What inspired you to start playing guitar?? (Page 1 of 3)

Great post Pix, you pretty much sum it up for me.
I have always loved music and played the drums for a while but wasn't really into the whole Bang Bang Bang side of things.
This year I picked up( I mean literally picked up) a Crescendo Nylon string guitar that someone had left in a rubbish tip.
I played that for 2 days and was hooked.
Got an el cheapo Yamaha and haven't looked back since.
Now that you mention it there is a certain member of the opposite sex that I have got my eye on.

Jamie R

For me I quit smoking 5 years ago and needed something to keep me busy so I  did not smoke. My wife bought me a guitar, self taught, now I've collected five acoustics, an electric, couple of ukes, next is a bass.
still smoke free and still collecting,playing and learning, much healthier this way.

badeye   

I've always desired to since as far back as I can remember.  Unfortunately, time and money never allowed and the desire faded.  But, it's when my daughter started lessons, that the itch crept back in or should I say swept back in.  Her teacher, (my teacher now) noticed I was always asking questions and that I was really focussed in on what she was doing.  So I finally, screwed up the courage and initiative to ask for lessons, buy the guitar and just do it.   That was 5 years ago........best thing I ever did other than go to nursing school.

cool picture roger,I was always into some kind of musical insterment,in school I played the obo the flute then I wanted a trumpet. Got a rental at age 8 drove my folks nuts, I got into drums 6th grade. Thought my parents were going to send me too another country. I played my friends 6 string loved it ( parents thought god saved them ). told them I would trade drums for a guitar, we where at the local sears store so fast my head spun. I came away with a silvertone 6 string and a little amp that had a good volume control. End of story.

I'm a bass player.  I had been getting my music fix by playing in a praise band.  However, that church fizzled out and so I wasn't playing any more.  I hope it wasn't my playing that cause the fizzling.  Anyway, my wife was nice enough to get me a bass trainer, but it's not the same thing as making real music with real people.  They're good for practice, but it didn't satisfy me. 

So I took up guitar because I can make what felt like real music to me without anyone else playing along. 

Now, the timing of guitar was to learn it in time to sing "Forever and Ever Amen" to my wife on our 20th anniversary.  I gave myself two years to learn guitar well enough to learn the instrument, the song, and the lyrics to do this.  No problem.  Ends up though that she had heard me sing it in practice SO many times by our 20th, that it wasn't going to be special any more.  So I stealth learned "Flesh and Blood" by Johnny Cash.  I was all set to play it for her on our 20th, when I came down with a case of laryngitis.  Couldn't even whisper.  So we had a quiet 20th anniversary.  The 25th is coming up in three more years, so maybe I should start working on something...

I should also mention the important part a fellow named Bo Crowder had.  I was at a campfire where Dirty Ed and Bo Crowder and a couple other fellows were picking.  One fellow who was hanging out with us said, "I sure which I could play like that" about the time Bo finished his turn playing.  Well Bo said, "All you need is 15 minutes a day and the sound will come."  The fellow who made the comment said, "Yeah, right!"  But my mind clicked and I was thinking, "I can find 15 minutes a day..."   As time went on, Bo and Dirty Ed both continued to be encouraging to me, and so I thank them both here publicly, though Bo won't ever read it. 

- Zurf

I was Born and Bred in the state of Kentucky to good but poor stock, we went to central Illinois to find a better life when i was very young. Listened to all music but loved Country music i heard on WSM nashville radio. I Married, had two children, a Daughter in ILL and a son in Heaven, came back to Ky after retiring and the death of my wife. Married again and she encouraged me to learn to play guitar after finding i could sing a little. My Wife bought a guitar for me to get me started and, I bought a second. Teaching myself, I  have played almost every day now for Two years. I really Love it, Will go to Florida for the winter soon and will play with friends we have met there. By the way, all you guys as well as Chordie are great I don't contribute much but I read a lot and have learned a lot  here.  Thanks for listening, and thanks.  b

I grew up in the 80's listening to loud guitar driven hair bands. I think that's what hooked me. I have always been interested in the guitar, but never did anything about it. About 8 years ago I bought a beginner guitar (Ibanez which I still have) and took a class at the community college I attended. Didn't learn much in the class, nothing applicable to playing anyway. So, fast forward to Sept. of 2008. A friend of mine played, sort of, and offered to buy my guitar when he found out I had one. For whatever reason, I decided then to learn to play. Like Bass said, I wish I would have started when I was younger. It's been 2 years now and I love playing, won't miss more than 2 days a week.

Bad Company ;-) I sang in a band 1964-1967, when Beatlemania swept over Europe. In 2001 I met our old drummer, who never quit rock music and invited me to his new band's rehearsal room. Four went by, and I was on stage again. A few months later I bought my first guitar. (I was 54). Between the seventues and eighties I tried two or three times to learn to play guitar, but didn't have enough patience. Now I'm 61. I own 10 guitars and play in a band. Wow! Ah, the Beatles inspired me!

Lots of B chords too. 

I bought my first guitar (a spanish nylon string ) with my pocket money saved at the age of 15 in 1973 .Before I used to play clarinet in the village brass band in Alsace (France) , this was a good way to learn to read music but it was not easy to play modern tunes with it .I wanted pop sounds and let my hait grow for a while....  I took my guitar with me to the school where I spent all week during 3 years, coming home for the week ends only.So I met other musicians learning to play guitar , it was cool to have music as a new language to meet friends. I swapped the guitar for a "folk" with bronze stringsand caught some Neil Young tunes that became the were the first really good vibes I could feel with this instrument by myself and also just because I could imitate his voice so well at the age of 17.... and my sister had made me the gift of the Harvest album. This actually helped me in these days to join a band palying dance music on saturday nights. We adapted Pink Floyd , Santana, Beatles, Deep Purple and so on , and it was great fun  to do the session in that old farm with our group and groupies....although most of us did not understand the lyrics ( So what...!)
And to make this little story short, I still feel young when I have a guitar on hand, and music is a universal and simple way of communication . It is still the campfire's best friend and one man alone can make everybody feel fine by just singing along.... but I love also the electric actual sounds and appreciate the quality of a great Gretsch , Fender Strato  or Gibson. Any town I go I always check out for the music shop...probably looking for the guitar of my dreams.

I started playing drums in 1964 in my school band. Played in the marching band and jazz band, then played in a 17-piece swing band for a couple of years and in a couple of rock bands.I even taught drums for a couple of years.  A couple of guys that graduated 3 years ahead of me had been working as Nashville studio musicians and returned to the area and were looking for a drummer for a country band.  They tried to talk me into playing with their band but I was a rocker and too cool to play country.  They invited me to attend a country/bluegrass festival with them, thinking they might convert me to country.  The country music was OK but the bluegrass bands blew me away and I fell in love with the genre.  As bluegrass didn't use drums, I sold mine a few months later and never played again.

A few years later, one of my co-workers and I became pretty good friends.  He was trying to learn to play the guitar but his younger brother (who was in the Marine Corps) was the "picker" of the family.  His brother was killed in a motorcycle accident while home on leave.  A few months later he brought his brother's old acoustic to me and told me to learn how to play it - why he did it I'll never know.  I bought a book of "easy big-note guitar" Beatles songs and eventually learned to play a few.  I returned my friend's brother's guitar and bought a cheap one of my own. I could play a few songs but never learned to play bluegrass as I never could "Mash then wires" fast enough.  It was about the time I was beginning white-water kayaking.  I was so "into" the sport I began to write songs about paddling and play them around river bank campfires.  Fellow paddlers seemed to like them so I kept on writing songs about things things in my life - paddling, fishing, farming and family.  I've never become a good "picker" but I enjoy writing and playing.  The enjoyment I've got out of my guitars over the years has been one of my best investments. I've never forgot the kindness of the friend who got me started playing.  Over the years I've bought several cheap, used guitars and re-worked the bridges, nuts and frets to make them play easier then gave them away to folks who wanted to learn.  My request has been that they pass the guitar on to someone else or also find cheap ones to give away.

Zurf mentioned our camp fire music "circles".  It's my favorite thing to do.  He certainly has learned a lot in a short time and I was really impressed with his pickin' the last time we got together.

DE

I had an operation on my right shoulder yesterday - never realized how hard it would be to type with just my left hand.......................

Havent commented in awhile but I like this thread so: The sole reason I stuck to it was because it drove my parents crazy. Back then I listened to heavier stuff (Slayer, Primus, etc..) and they hated it. They would always tell me I wasnt any good and that the music I listened to sucked.(classic, right?) Sounds like a sob story but it did me alot of good. Made me determined to prove them wrong. Now my mom loves the way I play and my dad is even trying to learn. Its cool because we have something in common now. My musical taste has soften but I still love me some death metal. Thinking about starting a John Prine death metal cover band.(dont lynch me!) Any takers?