How'd You Get Your Start In Music?

[Steven Tari]

Wow, Y'all are lucky. Most of Y'all come from music back grounds. I came from a military family that was on the move, mostly Japan and Europe most of my young life. Neither my mom or dad have any musicial talent. So I started to get into wanting to play music at 15. I was living outside Saltlake City and Battle of the Bands at the local High School was the scene to be in. The hottest band was the "Strawberry Orange". The Bass players brother was a friend of mine, Also his dad started a music store. His father named the store after his son's bands name. I wanted to play so my father bought me a used Kalamazoo KG-2a and Kalamazoo amp. I learned My chords and played my first time live with my friend at his church. Then we had to move again and I ended up in Miami. My gear was locked away at some storage unit untill we moved to Virginia. My father out of the military, I started my music again. Been playing and learning ever since.

[Nick Beach]

I was five and my mom was/is an accountant, she was doing taxes for a pawn shop. I saw a guitar and like most five year olds I got a hair up my *** and had to have it. She ended up getting a cheap acoustic as part of her payment from the pawn shop for me, been going ever since. I think I've got a pic of me with that acoustic around here somewhere I'll have to find it and post it up.

[milod]

Singing was all around me from birth. Mom had a piano and decided when I was 4 that I was going to learn how to play because she never really could. Dance lessons too, from the time I was 3 until 12. Little sis and I danced together a lot as in the old 30s type of thing and as we got older we sang together a lot but never really in public as with the dancing stuff.

 

Trumpet started in 4th grade and continued into college freshman and soph years - I'd lost interest really in freshman year because I'd started playing guitar 6-8 hours a day. Did everything on trumpet from marching band to jazz and rock. I don't really have talent except to work hard on something I wanna learn - as in guitar and some other things.

 

m

[charlie brown]

My Mom and Dad were both musical...good singers/harmonizers,

and Mom played sax, in High School and College. My Grandmother

(on my mother's side) played Classical guitar, as well. A cousin,

on my Dad's side, played brilliant Classical Piano, too. We used

to listen to her, for hours at a time. So..."music" was all around

me, from the beginnig. "My" own interest in playing music, came in

the guise of The Beach Boys(first)...we were all listening to those

California sounds, and most of my good friends, were into cars, and

hot-rodding, so those tunes went hand in hand, with that. But, I

really got "serious," after seeing The Beatles, on Ed Sullivan.

That was really, when it all gelled, for Me!

 

CB

[Jeff-7]

My mother actually chose the instrument for me, when I was about 10 I wanted to start learning to play and she chose it for me because she watched the Andy Griffith Show and liked it when Andy would play for Aunt Bee on the porch in the evenings. She still has that guitar at her house for when I come visit.

[G McBride]

I grew up watching the British invasion bands. My dad was a musician and always played bar bands with horns and such in the 50s. I was born in 53 so I grew up with Rock and Roll. Got a guitar and learned to play when I was 12 or 13 and have never stopped. Just signed on for lessons so that I can get better.

[Silenced Fred]

Well, in 5th grade I signed up for band. Played the sax for a year, then doubled up on clarinet. Discovered I had no intentions of playing "band" music, so one day when I went to go buy reeds at a SamAsh, I was waiting to be checked out, and I wandered over to the guitar section and just watched people play, and then picked up a guitar and noodled around. Greatest day of my life. It took me about 5 months to save up enough to buy a POS Squier Starter Pack thing. The rest is history....

[ZenKen]

POS Squier Starter Pack thing. The rest is history....

 

Why rag on the Squier Strat Pack? That there was an inexpensive, playable option available to you that gave you the opportunity to get started is a wonderful thing. Maybe Gibson could take a hint. B)

[Kimbabig]

I played trumpet, I hated trumpet, I bought a guitar and amp. My first guitar is currently covered in duct tape.

[Silenced Fred]

Why rag on the Squier Strat Pack? That there was an inexpensive, playable option available to you that gave you the opportunity to get started is a wonderful thing. Maybe Gibson could take a hint. B)

 

Isn't that what Epiphone is for? They have starter kits for Epiphone guitars :unsure:

[ZenKen]

They have starter kits for Epiphone guitars :unsure:

 

I didn't know that. Glad to see it. It's a good thing for kids (and their parents) to have a low cost option for starting out. B)

[46 and 2]

Cool thread! As a child, my parents forced upon me 1970’s area country music. Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, John Denver, Kenny Rogers, and the like. I assumed this was what music was until my brother (seven year my senior and a god in my eyes then and now) got me into Van Halen when he was 16 and I was about 9. After that it was rock/metal/hardcore and the like for me. My first real taste of what I wanted came in about 1988 or ’89 when I heard Guns and Roses for the first time. That was when I started playing guitar and worked my way toward my Gibson Les Paul through a full on Marshall love affair…ahhh!!!

[duane v]

Cool thread! As a child, my parents forced upon me 1970s area country music. Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, John Denver, Kenny Rogers, and the like. I assumed this was what music was until my brother (seven year my senior and a god in my eyes then and now) got me into Van Halen when he was 16 and I was about 9. After that it was rock/metal/hardcore and the like for me. My first real taste of what I wanted came in about 1988 or 89 when I heard Guns and Roses for the first time. That was when I started playing guitar and worked my way toward my Gibson Les Paul through a full on Marshall love affair…ahhh!!!

 

oh my

 

My older brother as well opened my eyes to a new world when he took me to see Van Halen at the Starwood Club in 1976... From that point forward, all I could think about was forming a band

[SG FAN]

I heard Black Sabbath and Cream, the rest is history

[crazyhair]

I started taking lessons when I was around 14 but dropped them because my dad developed MS and got laid off his job because of it. I stuck it out with him because he was my best friend as my brothers all did their own thing. After growing up I started getting involved with musicians in one way or another because of the school I put myself through. I still couldn't afford a guitar but loved music and started to mix and manage a couple of bands because of my schooling. I would watch for hours anybody playing guitar so I could learn because nobody had the time to show me anything. I work in television broadcasting and had a one hour concert series that I produced on PBS back in the 90's where I met all kinds of musicians and became even more fascinated with guitar playing. Finally about seven years ago I bought my first guitar, a Fender Squire. It didn't take me long to figure out it wasn't a very good guitar so I started working my way up. I'm now dept free owning my own place, Harley, and so forth. I've been teaching myself and loving every minute of it! I now own three guitars and plan on buying more because its my life away from work and every day life. I just turned 54 years old last week and jamin most every night!I

[Notes_Norton]

As far back as I can remember, my favorite toys were ones that made music. The little one-octave "xylophone" the toy "piano" and the plastic wind instruments. Wherever we went, I was attracted to musical instruments. When we went to my aunt's house, I tinkered on her piano, when we visited my uncle, I "played" his drum set (fortunately it was in the basement so I didn't irritate the oldsters to the point where they made me stop).

 

My father played trumpet, violin, and ukulele, although he only played uke around the house. I have fond memories of him getting the uke out, opening the music book, and my dad, myself and my sisters singing along to those old, corny songs. Much later after I left home he took up the Organ.

 

I played plastic recorder instruments in elementary school (tonette and flutaphone) and was in the chorus.

 

In 7th grade I was able to join the band. I wanted to play baritone horn because I thought it sounded beautiful. However, Pompano Beach Florida was a small town then, and all the instruments available for rental were already rented. So I was given the position of drummer like all the new people. A practice pad and pair of drum sticks were easy to obtain.

 

Then the best thing happened to me. The tenor sax player's parents moved and the band director asked who would like to play the sax. I immediately got pictures in my mind of those old black and white rock and roll movies with the sax player rearing back and playing those wonderful sounds so my hand shot up in the air. I guess I was more enthusiastic than the rest, because the Band Director chose me.

 

In school I became first sax in the all-state band each and every year I was eligible to compete, and assigned section leader, a spot that goes to the alto sax player by default. I guess the judges thought I was pretty good. I was just having fun!

 

I also got into a rock band. We were terrible (everybody was back then. So there I was, playing rock music with my best buddies, having the time of my life, and the cute girl who wouldn't look at me in English class was suddenly 'making eyes' at me. At the end of the night they actually paid me money!!!!!

 

I've been a pro musician ever since. I've played just about every venue a musician can, from seedy dives where they passed the hat, to concert stages with major stars, to TV appearances on MTV, CBS, ABC, NBC and the BBC.

 

I now play sax (all saxes but I currently own alto and tenor), wind synthesizer, guitar, flute, keyboard synthesizer, bass, drums, and vocals. I make my living doing music and nothing but music, playing in a duo with the great vocalist who is now my wife The Sophisticats and I supplement my income by writing aftermarket style and fake 'disks' for the auto-accompaniment program, Band-in-a-Box and aftermarket styles for Microsoft SongSmith at http://www.nortonmusic.com

 

So exactly how did I get my start?

 

Probably that toy piano with no sharp or flat keys that I learned (by ear) which note to start on so I could play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Mary Had A Little Lamb and other songs that a kid of less than 5 years of age was interested in. I know it was before 5 because we moved when I was 5 and I remember playing with these toys in our first apartment.

 

Insights and incites by Notes ♫

[BigKahune]

Accordion at 8 for a few years. Sax at 12 which I played into my 20s. Somewhere in there around 16 I started sneakin' time on my brother's Strat knockoff. I was hooked. Bought a dimestore Harmony at 17 and then a 12 string Epi at 18. At 20 I snagged a '65 MM which I gigged with in college. I had the beginnings of a guitar collection and GAS. The number has gone up and down over the years - currently I've got 14. I still play keyboards and still love the guitar.

[Daryl M]

I was 12 years old and watching an Elvis movie on TV. Some girl was mad at him, so he picks up his guitar and sings her a song. By the end of the song, she is all doe-eyed and whatever he had done was forgiven. Even at 12 years old I knew that Elvis knew something that I needed to know. I went immediately to my parents room and pulled out my mom's Gibson ES-125.

 

Thanks Mom. Thanks Elvis.

[ShredAstaire]

My mom used to play the violin before I was born...but other than that, my folks are not at all musical. They like listening to music but neither of them played any instruments as I was growing up.

 

I started at 21....i just liked guitar based music and wanted to try it....it was the drugs!!!

[milod]

Daryl M

 

Your mom had an ES125? @#%#$%@#%@#$

 

Dad had a Stella with two or three strings on it in the attic when I was 12. !@$%#$%#$

 

<chortle>

 

Seriously, you're lucky. Did she help you figure out how to play the thing?

 

Also, that reminded me that when I started I was between hs and college and staying at my grandparents' awaiting school and I'd just bought my first guitar. Grandma asked why I was trying so hard when my left fingers very obviously were hurting. I said to build up calluses and she told me her mother "played guitar beautifully and her fingers were soft as anything..."

 

m

[FirstMeasure]

I consider myself Very Lucky! My Dad played rhythm in a couple Surf Bands around Torrence CA back in the 60's (if you know surf music then you know the Rhythm has a lot of Lead in it). So I always had a guitar around and plenty of exposure to chord shapes. My parents got my my first student sized acoustic from Sears when I was 6 (I thought I was 8, but Mom says I was 6). Took trumpet in the 8th Grade, made it to Third Seat in the High School Marching and Concert bands in a few short months (I loved the trumpet, I love all instruments). At 16 I got my first "Real" Bass and full sized acoustic and got serious about the Guitar.

 

By the time I was a Junior in HS I was first Trumpet in Marching, Concert, and Jazz bands. Then as a Senior I switchd to Electric Bass in the Jazz Band, giving the First Trumpet seat up to an 8th Grade Dizzy Gillespie (that little SOB could Smoke me on the trumpet). But maintained my status in Marching and Concert bands, I'm sure he took the First Seat when he entered HS, he was that good. Anyway........

 

Having music in my family and the support of my family really helped fuel my fire, no question about that.

[Cary Chilton]

How did I get hooked? Listening to dad's albums as a kid and knowing the songs instantly as my dad tested me...

I grew up to my dad performing for friends and parties, singing and playin his acoustic. At 7 or 8, dad found a broken set, just a kik and a tom, and I BANGED.... hehe 12-15 yrs old I was my dad's friends alot, who were in circuit rock bands and finally had a real kit in those years, but feel in love with guitar and the sounds... so I bought my first guitar, Ibanez roadstar II and my dad bought me a Fender sidekick reverb 30 -unfortunately solid state... played it for a month... hehe picked it up again on and off... teaching myself.

 

I had no money for lessons and dad wouldn't pay for lessons... ( crazy Eddie Van Halen by himself learned to play how he did, developing his style, figuring out all the techniques and creating new ones, playing a top pro level ...all by himself 14-17 yrs old!!!! Think about that...) Anyway I continued to be lazy, I sucked... until I moved a different city, started in a new high school, that had a guitar class...cool.

 

So I actually tried to learn something, so I start practicing chords and learning tab and that is what started it for me.... tab. I couldn't read enough... it gave me the confidence that I could know where and how to play the songs I heard on the radio or videos... I thought that was so cool. Of course reading Tab as the gospel is very dangerous as digital audio workstations.... tricks you into thinking you just need to see the audio.

 

So over the years, more off time, then more serious about... I began to get focused on what mattered most. Learning how to hear properly.... that helped me transcribe songs by ear, improvise solos by what I heard in my head, relative pitch and tons more. Even now, I might be re-learning a Roth-era Van Halen tune and hear something about the style of Ed, in his performance that I missed... a new surprise, opening up other doors, possibilites or phrasing, timing, pick attack, gear etc.... so much to learn, but it is fun huh?

[dbreslauer]

i am a formally trained drummer/percussionist, playing drums since the age of 6. I started picking up guitar by watching members in various rock bands i was in up through High School, then started taking lessons, played in HS Jazz Band as a guitarist, etc. The guitar became my "main" instrument when i was in my early 20s, although i think i am still a better drummer.

 

my mother is a phenomenal pianist. (she also has perfect pitch, which pisses me off to this day.) she plays at a piano bar weekly, and it amazes me how she can transpose entire songs in her head, reading a song written out in one key, but playing in another.

 

she encouraged me to learn, but never pushed. for that i am thankful.

 

my stepfather was my first musical "teacher." he was also a formally trained musician, and we would sit at the piano and he would explain things like chord progressions, circle of fifths, etc and i would apply them to my guitar. the best learning experience ever.

 

i hope my kids develop the desire to learn too.

 

Don

[milod]

Don...

 

Actually you may never get perfect pitch, but I don't see why you can't get the easy transposition thing down increasingly well. You obviously know how.

 

If you think about it a lot - as a player at a piano bar must - it will happen increasingly quickly, too. That "relationship" thing instead of thinking "C" or "G" and a lotta practice in public? It's a perfect incentive to get transposition into a relaxed, unthinking "just do it" kind of playing. I figure I'm not that good at it yet because I haven't had quite that challenge.

 

Ah, those piano bar players. I think they never get the credit they're due. Haven't even seen a really good one in years. Your note made me remember one gal who was delightful at playing about anything out of a fake book in about any key. She was vastly older than I was at age 22, older than my mother would have been at the time, but she was utterly gorgeous the instant her hands hit the keys.

 

Darned woman. Between pickin' weekends in another saloon and sittin' next to her piano on some weekdays when I had a night off, I coulda turned alkie. I'm only half kidding since I was guzzling grapefruit juice most of the time, but it could have been a problem otherwise.

 

In fact, she got me to figure that playing "piano bar" music on guitar was where it seemed most fun. And... that's kinda what I aim toward as an picker' about the same age as that piano player was those years ago. I just don't have her "sparkle" or relaxed playing style. Yet.

 

So... if you can learn the relaxation and transposition your Mom may be able to pass on indirectly, if not directly, you're a very lucky musician regardless what style or instrument.

 

m

[TommyK]

I started piano lessons, like my sisters, at the age of 6. I didn't put much into it, but it did give me a solid foundation of understanding natural notes, sharps and flats, and the basic music concept

 

Mom and Dad both sang. My dad mostly. He'd sing to ubiquitous Country Western music on the electric radio. We had one of them big ones that looked like a sideboard. It stood 3 foot high and about as wide. It had a record player in it at one time. It had two doors that opened up, one for the record player the other for the radio tuner. The woodwork was dark and the speaker on the bottom half was covered with a golden brocaded fabric. I remember Dad singing in church. He'd sing in our pew along with the choir. I suppose i heard him more than Mom, as I had a 'behavior in church' problem and Dad put me on the outside of the pew next to him, away from my sisters. The music minister wasn't real creative, she played the same old songs every week for years. I sometimes wondered if the song number boards had the numbers painted on them and couldn't be changed.

 

Then when my sisters began to take a turn at the organ, we'd sit up in the choir loft and I'd sing up there. When my sisters took up some of the organ duties, my dad had them mix it up and introduce new songs out of the song book. "We can do that?" they said. The first Sunday my sister began to play new songs, I think I heard a collective, "Thank God," from the congregation.

 

In grade school, music class was compulsory through the 6th grade. We always had a Christmas (yes CHRISTmas) and spring concerts at the public school. I joined choir in the 7th grade but dropped out to pick up the tuba.

 

Along about 1974 I got my first guit tar, and Epiphone FT145SB 'Texan'. I struggled with it for years as it was broken (and I didn't know it) and was unplayable.

 

We saw a lot of live groups at local fairs and festivals. We didn't have a lot of money but we did get in to see some big name acts like Floyd Cramer, Buck Owens, Johnny Cash, Barbara Mandrell (when she was just getting started), Roy Clark and others. We saw them everywhere from The Illinois Opry, to Bradley University Field House, to the Pontiac, Illinois High School Gym. We seldom missed a Hee Haw episode.

 

Outside of Country Music, we saw Ferrante & Teicher, and a particularly funny time seeing Victor Borge.