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Interesting! Dylan had something to do with it for me too. It was about 10 or 12 years before that when I started playing guitar because I wanted to sing stuff like It's a Hard Rain and Masters of War. My older bro had a guitar and was playing those records. I was more musically endowed than him, having studied cello for a few years. He used to beat me up a lot. I got some revenge.
Originally Posted by Fred Archtop
Very quickly I found Mississipi John, which led to Son House and Lightnin' and BB and Muddy and so on. Until I found Coltrane and Miles. By that time I was kinda stuck with the devilish contraption.
I sorta sidestepped the rock guitar thing of the 60s and 70s. Couldn't dig it. Never got the whole Guitar God thing. None of 'em seemed all that God-like to me.
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02-04-2021 10:21 PM
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its branded as a Martin Colletti Originally Posted by kris;[URL="tel:1096860"
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02-05-2021, 01:22 AM #53joelf Guest Originally Posted by Stevebol
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Derek Bailey said the guitar allowed him to practice quietly, unlike horns.
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...but he played quite loud on concerts. Originally Posted by Litterick
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I was lucky, I guess, that both my mother and her mother played piano, though the rest of my family was decidedly not musical. I had piano lessons in elementary school, which was a good basis but I didn't really enjoy it. Then I started on trumpet in school band.
But guitar was what was cool, of course. My first 2 records were Eric Clapton's 461 Ocean Boulevard, and Dylan's Greatest Hits. My brother had a crappy Stella acoustic, which he tried and gave up on, so I bugged him until he let me try it. By around age 13 or 14 I really had the bug, and got weekly lessons at the local music store. I went through a brief rock & roll phase before I discovered jazz in high school, played both guitar and trumpet. I veered more towards trumpet back then, for a variety of influences, though in retrospect I wish I'd stuck to just guitar.
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Elvis, Chuck Berry, Roy Orbison, Everly Brothers, Mitch Ryder, The Kingsmen, Sam the Sham . . . and I became a 3 chord All Star and started my first garage band in Chicago at 12 y.o. and played our first paid gig 4 months later . . . $25.00 for 3 sets. Here's a Classic that every garage band played at every gig. Enjoy! Play live . . . Marinero
P.S. No decent Chitown band ever sang the real lyrics . . . we had our own gutter verses. M
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Two things. First, when I was maybe 9 or 10, I played Greensleeves on the piano in a church basement at a scout holiday party. It was badly out of tune and had several keys that didn't work, so noticeable that the minister made it known that it wasn't me, but the piano that was bad! At the same time, another scout played something on the guitar with, of course, no problem, made me a little jealous. Shortly after that, late '50s early '60s, there was what Dave Van Ronk once called the great folk scare, so my fate was sealed, guitar it was.
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Coincidence... I do not really like plucked instruments but it is too late now.
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Before I played guitar I had played the violin from age 5 but quit at age 8 when I figured out it was a girls' instrument (I was even stupider at age 8 than I am today
).
A few months later I started playing the cornet and really liked it, but when we relocated at age 11 there was a waiting list in the local music school for trumpet lessons/programme.
Also being born in the 80s I came across a lot of toy keyboards, also nicer keyboards, organs, pianos, various toy instruments, got a recorder from school, and I was always drawn to which ever musical instruments I was allowed (or not allowed) to play and could sit by myself for very long periods (or until some adult found it unbearable) trying to figure out how to play melodies and even basic major and minor chords on keyboards. I had also come across guitars and figured out how to play melodies on one string, but wasn't really drawn to learning how to strum chords to accompany my own singing (which seemed to be what people used guitars for).
But I was 13 when something just clicked when I was messing around with my older brother's nylon guitar. He showed me how to play Killing Me Softly which was popular at that time in the Fugees cover, as well as Wonderwall. I was starting getting into watching MTV and I was drawn to the 90s rock but I also liked Beatles and a lot of older classic rock and pop, so the guitar was at that point much more exiting. It became quite evident to me that I had to get an electric guitar.
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Despite the fact that I grew up in the age of Hendrix, Clapton, The Beatles, Beck etc., I was not very interested in the guitar until I heard Joe Pass chord melody and classical guitar. (I started on Saxophone). The thought of having a portable "orchestra" was very appealing. I ended up playing the other styles too but my first love is still solo jazz.
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"The thought of having a portable "orchestra" was very appealing. " rsclosson
Hi, R,
For those of us who were/are multi-instrumentalists, this concept was/is very appealing. It frees a musician from the need to play with others when this would be difficult ,if not impossible, in some areas of the country/world. And, when times are tough, it is easier to find a job as a solo than with a group if you want to be paid fairly for your services. The other aspect, as your remarks above state, is purely musical: you have boundless possibilities in creating music not available to those who play linear instruments.
I left woodwinds(tenor/alto sax; flute; and clarinet) when the music industry changed in the late 70's/early 80's. I was also burned out by holding groups together with talented but flaky musicians who couldn't see the forest through the trees: longevity of a group equals monetary success. It's not that I don't miss woodwinds and the lifestyle, but the energy required ,for most, to make a minimal living didn't match the effort and time.
So, for the last 40 years, with some unavoidable gaps, I have directed my energies to the Classical Guitar performing Classical, Jazz, and Bossa, as a paid soloist-- part-time, and over a year ago uncovered my sleeping Cherry Sunburst 1966 Gibson ES125TC (and recently acquired my brother's '66 Gibson ES125TDC) to rediscover its own unique electric voice that has slept since the early 80's. The result, so far, has been the awareness that CG and EG are completely different instruments with completely different techniques, voices, and beauty with the limitless possibilities of a "portable orchestra." And, the freedom of this reality is truly liberating. Play live . . . Marinero
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I saw the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show. For that Christmas, my father got plastic guitars and Beatle wigs for my brother and myself.
That didn’t go anywhere.
Years later, on a bus trip to Idaho for the Boy Scout Jamboree, my brother brought his acoustic guitar along. He didn’t fool with it so I did. I plucked out an almost passible version of a couple of songs and I was hooked.
When school started I found that a fellow choir mate played and I badgered him into giving me a few lessons. He taught me C, G, D, and A chords and said to enjoy myself. That was in 1973. I got some sheet music and the old guitar magazines that had tabs in them and taught myself the rest. I had a finger-killer acoustic guitar and an even crappier electric, but man, I had callouses that were the envy of everyone.
By my senior year in 1976, I was teaching songs to the school guitar teacher so she could teach them to the guitar class. Everything we played in there was what is now called Classic Rock or Southern Rock.
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Lessee, born in 1959 so "pop" music I was exposed to was all guitar-based. So that's a lot of it- I don't remember there not being the Beatles, the Stones, etc. Also, my father was a Nat Cole fan so I grew up hearing Oscar Moore, John Collins and Irving Ashby on those records. Might be a big part of how I fell into jazz guitar...
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In my tender youth I was exposed only to (several) guitars of the 'telephone cable' strings and
'suspension bridge' action variety. A twelve-string in there too.
I chose wind instruments 'till I stumbled upon a pal's SG and its playability out of high school.
Not everyone was cut out to brave the 'Black Diamond' era.
All just chance; goods and info just not as abundant in ye olde days.
Still a soft spot for Gibsons, just not the planks.
Also, jazz was gloriously all over the radio in ye olde days.
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Same here. My parents have always been strumming some chords so it was natural for me to pick it up as soon as I was tall enough to put my fingers round the neck. Originally Posted by christianm77
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"Black Diamond".... [shudders] Originally Posted by rabbit
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It’s actually amazing that we oldies
(I’m over 60 ... yikes)
that learned to play on horrible
and horribly set up cheapo guitars ,
actually persevered through it ....
probably because of cnc machines ,
cheap guitars are usually either fine
or can be set up to be good instruments
I just bought a used 2005 yamaha for £100 that is absolutely fine and is very easy to play ....
I will tweak it a bit but really it’s 95% there
already
amazing really
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