Why are you a guitarist

I started to ride (again) recently and, yes, I also found many similarities between guitar and bike worlds.

BTW nice bikes :wink:

My mom factors into my reasons a little, too. She bought me an acoustic guitar when I was 12, shortly after my dad passed away. My parents always encouraged me to play an instument and I think my mom was hoping to give me something to focus on besides getting into trouble. I took lessons for a while but never really applied myself, I was too distracted by motocross, getting a hot rod like my older friends, girls....so I never followed through.

Before my mom died a couple of years ago she had my old guitar shipped down here to Florida for me...she was still hoping I'd learn to play it after all these years. Well, now I finally have the proper spare time to devote to my 38 year old guitar and I've been practicing and learning most every day for about 3 months now. Granted I spend a lot more time playing my fake Strat but the point is I'm playing and enjoying it immensely. Matter of fact, I'm going to go play the acoustic right now...thanks, mom.

Brian

BTW nice bikes :wink:

Thanks, my wife is actually liking me practicing because as she says the time that I am practicing I am at home, where as with Cycling well I am gone for hours. :lol: I got thru Bob Marley Three Little Birds several times, still accidently grabbing an extra string on the transition back to the A chord, figure that will stop with time and practice. Also proud of myself because the pause time between chords is also starting to come down as well. Yeah me.

Later

Mezzy

........still accidently grabbing an extra string on the transition back to the A chord, figure that will stop with time and practice

Take that change and practice it - slowly. If you continue to make the same mistake, it will become part of the routine and you'll never get rid of it.

Is that the D-A or E-A change? Doesn't really matter. Play the first chord, straight down strums, 60 bpm. Keep doing it whilst you picture, in your mind, the A chord, where fingers need to go and how you're going to move them there. Fix that in your mind. When you have a really clear picture of the movement to the A chord, change chords. The chances are that your fingers will land straight on the A. Now do the same, to go to E (or D), then come back to A.

Repeat until you can do it, correctly, without any noticeable preparation.

I consider myself more of a guitar player that a guitarist .... but to make another very long story short ........
Just listen to Foriegner's "Juke Box Hero" and that sums it up.

That came out around the same time I bought my first guitar, and I did quote it more than a few times ...
Bought a beat up six string, in a secondhand store
Didn't know how to play it, but he knew for sure
That one guitar, felt good in his hands,
Because it perfectly described my purchase.
Then, for one reason or another I never managed to figure out how to make music, so it spent a couple of decades un-used.

And then kids came along, and their music lessons.
They are what really got me to pull the guitar out again, and actually learn to play. :D

Good Posts.
I am ashamed to to say my reason for playing is Guitar Hero.
I got a cheap Gibson Hummingbird copy from Sears when I was about 12 but just did not learn anything. I spent many years thinking I was "musically challenged". Two years ago the kids got a Wii for Christmas and I thought Guitar Hero looked like fun. I played it for a month and it made me think guitar playing is so cool. Then I thought if a fake guitar can be this much fun I should try a real one.

I don't think I played Guitar Hero since, I have now Purchased and sold and traded and swapped and rented about 8 different guitars in two years both electric and acoustic. My wife had to step in and limit me to one of each about 1.5years ago. I did convnce my daughter to start taking lessons though and since she is too little to play my dreadnaught managed to get a third guitar in the house (a nice little Art & Luthrie Parlour guitar) which is great for acoustic blues btw. I am trying to get my daughter into electrics now.

I am now thoroughly addicted to guitar and feel I have to get an hours playing in per day or I just don't feel right. My wife is a little sad about the whole thing because she watches TV without me most of the time now. Sorry honey!!

I tell her I could have taken up drinking as my new hobby!! :twisted: She doesn't think I am funny, go figure.

My reason is pretty simple. It feels right. I've always loved hearing songs stripped down to just the acoustics and my dad played one when I was a kid. I've always thought, someday I will play one too. Granted I started a little (or lot) later than I wanted, I've been playing for 10 months now and it feels like I should have been doing it my whole life.

I'm in my 40s and I've loved music all my life, but had never picked up an instrument. A couple of years ago I came across a magazine article (I think it was in Forbes) titled something like "10 Things You're Never Too Old To Do." One was to learn another language. The idea of knowing how to speak Italian seemed cool, but when would I really use it? Another item in the article was learn to play an instrument. After giving it a second or two of thought I said, "Hell yeah!" I bought my first guitar a few days later.

I've been playing for four years now. I still think I suck, but others who have heard me play have had much kinder words. The truth is I do it for personal satisfaction. It doesn't hurt that the feeling playing gives me keeps me off of the shrink's couch.

I'm into my 50's now. When I was a little kid - about 6 or so - I heard the Beatles on the radio, then saw them on the TV and vowed there and then that someday I'd do that. Still don't consider myself a guitarist, let alone a musician - but I'm still working hard at it.

Back up a little bit - took me till I was 17 to persuade parents to fork out for a guitar. I got a classical acoustic, which isn't really the instrument you want when you've been brought up with the Beatles, Stones, Who, Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly etc etc etc. Saved up for an electric - bought a real POS. Wouldn't have know the difference between a Fibson and a Gender back then. But I learned a few chords and a few songs.....

Fast forward about 30 years. I've had a few guitars over the years, but every time I've been out of work they've been pawned and never redeemed. My daughter decides she wants to learn guitar - her best mate's got one, so she HAS TO HAVE A GUITAR!!! Went the same route as my parents....got a cheapo classical acoustic for her. She didn't take to it, but this time, I did - put steel strings on and played and played.

Fast forward another few years - I've just met a new girlfriend, I'm a single parent with a kid in high school, and I've got a decent acoustic guitar and I'm making slow but steady progress, learning new songs all the time. The first time in my life I've had a nice guitar, I'm really enjoying playing it. So one night this new girlfriend asks me do I know "Three Steps To Heaven" - and I do, well enough to play and sing it to her. Couple of months later, she treats me to a new electric guitar - a Squier Strat (great starter guitar, I'd recommend the Squier Strat/Fender Freshman 15W starter pack to anyone who's just starting to play electric, but that's another story.) Couple of months after that, I googled "Online Guitar Lessons," and after a couple of false starts, found Guitarnoise.

Now I wasn't just a beginner - I was a newbie. Worked my way through easy lessons - I'd decided I was going to learn this thing properly this time - then started in the Easy Song Database. Learned a lot of songs, then realised that not only was I getting to be a fairly decent guitarist, I was getting obsessed with all things guitar related! A GN member (Wes Inman) suggested it might be a good exercise to start tabbing songs out.....that led into a lot of guitar-theory related questions.

Now, everything I learn leads me further down the line - I learn one thing, it leads to something else.

What keeps me playing guitar? Well - I want to get better. Every time I think I'm getting to be a decent guitarist, someone'll come along and blow me away. It doesn't discourage me, for the most part - I usually think, "well, if you can play that, I can play that with practise!!!

That, and the fact that 99% of my favourite songs are guitar songs - and I want to be able to play ALL my favourite songs, eventually!

Then there's writing - about 6 years ago I started writing songs in the Sunday Songwriter's Group. Came to realise if you're going to write good songs you're going to need more than 3-4 chords - so I needed to learn more guitar theory so's I'd know where I was going with chords, melody, etc.

And finally, I'm a guitarist because I couldn't envisage life without a guitar - the last few years, I've written so many songs, worked so hard at it, and enjoyed playing so much that I don't know what I'd do if I was guitarless. If I'm bored, it's the first thing I pick up - and I can quite easily get so carried away playing guitar that the "five minutes" I was going to play for can easily stretch to a couple of hours with me even noticing how much time's gone by, or even reaching for a cigarette.....

And I'm always bored unless I've got a guitar in my hands these days.

That's why I play guitar - I'm not a guitarist yet, but that's what I'm putting on my next passport as my occupation. Well it occupies most of my time!

:D :D :D

Vic

C'mon.....the chicks....

C'mon.....the chicks....

:lol: I don't know what it is about a guy with a guitar that makes us ladies swoon...

C'mon.....the chicks....

:lol: I don't know what it is about a guy with a guitar that makes us ladies swoon...

Never got anyone swooned by me...lol.

Maybe, for that I gotta play the electric or the bass.

C'mon.....the chicks....
Not with a guitar, man

I am ashamed to to say my reason for playing is Guitar Hero.

I'm not ashamed but my reason is the same. I was a musician for 20 years or so but never really learned to play an instrument - I played keyboards a bit, but I did electronic music which was often more programming than playing.

I was 38. Tried playing Guitar Hero with my wife and sister/brother in law, and say what you will about those games, but it did two things: got me to really listen to guitar music in a way I never had before, and gave me an inkling of what it would be like to play a real guitar. Bought a Strat a couple of months later and I've been buying guitars ever since. Er, PLAYING guitars ever since. :)

Tried playing Guitar Hero with my wife and sister/brother in law, and say what you will about those games......(etc)

Hmmm - read a lot of posts lately about how Guitar Hero has made people want to go out and buy a REAL guitar and learn how to play. So, no negative vibes here - anything that makes people want to go out and buy a guitar is fine by me!

:D :D :D

Vic