Why I started playing guitar
Back in 1964 I was riding from Long Beach Island New Jersey to Haddonfield NJ with a carload of my hippy friends. One of them had these pills with a peace sign on them. He looked at me, then he said want to do some acid? I hesitated, and he said I only have 2 more, and I am going to do them if you don't want to. So I took one and looked at it, and soon popped it in my mouth.
After a 45 minute drive I started to peek a little, we went in to our friends apartment and I sat on a chair off to one side of the room silently, just watched the goings on, (none of which I had ever noticed before) Jay (who was the one who gave me the acid) came up behind me and clapped some ear phones onto my head and on the stereo was the Cream playing Crossroads. I never heard a sound like that before. I was hearing movements and motions in the music I had never noticed before.
Next day I went out and bought an acoustic guitar a Harmony cheapo for 25 bucks, later that day Jay came over to my house and taught me Sunshine Of Your Love, not the whole song but a single note riff that sounded something like the song.
Been playing ever since, and I still play Sunshine Of Your Love on guitar, and I have been working on a rhythm section so I can do that tune live.
After a 45 minute drive I started to peek a little, we went in to our friends apartment and I sat on a chair off to one side of the room silently, just watched the goings on, (none of which I had ever noticed before) Jay (who was the one who gave me the acid) came up behind me and clapped some ear phones onto my head and on the stereo was the Cream playing Crossroads. I never heard a sound like that before. I was hearing movements and motions in the music I had never noticed before.
Next day I went out and bought an acoustic guitar a Harmony cheapo for 25 bucks, later that day Jay came over to my house and taught me Sunshine Of Your Love, not the whole song but a single note riff that sounded something like the song.
Been playing ever since, and I still play Sunshine Of Your Love on guitar, and I have been working on a rhythm section so I can do that tune live.
Comments
One word: KISS
More succinctly, Ace Frehley. My first guitar was a Cherry Sunburst LP Copy from Key because that's what Ace played.
My brother and I along with some friends who lived next door built an elevated stage, complete with drum riser that stood 6' above the rest of the platform, in our back yard and would hold weekly 'air concerts'. We were the talk of the town. Of course, back then, that town only had maybe 3,000 people, and everyone knew everyone else on a first name basis. My taping smoke bombs to the back of my LP, or firing off bottle rockets from the head stock was all the rage. :P
I new early (by the age of 10) that I wanted to be a rock star. A mere 17 years later I finally gave up on that dream. And now 13 years after that I've found my niche, simply writing and recording in my own modest home studio.
I write music for me. No one else. If others like it, great. If not...no harm, no foul. I still had fun writing/recording.
I've occasionally toyed with the idea of forming a band again, but quickly after embarking upon the audition process I realize that the 'old dog > new tricks' adage applies. I'm too set in my ways to subject myself to band politics again. :P
Paul stanley with that black firebird on the front of ALIVE did it for for me :twisted: In the 4th grade I was riding with my Brother to school and he popped in the 8track of KISS ALIVE! Man that was the coolest thing I had ever heard and after that double live gonzo from Ted,2112,Thin Lizzy, Pat travers,Areosmith the onslaught of rock into my brain was non stop from then on. After doing the Bar gigs for about 10 years( 85-99) I went back to school and am now a certified geek, but this new technology in recent years has allowed me to have my own (humble as it may be) home studio and opened up a way for me to write play and make a living at the same time :P
I am with you in the fact that I write and play for me now, not for some bar owner who wants me to sing whatever stuff happens to be selling at the time. The opinions of other musicians here on this forum has also been a great way to gain perspective and have fun with my writing as well
But my first album purchase was Houses of the Holy. I really wanted a song that I heard from Led Zeppelin that had a title like \"Gateway to heaven\" :oops:
When I got it home, I put the album on, and was sad when I found out that song wasn't on the album. But after a few times listening to the album, I started to love it, especially a song called \"the ocean\". I had no idea what the lyrics meant (still don't :roll: ), but I loved it all the same.
A few months later, I heard an album that my friend's older brother had. It was Deep Purple Machine Head. That was it. I became a huge Ritchie Blackmore fan, and I had to save my money to buy a Stratocaster.
Quite a few years later, my first (electric) guitar was a white strat like Ritchie's. I soon realized that I could not play any of his stuff, I could play the notes, but the flow was just not there. I never quit. I'm still trying today :oops:
When I started lessons, my instructor insisted that I learn things like \"Home on the Range\" in the Mel Bay book, so I hear ya Guitar3456.
Hey ODannyBoy, I love your songs in the contest. Did you write the one about the robber?
I was hooked.
Then the whole rockabilly (Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis, Chuck Berry) thing hit the airwaves and I really started listening. Motown was out there as well and what can you say about Martha Raye,Sam Cooke, Sam & Dave, Jr. Walker etc... except \"Fabulous\".
Now I was really getting interested in music and was thinking seriously about playing the guitar.
What finally pushed me over the edge and made me beg endlessly for a guitar was the English invasion. Beatles, Rolling Stones, Herman's Hermits, Kink, the list goes on and on.... Like AC, I dig the stones.
Dad finally relented and bought me a $20.00 Kay. I thought I had died and went to heaven. Before long I was playing \"House of the Rising sun\", \"Honky Tonk\", \"Walk Don't Run\", \"Wipeout\", and picking up about everything that came out on the radio in all formats. Johnny Cash's \"Folsom Prison Blues\" was also a favorite of mine. To this day I still sit down and play that tune. Kind of makes you want to \"Hang your head and cry\".
Like DesertBluesMan I heard Cream and started investigating Blues. I was thrilled to discover that Robert Johnson was born in my home town, Hazlehust Mississippi. I really started to get into all those old blues cats. \"Blind lemon Jefferson, Son House\" among others.
The guy who really got me playing electric though was Hendrix. I remember my buddy called me and said, \"Man, You have got to get over here and listen to this LP. The LP turned out to be Electric Ladyland. I can still close my eyes and hear \"1983 a Merman I should turn to be\". Totally blew my mind. Saved my pennies and bought a 1968 deluxe gold top for $379.00 in 1969. I still own that guitar and I love every scratch and ding in it. It's seen it's better days as a player (I pretty much played it out) I've had people say \"Get a fret Job, Put a new fingerboard on it\" but I just can't stand to change one thing about it. Too many memories.
Like DannyBoy, I did the whole bar scene. Off to music school, obtained my degree, cultivated a love for jazz and classical. Came back from music school and right back to the bar scene. Get's old, doesn't it Danny.
A few more years in the clubs and I said \"Hell with it\" went out a got a \"REAL :?: \" job. Just put it down for about 20 years. My old buddy who turned me on to Hendrix all those years ago located me about a year ago and told me about the death of his mother. After meeting up with him I started getting the bug again and finally bought a beautiful, new, blonde, ES175. Just play for myself now and I really enjoy it.
Enjoy this Board and all the good people on it as well. Thanks digitech for your product and giving people a forum to exchange ideas from.
Thanks and sorry about the diarreah of the word processor,
Tal
Hey ODannyBoy, I love your songs in the contest. Did you write the one about the robber
Hey thanks ACWILD...Yes I wrote everything entered in the contest.
I guess no more enties for me because I now plug my GNX into a mbox
TAL RULES:
Like DannyBoy, I did the whole bar scene. Off to music school, obtained my degree, cultivated a love for jazz and classical. Came back from music school and right back to the bar scene. Get's old, doesn't it Danny.
Off to music school :?: I am not nearly as acomplished as you. I just gotta a MCSE and went to work :oops: that must have been a awsome experiance now you have all those great tools to work with for the rest of your life
Quote from ODannyBoy
\"I am not nearly as acomplished as you. I just gotta a MCSE and went to work \"
In retrospect, I wish I would have done the same.
As for now I get pretty frustrated with my playing at times. That nearly 25 year lay off gets me at times. Not near as crisp and clean as I used to be and have to think a lot of times about key changes during solos that I used to play in my sleep. Not being able to play as fast bothers me as well. The positive side is that I can see improvement and if I put another year or so in (I'm Hoping) I can get back to my previous level and continue on.
Once again,
Thanks,
Tal
Two years ago id stopped getting high and hanging around with the ne'er dowells i used to - and as a consequence had a huge gap in my time - which i filled with a strat copy an rp100 and tascam porta studio - been upgrading digitech pedals ever since!!! id love to be a great player but i lack the discipline to get down and dirty with the theory, so i just play for fun really - i think that if i try and record stuff a bit above my ability id have to improve just to get the take right.
See Ya,
keep up the good work,
Tal
I always wanted to have a band with my brothers but unfortunately we never did that and today I am the only musician in our family
Gwar
I use to live at the club (The Toy Tiger) starting at about 17 yrs old.
Got my first guitar at 18.
Now at church I get to play with a killer sound system, lights, fog, good sound man... it is awesome! and best of all, we have so much FREEDOM at our church!! I mean, we REALLY rock on some stuff!!
I just need to practice more, but haven't made the time. God deserves better, I got to practice more!!
Anywho, I think God for all the fun I get to have and I get blessed and get to bless others!
The next week I bought a use cat gut guitar,with the action sooo high,you could limbo under the strings,and as Brian Adams said\"played it till my fingers bleed\",really! Started to realize that some bands used the same chord progressions for most of there songs(ie,ZZ Top,Cult,AC/DC) and I was off and runnin.Bought my first electric about 4mths later and trashed the old finger buster.Then the \"NEO Classical fusion Metal\" era started,Steve Via,Vinnie Moore,Greg Howe,and said screw this,these guys are nuts,and took up the bass,lol
Now,I'm just rambling on and on here,so I'll leave it at that. NEXT!?
heck - i even heard Hendrix played Bass 1st when he was little!
it just a Mindf*** when you go to the guitar and that darn b string is a semi tone out = that's hard for bass players y'know??
i had an argument with a bassplayer recently - he claimed bass was tougher than guitar as its a rythm instrument and a melodic instrument at the same time.
I told him i knew where he was coming from but that he was WRONG!
a 6 string is a rythmic and melodic instrument too - and half the size with more damn strings on it!! 'course its more difficult!!
Then came Alive 1. I flat-out wanted a Cherry Sunburst LP. I always said to myself \"Someday...i'll get it\" I went through 3 guitars and about 25 years and i finally got it. It wasnt out of necessity or love....well, maybe it was out of love, just a different kind of love. I bought my oldest daughter a \"strat pack\" for christmas 2 years ago, and she got really pissed because she never got to play it...not because she couldnt play, but because i was on it all the time. So after hearing her plead, beg, and cry about it for a week or so, i got to thinkin. I said to myself, 'dude, you aint never gonna get any piece and quiet as long as she keeps yappin'. Needless to say i bought a Cherry Sunburst LP the next day....and have never looked back. so you could say it was out of a daughters love that i got my dream guitar.
in short i started playing cause my dad did and i now play because i like it.
Man, I remember doing the drum riser thing ourselves (we used a whole bunch of milk crates tied together). Naturally, we evolved musically and began writing our own music and playing the local scenes.
Those were some fun days.
I didn't have any interest in guitar, but was banging around on drums when I went into the Navy. sometime during my second year, I met a picker that wanted some way to amplify his guitar. I started working in electronics when I was a little kid, so I said no problem. Then I designed a single transistor transmitter and an Xtal mike that fit inside of his guitar. He could then tune his portable radio to a blank spot on the dial, and then tune his guitar to the same frequency, then simply turn up the volume on the radio and play his heart out. That rig sounded so good! Everyone fussed over it so much that I decided I also had to have a guitar so I could do that.
I went on shore and bought a $13.00 Stella guitar, but before I did the modification, I thought I should learn a song. Being tone deaf, it wasn't easy! But I learned one, and became so excited I learned another.. and another. Then I went out and bought a guitar that had strings closer than 3\" from the fingerboard. It was a single pickup Gibson Melody Maker. With that guitar I was able to keep up with all the new guitar songs of the day.
Then someone said I wouldn't be a real guitar picker until I could finger pick, like Chet Atkins. Like Chet who?
A year later I was going through a park and heard some music. It was a lone guitar picker, but it sounded like he was playing several guitars at once! Ah HA!! Now I knew what that Chet Atkins fella did! With a lot of effort, it wasn't long before the pieces began fitting, and I could pick finger style guitar.
When I got out of the service and back home I was hounded to go to every jam session in the city. I went to jam, but they would end up asking me to play all my stuff instead. Not fun. I began to get wise and figured out that I was cheap intertainment for the local musicians.
One day I was out on the town with a friend that played bass in a band. We shot pool and drank all day. By the time he was supposed to play, he asked me to play for him. I said I didn't know anything about a bass guitar, so I couldn't. Then he told me what it paid, and I said OK, I'll try it. Well, naturally it went very smoothly, and the next day he asked if I would take over the gig for him, and he would let me use his gear until I bought my own.
I was sucked into playing bass for the next 5 years, and not many peeps even knew I played guitar untill one night when the lead man didn't show up. { Not his fault... the boss said he didn't need a band that night but changed his mind. } There was a bass player in the crowd, so I picked up the lead guitar to save our jobs. About an hour into the gig the lead player walked in and heard us, and vowed never to pick lead in the band again. But I didn't like that idea, so we decided to split 3 & 2 every night. That was a good deal for both of us, and it gave the band a lot of styles that it wouldn't have had if it wasn't for that incident.
Then I burned out after picking for only about 12 years. Jesus told me to get out of the bars, and I did. I was burned out, sick of plaing what I didn't want to play, in places I didn't want to play in, and for people I didn't want to play for. Didn't want to learn any more songs, and was sick of the ones I already knew. That was the proverbial brick wall and I had hit it full force and I hung up my guitars for good..
35 years later a friend of mine convinced me to start picking again. He did it by sending expensive guitars to me untill I got hooked. So now I jam and do a little recording on my DAW. Funny thing. I never missed music at all. If it was not for Donny, I never would have ever picked up a guitar again. But now I'm pretty happy I did. Met a lot of nice peeps on line in several forums, and met a lot of local musicians as well.
The funniest part of all is that I had all new friends in the last 35 years, and they weren't aware that I ever played guitar until I picked it up one day and started gettin down wif my bad self.