Who made you start playing guitar?

It was 1970 and I was 7 years old.
At that time I (and a good part of the country) enjoyed watching the Partridge Family.
I said to my Dad, I want to play like David Cassidy.

Next thing I knew I was talking lessons.
Later, after I proved I would stick with it, he bought me a "groovy" looking strat style guitar with a Fender Champ.

By the time I was 14, I was in a band with a Ventura les paul, mxr pedals and a padded Kustom amp.
Also at age 14, I started teaching guitar back at the same music store I took lessons from. (Labor laws not so strict then)
During my teens you could find me rockin' out parts of New Jersey to what is now called Classic Rock!

Most embarrassing...Who made me start playing guitar...David Cassidy.
 
insearchoftone said:
It was 1970 and I was 7 years old.
At that time I (and a good part of the country) enjoyed watching the Partridge Family.
I said to my Dad, I want to play like David Cassidy.

Next thing I knew I was talking lessons.
Later, after I proved I would stick with it, he bought me a "groovy" looking strat style guitar with a Fender Champ.

By the time I was 14, I was in a band with a Ventura les paul, mxr pedals and a padded Kustom amp.
Also at age 14, I started teaching guitar back at the same music store I took lessons from. (Labor laws not so strict then)
During my teens you could find me rockin' out parts of New Jersey to what is now called Classic Rock!

Most embarrassing...Who made me start playing guitar...David Cassidy.
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Ha! I guess I forgot to mention I used to sing alone with this too! (I had 2 Partridge Family albums if we can be embarrassed together.) Before that I think it was the jungle book soundtrack. I had Billy Preston's 'Space Race' (that I actually made a little film with that as the soundtrack...) I went to the Beatles (the 'looking down the staircase albums...), then my journey to the dark side was complete when I bought 'Machine Head'...my favorite track was 'Lazy'...not 'Smoke'...Blackmore's pyrotechnics blew me away.
 
Angus Young. I thought AC/DC was the coolest thing ever so I started banging away at my Mom's classical acoustic guitar. Soon enough I'd learned most if The Highway to Hell album and an addiction was born.
 
electronpirate said:
Ha! I guess I forgot to mention I used to sing alone with this too! (I had 2 Partridge Family albums if we can be embarrassed together.) Before that I think it was the jungle book soundtrack. I had Billy Preston's 'Space Race' (that I actually made a little film with that as the soundtrack...) I went to the Beatles (the 'looking down the staircase albums...), then my journey to the dark side was complete when I bought 'Machine Head'...my favorite track was 'Lazy'...not 'Smoke'...Blackmore's pyrotechnics blew me away.
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That's awesome electronpirate! :)
Now I don't feel so embarrassed.

A few years back my nephew (in his pre-teens) wanted to learn guitar and asked me to teach him how to play the theme to Dragon Ball Z.
The music we listened to as little kids...Glad our tastes in music have grown up! :)
 
One day, my parents took my sister and me to the music school, she was 8 and I was 10. They wanted us to learn to play an instrument. We both agreed we wanted the piano. She was in front of me in the row to sign in and when it was her turn, she replied "piano" when asked which instrument. Afterwards it was my turn and I said "piano" too. "Sorry, no more place for piano!" said the person in front of me with a dry cold voice.........(silence)........(disbelief)........two older guys, both with a funny beard approached me right away, took my hands and looked at my fingers, "look at this violin player..." said one to the other. -"GUITAR!!!" I yelled as loud as I could the first thing that crossed my mind, "GUITAR!!!".
 
Tom Scholz - Boston. I was in the age of 8 or so when I fell in love with those guitar sounds. Today I have a patch made by Cliff (thanks) so I can play it myself and hear. Its more than a feeling.
 
Cream era and Derek and the Dominoes era Clapton started it all for me.
Girls were a welcome bonus, but never a reason to start playing, I just really wanted to try to express my self with as much emotion as EC - still trying unsuccessfully to achieve that.

The initial influence was quickly followed by the other Clapton eras with a special weight on the bluesy stuff, Jimi Hendrix and David Gilmour. Later on Jeff Beck and Robben Ford, and many others like BB King, Freddie King, Page and Michael Landau have been great influences. These players (and a few that I'm surely forgetting right now) are still my favourite players.
 
When I got good I brought my hamonica player to get his soul back from the devil by kicking Vai's ass....

You can youtube the rest....:D
 
hank marvin, when I was about 7 years old I think. mum and dad bought me a 'top twenty' guitar from woolworths in Blackburn, got me a little amp too, I think it was about 15watt, and a jimi Hendrix style curly lead. the guitar only had one pickup and it was in the middle, so I couldn't get that twangy strat bridge pickup type sound, I used to try and pluck the strings as close to the bridge as I could to try and get some of that twang happening.
 
Hendrix, Zappa (I listened to the solo on Inca Roads every damn day for YEARS), and my dad, who'd played with Leadbelly, Woodie Guthrie, Pete Seeger and others.
 
For me it was ACDC. I didn't know it was 2 guitars or had never even seen pictures of them, my older brother had a couple albums and that tone from all the albums prior to back in black just enticed me. Not the solos... the rhythm. In fact I always kind of thought the solos were annoying.

LOL
 
Early 80's listening to Yngwie...though I didn't pick up a guitar ,it was a badminton racket,with rope as a strap. I spent a year or more air guitaring to his tapes until my arm would seize up,hahaha..

Then along came the Crossroads movie with Steve Vai.. That's when I knew I had to pick up the real thing
 
I wanted to play piano when I was 7, but there were too many kids for the opening spots. They just started classical guitar that year, so they asked, what if they write me up for that as "second choice", just in case.
Best misfortune I ever had.
 
funny_polymath said:
Hendrix, Zappa (I listened to the solo on Inca Roads every damn day for YEARS)...
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Awesome! I love that solo. It's one that I transcribed in college, and I've always thought it was one of FZ's finer gems.

funny_polymath said:
...and my dad, who'd played with Leadbelly, Woodie Guthrie, Pete Seeger and others.
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Very nice. That's a terrific pedigree! I'm the only serious musician in the known history of my family, and certainly the only guitarist. I'm sure my mom thinks the hospital accidentally swapped me for her real infant son all those years ago.
 
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