What made you decide to pick up the guitar?

[Jonathan0996]

I started out playing violin (my mom wanted me to be the next Jascha Heifetz). But in my neighborhood, if you were gonna walk around with a violin case, you'd better be able to take care of yourself. Guitar seemed like a safer bet.

[SwingYodel]

Those are the posts that forums are made of. Had to take a lot out of you to type it, much less post it .... but you laid it on the line and that commands respect.

Completely agree! That was an epic, if tragic yet triumphant story. And told in only a few lines. I could practically feel your pain and trauma. Ever consider writing, Rob?

I have been asthmatic since infancy, as well, and always wondered what kind of sax or horn player I would be...LOL

[R Neil]

LOL! Sorry, guys, that was a bit intense

Naw. It was beautifully human. Maybe you weren't meant for the sax ... but you sure do magic with a guitar. Just ... thanks for being here. Your music and your comments make better humans of all of us.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

[Rob MacKillop]

Thanks, guys. Appreciated. Although not an ideal upbringing, many, many people have it worse. I've had (and still have) a good marriage, and our daughter is now 20, and studying design in London. Happy to report my daughter is my best friend.

[fast eddy]

Sitting in my apartment in Gyotoku, Tokyo listening to Eric Clapton play unplugged. I have always been into music and singing, especially. Growing up in the 60s and 70s was a golden age for us young ones.

Listening to Clapton play on his acoustic really got to me. I remember thinking, "I wish I could play guitar". At that point, I realised that I was 34 years old, with my own cash, no responsibilities to think of - I should go and buy a guitar. So after perusing the second hand ads in the Japan Times, I found an American guy selling a Fender acoustic. I didn't know anything about guitars or what a decent price/type of guitar I should get. This fella was the only one who spoke English so I bought what he had to sell!

The next morning, while in my futon, I reached for my new axe to try to work out the basic chord progression the seller of my guitar had given me - G Em C, D7 G and just kept trying to bang it out. After playing for a while, I looked up and saw that 4 hours had gone by! I had never focused on anything in my life for 4 hours! I knew I had found my 'thang'!

[FuseHead]

I thought it would help me have greater success with females. Boy was I wrong about that.

[Gabor]

I thought it would help me have greater success with females. Boy was I wrong about that.

At the time I had started to play the guitar I was 13, and between 13 and 16 (well later too :-), I had really serious problems how to have a girlfriend. Interestingly I never, never was thinking about the guitar as a tool or aid to organize a girlfriend.

Missed I something? :-)

[Donnie]

Most of my Dad's Brothers played guitar and or mandolin, so family get togethers were always filled with playing and singing. My Dad used to tell me that I walked around singing while strumming a tennis racket; so I guess at an early age I always knew I would play, long before I got my first guitar. That Family Heritage instilled so much in me that way; a gift I can never say "Thank You" enough for! Only my Oldest Son (out of four Kids), plays guitar, so passing that "gift" along for one person.

[Sandaun]

At the time I had started to play the guitar I was 13, and between 13 and 16 (well later too :-), I had really serious problems how to have a girlfriend. Interestingly I never, never was thinking about the guitar as a tool or aid to organize a girlfriend.

Missed I something? :-)

Some of us just don't get it until later; and some of us decide it's too problematic even then. I think it's a cross between finding a place in a hostile competitive bunch of adolescents and standing out from the crowd. Merely playing the guitar raises your profile somewhat; you also have to be a performer as well. Then you don't need to worry about approaching them; they approach you.

Just for what it's worth, when I was about eleven or twelve, I saw Yehudi Menuhin playing with a symphony orchestra and thought, "I'd love to do that." and asked my parents about learning the violin. They told me one of Dad's co-workers was a violin teacher in her spare time, and I should approach her and ask her to teach me. Bad thing to suggest to a kid as reclusive as I was becoming. Took me till I was in my early twenties to learn violin. Never too late to give it a go, and while I'll never be another Yehudi Menuhin, I can at least have fun with it.