I think I've reached the point where I should stop telling people. Seriously. Because when people ask and I tell them, the most common response now is "Whoa... that's before I was born!"
I started teaching guitar for a living in 1978. I'd been playing for a while then :)
Guitar teacher offering lessons in Plainfield IL
Been playing on-and-off for about 7 years. My wife bought me an acoustic for my 30th birthday and I picked up an electric about 6 months later. She probably wished she'd never bought me that acoustic!
My greatest memory of playing was teaching my daughter about notes and how they repeat on the fretboard and then showing her how that translates to the piano (she is 6 and starting piano lessons). She IMMEDIATELY picked it up and we started to work out a rudimentary version of Day Tripper. Wow.
-=- Steve
"If the moon were made of ribs, would you eat it?"
Since about 1979. Wow, if only I had anything to show for it or was any good.
Dave
Sometimes in life you get shown the light,
In the strangest of places if you look at it right.
Well, I remember I started playing when I was in Grade 6. In about a month it will be about 2 years since I graduated from college from a 4 year program. So that's about 12 years! Keep in mind however that I didn't play as much during my college years, I'm sure there are alot of guitar players that haven't been playing for as long as I have that are better than me.
Steve-0
A few years here and a few years there.
I started learning the mandolin when I was nine,( up until about 13 I think) I wanted to learn the guitar but everyone said I was too small and so my Grandmother kindly gave me her mandolin, that being deemed a good size for me ( :lol: ) After a couple of years of lessons my Mum decided to learn the guitar and so we had joint lessons together. The lowest moment in that was that when I didn't keep correct time the teacher used to pound the correct beat on the music stand with his pen , a bit scary but apart from that he was a good teacher.
The high point in this time was one Christmas when we were at our usual holiday place attending the annual Christmas Dance in a coastal country town, somehow it got round that my mother and I played the guitar and mandolin - there was no letting up until we got our instruments from the caravan and gave a recital of two songs. Apart from me being nervous from being in total awe of the country band who were playing that night and graciously gave us the stage for our two numbers, somehow we got through it fairly well - the audience gave us a big applause at the end of it, even the band was clapping! This pretty much blew me away as a few months before we'd had to give a recital at a big auditorium in Sydney and I'd pretty much frozen up and made several errors - I could feel my music teacher's disappointment (these were our only 'gigs').
Down the track I had some guitar lessons for a while - interludes of years and then I've been playing since I joined this site, with a break here and there. I really wanted to get good enough to play in a local coffee shop, well maybe some day :)
I started in 1977 or 1978, I don't remember exactly, at the school. I played for a couple of years or so with a teacher. Then I played at home and with friends. I put the guitar down for some years (although I was also playing keyboards and flute these years) and I started again in the summer of 2006. Now I play bass more than guitars.
Began at the tender young age of 4 in 1954 on harp ( harmonica to those who don't hang with musicians ) - 56 guitar - 58 trumpet - 1962 3 milk bottles cash and smash up my chording hand and finger tips really bad ........No more guitar for 36 year till the last piece came out Oct.12th 1998 , took till January of 1999 to heal so I could re start where I left off .
1991 I began keyboard and drums - last may I began the electric bass . So all in all I have been at it 55 years .
I play with pros ( since 1977 ) and love it . I work with Chan Romero ( Hippy Hippy Shake 1959 ) presently .
Hurricane Ramon
It started for me with Twinkle Twinkle Little Star on a Blues Harp and progressed , then life -some death-Evolving like a small rock in a stream rounding out as I went with the flow as I go through the white waters and waterfalls of life .
Started in the military with an electric and just plucked strings. Lost interest then got an acoustic and electric in 2001 and normally play during the Winter and put it down for the rest of the year. Because of that I'm always starting over, which I hate, but other demands are what they are and I wouldn't dare ignore my other priorities (kids).
My sister asked me to play at her wedding next fall so that has lit a fire under me to stick with it and learn the songs she would like. I take that as inspiration to keep playing and become better and hopefully not take the long breaks.
