar while Kennedy was president.

[HHP]

I adapt Tibetan Monastic chants to six string guitar.

[grim83]

Originally Posted by HHP

I adapt Tibetan Monastic chants to six string guitar.

Where is the like button on this stupid thing.

Me myself and I play mostly blues, country, and traditional American folk songs. On the electric it's blues/bluesrock/rock and a little country every now and then.

[Silly Moustache]

Interesting question - it will be an interesting read to see what others are doing.
It might also be of interest for responses to include a little background - such as age and

Here's my input:

I'm 66, and was a drummer from about age 11, until about 1970-71, playing in R&B, Blues, soul and heavy rock bands.

In 1969 (ish) a girlfriend asked me to take her to a festival to see a guy called Tom Rush. His simple but effective performance determined me to take up guitar and to sing.

His records introduced me to other singer-songwriters like James Taylor, Joni Mitchell and their records widened my knowledge.

I already had a working knowledge (thanks to the guys in the Rolling Stones who I'd met frequently and who "educated" me and others as to great names in the blues fierld0 and so my repertoire as I learnt was country blues and American contemporary folk.
Later I discovered bluegrass and became a dobro, mandolin and guitar player in bluegrass bands from about 1975 on.

In 1983 i contracted an illness which affected my joints making any sort of playing impossible - for ten years.

In 1993, I started again but had become interested in Texas style contemporary folk - Guy Clark, TVZ, Robert Keene, Lyle Lovett, Steve Earle etc.

I started gigging solo, then as a duo with a bass player then as a trio with a Dobro and mando player. That band was called Panhandle Conspiracy and our material was strongly influenced by Texas singer-songwriter styles.

Today Panhandle Conspiracy still exists although we don't meet regularly and gig only a few times a year.

I also run an acoustic Music Club and have a "house trio" called "Andrew Perry and Good Company" comprising - me on lead vocals and guitars, and Mr bob on mandolin and National guitar, and Mad-Dog on double bass. We occasionally gig in other clubs, small local festivals etc.

I also have a bluegrass band called "The Druthers Brothers" which seems to be mostly rehearsing and playing out very little, but we hope to be gigging a lot more in 2015 as our newest member tends to be a three four gigs a week kinda guy with lots of contacts.

So my music ?

Acoustic blues/Hokum
Old-time hokum mountain music
Contemporary American style singer-songwriter
Bluegrass
"New" Old-time

and some original material, and some "American songbook" (just for fun)

[Chemo]

I play all sorts of instrumental fingerpicking, and I try to find all travis picking/alternating picking material available. I do play other instrumental fingerstyle as well, celtic etc.

I started with guitar 30 years ago, after several years of piano training. Most of the time I've played with different rock groups, and got obsessed with instrumental acoustic stuff only 4 years ago or so.

With rock bands I play modern instrumental surf and Ramones-influenced punk. Last year I made a solo album combining those styles, here's the new Fb page for that: https://www.facebook.com/kimmokalajafriends

[hovishead]

I tonerite.