Topic: who made you want to learn to play guitar??

[ryan]

Hey everyone,
I was curious as to that moment in time that inspired all you fellow blues cats out there to pick up the guitar for the first time.  Was it a particicular artist that you heard that made this life changing event happen?  Was it a certain concert you witnessed?  I thought it would be fun to hear your stories on how your musical journies started. 
Hope you all had a happy Thanksgiving,
Ryan

[Alexei McDonald]

It was hearing the first Robert Johnson LP on CBS circa 1984-85 that did it.   I'd played bass before then, and was more interested in jazz styles, but that record just knocked me out, and made me want to try to learn fingerstyle guitar.

[Slack]

This will date me.? Like throngs of other pubescent males - The Beatles.? 

[Bob B]

First off, being a Southern Californian, Surf Music---the Ventures, Chantays, Torquays, and of course, Dick Dale. 

My first fingerstyle adventure was the Mercury album, Just Dave Van Ronk, and  the first few bars of Gary Davis' Candy Man with Dave's growling vocals had me hooked.

After that, seeing John Hammond, Mance Lipscomb, Gary Davis, Doc Watson, etc. at the now defunct Ash Grove added more fuel to the fire.

John Miller's First Degree Blues certainly was  influential as well.

OOps, got a little long winded there!

BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBob

[Desperate Stevens]

Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton - but both were so over my head ability-wise, I ended up teaching myself to play from Neil Young's Harvest album.? ?By the time my hands caught up to my tastes, I had realized Jimi and Eric (and pretty much everyone else I admired) were influenced by the country blues.? And here I am!

[Richard]

Be nice to think Slack pre-dates me with the Beetles and all that, but maybe not 

Actually, in UK at that time school kids were divided into either Beatles or Stones followers, I favoured the latter but jazz was my real interest. I think I was 15 when I bought my first blues LP with Lone Wolf Blues (Oscar Woods) and Chickasaw Train (Memphis Minnie) and was hooked, but have always  - and still - play jazz drums in various forms.

I only took to actually playing (sic) lap blues guitar only a couple of years ago - maybe it was the latent Oscar effect 

[Bill Roggensack]

I actually pre-date Slack! My first blues influences were Elvis and the early Rolling Stones, after which I wanted to find out who this McKinley Morganfield guy was. Ever since then, I have been digging the blues and digging myself deeper - into the music, the artists and blues history!

My son decided to learn to play guitar in about 1988 (after false starts on pianon and violin - thanks Mom!), which meant there was going to ber an instrument in the house. I had always envied people who played guitar at kitchen parties, so I thought it would be something we could do together, and we both took a few lsessons. He eventually became a professional musician, and I'm still hacking away as a rank amateur. I have been trying to learn the instrument ever since - with varying degrees of sucess. I gradually acquired some better instruments - including a Style 'O' and a decent little Gibson Style 'A' mando, and enjoy playing a variety of styles.Ten years at Port Townsend and meeting the founding nucleus of listmmebers here has been a big help in broadening my muscial horizons and improving my abilities. Thanks to all of you - you know who you are!?


Early guitar influences after I started playing - Clapton's 'Unplugged' album (I'm not too proud to tell the truth), Son House, Robert Johnson, after which my collection took off exponentially. I have always been a sucker for slide and dobro playing.

[GhostRider]

Mr. Leaf:

The interval from picking up the guitar and starting on country blues was a long one (+/- 13 years). In typically practical Pyro fashion, the reason to learn to play initially was... to pass highschool. When I attended high school (1967-70)course marks for Grade 12 were entirely (100%) based on a single year end exam, one for each course. The only exception to this was Grade 12 English. For this course, 20% of the final grade was based on a project. My friends chose a project of writing topical songs and preforming them in a pseudo-rock band setting. Since I was awful at english (I guess I'm not as sensitive as I think...), I asked to join the "band" so I could participate in the project. In the "band" I played bass, on the bass strings of a normal 6 string acoustic, as well as helped write the songs. The only cover we did was "Status Back Baby" by the Mothers of Invention.

Well this was the first I had laid my hands on a guitar. The project got 90%, and my final English grade was 54% (pass) so that guitar helped me graduate. After that my friend taught me a few chords and I started on my first song (For What It's Worth, I was left wing even then...).

A Star (??) is Born,
Alex

PS: check out this thread

 http://weeniecampbell.com/yabbse/index.php?Itemid=47&?topic=340.msg2212#msg2212

for more info on what turned some of us on to country blues.

[blueshome]

Now I feel really old, my first interest in blues followed a liking for rock & roll - by '61 I had discovered Big Bill, Muddy, Lightnin'. After that It was grab every record that I saw or could afford - including the album Richard alludes to (still got it!) "Out Came the Blues" issued on Ace of Hearts, a cheapo label in the UK.? This consists of mostly pre-war Decca recordings.

Tried to play in the mid-60's but lacking talent and anyone to show me anything about country blues soon gave up, especially when I discovered girls.

 It took until 1980, during a period of unemployment, before I got down to trying to play again - I'm only just starting to get some results I don't mind inflicting on others!?

[Richard]

Phil,
I also bought Vol 2 of Out came the Blues, there must have been a little bit of a gap as that one is actually dated 1967, looking at them both right now

There was an awful lot of good stuff on the Ace of Hearts label, particularly jolly jazz. Them were the days... and they only a quid or less ....arrrrr etc

See you at Swindon?.

[Bill Roggensack]

PS: check out this thread

I think there was a much longer thread on the same topic that dates back a year or two on the old Yahoo Groups site. Some interesting reading if anyone knows how to find it.

[wildcotton]

I'm with Slack--it was the Beatles for me, first because of the sound they made, then, when I went to see them in concert as a 13-year old and saw the girls go crazy over this music.  I wasn't a particularly bright kid, but I put 2 and 2 together.  Ironically, I became more interested in learning and playing guitar (and better at it) than getting the girls.  A few years later, I found acoustic music from John Fahey and John Hurt, and shortly thereafter I even found THE girl--after 23 years, I'm still sure it was the guitar playing that got her attention.  Occasionally, I have to put the blues aside and play some loves songs, but that's ok.

Jeff

[NotRevGDavis]

The Beatles made me want to get in to music (I was 10 years old at the time).

But the person that made me REALLY want to play guitar was Ritchey Havens, after watching him in the opening of the movie "Woodstock" putting everything he had into playing that acoustic guitar, I never get tired of seeing that footage. I thought that was the coolest thing. Since I decided to try to learn acoustic blues I haven't really had time to try any of his stuff. Hmmmm... maybe some crossover open tunings?

[ryan]

Thanks everyone for your replies.  Sorry it has taken a moment myself to reply as it is finals week for school.  Thanks for the thread pyrochlore I'll look into the past posts when I am on winter break starting next week.  As for myself, I have always been into listening to music but it took hearing John Fahey to make me want to pick up the instrument. I looked into one to two lessons but I quickly learned that those teachers weren't what I needed.  Then a few months ago the clouds parted way and a bright light shone down to the earth and the blues guru John Miller accepted me as a student once a week.  He is one of those people who not only has the knowledge, but knows how to share it.  Best year of my life!!!Look forward to meeting all of you at the next blues camp and hope to learn all I can from each and everyone of you.
Take care,
Ryan

[ozrkreb]

I can't remember deciding to play the guitar...it was just always part of my life. Unlike most people, I didn't hear some exciting music and decide to play. I grew up in a musical family in the middle of the Ozarks, where everyone plays something. My grandma, who played guitar, used to have what she called "music parties," where other people would come to the house and sit around and play, some of my earliest childhood memories are of watching people at those parties. I can remember sitting around listening to my dad play in the evenings. That's probably what made me want to play more than anything. So my interest in the guitar came about not because I heard music that I liked and decided I wanted to play....it was just what people did. I just figured every kid had a dad who played. When I got older and started listening to music, it was then very natural to start playing the music I liked...almost second nature.

This is why I truly believe that if you want your children to develop an interest in the guitar, or any other instrument for that matter, you should surround them with instruments from the day they are born and play the instruments at every opportunity. Get a guitar in their hands when they're a toddler...not to play, just to play with. Go down to Walmart and get one of those cheap First Act kid's guitars (which are junk, but actually work pretty good for slide) and put it in your kid's hand. Let em knock the crap out of it. And let them watch you play. The worst thing you can do in my opinion is to put them in lessons when their heart isn't in it. Just be a role model and chances are they'll eventually follow....maybe not on your schedule, and there's a chance they may develop other interests....but if you make music a part of their daily life, it'll get in their soul and they'll just naturally let it out.

Az