Where did you learn to play guitar?

[CJCifuentes]

Where did you learn to play? :) wich was your first guitar? sorry for my bad english x)

[charlie brown]

At the "School of Hard Knocks!" (I.E., Self-taught)

 

CB

[BRAZIE]

On the streets.lol. everywhere really.i can't remember my first guitar.there was on old strat knock off in my brothers room growing up.i put a lot of time in on it but i didn't even know how to tune it so i wasn't learning.i guess iv had hands on string experience for about 12 years and i still feel like I'm learning how to play.

[BRAZIE]

On the streets.lol. everywhere really.i can't remember my first guitar.there was on old strat knock off in my brothers room growing up.i put a lot of time in on it but i didn't even know how to tune it so i wasn't learning.i guess iv had hands on string experience for about 12 years and i still feel like I'm learning how to play.

[BRAZIE]

Double post.sorry

[flyingfrets]

Taught myself the basics with books and trial & error. Learned quite a bit from friends willing to share what they knew. Learned a LOT playing with other musicians. Kept practicing and incorporating what I'd just learned with what I already knew.

 

Back when I learned, there was no internet or youtube to pull up free lessons or tutorials.

 

But it was truly a magical journey. The mystery of the quest kept me hungry for more.

 

It's been 41 years and I'm still learning.

[L5Larry]

Taught myself from the Mel Bay book "Fun With Guitar".

[Scott Marlowe]

I was in band (sax) from the time I was 10, at a private school, so I'd already learned a lot of theory etc by the time I was 12 and picked up a $10 acoustic guitar at a pawn shop with a broken nut. Used a piece of wire to hold the low E string on and played it til my fingers bled. Learned to play by ear listening to the radio / records / cassette tapes and so on. Once I'd learned enough to be dangerous my brother let me play his 1974 or so Gibson SG Customer triple pickup SG. Holy crap! Action so low! Easy to play, pretty awesome humbucker sound.

 

By the time I was 14 or so I had a friend whose dad owned a music store, so I got to play all kinds of guitars all the time because we'd hang out there causing trouble all day when we weren't in school. In the 1970s Fender Jaguars and the like were the "trash" guitars we'd do terrible things to (replacing pickups etc) and not even think twice about it. Still remember playing some great 1960s guitars that were $200 at the time and are $5000 now. sigh. Shoulda saved up my lunch money and stocked up. But this was the part of my life when I learned that I didn't always like the most expensive etc guitars. I played a lot of cheap guitars back then that I just loved the sound and feel of. I also learned that two guitars with close serial numbers, exact same specs and finish etc could be entirely different beasts.

[Vinlander]

Self taught playing metal back in the mid 80s and then took some lessons with a jazz teacher in the early 90s as I went on a huge progressive rock phase.

Unfortunately, I lacked the discipline to continue and to learn to read properly...

[Whitmore Willy]

CJCifuentes,

 

WELCOME TO THE FORUM!!!

 

Where did you learn to play guitar?

Not sure I ever really did!?

 

I played piano in the '50s. When early '60s jam sessions started getting popular, I think I made the decision to change instruments.

Guitars were so much lighter than pianos.

 

Aside from that, I try to learn from..."everyone".

 

Willy

[deeman]

I started playing clarinet in gradeschool band (and played through high school) when i was 10. At age 16 I picked up guitar. I traded my original game-boy system (which i kida wish i still had...but small price to pay for a long love affair with guitar) for a crappy Ventura acoustic guitar. I taught myself how to play. I learned a ton of chords first and then picked up some books and then eventually just started to play along to guitar tabs on a program called Tabit and after a few months my parents got me a squire strat and cheap crate amp and i haven't looked back.

[Pin]

I first learned to play around 1965 thereabouts and went to a professional guitar teacher who worked in "light music" for the BBC. I went to him for about 18 months and then I got myself the McNeil Guitar Method (best introductory method book ever published but unavailable now) and went through that from cover to cover. I then got into a few bands.

 

My first guitar was a Hofner Galaxy solid but I soon changed that to a Hofner Senator (no cutaway) jazz guitar. My first really good guitar was a Gibson ES345.

[crust]

Mrs Klickstein (rip) lived in Sharon Massachusetts, the town adjacent to Foxborough (where I lived when I was a kid). She gave me a few lessons when I was 8-10 years old. 50+ years ago. She was a great musician. The first song she taught me was "Tom Dooley".

[Brytam]

Self taught. My first "guitar" was a super cheap acoustic. I don't remember the make. I do remember the steel strings hurt my fingertips so much that I changed them out for classical (plastic) strings to ease the pain of steel on soft fingertips. After a while I moved on to an "El Degas" acoustic that I still play today (from 1973). Never seen another guitar by that brand but it is made well! Played acoustic in a band so had to learn to improvise & learn quickly.

 

My first electric was an Aria Pro II natural finish. That was a great guitar. Very simple but very well made. Learned a lot of licks on that guitar. At that point, played in a band switching between acoustic & electric.

 

What really helped me was to listen to records (yes, vinyl...) & play along as well as "Mel Bay's" chord book. All the fingerings of all the chords over every part of the fingerboard. Great help!

 

[swamprock]

I started on a cheap Spanish acoustic when I was 8 years old (1978), after my uncle took me to see Kiss. I wanted to be Ace, and tormented my poor guitar teacher to kick up the gain channel on his amp and make his Les Paul really scream (a Black Beauty; I remember it well). The first song I actually learned was The Nightcrawlers "Little Black Egg"... hah! Later years, I spent teaching myself and learning from friends. The root-fifth power chord was a revelation for me. I drifted along playing simple metal, hardcore punk, and rock for many years. I picked it back up about four years ago, took some lessons, and learned how to play "properly"; not that it did much, but I did improve to the point that I can actually write songs and solo a bit now. After playing in a doom metal band for about a year, we split up and now I've drifted into writing more eclectic, dynamic (at least to me) stuff.

 

After all of these years, I still want to be Ace... and John Sykes... and Bill Steer... and Paul Kossoff...

['Scales]

Every place I ever played and every place I ever will.

[Bender 4 Life]

my house (as a kid)...my friends houses (as kids) .....bonfire parties (as drunken teens).....an abandoned and condemned house my Aunt owned (1st band practice shack) with a hole in the livingroom floor big enough to fall into, and the roof caved in over the kitchen & bathroom.

 

then I turned 25 & things got better.............

[Gunner]

St. Louis, MO.

[Les Pauler]

I played trombone in grade and high school and then football and girls came into my life. LOL.

 

I wanted to play guitar when I was little but never really had the chance. There was always other things going on in my life that kept me busy.

 

This last Christmas my wife asked me what I would like and I told her a guitar would be nice. She got me a very cheap one and I started playing on that (first issue pos). I went to my local shop and bought a Washburn Acoustic and Hal Leonard's book Guitar Method 1. That got me playing very simple songs. Once my appetite was started I bought my first electric, a Wildkat and now I have my Les Paul 1960s Tribute and I am happy (need a better amp though).

 

Jay

[Ed Zeplin]

Where did you learn to play? :) wich was your first guitar? sorry for my bad english x)

 

 

I learned to play in my Sister's basement in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada in 1981/82. My brother-in-law had a super cheap acoustic with strings that felt like barbed wire and even if I had the "Kung fu grip" barre chords were not in the cards. He also had a music book of Canadian folk songs, one of which was "Heart of Gold" by Neil Young. That was the first song I learned, quickly followed by "Stairway to Heaven" once I bought the "Led Zeppelin Complete" songbook. I continue to learn every day.

 

 

Prior to this I grew up in Bonavista, Newfoundland, Canada (I moved to Ontario at 17 to live with my sister). While still down east My brother gave me my first guitar, his 1961 Supro Dual Tone Guitar and amp that he won in a poker game in Labrador in the early sixties.

 

It looked like this reissue:

 

 

I was fourteen and just discovering Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Aerosmith, etc. and I was stoked. Unfortunately I never was able to learn at that time and when I moved I gave the guitar to my nephew and when I last saw it in 1986 it was taken apart and was being stripped. I really miss that guitar now. A '59 came for sale a couple of years ago for $1K but I couldn't swing it at the time so I missed out on it. I might pick up the reissue.

 

 

The original had a huge neck, 20 frets, single cutaway which I still love the look of, a Gumby shaped headstock and single coil pickups that were fashioned to look like humbuckers. The finish was peeling off in large pieces so a refin would have been needed. I was in a remote fishing town where I couldn't get strings and stuff so for a strap I used one of my Dad's belts and fishing line to attach it to the guitar. Simple times.

 

 

A few years ago I had four Les Pauls and decided I only really needed one so I gave this one to my brother:

 

[flyingarmadillo]

Self taught. My original guitar was an old Harmony acoustic that fell apart sometime in the late 1990's. Now taking lessons to learn some of the stuff I missed.

[guitar_randy]

In my room

[milod]

Well, Mom started me with dance - which in ways is, along with kick-punch martial arts "kata," using the body as a rhythm instrument - at 3. Piano at 4. Trumpet at 10, a bit of drums at 17. Guitar at 18.

 

Bought a horrid classical guitar that regardless, was relatively playable, both a capo and strap that I still have although the guitar is long gone,

 

and most important, what I still consider the best overall guitar-playing book ever published for the over-all kind of guitar-playing inclinations:

 

http://www.amazon.com/The-Folksingers-Guitar-Guide-Instruction/dp/0825600138/ref=sr_1_1/183-1471818-7383036?ie=UTF8&qid=1399480451&sr=8-1&keywords=the+folksinger%27s+guitar+guide

 

Then it was just playing until my fingers hurt, quitting until they stopped hurting (usually 15-30 minutes), then back again. I'd done that with trumpet playing too - play until the lip felt bad, then back to it.

 

m

[Not-Too-Late]

I can't remember what age I was when I got interested in playing a guitar, but I do remember starting off with lessons. That didn't last long because of the silly songs they had me learn -- like "Little Brown Jug" as an example. I wanted to play Rock 'n' Roll, and many of the songs of Rockabilly, for example, had simple chord progressions. Being a kid, my dad was disappointed that I stopped the lessons. After all, he was paying for them. He was constantly badgering me about it, so I relented and went back. When I look back now, I'm glad I did! I still played Rockabilly and eventually took an interest in the The Ventures when they came along. It was at this time that I got together with a bunch of my friends and formed a band. We started off playing at parties and school functions etc. My friend John Coulter built his own guitar to resemble the Mosrite the Ventures later used. He eventually took over lead guitar and I switched over to rhythm and have stuck with it ever since. It was during college that I slowed down and later when I married and started a family I stopped playing altogether. A few years back I got the bug and bought an Epi Les Paul Standard. About a few weeks later I bought a second one for my wife who expressed a desire to learn. The problem was that I didn't listen closely to what she really wanted - an acoustic. So it fizzled out with her and the second Les Paul sits in its case at the back of the closet. My cousin expressed a desire to purchase it, and if he does I might buy my first bass. My wife now has moved on to the piano. She has been taking lessons for awhile and recently bought a Yamaha DGX-650. This thing is loaded and I can't wait for the time when I can jam with her.

So that's where it stands to date.

Cheers

Wayne

[PoorOtis]

Grew up in the 50s on the streets of Chicago..major infulences were Howlin Wolf,Blind Melon,Louis Reys. 1st electric guitar(harmony)when I was nine.

Took formal lessons in the early 60s..but learned what music was all about through my uncles band friends. Played with several Garage Bands but really

started taking music serious in 1964. Sold more guitars/amps than I can count..tryed to keep the best. Have been involved in studio/back up/touring..

teaching my grandson to play also. Lifes been good to me..so far!