Why do you play guitar?

[ChanMan]

To quote Micheal Nesmith: "I don't know, man, why do you like that shirt you have on?"

 

As far back as I can remember, I've wanted to play guitar. Would pick one up every chance I got. Got pics of me- way before I can remember- holding a guitar... I don't know if one can be genetically predisposed to guitar playing, but if so, I'm "that guy".

[LeBudfrumHull_SG]

I love guitar.

It drives me crazy.

It keeps me sane.

It give me peace.

It challenges me.

 

+1

 

I've found that playing can be the most gratifying , humbling and frustrating

experiences ever.... all during the same song!

Some days I'll want to smash it to pieces a la Pete Townshend , other days

I'd protect it with my life .

 

But I'll never stop playing.

[axuality]

There's something that goes on inside me, most folks would probably call it feelings, that can best and easiest be resolved/satisfied when I play. Sometimes, as my wife pointed out to me once, I'll pick up my guitar and play for 1 or 2 minutes, then be done for hours.

[dem00n]

Just the thought of making metal back to its normal underground state makes me happy.

It gives me somethign to do...so when i die...i feel like i did something in my life.

[FirstMeasure]

Because, in 1988 Trumpet Music was out of style, and you couldn't play chords on it.

[flyingarmadillo]

Because I can.

 

Stress relief (Sitting here alternately typing and fingerpicking the Ric right now) (although sometimes playing for stress relief is like golfing for stress relief!)

 

Creative outlet cameras can't provide.

[milod]

I dunno... I think Notes kinda hit it that this stuff, if it's really there, is not what you do but what you are.

 

Mom had me taking piano lessons around age 4. Hated every minute of it, but by 7 or 8 or so I was trying to pick out tunes I wanted to play or kinda invent. but the chords just never seemed to come and the damned dots on paper just weren't what I wanted to play.

 

Fourth grade through high school it was trumpet. A little jazz and rock the last year of high school. I really got into the melodic jazz of Ruby Braff about then and my first couple-three years out of high school but then - a knee to the teeth kinda ruined trumpet playing.

 

That was no problem because the summer after high school I'd started playing guitar and floated with the folkie/bluezie sorta stuff.

 

Now? I love melodic solo guitar playing with nice fat chords and it's cheaper than booze. Kinda the same concept of standards with mild interp.

 

But I can't force myself into one style. When I was 19 I had some friends who tried to get me to be a "one guitar" guy. So I ended up with a decent classical and played it - but fingerstyle whatever more than Bach and Sor.

 

It's just great to "sing," whether with the fingers or focal cords. And the fingers get more chords than vocal chords. <grin>

 

Hmmmmm. Kinda odd for a guy who played in a college rock band pushed on the rock radio ads as "the band you've gotta see to believe." <chortle>

 

m

[Notes_Norton]

<...>But I can't force myself into one style. <...>

 

I'm with you on that one. If I was forced to play only one style of music, it would be less fun. And which would I pick?

 

I've actually thought about that and as soon as I pick one style of music, I think about the qualities of another style and switch my preference (repeat ad infinitum).

 

One good thing about playing for the audience I am now targeting in my duo, is that they have varied tastes. So in one evening I can play some Baby Boomer top40, some Classic Rock, some light jazz, some blues, some country, some Latin American, some ballroom dance, some Caribbean, some Folk, and so on.

 

Each type of music has its own way of expressing itself, and that allows me to express myself in a different manner. And each different manner of expression makes me feel different inside, and that's the fun of it.

 

I feel the same way about instruments.

 

When I only played saxophone, I wanted to play guitar, bass, keyboards, trumpet, trombone, and other instruments. So I learned a few other instruments, and use the wind synthesizer to emulate others. If I had to choose only one, I'd choose sax because that is what I'm best at, but I'd sure miss the guitar and the others because they are so much fun to play.

 

Playing music transports me into that place where there is no space or time -- where I lose myself and become the music. It's like a drug, or meditation, or anything else that puts your "left brain" to sleep for a while and experience the bliss of the other half of the brain.

 

It's a hopeless addiction for me. But fortunately it's a legal one.

 

Insights and incites by Notes