How Long You Been Playing?

[DreamTheaterRules]

I played at the country's biggest churches and opened for Stryper, Slipknot,

As God is my witness, I never EVER thought I would read that sentence!

I started piano at 4, and got around to guitar in my teens - 1967,

Same here, about a decade later. Started playing piano just a month or two before I turned 5. Started on guitar a couple months before I turned 16 (76). I did have a 10 year break after breaking my wrist playing basketball. Started playing again in 1997, on my new Custom 22 that my wife got me for our 10th Anniversary.

The piano keyboard is a much more intelligently conceived and arranged device than a guitar fretboard. It's well laid out, everything makes sense, the note placement is consistent from octave to octave, and both hands operate in much the same way. Also, it isn't physically painful to play.

Completely agree. My mom would rip off 3 octave arpeggios without looking and would say "it's easy because they are all identical." Meanwhile, when I got decent on guitar, she said "that is harder than piano because 1) you have to pick each note as well as fret it, while I only have to play it with one hand. So your timing must be perfect between the two hands to play one note. If you do a fast run and pick all the notes, that's harder than doing a fast run on piano." And 2) "the scale keeps changing as you move up and down the neck, which makes it much harder." She said she could play scales and arpeggios from muscle memory without looking at all, because the scale was something she'd been doing for (at the time) over 30 years. She saw me playing up on the 22'd fret and then play that riff down near the nut and she recognized that the note spacing is radically different and that playing all over the neck completely removed much of the muscle memory training she had done.

She also noted that a well set up piano, every note is the same size and has the same feel, while on guitar each string is different and tension varies as you go up and down the neck.

The guitar has one advantage: it's easier to carry a guitar to a jam than a piano.

Agree again, but will add one more advantage: Chicks dig guitar players!

 

[d4rkst4r]

Agree again, but will add one more advantage: Chicks dig guitar players!

Are you sure? Every time I play, my wife threatens to leave...

 

[deepender]

As God is my witness, I never EVER thought I would read that sentence!

Same here, about a decade later. Started playing piano just a month or two before I turned 5. Started on guitar a couple months before I turned 16 (76). I did have a 10 year break after breaking my wrist playing basketball. Started playing again in 1997, on my new Custom 22 that my wife got me for our 10th Anniversary.

Completely agree. My mom would rip off 3 octave arpeggios without looking and would say "it's easy because they are all identical." Meanwhile, when I got decent on guitar, she said "that is harder than piano because 1) you have to pick each note as well as fret it, while I only have to play it with one hand. So your timing must be perfect between the two hands to play one note. If you do a fast run and pick all the notes, that's harder than doing a fast run on piano." And 2) "the scale keeps changing as you move up and down the neck, which makes it much harder." She said she could play scales and arpeggios from muscle memory without looking at all, because the scale was something she'd been doing for (at the time) over 30 years. She saw me playing up on the 22'd fret and then play that riff down near the nut and she recognized that the note spacing is radically different and that playing all over the neck completely removed much of the muscle memory training she had done.

She also noted that a well set up piano, every note is the same size and has the same feel, while on guitar each string is different and tension varies as you go up and down the neck.

Agree again, but will add one more advantage: Chicks dig guitar players!

Great story!

I also took 10 years off; but for a different reason.
The babes liked me a bit too much, and for the sake of my marriage, I needed to step away. I thought it would be permanently, but then decided that playing for church would probably be safe. Been doing that ever since. Bass and only recently guitar.

 

[deepender]

Are you sure? Every time I play, my wife threatens to leave...

I could be wrong, but I think it might be all chicks except wives.

 

[László]

Agree again, but will add one more advantage: Chicks dig guitar players!

Just the sleazy ones.


That, of course, was all the justification I needed to learn to play guitar...

 

[Bogner]

Just the sleazy ones.


That, of course, was all the justification I needed to learn to play guitar...

You Say Sleazy Like It's A Bad Thing.

When You Say Sleazy Are You Talking About The Chicks, The Guitar Player Or Both?

 

[Frank McNerney]

I started 5 years ago. I was 65

 

[TheCraftsman]

As others have said, long enough to be better than I am. Thus, dedicating time to more seriously learn theory and enjoy playing again.

 

[SteveGlitch]

I played at the country's biggest churches and opened for Stryper, Slipknot, Tenth Avenue North and

As God is my witness, I never EVER thought I would read that sentence!

Lol People never thought they'd see a worship leader/worship guitarist say "Grab the church by its balls!" either but here we are

God is good, and thankfully He has blessed me over the years. Nothing I have is because of me - I mean yes I put in the work and I worked hard for literally everything I have but God's grace is more than I deserve, and so is the divine favor that has been placed over my life. Jesus would love the phrase "Grab the church by it's balls", btw

 

[DreamTheaterRules]

Jesus would love the phrase "Grab the church by it's balls", btw

mmmm, Ima guess that he'd rephrase it somewhat...

 

[Daryl Jones]

I started playing piano around 8 or so. Then it got serious when I was about 11 and went classical with the long hair (not the 60's "long hair" even though that was the time frame) tedious stuff. That was my father's idea. Junior and High School took me into concert and stage band with trombone and keys until I turned 18-19 and my wannabe hockey career and then business life intervened. Never played a thing after that for over 20 years. Then I picked up a used guitar and amp when I was in my early 40s and messed with that on my own for a few years. Never got back into it and serious until about 7 years ago and have been playing almost daily ever since. Took a while but things gradually came together about 4 years ago and now it's mostly what I do. I had no real plans to join a band or anything, just wanted to do mostly small gatherings for fun and to (hopefully) provide some enjoyment for people and friends. I've gotten together with a few like minded players (or so I thought) in the last couple years, but one experience with a self proclaimed "professional" sort of killed the moment for me. I always considered myself a pretty laid back ready for anything type of person. But this guy flat out refused to step outside his own box and wanted everything/everyone to follow his particular style of music and play, regardless of what the rest of us wanted to try. So much for that big ego s**t.
So I just figured screw it, I'll go my own way and see where that goes. And it's been a lot of fun for the last two years or so. I haven't needed to put up any chicken wire so I think that's working out OK.
But lately I have a few friends that are decent enough singers and we're piecing together a few numbers that we can howl with just for fun. The one guy used to sing professionally in a rock band but years of smoking (and other substance issues) has taken some of his former range away but he's giving it an honest go, and he's sober now so. At least he isn't full of himself and his previous experience is certainly a benefit. One guy plays bass, two of us on guitars, and we all sing... just need a drummer and who knows? And we all enjoy various music genres. We're all retirees so it's only for s**ts and giggles anyway, as long as it's both productive and enjoyable I'm in.

 

[László]

When You Say Sleazy Are You Talking About The Chicks, The Guitar Player Or Both?

I'm an equal-opportunity person when it comes to sleaze.

 

[deepender]

mmmm, Ima guess that he'd rephrase it somewhat...

No. I don’t think He would.

 

[SteveGlitch]

No. I don’t think He would.

People didn't think he would prank the pharisees or tip tables or have lunch with prostitutes either. Point being, he was a rebel against the church because the church was corrupt. I don't think he'd have much respect for the church today, well, not the American and UK types of church anyway.

 

[deepender]

People didn't think he would prank the pharisees or tip tables or have lunch with prostitutes either. Point being, he was a rebel against the church because the church was corrupt. I don't think he'd have much respect for the church today, well, not the American and UK types of church anyway.

Yup.
The Jesus of the Bible is very different from the Jesus that most have formed to fit their comfort levels.

 

[tiboy]

Technically 54 years, but that includes a 25 year hiatus while I was completely focused on my career. Rediscovered the guitar in 2010 and have been playing daily ever since. So I guess realistically 29 years of actual playing.

 

[Alnus Rubra]

I think I’ve told some of this story here before. I was about 7 years old and discovered my Dad’s old Hofner Verithin (335 copy).

It didn’t need an amp to make a sound, however I had no knowledge of chords or scales, so it was miming to the likes of Seals & Crofts.

I thought I could plug the guitar into the headphone socket of the family stereo!

Dad used the Hofner in the following film -



Edit - The band he played in were called The Brothers Grimm. Their agent got them a gig appearing for a short time in the film and Dad wrote some music for it, so he gets a wee residual cheque each year.

James Mason’s daughter was in the cast, so Dad got to meet him on one of the days they were shooting the movie.

I was about 16 years old, before I started playing properly in my first band, with guys from school/college



I recently reached out to the other guitar player, who I went to college with. It’s been great to catch up.

I don’t even know how to play, I’ve been lying to you guys for over a decade.

“Whatchu takin’ bout Brazil?!”

Identical twin sister.

Fixed

mmmm, Ima guess that he'd rephrase it somewhat...

Ecclesiastical Testicles?

 

[Alnus Rubra]

I think I’ve told some of this story here before. I was about 7 years old and discovered my Dad’s old Hofner Verithin (335 copy).

It didn’t need an amp to make a sound, however I had no knowledge of chords or scales, so it was miming to the likes of Seals & Crofts.

I thought I could plug the guitar into the headphone socket of the family stereo!

Dad used the Hofner in the following film -



Edit - The band he played in were called Th Brothers Grimm. Their agent got them a gig appearing for a short time in the film and Dad wrote some music for it, so he gets a wee residual cheque each year.

James Mason’s daughter was in the cast, so Dad got to meet him on one of the days they were shooting the movie.

I was about 16 years old, before I started playing properly in my first band, with guys from school/college



I recently reached out to the other guitar player, who I went to college with. It’s been great to catch up.



“Whatchu takin’ bout Brazil?!”



Fixed



Ecclesiastical Testicles?

Another pic my Dad shared with me showing the English actor, James Mason in the foreground.



And to answer the OP’s question, about 38 years.

 

[Mike Duncan]

Long enough to know better than I do...

 

[aphantomvaper]

Woke up from a dream that told me I needed to buy a guitar in winter 89. Went to Sears and ordered an Oscar Schmidt by Washurn super strat. Found a random guy to take lesson from at Mar Cole music in Carol Stream IL. Got some real guitars and about 6 months into lessons found an open stage and met some great people. First stage song ever was Proud Mary, and someone bought me a beer. I was hooked!

Moved to a open stage in DeKalb IL (Otto's) and in three months was asked to join a band. That was 1990. Quit lessons. Been playing in bands, 2 with all original music, ever since.

The thing is this guitar teacher was an advanced Jazz Rock cat. He didn't teach me songs he taught me the guitar and how to play anything. I'm still learning what he showed me to this day, from one year of lessons.

To OP, about 35 years.