What made you play guitar?

  • What made me play guitar? Well... I will answer very simply and directly, this is sad but true :


    My father commited suicide when I was 7 years old and he left me his guitar , that's the only souvenir I got from him. So I started to play on that guitar at 7 years old...

    Dude, that's awful but what a great way to stay connected to him. Sorry to hear that.

  • Sorry to hear that Gforce :(


    For me it was this guy:


    And this guy:


    I still feel thankful for the inspiration they were, when I was starting out.

    Kemper PowerRack |Kemper Stage| Rivera 4x12 V30 cab | Yamaha DXR10 pair | UA Apollo Twin Duo | Adam A7X | Cubase DAW
    Fender Telecaster 62 re-issue chambered mahogany | Kramer! (1988 or so...) | Gibson Les Paul R7 | Fender Stratocaster HBS-1 Classic Relic Custom Shop | LTD EC-1000 Evertune | 1988 Desert Yellow JEM

  • Or was it the hope that being ace on guitar would get you closer to leather-clad boobies? (Or cod pieces for the lady-kemper players out there).

    What ever the reason was, this is now the present reason :thumbup:


    Ash

    Have a beer and don't sneer. -CJ. Two non powered Kempers -Two mission stereo FRFR Cabs - Ditto X4 -TC electronic Mimiq.

  • For me, it was my uncle... he played in a bluegrass band mostly, but also rock bands & I literally grew up watching him play. He was (is) amazing onstage, knows how to work the room and get them on his side while playing. One rainy morning he showed up after driving all night home a tour - he was living with us at the time while his divorce went through. Me & my brother some other kids were playing monopoly listening to Hendrix. He walks in, puts his case down, opens it up & pulls out a les paul custom and plays along with Jimi for a minute, says, he's gonna go to bed...


    Me & my brother beelined it for that guitar. Of course he comes out 3 minutes later to see us both trying to play. A few weeks later, he brought over a hagstrom II for us to argue over, ensuring we would BOTH want to play. Made us share it for a year before giving us an old Gretsch he had laying around. I had to play him the guitar solo from Louie Louie (figured out by myself) to convince him. Even then, the condition was that any time we watched TV, we HAD to have a guitar on our lap. My mom (a freakin' saint for dealing with this) would even reinforce this. "Homework done? OK get your guitars & you can watch TV."


    A few years later, for my 16th birthday, his present to me was teaching the Sultans of Swing solos. My brother's 16th birthday was Maiden's the Trooper.


    So yeah, Page, Clapton, Hendrix, Blackmore ... and my uncle Vinnie.

  • Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton (Cream era) and Pete Townshend. My dad brought back these reel to reel tapes of their albums from Germany (where he was stationed in the Army in 1969) and played them all the time. I remember just sitting in front of the old Pioneer wooden cabinet speakers (which I still have today) watching the old Scotch tape reels go around and being absorbed with all this wonderful music.

    Rockin' The D!

  • Born in Texas by 1963 I was 6 yrs. old and had heard Buddy Holly, Elvis, Chuck Berry, Little Richard.
    The Beatles would arrive a year later. My 17 yr. old brother had discovered Pirate radio out of Mexico and those guys played the stuff no parent would ever want kid to ever hear. He played me Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, Little Walter. Seems like these cats sang about more adult situations than Elvis. I learned that if you can play guitar, bass, drums or harmonica people get real happy.
    When he played me this Son House song it absolutely fucked me up and still does.
    It was the rawest deepest place of loss that a man could express in the most powerful way.
    I knew I was the only 6 yr. old who knew what a broken man really was.
    I had to be a musician that day.

    External Content www.youtube.com
    Content embedded from external sources will not be displayed without your consent.
    Through the activation of external content, you agree that personal data may be transferred to third party platforms. We have provided more information on this in our privacy policy.
    :thumbup:

  • I really could've used an Uncle Vinnie, man.


    You and your brother are so lucky!

  • Dude, that's awful but what a great way to stay connected to him. Sorry to hear that.

    Well I hesitate a long time before answering that question but as I saw it on the top of the Forum for days , I just thought ''ok lets say the truth about it'' but usually I never talk about , it's the first time I talk about it since 25 years. Of course I cannot elaborate more than that, it's too deep inside you know.. (Lennon wrote a song that said: ''My mummy's dead its hard to explain so much pain, I could never show it'') Thats exactly how I feel about my dad. But I thank you all for the support and kind words you said, it helped me a lot. It is very interesting to hear the different stories how we started to play guitar , so this thread might be on top of the Forum for a long time still. Have a nice day everyone and thanks again GFORCE

  • I played acoustic early, but then I saw the scene in Back to The Future where Michael J Fox sits in and plays Johnny B Goode at prom night! Everything about that scene was so awesome for my 14 year old self, the little tapping lick and him going nuts and kicking the amp at the end, ha!... I just had to be able to do that.


    As far as career goes, during high school I told myself (or was told) that it wasn't a real job so I went on to engineering school but was still spending almost all my time practicing and studying theory, I had 2 teachers simultaneously and was into it 24/7. My marks suffered a little and I realized I was loosing my soul doing science so I decided just for fun to try and switch faculty and do the audition for music school. I didn't have the proper background but I killed the audition surprisingly (for which I had memorized a crazy chord etude in between my calculus exams.) The 20 minute audition felt a bit spiritual in a way I can't explain but that was when things "got real" I guess. Went on to undergrad/masters 7 years and still playing professionally some 10 years later.

  • I started on a Tennisracket! so made my own guitars with fishingline.. when i was 11 i got an acoustic guitar and took a few lessons, but i played by ear, and learned more on my boyroom! I got a Kasette from my Uncle with the shadows, and when i got an Hondo electric i started to play along!
    my inspiration is from Hank Marwin, Mark Knopfler, Chet Atcins and a few Guitarists from Norway

  • I was 12 and my uncle show me his music room. Played some Rock Vinyls. Great. Showed me his electric guitar. Fantastic. Hit a E5 chord with lots of distortion. OMG! I WANNA DO THAT TOO. Gave my parents a catalog of a german music store in Pfortzheim and adviced them to buy me a bundle: Marathon Strat, Marshall 2 Watts, Cable, Shirt, Book.
    That´s it!

  • I played acoustic early, but then I saw the scene in Back to The Future where Michael J Fox sits in and plays Johnny B Goode at prom night! Everything about that scene was so awesome for my 14 year old self, the little tapping lick and him going nuts and kicking the amp at the end, ha!... I just had to be able to do that.

    Hehe Jed - great stuff.


    I was at my mum and dads a few nights ago - and I arrived to see them watching BTTF - just at that point the house band needed a stand in guitarist! The best line in that film is the 'guess you guys aint ready for this'....which has been my stock and well-used phrase every time I've had a crappy response from an audience :) Hehe - really made me smile reading what you wrote!

    PRS Custom 22's - Fender Strats - Diezel VH4 - Carol Ann OD2 - Toneking Imperial MK2 - Colin the Kemper - CLR Neo ii.

  • I grew up in the 70's when there was crazy good Southern Rock bands making a ton of music. Lynyrd Skynyrd, the Outlaws, Molly Hatchet, the Allman Brothers. The sound of a power chord still gives me shivers today. 12 years with my current band and loving every minute of it.

  • I'm still on a tennis racket. :S

    External Content youtu.be
    Content embedded from external sources will not be displayed without your consent.
    Through the activation of external content, you agree that personal data may be transferred to third party platforms. We have provided more information on this in our privacy policy.