What made you play guitar?

  • Seeing KISS on the Paul Lynde Halloween Special Show on TV. That must have been back in 1976 or so.
    While my parents were trying to figure out what it was they were watching, I was hooked Starting playing shortly after that.

  • I started playing in '91 , reason was my friend played drums in a band , went to his rehearsal place , next thing wanted to play Enter Sandman and Alive ... rest is history ;)


    Raf

    Kemper stage with 2 mission pedals (in a Thon line 6 FBV case) and a Zilla 212 (K-100/V30) , SD powerstage 700 poweramp

  • Actually I wanted to learn piano and keys untill I became 10-11.But my brother.. few years older he heard blues and classic rock all the time.As I grew older and testosterone kicked in I started to love the stuff he heard..but still unsure.I still wanted to learn piano..


    And then I watched a rock festival on tv and as I turned on the tv I heard Stevie Ray Vaughan starting with the wah intro of voodoo child.That was it.Bang.No Mozart & Saga anymore for me..blues..rocknroll..

  • long time ago I was listening to Iron Maiden, Def Leppard, Rainbow and Deep Purple.. I had very plain mono cassette recorder with only 4 cassettes.. but I was not considering to buy and play any instrument.. one day I was called by my firend to visit him at his home because he wanted to show me his new guitar which some guy built for him on demand.. so I went there and he played at first some simple riffs and than... than he showed me tapping.. I was so amazed that I decided to buy the guitar.. simple as that.. no guitar heroes envolved in my decision..



    but the greates impact on me had always Ritchie Blackmore and still has.. his emotional playing and tone are unbelievable..


    ps: at the moment tapping I do not even use.. or very rarely...

  • lovely idea, this thread :thumbup:
    my initial ignition were the Beatles, Stones, Byrds... That unbelievable distorted Sound in "Satisfaction" must have done something to my brain - the virus has been placed...
    After 2 Gigs in the middle of the sixties with my very cheap Framus (used) and the tube-radio stolen from my parents (what have we done to the audience X(:wacko: ) these strange tools went into the cellar and a long break took place.
    But the virus awoke back to life in the middle of the nineties, can't even tell exactly, why - and still rages without rest :D ...
    I have a dream! One day, when time has come, to fall off of a stage being dead - :D:D:D
    as said: a very nice idea :thumbup:


    ps: how could I forget Ritchie Blackmore ?! ... :pinch:

  • Started as a Goth, so Bauhaus, Echo and Bunnymen and The Stranglers and Killing joke.


    Then I saw Mark Knophler and had the tennis racket moment which i guess really made me pick up the guitar ( tunnel of Love solo is immense).


    Was told as a guitarist I had to like blues but never really my thing, except Rory Gallagher and Stevie Ray.


    Then read an interview with Jake E Lee about Badlands. It was rock blues and he was into muscle cars and martial arts. Badlands became my band, and I then discovered Ozzy and a slow descent into Rock.


    I loved Malmsteen but couldn't get near the technique ( made me ill just watching him, but loved his phrasing), my long standing favorite is Nuno Bettencourt. Never really a big fan of Van Halen or Hendrix but totally get their influence!


    The Cult ( which I'm in a tribute to) combined my Goth roots and rock!


    The one song/first song I learned was Dark entries and quickly after Bela Legosi's Dead both by Bauhaus.

  • Lots of mentions of classic rock! I`m of the age (44) that would have planted me right in the classic rock fan pool, but I never got into it. I never was nor am I really now a fan of Zep (GASP!!! Lol, I know. I don`t dislike them, they just don`t move me much) and I didn`t get into Jimi at all until well after I graduated college. I couldn`t stand Rush until after I graduated (of course now I am quite the fan).


    Participating in this thread has shaken loose a few dusty memories. I actually recall the first song I learned note for note (it was Sanitarium by Metallica, and it was a loooong time ago. I haven`t set out to learn an entire song by someone else in a good 15+ years), but more significantly I recall the first songs I WANTED to learn. They were How Will I Laugh Tomorrow by Suicidal Tendencies and a curious indie rock offering titled "She`s My Ex" by a band call All. I heard it in a snowboarding video and that fuse was lit. I guess it just struck me how fundamentally important the guitar could be, and how in most of the music I liked it was the very engine that pushed the music. Back in that particular era my life was perhaps a little more challenging than average and music kept me out of some dark, dark places. I guess I felt like if the guitar drove the music I loved, then maybe some day I could play it and write a riff that would inspire someone else to hang on for just another day, too. It was literally the power and energy in the sound, not the sound itself.


    Mike Ness from Social Distortion (eternally on my "best ever top three" list) did an interview some years ago. The person conducting the interview said to him "you know, Mike, your music got me through some of the hardest times of my life" to which he replied "Yeah? Me too". That was a lesson that resonates with me to this day. The power of music, from both sides of the experience, is almost divine sometimes.

    Just a guy who plays a little bit of guitar.

  • The front cover of a Status Quo ‘greatest hits pye era’ album with Rossi and Parfitt,teles knackered jeans and sneakers ....and then hearing Dallas 1pm by Saxon .....SOLD ....school and exams out the window .....38 years later I teach guitar one day a week at the same school haha ..

  • As a pre-teen in 1977 it was the rock group KISS. Costumes, lights, smoke and fire. Yup, I wanted to do that. Into my teens, seeing that girls like musicians; I was hooked for life, lol.


    Still remember using pyro in some of our shows in the late 80’s and setting a stage on fire. Ahhh, the good ole days. Ha ha

  • 1. Just a fascination with music. I never was star struck by any band or players making me want to do anything. Listening and appreciating vs doing something myself were two different things to me. I played guitar before I even had a radio or stereo, so no 'guitar heros' or 'band worship' or anything like that.


    2. Did fine in sports early on, decided sports was boring, had nothing further to do with it. To this day, don't watch or follow any of it or care. Not sure what 'spotty' means.


    3. Never had a problem with women. I'm not ugly, nor am I shy or boring, or anything else that a guitar may help some with. I delve into art in various ways including music, so it all goes together for me.


    Inspiration comes from everything. Music is just another language to express various moments of feelings or thought. I prefer a blank canvas rather than build on someone else's sketch of ideas.

  • To be honest, I saw that the guy playing guitar at night by the fire got all the girls.
    So the reason I started playing guitar was pussy.


    But soon I discovered the power of music and what it can do to you when it works.