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Why do you play guitar?


ShredAstaire

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Who inspired you to pick up a guitar and start strumming? Was it a specific musician or was it something else?

 

I've always enjoyed listening to guitar music but I never considered playing until I heard an album called Colma by Buckethead in 1998. It's an extremely mellow album...with some drum loops and just Buck playing his guitar...here's 1 song from that album...(no shredding!)

 

[YOUTUBE]

[/YOUTUBE]

 

Funny enough...this is why i started playing guitar BUT I don't really write anything in this style....weird huh? One of these days I will...i need to improve...I can't never stop workin hard...

 

So what inspired you to make the leap? A person? A song? An album? Or something else entirely?

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On the way home from church school I stopped in to see a friend who sold

tickets at the local theater and the movie was half over so he let me in.

It was Woodstock and I got there just when Alvin Lee and Ten Years After

did I'm Going Home. Sold my acoustic the next day and got an electric.

Went back that week every night and watch Alvin rip it up. If I see that

Woodstock is playing on the tube I know just when to tune to catch I'm

Going Home.

 

CW

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The emotions generated in me when I first listened to:

 

Alice Cooper's Thrash album

Richie Blackmore's blues/rock licks and soloing

Tony Iommi's devine riffing

Slash's soulful playing

Angus's soul-charging riffs & solos

Gary Moore's powerful & emotional solos

 

I just wanted to be the guy playing that instrument & generating (a slice of...) these emotions.

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As with some of the others here there were always instruments in the house and it was 'normal' to play something. Although my parents were very poor (note to the younger kids; we didn't even have a TV until I was about 6 or 7 years old!) my big bro and I had instruments lying around to mess on from the day we were born.

 

After mucking about for years with both clarinet and sax I heard Hendrix on an LP when I was about 11 and that really impressed me (Yes I know; "No Sh!t, Sherlock!). Later on, though, I saw footage of Paul Kossoff and that was IT. Absolutely no going back.

 

Paul Kossoff.

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My father was a huge fan of the old cowboy ballads. He always had a Gibson or Martin in the house. My brother was in 60s garage bands with his blue Mustang. My uncle was a drunk with a Hummingbird. In 1967 my brother handed me down his Kay acoustic. I couldn't make a note on that POS without drawing blood and I swore one day I would own more freakin' "good" guitars than I had a right to, whether I could play them or not.

 

Mission accomplished.

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My story is different. No one guitarist inspired me to play.

 

I started on drums and quickly switched to saxophone. During the years when I mostly played sax, I learned a lot about sax playing by listening to guitarists, organists, vocalists and other instruments playing melody.

 

I played in guitar bands and learned to double on bass and rhythm guitar (barre and other movable chords).

 

Then a couple of years ago I simply decided that I wanted to learn more about the guitar so I started practicing it a couple of hours per day.

 

Why do I play it?

 

Two reasons, equally as important.

 

1) It's fun

 

2) To make the sounds that only a guitar can make.

 

Oh, and the third reason which is less important because I can do it with the sax, flute, wind synth, and other instruments; To make money.

 

Actually, I play for free and charge the client because I have to make a living.

 

Notes

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Inspired at first by Slash, Stone and Mike... Today others would get my choice ;-)

 

I`m a lousy player (if you can call it "playing" actually) and doing it just for my own pleasure...

 

Watching him yesterday playing (not that group in the link) on the other side was a pleasure!

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In Jr. High I started hanging with this kid who ran in our group. His old man was band teacher at the Jr. High and he had an older sister who was super foxy and listened to cooler music of the early eighties: Judas Priest, Roth era Van Halen, AC/DC. I was still listening to fruity hair metal and just air guitaring. No one in my house or family played any instruments so I was clueless. One day that friend told me he was getting a bass. I asked him how many strings it had and when he said four I decided I wanted to play the one with six. Got a cheap Explorer copy, solid state Crate practice amp, and discovered that I wanted to be Angus Young. Soon after it was Slash and Kirk Hammett.

 

In the 20+ years I have been playing other influences have come and gone. These days I just want to be me and make as much noise as I can.

 

Why do I play? It's hard to put in words. All I can say is that I could live without guitar, but it would not be a life worth living.

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I played acoustic guitar since I was a kid... my dad had an acoustic guitar he never used, it was there as furniture more than to be played (I later learned it was an invaluable spanish guitar). I took that guitar and played with it a little, got acustomed to the parts of it even though I didn't know what they were called or what their purpose was.

 

Then I started learning to play thanks to an older friend, he played and I would sit there and watch him, that's when I learned those golden wires (frets) helped you do different sounds.

 

I spent a lot of time playing that guitar, then bought me a "real" acoustic and started learning some songs, patience from guns n roses was the first song in english I learnd.

 

One day MTV started transmiting locally (at the time in this 3rd world country CDs were scarce and expensive so you either knew music from TV or from the radio or stuff you bought when you traveled) and they showed videos of guns n roses, when I saw them I just had to learn to play electric and have one of those nice guitars that bad-a$$ guy played. I think I have to thank Slash for my adiction to guitars and gear in general.

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