Obligatory Guitar Thread

I am right there with you Ricky. The music and the guitar helped form my identity. It's where my passion has resided my entire life. I have been a music nerd ever since I can remember. I expanded into music technology and pro audio. Always had a desire to learn how to creatively operate and manipulate audio gear to expand the efficacy of the music. Somewhere along the line I got pretty good at doing both. I don't know where I would be if not for music. That's my thang.

To add, I've always said to others, "Most people hear music. Some of us feel it. We're the ones who become musicians."

Yep!

My cousin, ten years older than me, was in rock n roll bands, as a drummer, back in the 50s. I saw my first Stratocaster on his bed. When he saw me reaching, it was a band member’s, he said, don’t touch it! Of course I wanted to hold it. But my idea of a true electric guitar was a Gibson 335.

At 10 I was mesmerized by the playing of James Burton and Scottie Moore playing for Ricky Nelson and Elvis. I started lessons when I was 12.

As I got into my teens I played in a short lived band but had a blast. By the time I got to college I had sold my guitar and amp to become an art student. My 40 year career was in advertising design and illustration…self employed.

Somewhere around 40 I bought another guitar and amp and have been playing every since. I started again playing in blues jams, many with guys from the first FDP. I've bought and sold a lot of guitars and amps searching for the sounds I like.

I’m 74 now, still paint, still work on sculpture, and of course, still play guitar. I don’t play out anymore…too much past my bedtime!

My older sister had a nice record collection, LPs and 45s, that she left behind when she left home. Those records were a gold mine for me; Beatles, Stones, Grass Roots, Mamas & Papas, Association, etc. I especially liked folk music, and was pretty much a die-hard folkie by high school and liked acoustic music.

I then saw John Denver at a small college student center, and sat about 25 feet away from him. This was just as he was about to go supernova with the release of "Rocky Mountail High." It was just JD, Mike Taylor, and Dick Kniss. I had never seen guitars played so well up so close. It was mesmerizing.  250 people in the audience.

I then ran out and bought an Alvarez 5023 with a cardboard case for $150 and set about learning to play it. My best friend bought a Sigma at the same time, and we pretty much taught each other how to play. He had a really good ear and picked things up off the records. Next thing you know we were playing weddings with a female friend doing the singing. I don't think we knew 10 chords between us, but she was such a good singer that we pulled it off. That was my first taste of playing music in public, although I didn't really do it again for 40 years.

In about 2007, through a series of flukes, I ended up as the lead guitar player in a R&R cover band that had a pretty good run for 4 years in Omaha. Made enough money to pay for some nice gear. We were never an "A" list band, but were at the top of the "B" list, which was better for getting bar gigs. We were affordable in a time of an economic downturn. Had a great time, but eventually retired. Got tired of the late nights and wasted weekends, but left the band on my own terms. It was a fun time, lots of good memories.

I live in a small town now that has two good open mics. I was playing those frequently, but even that got to be too much like work. So now I just play for myself in my little music room, and sometimes for friends around the fire pit at night. That's enough for me.

One last note: we made the pilgrimage with some friends last summer over to Aspen where I found the exact rock in the Roaring Fork River that John Denver is standing on as seen on the cover of his "Rocky Mountain High" album. I have a picture of me standing on that rock. It was a lot of fun to do that, and meaningful for me as that album was such a massive influence on me.

Must of stuck with me also. 60 years later I'm still gigging..

Louie Louie...what a song. I loved it!

I've always loved and listened to a wide variety of music but, when it comes to playing it myself, I didn't start out with a whole lot of musical aptitude: what innate ability I have is oriented towards the visual arts. I'm more of "a natural" at that.

Learning my way around the guitar has always been a real struggle: my "ear" was initially so bad that I had difficulty even tuning, let alone playing, a guitar for the first couple of years. I had taken band/orchestra class (drums) in grades 5, 6 and 7 but didn't rent a guitar til I was 15 or 16. At that point, a friend of my mother's showed me some "cowboy" chords to get me started. Everybody in my family listened to music but nobody had ever played an instrument except for my dad, who played cornet in his high school band but stopped when he graduated.

My older brother was an electrical engineering type: always building radios and “hi-fi” amplifiers and stuff in his room. He was also a big fan of the pop/folk groups of the late 1950s/early 1960s: The Kingston Trio, The Limelighters, The Chad Mitchell Trio, etc.. I always disliked that stuff but loved listening to rock 'n' roll, rockabilly, country (the old, "honky-tonk" style) blues, R&B and gospel on the radio, so that was the music that inspired me to learn to play.

I can't read music to this day and basically learn everything "by ear", which is something I never could have done in the beginning, since my sense of pitch was so poor. Well, that's not completely true: when I was taking Highland pipe lessons, I learned to read that music.  But that's just single octave melody lines with grace notes.  Even with that, I would memorize the rhythmic aspect of each tune rather than reading it.  With guitar, early on I mostly picked up bits and pieces by watching/listening to other, more-accomplished guitar players. One of my main motivations to continue struggling to do something which was so difficult for me was that I noticed the better I got at playing, the better I could perceive and enjoy listening to what others were playing.

My mother saved up trading stamps that my father brought home from his service station business. She got a cheap acoustic from the redemption center. I learned a few chords and strumming from our neighbor out back. I still remember it was “Hey Jude” and we only played it with two chords. Hey, I’m actually making music! Then came the electrics, amps and pedals. The only curriculum offered at the University of Hawaii was classical so I had to quickly learn how to read music in college. I remember practicing six hours a day for six months for my junior recital. Played well enough to get through it. My parents still beat it into my head that music is a great hobby, but get a real job. Went back to school after getting my BA in music and got a BS in electrical engineering. Played music on the side and now that I’m retired, I’m trying to get back into gigging.

Recording quickly became a passion that in many ways exceeded the desire to perform in front of people. From bouncing tracks between two cassette recorders to my first portastudio (the first 4 track cassette tape unit) to studios to digital recording, I always loved the process. Having the technology I currently have at my disposal would've blown my mind back in the day.

Between that quest and an almost exclusive originals band involvement I was pretty ill equipped when recruited by my brother-in-law to join a cover band that played bars, country clubs and weddings. This band was a group of guys 3 to 10 years older than me and well seasoned in clubbing. The drummer was a guy who had played in a local band with some notoriety. I remember seeing his band perform at my high school and being blown away. I quickly learned a lot from them on how to be a member of a band, restraint and contribution, finding the right vocal harmonies, etc. It was the most valuable musical education of my life, and earning their respect one of it's greatest rewards.