Starting out

[Kap'n]

1. What's the first stuff you learned on guitar?
2. What year was it?
3. Did you have lessons?
4. Was it on your own guitar, or a borrowed one?
5. What was it?
6. How did you feel?

I'll start...

It was 1976 or '77. One of my friends, Frank, had just picked up guitar. My brother had a cheapo classical guitar sitting around that he'd borrowed from his girlfriend's dad. He was gonna learn how to play, but never got around to it. There were two 50's Mel Bay books inside, with the red covers (I've still got them). Somebody had crossed out the fingering for the G chord, and remarked it as being played with index, middle and ring fingers - a playing deficit I still haven't recovered from. The two things I picked out by ear were the intro to "Roundabout" and "House of the Rising Sun." It probably took months.

Man, I felt like I was the coolest thing in the world.

Frank wanted me to play bass in his band. Stuff that was relatively new, like "Can't You See," "Needle and the Spoon," and "Freebird." Got myself a Telestar Bass, a Univox 100W head and a Sunn 2x15 folded horn cabinet that weighed as much as a refrigerator.

I sucked on bass. I mean, really sucked. To be fair, we didn't have a drummer.

[JAM]

1 - 5
Actually, I started on harp (harmonica) about 1968, Sonny Terry, Sonny Boy Williamson (both of them), James Cotton etc. were my heroes. Then I saw an album by Jimmy Reed, (IIRC) and he had one of those things around his neck where you could play harp and guitar. My brother had a cheap ass guitar around so I got one of the neck holders and learned some basic chords so I could play the guitar and harp together. Well at least I tried, just couldn't get it in sync but found I dug the guitar. So my attention turned toward blues guys (delta players), Son House, Robert Johnson and Blind Boy Fuller, (I'm a rattlesnaking daddy!).

The first band I played with did J. Geils, Mike Bloomfield (Electric Flag?) and Savoy Brown stuff. Then I joined the high school jazz band, and met all these horn players that were into Miles Davis, Coltrane and that stuff completely blew me away. When I was a senior in high School (1974) started lessons with the awesome Jimmy Wyble and with Jimmy worked on reading and more jazz stuff.

In college played with a funk band that did Earth, Wind and Fire, Crusaders (I'm a big Larry Carlton fan), Average White Band, Chaka Kahn, Tower of Power (I dig Bruce Conte's playing) and like that.

In 1978 Tony Rizzi asked me to take Mike Rosati's place in the 5 guitar band and I played with the band until 1984. All the parts are written out (single notes, absolute bears to read), most were harmonized Charlie Christian solos, met a lot of great players during that period.

6. It felt great and still does!

[Bonzo Moon]

1 Little Black Egg
2 1966 I think
3 NO
4 Yes
5 Sears
6 Like crap. My brother learned Classical Gas.

I took up drums.

peace, y'all
BM

[boobtube21]

It was the spring of '89. My friend Brandon finally got me off the Micheal Jackson wagon and introduced me to the world of Heavy Metal via: Def Leppard.

He had a guitar laying around, and played a little, and I thought that was pretty cool. I asked my mom if I could take lessons where he had taken them, and much to my surprise she was all for it. The first song I learned on my new nylon string guitar was...Tom Dooley.

After I got good I brought my guitar to school one day and I did feel pretty cool blowing away a classroom full of 5th graders with "Sweet Child 'o Mine"!

A lifelong (so far) obsession inevitably followed, and took me places most people I know have never been.

[fezz parka]

1. Folk songs, pop song, whatever I could figure out.

2. 1964. I used to watch a lot of TV and really enjoyed the musical segments in Ozzie & Harriet. That baited the hook. Then I saw The Beatles on Sullivan. I was hooked then. Went to Al Casey's Music Room and got me a 'letric geetar.

3. I had a few lessons on my first acoustic guitar from Barney Kessell. This was Pre-Beatles.:hee
Post Beatles: Howard Roberts would show me stuff when he'd come over for dinner.

4 & 5. My First real guitar was a 3/4 size acoustic that my Dad got me from Barney Kessell's Music Shop. My first electric was a Teisco, second was a Silvertone/Danelectro (which I still have), third was a Tele.

6. I felt like I had found my voice. My way of expressing myself. Like I found a friend that I'd always have. Like I had found me...

[boobtube21]

I felt like I had found my voice. My way of expressing myself. Like I found a friend that I'd always have. Like I had found me...

.

[Bonzo Moon]

Def Leppard and Heavy Metal in the same sentence?

That's hillarious!

I liked the band, but they were pop-metal at best.

peace
BM

[Hornchurch]

1. What's the first stuff you learned on guitar?
2. What year was it?
3. Did you have lessons?
4. Was it on your own guitar, or a borrowed one?
5. What was it?
6. How did you feel?

There were two 50's Mel Bay books inside, with the red covers (I've still got them).
The two things I picked out by ear were the intro to "Roundabout" and "House of the Rising Sun."

The first thing I ever learned properly (& played fluently) was a variational part of 'Keep On Chooglin' by John Fogarty, from the album 'Creedence Live'.
It sounded great & certainly impressed the gorgeous looking girls I used to mix with at the local church......despite being played on a REALLY crap 'Kay' Strat lookalike - more ornament, than instrument.

Also learned the SUPERB solo (central section) of 'Firth of Fifth' by Genesis (from the Peter Gabriel era-album'Selling England By The Pound') plus odds & bits from 'Dark Side of the Moon' (Pink Floyd).

Late 'seventies - no lessons - self taught (by ear).....except a lovely natured Asian guy, Tom (now in N.Z.) showed us young guys at the church, SIX chords A/D/E & C/F/G.

Youthful enthusiasm coupled with regular guitar practices(HONEST ;) with the second prettiest girl there.....& within six months we were playing in the church, regularly.
Within a year, bought a '77 (CBS) Telecaster that cost MORE than my first car (Sunbeam Rapier Fastback).....& playing through a Fender Twin Reverb that the Pastor had bought secondhand.

Jimmy Page (Chords & Phrasing)was main influence - obsessed with 'You Shook Me', 'What Is & What Should Never Be' & 'Over the Hills + Far Away' & 'Ten Years Gone' (I,II, Houses & Physical Graffiti)

After two months - mail ordered a chord book 'elementaryGuitar Chords by Mel Bay' (1959, Kirkwood Missouri) - Red + black cover :spin (sitting here next to me now in aged condition held together by tape !!!).....I presume it's the same/similar that you used Kap'n???
My 14 year old son also learned chords from this very book.

Was the "intro/Roundabout" by Yes from the 1971 album, Fragile ??

[boobtube21]

Def Leppard and Heavy Metal in the same sentence?

That's hillarious!

I liked the band, but they were pop-metal at best.

peace
BM

LOL! I know, man. But that's what it was to us at the time.

[Kap'n]

After two months - mail ordered a chord book 'elementaryGuitar Chords by Mel Bay' (1959, Kirkwood Missouri) - Red + black cover :spin (sitting here next to me now in aged condition held together by tape !!!).....I presume it's the same/similar that you used Kap'n???
My 14 year old son also learned chords from this very book.

Was the "intro/Roundabout" by Yes from the 1971 album, Fragile ??

Yes. That's one of them. Nice D'Angelico in there!

That was the inttro. Lots of good techniques to learn in there. Harmonices, hammer ons, pull offs, and using four fingers.

[Don]

1. What's the first stuff you learned on guitar?
2. What year was it?
3. Did you have lessons?
4. Was it on your own guitar, or a borrowed one?
5. What was it?
6. How did you feel?

1. I remember learning The Volga Boatman in my lesson book. My first real song was American Pie. I seem to remember some radio stations banning it at the time. My friend and I played the Mexican Hat Dance in sombreros and ponchos at a school talent show.

2. 1971. I started late compared to most of you relics!:)

3. Yes. I had lessons. I was 8 years old, very fidgety and it was hot in there. After my lesson I could walk to my grand parents house.

4. I had my own guitar.

5. It was a 3/4 Harmony acoustic. I still have it. My initials are scribbled on the inside.

6. I liked it but only stuck with it for a year or so. I went back when I discovered Clapton when I was 15.
That beginning experience has lasted a lifetime and I'm very grateful to my parents for it.

[Mikey]

My first "song" on the guitar was actually four riffs given to me by Duane Eddy. He showed me on his red Gretsch whatever it was. I played those connected to each other over and over and over. This was in 1958. I used his hard case as a hand drum. A couple years later I bought an Epiphone acoustic of some sort and started doing a bunch of folk and rockabilly rhythm stuff, then ordered a custom made 12 string acoustic from a dutch company. Played a bunch of British Invasion songs until I lost all my gear in the flood of 72 down in Corning, N.Y.
Guitar was always a second instrument for me as I was into drums very early. I still mess around with guitars, but that's about it.

[telecast]

1. What's the first stuff you learned on guitar?

Folk songs, campfire tunes.

What year was it?

March of 1980. I was already 22 and had not messed with a guitar before, having been focused on drums since I was very young.

Did you have lessons?

The guy next door bought a Yamaha acoustic and I decided I wanted to learn. I took a few lessons at the local music store where I worked part-time, but found I could get more value from jamming around. The music store is where I learned a lot of tech stuff.

Was it on your own guitar, or a borrowed one?

My own.

What was it?

Because I worked at a music store, I was able to get a good deal on an Alvarez Acoustic. I still have it, and it sounds incredible these 25 years gone. About 3 months later I bought an Electra LP knock off. I wish I still had it, what a great guitar.


How did you feel?

Like the king of the world.

By November of that same year I was on-stage playing in a country/rock band, sharing solos. The recession was in full-swing, and there was no work in SE Mich, not even worth looking for a job, you couldn't buy one. My work at the (full service) music store was mainly doing car-stereo installations, although I helped on the floor and eventually doing set-ups. But early on, if there was no installation I didn't work. On those days, I couldn't put the guitar down. I played (literally) until my fingers bled. I'd get up in the morning, grab a coffee and my guitar and start jamming. The next thing I knew, it would be 4:00 in the afternoon, and I was still in my undies on the couch, playing. This went on for a long, long time. The result of that was a very steep curve on the learning graph. Every day I'd find something new that I couldn't wait to show my jamming buddies, which eventually led to me finding new jamming buddies since I surpassed the casual players.

I felt like I could do anything. Every time I made a step forward or had a major accomplishment, I wanted to take the next step right then and there, so I kept playing. And playing, and playing. It was so much a part of me that I felt lost when I actually HAD to set it down and do something non-guitar related.

To this day, I still play my wife's arm in my sleep occassionally. I do chord formations on her arm. It used to be all the time, but lately it's less frequent.

[moonpie]

In 1963, my brother was stationed in Germany. I was 11 and had wanted a guitar since I first heard "Don't be Cruel" on the radio. He came home on leave for a month and brought a beautiful Framus 12 string with him. He and another GI had taken leave at the same time. The friend stayed with us for a couple of days before traveling on to his home. He also had a Framus.
What a beauty! It was a six string cutaway and he could play. My brother couldn't and still can't.
Brother would stumble out basic chords while Buddy sounded like that guy that played with Elvis and Ricky Nelson and that ever so cool dude backing up Buck Owens on the Grand Ole Opry back when it was indeed Grand but I digress which I am known to do so I'll go on with the tale........sorry...I learned to do an Am C and G7 by watching Brother's hands. I wasn't allowed to touch the guitar. Buddy let me hold his for a couple of minutes. I felt like I was in heaven. I knew right then I would be a guitar player, throwing his life away in smoky bars with loose women showing their tits to me while I slaved at day jobs, jumping from career to career to fill in between gigs, never finding anything that was worth the sacrifice of leaving heaven for. OK, my mind wandered a bit on that last sentence. Not sure if that was long ago fantasy or present day memory.

Well, Buddy moved on, taking that gorgeous f-hole archtop and heaven with him. Now I was left with my brother who couldn't play, wouldn't let me touch his guitar and was a real asshole.
Every second Brother spent away from the house I had that guitar in my lap. He'd come home, catch me with his guitar and beat my ass. He was a mean sunuvabitch.

The next 28 days were hell, except for the time when he was gone and I had that guitar in my hands, and besides, I wouldn't let him catch me this time. Well, he went back to Germany. I got my own Silvertone the next summer.

We worked these differences out when I was 18. He threatened me in my sister's house. My sister and his wife lived together in a house a few doors down from my folks while both their husbands were in Nam. I was visting my sister and 2 year old nephew. Brother yelled at me to get out. I looked at him as if to say "HUH?" His wife said "You better get now, if you know what's good for you, he means it." I never really liked either one of them.

I calmly said "I wasn't here to see y'all. I came to see Pat and Kenny. (Kenny was named after our brother Ken, who had died in Nam)
I'm gonna go now, cause I don't want to make a big mess in here, but when you're ready to get your ass beat, you trot on up to the house."

I thought it was very mature of me. I wanted to hurt him. I wanted to scream

''''HA HA HA. I'M A GUITAR PLAYER AND YOU'RE STILL JUST A WANNABE!!!!"

He came up and apologized later that evening.


Never had lessons...picked up a bit here and there from friends in high school.
First Song learned? In 66, my sister's boyfriend showed me how to make an F and play Blowin' in the Wind.

[gibsonjunkie]

1. What's the first stuff you learned on guitar?

I started out learning a few chords and immediatly started writing my own stuff. Never really did learn to play anyone else's stuff (ecept a few favorites).

2. What year was it? 1971

3. Did you have lessons? No, but I did date a girl who showed me the basics. I also took lessons on my mom's Hammond Organ for about 6 years - back in the late 60's.

4. Was it on your own guitar, or a borrowed one? I bought one.

5. What was it? a 3/4 sized Harmony acoustic - bought it for $50 new. A year later I worked all summer to buy a Gibson J-40 Acoustic which I still play from time to time.

6. How did you feel? Once I could start expressing myself in song I felt unbelievable. Especially those really terrific moments when a song found me, rather than the opposite....

[Jesse S.]

Hey, Kap'n, great thread - thanks!

I started playing guitar somewhere around 1990. I was 14 or 15 (sophomore year). I had been really getting into the Beatles the last year or so (my Dad had all the albums). My Dad had played in a R&R band back when he was a lad, and still strummed around on occasion, so I asked him to teach me. He showed me the basic cowboy chords and barre chords, and let me borrow his acoustic guitar to practice on. I don't remember the first songs I played, but I think they were things like "The Sound of Silence", "Love Me Do" and other Beatles songs, etc. Dad got me "The Guitar Handbook" and a complete Beatles songbook, and I would just go through the songbook and play and sing, and learn new chords whenever they came up. I think that's how I learned a lot of my initial music theory. That's as much of formal guitar lessons as I ever got.

Dad got me my own guitar, a Yamaha FG-something acoustic, and we bought a 4-track tape recorder and did some recording together and separately. I wrote and recorded some tunes and as I didn't have an electric guitar, I used my Dad's old 12-string Rickenbacker, which made for an interesting sound!

The first tune I ever learned "by ear" was "Wish You Were Here". Dad and I sat down with the CD and figured out the introductory solo. I'm still proud of that!

Unlike a lot of guys, I never picked up the guitar to impress girls or to be cool, except in my own estimation. I just wanted to do my John Lennon imitation and play "Norwegian Wood".

When I was in college, I bought a MIM Strat and P-Bass (for the 4-track recordings), but the acoustic was my main guitar. I stopped playing for a long time after college, and it wasn't really until the beginning of 2005 that I decided to really get back into it. This time I'm much more focused on the electric.

It's funny... even though I had more time and energy to play when I was younger, the theory and patterns seem to make more sense to me now, and in the past year, I've definitely made huge advances in my playing and understanding of music and of my instrument. And in some weird way, I almost think I appreciate my musicianship more now. I'm not a "religious" person, but for me, music is the most spiritual activity I know of - there's something very mystical about it to me.

[frank thomson]

What's the first stuff you learned on guitar? ......WIPEOUT, TCB, WHERE WOULD U B NOW(DOOBIE.BROS.)

What year was it? ..........MID 70'S?

Did you have lessons? ........NOPE

Was it on your own guitar, or a borrowed one? ......MINE

What was it? .............??..STILL GOT IT AND REALLY DON'T KNOW...A DANO/SILVERTONE COPY(!) LOL....

How did you feel? ........LIKE GOD WOULD FEEL IF HE COULD PLAY GUITAR!:lol


I can still remember the first time i plugged-in and hit a power chord. I almost had to change my pants. Right up there w/ my first orgasm, or the first time I felt a NASCAR car blow by me @ 100 ft distance. Virtually indescribable.

:)

[Fripperton]

# What's the first stuff you learned on guitar?

Basic chording and simple lead lines from some Mel Bay books and a few others.


# What year was it?

I got my guitar for my 13th birthday (after pestering my parents for a year and a half) so it was 1966. I wanted one ever since seeing the Beverly Hillbillies episode where Jethro brings a band home to play for a party. When Jed opened the guitar case and pulled out that solidbody guitar stared at it and strummed it unplugged I was hooked.


# Did you have lessons?


Yes I started with the instructor at the music store who had this big blonde Gibson archtop. I remember his name was Dave and he died about 2 months after I started taking lessons. I went through a few other instructors and eventually ended up taking lessons from a local McKeesport legend Dan Breda. He was an old schoolmate of my dad's and played guitar, violin, piano and just about every string instrument I was aware of. He was also the teacher at the Junior High School I was attending. He had a Harmony Roy Smeck Es-335 type guitar and played it through a BF Fender Vibrolux.


# Was it on your own guitar, or a borrowed one?

The music store in our neighborhood had a "rent to own" program. You paid a few bucks along with the lessons each week and after about 2 months the guitar was yours.

# What was it?

A steel string flat top classical sized instrument made by Suzuki. Wish I still had it. I loved the smell when I opened the case. After about 6 months I traded it in at the store for a Harmony acoustic archtop. I played that for a few more months and added a Dearmond pickup to it. I saved up from my paper route and eventually bought my first electric, a 1967 Gretsch Tennessean. It came with a hardshell case and was $400 but because I was taking lessons from one of the store's instructors I got a 10% discount.



# How did you feel?


Like the luckiest kid in the world. My whole life and career was ahead of me and going great.

[moonpie]

Great thread Kap'n. I just got back from giving my brother a long overdue ass kicking.

[MMP]

I listened to the folkie stuff on the radio when I was 8. Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Peter Paul & Mary. I saw the cowboy guys on tv when I was 10. Buck Owens, Cowboy Weaver (local Dallas show) Porter Wagner and such. I saw the Beatles on Ed Sullivan when I was 11. That was it for me. I got a Silvertone classical and took 4 lessons at a local music store. Next a friend showed me barre chords and how to play We Gotta Get Out Of This Place.
I worked out Daytripper and Proud Mary for my self. I was so proud. I started a band with a friend. There were no bass players where I went to school but a bunch of guitar guys. I switched to bass and bought a 66 P bass and a BF Fender Bassman w/2x12 cab. I played in 5 bands through high school, 3 at the same time. I was busy.
When I was 20 I met a guy who repaired guitars and talked him into teaching me. I got my first steel string acoustic when I was 28. I still have it. Guild F50-BL.
Another friend asked me if I wanted to play rhythm guitar in a band that did all originals. they needed a guitar player since he was the bass player. The lead guitarist and I have been writing and playing ever since. I still repair fretted instruments for a living. I turned 53 in October. Guitars have been a life long addiction for me.
You should all just set down your guitars and walk away before it's too late, but I can see by the look on your faces that you won't. so just keep on pickin' and

[JeffreyG]

What's the first stuff you learned on guitar? Wild thing and a very simplified version of Sunshine of your love (taught by a friends dad).

What year was it? 1992 (I'm the pup in this thread so far)

Did you have lessons? I went to a beginning guitar class, later I took bass guitar lessons for a while. I had tons of lessons on Upright bass in college.

Was it on your own guitar, or a borrowed one? My mom had an acoustic she bought in the early 70's, that's what I started on.I bought my first bass with my first paycheck from my first job.

What was it? A Lyle flat-top steel string, I still have it and it's a pretty good guitar. My first bass was a Harmony P-bass copy, I still have it and it's a piece of crap.

How did you feel? I don't know, it just felt right. Like it was something I was meant to do.

[NeoFauve]

2. What's the first stuff you learned on guitar?
3. What year was it?
4. Did you have lessons?
5. Was it on your own guitar, or a borrowed one?
6. What was it?
7. How did you feel?

On my sister's Harmony acoustic, I figured out the "Smoke On The Water" riff, on one string. This is in the early 70's I was btw 5&7 years old. I also figured out the melody to a 3 Dog Night song, "Black and White(?)." I think I played that on 3 open strings, and my sister insisted I was really playing "My Dog Has Fleas.":%
That guitar, since it was in our house, was probably from Sears like almost everything. It was orange, with a silkscreened AAAAA flamey grain and it a had a trapeze tailpiece.
I thought I was really doing something with those open strings, whatever damn song it really was.
When I was 13 or so I took lessons at Lou's Music Land, sporadically, for what probably amounted to a little over a year. By then I'd upgraded to a Beltone acoustic, acquired at a tag sale. Really high action.
The second teacher I had looked hauntingly like Eric Clapton during his Derek phase. He used a ble Mel Bay book for scales and exercises, which I think I still have. Highlights include my first 12-bar blues progression, which I excitedly played as a 13-bar blues, and when I learned some barre chords he taught me "Let The Good Times Roll" (The Cars), "Sugaree".
He also taught be "Black Dog" using tab.:wail2
The cool thing was getting a handle on songs I actually recognized.
After that I'd find songs in my other sister's organ books. If the chord names were shown above the staff I could learn a Beatles song or some such.
I was really gone when I bought the "Led Zeppelin Complete" book. The mother lode of the devil's tab.

[mmcquain]

What's the first stuff you learned on guitar?

Boogie Woogie blues pattern my grandfather showed me. He also showed me some old stuff like "Frankie and Johnny". The first rock stuff I learned was the arppeggio (right hand piano) intro to "Free Bird". The guy I would jam with would try to play lead and I'd play the rhythm parts. Later we learned things like:

* Skynyrd - Sweet Home Ala, Needle & The Spoon
* Molly Hatchet - Good Rockin, Dreams I'll Never See, The Rambler
* April Wine - Sign of the Gypsy Queen
* Donnie Iris - Ah Leah
* Santana - Black Magic Woman (I played lead)
* Claptop - Wonderful Tonight
* Free - All Right Now

What year was it?

1976/1977

Did you have lessons?

Yes, from 1977-78. I then worked in the same music store during high school and college and would pickup things along the way from the owner (a former professional guitarist and session player).

Was it on your own guitar, or a borrowed one? What was it?

When I told my parents I wanted to learn to play they agreed to buy me an amp if I saved up the money for a guitar. I started with a Les Paul copy from the Wards catalog for a year. Then my teacher (see above) loaned me a 1973 Les Paul Custom 20th Anniversary model as he thought I needed a better guitar. He is a collector (over 100 guitars at last count) and this particular LP made the rounds amoung a group of us who learned from/played together over the years. It is also the smoothest playing guitar I've ever seen - super low frets (Fretless Wonder!) and I'd love to have it now but he won't part with it. ;) Once I saved up enough money I bought my own LP (a used wine red 1975 Standard).

How did you feel?

I loved the Custom I'd had on loan but I could never "bond" with the Standard I bought so I ended up selling it and got an Aria Pro Knight Warrior (Strat style with a Kahler trem) and then a MIDI guitar (Casio strat copy like Stanley Jordan used). Playing always felt great but after college my interests were more on the computer and technical end of things and then I ended up selling my guitar, amp, etc. and spent about 3-4 years with nothing (but the music bug was always there under the surface). I then decided to get back to my "roots" and got a nice Les Paul Custom and amp. This started me down the path with lots of GAS along the way and in the past 10 years I've been thru 2 Pauls, 5 Strats, 2 Teles, 3 acoustics, a Lucille, and a few others. Right now I have 3 guitars (LP Custom Plus, Deluxe Players Strat, Ovation acoustic/electric) and I'm seriously GASing for a Nashville Tele and a CS-356 Gibson! I just have to keep the wife happy and not over do the GAS thing! ;)

[Kap'n]

Cool stories, folks!

[detuned]

1. What's the first stuff you learned on guitar?

Mel Bay, baby!

2. What year was it?

That would be somewhere in the winter of '71, '72.

3. Did you have lessons?

Yes I did. A very kind & patient man named Rob Phelps. Kept with it for a year or so, then stopped lessons. Kept playing a little longer, then gave it up for several years. Picked it back up at 14 or so...

4. Was it on your own guitar, or a borrowed one?

Shared it with my dad & sister.

5. What was it?

A Gianini nylon string acoustic.

6. How did you feel?

Excited. There was so much to discover when you have no preconceived notions of what's possible. That feeling is much harder to find now (though I love playing as much as ever) without a lot of work. Things that are hardwired (ruts) into me tend to take over instead of real discovery.

I hope that made some kind of sense...

[shoebox22]

I was/am originally a pianist. Started playing piano as soon as I could reach the keys of my grandmother's mahoghany spinet. Begged for lessons and FINALLY talked my parents into it in grade school. (They had already wasted money on my sister who wouldn't practice so I suffered for everything she got to do first and never finished. :! )

Anyway, I bought an accoustic guitar at age 14 (1969) and an instructional LP. Already had lots of sheet music with guitar tabs.

Then in college I took a quickie course again (1974) just to keep my hand in as there was a time..... (and maybe a guy I wanted to impress).

The original guitar got ruined in a disaster at my house years ago.

However, I now have a husband with mucho guitars and talent and I've bought another accoustic guitar, inherited that mahoghany spinet piano, and now also am learning to play the new bass I've picked up, too.

Life is good.

[Gris]

1 - some pyschodelic Hendrix
2 - maybe 68-69
3 - no lessons, it was strictly pick the needle up again, and again
4 - all mine!
5- worked all summer painting hosues to buy a brand new suburst strat w maple neck. picked it over the objection of my mom's boss at recording studio who counseled me to spend my $150 on the "old (yuk) white late 50s tele sitting lonely in the corner. nevertheless it was the envy of the entire hood. played it all summer thru my grandma's old steel square dance calling machine (tube amp with turntable on top) til that thang fried. could play the guitar thru the mic jack and spin "The Experience" at same time...
6 - experienced!

[JeffreyG]

Gris - that's an awesome story! Do you still have the strat?

[pc]

1. What's the first stuff you learned on guitar?
2. What year was it?
3. Did you have lessons?
4. Was it on your own guitar, or a borrowed one?
5. What was it?
6. How did you feel?

1. "Aura Lee" and other simple melody things while learning to read music.
2. 1976
3. Yes, it was a "requirement" for parents to buy me the guitar.
4. Own guitar (gift from parents)
5. Alvarez-Yairi 3/4 scale acoustic
6. Like I'd found the key to life. Same thing I feel every time I pick up a guitar to this day.

[Johnny64]

Can't remember anything much about the gear.

The guitar was red,and the amp was a 30W valve combo in a sort of dusky blue vinyl/tolex type of stuff.

My best memory is using a cassette recorder as an amp,with the guitar plugged into the mic socket,and the play and record buttons jammed down.

[photoweborama]

I borrowed an old arch top F hole guitar to start with. started with "You are my sunshine". Then I got my own guitar, a nylon string Franciscan 3/4 size guitar.

Then I got the Tiesco which I traded for a 335 copy.

[Gravity Jim]

First stuff: Chords and folk songs, "Clementine," "Sloop John B."

It was 1966.

Lessons from my Uncle Bob, who taught me tricky acoustic finger stuff he lifted from Pentangle records: "House Carpenter," "Angie."

It was on my own guitar.

Which was a godawful Japanese-made acoustic, brand name "Norma," pig-iron frets, action like a train trestle, voice like a coffee table, made you bleed to play it.

I felt like maybe, somehow, this thing was going to make me okay.

[Gris]

Gris - that's an awesome story! Do you still have the strat?

Lord, no - that was umpteen better guitars ago (that first one was actually quite average). Actually quit playing for 20 years until about 6 mos ago. But, once back in there i happened to acquire a mint '62 strat & matching brown Princeton Reverb at garage sale way cheap... Had crying spells for a while after the whole rig was stolen. Still have my orginal '65 Super Reverb tho...

[mojo]

Chords and Knockin' On Heavens Door.

Let me see, a buddy bugged me for about a year to start. I'd been wanting to learn for years. Purchased my first guitar December 2004, didn't recieve it till March, I'm a lefty. Got the guitar, buddy says talk to me in a year, wouldn't show me a thing. So I found a nice little shop to take lessons at. Got rid of the buddy and here I am, 10 Months later minus 2 1/2 months when I had a broken leg (I had to keep it elevated due to swelling).

First guitar was a 2005 G & L Legacy Special (Ya, Ya I know it's a lot of guitar for a miserable pudknocker like me.) I figured I stood a better chance of at least getting a decent guitar if I spent a bit more (which I did). So I spent what I could afford. I was unable to try before I bought...Perils of being a Lefty...not to mention I didn't know what the hell I was doing anyway.
2004 Fender HRD amp.

A bit nervous that I would not be able to learn how to play at first. Then elated that I was having fun and making some progress in my quest to learn.

[MadStork]

1. What's the first stuff you learned on guitar?

Uriah Heep's July Morning

2. What year was it?

1975

3. Did you have lessons?

Sort of ... I was in the Air Force stationed in NE Thailand. The NCO Club had hired in a 3 member Phillipino band for several months. I got to know them well, and they would play July Morning for me whenever they saw me in the Club. The guitarist and I hung out together and he showed me how to play the song. It was my first concerted effort to learn a song ...

4. Was it on your own guitar, or a borrowed one?

No, it was one of his I learned on

5. What was it?

I usually practised on his SG, but sometimes I used his Strat. No idea what years they were ...


6. How did you feel?

I'm pretty certain I felt great. I was pretty drunk the ONE time I played with them on stage in the Club. Of course, we played July Morning. I know we played the entire song, and the guys in the band told me I did very well, but my buddies (in the days and weeks afterward) suggested I stick with shooting. They even threatened to boycott the Club if I ever got back on stage. I was never certain just how serious they were ...

I didn't really give the guitar serious thought again until late 1999. By then I had pretty much done everything else I wanted to do in this life, except learn to play the guitar.

[SilverStrat]

What's the first stuff you learned on guitar?
Plush - STP
Black - PJ

I just had my buddy show me where to put my fingers.

What year was it?
Spring of 1995

Did you have lessons?
A few my second year and some recently.

Was it on your own guitar, or a borrowed one?
It was my friends classical guitar

What was it?
Can remember but I do remember begging my dad for a couple hundred bucks and to take me down to the Guitar Expo Mart. I bought a white Martin Electric with some crappy amp. I used to get so frustrated because it sounded so horrible because I couldn't tune it worth a damn. I wish I would of kept that guitar.

How did you feel?
I remember at first I thought it was the coolest thing in the world but then I became frustrated. After setting it down for a few months I picked up my girlfriend's (at the time) twelve string converted to a 6 string and was playing some songs off the Nirvana unplugged album. I surprised myself on how good it sounded and I've been addicted ever since.

[Power_13]

Great thread, there are some great stories here :) Mine is a bit less exciting, but here goes.

I became interested in the guitar after seeing a live video of Elton John's "Saturday NIght's Alright (For Fighting)" with all sorts of cool guitarists. The only one I remember right now is Eric Clapton, although Pete Townsend might have been on there too. My parents must have noticed this, and I ended up with a guitar.Like any other kid my age (single digit age), I had trouble with the thing and gave up on it after a bit. I was so young I couldn't even understand the "How To Play Guitar" books

At high school, I met this guy called Antony. We became best friends :). We weren't popular kids. Now I think about it, we weren't even popular enough to be unpopular kids. But we talked and joked and laughed and wrote (we started a novel ).

One day in Miss Taylor's biology class, he mentioned he had a PC guitar tutor program. My immediate reaction? "HOLY CRAP CAN I BORROW IT PLEASE MAN DUDE GO ON LET ME!"

A very short time later, in either 1998 or 1999, I'd learnt Amazing Grace. I was 15.
However, a week or so later, disaster struck. I'd decided that my guitar was slightly out of tune, so I decided to use this program's pitch references to retune. Remember, young untrained ear here. The tuning went from "a string or two out a bit" to "oh bugger this is more out than Graham Norton". Well, I thought, I guess it was fun for a while. I guess it's back to homework for me.

Luckily, my dad soon told me about guitar tuners. "They can tell how far out of tune you are?" I said. "Impossible! Not even a machine could do that." No kidding, I really thought my dad was wrong. But a visit to the local music shop and £20 later (£15 tuner, about £5 for a brand new set of strings) and I was set.

So the questions...first song I learnt, Amazing Grace. 1998. I had lessons far later, in about 2002. It was my own guitar I learnt on, a white electro-acoustic Strat copy by a company called Starforce...I still have it. And I felt...um...I'd occasionally taken my guitar down from the wardrobe before getting the guitar tutor program. Each time, trying to learn from a chord sheet I'd printed from the internet, it was like it was some sort of secret code. I tended to take the sheet to literally, I think, and play the chord right over whatever part of the words it was over...these chord sheets required a bit of thinking through rather than just playing exactly as they were. It honestly felt like I'd unlocked some secret code. It felt like men and women who decrypted the Enigma machine had nothing on me

(Edit) Wow, sorry, I went on for a bit here...maybe I should get back to novel writing

(Another edit) Sorry, a point I wanted to make that I forgot about. While I was writing this, I thought about the feeling I got when I first learnt to play. In addition to feeling like I cracked some big secret code, there was this massive feeling of "wow, I put my fingers on this and hit the strings a bit and I make a musical sound." It just struck me how I've taken that for granted for the past few years. Picking up a plank of wood with strings and frets, and knowing what to do to make pleasing sounds come out of it. Going one step further, understanding why those sounds work, and the formations of scales and the theory behind them. I'm totally back into the guitar now

[chuckocaster]

1. What's the first stuff you learned on guitar?
2. What year was it?
3. Did you have lessons?
4. Was it on your own guitar, or a borrowed one?
5. What was it?
6. How did you feel?

1. i think it was "lookin out my back door" or some other CCR countryesque song. three chords and the truth man.

but that was the first real song i learned to play, for awhile there i was playing three string guitar (that's all that was on there) on my dad's old harmony from when he was in vietnam. unfortunately i was rocking out one day a little too hard and the guitar flew off the strap and splintered into about 100 peices, needless to say i wish i still had that guitar. it really was awesome.

2. i was probably about 12 or so. so that would have been 1994 or thereabouts.

3. i've never taken a guitar lesson in my life. but i have played in school band since the fifth grade. i also went to college and did all the undergraduate work for a music degree. i have taken bass lessons though, if that counts. learning guitar was mostly reading chord books and learning stuff off record. i guess i'm pretty lucky that i grew up in a household with a record player and a good collection of records. i know what's it like to have to lift the needle and find the right spot.

4 and 5- answered in numero uno. i must say though there was a period after i got my acoustic guitar (13th birthday) i had also borrowed a teisco (with the microphone pickup) and owned a mini marshall. i used to play a lot of surf stuff on that.

6. wow, i think franky answered that one the best. "like god if he could play guitar." it just felt right, and it felt natural.

[Kap'n]

In addition to feeling like I cracked some big secret code, there was this massive feeling of "wow, I put my fingers on this and hit the strings a bit and I make a musical sound." It just struck me how I've taken that for granted for the past few years. Picking up a plank of wood with strings and frets, and knowing what to do to make pleasing sounds come out of it.

Yep. It's pretty amazing when you think about it.

[sliding-tom]

Both of my parents worked during the day when I was a kid, so me and my sister went to my grandma after school to spend the day there until our parents picked us up after work.
I was about 10 or 11, when my uncle started playing bass in a "beat" band. That's around 1965. His guitar playing buddy in the band always left his guitar in my uncle's room, so in the afternoon I picked it up and fooled around with it.
The first stuff I learned all by myself was picking out the melodies of songs on the high E- string, then my uncle showed me a couple of chords (your basic E,A,C etc. and how you can move them up by barring). First song was "House of the Rising Sun" by the Animals, the arpeggio accompaniment - that's pretty much the first song every guitar player here in Germany learned, if you could pull that off, you got it! ;)
The guitar was put together from different existing parts and a homemade body, kind of a partso-"Hofner", if you will, but it had a very low action and was easy to play.
So, apart from being shown a couple of chords and that first song, I never had no lessons, everything else I found out by trial and error, a very slow but also intense way of learning because I was always curious why certain things worked and others didn't. Every time I found a chord progression that sounded great or found out how to play a song that was immensely satisfying.
My first electric was an italian made "Galanti" 335 knock-off that I played through two daisy-chained tube radios - what a sound!
Still have that guitar - that's the one I started to learn to do my own setup work, too, including filing down frets that were too high.
To make a long story short: caught the "blues bug" a little later on, joined a blues band (matter of fact, the only blues band in Germany then), went pro for about 15 years and had the time of my life!