How did you learn to play?

[Shnate McDuanus]

Self taught for about six months, instruction for about a year.

 

I've always been too fxcking stupid to play by ear. So there.

[Hall]

Duncan, Walsh and Mack. Not one of them ever told me I had learned to play.

[saturn]

I took lessons off and on for about the first 4 years. It gave me a good foundation. Since then I've been slowly learning on my own.

[NeoConMan]

Taught myself as a young teen.

 

Standing in front of my record player, gingerly raising the needle and setting it back in just the right spot to work on a certain part - again and again and again and again until it created scratches in that portion of the song.

 

I was often in my underwear so I didn't scratch my $90 acoustic guitar.

 

Didn't take any formal lessons until I was 40.

Didn't gain much from the instructor though he was very patient - and a smoking player.

 

Maybe it's because he didn't want me wearing only my tighty whities in his studio.

 

[surfpup]

I had a community ed course when I was 15 and learned to strum some songs on the acoustic. The rest I figured out myself. We didn't have the internet then and tabs could only be found in magazines. I remember spending a lot of time with the rewind button on a cassette boombox trying to figure stuff out. Good times.

[rocketman]

My godfather's mother lived with us when we were around 8 years old. She gave us piano lessons every day. I started guitar when I was 13 and already had a handle on the theory. But I did take lessons from a teacher who lived three doors down from our house. So I had all formal training growing up. The good news is that my guitar teacher taught me how to play by ear. So I'd pick a tune and then he told me "go and figure it out this week." This is WAY before the internet and guitar tabs; some of us still remember those days...