How did you get started?

[prodigy84]

Tell your story here of how you got started with guitar and eventually into technicality, pyrotechnics or even breaking into the music scene. I'm kinda curious to learn about everyone's story. lol

I'll get the ball rolling with mine. Well where I come from, everything was bubblegum and pop. Boybands were basically everywhere. My living area was such that there were hardly any musicians so I didn't even know what specific sounds an electric guitar really could make.

One day out of spontaneity, I decided to buy a Green Day album. (Nimrod) I mainly listened to "Time of your life", but accidently I found myself listening to one of the tracks with distorted guitar banging on power chords. I was suddenly a changed man, baptised in the ways of punk rock, or guitar so to speak. lol

I stole my friend's guitar for a few days and learnt a couple of chords he had taught me. Eventually he wanted it back, so I got my own acoustic. I realize after some time that I needed an electric since I had outgrown the powerchords-only songs, and was doing pinch harmonics on my acoustic. Also that I was getting weird stares for that. haha

I started looking for newer bands with more difficult songs to satiate my guitar techniques hunger, from Firehouse to Eric Clapton. Eventually I bought a video with 3 guitarists on it. I had no idea what it was but it sure looked good. (Later turning out to be G3: Live in Concert) That was the first time I saw Joe Satriani playing. When I saw him making his guitar scream literally, I probably recited every single vulgarity known to man. haha

For a 14 year old who has barely been playing guitar for a month, seeing all those techniques that could be played on the guitar, was crazy. I listened to nothing but Rock instrumentals for the next few months and it became my main influence. The rest is history. =p

Influence: Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, X Japan, Extreme, John Petrucci, Jeff Beck, Bach.

[nuclear81]

My story of how I started is much dfferent. I was an athlete all through out high school and college (amature and semi-pro boxing) Once in college I practiced a lot of photography, then became president of my frat and decided I wanted to branch out and get even more girls ;) I picked up the guitar and fell in love.

[Koala]

We had a thread like this some time ago, I believe it was called, "what makes you tick" try searching for it!

[Sir Speedy]

Tell your story here of how you got started with guitar and eventually into technicality, pyrotechnics or even breaking into the music scene. I'm kinda curious to learn about everyone's story. lol

I'll get the ball rolling with mine. to "Time of your life", but accidently I found myself listening to one of the tracks with distorted guitar banging on power chords. I was suddenly a changed man, baptised in the ways of punk rock, or guitar so to speak. lol

I stole my friend's guitar for a few days and learnt a couple of chords he had taught me. Eventually he wanted it back, so I got my own acoustic. I realize after some time that I
Influence: Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, X Japan, Extreme, John Petrucci, Jeff Beck, Bach.


Borrowing a guitar and refusing to give it back , that sounds familiar .:D

When i was about 12 i traded my home computer for a Les Paul Copy ,Saw Iron Maiden concert at Raidio City , it was all over .Guys down the street always jammed Ozzy ,Maiden , and Ac/DC, learned from them , took lessons and Later joined a series of Thrash/Speed Metal Bands .

I would still probably trade my computer for a guitar:cool:

[prodigy84]

We had a thread like this some time ago, I believe it was called, "what makes you tick" try searching for it!I did as a matter of fact. But that didn't really looked like a title to the subject I was about to start. Well actually, not at all, so I just started one. It was an honest mistake.

[prodigy84]

Borrowing a guitar and refusing to give it back , that sounds familiar .:D

When i was about 12 i traded my home computer for a Les Paul Copy ,Saw Iron Maiden concert at Raidio City , it was all over .Guys down the street always jammed Ozzy ,Maiden , and Ac/DC, learned from them , took lessons and Later joined a series of Thrash/Speed Metal Bands .

I would still probably trade my computer for a guitar:cool:
Hehe, I forgot to include seeing Michael J. Fox on Back to the future. When I saw him do Chuck Berry's Johnny B. Goode and playing the solo while duckwalking, that was it for me. lol

[coolmark]

I started with a one string Smoke on the Water intro when I was 11.

[Weasel3000]

Me and my bro were watching music videos one saturday morning of the year 2000. All of a sudden he tells, "you should ask my dad to teach to play guitar" The tought had never occured to me even tough when i was young i always picked up his guitar and fiddled with it.

So the next morning i ask him to teach me. Ill never forget the smile he had on his face......

From there, i was a huge fan of the chilli peppers. Californication had just come out and i really liked the song californication. So by ear my dad learns the intro lick and then shows me how to play it. After a few minutes i learned how to play it and I impresed my dad by how fast i learned it(of course it was not played on time :p )

From there, my neighbor gave me a tape of Metallicas first album. I popped it in and heard the first track that came on. It happen to be jump in the fire. From there my whole look on guitar changed. I couldnt belive my ears, Kirk Hammet was playing at the speed of light(or so it seemed :confused: ) Lucky for me, my dad was suscribed to guitar magazine back in the 80's(the magazine is now known as GuitarOne) They had a full tab of the song. From there it wa non stop learning that song and the solo. For a while that song became my trade mark. I had about 6 months of playing guitar under my belt.

Metallica was my choice of playing style for a while. but then i grew tired of playin pentatonics(which was about 95% of what kirk used in his solos) I dont remember how....but i ran into shred somehow. From there it was all that alternate pickin up and down scales and diatonic sweeps. Around this time it was all about speed and tecnique. This was a bad and a good thing. I buildt my technique...but i didnt grasp the concept of music.

Today...im a jazz and fusion head. A la chic corea and frank gambale. My style sounds more non guitar than guitar. I have runs that are keyboard and saxophone sounding. To this day I finally understand the beauty of music and how its not about throwing a bunch of licks into a big ball of mess.

Sorry for the long post :D

[oRg]

hmm, well, I guess I should join the crowd and tell my story.

Like I've posted before music is pretty much in my blood. My dad plays guitar and his dad played guitar and somewhere down the line I'm related to a famous Irish flute player. I'm also the grandson of a local piano virtuoso as well.

Well anyways, I started off listening to Metallica in the 4th grade and was pretty much taken from there. Upon listening to Metallica I took small lessons from my Dad on his Gibson Flying V 1958 (not exactly sure about the year), well anyways that guitar got broken and my dad was upset. I didn't continue lessons for long becuz I didn't have the attention span to learn an instrument at the time. I just wanted to go outside and play basketball and such. So I learned a few chords (D, G and Amin) and pretty much stopped. At the age of twelve in the 8th grade I got real heavy into metallica, and megadeth so I picked up guitar again. this time I didn't have alot of money so I had to get an acoustic and I also bought a Hal Leonard Chord Book and the song book to the Black Album from Metallica. It was also at this time I saw a guy regularly wearing a Meshuggah shirt. Coincidence maybe...? Anyways, from there I learned the basic riffs and intro riffs to the album and pretty much learned some Black Sabbath and such. Then I got a Squier Stratocaster and a used 50-watt Fender amplifier, and I also saved up to get a Danelectro Fab Tone pedal. This is where I was showing signs of buckling down. I learned countless numbers of Metallica songs (rhythm only) and Megadeth songs (rhythm only). I also started to venture into the world of lead playing by learn parts of the "Crazy Train" solo by Ozzy and Randy. I also started getting into heavier music such as Sepultura, and SoulFly. This was also the time I first got a chance to listen to Zakk Wylde's Black Label Society and I fell in love with the song "Love Reign Down" off of Stronger than Death. Well I continued as usual. I sold my electric guitar to buy another electric guitar with a FLoyd Rose tremolo and then shortly after sold that one for an Ibanez GRX 720 7-string. From there I dabbled in learning Tool songs, Sepultura, Creed, Korn, Deftones, etc etc etc while still perfecting my rhytmic craft. It wasn't until I was introduced to meshuggah that I realized I had only come inches in the miles that would follow in my rhythmic journey. After listening to Meshuggah, Buckethead, Primus, Cannibal Corpse, and Death that my entire life changed. I realized I was made for extreme metal since I also carried an undying fascination with Iron Maiden and Judas Priest. So from there I began to improve on my licks and such and along tehway I was introduced to other guitarists such as Jason Becker (through Megadeth and Marty Friedman), Shawn Lane (by way of Buckethead), Allan Holdsworth (by way of Fredrik Thordendal and Meshuggah), among many many others. I' pretty muched always known about Vai and Satriani though. They're IMO household names as well as Yngwie IMO. I also learned of John Petrucci but it was through networking with other guitarists. From there the rest is history. I've pretty much stayed on the beaten extreme metal path but also drawing influence from other styles including but not limited to jazz, fusion, blues, classical, avant-garde, and jazz improv.

[Arpetude]

this is sortof like the 'musical eras of your life'. so check out that thread to.

i'll add some.

what got me started was typing in 'guitar vid' into kazza and downloading a rip of yngwies instructional video. i watched it and was blown away. i remember saying to myself:

I MUST BE ABLE TO PLAY EVERYTHING OFF THAT INSTRUCTIONAL

unfortunetly i wasn't really a good guitar player (3 chords:( ). so when i bought the book for the instructional i thought it all looked impossible. but really practiced hard every day. to this day i still don't now anymore 'basic open chords'. it wasn't really a part of my playing. i sort of 'skipped' the beginer stuff and got alot of headaches from the yngwie instructional instead.

i remember someone telling me 'you can't be playing scales after a few months of playing'

i said to him 'but......................yngwie'.

and that was always what i focused on.....yngwies music. i quikly bought all his albums and dvds (i was obsessed and still am by the way).

everyone around me was all playing basic rock...i kept telling them 'man, sweep picking across 5 string...creating beutiful melodys with fast arps and long runs based off early barouqe period clasical music' but no-one understood where i was coming from (sort of felt like i was trapped in the 80s lol).

i started to not hang around with those people cause they started saying things to me like 'what the need for that speed' and 'why do you constantly solo all the time' in a very negative way:( .

thats how i got started. the yngwie instructional. i highly recomend it. here is the link.

http://www.musicroom.com/se/ID_No/058180/details.html

but i actually used the rip i downloaded and bought the book of ebay (i actually bought the dvd about a few months ago)

http://www.musicroom.com/se/ID_No/034596/details.html

i recommend buying both the dvd and book as the pdf file that comes with the dvd is low qaulity. it changed my life and i hope it does yours:) .

[SyKrash]

I started playing trumpet after hearing "kind of blue" by miles davis. Then heard BloodSugarSexMagik" by the chili peppers. Picked up the guitar in high school. Been serious ever since.

Moved to LA, attended GIT, got student of the year there and the rest is history.