How long have you been playing guitar?
I'm curious to know more about you, and how long you've been playing. Do you play other instruments? Where has your experiances taken you?... and where do you see yourself going from here? Anything you may like to share about yourself is welcome.
Comments
Thank you for your reply and it's a pleasure to meet you. I felt this thread would help others know a little about each other also. Just nice to be better aquainted.
I want to thank you for your PM also. It was very timely, as I was just preparing a thread about my Matsumoto LP. I can't compare it to my JS 1000. Both are fantastic guitars, but totally different animals. The LP is like a hungry Tiger, whereas the JS is like a wet pissed off Puma. The LP has better sustain, and frankly they are known for that...but the fixed bridge makes a difference, and also how the neck is attached. The JS is far more versatile. It will do things way above my pay grade....just like Satch....no limits. The sound is more Satch too...best discription is nasal ? Diffenately not warm and fuzzy like a LP.
i played pretty heavy for a few years, but jobs, girls, and partying consumed so much of my time i grew away from it, I lived like a gypsy for a few years too, somewhere between the ages of 19 and 23.
But I was nabbed, duped, and domesticated somewhere around 2000,
Grounded once again, I went back into it headlong. Now its my therapy, my muse, and my addiction. Id estimate altoghether about 8 or 9 years.....dang, never really thought of it in years. I should be a better than i am.
After 2 years of playing i got my first electric,Tnaglewood nevada fst32k(strat copy).It was a good guitar back then but the trem was as stiff as f*ck,well i didn't expect divebombs, but i just wanted a lil vibrato and i had to use my hole hand,the action was a bout an inch away from the fingerboard.i played that for a year everynight until i got my awesome proper guitar.
just like my hero Slash.
Epiphone les paul standard,it is so easy to play now i play over 3hrs a day and more at weekends.Before i didn't have anything specific to play now i practice excercises like chromatic ones e.g stuff for my fingers.i also have steve vais 10 hr workout so i do that to and i play backing tracks for 45mins
i home to be play in a gigging band in the near future,trouble is no 1 my age can match my standard of playing on their intrument i mean theres certain things u gotta have if ur gonna learn an instrument.
patience-it take along time to learn any instrument
commitment-you need to be commited to put the hours in
now i listen to alot of music b4 i just listened to classic rock,gnr, led zep, e.c.t.
now i like metal and shred
iron maiden
judas priest
metallica
Racer x
joe satriani
the scorpions
accept
so that is why i want an Ibanez rg1570,lol and i thought a les paul was easy to play.
hehe
I like classical music, metal, metal combined with classical
I currently play a Epi SG, before that I had a strat copy, and before that a cheap acoustic. But its good to learn on acoustic.
I have a band thats played quite a bit, at the Hard Rock Cafe once. Suppose I should put some recordings up...
a) stopped getting high and..
b) started earning enough to fund a habit that eats more cash than when i used to get high
ive not had any lessons (it shows!) and used to noodle, but recently ive started actually paying attention to the articles in magazines and the web in an effort to increase my theory and technical ability and try to be less random in my playing. Id love to be a great guitarist - but i can handle being a poor one.
the GNX3000 is the most impressive piece of kit i ever owned and my epi les paul custom is my first good guitar, this weekend i will be entering a new phase of my guitar career by attempting to replace the stock bridge humbucker on my squier stagemaster with a seymour duncan invader! (because it works out cheaper than buying an esp or jem and i wasnt confident that i could wire up an active emg81 with a passive neck pup!) ive never even soldered before so this should be interesting :shock:
pleased to meet y'all
Erm, what time is it now :¬)
I too started when I was like 13, but the year was 1965. My first guitar was a Mohogany Harmony acoustic. I studied Mel Bay chord and scales books, and in short order was playing Beatles and Rolling Stones songs...and later Bob Dylan, and Chet Atkins....with ofcourse a dash of Ellllllll-vis. My very first song I could play well was a Stones...\"Satisfaction.\"
All we had at that time was a Black and White TV...and a HiFi Stereo. There were only 33 1/3 LP records...and those little 45's.
You began much younger than me. I started with piano at 10 or 11. Wasn't my choice of instrument. My older sisters were good piano players...but they did those classical songs...and I wanted to \"get down.\" I played stuff like Bobby Darin's...\"Mack the Knife.\" Some Beach Boy songs, and the early Rock and Roll...Buddy Holly, Chubby Checker's \"Do the Twist\", Jerry Lee Lewis. I use to stand and bang out the chords like Jerry Lee and acted like a \"wildman.\" It was fun, but I liked guitar more.
By the year 1968...I was heavy into guitar and bought mostly Japanese made guitars. They were like today...VERY well made...and affordable. My first amp was a Fender. By 1970...I stepped up to a Gibson SG, and a Fender Strat with a 100watt Marshall tube amp...and was wearing out records to learn Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, and Santana...James Gang, Allman Brothers, Stones, you name it. I'd practice like 10+ hours a day.
You are doing it right. Honestly wish I would have adopted a teacher, especially in my early years. But...really..it's never too late, huh?
You have a love for classical, and that is a timeless sound. I can see why you like Yngwie. Thing I like about him is he proved it's not about reinventing music, and trying to change the world. He brings something great back, and makes it fresh. Something we all are faced with to some degree....because where do we go from here???
Somebody like Hendrix came along....and we all felt like...it can't be done better than that. Then came Page, Clapton and many others until today...Vai, Satriani, Wylde, Lukather, Cooley, etc.
Where do we go from here?? Maybe it will be like Yngwie....take what you like and make it yours. Go ahead and sound like who you love....what's wrong with that. You will emerge and it will be made fresh.
They say solo is dated....bull sheit. The BEST is yet to come............and it's because of young player's like yourself. You are smart, soak up all you can from Hendrix to Jazz, classical, blues....and by the next decade...we will have greater heights than ever.
I too am trying to get more serious in my musical knowledge. It's hard work, and developing the discipline I'm finding is the hardest part. I tend to slink into hacking and fooling around, instead of focusing on learning new things. It's nice to enjoy yourself, but I know if I'm going to get better, I have to try harder too, and apply myself more.
I gave up guitar for many years, and only recently found myself missing it, enough to where I could no longer just say...I wanna get back into guitar.
Last time I played...we didn't do alot of tapping, legato's, sweep picking, hybred picking. I had some skills, but it is still taking alot for me to get up to speed.
Also, last time I played...I used a fuzz box, wah-wah, delay, and a chorus stompbox.
You a musician?
I'm not sure about the time...it's April 24th 21:05 hours where I'm at, yet my post shows tomorrow like 1:05 hours.
Time is universal...neverending...to heavy for me to fathom.
I had lessons for about six monthes(the guy mostly transcribed songs for me-- no theory)
My first guitar a--hondo---cheap japanise but it worked till I got a strat.
I loved all the big hair stuff madien ,priest, VH and the rest. back then I would kill tapes from constantly playing back the songs I was trying to figure out. then I got a tape player that would slow the song down which helped a lot.When satchs first tape came out I was awestruck by the hordes of locus songs and rubina. I absorbed any tastful music I could find
Back then I was a full-on meth addict--just workig to support my habit and playing guitar all night long it was a very depressing existence
Then came JESUS and he transformed my life-I'll never go back
Now I get to play Rock style guitar at church and I love it
I started out wanting to be a rock star and soon found out that it was very satisfying to play stuff untill it became my own--Now I just enjoy playing and others enjoy my playing too.
do you know that feeling you get when you hear song or guitar part that just makes your hair stand on end? Thats where I like to operate--I know that it may be a different sound for all of us but we can all apprieciate good tastful guitar work
anyways now I have four little boys who all want to learn guitar ---Problem is --It takes practice and patience---we will see if they got what it takes.
MANITOU--thanks for the thread I enjoyed the responces--- Not many of us OLD GUYS LOL
BLESSINGS
PAUL WOGS858
4 boys :!: WAY TO GO...PAUL 8)
Ahhhhh...the good 'ol dayz. ( teary eyed..snif... emotional smile )
These youngsters don't know how good they have it. I use to have to walk 5 miles early in the winter morning, after feeding the chickens, horses, steer, hogs, hauling my guitar and gear on a sled up logging trails to town, where I'd meet with my band at the local FireHall where we had 'lectricity...and practice with cold fingers, constantly getting zapped from poor grounding. None of us could read music very well, but we knew some scales and what keys mostly fit rock music. We'd play records over and over slowly trying to pick out the chords and notes, and write down the words to the song, finally wearing out the grooves so bad...you couldn't tell a G# m7 from an Ab m7.
:shock:
I KNEW IT :!: Thank you for confirming a theory I've had, that playing guitar will increase your chances with the chic's!! :twisted:
You sound like a Poontang ropin' super hero!!
Well...you know what it says in the manuel...\"with great power, comes great responsibility.\"
God Bless you my friend...
I know the feeling...but take a tip from Old Sam.
Barnyard Roosters...Old Sam & Young Ernie.
Old Sam been getting long in the beak...every morning after crowing...he'd get hacking and coughing fits. During the day...he'd be nodding out about every 10 mins. and waking up with a start...looking to see if anyone noticed. Finally falling asleep so deep, he'd fall off his perch.
The Farmer noticed this, and decided to get old Sam some help. Came home from the stock auction one morning with young Ernie, and introduced him to Sam..... \"here Sam ....teach the boy the ropes.\"
Sam...walking with a bit of a limp from a broken toe that never healed right....took Ernie around...showing him the territory and perimeter under his control. Pointed out all the areas the fox, cats, possums, etc. like to come in...and all about that damn dog. (one what broke his toe) When that sumnabeech comes around...jump up and rip his darn face with those spurs!!....(muttering)..stinkin' dog.
Now here's the real work ya gotta do, and most important. Every day ya gotta round them hens up, after their scratch....'bout mid-day see....an ..........yeah,yeah...hens boy...now settle down and pay attendtion here....(pecking him on the side of the head)....I'm trying ta learn ya something here.
What I do see...is I line these hens all up across the paddock here, and start on one end and .........dammut,,,get off me boy!!!....I can see you got the idea...ya just do what's natural. Anna way.....see here..............thank you ma'am.............thank you ma'am............thank you ma'am.........right...now you get down to the other end and do I like do.
Ofcourse...Ernie more than excited, and energetic races down to the other end...thankie ma'am,thankie ma'am,thankie ma'am,thankie ma'am,thankie ma'am,thankiema'am...sorry Sam...thankiema'am,thankiema'am.
:oops:
all our \"humble\" beginnings seem at the time like trials and tribulation, and littered with horror or misgivings. Strange how looking back, they now seem so humorous...or nastalgic.
You reminded me of my breif and torturous experiance with my School Band, and it's sinister Music Teacher....who looked exactly like \"Snidely Whiplash\" on \"Rocky and Bullwinkle.\"
I wanted to play the saxaphone....but he was short-handed on trombone. I resisted learning like forcing a kid to eat broccoli. I got 76 Trombones figured out....but didn't learn tempo, or touch...everything was just blared out as loud as I could make it. The trombones worked the front of the Parades as we all know for obvious reasons. And of course I hated march music....but looked even more ridiculas in a stupid uniform 6 sizes too big for me....with saftey pins since you weren't allow to alter them otherwise. The Parades I got away with alot more faking it...since people could care less, or couldn't hear my off key senseless blaring.
But at indoor Concerts....oh Boy did I embarrass my family...and always got hit in the back of the head by the older boys behind me telling me to knock it off. I was suppose to just throw the slide around looking like I was playing....like Ashlee Simpson lip sync her songs...but I always got carried away, and blurted out horrible stuff.
I never got to play sax...actually never got invited back to the band again after that year. I hated Snidely anyway...more than he hated me.
That hurts, ok so I like to hang around with the musos and pose but c'mon man that's harsh.
More seriously, I started playing when I was about 25 or 26. Always wanted to just never had a guitar. My brother got given an acoustic and fiddled with it then passed it on to me. It only had four bottom string so that was how I learned. Couldn't afford music books or lessons so I was completely self taught, hell I didn't even know if my four strings were tuned properly but I worked out some chords. Later on (probably 6 months or so) I plucked up the courage to buy a complete set of strings and asked the guy next door to string it and tune it for me. He was my hero, he could play *gasp* lead. Had to relearn the chords since I now had an extra 2 strings so I had to work on new fingerings.
From that day on I never had any confidence as a guitarist since I didn't know the names of my chords (hell I invented them so they were MY chords LOL). Later as people started showing me lead lines I worked out scales and stuff but just gave them \"pet\" names.
After a couple of years I took some lessons (4 actually) and I managed to get him to teach me some scales and modes and got the correct names for them.
I remember going to him and saying, \"I found this scale, what do you think?\", and he would say, \"ah that's called the melodic minor\", or whatever. Jeez I'm getting embarresed just thinking about it.
I'm 46 now and I think I play a wee bit better than I did back then.... maybe.
Now it's all starting to make confusing sense to me.
Why do you remind me of BucketHead? is it near dinner time....erm ...wot? :?
I'm not use to having to figure things out...that's why there is a big L, and a big R on my shoes. I admire eccentric geniuses, it's just I don't recognize one when I meet one, or know if I would ever know one if I knew one, or would know if they knew I wouldn't know what they knew, and even if they knew, I wouldn't know.
Okay...you owe me a doubt, or a misunderstanding. No sucker punch tho...
I did say:
Okay...you owe me a doubt, or a misunderstanding. No sucker punch tho. WELL....that was fast. :? I didn't expect you to use it up so quickly. Now we're even.
I don't do dope. 8) I'm a Firefighter/EMT and a Professional Driver.
My music school upbringing was pretty much strictly classical, which might seem either good or bad, and is in fact a double-edged sword. When I first got into \"pop\" music, I listened to Elvis, the Beatles, Queen, and similar stuff - this was in the early 90s mind you. Heard alterna-rock for the first time when came to the states, around 1995 - got into classic rock more broadly (Zeppelin, Cream, etc) about then also. Late 90s - progressed to metal, \"shred\" etc, pretty much any aggressive, melodic rock. Now, will listen to/play anything I can comprehend (excludes Country) and/or learn (excludes post-modernism).
A Man of few words!
THAT is very rare these days, and is, as always, to be admired.
I can't help but envy your devotion and skills as an artiste.
I started young, but lacked discipline, and failed to understand my heart. I walked away from music, which I profoundly regret, as it should have been a foundation block in my life as it was meant to be.
I feel so good that I have found myself back involved with music. You know ....it's strange....but when I gave up guitar...I also stopped listening to music, be it on the radio...or, and even quit buying my personal favorites. I would drive a car clear accross the USA and not listen to a minute of music. I can't explain that.
I know I will live each day from here on with music, and it feels so good.
You meantioned you came to the states. Is your screen name a reflection of your heritage?
P.G.Shadow, (Party Guru)
Thanks for re-posting. I'm happy for everyones responses, and wish at this time to extend this welcome to anyone else who might enjoy sharing something more, or ask another member a question. As in my beginning post....( Anything you may like to share about yourself is welcome. )
It's nice getting better aquainted, and IMHO does build a sense of friendship.
I'm of course making replies to each guest, but out of courtesy, and opening up bits of myself each time. I've done enough of that, and probably even over done that. I hope some of you will feel welcome to return and I promise I won't clutter things up.
.... 8) unless you ask for more clutter....I have lots of dumpster grade primo clutter. 8)