What made you play?

[GardenoftheDead]

I didn't want to take art class in middle school.

Nirvana made me want to keep playing.

[Derelict78]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ft7QMuliH2M[/youtube]
&
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOi2nVB31GM[/youtube]

[The4455]

In fourth grade everyone has the option to learn an instrument or join choir, so I went to the middle school for an open house thing and tried a bunch of instruments, sax, trumpet, percussion, and BASS. And I chose to learn bass, the obvious answer. But I also kinda knew even before I tried it that I wanted to play bass, like some divine intervention of music. And I've always wanted to play guitar, after seeing a video of the Beatles playing and 100's of people screaming for them, that is what I want.

[The4455]

[bigchiefbc]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WM8bTdBs-cw[/youtube]

5th grade. My uncle bought me a crappy strat copy and I learned most of the album over the course of a fall and winter.

Then their next album came out the next year, and I didn't listen to any of their albums for about another 7 or 8 years. I still can't believe they went from Justice to that

[Zounds Perspex]

I started playing a long time ago so it's hard to remember everything,
but I well remember one of the first times I saw someone playing a guitar and thought "I wanna do that!"
1985, I was 10 y.o.



I didn't actually get a guitar until I was almost 14, by then it was Zeppelin, Sabbath, Metallica, shit like that.
Sonic Youth came just a little bit later, and that's when I moved from "dedicated" to "obsessed."

[Grrface]

Christmas 2 years ago, I mentioned to my then girlfriend that I had always just kind of wanted to learn to play bass, but didn't have my own instrument to learn on. She showed up a week later and handed me a bass. Rest is history.

[voerking]

there were always instruments around the house. my mom played piano, my dad played classical guitar, my brother & sister both had guitars, another brother played sax. i honestly don't remember the first time i picked up a guitar. i was probably a toddler. i was always allowed to mess around with any of the instruments in the house. i just gravitated to it out of natural curiosity . i got a bass & an amp for christmas when i was 12, and an acoustic guitar the next year. i've been playing pretty much non-stop ever since (i'm 36).

[charles]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pw8PpYBiDsc[/youtube]

I saw this video when I was about 11. I thought to myself, "Fuck, that guy seems to get a LOT of ass. That's what I should be doing". At the time I had no idea that it was a bass he was playing, or understood the distinction between a guitar and a bass, but I knew I wanted one. A few months later I got a bass. That video still makes me want a V bass. And low cut jeans.

[Mudfuzz]

That video still makes me want a V bass. And low cut jeans.

Yeah, that's my have song by them V bases, they is the shit yo! Actually I think I wanted a V bass from the start, but it was years till I even knew anyone made one. When I started playing I'd look at catalogs and Vs to me were a ELECTRIC guitar vs all other guitars

[Bassus Sanguinis]

In my teens, I painted and draw demo and single covers for friends, posters, t-shirts, custom drumheads, and backdrops. And I toured with friends Finland as a helping pair of hands and took pics. Wrote some lyrics, too. Then I decided to give the brush and pen a rest and learn an instrument when I was sixteen and I didn't feel like I was getting any better with pen, ink, and a brush - I was wrong of course - whereas this super gifted friend of my always seemed to outdo me when our friends were releasing demos.

And did I mention girls? Yeah, I figured there's more sex appeal in performing on stage than there was sitting at home by my drawing board.

I thought of Lemmy, Tom Araya, and Cronos, and knew what to do : I'd sing and play the hell out of the sorry bass I'd get. And here I am. I still paint and draw occasionally, a bit, though its more like relaxing pastime for me nowadays.

[nieh]

My mom played violin since she was a kid, one of my sisters played stand up bass, my other sister played violin. When I was in 3rd grade(?) my mother asked me if I wanted to play and instrument, so I said I wanted to play the Cello. And have ever since. in 5th grade my dad got me a cheap strat copy package from Kohls.

[adrianlee]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ft7QMuliH2M[/youtube]
&
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOi2nVB31GM[/youtube]

This guy.




Kurt Cobain and Billy Joe Armstrong (from the mid 90s) played a large part as well.

[RR Bigman]

My dad tried to get me to play when I was a wee lad, but I never got into it. 9th grade a friend of mine started taking lessons and playing in his church's band. I thought that was lame, but we hung out all the time and he convinced me to give it a try. I bugged my father to teach me, but he kept putting it off for reasons unknown. Then a chick I hung out with started playing, and I was trying to get dat ass so I finally got dad to teach me. He wrote down all the basic open chords in tab, then he showed me harmonic minor and da blooz scales, then power chords and shit got real. After that I sort of did my own thing, got hard into 80s thrash then discovered fugazi and proceeded to make an ungodly noise and totally unlearned all that flashy weedly stuff I had spent 3 years of my life trying to master.


epilogue;
I totally destroyed that chick a few years later.

[The Mad Owl]

I've always been one of those creative types. Drawing, Legos, you name it, I did it. Music was the one thing my parents didn't like and I know I made my dad angry when I left football to join the orchestra and jazz band.

I didn't get much early suPport when I started and I wanted to quit every day. I kept going because nobody believed I would continue to play, and in the beginning I was terrible. Nobody wanted to play with me. I kept at it.

I keep Playing to this day because it's one of the things that brings me joy. Even if it's missing strings or on someone else's gear, I come alive and the world makes perfect sense for that moment.