How I started doing music. How about you? What prompted you?

[desertbluesman]

I was listening to the Temptations, Smoky and the Miracles, Chuck Berry, Elvis, The Dubs, the Flamingoes, all the fifties stuff. So about the time I turned about 21 or so we started singing a-Capella on street corners on the Jersey Shore. The group I started with was just Rod Hood my best friend, and Lambert Chauncy Smith, another local friend. I was the high tenor, Hooder was the second tenor, and Lambert was the baritone. We had no lead singer so all we did was three part harmonies imagining the leads. Some of our friends would sit in from time to time and sing lead.

 

One day the premiere a-Capella group in town the Soundmasters broke up, and we hooked up with the high tenor Fat Smit, Hooder was again the second tenor and my (now) brother in law Jimmy (fat) Smith was the best high tenor, so I dropped down to baritone. Lambert had hatted out of town for some mysterious reason, and we never saw or heard of him again.

 

Later on Fat Smit's brother the late Kenny Smith came on as lead singer.

 

One day Kenny disappeared and went off to the Height Ashbury scene to see what was happening there, leaving us without a lead singer. We kept on going however with some pretty awesome sit ins from North Jersey. But we all missed Kenny.

 

One summer day Kenny comes walking up the street with Hendrix style hair. His eyes were all bugged out and he whips out this blue vial of "Qwsley" he called it, we had been doing some 'erb a little bit but nothing serious at the time. So we all looked at each other and wondered what had happened to our good bud out there in California. (It did not take long before we all looked and acted like Kenny). Who by the way was one of my most favorite people I ever met in this life (RIP amigo).

 

The story of how I started playing guitar is as follows; One day we decided to take a road trip inland to visit a friend who had moved inland. In the back seat with me was the late Jay Suhm another baritone who seconded as the bassman in the Soundmasters after I joined and who had preceded me in the Soundmasters some years before.

 

Jay took out this bag of pills that had a peace sign on one side and he said I have some "Owsley" here. Who wants to do some? No one? Then I will do it all myself. So I took one of the blue colored ones. I guess we were on the road for an hour or so to the house we were going to visit. As I was peeking, Jay sneeked up behind me and clapped a set of headphones on my head. On the Stereo was playing Crossroads by the Cream. At the time I was listening to the Temptations and the do wop groups of the Northeast. Motown and all that stuff.

 

That night I heard music like I never heard it before. The guitar work seemed to be in motion. It moved from place to place in time with the groove like I never heard music before. (even though I had heard the thing on FM previously). I was still not convinced to change my preference to the Rock scene at the time, since I was a member in good standing to the a-Capella scene.

 

The very next morning I went out and bought a Stella Guitar which I tried to play for a few weeks, then I bought my first Telecaster from a friend and a Blackface bassman from one of the second hand music stores in the area. It was not long before I quit the Soundmasters after trying to get them to learn an instrument, which they just did not want to do.

 

So after about 46 years or so, here I am still pickin happily, and I never looked back on the a-Capella scene, and never missed it even a little bit.

 

Nowadays I can make finished productions all by myself without any other humans involved, using backing track generating programs, or inputting the BT's in MIDI through a MIDI keyboard and rendering it to audio using samples and synths.

 

I absolutely love making music even if it is never ever heard by any other human......

[Dannyalcatraz]

For me- the son of a music teacher- leaning a musical instrument was considered to be part of a well-rounded education. Mom's thing was voice and piano, so my vocal training- 100% informal- started as a wee child.

 

My formal music education started with the cello. I nurtured that for a little over a decade, then started gravitating towards the guitar. There I remain.

[desertbluesman]

I actually started in school band playing a clarinet for 2 weeks then I turned it back in, and never looked back at formal lessons until years later when I met Emily Remler, then Bob Aslanian (who taught Al DeMeola early on)

[hurricane hugo]

Always sang, trumpet at 10 or 11, guitar at 16, piano at 17 (although I didn't stick with it. *sadface*).

[Fred_C]

In an effort to give me culture, my mother forced me to take piano lessons from the 2nd through 8th grade. I went to a private school and the only thing they would teach is classical piano. I HATED every minute of it.

 

I picked up the guitar at 14 and never touched a piano again. It's funny how, when you find your instrument, you know it immediately.

[Scott Fraser]

The very next morning I went out and bought a Stella Guitar which I tried to play for a few weeks,

 

My older brother had a Stella, which is the guitar I learned my first chords on. Piece of junk, but you start somewhere.

[Sharkman]

In 1980, I was just out of college with a general business degree. Inflation was over 10% a year, interest rates were close to 20%, unemployment in the state of Michigan was around 13%, and if you didn't have a job, like me, the prospects were pretty bleak. So, with nowhere to go, not much to do, and all day to do it, I took my older brother's guitar, which hadn't been played in over a decade, and decided to teach myself how to play. I never took any lessons, because I needed the money for extravagant things, like food, gas, clothes, and car insurance. 33 years later, I'm still plinking around on the guitar, although now I have a few more to plink on.

[Larryz]

We have a lot in common DBM. I'm an Arizona boy. Moved to California when I was 3 but always went back home every summer to ride horses and visit my relatives. My mom made me play clarinet from the 4th grade through the 8th grade. I gave up the clarinet for the guitar which was an old Stella. My dad only played country so I grew up on C F & G. (side note: I too played piano Fred. My mom took classical lessons and I would have to go with her. She would struggle to learn Fur Elise (sp?) and it would frustrate her when I just walked over and picked it out by ear).

 

But I digress. I started out doing my solo a-capella version of Elvis when I was about 5 years old. My neighborhood buddy's older sister was a fan and we would sneak in her bedroom when she was gone and play her 45's. We both got pretty good at it as we were growing up. My mom was looking for me one day and knocked on the gate of my little girl friends house and said: "is Larry back there" and Linda said: "oh, you mean Elvis?" My mom went in back of the house and there I was on top of the picnic table doing Elvis, and that's how it all began...

 

 

[whitefang]

When I was about five years old, my Mother got the idea that it would be nice if I took piano lessons. Even moved an old upright into the house. Despite all of her, and my efforts, nothing became of it. She was often told that since there was no real interest in learning the piano in the first place at so young an age, she should probably forget it. My next foray was school programmed drum lessons. At that, I didn't do too bad, but I was only using one of those "drum pads", a block of wood with a rubber pad on top that was tilted at an angle. I longed for the use of a real drum, something that was cost prohibitive to my single parent Mom at the time. After she remarried, my stepsister moved in with us for a short time. I was nine years old at the time, she was 16, and "sort of" played the guitar. I didn't take to it in interest at the time, but three or four years later, I asked her to try to teach me a little bit. As I was left handed, and by that time played HOURS of "lefty" air guitar, I found it awkward to "turn it over", so to speak, and play it "properly". Nobody thought of the ability to restring it for left handed playing, and as it was HER guitar, restringing it would have been impractical. And after the piano and drum fiascos, Mom wasn't about to spend any hard to come by dollars on another musical foray. So I learned to play on hers until someone( I forget who) got me an all plastic piece o' crap made by EMINEE, the chord organ people.

 

This "axe" was, save for a tin foil quality tailpiece, made entirely of plastic, even the frets! THEY were just molded into the neck at the stamping plant. eventually, I recieved a cheapo acoustic that was still more "real guitar" than that Eminee disaster for Christmas. I was 14. Had that thing until I was 19, and it just simply fell apart. Literally! By then, however, I had since I was 16 a Kalamazoo Melody Maker electric. The only electric I ever owned. My ex got me my Epiphone FT-145 for Christmas '72, our first Christmas as a married couple. Still have it, and it sounds and plays great, even if I DON'T! (lol)

 

Still, I wish I could have done better a long time ago with the piano lessons...

 

One thing I never really found out about was WHY, when I was a kid, there were certain musical instruments in the house. Our house was one of those story-and-a-half frame houses, and before my memory could store it, someone fixed up the 1/2 frame as an upstairs bedroom. It was where me and my brother slept. There was a sort of "walk-in" closet with a little door that accessed to the attic. In there were kept an old, blonde wood archtop acoustic guitar. Never, to my regret, noted the make. It's back was held on with what looked like 1/2 a roll of masking tape. It had only two strings on it. There was also a five-string banjo. Solid, heavy mother, ALSO with only two strings. And there were some castinettes and a JAW HARP my Mom kept in a junk drawer. Never knew what was UP with that. A shame, really.

Whitefang

[p90jr]

Musician/music teacher parents. As a kid I thought everybody's parents played instruments around the house all day.

[whitefang]

When I stop and think about it, I can't really answer the original question.

 

Many other guys and gals were exposed to the same things I was, yet never gave PLAYING music a second thought. But as far as what was there that prompted me to want to PLAY it? I really couldn't say....

Whitefang

[Winston Psmith]

I really had to think about this one, and still don't have a simple answer, but here goes nothing, as they say . . .

 

I grew up in NYC, in the late 50's, early 60's. Great music environment to start with, no question. At home, my father listened to music all the time, and was probably the first hi-fi fan that I ever knew, although I didn't realize it at the time. Dad listened to a lot of Dixieland, but he also listened to some guitar guys like Al Caiola and Tony Mottola, so I was exposed to that, too.

 

I got Dad's electronic hand-me-downs, so I had my own television and record player, when most kids were still making do with transistor radios. I had a transistor radio, too - I slept with it in my pillowcase.

 

I probably first started paying serious attention to the radio right around the dawn of the British Invasion. I can vaguely remember seeing the Beatles on Ed Sullivan, but I definitely remember going to see "HELP" in a movie theater. Like a whole generation of guitarists, the first song I learned was the Animals' version of House Of The Rising Sun. (Interesting things about that song; it was in a minor key, in 3/4 time, and prominently featured a guitar arpeggio as the main figure. Not a bad way to start.)

 

I was too young to be trying to attract girls, it was really the idea of bringing music out of this wooden box that attracted me. I got a cheap TrueTone acoustic from Lafayette Radio Electronics, and that was my first guitar. I passed that guitar down to one of my younger nieces, a few years back, when she needed a small-bodied guitar that could take a beating; she still has it, and it's nearly fifty years old, by now.

 

My first electric was some no-name semi-hollow, from a neighborhood music store. Still, it was electric, and I'd figured out a way to plug it directly into a big German reel-to-reel that my dad had, so I could play and record. The sound was "craptacular", to quote Bart Simpson, but WTH, I had an electric guitar studio at home. FWIW, it was one of those big multi-track reel-to-reels, for playing pre-recorded tapes, so it even had built-in speakers - I wish I could remember the make & model, but no. The footprint was about equal to a Fender Twin Reverb. I discovered overdubbing entirely by accident, one day, and that was a turning point for me.

 

In high school, we had a mad genius for a Music teacher, a Greek guy named Louis Panos. He played all the reed instruments, upright bass, and piano. One evening, I was talking with him about music theory, especially scales & chords, which I'd been working on, and he told to go get my guitar. When I came back, with my acoustic in hand, he started calling out chords. At first, they were simple triads, C Major, A minor, B flat. Then, he started in on 7ths, and 9ths, and different inversions. We went on like that for about half an hour, and at the end, he said, "You're doing good." One of the best guitar workouts I ever had, from a guy who didn't play guitar, and never asked me to play a tune.

 

I also played guitar in a Bluegrass band, in high school, for a while. I wasn't really drawn to Bluegrass music, but one of my favorite teachers was leading the band, and he was also the person who gave me my first serious steel-string guitar. I don't remember any of the tunes, now, but I remember how much fun it was, playing songs with other people. I learned my first open tuning from one of his friends, a trumpet player, and had my first experience sitting in with skilled adult musicians, with them.

 

After all that, I guess the answer is that I always grew up with music, and I was blessed to be surrounded by kind & generous musicians. It has always been a presence in my life, like a good friend, or a wise teacher - maybe both.

 

I've gone on longer than I meant to, but WTH? Thanks, DBM, for starting this thread. It made me remember a bunch of good people, and good times, and most of all, it reminds me to be very grateful.

[Dannyalcatraz]

It does one good to look back on occasion. Helps us remember why we are who we are.

[whitefang]

Well, my introduction to different types( styles, genres, put you own term here) came from different sources.

 

My mother had a moderate but eclectic record collection. 78 and 45rpm discs like "Hey There" by Rosemary Clooney, Hernando's Hideaway" by who? I don't remember. Several "big band" 78's, from "Sing, Sing, Sing" by Goodman to "Blue Flame" by Woody Herman. And oddly, "Shake, Rattle and Roll" by Bill Haley was mixed in there. Then, of course, the popular music of the day( I was born in 1951, so YOU do the math) which included Earlier Elvis, The Everly Brothers, Bobby Darin, Duane Eddy, and all them late '50's, early '60's personalities. My early foray into drum lessons was kindled by Sandy Nelson. Then my step-sister entered the picture, and "rock-a-billy" and old Hank Williams came my way( some of you might recall my story of the bet I won concerning the tune "Move It On Over").

 

In the middle of all this, there was my brother. I some time ago once related the story about his "crystal radio" set, and staying up late nights listening to a blues station out of Chicago, not really knowing just what it was, but liking it immensly. My listening tastes moved around over the years from radio "rock'n'roll" hits, to '60 and '61 Beach Boys hits(before it was tagged "surf music"), to the folk wave of the early to mid '60's, an introduction to Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, getting into a band with another member who was a classical guitar student and on...

 

Every pickin' style, strumming style, composition style, chord formation and song construction style I soaked up like a sponge over all those years comes out in how I play. As it does with probably all the REST of you.

Whitefang

[Dannyalcatraz]

Every pickin' style, strumming style, composition style, chord formation and song construction style I soaked up like a sponge over all those years comes out in how I play. As it does with probably all the REST of you.

 

I encounter a lot of young musicians who seem to have grown up with musical blinders. They only listen to their own genre, and don't see what has happened historically when great musicians cross-pollinate genres to find new ways of doing things.

 

It works out for some of the youngsters, but for most, it's just a pathway to stagnation.

[hurricane hugo]

One thing I never really found out about was WHY, when I was a kid, there were certain musical instruments in the house. Our house was one of those story-and-a-half frame houses, and before my memory could store it, someone fixed up the 1/2 frame as an upstairs bedroom. It was where me and my brother slept. There was a sort of "walk-in" closet with a little door that accessed to the attic. In there were kept an old, blonde wood archtop acoustic guitar. Never, to my regret, noted the make. It's back was held on with what looked like 1/2 a roll of masking tape. It had only two strings on it. There was also a five-string banjo. Solid, heavy mother, ALSO with only two strings. And there were some castinettes and a JAW HARP my Mom kept in a junk drawer. Never knew what was UP with that. A shame, really.

Whitefang

 

Ever see "Hostel?"

[desertbluesman]

I encounter a lot of young musicians who seem to have grown up with musical blinders. They only listen to their own genre, and don't see what has happened historically when great musicians cross-pollinate genres to find new ways of doing things.

 

It works out for some of the youngsters, but for most, it's just a pathway to stagnation.

 

Yeah, folks do not train their kids "not to believe" or "not to cop to" everything they see or hear, and very few it seems talk about the "Monkey See Monkey Do" concept, and how to navigate around that.

[SEHpicker]

I heard Duane Allman playing guitar when I was about 14. After that, playing guitar was not optional for me.

Put together a garage band. Stole 20 rolls of insulation from a nearby construction site, insulated our drummers garage (his single mom was very supportive) so that our neighbors wouldn't complain, and spent hundreds of days and nights smokin, jammin and figuring out the music we liked.

Although Southern Rock is in my blood, we played everything from

Led Zepplin to the Beatles to the Zombies, Jimi Hendrix, Clapton, Hank Williams, America, Deep Purple etc.

In the early eighties I decided I needed a career that might actually make money, but still allowed me a creative vent. So I embarked into the world of film production. I've had significant success creating national TV commercials, corporate promotionals etc. Had a 10 year stint of doing almost nothing but national Ford Truck commercials with the J Walter Thompson Agency. Now we create promotional videos for big-ticket company's websites. This has allowed me the time and $$$$ to pursue my true heart's desire which is music.

Now my life is creating beautiful videos and beautiful music with the support of my beautiful wife.

I'm a very lucky guy.

[whitefang]

Oh, F**K YOU, TOO! Just when I was starting to feel GOOD about myself!

 

No, really man, good going! Living the dream, and I'm glad to know( somewhat) anybody able to do that.

 

Remember what Capt. America in "Easy Rider" says...

 

"Doing your own thing in your own time. You should be proud!"

Whitefang

[SEHpicker]

Oh, F**K YOU, TOO! Just when I was starting to feel GOOD about myself!

 

No, really man, good going! Living the dream, and I'm glad to know( somewhat) anybody able to do that.

 

Remember what Capt. America in "Easy Rider" says...

 

"Doing your own thing in your own time. You should be proud!"

Whitefang

 

Thanks Fang.

[haywired2]

I saw the Beatles on Ed Sullivan and talked my mom into a guitar. It was a Kay and what a POS. I then was able to upgrade to a Strat and a Champ amp which got traded for a Vibrolux Reverb. I took lessons for awhile but the teachers told me I'd have to buy the records and learn the songs on my own. Played in a few garage bands made a living at it after I got out of the military and am still a weekend warrior.

[skipclone 1]

My mom`s side of the family-the folks I grew up with-is full of musicians and artists. My brother is in several bands, dad played clarinet in the service and I believe mom is still taking piano lessons. One cousin is a lefty, with a fine collection of rock machines. I`ll have to invite him to the forum. Another was musical director for a theater production in Seoul recently but as too many others, is currently between jobs.

I started plinking around on the piano at age 9 or 10, my grandma`s piano was never in tune. I even found out grandpa had a cheapo Kay archtop, we looked at getting it restored but the consensus was that it wasn`t worth it. Finally I took some lessons around age 15, but the music I was playing was a long way from what I was hearing on the radio. Later my folks got a nice piano but I was already under the guitar spell. Then they got me a cheapo guitar and amp and that was it. While I was in Jr high I got a Framus, under circumstances I`d rather forget. But the guitar I really glommed on was my friend`s Silvertone in high school, he had to peel it out of my hands.

I was liking a lot of rock and some of the pop-I remember way back in childhood, listening to some of the songs on the radio and thinking, `there`s a mistake in this song`. Or, `what is that little sound they do near the end?` but that was also the early days of fusion, I couldn`t play most of it but my ears couldn`t get enough. Years later a bandmate introduced me to a fine guitar teacher, a graduate of Julliard`s classical music program. He played some classical pieces for me, for analysis but we mostly worked on jazz. This was after I more or less walked into a major house band gig in Taipei and decided I needed to learn what the heck I was doing. Little did I suspect what a long and winding road that was, and still is.

[harvey]

Good stories here!

 

We had a nylon string hanging around the house that no one played. My idea of fun was plucking the low E whilst going bonkers on the tuning head.

 

In my first year of high school (age 11) a local guitar teacher started coming to school once a week to give group lessons. I was keen and my mum -not mom down here - found the few $ needed. I was hooked....although I could only play basic melodies like Ode to Joy and Happy Birthday for about a year. I wasn't very good or naturally gifted but I worked hard because I loved it so much.

 

For my 13th birthday I had the offer to get a bike (my BMX had been previously stolen!!) or an electric guitar. Went for the guitar!! Took a day off school, my older brother (whose eclectic record collection of ACDC, Radiators, The Police, The Cure, Elton John, Neil Young etc was very influential) drove me around the pawn shops in Sydney and I chose a Sakai Frankenstein SG/Strat thing for $75. With a kind of red-black sunburst I thought it looked like Ace Frehley's LP. Of course, it didn't, but I didn't know at the time! Things were clicking in a bit now and I started to work out ACDC songs...well the chords anyway...and was amazed by the pentatonic scale! Angus and Ace were my idols.

 

At 16 I started attending church and was soon playing at youth group and eventually Sunday services. This was a massive step...actually learning songs and playing with people. The church had some great musos, including some pro and semi pro musicians. I learnt a lot and received lots of encouragement.

 

Long story short...I kept playing, learning new styles, getting gigs, giving tuition (I had up to 80 students at one stage), employed as a music director at a church. I did a music degree in my early 30s (absolutely loved it) and now I'm a high school music teacher. Oh yeah...I met my wife in the youth band, she was the singer! Married 20 years in 2014.

 

The guitar has been very good to me!

 

I wasn't very good to start with...and really I'm just a 'jack of some trades, master of none' player...but it's been good times. I'm still just as excited with music and playing as you all seem to be, too.

[whitefang]

I always encourage younger players to get lessons.

 

Don't be like me and sit here wishing you were smart enough some 45+ years ago and WISHING you did.

 

Been eyeing those new Air Jordans? Get lessons instead!

 

Wouldn't you look cool in that shirt? Buy lessons instead!

 

You found a deal where you can pay less than your friends did for that new phone? Pay for lessons instead!

 

Did that hot chick hint that she'd be a "sure thing" if you took her out?

 

Well, don't be a FOOL! Take her OUT. But you get my drift.

 

But even if you don't, take comfort in the fact that if you only learn three or four chords, and can put them together to where they sound like an honest to goddness SONG, you're making MUSIC. And that's always a good thing.

Whitefang