Why guitar?

I appreciate the support for women guitar players and the history lessons!
Whatever the reasons are that have encouraged you to play; keep it up! Music can change the world (Live8 anyone?) and can foster great relationships.
I do too! :) I have three girls. One is getting a 5 string bass and another a electric guitar for Christmas. My youngest likes to play around with the mandolin- better size fit. For us women + guitars = :D

You just put a wonderful memory in my head! My dad taught all three of his daughters to play guitar when we were 11, 13 and 15 (I'm the one in the middle). I just flashed on a picture of the four of us, Dad playing his 12-string and the 3 of us playing our 3/4 size acoustics, just laughing our heads off as we tried to get through songs!! Thanks!

Actually, I was always interested in drums and messed around on my friend's set a lot. But then I went with my friend when he went to purchase his custom Alvarez guitar. We went back to his house and played for hours. He let me use his old guitar and taught me how to play "Wish You Were Here" by Pink Floyd and that's when I was hooked. All I though about all week was guitar. I decided I was going to buy one, shopped around, did research, read reviews, and ended up buying an Ibanez AW12NT. I was extremely pleased with the guitar. I actually only bought that guitar last Monday, January 9th. I am very passionate about playing guitar and love to do it and hope to do it for the rest of my life.

I'm from a very musical family. My mom plays the guitar, dad plays the baritone uke, my brother plays piano (he's got a degree in music) and my sister plays the guitar. When I was 5, I started playing my dad's uke. The baritone uke's 4 strings are the same as the 4 highest strings on the guitar -- D, G, B, E. As a result, many of the uke chords are the same or similar to guitar chords. So, I mastered the uke and when I was around 12 I realised that Beatles' songs didn't sound too cook on uke, so I picked up my mom's guitar. And the rest is history! I'd be lost without it. :D

I have played a couple instruments in the past (cello and alto sax), but ever since I was young (and got my first Beatles album), I always knew that I wanted to learn how to play guitar. It is by far the "superior" instrument :D Now, I have only been playing since October, but seriously, it gives me so much joy - it is the best form of relaxation! And, I am learning my first Beatle song ("Hey Jude"), so it makes me feel that I have come full circle with my long time goal.

Well, welcome to GuitarNoise, Graycee! And, to the guitar! This is a great place to learn and share experiences and frustrations with other people who either have or are currently going through exactly what you are at any given time! We look forward to seeing more of you in the other forums!

I have played a couple instruments in the past (cello and alto sax), but ever since I was young (and got my first Beatles album), I always knew that I wanted to learn how to play guitar. It is by far the "superior" instrument :D Now, I have only been playing since October, but seriously, it gives me so much joy - it is the best form of relaxation! And, I am learning my first Beatle song ("Hey Jude"), so it makes me feel that I have come full circle with my long time goal.

Congrats, GG.

I too have been playing seriously since October and the satisfaction that comes from it is amazing. I love it. Good job with learning Hey Jude. :wink:

Well, welcome to GuitarNoise, Graycee! And, to the guitar! This is a great place to learn and share experiences and frustrations with other people who either have or are currently going through exactly what you are at any given time! We look forward to seeing more of you in the other forums!

Elecktrablue -
Thank you for the warm welcome!!! It made my day! Sorry it has been a couple of days before I responded (internet is down at home :( ) But, seriously, GN is great and the ppl here are really friendly. I am so glad to be a member of this community, even though I'm a newbie! Based on what I have seen on the GN site and forums, I am confident that I will learn more! :D

Seems like no one has posted here in awhile, but what they hey!
Why guitar?
For me, I have always been fascinated by those who could play guitar. I grew up in Cleveland, OH and had my summer vacations in Arkansas. When in AR we would visit my mothers side of the family who all seemed to have this built in gene that allows them to play guitar and sing, seemingly without ever actually learing HOW to. We would sit around the "trash" fire (sad but true lol) in my grandfathers front yard until all hours of the night and just listen to the beautiful and funny songs the guys would play. There was never a woman in our family that played tho, so I assumed it was an exclusivly male thing to do! Now I was the type of girl that so did not want to be a girl...at anything! My mother told me that my grandmother did actually play, but because she passed in the early 70's, I was too young to remember her playing. I wanted to be..lol..the only other woman in my family to show the guys that I could play as well as them! (the old "anything you can do i can do better" bit ya see?) Mom said Grandmother played a Gibson (dunno what model, but I sure wish I knew who that went to!) and I am told because of her small hands she could never play a G (with 3 fingers) so she play a simplified G which has been dubbed in our family as a "Grandmother G" :)
On my Dad's side of the family (lol from the "Old Country") there were Bass players ( you know those big stand up acoustics) guitars, mandolins and fiddles...of course there was always some kind of booze mixed with these get togethers!
I am #5 of 7 kids so actually getting my own guitar or lessons when I was a kid was impossible..I have 3 kids and I know what it takes to feed them! (but they all have guitars ...go figure!)
After getting married and having kids...having a sculpting career..having a farm (cattle/horses etc) I am just plain tired and decided to do something for myself. Both of my parents passed recently and they were my biggest fans when it came to my art...with them gone, I completely lost all desire to sculpt.
Before my dad passed, one of my uncles came to visit (last good byes and all that) and he sat at the dining room table and played his guitar for Dad (it was actually my guitar..the one my brother never gave back..lol..another post) anyway...he (Dad) seemed to come out of his morphine induced stupor mindframe, and the look of amazement and thankfulness (if thats a word) at just hearing my uncle play for him made me have to walk away and bawl like a baby for a bit.
Long story short, Mom and Dad both gone...house sold..money split between all of us (which wasn't much LoL) and I decided that I did NOT want to piddle this $$ away but spend it on something that i could treasue for years to come. So I bought a guitar...lol..and then another..and with the last bit, a mandolin.
Now I seem to be obsessed with playing it well.....
...time to go play! Thanks for listening..er..reading :wink:

good thread...i didn't know about this thread.

when i was little i wanted to play piano. there was a piano teacher down the street so i took lessons for a while but never really practiced. but from that i know some basic music theory and how to read standard notation in a very basic way.

i was always fascinated by artistic achievement in any form and attracted to artistic type of people. i studied art and wanted to be a painter. i think that there's a some sort of connection between painters and guitar players as a lot of painters play guitar and a lot of guitarists paint. anyway....i wanted to play an instrument when i was younger but didn't think of the guitar. i had a secondhard flute but didn't do anything with it.

now that i'm older i can't believe that i didn't take up the guitar when i was younger. i have no idea why i didn't but it's not too late...i'm still here! i think it's the perfect instrument because once you have your guitar you don't need too much more. it's portable and a lot of people play so you have something in common.

Well, I have never considered that I have ever had any musical ability - I am 43, live in Australia, and this year my 10yo daughter was desperate for an electric guitar for her birthday. She got one, I took her to guitar lessons and I watched and listened to everything so I could help her practise. As it turns out, she has lost interest - I think it was much more difficult than she had imagined. She wanted to be a rock star without putting any effort into it!!! Anyway, after attending the lessons, I became quite interested in learning myself and decided to keep at it (about 5 months now). A little voice inside me tells me I am too old occasionally, and the voices around my house tell me I definitely can't sing!! Still, I am determined to give it a go (the playing not the singing) and have been really thrilled at some of the things I have achieved so far (as simple as they may seem to a pro). This web site has been extremely useful and I love this forum. Cheers :lol:

Welcome to GuitarNoise, Songbird543! And, good for you for picking up where your daughter left off! You are never too old to learn something new and, if you get enjoyment out of it, all the better then! I'm 50 and just picked up a dulcimer a couple of weeks ago and am having a blast with it! I'll never be the greatest, but I'll have fun with it! I also started learning mandolin at about 48. Again ... I'll never be the greatest, but :D. Technically, I started playing guitar at 13, but only played for about 10 years before I wound up having to give it up for about 20 years, but started right back in at the first opportunity!

Your comment about singing reminded me of my older sister (she passed away in 2003). When my father was teaching all three of his daughters to play guitar, he encouraged us to sing. My little sister and I weren't TOO bad, but my older sister could peel the paint off of the walls when she sang! But she didn't care. She loved to sing and would do it at the top of her lungs (and send us screaming from the house!). But, when she had her only grandson she would sing to him and he would look at her with adoring eyes and just laugh! She finally had someone in her life who appreciated her voice! (Turns out he's tone deaf, too, but what the heck! He loved his grandmother!) :D

As far as I know during to most of the Greek and Roman time only men performed music.And they were slaves.

As far as I know during to most of the Greek and Roman time only men performed music.And they were slaves.

LOL :lol:

Thanks Elecktrablue for your welcome. I am glad my post brought back a nice memory about your sister. My children liked listening to me sing when they were little too but not any more now they are 10 and 13!!

Now I am going to show my ignorance and ask, "what is a dulcimer"? Is it electric or acoustic - you can tell I am new at this.

Actually, dulcimers can be both acoustic or electric! These two are acoustic. The standard shapes for Mountain Dulcimer are either "Hourglass" (the first one) or "Teardrop". Mine is an "Hourglass".

This one is electric...... notice the solid body and the bridge pickup.

Traditionally dulcimers have three strings; melody (the string closest to the player), the middle and the bass. The four stringed dulcimer is commonly arranged so that the melody string is doubled up and therefore is actually a variation of the three stringed instrument. The melody is generally played on the first two strings and the other two are considered "drone" strings. (Mine is the one with the doubled melody strings).

Placing the instrument horizontally across a table or the player's lap, typically the right hand strums the strings with fingers or pick. The left hand plays a melody line by pressing down on the fretboard with a noter (usually a rounded stick or twig) or fingers. (I'm having difficulty using the noter, probably because I'm basically a fingerpicker on guitar, so I use my fingers for fretting and for strumming/picking.)

The dulcimer is quite different from the guitar or banjo in that it has no set tuning. Rather it can be tuned a number of different ways. At first this may seem confusing but actually allows each musician the flexibilty of finding their own "voice" with their instrument. Since I'm a beginner, though, mine is tuned to DAdd (with the bass string tuned to D, the middle drone tuned to A and the paired melody strings tuned to d.) Other common tunings are DAaa and CGgg.

It's a really interesting instrument! I highly recommend it! :D