Author Topic: How did you start learning guitar ? (Read 5440 times)

Gott · « **on:** August 14, 2009, 05:44:11 AM »

How did you guys first start learning guitar ?

I started with guitar lessons at the music school downtown . The instructor was nice but he pissed me off , kept answering his cell phone non stop during my lessons (every lesson!) so I quit going to him after a month. After that I went to learnandmasterguita r.com and got their expanded course (20 DVDS , 5 CDs , book , bonus online stuff) . Not a bad course for beginners . Once I finished the course I started learning individual songs and learning stuff from guitartricks.com and other sites. I'm pretty decent on electric and acoustic and am starting to learn a bit more fingerstyle/classical guitar stuff . Once my learning slows I'll try and seek out an instructor again , but a different one for sure !

How bout you guys , what got you started ? What made you want to start playing ? How did you start ?

mitophin22 · « **Reply #1 on:** August 14, 2009, 09:45:58 AM »

I was going through some hard times at the time, and one day as I was cleaning out my garage, I saw a one stringed acoustic guitar with a GN'R sticker. Honestly. It was like my calling.

I played a lot with that one string and bought strings soon after

I am self taught

Sucks to say but that guitar is no longer here. I smashed the fuck out of it. :'(

Rip GN'R guitar

Bluelion · « **Reply #2 on:** August 14, 2009, 10:41:37 PM »

Listening to GNR, and then other bands afterwards, is what made me want to play guitar so I could do what they did. I go to a guitar teacher at the local guitar shop, I think it's more helpful than just watching DVD's etc, cause he can show me specifically what and how I can improve.

Axl_Duff_87 · « **Reply #3 on:** August 14, 2009, 11:13:46 PM »

just to feel the emotion, creativity and power made me want to play bass. just to play the things my heroes did and a new way to express myself

there was nothing going on in my life at the time, needed something to replace my gf (I'm 17 so dont go worrying!) so I decided a guitar was the way forward.

Peaches · « **Reply #4 on:** August 18, 2009, 08:41:33 PM »

Well....

These Christians were staying with us in the basement, This was about 5 years ago maybe.

So then I decided to go down there and the guy had a guitar. It was a strange looking guitar, A round outward curved back to it and I strummed it. It sounded so open so plain, It almost felt like a chord. I beautiful one.

So fast forward about a year when I was in high school. They were offering guitar classes so I got a 100 dollar guitar. That guitar has MUCH sentimental value to me so I went from there. I got lessons for abotu 2 weeks but they only taught me how to read it. I didn't want to read it( Although that will be pursued later on in life) I just wanted to play it. So the guitar classes in high school gave me rivals to ensure that I keep going and get a good start at it. I was....not the best at actually reading the guitar notes and everything but I'm sure I was able to improvise better.

I always wanted to see how much better my old classmates have gotten.

axlwannabe · « **Reply #5 on:** August 19, 2009, 12:36:11 PM »

I got interested in college when my fucking boastful roomate always asked me to sing while she's playing. She can't do both things at the sametime wahaha...

The first thing I learned was "Grow old with you". with the chords A E D E, bm cm bla bla...
It was a struggle that time...My finger hurt awfully

I didn't stop from there, I had a band called "HERE COMES TROUBLE" and is still continously learning every songs of GNR and some other not cheesy artist......

INTEREST AND ENTHUSIASM won't make those fingers hurt though!

Max_Power · « **Reply #6 on:** August 20, 2009, 08:33:57 PM »

I got a drumset

Mr Fantasy · « **Reply #7 on:** August 20, 2009, 08:51:23 PM »

Well I had many influences to play Bass
But first I had an instructer who looked exactly like Robbin. No joke
I leraned the rest by myself. But now I'm kinda learning/jamming with some dude in the studio in which I work.

jamiewarnock · « **Reply #8 on:** December 07, 2009, 04:43:17 PM »

I wanted to be like Slash and Kurt

so i taught myself

pawnshop-guitars · « **Reply #9 on:** December 07, 2009, 06:00:52 PM »

I used to do classical guitar, and hated it. And sadly I didn't play again for years. Then for lulz I got out my guitar one day and tried playing something - I taught myself to read tab, and then I was off and running. It just escalated from there really; I played it for a laugh and found I totally loved it when I was allowed just to do what I wanted, and it became a freedom of expression for me. So that's why I carried on

Rampton Hospital · « **Reply #10 on:** December 07, 2009, 06:44:46 PM »

i had no intention at all to play an instrument.

When i was growing up, my father always had guitars, (he plays well). And the most i would do is walk up to them and strum my fingers across.

The reason i started was because i filled in a postcard for a competition to win a strat+marshall amp, and low and behold i won.
When the guitar was delivered, i was motivated to learn, it was like a wake up call. So i just fucked around with it everyday and taught myself.
Then i became obsessed with learning all i could and bought more and made one. I now have 9 guitars, a bass and two keyboards and i try to play each instrument as often as i can

nfan12 · « **Reply #11 on:** December 12, 2009, 06:30:10 AM »

Well, I remember watching "School Of Rock" and thinking" how hard could it be to play guitar" and I was gladly mistaken. I got my first guitar for christmas and then I started learning right away, but I started noticing that it was hard and I was "WTF! I though this was easy" so I stopped playing till about a year ago, where I started playing again, and I got a teacher, who tought me alot of what I know today, and all the knowledge that I have about guitars and Rock and roll, came from him. I respect him alot for what he did to help me! Sooner or later I had to cancel the lessons because I was starting school again and since I was in the marching band, I had events that where on the time and day that my lessons where, so I just though " I'm gonna do them next year" but I'm noticing that I'm advancing much faster by myself because I'm going at the pace I want to go at. I've learned alot of songs and I'm trying to learn how to do most solos (Cause that's the thing that fucking kills me) and how to pick fast on individual strings ( because I can't do that and most of the time I end up using my thumb) but i'm getting there. I record myself playing these songs, because it gives me self confidence, and it tells me that I suck, or that I'm very good. It helps me alot!

c! · « **Reply #12 on:** December 12, 2009, 07:05:49 AM »

I was 8 and there was an acoustic guitar at home, all I wanted was to rock my fucking brains out, but I didn't know shit, so, I took a guitar course at school, but I hated it, I didn't want to play those pussy songs with basic chords... I wanted to rock right away, I wanted to learn the chords and how to play ROCK, so, after 3 classes, I quit.

Got myself some crappy GNR songbooks, you know, those basic things with the chords and the lyrics... acoustic songs sounded better of course, things like wttj or scom were way ahead of my skills and an acoustic guitar didn't help much either. I kept playing though, I learned the chords and could play well enough (no solos or crazy shit). Then I got my 1st electric guitar, and my mom regretted she gave it to me for my birthday, I wouldn't stop playing, now I could play the way I wanted, with the Gain knob on 10 in the amp playing GNR and Nirvana non-stop.

Well, I've never stopped since then, never took classes (other than those shitty 3 classes when I was 8), I'm self taught. Now I have a few guitars and basses and I've made music a part of my life, there's never a bad moment to grab the guitar and play. If I'm sad, upset or frustrated, or happy, playing guitar or any instrument is a cathartic experience. Kinda same story for bass and piano, self taught too, learned later though, but I love them as well, although guitars will always be my favourite babies.

wyldechild · « **Reply #13 on:** December 12, 2009, 12:42:59 PM »

I was around 13 or 14 if I remember correctly, it was that time when I started to listen to heavier music thanks to my friends who liked bands like cradle of filth, dimmu borgir etc. But that wasnt really for me, I did start listen to hard rock instead mostly ozzy osbourne. That's when I knew I want to play a guitar.. and voilá my dad bought me nylon string acoustic (that I still have and it's one of the best nylon string acoustics I've ever played

) and off I went.

I had some lessons for a year.. mostly I learned how to read sheet music and how to play some tunes from Finnish artists that I usually hated from the bottom of my heart. So after that one year I had enough. I played every now n' then for one more year but I didnt take any lessons and music just wasnt fun anymore. So my guitars destiny was to go in the deepest corner of our house and cather some dust.

It took me about 2-3 years to get into playing again.. and I really started to play again when I was around 18years old.
That's when I started to practise 10hours everyday like a fuckign madman and I loved it.. I played ozzy, BLS , Children of Bodom tunes and scales ... And then I turned 20 and my wife came along and our kid and school and now I dont really have time to play. Usually only 1hour/day and that one hour I have is usually during night around 10pm and then I'm already tired as fuck and I cant play for shit. But I will never give up my guitar

aerosmithfan · « **Reply #14 on:** December 12, 2009, 02:17:27 PM »

I'm still learning currently and I'm going to get some lessons from my choir instructor. He's been playing for bout 5 years now. My friends and I were all gonna get lessons from him but the non members had to pay like $25 per lesson, So now im the only one getting lessons

nfan12 · « **Reply #15 on:** December 12, 2009, 05:08:33 PM »

Quote from: wyldechild on December 12, 2009, 12:42:59 PM

I was around 13 or 14 if I remember correctly, it was that time when I started to listen to heavier music thanks to my friends who liked bands like cradle of filth, dimmu borgir etc. But that wasnt really for me, I did start listen to hard rock instead mostly ozzy osbourne. That's when I knew I want to play a guitar.. and voilá my dad bought me nylon string acoustic (that I still have and it's one of the best nylon string acoustics I've ever played ) and off I went.

I had some lessons for a year.. mostly I learned how to read sheet music and how to play some tunes from Finnish artists that I usually hated from the bottom of my heart. So after that one year I had enough. I played every now n' then for one more year but I didnt take any lessons and music just wasnt fun anymore. So my guitars destiny was to go in the deepest corner of our house and cather some dust.

It took me about 2-3 years to get into playing again.. and I really started to play again when I was around 18years old.
That's when I started to practise 10hours everyday like a fuckign madman and I loved it.. I played ozzy, BLS , Children of Bodom tunes and scales ... And then I turned 20 and my wife came along and our kid and school and now I dont really have time to play. Usually only 1hour/day and that one hour I have is usually during night around 10pm and then I'm already tired as fuck and I cant play for shit. But I will never give up my guitar

Very nice story!

wyldechild · « **Reply #16 on:** December 12, 2009, 07:59:18 PM »

Quote from: nfan12 on December 12, 2009, 05:08:33 PM

Very nice story!

and touching

please send me money I'm poor

nfan12 · « **Reply #17 on:** December 12, 2009, 09:21:51 PM »

Quote from: wyldechild on December 12, 2009, 07:59:18 PM

and touching please send me money I'm poor

Rampton Hospital · « **Reply #18 on:** December 16, 2009, 10:15:52 AM »

Quote from: wyldechild on December 12, 2009, 07:59:18 PM

and touching please send me money I'm poor

goold.godson · « **Reply #19 on:** December 16, 2009, 03:19:55 PM »

Quote from: pawnshop-guitars on December 07, 2009, 06:00:52 PM

I used to do classical guitar, and hated it. And sadly I didn't play again for years. Then for lulz I got out my guitar one day and tried playing something - I taught myself to read tab, and then I was off and running. It just escalated from there really; I played it for a laugh and found I totally loved it when I was allowed just to do what I wanted, and it became a freedom of expression for me. So that's why I carried on

i used to do classical guitar too and i hated it too

. my father always wanted me to play guitar but i was more interested in drums so one day he said that he'd buy me a drumkit and pay for some drumminglessons if i started doing the guitar again. i somehow ended up playing bass 3 weeks later

it helped that my cousin was starting playing on guitar too and the two of us have always had "my dad is bigger than your dad" conversations. we're always better than the other one at everything and we're ALWAYS right when we argue

so that got me having interests in learning to play the guitar. but i've always liked playing my 5 string lakland bass better than any other instrument

. i am able to play guitar, drums, bass, piano and the triangle (

) .

pawnshop-guitars · « **Reply #20 on:** December 16, 2009, 04:09:34 PM »

Wow, a multi-instrumentalist. How hard are triangles to learn? I've always been too intimdated to pick one up

goold.godson · « **Reply #21 on:** December 16, 2009, 06:35:01 PM »

ok once you already know how to play guitar; how hard is it to learn Smoke on The Water? that's how hard it is to learn to play the triangle

ThorThunderz · « **Reply #22 on:** December 16, 2009, 09:58:33 PM »

I would say, i first started playing guitar and bass after going to a metallica concert (atmosphere was amazing).
Years later and here i am, im in my own band called " Asylum ".. Our main influences are pretty much
Guns n Roses, Alice in Chains, Iron Maiden and some newer stuff lik A7X and Buckcherry, We are actually auditioning
for a record contract. But yeah i mainly focused on Vocals then I went to Metallica ( My first huge concert besides Puddle of Mudd ) and watching Robert play bass was pretty crazy so i decided i wanted to play.

Dr. Jack Daniels · « **Reply #23 on:** December 18, 2009, 02:57:27 AM »

I first started playing after I saw The video of Nightrain played at the ritz '88. The way Slash ripped through it made me want to play. 5 years later I got enough money to get a guitar for my 15th birthday. I guess you could say that I play because of Slash

ronws · « **Reply #24 on:** January 03, 2010, 04:32:31 AM »

I'm going to make myself feel really old. Oh well, damn the torpedos and full speed ahead.

I first picked up a guitar in the fall of 1974. My grandparents had a Silvertone classical guitar that only had 3 strings on it. I started, without any lessons, picking out the arpeggio in "Who'll Stop the Rain" by Creedence Clearwater Revival.

A few weeks later, we moved to Texas. My mother gave me an old student folk guitar she had. She couldn't afford lessons. All she could afford was a set of strings and Mel Bay's Book of Chords. And I taught myself. I also taught myself to read music, to sing, to play lead. I taught myself how to sing from a book called "How to sing olympically" by Graham Hewitt.

Anyway, here's the song that got me started.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIPan-rEQJA

I started really working on my voice in 1988, to discover that I was a tenor.

Here's the inspiration that led me to work on my voice.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-AYAv0IoWI

Yeah, it was an inspiration to me. The perfect song, even if they borrowed the chord progression from "I'd love to change the world."

Though my bass range is sketchy, I am a solid tenor with reaches into castrati.

Above all, I love music and I am glad to have this forum to share my passion and am thankful that you accept my offerings, from time to time. There are times when I wish we could gather for the motherfucker of all jam sessions and I bet we could rock the world.

Thanks to Gott (no pun intended) for this thread, Bumblefoot, Pawnshop, and Justin, and other too numerous to mention.

We're all drawn here by the hard-driving, fresh, soul-fresh and honest feeling of rock and roll. From the youngest here at 14 to 17 years of age, to me, 45 (and scaring the hell out of 46, born 3-19-1964, if you must know).

In the words of KISS, "God gave rock and roll to you, gave rock and roll to you, gave rock and roll to you..."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1yvQV7J47o

By the way, in that video, drummer Eric Carr was suffering from advanced stage cancer and still did the shoot. Now, that's rock and roll.

Hooraw ...

Peaches · « **Reply #25 on:** January 03, 2010, 12:34:11 PM »

You're a TENOR!? Oh my LAWD I'm so jealous.

I'm stuck with the normal baritone range

but haha you don't get to have a deep voice like I doooooo.

N.I - GNR · « **Reply #26 on:** May 20, 2010, 12:14:53 PM »

For me i just bought a guitar out of the blue when i got dropped from my job and had that last big pay check i went straight out and bought myself a strat ! from there a had no clue what to do with it i didnt want the hassle of going to lessons cause the only tutor in town was i complete idiot and was so old he probibly could have died during a lesson knowing my luck

i learnt via internet for a while mostly on justinguitar.com great website with loads of great videos to help your learning ! but what helped me most was teaching my tabs theres no limits after that

Euterpe · « **Reply #27 on:** June 07, 2010, 11:07:48 PM »

Quote from: Max_Power on August 20, 2009, 08:33:57 PM

I got a drumset

Dont Cry Axl · « **Reply #28 on:** June 07, 2010, 11:36:43 PM »

when i was 9 i got a guitar and the school supplied me with lessons and i was very focused....until i changed school.
Then last year i started playing it again and got into it, now i have lessons from the school i have now lol

cn'd05 · « **Reply #29 on:** June 08, 2010, 01:29:16 AM »

thanx everyone!! after restringing my baby,i will now go play the shit out of it!!

cwiebe888 · « **Reply #30 on:** June 24, 2010, 10:03:36 PM »

Im self taught And left handed so its harder for me to get a good selection of guitars . im not the greatest right now but im learning

Kov · « **Reply #31 on:** June 25, 2010, 01:23:00 AM »

Wow this is like an AA meeting.

I am Kov, and I am a guitar player. I've been playing for 6 years.

Well, back in '04, we were waiting for a class in high school (well not exactly, 8th grade, but it was an 8 year highschool) and my best friend just started playing guitar. I asked him to show me something, so of course he taught me the intro to smoke on the water, what else. I was hooked. After the class, I went home, and hijacked my brother's acoustic (which he never let me touch), and his computer (to which the same restrictions applied). I got the tab for the Blues Brothers theme, and started struggling with it. Then my bro entered the room, and when he saw what I was trying to do, he encouraged me. Then I got my first acoustic first christmas (steel strings, yay for learning blues, nay for the skin on my rookie guitar player fingers :P I did actually play that thing until my fingers bled), got a teacher, who taught me for over a year, and he was strict about the theory, thank him for that. That summer I went to work, and devoted all my summer to earn money to buy an Epi LP standard +.

I stopped going to the teacher eventually, because I went to the United States for a year, where I signed up for the high-school jazz band, where I was thrown into the deep water in the sense of seeing chord names longer than the actual bar itself, and having to figure those out on the spot.

Funny thing is that I took my LP with me, and on Delta Airlines they forced me to check the guitar in, instead of taking it with me as carry-on luggage. When I arrived, my guitar did not, and it only turned up in 5 days. And it was broken. (Well, the finish was chipped on several places.) I went to the airport, to get something for the damages. I asked them to take pictures as evidence, and when they wanted to take a picture of the headstock, I told them to photograph the bell thing, which (as most epis do) had "Gibson" written on it, so instead of a 400$ guitar, I was at 2000$.

They told me to get an estimate for the damages, so as the sly fucker I am, I went to the local guitar shop for the estimate, slipped the luthier a 20, told him to write 600$ on the estimate, and I promised him to spend the money there. So I have a mexican strat also.

That was my story. (Which included insurance fraud. What the hell, fuck the system.

)

Euterpe · « **Reply #32 on:** June 25, 2010, 11:31:09 PM »

I tried to teach myself. Learned a few chords and quit because I was going nowhere. I didn't touch a guitar until about 2 months ago when my mom bought me a bass, it sits in my computer chair because I can't get my heart set to play it (mainly because I'm clueless on how to start

)

Long story short, I have no motivation to learn to play no matter how bad I want to learn

The Spaghetti Incident? · « **Reply #33 on:** July 10, 2010, 04:01:25 PM »

Use tabs, bass for the most part is a lot easier than guitar, Google the tab for Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2) Roger Waters was a very simplistic bassist but his riffs were pretty iconic and memorable. Even some of Duff's stuff is simple, but fun.

Just wanted to. Listening to G&R I wanted to be like Slash. I was about 15 I think, Mum got me an acoustic, but I made her get me an electric. Became a bit disillusioned for a while there and just when I finally had the chance to perform at school, too. I just wasn't feeling it. I think mostly because I'd gotten into a rut listening to the same old shit day after day and also that whole Guitar Hero fad had come 'in' and everyone wanted to play guitar or join a band, kinda killed my hard on.

Finally out of that though, it's back

better2112 · « **Reply #34 on:** October 03, 2010, 04:25:05 AM »

I tried learning like 8 years ago, and failed. SO I got a drumset like Max. Really want to be able to play though! Should be able to learn (probably take lessons) when the time is right. never to old right?

Peaches · « **Reply #35 on:** November 19, 2010, 10:34:29 PM »

get off your ass better, you're gonna be old as balls soon. not tomorrow but tomorrow will come fuggin-FAST. I'm already god damned 19! ooooooold.

AJH79 · « **Reply #36 on:** December 09, 2010, 03:59:08 PM »

I started playing about 7 years ago... I always wanted to learn guitar, just never had the time so when I was finally done school and had more time on my hands I went out and bought a guitar.

When I bought the guitar I also bought "Guitars for dummies".... I never played an instrument before.. other than the gay hand bells and recorder in elementry school

so I had no idea what I was getting into.. all I can say is thank god for tabs! To this day I still cant read music.

Guitars for dummies helped me lots with the basics.. but I quickly got tired of rocking out to mary had a little lamb (with full distoration lol)... I then took some lessons, found that to be quite a waste of my time.. but I assume that would all depend on your instructor... mine was a total douche.. Then I bought a bunch of tab books with help cd's included.. this is where i probably progressed the most.. I started out with lots of green day and offspring because they are so simple and its a great feeling when you can finally play a full song.. no matter how easy it is.

After that a few more lessons and then I pretty much hit my plateau.. and now I haven't touched my guitar in about a year but after reading this thread it got me wanting to play again.

It's funny how I would definitely call guns n roses my favorite band.. yet I never learnt much gnr on guitar... only nightrain and sweet child o mine.. for some reason i didn't enjoy playing gnr as much as Metallica, AC/DC and Black Sabbath

Chaser™ · « **Reply #37 on:** December 13, 2010, 05:13:45 PM »

One of the rockets from Ace Frehley's guitar hit my pregnant mum in the belly. The rocket which had been touched by Ace auto-taught me rock n' roll chords and eventually the left over residue taught me some solos. By the time I was born I was already playing solo's while wobbling in place.

True story.

rocknroll41 · « **Reply #38 on:** December 14, 2010, 05:53:40 PM »

When I was 12 my bro asked for a guitar for his 9th b-day. My parents got him a cheap one from Toys R" Us as well as one for me, even tho I didn't ask for one cuz I thought I'd never be comitted...I WAS WRONG

The moment I strummed a C-chord for the first time I knew something special had occured with me. I finally found my talent...My calling.

Eventually my bro and I got serious guitars and took lessons with the guy who owns a minor label and has his own band. He was very nice and we learned fast.

Today, my bro doesn't write his own songs. He just learns covers on YouTube and likes to play the solos not-for-note (fine with me).

I, on the other hand, write loads of music and lyrics and have my own style of playing both originals and covers. Guitar is a part of me that will never leave...

Faxl · « **Reply #39 on:** June 02, 2011, 09:54:02 PM »

I had the first Guitar Hero game, and got bored/disillusioned with it, and decided to have a go with the real deal.

jplpool · « **Reply #40 on:** June 07, 2011, 05:10:45 AM »

Interesting story: I've tried several times to learn, but basically I was shit.

However, I've recently discovered that my ring finger on my left hand is partially paralysed (it can't move independently of my other fingers, due to getting my hand trapped in the hinges of a solid timber door as a youngster. To explain better; from a clenched fist, the only way I can raise my ring finger to a vertical position, without opening my fist, is by manually moving it)

So last week, I was fucking around with a mates old guitar. I followed the lead of Hendrix, put the strings on upside down and played left handed. I found it much, much easier.

So much so, that I should have my very own left handed guitar by the end of the week.

pawnshop-guitars · « **Reply #41 on:** June 08, 2011, 01:41:47 AM »

nice!

Personally I was inspired to begin playing after hearing the delightful guitar tones of the Fine Young Cannibals in seminal hit 'She Drives Me Crazy' then driven to achieve musical orgasms after hearing Phil Collins hanging himself to death in my favourite dream

wyldechild · « **Reply #42 on:** June 08, 2011, 07:55:09 PM »

I was fat but I wanted to get laid... guitar did wonders

still does

Peaches · « **Reply #43 on:** June 09, 2011, 07:22:26 AM »

Quote from: jplpool on June 07, 2011, 05:10:45 AM

Interesting story: I've tried several times to learn, but basically I was shit.

However, I've recently discovered that my ring finger on my left hand is partially paralysed (it can't move independently of my other fingers, due to getting my hand trapped in the hinges of a solid timber door as a youngster. To explain better; from a clenched fist, the only way I can raise my ring finger to a vertical position, without opening my fist, is by manually moving it)

So last week, I was fucking around with a mates old guitar. I followed the lead of Hendrix, put the strings on upside down and played left handed. I found it much, much easier.

So much so, that I should have my very own left handed guitar by the end of the week.

Excellent, Good job bra.

Guitars fun but...lately been getting bored of "expanding" my skills. I mean i might be just a notch above mediocre now, i aint no wyldechildlifegonet oomild but hey, enough skill to write songs and do some slash solo's minus 25% of his skill. yes i measured his skill universally.

spanish style is the bomb. or the black keys on a piano and transfer that to the guitar. fucking chinese IT UP!