How old were you when you started playing? And what was the motivation?

[phxguy]

Like so many others have said, I always loved music; my father had a very good voice and was always singing around the house. When I was a junior in high school (1966) I was really getting into Dylan, Donovan, etc. and a friend of mine all of 17 got his father, a well heeled Dr., to rent a small building for him so he could have his own coffee house and had live music there on Saturday night. I loved going out there and watching the performers and he taught me a few basic chords and that is what motivated me. Unfortunately, I didn't keep it up after college and just got back into playing about 5 years ago and enjoying it more than ever.

[Wade Hampton]

I took a different path. My first instrument was mountain dulcimer, and I got my first one at twenty. At twenty one I started playing both mandolin (which took) and five string banjo (which didn't, really, not until much later.) Then at twenty two or three I decided to get a guitar and learn to play.

Up to that point I hadn't wanted to, because way too many other people were playing it and I knew I'd never stand out as a guitarist. But I absorbed a lot of guitar just being around guitarists at jam sessions, and I'd learned the basic chord forms so I could show songs to other players. If I'd tell them "G....C....D" and was playing the song on the dulcimer they'd just stare uncomprehendingly at it and at me. So I'd grab their guitar, strum it and say "G....C....D" and they'd get it and could play the song.

So I guess you could say I learned guitar more out of self-defense than anything else.


Wade Hampton Miller

[NJ Guitar man]

At age 10, an older brother gave me a cassette of Simon and Garfunkel's Greatest Hits (this was the summer of 1973). I wore it out in about three months, after which time I was hooked. I lobbied for a guitar for Christmas, but didn't get one. It would be two years later before I saved enough (mowing lawns, walking dogs, paper routes, etc) to get one. By then, "The Boxer,: "Mrs. Robinson," and "I Am A Rock" were part of my DNA (I had replaced the cassette with a vinyl album). To this day, S&G's Greatest Hits remains my desert-island album....40 years later, I still love playing those songs on the acoustic!

[steelvibe]

Great (and fun) question! I was sixteen and played my first power chord on a Gibson flying V through a cheap distorted amp (1988). Influenced by a ton of different styles of music and love almost all of it. Always loved guitar in particular, and acoustics since 2006. The rest is history.

[Captain Jim]

I was 11. All those girls screaming for the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show.

[guit3090]

I was about 12, had been playing viola for a couple of years, then I saw the Beatles on TV. I asked my Dad if I could take guitar lessons. He said ok and got me a small Stella that I could hardly play because the action was so high. I had a good teacher, cut lawns for a summer and bought a new Fender Mustang with a vibro champ amp at Hewgleys guitar store in Knoxville, Tenn for a bit less than $200. Glad I did.

[flaggerphil]

I was 14 when I got my first guitar in late 1964. I always loved guitar music and especially loved Chet Atkins Christmas music. Then I heard the Beatles and that was that.

I still love to play Beatles songs.

[Chin music]

I was either 17 or 18, I think 18 -- got up the nerve to ask my mother for a guitar for my birthday, which was a lot of coin to drop for a birthday present at that time, family finances and all.

As for motivation, you know I can't really say exactly as I don't have a specific memory of someone or something or some event triggering the urge. I know that at the time I was torn between getting an electric and an acoustic and went with asking for an acoustic because I thought it would be a cheaper proposition for my parents.

I was very much into the acoustic solo singer-songwriter thing at the time (although this was 1986 or 1987, all I listened to at the time was music from the 60's and 70's), so Simon & Garfunkel, Jim Croce, Cat Stevens, and James Taylor were big influences in my decision, as were the Eagles.

I do remember it took me a good eight months to get a full, first position, C chord down cleanly.

[Yrksman]

Aged 12, The Beatles. First guitar bought Jan 65.

[Kinda Old]

This did it for me at 14.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hlm7JyCHwcE

[AndrewG]

It was 1962, I was 9, and The Shadows' 'Wonderful Land' had just been released. I heard it played on a juke box in a coffee bar in Blackpool while on holiday. The memory of those amazing Stratocaster tones stayed with me until I picked up the guitar and started lessons at the age of 12. My tutor was the late avant-garde, free-improvisation guitarist Derek Bailey, and I recall we spent more time talking than actual playing
Here's Derek-warning; not for the faint-hearted or cowboys!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LgCqcmruGU

[Kerbie]

I was 13 and played a couple of other instruments. My older brother's girlfriend played and I thought it looked like something I'd enjoy. Decades later, I was right...

[Bill R]

I was 15 in 1967. The folk boom was in full swing. My older sister (then in college) gave me her old beater (and I do mean beater - the strings were about an inch off the fret board) and said I had to learn how to play guitar. I was glad she did.

I took lessons for about a year at a local music store. They tried to teach me how to read music; I just wanted to learn how to play and quit lessons. I'd play along with records I had. I recall a humorous incident about this. My grandparents were visiting one time. I must have still been in high school. I was in my room trying to play along with a record as usual. My grandmother came up to my room and commented that my playing was really good. She saw me playing (a crappy acoustic guitar), but was hearing, of all things, Eric Clapton

Eventually I got a better guitar and really learned to play in college, where there were lots of other good guitar players around. I fell under the sway of Leo Kottke, among other greats. The rest, as they say, is history. It's a hobby/habit I have, thankfully, never lost. I've played in worship groups ever since college in the 70's. I did a few coffee house gigs in college and played a few open mikes over the years. Mostly now I just play for myself. Acoustic guitar seemed to grab me for some reason. I've never really learned to play electric guitar, nor have I ever owned one.

It's been a good ride

Bill

[Doubleneck]

Originally Posted by Kinda Old

This did it for me at 14.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hlm7JyCHwcE

I was probably 12

[Sponserv]

56!!! As I get older I try to do things that are as challenging to the grey matter as possible. I have always watched people play guitar and thought it would be very difficult to master. I was right.

But I figured in ten years I would be 66 anyway so I might as well be a 66 year old guy with ten years of guitar under his belt.

Absolutely love the process!