What made you play?

[Legion]

The very first time you decided to pick up a guitar, bass, ukelele, or whatever.....why?

A song you heard, if so what?

The music just had to come out?

Something to distract you from masturbation?

To impress chicks?

[snipelfritz]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EVNeh9dasI[/youtube]

[Mudfuzz]

I can't remember, my parents are both musicians so music and instruments have always been around me so messing around on stuff was... just... normal...

[Joe Gress]

When I was 13 i didn't have much for a hobby, interest, liking, or whatever. Mom said I needed to find something. Went to some ladys house who had every damn instrument possible. She told me to play them all and tell me what I thought of them. It came down to mandolin or bass. I choose bass cause it was bigger, but both were going to be my choice. I loved the shit out of it though.
Then mom made me take lessons, I joined the youth symphony, and I was told either keep up the effort and hard work, or I could quit cause it was a lot of money for my parents. I stuck with it and now I'm stupid glad that my parents kept paying. It opened so many doors for me, and I'll prolly be ever thankful for them for it.


tl;dr: Mom did

[IEatCats]

When I was 8, it was because I wanted to be like my dad. I would play around with his guitar when he'd let me. I remember being in his room and figuring out how it works with him. It's one of those memories I usually keep to myself.

When I was 13, it was because I wanted to be like Jimi Hendrix, Alex Lifeson, and Buckethead. They were the foundation of my playing for a long time. I had always been really into music, but I wanted to write stuff like that. I wanted to be the next Hendrix. I still do, honestly. I played guitar for 9 hours a night for 4 years. It's all that I did, honestly. I still find old notebooks with chord structures and theory in them.

Now, I want to be me. I want to find a niche of sounds that I like, and be me, and get hella famous for it. Or be Billy Corgan in 1994. Me, or 1994 Corgan. I can't decide most days.

[theactionindex]

Siamese Dream, pretty much.

[Legion]

hey..I just realized I asked the question but didn't answer myself...

When I was a kid about the only thing that got me moving emotionally was music and it wasn't long til I discovered punk and it's offshoots. Still, I was a collector and a listener....even though I dreamed of playing in a band I never picked up an instrument.

When I was 16 I found a guitarist and started a band...I took care of vocals and lyrics. When that ended another band was formed. We were a proto grunge band playing in Sydney in the late 80's. Luckily enough for me the guitarist in that band was no where near as good as the previous one I played with. What I mean is he had no idea what he was doing....he just played and it sounded good but he had no idea what chords they were or anything. I had a lot more control in this band and I started learning to play simply so I could show him what I wanted to do.....much easier for him if I showed rather than explained.

Over the course of about six months I practiced, read, played and was really starting to think we could shift the band to a 2 guitar line up when we broke up. A tragedy of drugs and apathy. Over the next few years I continued to play, barely even sang anymore. I moved around, bought and sold gear and eventually went to school and studied audio engineering. I built a small home studio and recorded a ton of bad electronica and indie pop type stuff for a while before moviing on to where I am now...with a small recording environment, a small group of people who come and go to work with and an increased desire to do heavier more experimental type stuff.

So...my answer is twofold...


I learned guitar so I could teach my guitarist what I wanted HIM to play...

I continued to play because...having tasted it....I couldn't stop...

If I could go back and do it again....I would have started much earlier...

[IEatCats]

Siamese Dream, pretty much.

This album is actually what made me start playing again recently. I sort of gave up for a while. Then Corgan and Iha fixed everything.

[Mudfuzz]

I can't remember, my parents are both musicians so music and instruments have always been around me so messing around on stuff was... just... normal...

Now if you mean first time I got serious... I t'was 13 and heard Anestesia Pulling Teeth, I had been playing guitar for a few months before but the idea of creating such a abrasive noisy sound [really it was the sound more then the actual song] I was like whoa! I MUST DO THIS

NSFW: show

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S002MadnlQs[/youtube]

Now... before that when I was like 10 or 11 my mom had her Juno-60 set up kind'a by the kitchen [it was a odd little almost room that was a like a entry way to the back door and a office... anyway..] and there were headphones I'd wake up early and just play weird sounds before anyone else would wake up

[Mike]

All five of my older siblings played an instrument in the school band starting at whatever age kids start... 2nd grade...? As #6, we didn't have the money for the rental. I didn't play anything until I was 12, when my mom moved us to a dead end street in a new town. Expressway on one side, and miles of cornfields on the others. No cable, pre-Internet.

I found my brother's old guitar, from when he was in college, in a closet at my dad's place. I had literally nothing to do, so I taught myself how to play. My dad encouraged me, and said he would buy me a guitar if I stuck with it. Man, did I stick with it. It is all I did.

I leveraged my 8th grade graduation, being moved to the middle of nowhere, and being the youngest kid into a sweet guitar. He bought me a new American Standard Strat and a used Ampeg VH-140c. I still have both, and play the Strat almost every day.

Ironically, 21 years later, I am the only one of my siblings who can play any instrument with the exception of one of my sisters, who can bang out a rocking rendition of her junior high school's theme song on flute.

Mike

[theactionindex]

Siamese Dream, pretty much.

This album is actually what made me start playing again recently. I sort of gave up for a while. Then Corgan and Iha fixed everything.

Yeah, I busted it out about a year ago and it reinvigorated me for sure. I have so many positive experiences attached to it that I feel like I can't help but be inspired by it (even if I know it isn't the Corgan and Iha show anymore ).

[IEatCats]

Siamese Dream, pretty much.

This album is actually what made me start playing again recently. I sort of gave up for a while. Then Corgan and Iha fixed everything.

Yeah, I busted it out about a year ago and it reinvigorated me for sure. I have so many positive experiences attached to it that I feel like I can't help but be inspired by it (even if I know it isn't the Corgan and Iha show anymore ).

It turns out that my dad played that album like crazy when I was young, so when I listened to it again, it just felt good. It's been on repeat for nearly 2 weeks now. It's so damn good.

And yeah, post 2000, I just pretend that it's a different band that really loved Smashing Pumpkins, The Smashing Pumpkins. It seems similar, but The Smashing Pumpkins are from the UK, so it's more like The Wonderful Pumpkins.

[dubkitty]

i always loved music. when i was a kid my Mom was the director of the youth choir at our church, and so i sang in the choir from age 5 and learned proper singing technique (thanks, Mom! ) and picked up harmony by observation and osmosis. when i was in grade school i played trumpet (horribly) in the school band. i took up guitar because my older brother got one from Woolworths and was AWFUL on it; i said "Christ, i can do better than that" and snuck into his room while he was out and picked out chords from his songbooks and was off. this was around when the Woodstock movie came out, and between Townshend, Hendrix, Richie Havens, and Stephen Stills that film set the whole agenda for my first couple of years as a player, of trying to fill as much space as possible and use rhythm guitar to create the effect of a whole band while playing solo acoustic.

[Legion]

Wow Woodstock, 1970...yr even older than me..

Any wisdom to pass down?


And, whaddya think of Boris?

[valentine1]

it was grade 7, and the coolest kid in the school played a shitty yamaha that he got in one of those amp+guitar combos. he also had this hot girlfriend called sarah who used to be close with me but she found this new boy to hang around with. it was then i knew i had to take up the bass, surpass him in skill and scalp that motherfucker before he had sex with sarah. if you believe that good things happen to good people, i did sex her a few years later - don't know if i can attribute it to bass though. still a victory. ahh 15 years down the track and... what now? /sigh