What made you play?

[kevinhifi]

Van Halen, Quiet Riot, and Def Leppard. It was 1983, and I was 10. I was interested at a much younger age but didn't start to put in the effort until then. After that, I went back in time for influence.

[StopReferencing]

I was a fucked-up perverted thirteen year old, and I had ruined shit messily with a girl I really liked. I thought writing rock music about it would be a good way to apologize/demonize myself.

[Achtane]

In 6th grade I decided to check out the band class, mostly because I thought "band" and pictured guitars, so obviously being in band would make me cool.
I ended up playing tuba for 4 years. Anyway, I really enjoyed it. I was put in the all-district band a couple times.
A few weeks before my 16th birthday, when I was starting to actually listen to music more, my dad called and struck up a conversation that was really just a way of asking me if I liked guitar or bass more. Since I'd been playing the bass role in the school bands for a while, I told him I thought bass was cooler, and he agreed with me.
So that's how I ended up with my glorious Hondo.

Melt-Banana is what got me into effects though.

[Ghost Hip]

I initially wanted to play bass (although now I do play bass along with guitar and drums in my band) but I was looking for a new video game to play and IGN just reviewed Guitar Hero so on a whim I bought it first day it released. Two months later I got a guitar for Christmas. I think I was fifteen then. I tend to shut up my friends who bitch about Guitar Hero ruining music and new musicians.

What initially sprung the desire to play bass was the bass riff in "Blue" by The Pumpkins.

[dubkitty]

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

Any wisdom to pass down?


And, whaddya think of Boris?

i had my wisdom teeth pulled LOL

use hearing protection, and don't stand right next to the drum kit...it's good to be able to hear when you're over 50.
if you have an addictive personality or tend to binge, don't take drugs and don't drink to excess...it'll only mess you up. trust me on this.
never buy amps new if you can possibly help it. they're twice as expensive new and used ones are just as good.
build your own Tele or Strat if you want one. it's fun, and it's an invaluable education in how guitars work and how to set them up...once you put one together, you'll have a whole different relationship with the instrument.
get a stand, or use some milk crates, to get your combo amp up off the floor...it'll sound way better.
own and use a tuner that mutes when you step on the switch...nobody likes the one guy that's standing there going "dweeeng dweeng dweeng" when everyone else is ready.
practice with a metronome or a drum machine or something else that keeps steady time. unless your internal clock is really ruthless, it'll really help you to develop proper timing and rhythm.
copy everything. but then put the stuff you copy together in weird and unexpected ways with your own spin on it. this country lick would go great on the end of that blues run, wouldn't it?
learn some music theory. even if you don't want to get into scales and jazz improvisation or sight-reading, it's nice to have enough theory to be able to write out an idea or a melody on score paper so it doesn't get away.
don't limit yourself. IMO the biggest error people make is to say "i play XXX type of music, therefore i don't do THAT." it's only kinky if you do it more than twice.

Boris: i think they're really good, but i'm not so much into the doomz...i'm more of a MBV kind of guy, which is to say that i prefer a higher percentage of song-to-riff in my insanely loud non-metal rock. and i really don't get the campy metalz thing they're doing recently at all...but then, it may just be merrily sailing over my head as does much of Japanese popular culture.

[Ghost Hip]

^ Hell yes. They should include dubkitty's list of wisdom with every first guitar purchase. I agree with all of it even though I haven't practiced all of it.

[Lintybits]

Freshman yr of HS I went to a battle of the bands with a few friends. We decided that night we should start a band so we could play at the battle the next year. None of us played instruments (I had played clarinet for a few years but that doesn't really count). One guy really wanted to play drums and another wanted to sing so I got assigned guitar by default. We all got instruments for Xmas that year and had our 1st band practice the day after, I still have the tape somewhere - absolutely horrible.

I didn't really get into playing on my own for about a year but we practiced together every week. Ended up winning the battle our junior and senior years and touring a little after HS. 20+ yrs later I'm the only one when still plays.

[devnulljp]

This guy ...

[WeHuntKings]

Siamese Dream, pretty much.

and a family friend who was at death's door bequeathed his old frankenstrat to me. i had received a guitar once before when was even younger and didn't care.

i felt like i had to make my friend proud and carry on making music in his memory.

[coldbrightsunlight]

I started playing violin at probably 8 or 9 years old? Stuck with it all the way to 17, but I never got very good, I think mainly because I never loved the instrument, so practice was a chore I tried to avoid (very successfully). My dad plays guitar When I was about 11 I started messing around with his, and I got a strat copy and practice amp for christmas that year, freaking loved it and learned to play every song I could. Since then I've always played loads, never had a break or anything, I've just taught myself and I like to think I'm getting better all the time. It's funny, because my dad always says when I started I didn't understand rhythm and he thought I'd never get good and would give it up soon, but now he'll happily admit I'm a better player than he is and playing guitar is pretty much my favourite thing in the world.

I started playing bass guitar because when I was 14 or 15 me and some friends were starting a ska-punk band (we were so cool) and we didn't know anyone who played bass. I like to think I ended up doing a bit better than most 'guitar player playing bass because nobody else can' people, joined the school jazz band later and learned to read music and stuff. Then I started playing double bass because the music teacher/band leader (an amazing musician and a really inspirational guy, I doubt I'd be half the musician I am without him) got people to do a 7 piece dixie-jazz combo thing and they're kinda the same right? Actually took lessons and practiced at that, so I got ok at classical playing as well as jazz.

[dubkitty]

my route into bass was somewhat similar. i dabbled with it on some 4-track cassette recordings i did in the early 1980s, but really got into it when i was at City College of San Francisco in 1985. i had a Jazz Improvisation course, and the class included six guitarists and no bass player; the instructor beseeched one of the guitarists to play bass, and i decided this was my opportunity to learn to really play bass, as different to a "guitar player playing bass." so i spent the semester playing the two tunes we used for workshopping--a Freddie Hubbard blues and some Strictly Commercial fusion ditty--and by the end of the term i could walk in F like a mofo on the fretless Jazz Bass. i eventually got a fretless JB of my own this year which i fitted with all the 60s-style covers and thumb rest, and am immensely happy. when my roommate gets his bass amp, which will feature a 15" cabinet, i'll be even happier.

[Birthday Boy]

When I was 7-8 I came across a cassette my dad had of Sgt. Pepper. I had a Sony Walkman, but had previously been listening to '90s radio on it. Barely listened to anything else for 3-4 years. Picked up guitar at 11. Played only Beatles songs the first year. Took drum lessons on impulse at 13, discovered I actually had some sort of talent. Guitar ended up a side thing because, let's face it, there is a shortage of even mediocre drummers. And relative to the baseline I was "good". Mediocre guitarists abound. Marquee Moon made me want to take guitar seriously again.

[O Drones]

I played drums and all the guitarists I played with didn't make enough noise, or the right noise and they weren't loud enough and didn't like feedback. That and Crass.

[Astronovazz]

I started playing guitar late in the game, I was 26. When I was a kid I heard the Beatles,Hendrix,Jefferson Airplane ect then along came Aerosmith and Kiss still no guitar I wanted to play drums but the parents said no so I quit the sax. anyways then I got into prog Genesis,Yes Gentle Giant There was no way I could ever play this.Walla... late 70's and punk comes along Ramones Stooges Velvets,Damned,Dead Boys. I get a bass and the same day I am on stage bloody knuckles and all. Oh you play with your fingers not your knuckles duh!!! Fookin' punk. Later the girlfriend or should I say ex takes the bassit and cuts it up. No I didn't kill her I was into Crass,Dead Kennedys, Husker Du, Discharge,Flux of Pink Indians and basically a peace punk. Punk gets boring and iv'e always been a music head so out come the Hendrix and Neil Young (no Yes,Genesis or Led Zeppelin )By this time they have been sacrificed to the gods of punk. This weird think starts happening punks start taking achid or should I say acid. Sonic Youth, Butthole Surfers,Melvins,Flaming Lips,Scratch AcidHalo of Flies .Cool labels like Amphetamine Reptile,Touch and Go,Dischord, SST, Still no guitar but I am working a shit job and rent is $100.00 a month records records and more records. The Cramps and Stones are my bible. Collect all the original songs that they cover and eat up all the new stuff coming out oh yea punk goes metal lots of crap but we do get C.O.C.,The Accused,Venom,Slayer,Voivod,Raw Power,Celtic Frost ect my friends think i'm crazy with all this'' crap metal'' but as we all no time has proven me right. Who remembers that retro sixties punk band anyways.Nuggets rules but rehash is no better than Sha Na Na. FINALLY I get a guitar because of a retro 60' garage band The Cynics I never got to see Dead Moon but I guess they would be the east coast equivelant..They were great live. Back to guitar I move to LA Iv'e been playing a little over a year collecting 77 punk and 60's garage singles. 6 months in LA and i'm in a sixties trash/punk band playing shows 2-3 times a month. Nirvana,Mudhoney,Thee Headcoats are starting to bring R '.n' R back. Tons of great shows then one day I find some weird guitar boxes at a yard sale. one says Mutron flanger and the other is orange and says MXR phase 100 $20.00 for both I only have $12.00 sold. I start playing them in the band.They ask me to leave. Wow noise is cool who needs a guitar. Twenty years later and here I am at I Love Fuzz. And yes I love Boris,Sunn O))), OM, Nadja,Yellow Swans, Albert Ayler,Graves At Sea,
Now is the best time for music and it always will be!!!

[snipelfritz]

"Why? I'm a boy, from the suburbs. It's my destiny!" - Brendon Small