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

[jseth]

My Dad loved music, even though he could neither play nor sing... Jazz and Big Band stuff, mostly, while my Mom loved Frank and Ella and the like.

By the time I was 8, I really wanted to play saxophone; my older brother wanted a drumset and my older sister wanted a piano... my Father reasoned (and likely correctly) that we would drive both he and my Mother crazy if we had all that noise-making capability, so....

He bought ONE Silvertone $12 flat top steel string guitar for the three of us to share! That thing was such a piece of crap that I don't think I could even play it now; as I recall, the action at the octave was around 3/4"!!!

But, I had heard the Kingston Trio doing "Tom Dooley"; saw them live on some show (Ed Sullivan?), and I decided I would learn to play guitar. Taught myself and went slowly; actually, my older sister was really "the star" of the family, musically, when we were young.

I still remember playing a single note version of the melody of "Tom Dooley" at a Cub Scout Jamboree event as a part of a skit my Den was doing... I gagged it, horribly, and it seemed that everyone was laughing at me (I really don't think that was the case, just my interpretation of the events).

For decades, I would wonder "Why?" I tightened up so much when on stage; not my singing, but my playing. When I finally realized that, subconsciously, I was desperately trying NOT to make that same mistake I had made, way back when, that helped immeasurably, and I have been able to laugh at that old memory and move on.

Sometimes, I'll even play a little vamp in E, and outline the melody of that song, and purposefully "make a mistake" with it, just to get it over with! I believe "they" call that jazz...

Probably most amazing is that I chose to make singing, songwriting and playing guitar my path in life, despite that old memory haunting me...

[larryjoh814]

Ricky Nelson sang "Travelin' Man" on the Ozzie and Harriet show on tv, and girls seemed to like it. I even wore my short hair like Ricky.
Guess it was a bromance.

Guitar seemed a better fit than the "bag of groceries" I was playing, the accordion. Every time I dragged that suitcase to a lesson I knew the guitar would make that easier.

[6L6]

February 10, 1964.

[jaymarsch]

Since I was 14 - Peter, Paul and Mary, Ian and Sylvia, Kingston Trio, Carter Family. Both my parents listened to folk and country music. I told my aunt that I wanted a guitar for Christmas. She assumed I wanted an electric guitar because of the Beatles. She got me one on sale at Montgomery Ward but didn't realize that you had to have an amp! I sold it to my cousin and went out and bought a Hohner classical. I realized a couple of years later that playing Someday Soon on it - I just didn't look as cool as Judy Collins so I traded it for a Yamaha flattop steel string. Getting me through tough times I think was my biggest motivation. Music, especially playing guitar, always just seemed to soothe my soul.

Best,
Jayne

[GuitarsLover]

about 8 years ago, I saw the Yamaha C40 guitar in Costco, bought and tried and ignored it after 1 or 2 months. The motivation was back when I accidentally saw a 10-year old girl (Virginia Nguyen) playing acoustic guitar in youtube. And later Sungha Jung, John William, Eric Clapton .... ..... Thanks to them. I am a self taught guitar player now. I guess there is no way back..

[Von Beerhofen]

I started playing at age 11, after a 3 year theoretical music course for children. I was motivated by my grand mother, who paid for most of it, to become a pianist, but a piano wasn't in reach moneywise.
The goal changed to becoming a guitarist under influence of pop music back in them days.
I can't really pinpoint a group or musician responsible for my choice, it was just music as a whole that attracted me to becoming a musician and if a guitar would have been too expensive also I'd probably would have tried drums or violin.

Ludwig

[Psalad]

For me it was Julie. She liked music. A lot. I liked Julie. A lot. I also really loved music and might have ended up here anyway, but she really motivated my progress.

I was 16 so maybe that says it all.

The vehicle of choice was the christmas gift of a $99 Sears Les Paul copy that sounded like doggie doo and didn't stay in tune but I played the CRAP out of it. My dad's old banjo had grover tuners so that was an immediate improvement once they somehow got moved to my guitar.

[RockerDuck]

1966, listening to the Beach Boys. My big brother left his "Stella" guitar home when he went into the service. It was summer and I had plenty of time on my hands to read his music books and learn. I was entertaining family events and being recorded on super 8 movie film.

[architype]

I was about 10 yrs. old when I first tried to learn on an old beater that was too far gone to play. Got frustrated and quit.

Twenty years later I was working with a guy that played and his family owned a music store. He saw my love of music and heard me singing along to a CD and said, "You should take guitar lessons."

I bought a cheap starter guitar from his dad and also lessons for about 9 months to get the basics down, and then just kept playing and practicing.

I still get together with my buddy that got me started several times a year and we have a great time.

[GrandDadgad]

15 yrs old. A 33 1/3 recording of How High the Moon by Les Paul & Mary Ford that I nearly wore out on an old Phillips record player.

[47gene]

2009.... I was 62.... been enjoying them every day since...

[zabdart]

Started playing in 1967 when I was 17. The civil rights struggle was peaking (and dissolving into race riots), Vietnam was spinning even more out of control and like a lot of people in my generation, I thought singing the "right" songs would make a difference. So I learned a lot of Bob Dylan's "protest" songs, like "Blowin' in the Wind," "Masters of War," "With God on Our Side" and "Hard Rain," along with a lot of Phil Ochs' songs, like "In the Heat of the Summer," "Cops of the World" and "I Ain't A-Marching Anymore." I've progressed from there, but it's amazing how some of those songs just find revived pertinence every decade or so.

[Flying Orca]

Music was all around when I was younger - my dad played some guitar and sang, and my folks had music on pretty much all the time. I started off with piano when I was six or so, then started singing in choirs not long after. I didn't continue the piano when we moved west (I was ten or so) but took up bass a couple of years later (several musicians I admired were bass-playing vocalists), giving up choir at around the same time.

I spent years in research camps in the Arctic as a kid, and you learn to make your own fun in that kind of setting. I was exposed to a lot of good music - with all the young scientists around, it was kind of like having lots of older brothers and sisters - loved by people with brains and eclectic taste. By way of keeping busy with something I thought I'd enjoy, I picked up my dad's guitar (an old Yamaha acoustic) when I was fourteen (1980), and within a couple of years realized that I was pretty good at figuring this stuff out. Took a while to get used to performing, though winning a few contests didn't hurt.

I kind of thought I might make a career of music, but marriage and kids derailed that plan. I did put together a kickass six-piece Celtic rock band about ten years ago, and we had a metric butt-ton of fun and made lots of GAS money, but I just couldn't keep up the time commitment, so now I just hit the weekly trad session and play the odd solo show or maybe bring a fiddler along. I'm interested in recording at home more than playing out.

Maybe TMI, but there you have it!

About 12 or 13. I wasn't any good at baseball.

[ifret]

9 years old.....
A friend brought their guitar to school. I wanted to learn too!