Everybody learns how to play the guitar in different ways, and in this series of blog posts I’m going to tell you “my story” of how I learned how to play the guitar. I think it’s good to hear how others began, and also see that everyone starts off learning the guitar in the same way. So this is part 1 of an ongoing series of blog posts about my experience playing and learning the guitar.
When I was 16 years old, back in 1990 I think, I was watching Quantam Leap, a show that was really popular at the time, and the episode had a sequence where the main charactar, “Sam”, sat down and played “Imagine” by John Lennon. What an emotional experience! After I heard that, I knew I wanted to be able to take an acoustic guitar, and produce that kind of magic through the instrument. Also, after hearing Led Zeppelin III, I realized that I must learn the greatest instrument of all time, the guitar!
Well after that, I saved up some money and purchased a Kay electric guitar and a small Peavey amp. As soon as I plugged it in and pressed the saturation button, I hit the Low E string on the guitar and thought , WOW this is cool, I am a guitar player!
I soon began to take private lessons from a small music store in Mobile, Alabama where I learned my first song,”If” by Bread. I practiced everyday after school, until I could at least change through some open chords. I remember thinking, “If I only could change from G to C and D then I would be awesome!” Those chord changes seemed almost impossible, and forget about lead guitar.
During my lessons at M&S music store, I had been given this thing called the Pentatonic scale to practice, and man was it hard. I did practice my chords and the scale for about an hour everyday after High School. I kept thinking that someday I might actually be able to play a song in front of someone, but that day seemed so far away.
Eventually I learned how to play some chords and a couple of easy lead riffs, such as Johnny B Goode. I thought I was awesome now! So I asked my friend to come over and check out what I had learned. He arrived and I sat down and proceeded to play the intro to Johnny B. Goode. I knew I was awesome! When I had finished I asked him if he knew what song that was, he replied “Uh, I have no idea.” I said, “You know, the song in Back to the Future.” He was like, “I don’t think what you played sounded like that, but yeah it sounds good.” with a smirk. I knew that he was not impressed. Oh well, I guess I needed more practice.
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Thanks for the story. It helps to hear how others got into it, and realized that it takes most people some time and practice to start playing anything good.
Yes, in the beginning a lot of practice is required.
Practice is so important…there was a time when I was better than D.Trucks;
but he picked up a guitar and started to practice.
Further, there was a time when Greg Allman was a better guitar player than
brother Duane. But then Duane got his own guitar, started to PRACTICE and
“passed Greg like he was standing still.”
I’ve been playing over 40 years and would write more, but I have to go get
my axe and practice.
Ken
Hey I was in M&S music just two days ago, funny. I’ve been trying to some one to take lessons from, but I want to make sure that person knows every aspect, including reading music, and not just tablature.
The practice is most important thing when start to learning guitar! When you practice you are doing better and better. I start learnig with this and now i’m going to the musical university. I want to became a great guitar player. Sorry for my english