Re: When did you first start to play guitar?
Tony Done
"oasysco" <oas...@cox.net> wrote in message
news:7e0bf906-f12a-498c...@26g2000yqo.googlegroups.com...
>I was 19-20 yo. My mom and dad and us had just moved out of state and
> I took up guitar out of boredom. No one else in my family - immediate
> and extended - had ever played an instrument in earnest or played in a
> band. Sad, isn't it, that parents didn't encourage their kids to take
> up an instrument.
>
> Anyway, I bought a $160 Epi SG from JC Penny's, I believe, not quite
> knowing what I was doing.
>
> I started taking lessons from a local jazz guy whose name I quite
> literally picked out of a telephone book under "music instruction".
>
> He was a gigging jazz player. He said he never took beginners, but
> told me that he'd give me 30 days to prove I was interested.
>
> For the first 4-6 months of learning, I practiced 6-8 hours a day. I
> was passionate and driven. My finger tips bled and my hand ached. I
> felt bad if I missed a day practicing.
>
> Then life set in, I ran out of money, had to quit the lessons, and had
> to get a job :)- That put an end to the daily long practices.
>
> Fast-forward after nearly a 20 year hiatus form even picking up a
> guitar due to getting married, career, family, yadda.
>
> 5 years later, I'm in my first *paid* gigging cover band.
>
> So, you see, it's never too late to start and somehow it has a way of
> coming around again to be part of your life.
>
> Greg
I would have been in my mid teens (around 1960), my neighbourhood mate took
up electric and I took up acoustic, a plywood monstrosity with a tailpiece.
I replaced it with a solid top monstrosity with a fixed bridge in my late
teens. This was the period of the folk/blues boom, so my acoustic interest
lasted all through late high school and uni. I never gave up playing
entirely, but it went on the back burner when I started work, and I didn't
buy my first half-decent guitar, a Maton FG-100 until I emigrated to Oz in
1975. I got more interested in playing and guitars in the mid-80s when I
discovered tab, bought a reso and took up slide. More recently I've taken up
electrics, but I still can't manage a flatpick. These days I tend to see
music as a technical challenge to keep my brain active as I approach
retirement. Paid gigs are OK, but I don't need an audience, I'm not
motivated to do crowd pleasers in a band and not good enough to get paid for
what I like doing in a way that is compatible with my family life. I
comfortable with my relationship with music if not my abilities.
Tony D
RichL
> I was 19-20 yo. My mom and dad and us had just moved out of state and
> I took up guitar out of boredom. No one else in my family - immediate
> and extended - had ever played an instrument in earnest or played in a
> band. Sad, isn't it, that parents didn't encourage their kids to take
> up an instrument.
>
> Anyway, I bought a $160 Epi SG from JC Penny's, I believe, not quite
> knowing what I was doing.
>
> I started taking lessons from a local jazz guy whose name I quite
> literally picked out of a telephone book under "music instruction".
>
> He was a gigging jazz player. He said he never took beginners, but
> told me that he'd give me 30 days to prove I was interested.
>
> For the first 4-6 months of learning, I practiced 6-8 hours a day. I
> was passionate and driven. My finger tips bled and my hand ached. I
> felt bad if I missed a day practicing.
>
> Then life set in, I ran out of money, had to quit the lessons, and had
> to get a job :)- That put an end to the daily long practices.
>
> Fast-forward after nearly a 20 year hiatus form even picking up a
> guitar due to getting married, career, family, yadda.
>
> 5 years later, I'm in my first *paid* gigging cover band.
>
> So, you see, it's never too late to start and somehow it has a way of
> coming around again to be part of your life.
>
> Greg
Late 1963, at age 15. Just in time for the "British invasion".
oasysco
> "oasysco" <oasy...@cox.net> wrote in message
Same here and possibly something to do into retirement.
>Paid gigs are OK, but I don't need an audience, I'm not
> motivated to do crowd pleasers in a band and not good enough to get paid for
> what I like doing in a way that is compatible with my family life.
Well, i can say from experience that this is 100% true. You play what
pleases the crowd - or the band itself - and the pay was never enough.
I no longer gig, but I wanted to at least have that experience, which
I did at the ripe old age of 45 :)
I haven't gigged since 2005 and don't have any plans to do so, though
finding a like-minded individual to work up jazz tunes who doesn't
already play like GB and expect that from me would be a worthwhile
pursuit.
>I
> comfortable with my relationship with music if not my abilities.
Well, put. We should all heed that instead of beating ourselves about
the face because of what we can't do.
Greg
>
> Tony D
Derek
it. I got my first guitar at 18, at a pawnshop while in college.
Sean
I got a part in the high school play that required me to play Kansas
City Blues in front of hundreds of people. I had mere weeks to learn how
to play.
The kid who was the stage manager was taking lessons, so he showed me E,
A and B7, and he showed me how to do that knock on thing that makes it
sound like blues, and I went at it 'til my fingers bled.
Being a teenage boy, I kept at it single-mindedly and within a year I'd
written a bunch of songs and knew a bunch of tunings and had a nice
Gibson acoustic.
It never occurred to me to turn it into a job. I just played every day
for no other reason than just playing. I never took a single formal
lesson, so I developed my own style, I guess. And it's taken me 40 years
to figure out for myself theory that I could have learned in a couple of
months if I'd been "properly trained." But I've had a lot of fun
re-inventing the wheel.
Lumpy
Japanese dred for xmas. She got busy chasing boys
and I said "I want to learn how to play and sing".
I had seen some 3rd grade chick come to our
kindergarden class and play guitar. I was in love
with the chick to some extent, but even more, I was
in love with the idea of playing and singing in front
of a crowd. Years later I went back to that same K-garden
class and played for them.
I started out taking lessons from the usual store clerk
guys at all the area music stores. I took from more than
one teacher at a time. Went through every Mel Bay book
and learned how to play "Oh Suzanna" and all that other
"beginner" stuff really quickly.
My family was musical. Mom and aunt played organ, uncle
played tenor banjo, grandfather played old time fiddle.
For some reason we had a clarinet and an accordian at
the house but nobody played them. Family would play
show tunes, I'd figure out how to play something that
sounded ok with those songs that I'd never heard of.
I was in a band!
I can remember at the very beginning, my tiny fingers
learned abbreviated chords -
G - xx0003
G7- xx0001
C - xxx010
F - xxxx11
Em- xxx000
Am- xxxx10
Last time I moved, I came across the original, hand
written chord sheet that my uncle drew for me, describing
those chords. Obviously most of those chords are limited
and they're all on the treble strings. Remember I was
competing with banjos and electric organs and fiddles!
I didn't have anything else to occupy my brain so I
practiced all day long. Like I'd get up at 3:30am
and practice. I'd stick a handkerchief under the
strings, near the bridge, so it wouldn't wake
the rest of the house.
Pretty quickly I used up all the area's music
store lesson guys. So my parents started taking
me to downtown LA and I took lessons with all the
studio cats there. I didn't know who they were at
the time, they were just older musicians. They were
Tommy Tedesco, Glen Campbell, Carol Kaye, Ray Brown,
Dick Kniss, Leon Russel, Darrel Dragon, Howard Roberts.
I went down there every day after school and would
sometimes stay till midnight. The musicians would
take me with them from studio to studio and then
to the clubs afterwords. I'd finally phone home
and say "Mom, come and get me, I'm at XXX restaurant
in Van Nuys".
The wrecking crew cats got me jobs doing commercials.
They were busy doing everyone's albums so when the
commercials came along, they sent "the kid". I was
fearless and had chops and was used to playing music
that I'd never heard or seen before (like with my
family playing show tunes).
The cats that were doing TV (Howard, Ray, Tommy) got
me "matriculated" into doing TV. We'd be in some green
room at NBC or KTLA or wherever, having a lesson. Some
studio page would come in and say "You're needed on
'Steve Allen' Mr Brown". So I'd go along with Ray
or Tommy or Howard or whoever and they'd have me
sit in for them in the TV show orchestra. Bob Bain
had me sit in for him on The Tonight Show when they'd
come to LA (those days they were still in New York).
Once I'd "passed the test" with the TV show musical
directors, then I was in and other Mus Directors
knew they could use me for anything they needed.
I was always there, somewhere. If I wasn't in their
studio, I was six blocks away in some other studio.
By the time I was in about 3rd grade, I was working
nearly full time in the studios. I played several
instruments, sang, did voice-overs, did cartoon voices.
Chick singers started to hire me to accompany them.
Karen, Linda, Carole, Cher and dozens of others all
hired me to do whatever it was I did. I think they
had that motherly instinct and I was a cute kid. Because I was
a kid, and not a threat to anyone, and had been proven
by my "test by fire" on the Tonight Show and others,
I was able to offer honest criticism and advice. Those
girls would ask me "How does this sound?" and I'd tell
them, honestly. Then I'd give them my suggestions on
what they could do different. I did the same thing for
Mason Wiliams, Tom and Dick Smothers, lots of comedians
(Steve Martin, Kip Adotta, Gary Muledeer). I hung around
with most of the people from the Smothers Bros/Glen Campbell/
Sonny and Cher family of players, actors, writers.
By the time I got to college, I was already working in
the profession that most of my classmates were working
toward someday making happen. I had to miss so many classes
that by the 2nd year I told the dept head "I like your
department and all the professors, but I can't go to school
and work full time in the studios at the same time".
He told me ""You quit school right now and go work.
The rest of these kids will only dream of what you're
doing. You're earning more money than I'm earning!""
So I did exactly that. Dropped out of the State University,
kept working my ass off. I saved up all my money and left
LA in my early 20s, not addicted to drugs, not an alcoholic,
not deflated because I was a fallen star. I was happy and
wealthy. I went back to school many years later and finished
two music degrees, kind of just to prove that I could do it.
And today, I own a couple of guitars, some horses and the internet.
Lumpy
In Your Ears for 40 Something Years
www.LumpyMusic.com
Sean
> And today, I own a couple of guitars, some horses and the internet.
Thanks for letting the rest of us use the internet, eh?
Rufus
> I was 19-20 yo. My mom and dad and us had just moved out of state and
> I took up guitar out of boredom. No one else in my family - immediate
> and extended - had ever played an instrument in earnest or played in a
> band. Sad, isn't it, that parents didn't encourage their kids to take
> up an instrument.
>
> Anyway, I bought a $160 Epi SG from JC Penny's, I believe, not quite
> knowing what I was doing.
>
> I started taking lessons from a local jazz guy whose name I quite
> literally picked out of a telephone book under "music instruction".
>
> He was a gigging jazz player. He said he never took beginners, but
> told me that he'd give me 30 days to prove I was interested.
>
> For the first 4-6 months of learning, I practiced 6-8 hours a day. I
> was passionate and driven. My finger tips bled and my hand ached. I
> felt bad if I missed a day practicing.
>
> Then life set in, I ran out of money, had to quit the lessons, and had
> to get a job :)- That put an end to the daily long practices.
>
> Fast-forward after nearly a 20 year hiatus form even picking up a
> guitar due to getting married, career, family, yadda.
>
> 5 years later, I'm in my first *paid* gigging cover band.
>
> So, you see, it's never too late to start and somehow it has a way of
> coming around again to be part of your life.
>
> Greg
I started playing during my college days - fall of '77...on my dad's
Teisco Del Ray that was laying around the house. About 1/4 of the guys
on my dorm floor played, and I had a roommate that had a Gibson L6S and
a Carvin 2x12 and taught me the rudiments of what I know.
I'm completely self taught - by ear, copying records, and just hanging
out with other players, both working and amateur. There are people's
parents whom claim to have never seen me without a guitar in my hands
during my college days - I ended up sitting in with garage players by
the end of two semesters, borrowing that L6S and Carvin amp from my roomie.
Then I went home, got a summer job, and came back the next fall with my
'78 Les Paul Custom, which I still have and is still my favorite axe.
That was the beginning of forming my own groups - one of which lasted
nearly three years.
Once out of college, I tried forming bands a couple times and got dead
tired of trying to hold a band together...so I started putting together
a personal recording studio around a TASCAM 688 back in about the
mid-late '80s or so when that machine first appeared (Poison's drummer
stole the first one I ordered out from under me, and I'm still po'd
about that...). I still have my 688 in fine working order and now
augmented by a G5 iMac and too much rack gear. I really like playing
with audio and now consider myself a far better sound engineer and
technician than I ever will be a guitar player.
After about 10+ years of just fooling around in my own studio, I got
drug back into playing with groups about five years ago - and all of the
dysfunction that seems to accompany it...but just as things were
beginning to gel, I got sidelined by a severe attack of Crohn's
disease...as part of recovering after my hospitalization I began crewing
sound for some of the local bands, and doing some utility playing with
them during practice sessions on occasion...now that's what I do mostly,
having created a rep for myself as a tech/engineer.
...but I still duck gigging for the most part - for lack of stamina due
to my disease, and lack of interest, need, or desire (and even disdain,
to a point) to be in front of an audience. But I do have my fun when I
do/can, and I've never actually "stopped" playing just for my own
amusement for any length of time.
--
- Rufus
Rufus
...and thanks for the PORN, dude!
--
- Rufus
ed s
> "oasysco" <oasy...@cox.net> wrote in message
>
> - Show quoted text -
Started guitar at ~ age 50, about 6 years ago. I played bass as a
teen & early 20's ( in Calif.) . The quit for ~ 26 years. Moved to
Mn. a few years ago and wanted to get back into music. Could not find
anyone to play with ( me as bass player)- just didn't know anyone
really. I decide to take up guitar ( as I always wanted to anyway) ,
and bass alone doesn't work for me. Just having some fun at it..
( thanks 2 the Lump and Al Gore we have the interneted to share it),
and play for parties and out on a rare occasion. - ed s.
EJ Willson
> I was 19-20 yo. My mom and dad and us had just moved out of state and
> I took up guitar out of boredom. No one else in my family - immediate
> and extended - had ever played an instrument in earnest or played in a
> band. Sad, isn't it, that parents didn't encourage their kids to take
> up an instrument.
>
> Anyway, I bought a $160 Epi SG from JC Penny's, I believe, not quite
> knowing what I was doing.
>
> I started taking lessons from a local jazz guy whose name I quite
> literally picked out of a telephone book under "music instruction".
>
> He was a gigging jazz player. He said he never took beginners, but
> told me that he'd give me 30 days to prove I was interested.
>
> For the first 4-6 months of learning, I practiced 6-8 hours a day. I
> was passionate and driven. My finger tips bled and my hand ached. I
> felt bad if I missed a day practicing.
>
> Then life set in, I ran out of money, had to quit the lessons, and had
> to get a job :)- That put an end to the daily long practices.
>
> Fast-forward after nearly a 20 year hiatus form even picking up a
> guitar due to getting married, career, family, yadda.
>
> 5 years later, I'm in my first *paid* gigging cover band.
>
> So, you see, it's never too late to start and somehow it has a way of
> coming around again to be part of your life.
>
> Greg
Back in the middle 50's I wanted to sound like Buddy Holly, Jimmie Bowen
etc. Be really cool..get all the girls and so on. I went to my parents
and told them that I wanted to learn to play the guitar. I was informed
that it was really good to want to be musical. Both my Grandfather and
GGFather had earned their livings as music instructors/band leaders.
There was no way I could afford a guitar, but I figured I was home free.
Next thing I knew I was taking classical piano from some clueless old
broad and hating every minute of it. Guitars were very expensive back
then, and my parents justified this punishment because we "had a piano".
I persevered for about eight years and finally quit. Haven't played the
piano since. Anyway, life happened and finally when I turned 60 I
decided "It's now or never". Been playing ever since and loving it.
There was a problem with my instructor..seems he could not believe that
anyone 60 years old would want to learn to play. I note that he has now
changed his teaching advertisement to include "instructions for
seniors". Perhaps he should call it "geriatric guitar".
EJ in NJ
tafg
I was curious about music, and a piano was too damn big to lug around.
Paul L
In '92 I was 37 and got involved in the Prodigy music groups. Developed a
serious interest in the singer songwriter genre, learning about a lot of new
music on Prodigy and decided I would like to be
able to deliver cool songs and play acoustic guitar. Rented a Guild D4 to
see if it was a passing interest and immediately discovered a joy
in taking every little baby step in the learning process. After about a
month I went from strumming to fingerpicking and have been
there ever since.
cheers
Paul
Little Charlie
Zepplin LP (no cd's then!) Stumbled upon pentatonic scales as I fit
notes to the recording. Been playing out since 1990. It's the best thing
in my life..my guitars have never let me down. Unlike women.
Stephenc.
Hey Lumpy,
If that is a true story, it is pretty cool. Wasn't Tommy Tedesco the
guitar player in Happy Kyne and the Mirthmakers, the house band on
"Fernwood Tonight"?
Steve
Lumpy
> Hey Lumpy,
>
> If that is a true story, it is pretty cool. Wasn't Tommy Tedesco the
> guitar player in Happy Kyne and the Mirthmakers, the house band on
> "Fernwood Tonight"?
Oh yeah. Tommy, Howard Roberts, me, Bob Bain and a few
others did Fernwood, Gong Show, Love Boat and several others.
Rufus
..."Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman"...
--
- Rufus
Charmed Snark
3984e8...@s3g2000yqs.googlegroups.com:
> On Jan 2, 1:32�pm, "Lumpy" <lu...@digitalcartography.com> wrote:
>> 1961 I was 5 y/o. My teenage sister got a full size
>> Japanese dred for xmas. She got busy chasing boys
>> and I said "I want to learn how to play and sing".
...
>> And today, I own a couple of guitars, some horses and the internet.
>> Lumpy
You had time to invent the internet too? Oh, sorry- that was Al Gore,
wasn't it?
Snark.
Charmed Snark
> Stephenc. wrote:
>> Hey Lumpy,
>>
>> If that is a true story, it is pretty cool. Wasn't Tommy Tedesco the
>> guitar player in Happy Kyne and the Mirthmakers, the house band on
>> "Fernwood Tonight"?
>
> Oh yeah. Tommy, Howard Roberts, me, Bob Bain and a few
> others did Fernwood, Gong Show, Love Boat and several others.
>
> Lumpy
I loved watching Fernwood, and Gong. The Gong show was a popular lunch
period passtime at high school. The Love Boat never floated my boat tho.
Snark.
Lumpy
> ... The Love Boat never floated my boat
> tho.
As a gig it was a blast.
You'd usually play only one song,
that "Luuuuuv Booooaaat" theme.
But you'd play it Latin, torch, disco,
rock n roll, funk. Lots of funk. Roto-Toms
and 847 wahs and a lot of those string
section arpeggio flourishes, whatever
they're called.
The Tortoise
> Charmed Snark wrote:
>> ... The Love Boat never floated my boat
>> tho.
>
> As a gig it was a blast.
> You'd usually play only one song,
> that "Luuuuuv Booooaaat" theme.
> But you'd play it Latin, torch, disco,
> rock n roll, funk. Lots of funk. Roto-Toms
> and 847 wahs and a lot of those string
> section arpeggio flourishes, whatever
> they're called.
The old 'Roto-toms' trick. We used to tighten them up on our
drummer's kit between sets sometimes. Good for a laugh.
Tim C.
<news:Xns9CFDADD23F530S...@188.40.43.245> :
> Tommy Tedesco
Isn't it ironic that someone with the family name "Tedesco" should be
called "Tommy" ?
--
Tim C.
dD
>I was 19-20 yo. My mom and dad and us had just moved out of state and
>I took up guitar out of boredom.
About 15-16 (mid '70s) after hearing Tony Iommi and Paul 'Ace' Frehley.
>Anyway, I bought a $160 Epi SG from JC Penny's, I believe, not quite
>knowing what I was doing.
Mail order LP clone and amp, which was shortly customized with Carvin
pickups and a new black/blue metal flake paint job.
>I started taking lessons from a local jazz guy whose name I quite
>literally picked out of a telephone book under "music instruction".
.<snip>
>For the first 4-6 months of learning, I practiced 6-8 hours a day. I
>was passionate and driven. My finger tips bled and my hand ached. I
>felt bad if I missed a day practicing.
Self taught playing with favorite albums between seemingly endless
parties, mostlty blisters and broken strings
>Then life set in, I ran out of money, had to quit the lessons, and had
>to get a job :)- That put an end to the daily long practices.
Car crash; cracked knuckles, motorcyle crash; broken wrist, dislocated
knuckle and elbow. Played a while afterwards then started playing
keyboards, discovered MIDI, etc.
>Fast-forward after nearly a 20 year hiatus form even picking up a
>guitar due to getting married, career, family, yadda.
Just started picking on one again a few months ago after buying a mandolin
on a whim.
Now my mom has became interested in playing various stringed instruments,
including the electric guitar.
>5 years later, I'm in my first *paid* gigging cover band.
>
>So, you see, it's never too late to start and somehow it has a way of
>coming around again to be part of your life.
Well one never knows, does one?
---
"Don't ask me, I don't know"