I started listening to classic rock (especially the Stones) and I thought, "Wow, that guitar sounds great, I wish I could play like that". So I started playing guitar. I am still kind of beginning though, I can play a few songs. Still trying to self-teach myself more chords and solos.

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1995 Fender Mustang

I grew up around music. Parents didn't play or sing, but I had several aunts, uncles and cousins that did. Mainly gospel and country. I loved those family gatherings we had several times a year.
I had one uncle that played guitar. He use to do alot of Merle Kilgore and Chet Atkins songs. He was my idol and still is.
When I turned 11 I had a choice of a Chihuahua puppy or a guitar. I chose the guitar and my parents had my uncle pick one up for me. Now this was back in 1965 and I can still remember the day he brought it to me. I was so excited.
None of my family that played lived close by, so I started out learning on my own. I bought an E-Z To Learn guitar book and started learning chords. Begin developing my ear.
I never really developed more than just an okay rhythm player. In my late teens and early 20's I did do a few one man shows. I could play some simple leads, but the bass is what always caught my attention.
Around 1978 the bass player in a band that I knew didn't show up for the gig. The band leader asked me if I would sit in on bass. I had never played bass with a band before, but I did well enough to get the job.
I've been playing bass ever since, but I still like to pick up a guitar every now and then. I suck at it, but i have alot of fun.

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2012 American Standard Precision V - Candy Cola Red
2012 Squier Vintage Modified Jazz V - Surf Green
2011 FCS Custom Classic Special Jazz Bass V - Violin Burst
1996 MIM Stratocaster HSS - Black
1975 Precision Bass - 3 Tone Sunburst

I bought a cheap electric guitar at a pawnshop in the late 70's never thinking I'd be able to really pick it up, but a family friend showed me a few chords and I just kept learning. I'm like the poster above though, not a great player, but I enjoy noodling around.

Guitar is fun because you can take it as far as you want.

I love the Stones too, btw.

i strated playing guitar when my friend told me that i should learn guitar because they wanted me to be their guitarist.. i started learning guitar when my parents gave me an acoustic guitar it was hard for me to learn guitar it was just 1 week of learning and i already gave up. after almost 5 months i resumed learning guitar again after i saw a friend playing guitar and he is good at it i felt kinda jealous back there xD
after weeks of playing guitar and learning chords and songs i realized that learning wasnt really hard.. all i need is just Patience. after months of playing i decided to get my fist electric guitar.

My story.

My best friends and I used "take a toke of holy smoke", in our teens, while
my friend, whom I still jam with would play guitar. I wanted to learn
really bad, but growing I had needs met not wants, just wasn't in the cards.
So time, family, life kind of made me forget. Then commercials for Esteban GuitAr tutorial,
came with a guitar and DVD, sparked an idea, a hint taken by my wife
bought me the Yamaha acoustic learn guitar jam pack on my 30th birthday.
I can't say after 9 yrs I'm great, but I'm happy with what I've learnt, and
Love playing for the sake of playing.
Sorry for the long story.
Ps, ever since I took up guitar, music is much more appreciated.

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"Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why it is called the present."

oogway, kungfu panda 2008

Not really a how, but a why.

Depression.

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1984 Squier Contemporary Stratocaster
1986 Peavey Envoy 110
1967 Kingston Acoustic

Cool story thanks for posting

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you can save the world with your guitar one love song at a time it's just better, more fun, easier with a fender solid body electric guitar or electric bass guitar.

A girl I was really interested in when I was 14 had an acoustic guitar, and like an idiot I said "Hey, cool, I play too!", having never touched a guitar in my life.

Her - "Oh, that's great! We should play together sometime!"

Me - "Ummm...." *mad flailing panic*

Cue three weeks of frantic working out how to get at least some semblance of music out of the nylon string I borrowed from a friend.

I'm such a cliché.

Never thought I'd actually be doing it for a living later in my life - funny how the tiniest decisions can affect your entire life.

I was afflicted with staff infection (git it, ha ha?) winter of 1964: Had an ear infection. Was home from school. Found a Mel Bay book, an old no-name acoustic with action about 3" high! Followed the in-structions. First song? Jingle Bells. e e E, e e E, eg cd, E.... My fingers hurt for days.

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"The individual is handicapped by coming face to face with a Conspiracy so monstrous he cannot believe it exists. The American mind simply has not come to a realization of the evil which has been introduced into our midst." J. Edgar Hoover

A friend of mine's brother was in a popular band and they attracted all the good looking girls....

So it was like...get a guitar and get a girl.

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Being able to play and enjoy music is a gift that's often taken for granted.

Don't leave home without it!

I`m gonna give my age away. In `58 I was 10 and heard Elvis play the guitar and was immediately interested so I asked my parents for lessons. After 3 years of lessons he got me a Gretsch
Anniversary Edition and a `58 Fender Princeton and I still have the guitar and amp today.

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jpd- i was 6 years old when i started playing in 1960. the early years were a lot of surf music. the beatles then hit, and all bets were off. my dad just got me a l.p. blue strat, and i suddenly wanted a black ric. you can guess how that went!

Back in the early 60s (I was still in the single digits then), I had an older cousin who would always be playing Elvis records. I kept hearing something in his records that I really liked. I asked my cousin what it was. He said it was an electric guitar. Once I heard "Jailhouse Rock", I was really hooked on that sound. A few years later, I started formal lessons and the rest as they say, is history. In retrospect, it was clearly Scotty Moore's playing which inspired me to take up guitar. Ironically and to this day, I can't say I pursued any of his stylings, per se. Go figure.

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You dig?

I was a big Status Quo fan from 1977 on. In 1980 I simply bought a cheap electrig guitar (El Maya EM 1000, see picture).
I watched Quo videos, stopped the tape and looked where their fingers were.
Status Quo made me play guitar and it's their fault for my torturing my neighbors today!


SHRUMMMMMMMMM ........ aha!

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Kindest regards from Germany, Dee
My recordings --> http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_mu ... dID=564337
STRATS ROCK!!! but Teles and Firebirds, too!

When I was 10 years old our family went to a wedding. At the reception, after dinner, a band came on and people started dancing. I had never seen or heard live music before and I was fascinated by the fact those guys up there were making this music. I watched intently to see how they were doing it and I was a little miffed when my parents said it was time to go. I wanted to stay and watch some more. The lead singer and rhythm guitar player was our milk man. The next day I sarted pestering my parents for a guitar and the rest is history.

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Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.