Started at 13. Took a break from 17-24. Getting back into it now at 25.

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so AWESOME! the col. is going to teach me all my guitar from now on! he can hear me.

I started playing last summer on the guitar and am teaching myself off the net and chord charts. Fun and frustrating at the same time. I should have started when i was fourteen.

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Vintage Hotrod '57 Strat, 81 G&L L2000 Series E Bass, Fender Musicmaster Bass Amp.

G13---G13--

I started a long time ago,mid '60s,when my grandfather brought me an old cheap acoustic of my Uncle's that he rescued from the attic,put a set of Black Diamond strings on it and gave me a Mel Bay chord book from the late '50s I guess.
Here within a 50 mile radius of the Music City,there's always a guitar player in the crowd,so I learned and played with a lot of people,and wore out many records figuring out songs and licks.
My playing career has had more downs than ups,but I play better than ever,I said in another thread,it's a lifelong education,with no graduation day.
The best guitar players I've ever been around were mostly humble,and let their instrument do the bragging....that's where the men are seperated from the boys.

+1

I mentioned some "friends" in my post who were extremely critical of anybody else playing (even players who were better); it damaged my self-esteem as a player and I dang near quit playing at one point.

Then I was invited (by a guy who could play circles around me) to play a gig with his band. Just about everyone in the band was better than me at their perspective instruments, except my harp playing (but then again, none of them played harp). He encouraged me to sing, play guitar and even take a few leads/solos on several songs. They even played a few of my originals. Later, I asked him why he hired me to play that gig.

He said, "We needed someone who played something besides straight honky-tonk country and rockabilly, because this gig needed some bluesy rock," (it was a Cajun crawdad boil and fish-fry) " we needed another good singer, and we needed someone who was good but didn't have an ego."

To be honest, I couldn't carry this guy's guitar case for him, but he was secure enough in his abilities to let others in his band shine and even "show him up" onstage (which the other guitarist--not me--playfully did during the performance). He was secure enough to let me take some solos and even become the bandleader for several songs throughout the night--this guy was willing to be my sideman!

To be called "good" by this guy, especially after all the abuse I had absorbed, made me feel much better about my abilities as a musician. I formed the Screamin' Armadillos the next week; I'm not the best musician in my group (that would be the drummer/sometime guitarist/sometime bassist/extra vocalist/keyboard player/producer), but I know what I can do. Everyone is encouraged to shine and take leads in my group, encouraged to sing (if they're able) and bring original material. If we can do that material justice, we do the song. No egos allowed...

I think the guys who I played with initially were insecure about their own abilities, and rather than developing their own style that emphasized their strengths (such as I did by writing original songs and trying out new techniques such as slide/open tunings or playing a second instrument [harp in my case]), they just tried to pull everyone else down to the level of their own insecurity. They never grew as musicians, and I did. I'm not bragging, I'm just stating the facts.

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Good Vibes To Y'all!



Screamin' Armadillos
Texas Roadhouse Music
Guitar/Slide Guitar/Harp/Vocals

I actually started playing in 1999 when i watched Jimi playing at Woodstock on tv. But after 5 guitars and 3 guitar teachers I gave up. Then when i was about 12, i wanted an electric guitar. I got it, never played it. Few months later, my mom gets a teacher who was a college student. He taught me tabs and some chords and now i've been playing for 6 years straight. And lovin it!!

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I got this guitar and I learned how to make it talk...

I started to learn in 1986. I am still learning to this day. I started to play because I love music. I have always been facinated in musical instruments. The guitar provided me an outlet for my musical expression and I used to drive my mother crazy with the Chunka Chunka Thrash Metal I used to play all the time back then.

Recently I played something for my mother. It was melody I had been working on for about a year. She almost cried. She said it was one of the most beautiful melodies she has heard in a long time. She said she was glad I never stopped playing.

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RK

2007 Fender Highway 1
2012 American Deluxe
2015 MIM Dave Murray HHH
2010 Fender Blacktop
1987 Fender Avalon Acoustic
2012 Marshall DSL 15 watt head

Hey Screamin' Armadillo- I enjoyed your post. It reminded my of when I was growing up and playing in bands. The insecure guys that tear you down because of their insecurities is spot on. The ego thing is pretty much a thing that is constant with alot of musicians. I've dealt with the ego dudes forever- I could write a book on them-- they're like alcoholics- all pretty much the same people in some respects..

Even now in the band I'm in - two of the guys have a bit of the ego thing going on. The thing that saves them is that we're older now. I bet they were impossible to be around back in the day. I've learned how to get along with them because I know their "moves". So it's not so bad. One is worse than the other . I understand the insecurity and it makes me wonder what made him like that. They're both really good musicians but the ego thing is a hinderance and not a helper. I'm just glad I'm me.

Anyway it was a good post and got me thinking.

In 1966, at the dinner table, my parents asked me if I wanted to learn an instrument. Well, the guitar seemed "cool" so at 9, I started lessons. I took them for maybe 5 or 6 years and then dropped them. I was in a few bands in high school and once college came, pretty much dropped playing. My guitar literally sat in its case for 30 years under my bed, mainly only moving from one apartment to the next or to house to house.

So my youngest son took a year of keyboard to get music theory because he wanted to take guitar lessons. Once he started taking guitar lessons, in order to help him practice, I took out the guitar from under the bed and played with him, learning the notes over again, a string at a time. I discovered youtube lessons and the bug bit. That was a little over 3 years ago and I've been playing every day, playing in a worship band at church and buying guitars (now that I can afford them) used and selling what I don't like to try the next one. I took another 6 months of lessons with my son a year ago. Our local YMCA offers lessons from very well acredited instructors, so I'll likely start up again to learn some more once the summer starts.

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2002 mim Telecaster
Jimmie Vaughan Stratocaster
Mexican HSS Stratocaster
6 non-fender guitars
2 kids (not for sale)
1 wife (uh....no comment)

There was a song on one of the Guitar Hero's I wanted to learn several years ago, so I dragged out my dad's old guitar and taught myself how to play it. I eventually found more songs I wanted to learn and it just kinda took off from there. Never went back to Guitar Hero.

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1988 Kramer Striker 200
1941 Gibson Hollowbody
2010 Fender American Standard Stratocaster
2010 Fender Hot Rod Deluxe III

Mowed lawns and had a paper route that bought me a brand new 1966 Fender Mustang.Listened to records and learned from others.Developed an ear early and that opened it all up for me.Listen listen listen..........

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The blues ain't nothin but a good man feelin bad.

I first realised that I wanted to play music when I was around 11 years old, in the same manner that a lot of others probably did, found a no-name 3/4 size acoustic that belonged to my dad, had no idea how to play, what notes were or anything, but I made up little tunes and tried to play the melodies of songs that I liked. From what I remember two or three of the strings broke (I think they were really old) in the first couple of months, so that was the end of that.

When I started high school, I picked up bass guitar in music class, and played for maybe 4 or 5 years, was in a couple of bands, one of which got quite a good local following, but when some of the guys in the band decided to go to uni, or go travelling, the band was put on hiatus, never to reform (still kinda upsets me, even now) In that same music class though, there was a guy who had obviously been playing for a long time, despite being only 12 or 13, and hearing him play put the idea of guitar in my head, and it never left. I had one or two lessons with a teacher at school, but I stuck with the bass.

I decided to pick up guitar again around 2 years ago, got myself a good tutor, and started studying the R.G.T grading system, and more recently been working on my own songs.

I've kind of had a love/hate relationship with guitar, as I'm not a natural at it, so it can be very frustrating at times, but I wouldn't be without it now, and I hope to keep playing for as long as I can, and do as much as I can with it, even if I never get past recording silly little demo's on my computer, cos on a good day I love playing

Drew

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You can't win them all, if you did, where would you keep them?

2010 Fender MIM strat in candy apple red w/ rosewood board
2010 PRS SE Tremonti single cut, vintage cherry red
2009 Squier "tiredcaster" modded strat w/ big hairy wiring R.I.P