How Did You Get "Started" in Music? [Archive]

Tonefiend

01-26-2003, 08:15 PM

When I was a kid we had a piano in the house. My parents told me I had to take lessons. I refused and said If I learned anything it was going to be electric guitar. They said no way, so I refused to play that dam piano.

For some reason I had always thought it would be fun to play guitar, although no one else I knew played. I saw a band in school that toured middle schools at the time called Freedom Rock. I was mesmerized, it was the coolest thing I had ever seen! I liked music, but wasn't really exposed to much of it at this point. I didnt have MTV, thought radio sucked, and had little older influence. I also liked the idea of making loud obscene noises.

Then I talked with the kid who was the Bass player in the jazz band. We were in 7th grade. He told me I should get a Fender or a Gibson. I went to a local store and they had 2 Fenders on the wall. A Jazzmaster for $100 and a Strat for $250
He told me Fender was out of business and I should really get a Gibson, but the Jazzmaster looked so cool, I tried to save up the $100 but @ $5 per lawnmowing, it was a long summer!

By the time I got some money together the little store was out of business.

A few years later, I was 14 I got anopther chance when a local music store had a rental package. A Lotus Les Paul, Crate amp, and 8 weeks of group lessons for $25
I did this,a nd at the end of it I was hooked! I had a band with some friends. We played Priest Livin after Midnight, Johnny B good, Purple Haze,

Unfortunatly it was another 6 months before I was able to buy a guitar, which was a $200 Kramer Striker.
The first thing I did was take it apart to see how it went together.
Within a year I had built a new body for it. Shot it with Schwinn bike paint like Eddie VH did.
Later on I built a few more, did some modifications and refinishing on friends guitars throughout High School.

Gazza

01-26-2003, 08:52 PM

The music bug hit me about the 8th grade when I heard Led Zeppelin for the first time!!!! At the time I really enjoyed music but didn't consider picking up any instruments. I remember one time hearing a Zeppelin song and thinking that it would be neat play that song on guitar but I failed to pursue the possible interest. A couple years later in the 11th grade I started to hang out with one of my friends friends and it turned out he played acoustic guitar.We got to talking and I told him I was interested in playing guitar and he told me I should buy a cheap guitar and he would show me some chords. I had a partime job at the time so I bought a cheap fender acoustic guitar and my friend showed me how to play Bob Dylans "Knockin' on Heavens Door". From there I began practicing everyday for about 2-3 hours a day to get good and within no time I was better than my friend who had showed me how to play. The rest is history.

Tim C.

01-26-2003, 08:52 PM

When I was 6 or 7, my dad gave me his old portable 78 phonograph. He had a bunch of boogie woogie piano records that were stored in the lid so I began listening to them. Then I started picking out those yellow 78's at the store when we would go shopping and my folks would buy those for me to listen to.

When I wasn't listening to the phonograph my mother would have the radio on usually to really hip music like "Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini". :lol I will never forget that song. Beach Boys were all the rage then as well. I would hear "409" on the radio.

Then I asked for my first guitar after watching Ricky Nelson play at the end of the Ozzie and Harriet show on television. The rest is history.

Tim C. :)

Lily

01-26-2003, 09:05 PM

I can't remember how I actually "got started" with my deal with music.

Since my earliest memories, my life has pretty much been focused around music. I clearly remember seeing my dad and mum waltzing around a room to some ghastly (to me - at that time anyway) old song. They both were wonderful dancers. My mum's whole family was very musical. Her dad was of Spanish descent and another great dancer. He had a beautiful singing voice, which he passed on to my mum and one of her sisters. Mum also learned a few basic chords on guitar - which she later taught to me - the difficult and spastic left handed child. :lol

And my dad played a mean harp (harmonica) and sometimes played spoons when he and my uncles who played guitar got together.

My point in all of this is that I believe that it was more of a natural path for me to take to be involved in music - more than any one event. I was steeped in it and surrounded by very musically inclined people my entire life. It was more like a natural progression.

My guitar playing sucked though. It was really hard to learn much. But I kept trying - just because I loved to sing - and the guitar was the way to accompany myself. Then after my dad passed on, I just picked up one of his harps one day that was left to me, and I started playing it. Not sure how that happened. Must be a gene for harp playing in our gene pool. :lol

But the very first thing that actually got me onto my path with music?

I do remember singing for an audience (at some talent show I think - but it was at a town hall up on this stage that seemed REALLY HUGE and high up off the floor to me, this little punk kid. (But in truth, who knows, it may have only been 3 feet off the floor.). Give me a break, I was only four years old! :D My dad grabbed me, swung me up there, and told me to do my thing.
For the rest of his life, he always bragged about how "this kid could sing before she could talk." I guess I must have had a good performance that day. :lol

But I remember that stage clearly. I remember how much I LOVED it. And I've been hooked ever since....:bh

Ed Rafalko

01-26-2003, 09:18 PM

In 1964, my two oldest sisters discovered The Beatles. I was only two. The first chord I ever remember hearing was the opening chord to 'Hard Days' Night'. Had to be around 1965, I think. My oldest sister decided she wanted to take guitar lessons after school, but she could only go if she took me because she had to babysit. They were community lessons at the Youth Center on whatever Air Force Base we were stationed on at the time.
This continued for some time, and in late 1967 or early 1968 we were in Greece, just before my dad went to Vietnam. My oldest sister gave up teh guitar because she'd discovered boys, so I inherited the gutiar. For my birthday in 1968, my mom bought me a Gibson SG and a little Vox amp at the Base Exchange, and I brought them back to the States with me. By 1970, the Beatles had broken up and my sisters had all moved on to Led Zeppelin or Three Dog Night, so I had every single Beatles Album at my disposal, and I played 'em! ( My second oldest sister retrieved them in 1976 and gave them to a friend of hers. Today they'd be worth a fortune, as they were all first pressings of US releases- and her copy of the White Album was a two-digit number).

Nowadays, though, I can only play one or two Beatles tunes. Don't ask me why, I just forgot them all. I do bring out the Beatles CD's every now and again when I'm feeling nostalgic.
I
m probably the least musical guitar player I've ever run across.

Tim C.

01-26-2003, 09:34 PM

This is a cool thread. :)

:timc

Bolero

01-26-2003, 10:35 PM

when I was in high school, one of my friends bought a cheap strat copy & a POS amp, I thought it was really cool, and he had even been shown how to play a few songs.

so I blew my summer savings on a Cort electric gtr & a POS Roland 4x4" (!!) ss combo amp. another friend bought a bass, & we struggled to learn a few songs. I got hooked....2 years later I saved up & bought a real USA fender strat :) man that felt good to play in comparison.

I later sold the strat, but I've been enslaved to music ever since. unf I still suck :bh.......but I get a lot of enjoyment out of it. I suppose that's all that matters. :)

Ed Driscoll

01-27-2003, 12:36 AM

Hank,

My parents talked me into taking guitar lessons when I was about ten. I didn't really care much for rock music back then, or music in general, other than ocassionally listening to what was on the radio (that would change in the next year or so, when I became a big Beatles fanatic.) So I would half-heartedly attend lessons at school with the cheap acoustic my parents had bought for me, and never practice in between them.

Neither of my parents play an instrument, but my dad has an enormous collection of big band records, from the 1930s (maybe even the 1920s) to the 1950s and 1960s. He's also a serious Bing Crosby fan. The discovery that several of my idols played a guitar designed by some guy named Les Paul who sold a few records in the 1950s, and had once played with Crosby gave me a bit of a connection with my father, and his music. When, in the early 1980s, I read the famous 1977 Jimmy Page interview with "Guitar Player" magazine, and he mentioned Crosby's "It's Been a Long, Long Time", which was the first hit record to feature Les Paul, my dad was able to go through his archives and track it down. (Bing even introduces Paul on the version my dad has.)

Most of the swing stuff that my father likes never did much for me as a kid, but, as I begun to learn music, it was a real reminder that there was more to music than rock, and lead me to investigate cool jazz and fusion, which was much more to my taste. (My dad likes a lot of cool jazz as well. He just doesn't play it as much as the swing stuff.)

When I was 16, I thought seriously about taking up the drums, but fears of the cost of a full kit, and that I wouldn't be able to coordinate all four limbs put me off.

But back in late 1982, when I was 17, I purchased Ralph Denyer's "The Guitar Handbook", in the Moorestown, NJ mall. I remember thinking, "Clapton, Beck, Hendrix, Zappa, Summers--I know these guys, and I'd like to play like 'em. Maybe this would be a good place to start!" That book (which was updated and reissued not too long ago) has a pretty good section on theory, and how it applies to the guitar. (I recently bought a used version of the 1982 edition off of www.bookfinder.com, so I could relive "where it all began" for me.)

At that point, I had six or seven years of listening to the Beatles, Who, Stones, Zeppelin, Floyd, Hendrix, et al, and really wanted to learn how to play those songs. I didn't have anyone putting a gun to my head to make me take lessons--I wanted to.

But I had to practice intensely, with lessons, with books (such as "The Guitar Handbook"), with tapes, etc. A year or two after I started playing, "Guitar for the Practising Musician" magazine, with all of its tablature came out, and that was a big help as well. I also remember buying a cassette and tab of Jimmy Page's licks, and the "Original Hendrix" book of tab which were immensely helpful. It always amazed me at just how much practice I need to see improvement.

Once I had some level of skill on guitar, I then started learning how to record on a four-track, which tought me the rudiments of composition. I also taught myself the rudiments (and I do mean rudiments) of keyboard playing.

This was in the early to mid-1980s.

In the middle of 2001, after a decade of basically just noodling around (work--starting a business--came first), I finally decided to take the plunge and learn how to record on a PC. That's seemed very much like learning a new instrument, at least because there's so many different ways to record--MIDI, loops, live audio, computer-editing, etc. that weren't available in the past.

(Note: If there's a sense of deja vu reading this stuff, it's because I took a few of my posts from the Les Paul Forum and spliced them together. Great idea for a topic, by the way!)

Ed

Fujimo

01-27-2003, 01:46 AM

Great thread!

Our household had a piano. When I was three, my parents figured out I have perfect pitch, and so began the endless "turn around and tell me what note this is" demonstrations for everybody who came by, seeding the performance complexes I still suffer now. My older sister and I both took lessons, studying mostly simplified classical pieces, and "student" music (bleah). I used to really cheese her off by listening to her strictly-enforced hour of practice, and then playing her stuff by ear during my hour of strictly-enforced practice. Nine years later, I moved, stopped the piano lessons, and took up French horn, which I played through high school, heavily into classical by then. Funny how much I started to like that music once it wasn't being crammed down my throat. I was really close to going to music school and pursuing a career as a conductor.

Anyway, I didn't play much of anything after high school. Then about a year ago, I got the bug to play something. I've been moving around a lot, so a piano didn't seem like a great idea, and I wanted to do something new. Picked up a Strat and a cheap amp, took some lessons, and yet another guitar player was born.

hank

01-27-2003, 03:54 AM

You folks are amazing! Everyone, please keep it coming. :D

stxrus

01-27-2003, 04:23 AM

even though my parents never played any instruments we had music in the house. anything from classical to jazz to country could be heard at almost anytime. they had/have a great collection of music on some VERY OLD vinyl one of my dads co-pilots had an electric guitar. thinking back it may have been a LP jr or just a red LP. what a cool sound it made. a place that we went out for dinner every once in a while had a combo that played "lite" jazz. i wanted to be a drummer.
when the 4th grade (living in atlanta at the time) came around i signed up for "band". to my disapointment all you got for drums was a practice pad and a set of sticks. bummer for me. for some odd ball reason i picked the clarinet as my 2nd choice. maybe listening to benny goodnman tunes made me do it.
at the same time we went to the atlanta zoo and playing in the park was my 1st live rock n roll exposure. a band called "the allman joys". i was adicted at this point.
about 3 years later my parents bought me a crappy japanese/korean/chinese electric thing with 3 pick ups a about a gazillion knobs & switches. next year it was a better cheap guitar.
the story of my 1st REAL guitars has been posted already. i still get bummed about that experience. hind sight being what it is......

steve

davepaf

01-27-2003, 08:37 AM

I was almost a drummer.
My father, grandfather, and great grandfather, all played drums.
I remember wanting a guitar since I was real small.
My mom was a beatles nut so I could identify a beatles song on the radio as long as Ive been able to talk. ( I remember being in nursery school around 4 years old, sitting in a concrete tube in the playground singing Yellow Submarine.
One day (I think I was around 8) my mother asked me if I wanted to play drums. I said no, but Ill play the guitar instead.
She said no, drums or nothing. At that point I didnt really care, I was having fun playing hockey.
Then, one day I came home from school, and I heard Dazed and Confused for the first time. I knew that I had to play the guitar right there.
My parents wanted nothing to do with it.
So, when I was in high school, I bought a $19 guitar that was totaly unplayable. I started tinkering with them then too. I learned a few chords on it, it shocked me, so I sacrificed it to the god of feedback in my driveway.
I met 2 kids in school who taught me how to learn from records.
We used to skip school and go to one or the others house to play. I wasnt allowed a bong hit untill I could figure out certain songs by ear.:(
I learned more skipping school than I did being in in it.
I played my first time in a bar 2 weeks after turning 21.
Thank God for music.

brianf

01-27-2003, 08:57 AM

After seeing Kiss in Toronto about 1975 or 76 I had to learn to play and it had to be a Les Paul like Ace. I bought a new LP Custom 3 pickup in Black. I had saved up lots of $ with a part time job. I sort of played this for a couple of years and then pawned it for about $300.00 for some books for University. When the redemption slip was sent to me from the pawn shop after a year I just ignored it. :(

About 22 years later my son wanted to learn guitar so I bought him an MIM Strat and a little Fender Champ amp.

I got hooked and bought some gear and its been just great learning to play again for the last 2 1/2 years.

I practice about 12 to 15 hours a week, my son practices about 5 or 6 and he kicks my ass. He can hear a song and sort of figure it out. I need the tab, a lesson or two, the CD, and divine intervention and still have problems.

Thats what makes music great. You can always learn more!!!!!

brianf

Anomalyme

01-27-2003, 09:15 AM

Mid sixties I was 13 heard "Satisfaction" I never had a chance! Every time my interest seemed to wane along came Hendrix or the Doors or Led Zep, Mark Knopfler, SRV now I'm an old guy and I still dig that stuff and theres Kottke, Kaukonen, and all the guys I missed in between. You know I never really had a chance.

Ed Rafalko

01-27-2003, 09:18 AM

Originally posted by davepaf
I was almost a drummer.

I KNEW IT!

davepaf

01-27-2003, 09:39 AM

Originally posted by Ed Rafalko
I KNEW IT!

I was waiting for that.;)
I had an old practice pad too to learn rudiments and shit.
I hated it.
Now I wish I could play, I cant even play a 4/4 beat for more than 2 seconds without falling down the stairs.:(

Ed Rafalko

01-27-2003, 10:12 AM

Originally posted by davepaf
I cant even play a 4/4 beat for more than 2 seconds without falling down the stairs.:(

Yep- a born drummer.

I knew it. I just KNEW it.
Hey Tonefiend, that DavePAF model- put a drum pad on it somewhere.;)

davepaf

01-27-2003, 11:52 AM

Originally posted by Ed Rafalko
Yep- a born drummer.

I knew it. I just KNEW it.
Hey Tonefiend, that DavePAF model- put a drum pad on it somewhere.;)

I dont know Ed, I can count past 4.:)
Yeah, put the pad in the back so I dont scratch the scotch dispenser.:davepaf

Ed Rafalko

01-27-2003, 01:51 PM

Originally posted by davepaf
I dont know Ed, I can count past 4.:)

Are you SURE? Prove it! How many fingers am I holding up?
:)

davepaf

01-27-2003, 02:03 PM

1.
:D

Ed Rafalko

01-27-2003, 02:29 PM

HAH! See? I TOLD you you can't count!
( it was one on each HAND!;))

davepaf

01-27-2003, 04:14 PM

Originally posted by Ed Rafalko
HAH! See? I TOLD you you can't count!
( it was one on each HAND!;))

I never said I could see that well.:davepaf

SamBlob

01-27-2003, 04:19 PM

Right.

I am the last of seven children; my youngest brother was six years old when I was born. The three oldest children had a stereo system with home-made speakers (my brother is an electrical engineer and amateur bassist) and they had a TON of records of which I have inhereted those that remain. My earliest recollections of recorded music were the albums "Masterpiece" by the Temptations, "Frampton Comes Alive" by Peter Frampton and "Merry Christmas!" by Bing Crosby (what a mix!) Being Jamaicans, and not being head-up-ass middle-class snobs, my brothers also had reggae records, including Bob Marley, Third World, Sugar Minott, Delroy Wilson, Rankin' Trevor and others.

My youngest sister (8 years older than me) was at that time trying to play the melodica (same thing as a pianica, an organ-like keyboard powered by the breath of the player) and being a toddler, I tried it too. Even did an original tune if I remember correctly... She later tried to learn guitar on that crappy Winston I wrote about earlier.

My mother used to sing to us and make up songs about things and events in our immature lives. However, apart from my brother's bass and my sister's attempts, there were no other musicians in my family, and I was warned to stay away from the bass under pain of death. This may have something to do with the fact that I had earlier turned a record player off while a record was still playing (which I remember doing) or that I had broken a borrowed KT-88, which was unavailable even back then in the early-to-mid '70s. I do not remember breaking the tube; I am told this from family legend which further states that my parents had to hide me in a wardrobe 'coz my brother was furious and out to destroy me.

I have enjoyed music all my life, but my playing of instruments has been a bit rocky. I was supposed to have learned to play the recorder in Grades 7 to 9 but like most of the students I didn't do too well at it. I was also learning the piano otherwise around that time and I might have got the hang of it if I hadn't got into a fight with one of the other students and walked out into the twilight. I walked about two or three miles home at night during a blackout and I never went back.

Fast forward to being out of university for about three years and hearing a student around the area practicing the recorder. Despite the student not sounding particularly good, I wished him or her good luck because I realized that I couldn't play anything. I then took the recorder back up and practiced until I became as good at it as one can get without knowing most of the sharps and flats.

The rest is recorded elsewhere, under "The Story of My Winston Acoustic Guitar" in "The Sound Hole", except that I bought a pianica in 1997, but I'm not really any good at it.

Finally, linking this to the bike thread, for about two months, between the purchase of my good acoustic guitar last September and the sale of my motorcycle last November, I had three Yamahas (recorder, pianica and guitar) and one Honda (motorcycle). Now I just have the Yamahas...

Drumbeater

01-27-2003, 04:53 PM

My turn, I guess. Okay, my folks started me on piano way back in '57 when I was just a kid. I played for several years, then, got interested in other instruments. Started playing an E flat Euphonium horn in about '60 or '61. Then, in '63 and '64, I heard the Beatles just in time to start high school. I went for music as an option, and picked percussion. For those who don't know, percussion is not playing a drum kit. As a percussionist, you learn to play xylophone, bells, tympani, side drum, and a whole mess of other instruments. You also must learn to read music if you don't already know how to, and you must learn how to read drum music, which is quite different. I was in both junior and senior high school bands as well as taking classes in music. Since I was doing all this, I thought it would be fun to play the modern stuff too (mostly Beatles), so in '64, I bought my first drum kit and started learning how to play. For that, I would play records over and over till I learned how the drummer did what he did. I'm sure my parents were driven quite insane, as I would practice for hours on end. Couple of years later, I met two guitar players and a singer, and was in my first band. We played gigs all over the place, and once we were old enough, we started playing bars. In the meantime, I got rid of my first drums, and got a really good kit. At the time, Rogers were one of the top three drum makers, and that's what I got. Next thing I knew, bands like Cream, Hendrix, and then Zepp came out, and my music took a sudden turn. The old band was gone, and a brand new band started. This bunch had everything the old band didn't. A real 'lead' player, as well as a rhythm guitarist, and an organ player (there weren't any true keyboards at that time). We were playing stuff by Zepp, Cream, Vanilla Fudge, Iron Butterfly, etc. Had a couple of local businessmen that managed us, and we were pretty good. That's when we discovered drugs, and the bottom fell out of the whole damn thing. Band practice became nothing but a huge drug party, nothing got done, and the band soon fell apart.
Then, I got married, moved to an apartment, and finally sold my kit as I couldn't use it. I kept getting calls from bands though, to fill in for other drummers who were out sick and things like that, so I kept my hand in for many more years, even though I no longer had a kit of my own. Finally, I moved to a different town about 60 miles away. Even at that, I got some calls to play, but I had a new career, so I turned them all down. The calls finally stopped, and I was just too busy to play anymore.
Then, about 11 years ago, I had some serious physical health issues that ended my career and any physical activity such as golf, hockey, baseball etc. First, I turned to astronomy to fill my time, but unless you live in a place with little or no light pollution, that is not an easy hobby to do. It also helps if your weather is mostly clear, and ours is not (I'm in the Great Lakes Basin, and we're cloudy much of the year because of the influence of the lakes). So finally, a few years ago, I came full circle, back to music. I started where I left off, with drums as it is what I know and do best. Then, I thought since I've always been interested in guitars, I would maybe finally try to learn how to play. A bunch of money later, and I now own several really nice instruments as well as a couple of good amps. I don't gig out now, although I'm thinking about it some, but I'm having a lot of fun playing again. Oh, and I still have a drum kit too. This time though, I went with the elite and got a set of Gretsch.
That's about it from me. Who's next?

hank

01-27-2003, 06:07 PM

Very interesting stuff. Thanks for sharing!

Next, please come forward. :D

Dave Paetow

01-27-2003, 09:07 PM

The first instrument I learned how to play was a recorder, it was mandatory for music class in 2nd grade. I still have it somewhere.
I wanted to play guitar when I was in 3rd grade, my friend Brian Tenney was taking guitar lessons and he would bring his electric guitar on the school bus, which I thought was the coolest thing ever. Actually, thinking back on it, the guitar was a POS, but as a 3rd grader I was easily impressed! Well, this didn't go over with my parents, they didn't think the guitar was a legitimate instrument, so no guitar. :( My dad is a die hard classical music fanatic, so rock music in general wasn't looked upon too highly in our household growing up. When I was a kid, I had to sneak in a Alice Cooper record into the house and play it when nobody was around, because my Mom thought he was Satanic or something! :lol I used to ride my bike down to the Woolworths store and buy records and sneak them home. The K-Tel compilation records were cheaper, so I usually bought those with what little money I had. I tried my hand saxophone for a bit, then in 4th grade took up trumpet and played in the school band for a few years. It sucked, but I learned how to read music pretty well and learned some music theory as well. I promptly forgot most of it! :lol Then I caught another friend of mine Danny McGovern warming up in the school auditorium with his band for a talent show, I thought it was great and reminded me about wanting to play guitar again. Around the same time I met Mike Steele, and the band he was in was playing a lot around the area because of the father of the drummer and bass player had a well known regional band that did really well, so they got tons of gigs. That kind of kicked my ass into gear and I bought a guitar. My life hasn't been the same since. :D

Ed Driscoll

01-27-2003, 09:44 PM

Dave,Originally posted by Dave Paetow
The first instrument I learned how to play was a recorder, it was mandatory for music class in 2nd grade. I still have it somewhere. I had to learn the recorder for a college introduction to music course (I took it to learn basic music theory).

I had been playing guitar a year or so prior to taking the course, and could sight read a little as well. But the recorder just vexed me: stuff that was a breeze to play on the e-string of the guitar was just murder on the recorder with its strange fingerings.

Was it any easier to learn at a younger age?

Ed

Dave Paetow

01-27-2003, 09:54 PM

I don't recall it being too hard to learn, but we did pretty easy stuff obviously.

Sax was enormously difficult for me. A few years back I pulled it back out and played it again for a few months. I've been tempted to pull it out again and give it another whirl.

Fujimo

01-27-2003, 11:30 PM

I had a brief experience with recorder as well. Got paid five bucks once to make like it was a fife and play "Yankee Doodle" along with a snare drummer at some patriotic function.

Anybody else ever suffer the school-age phenomenon known as the "flutophone"? If there's anything worse than a room full of first-graders with recorders, it's a room full of first-graders with flutophones... the horror...

hank

01-28-2003, 04:12 AM

Fujimo, yep! The wonders of the flutophone. I'd almost forgotten. cool. :lol

pickdropper

01-28-2003, 09:06 AM

I have always been around music and have played bits of it since I was a kid. My mother is a professional singer who has been with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra/Chorus for over 30 years now. When I was a kid in the 70's, she played an Epiphone Acoustic and would sing folk songs to/with me. My father is an amateur violinist, but has a deep understanding of many types of music, especially classical.

In first grade I started playing piano, and hated it. Prompty convinced my folks to let me stop.

In third grade, I started playing viola, and grew tired of it. I didn't really have the attention span that early in life.

In junior high school, I started singing. I pretty much stuck with that. At 15, our high school choir was quite good, and went on a singing tour of Europe. That was an incredible experience.

At 13, I was a budding rocker/metalhead. I picked up my first guitar, a POS Kramer Striker with a single bucker and crappy tuners. It got me started on a cool/fun journey.

hank

01-29-2003, 01:27 PM

btt

next .............................

Ziggy

01-29-2003, 01:56 PM

I'm not sure where it came from as no one else in my family is musical but it was always in me from day one. I played the meanest "Yardstick"and pots and pans on the block :lol . There was no way any of the kids around could convince me that another boy who had a real guitar and took lessons was better than me & my yardstick.

The turning point came while leafing through my parents records at a young age. There was the basic, dull, crewcut crooners and the like but all of a sudden, there staring at me from a record cover was 3 dudes with long hair (Canadian Band - The Stampeders). After hearing that record there was no turning back. I bounced back and forth between guitar & drums and luckily my parents supported me with my first instruments and put up with what must have been agony as I beat & strummed away. They even didn't stop me when I started to "borrow" lumber from a house construction site next to ours so I could build a stage in our basement. It was a two-teir level stage that we painted up with our band's name "krypton"and "spacey logos". It was the coolest thing a kid could ever have. I played drums at the time and my head was inches away from the support beam in the ceiling.

Guitar was a natural progression as the guys in my band left their gear at our house and I found myself spending more time plinking away on them.

Many bands have come and gone since those days but they are the ones that I enjoy most reflecting upon.

The Real Pete

01-29-2003, 05:24 PM

I started playing the violin in 3rd grade. I played all the way through high school, but I was no orchestra geek, even though I was 1st chair in Junior High. In fact, the only reason why I stayed in orchestra my senior year in high school was because our director was an alcoholic, and didn't show up very often my junior year. Orchestra was 1st hour, so it was killer to get all the homework done that I didn't do the night before. Well, to my luck, the director sobered up my Senor year, and we played every damn day. I picked up guitar somewhere there along the way. Are you bored yet?

winston

01-29-2003, 06:11 PM

Pete, It's great to see you at the WAH!

At this point, this is a small but highly regarded group.

The LPF used to be like this when I was just lurking.

There are some real cool people and it's great to get their perspective, IMO.

Stick around and I think you'll enjoy it.

Are we still recording tomorrow night? If so get Zeke together, man!

:cool:

Fujimo

01-29-2003, 10:14 PM

Originally posted by The Real Pete
our director [...] didn't show up very often my junior year.

What a coincidence! I didn't show up often in my junior year, either. Or my senior year....

OMN

01-30-2003, 01:17 AM

My "musical experience" started at the age of 3 or 4. Running around with a harmonica, really just moving up and down. Must have been terrible for my surroundings. To their relief, my lips started bleeding. And I put it away To this day I fear these dangerous instruments...
At the age of ten, rock began to make an influence on me, trough a single by Kinks; "God's Children"/"Moments". And I picked up my mother's acoustic, for just some sort of air guitar. The next years I "air-played" my way trough Slade, Sweet, Black Sabbath, and so on... At the age of 15 I saw my dream of a guitar in the window of a music shop. For a whole year, every single Thursday and Saturday, I went downtown to watch her. And making sure she was still there. Of course she was there, nobody but me did care for THAT cheapo... It was a "downscaled" Ibanez, the cheapest copy of the copy; Cimar. A black LP Custom-copy, with
bolt on neck. I don't think I even saw the Real Thing; Gibson, in those days. Yeah, whatever; I got her. Saving every single dime I could get my hands on. She still here today, and yeah; priceless...
even though; completely destroyed.
For six years she was my only guitar.

Thanks Nelson, and Lily! I'll try keeping the password close this time around.

Black Bear

01-30-2003, 08:02 PM

Great thread hank! Some really cool stories here.

As for me, I got it from Dad's side of the family. My great grandma on Dad's side played piano and organ in my Grandad's old country church. My great grandpa always carried the bass lines in the old hymns.

My grandad saved up for a year and bought an old acoustic for $17 dollars when he was 17 years old, and has played acoustics and cheap electrics off and on ever since. My Dad started playing grandad's guitars as a teen, and soon had his own.

Dad raised me right on rock and roll. The Doobies, the Allmans, Cat Stephens, Jim Croce, Dire Straits, Boston, BTO etc., and later a whole lot of SRV. He gave me an Alvarez acoustic to learn on and trade on my very own first guitar, which was a great old American Strat.

Dad and I have always been able to run to eachother to blab about music. We're always calling eachother to report our latest discoveries. How many people can claim to have easily turned their 50 year old Dad onto Gov't Mule?:cool:

Ed Rafalko

01-30-2003, 08:20 PM

When my dad was 50, most of the members of Gov't Mule hadn't even been BORN yet.

hank

01-31-2003, 04:33 AM

HEY!.................................... what's wrong with 50?????

:lol ;)

hankthemule

Black Bear

01-31-2003, 07:32 AM

Absolutely nothing! Most of my friends are old farts like you!;)

hank

01-31-2003, 11:41 AM

.............. who said hank was 50? ;) :bh

Black Bear

02-01-2003, 05:10 PM

Not me! I simply said you were an old fart. That leaves a pretty wide margin open for interpretation...

;)

Just teasin' brocephus!

hank

02-02-2003, 05:49 AM

I resemble that remark! :lol

solimar

02-02-2003, 09:56 AM

I'm definitely the newbie on this board! I had always wanted to play piano or guitar but didn't start until I bought my first guitar, an acoustic, about 2 years ago when I was 35. No one in my immediate family played a musical instrument and I went to a private school where music wasn't required. When thought of the music class, I thought choir and that really didn't interest me.

Been taking lessons off an on for about 2 years now. Think I've picked up a lot from boards like this off the internet. Probably waste a lot of time that way too :).

Anyway, the latest is that I'm learning how to read music and trying to get away from tab. Just doing this for my own enjoyment. Maybe I'll play at church in the future, who knows.........

I enjoy the posts that you guys and I know I will continue to learn from you all:bh

SamBlob

02-02-2003, 03:58 PM

I dont use written music or tablature. I just play by ear.

I can probably read treble-clef written music, as I used to do that in Grades 7 - 9 on recorder and privately on piano, but it would probably be hell on earth for me to figure out where on the fingerboard each of those notes are, let alone to figure it out while playing...

Snags

02-03-2003, 04:26 AM

My parents met when they were both in a Drum & Bugle Corps, so there's the start. After I was born, my Dad stayed on as an arranger and horn instructor for the corps, and he would drag my two-year-old butt along to rehearsals in the summertime. I remember my first crack at riding my bike without training wheels was at that high school football field, surrounded by 100+ teenagers with really loud horns and drums.

Two local corps merged in around 1974, when I was five years old, and my grandmother on my mom's side took over the organization (in what capacity I don't recall). Anyway, from ages five to seven I would travel around in this conversion van with my grandmother going to all the competitions in the summertime. I remember being in Pasedena in 1975 when our corps took either 2nd or 4th (don't recall) in the DCW championship. Ah, life on the road at an early age...

Anyway, while this was all going on I was also learning how to play the electric organ, but it didn't exactly captivate me- I'd just climb up on the bench and make noise.

Third grade- one year of violin. That sucked ass.

Fourth grade- started on alto saxophone, stayed with it all the way through high school.

Seventh grade- discovered my uncle's acoustic guitar during Christmas. He taught me a couple chords.

Eighth grade-took an Eb Alto horn home during christmas break, and my dad taught me all my saxophone parts on that horn over the two week vacation. I returned to school intending to pull out the horn as a joke, and the band director wound up sticking me on baritone horn in concert band for the remainder of the school year (while still playing sax in the jazz band).

Ninth grade- first year of high school. I was playing alto sax in the jazz band, and baritone horn in marching band and symphonic band. I also was still staying active on keyboards, as VH's 1984 has just come out. I would hang out in the band room after school and during lunch, learning Beatles songs on the band director's classical guitar.

Tenth grade- Alto sax in jazz band, baritone horn in Symphonic band, valve trombone in marching band. I had also picked up a Yamaha acoustic from a friend by this time, and was making steady progress.

Eleventh grade- Slide trombone in Jazz and marching band, baritone saxophone in symphonic band. Bought a cheap POS Sears electric bass, rapidly ditched it for a Peavey (shut up, Davepaf). Still progressing on the acoustic, I had gone from Beatles to Zeppelin...

Twelveth grade- same horns as eleventh, but now I had a Japanese Hohner Les Paul copy and I was on my way.

My first paying gigs were at the age of 21, working with a Christian singer (her husband was my boss) in churches around the Seattle area, along with a few trips to Canada and Oregon. I was also working as a band instrument repair tech at this point, and my accounts included quite a few local school districts.

My first bar gigs were at the age of 24, and were a full-time thing until I was 28, and from that point on I still jump in with friend's bands when I feel like it.

And that's about how it all started for me. :)

hank

02-03-2003, 07:56 AM

Snags, wow, photographic memory dude! thankshank

Snags

02-03-2003, 08:26 AM

Originally posted by hank
Snags, wow, photographic memory dude! thankshank

It's sad, really, my life's history in one page.....

hank

02-03-2003, 09:35 AM

Wow, mine's only 1/2 page. ;) :lol

OMN

02-03-2003, 01:18 PM

Solimar, keep up the note-reading! It may be quite rewarding.
I've only read music for classical guitar, slow paced - 1 note per minute :) , but it kind of "opened up the approach" to music. Today I'm just too lazy, and simply play by ear. The same ole licks, over and over...
Don't be a stranger around here, Solimar. This is communicattion - that is; we share! You're just as important as anybody 'round here.

Snags, your life on 1/1 page;
what shall I say, living my life through it?! :)
Great thread! Thanks for sharing.

SamBlob

02-03-2003, 02:55 PM

Originally posted by Snags
...Anyway, while this was all going on I was also learning how to play the electric organ, but it didn't exactly captivate me- I'd just climb up on the bench and make noise.

Third grade- one year of violin. That sucked ass.

Fourth grade- started on alto saxophone, stayed with it all the way through high school.

Seventh grade- discovered my uncle's acoustic guitar during Christmas. He taught me a couple chords.

Eighth grade-took an Eb Alto horn home during christmas break, and my dad taught me all my saxophone parts on that horn over the two week vacation. I returned to school intending to pull out the horn as a joke, and the band director wound up sticking me on baritone horn in concert band for the remainder of the school year (while still playing sax in the jazz band).

Ninth grade- first year of high school. I was playing alto sax in the jazz band, and baritone horn in marching band and symphonic band. I also was still staying active on keyboards, as VH's 1984 has just come out. I would hang out in the band room after school and during lunch, learning Beatles songs on the band director's classical guitar.

Tenth grade- Alto sax in jazz band, baritone horn in Symphonic band, valve trombone in marching band. I had also picked up a Yamaha acoustic from a friend by this time, and was making steady progress.

Eleventh grade- Slide trombone in Jazz and marching band, baritone saxophone in symphonic band. Bought a cheap POS Sears electric bass, rapidly ditched it for a Peavey (shut up, Davepaf). Still progressing on the acoustic, I had gone from Beatles to Zeppelin...

Twelveth grade- same horns as eleventh, but now I had a Japanese Hohner Les Paul copy and I was on my way.

:wow: Strings (guitar), brass (Eb horn, trombone), woodwind (saxophone, which uses a reed and is therefore a woodwind despite its body being made of brass) and keyboard; all that's needed now is percussion (friggin' drummer! :rofl )

Snags

02-03-2003, 09:31 PM

Sam, the term "woodwind" actually refers to the bodies of the instruments, and not the reeds. In the early days, piccolos, flutes, clarinets (soprano, alto, bass, and contrabass), oboes, and bassoons were all wood-bodied instruments. Flutes and piccolos have no reeds, the clarinet family is single-reed, and oboes and bassoons are double-reed instruments. In the late 1800s/early 1900s, the brass-bodied saxophone was introduced, and clarinets and flutes began showing up made of silver-plated brass. Although the saxophone was brass-bodied from the start, it shared the common characteristic of keyed toneholes that is found in the entire woodwind family, so it is also a woodwind. The brass-bodied clarinet was phased out by around the start of WWII.

The pitch of a woodwind instrument is altered by opening or closing the toneholes along the body. The pitch of a brasswind instrument is altered by increasing or decreasing the overall tubing length of the instrument by use of either valves (piston or rotary) or a slide (as on trombones).

There's a bit of worthless trivia for y'all.... :)

Lily

02-03-2003, 09:38 PM

Hi Snaggles! :ola

Hey, are you over here on a coffee break?? ;)

Snags

02-03-2003, 09:53 PM

Hi, Lily! I was just putting the finishing touches on my "woodwind/brasswind" Cliff Claven post for Sam. :)

Bolero

02-03-2003, 10:12 PM

Lily

02-03-2003, 10:20 PM

Originally posted by Snags
Hi, Lily! I was just putting the finishing touches on my "woodwind/brasswind" Cliff Claven post for Sam. :)
And an excellent post it was too Snags! :)

Sorry for the interruption. Please carry on.

Snags

02-03-2003, 10:47 PM

Originally posted by Lily
And an excellent post it was too Snags! :)

Sorry for the interruption. Please carry on.

Actually, it wasn't too bad coming from memory, and I haven't worked as a full-time tech since '92...

Gee, one of these days I'll tell all y'all the story of the C Melody saxophone, which was created in the mid 1900s to be a lead instrument that would be able to read standard charts without transposing. The horn intonated poorly, and that was the end of it.

Wow, this stuff is coming back FAST!!!! Does the :bug smiley work here? :)

Snags

02-03-2003, 10:50 PM

Originally posted by Bolero
...This is the sound of the Humpback whale:

"....bbbBBLLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!"

:lol

My magical joojoobug powers don't work here, ya bastard, but I'll catch up to you yet! Ya hear me?!? :lol

mofinco

02-04-2003, 09:56 AM

For me, music is in my genes. My grandfather on my mother's side was a famous composer/orchestra conductor in Germany before WW2. My mother got those genes - she was a concert recital-level pianist before she married my father and tried to be a housewife.

I'm the only one of the three of my siblings who showed any interest in music. I grew up in SoCal in the 50s/60s when it was still pretty much a raw area dotted by small towns (well before all the small towns around Los Angeles grew and became the big blob we now generally refer to as "LA".) Growning up there, the live music I got to see was more country than anything else, and the first instrument I wanted to play was sax. I loved the sound of raging sax!

When it comes time to join the 6th grade school orchestra, I think I see my chance to learn saxophone, but my dad talks me into trying the stand-up bass. I was the only kid in school at the time who was tall enough to play it, so I didn't have any competition for the seat. That started it!

Right when the Beatles hit, I began to pay attention to this big ol' blonde Harmony acoustic guitar with f-holes that was left behind by a previous house-keeper. It had no strings, and I had no idea where to get strings, so I used... string! I strung that guitar with 4 pieces of packing string, and taught myself to play bass guitar. I became a fan of "Fang", the bass player for Paul Revere and the Raiders. I moved to guitar when Cream hit big. I was more moved by the sound of EC's guitar than what notes he was playing. The initial interest in guitar was the pursuit of that sound. (Still don't have it!)

The rest is history. True story.

SamBlob

02-04-2003, 03:48 PM

Originally posted by Snags
Sam, the term "woodwind" actually refers to the bodies of the instruments, and not the reeds. In the early days, piccolos, flutes, clarinets (soprano, alto, bass, and contrabass), oboes, and bassoons were all wood-bodied instruments. Flutes and piccolos have no reeds, the clarinet family is single-reed, and oboes and bassoons are double-reed instruments. In the late 1800s/early 1900s, the brass-bodied saxophone was introduced, and clarinets and flutes began showing up made of silver-plated brass. Although the saxophone was brass-bodied from the start, it shared the common characteristic of keyed toneholes that is found in the entire woodwind family, so it is also a woodwind. The brass-bodied clarinet was phased out by around the start of WWII.

The pitch of a woodwind instrument is altered by opening or closing the toneholes along the body. The pitch of a brasswind instrument is altered by increasing or decreasing the overall tubing length of the instrument by use of either valves (piston or rotary) or a slide (as on trombones).

There's a bit of worthless trivia for y'all.... :)

Until I read this post I classified woodwinds and brass instruments by the mouthpiece. If the sound was created by blowing onto a blade (reed, flute mouthpiece, or recorder mouthpiece) it was a woodwind, and if it was created by buzzing one's lips into a brass mouthpiece it was a brass instrument.

Alternatively, if I could blow into it and get a sound more than once out of every twenty times, and the resulting sound didn't sound like a fart, it was a woodwind...

Now THERE's an experiment! Give Kreig a trumpet and a bowl of chili (EdRaf would say adulterated chili 'coz REAL chili don't have BEANS!!!) and see if he can play the trumpet with his ass (if the trumpet doesn't melt first...) :lol

Nelson F

02-04-2003, 04:10 PM

My Grandparents were from Naples' my Grandma was an opera singer. i got onto music @ a very young age; then when i was working as a Stage Hand @ the Metropolitan Opera House I started studying Opera! but before that i was doing the Guitar Thingy @ the age 9.....................:D :D :D :D

Blue Rufus

02-04-2003, 04:59 PM

Neither of my parents are musically inclined. I grew up on a steady diet of KYW news radio from Philly in my Dad's car. My Mom got a student classical when she was pregnant with my sister (68?) but once my sister was borne there were 3 kids and the guitar went into the closet.
I pulled it out when I was in high school in the mid-late 70's and was discovering Neil Young, Dylan, the Stones, Beatles.....
I found some old Mel Bay books and started plucking away, but it wasn't until I got ahold of the songbook for Neil Young's Decade album tht I started to learn chords and songs. I was never satisfied with the watered down chords of the songbook so I started tweaking them to sound more like the songs I was listening to, the beginning of ear training I guess. I had a couple freinds who got themselves accoustics in high school and we would each try and learn songs faster than the other guys. My freind Bob and I really wanted electric guitars, though. He wanted a tele since he was a Springsteen nut, and I was after either a Les Paul or strat. After working for a landscaping company for months and saving every dime I bought a new Les Paul standard in '81. I still have it and play it almost every day.

Snags

02-04-2003, 05:22 PM

Originally posted by SamBlob
Until I read this post I classified woodwinds and brass instruments by the mouthpiece. If the sound was created by blowing onto a blade (reed, flute mouthpiece, or recorder mouthpiece) it was a woodwind, and if it was created by buzzing one's lips into a brass mouthpiece it was a brass instrument.

Flute mouthpieces (called the 'headstock') don't have reeds, just an open hole that is blown across to produce a tone, much like blowing across the top of a bottle.

hank

02-04-2003, 05:41 PM

.......... keep it coming folks, and thanks for sharing!

Nelson baby! My grandmother on dad's side was originally from Naples. My grandfather was from Sicily. It's a "mean" combination. Unfortunately, all the talent was left on the boat when they arrived in the U.S. in 1908-ish.

Timbo

02-05-2003, 04:11 AM

Great topic, interesting replies :)

My folks bought me a half-size acoustic when I was 6 (I'd got tired of playing the recorder). I learnt a few chords, and a bit of co-ordination between fretting and strumming/plucking, moved to an old full size acoustic, then saved up for a full size electric when I was about 12 (using an old tube amp from a prehistoric record player).

I remember that Dad used to come up to my room and sing along as I practised songs, and so I learnt a lot of his favourites (Beatles, Everly Bros). He would pick up the acoustic and he learnt a few chords too! A great way to learn songs :)

Did the school band thing, played through University and beyond, and then stopped about 5 years ago with the birth of my son (too much to do, too little time :( ). Then, a few months ago, my son found my old, half-sized acoustic, and started making sounds with it. I told him that I'd teach him how to play if he wanted, and he burst out laughing saying "Silly dad, you don't know how to play the guitar!" :wow Made me think, he'd never heard me play!

So out came all all the gear, I set up my home studio in my study, and I'm back up and running! Most nights now he comes into my study with his guitar, and we jam :lol :play

I love it, reminds me of my and my dad :)