How old were you when you starting playing guitar?

[Eric Iverson]

I was 14 or so. The summer after 10th grade I worked at a swimming pool all summer and earned enough to buy a used Strat for $250... sort of gives you all a clue that this was a few years back, right?

 

My instrument was the trumpet, which I started at 10, and gave up after high school band. Looking back, I wish I had kept it up... I LOVE to listen to good trumpet players!

[Scott Fraser]

I was 14 or so. The summer after 10th grade I worked at a swimming pool all summer and earned enough to buy a used Strat for $250... sort of gives you all a clue that this was a few years back, right?

 

I think I was about 13 or 14. I bought a $40 Japanese electric called a Melody. Junkier than a Teisco, but it got me started.

 

My instrument was the trumpet, which I started at 10, and gave up after high school band. Looking back, I wish I had kept it up... I LOVE to listen to good trumpet players!

 

I played clarinet (sort of) in school band, but ditched it as soon as I discovered guitar.

I too LOVE great trumpet players, & my one ongoing gig anymore is an improv duo with a trumpet player.

 

Scott Fraser

[Trucks]

I was about 12-14 (I don't really remember) But then I only learned a few chords to strum and didn't play again til I was 19. 25 now.

[miroslav]

I was 8-9.

 

Started right off at a formal music school...and about two weeks in, I added the piano since my sister was started on piano at the same time...and I kept bumping her off the bench! :grin:

 

I actually found the piano a lot more interesting at the beginning, as it seemed to be much more intuitive...but as a kid, I always thought the guitar was way more cooler and more of a "guy's" instrument. Plus...when I first took up guitar it wasn't yet the primary Rock instrument. The big "Guitar Gods" we all know today were just starting to invent themselves.

It got boring playing Campton Races on the guitar and other Old Time Favoriteswhereas on the piano, there was all this wonderful classical music to be learned!

 

But these days I play guitar/piano on a 9/1 ratio...but I still use the piano when I need to really work stuff out.

 

[SEHpicker]

I was 15 but thought I was too late. I thought everything had already been done with the guitar... that was 1970... geeez..

SEHpicker

[Guitarsopher]

I started playing guitar late in life; I was 19 years old, but I had a good musical background through playing in band. Surprisingly, I found the fretboard a great tool to visualize notes. I am 27 years old now, and I wish I could have started earlier, but I'll take the eight great years I was provided and hope for many more.

[Zephyr]

I started piano at about age 6 or 7, moved on to saxophone at around 12 and finally guitar at about 14 or 15. I'm slowly working back into piano mainly fueled by me theory drive and the desire to play 10 note chords.

[Phil W]

Mucked about on acoustic guitar from about 14 - bass guitar at 18.

[Lokair]

Started on piano at 8 or 9, then to bass at 13. Bass full time from then to 34 while only playing guitar every now and again. Now Guitar full time since february(I am 36).

Lok

[theTragicRich]

When I was young my parents bought me a junior acoustic... nothing happened. Few years later they got me a cheap casio keyboard or something... nothing happened. I banged on pots and pans with chopsticks for a while... nothing happened.

 

Finally in high school, I was about 15, met a guy who had the same tastes in music I did, we became friends and I became the singer in his band. He showed me stuff about electric guitar and a few months later I convinced my parents to get me one (under the notion that I had to take lessons and play them a song they recognized; that song was Happy Birthday on my dad's birthday).

 

Almost 16 years later... nothing has happened

[The Geoff]

13 - in my first band at 14.

 

G.

[GuitarPlayerFL]

I was 9 or 10 and got an acoustic with S&H Green Stamps (courtesy of my mother) and bought the Gibson Cassette guitar method with my allowance. I didn't get far and it wasn't until I was 13 that I took lessons with an Alvarez acoustic that I really started to learn.

 

Johnny Winter's performance

on Don Kirshner's Rock Concert and Deep Purple's performance on California Jam are the events that started a real desire to play.

 

A year later, I got a Lincoln Les Paul copy...run through my stereo.

 

In '78, I bought a Polytone 102D amp (had to wait 8 months for them to build it) which I still have.

[splitting hare]

I was 14 when I bought a friends cheapo electric for $20 and had no clue how to play it! I really didn't start learning and playing until I was 15.

[trushack]

10. Played piano off and on starting at around 5, and that's where I learned how to read music.

[bbqbob]

17, then played on and off for 4 years then got hard up for money in college and sold my 1961 Gibson Maker for $100. Didn't play for about 30 years, now back at it since 2005.

[Guitarzan]

18 yrs old. but it was on and off.

[pauldil]

I started guitar when I was 9. I remember wanting to play so badly...and now, more than 40 years later, I do

 

Paul

[Durockrolly]

My father played the guitar, my uncle played the bass, my cousin played the drums and I played guitar. My parents have film of us all, going back to 1968 when I was seven. We are a Mexican family and often have huge parties where family members would come over and eat and drink and then we would play for what seemed like hours. As I got a little older we would play little cantinas and small bars locally. 40 years later, my cousin and I still jam together and he will often sit in at my gigs. We both play in blues bands and have been doing this for well over 20 years.

[RumpleCragstan]

I started guitar shortly after I turned 19.

 

I'm 20 now. I'm still not all that great... but at least I can sound like I'm not randomly hitting strings.

[Danzilla]

I started playing piano in 4th grade, and played for 2 or 3 years before stopping; got distracted from practicing and wasn't doing as well as I should have. Then over the summer between 7th & 8th grade, one of the counselors at a camp I attended was playing one night, a Les Paul black beauty. Something about that just stuck out and resondated with me. (and yet I still don't have a Les Paul...) I started taking lessons that fall, when I was 13, on a "restored" Kay acoustic-really rough fret ends. 2 years later got my first "real" guitar, a Kaman Matrix (still have it, though the pickup is shot). Started playing bass at 17, and played both fairly even amounts until I turned 30; now mostly bass. Turned 40 this summer. You'd think I'd be better after all these years. In some ways, I think I'm a better player, as far as improvising and working my way around a song; just wish I knew more songs, like I used to.

[Gene]

My father was a guitar player and started teaching me the uke at 7 years old. At 9 I started taking guitar lessons from a teacher. At 12 I started classical guitar from a teacher who was a student of Andre Segovia. That guy taught me more in 6 months then my first teacher did in 3 years. I ended up playing classic rock and blues but still use some of my classical background. I'm 59 now.

[Bluesape]

I got serious at 13. All it took was a Blind Faith concert in Phoenix, Az. Clapton changed my life that night....

[Guitarzannie]

Well, I guess I am a late bloomer compared to the rest of you! I originally picked up the guitar at 22 years old, took lessons for a few years and then quit.

 

Then, at the age of 42 (going on 43), the guitar reappeared in my life. Since then it has been a great learning experience, although at times it doesn't seem like it!

 

Michelle

[-Will-]

I'm a late bloomer as well. I started playing bass at age 30, I just turned 37. Last april I picked up the guitar so I've only been playing for about 9 months.

[splitting hare]

Then, at the age of 42 (going on 43), the guitar reappeared in my life. Since then it has been a great learning experience, although at times it doesn't seem like it!

 

Michelle

 

Yeah, and think of all the cool people you have met on these forums since you took it back up!

 

And the guitar will NEVER cease to be a great learning experience regardless of how long you have been playing!

 

 

 

 

[Guitarzannie]

Then, at the age of 42 (going on 43), the guitar reappeared in my life. Since then it has been a great learning experience, although at times it doesn't seem like it!

 

Michelle

 

Yeah, and think of all the cool people you have met on these forums since you took it back up!

 

And the guitar will NEVER cease to be a great learning experience regardless of how long you have been playing!

 

 

 

 

Definitely! I have met so many cool people IRL and on line that I can't even begin to count how many.

 

And I have discovered guitar players that I probably wouldn't have listened to if not for having an interest in guitar. I've recently listened to Elmore James, John Hammond and even Martin Simpson. I've had the pleasure recently of meeting Martin -- what nice guy and an awesome player he is!

 

Michelle

[Eric Iverson]

I never met Martin personally, but I agree that he is a very fine player!

[Guitarzannie]

I never met Martin personally, but I agree that he is a very fine player!

 

I asked Martin if he had any words of advice for a budding guitarist. With a smile and a twinkle in his eye, "Just play!"

 

You could tell who the guitar players were in the audience. They were the ones who were leaning forward to see what Martin was doing. Also, the guitarists were also the ones admiring Martin's Sobell custom made guitar when it was lying open in its' case.

 

Michelle

[Goalie Blues]

I started at 26. I'm 28 now and am an absolute addict.

 

I started playing the violin at 18 and played for about two years before giving up - It killed my shoulder to play and I found the fingerboard too small (I have a 9 1/2" handspan). I hurt my back in the fall of '06 and started playing a Segovia acoustic that my sis had lying in her room. I started playing chords and listening to people like Hendrix, Clapton, Page, King and Vaughan.

 

The rest, as they say, is history.

[Caevan O’Shite]

About 14 or 15; didn't have a clue, worked @$$-b@ckwards and in the dark to reach any semblance of actually playing...