Share how bad you were when you started out on guitar ...

[Kiwi]

This follows from the "Is This Place Special?" thread, and the Guitar World article about how rotten guitar players can be to each other. <shudder>

I'm guessing a number of us are pretty good at playing, and some of us are beginners, and many of us are in between. I've always like how this forum is welcoming to those starting out, and those at every step along the way. Sure, we can help you spend your money - we love that! - but we are also pretty encouraging at hearing your efforts and cheering.

Because we all started somewhere. Tell us about how rough your starts were. Me?

- My chances of making a barred F chord were about 50/50. Give me a few tries, I'll line 'em up eventually.

- I put tiny little yellow stickies on the side dots to tell me what notes those were on the low E string so I knew (sorta) where I was on the neck.

- I played twelve-bar I, IV and V progressions in two places on the fretboard - G and A, see stickies above - with all major chords, and thought I was pretty baaaadazz. It sounded like the music I grew up with!

- I learned a penta-box in one position and thought, I can play this the rest of my life! Woo-hoo! Gimme a $30 distortion pedal and let's rip!

I don't even want to discuss the first gear I played. I moved on pretty fast from that boxy solid-state thing with built-in disto and chorus.

Through the new medium called guitar forums online, I met up with people in person and jammed with them, live. They were incredibly patient with my efforts. I learned a lot, fast, and not the stuff in books.

I bought a drum machine, and learned to play in time. I bought a 4-track cassette recorder (!) and started recording myself. Boy, that'll shape up your playing fast - the tape don't lie. Flat bends, wrong notes, wrong chords, bad timing: No place to hide.

So share some of your rookie adventures, and how you got better. And send some encouragement to the rookies and intermediates here, 'cause really, we've all been there - and in may ways we all still are.

=K

 

[AP515]

I only had 1 option for guitar. My mom's Martin parlor guitar (3/4 size). I sucked like everyone does starting out, but I could only play acoustic. It was 15 years later before we could afford a Squire Strat, and a SS 4 inch speaker Gorilla amp; Woo Hoo!

 

[Herr Squid]

Y'know Kiwi, none of that is really bad, it's just where we were at that time and place.

35 years on, I still have those chords that are really shaky and iffy, but if I keep at it, I get those ones down and move on to newer, harder, iffier ones.

I gifted my first terrible electric guitar to a little brother's friend and he was ecstatic. (Also, I see those 80's Korean Kramer Stykers for sale for $800 and just laugh... maybe $800 is less in 2020 dollars than $250 was in 1986 dollars, but no way is a Kramer Stryker with its plywood body and paint an inch thick worth $800 in any century!).

- I learned a penta-box in one position and thought, I can play this the rest of my life! Woo-hoo! Gimme [a bunch of gain] and let's rip!
=K

I still do this! Doesn't every electric guitar player?

A couple of years after I started, there was this new thing of magazines with guitar tablature inside. That was a revelation! Funny thing was, every one of those magazines had Motley Crue on the cover of every. Single. Issue. I'm sure of it!

Also, tape was absolutely revelatory. In my case it told me I had pretty good time and tune, but that my tone totally sucked!

 

[Glide-bpm]

I sucked when I started in 2nd grade... I still suck......

BUT... they let me play in a band!!!! Woohooooooo!!!

 

[Mike Duncan]

Shoot I can post videos of me playing now...33 years after first learning to play. It's still bad.

 

[bluefade]

I was so bad,I thought when you moved your left hand up the neck the pitch went DOWN...That was in 1962...Back when we would stick cheap Japanese microphones that came with cheap Japanese tape recorders into the "F" holes of ancient armstrong guitars...NOW, that was some "BANGIN" tone!!!

 

[dogrocketp]

When I first started, my garage band mates asked me to sing, because they knew I couldn’t sing and play at the same time. It didn’t matter, my Harmony solidbody wouldn’t stay in tune anyway. I’m proud to say that I’ve worked my ass off to become the decidedly mediocre guitar player I am today.

 

[veinbuster]

What you talking about? I was bloody awesome when I first played guitar. I mean, I was playing guitar, what more could a guy want.

Of course, it didn’t take long to realize there were things I could do better. There’s still things I could do better. I think that is the nature of the beast. Like I haven’t really wrestled Paganini to the ground. For some reason my brain farts sight reading in fifth position - but just on guitar, I was always fine on double bass.

 

[bodia]

The first month I had a guitar I didn't know how to tune it. I just strummed open strings, or played on one string, for that month. Once I took a lesson, and learned to tune, I was off to the races. The lessons didn't last long because I wasn't interested in learning Row Your Boat or Mary Had A Little Lamb. Thankfully, I started about the same time that Guitar For The Practicing Musician hit the stands. I learned some licks from those issues. I had a practice regime because I had played Alto and Baritone Sax for 5 years. I got good enough to "jam" with a couple of buddies, but mostly played at home. I was never in a band, and never really aspired to be. Not sure why, but I hate playing in front of people, even my wife. That makes me scratch my head because I loved playing in Band with the sax, and in Jazz Band, which was only 7 or 8 players. Once I moved out of the house, and to Chicago (from Iowa), my playing days went to nil, for a long, long time. Now, I play 10 or 15 minutes at a time (since the Mrs retired), beating out licks that I learned 30 years ago. I keep telling myself to get back on the horse, but I never do. I still suck!

 

[RickP]

I was a drummer. Say no more, eh?

I started playing guitar because the drum set didn’t fit in the U-Haul trailer when the family made an interstate move. I guess I decided I liked being a musician instead.

 

[Warmart]

Sad and pathetic like just about everyone when they start. But, primarily due to all the time I had to invest in the US Navy (and then in building/maintaining various forms of computer skills) - I had several starts and stops, over a long time span.

I bought my 1st guitar (Ovation Celebrity hsh super strat w/Floyd) in 1987. I was appalled that the bridge saddles weren't in alignment, so aligned them all up nice and pretty like . Yes, really. I learned some run of the mill Metallica and AC/DC licks, etc., but never got very far. Tried some lessons while I was in Pensacola, FL but the guy must've been @bodia's former teacher or his brother from another mother (or wtfever). Gave up for years and then a girlfriend decided I wasn't playing it so I should sell it, somewhere around 1992/93. I should've sold her instead, she didn't last much longer.

Then in the very early 2000's I got the bug again and bought an under $200 Washburn pos online. Decided I needed skinny/heavies on it and while stretching the low E I ripped the bridge stud right up out of that pos - pretty much ruined it. Luckily there was a guitar store a couple miles away that laughed with me and gave me a good trade on a basic guitar, an Austin something or another, don't think they're even around anymore. I progressed a little and then traded it on an ESP LTD EC-1000 w/EMG's. I really liked that guitar, even if the tones were fairly limited, it worked well and I learned some more.

I think I'm probably boring everyone but suffice it to say that I had a couple more hard starts/stops until about 10 months ago when I finally realized that it's not a "lack of talent" but a lack of dedication that had kept me stuck in suckitude. I've been going steady with generally an hour or so a day this time! Obviously I'm still nothing special but I've gotten my picking hand fast enough for some Mastodon (the main Blood and Thunder riff was really hard for me to get down, took about 2 months to get the speed necessary), among other things.

 

[Glide-bpm]

The first month I had a guitar I didn't know how to tune it. I just strummed open strings, or played on one string, for that month. Once I took a lesson, and learned to tune, I was off to the races. The lessons didn't last long because I wasn't interested in learning Row Your Boat or Mary Had A Little Lamb. Thankfully, I started about the same time that Guitar For The Practicing Musician hit the stands. I learned some licks from those issues. I had a practice regime because I had played Alto and Baritone Sax for 5 years. I got good enough to "jam" with a couple of buddies, but mostly played at home. I was never in a band, and never really aspired to be. Not sure why, but I hate playing in front of people, even my wife. That makes me scratch my head because I loved playing in Band with the sax, and in Jazz Band, which was only 7 or 8 players. Once I moved out of the house, and to Chicago (from Iowa), my playing days went to nil, for a long, long time. Now, I play 10 or 15 minutes at a time (since the Mrs retired), beating out licks that I learned 30 years ago. I keep telling myself to get back on the horse, but I never do. I still suck!

That's wild... I played Alto sax 5th-7th grade until I started playing football my 8th grade year. Marching band went bye bye then.

I started guitar in 2nd grade, so it was before the alto sax thang... hehehe.
Wild that we share alternate instruments, though!

 

[bodia]

That's wild... I played Alto sax 5th-7th grade until I started playing football my 8th grade year. Marching band went bye bye then.

I started guitar in 2nd grade, so it was before the alto sax thang... hehehe.
Wild that we share alternate instruments, though!

Too cool!

 

[CandidPicker]

My beginnings were on my Dad's old no-name Sear's catalog thick steel string acoustic that had seen its better years. Quickly transitioned to a nylon string entry level acoustic for $40. My uncle and aunt encouraged my efforts by providing a couple Mel Bay / Hal Leonard instructional books, a red cloth guitar strap, an elastic capo, and a selection of picks.

Dad disliked my playing relative minor chords because they sounded so sad..."Quit the sad chords, son, your mother and I are trying to enjoy a conversation!"

*Sigh*

How can one explain to your Dad that there are major and minor chords, and that relative minors are the same as major chords? Dad didn't understand.

Eventually, Mom helped Dad see that my new hobby would help keep me out of trouble, and so Dad acquiesced and bought a Yamaha FG-160 later that year. That became my main acoustic until 1995. In between time was the guitar quest that, again, Dad disliked, because it was electric: loud, undisciplined, and disturbed an otherwise peaceful evening...I got around that by practicing when Dad was away at work...and Lord knows, I, like many others, could sure use the practice...

 

[Strumsandstrings]

I really sucked when I was in middle school, I remember playing Dust in the Wind using my dad's old acoustic guitar

 

[dogrocketp]

The first month I had a guitar I didn't know how to tune it. I just strummed open strings, or played on one string, for that month. Once I took a lesson, and learned to tune, I was off to the races. The lessons didn't last long because I wasn't interested in learning Row Your Boat or Mary Had A Little Lamb. Thankfully, I started about the same time that Guitar For The Practicing Musician hit the stands. I learned some licks from those issues. I had a practice regime because I had played Alto and Baritone Sax for 5 years. I got good enough to "jam" with a couple of buddies, but mostly played at home. I was never in a band, and never really aspired to be. Not sure why, but I hate playing in front of people, even my wife. That makes me scratch my head because I loved playing in Band with the sax, and in Jazz Band, which was only 7 or 8 players. Once I moved out of the house, and to Chicago (from Iowa), my playing days went to nil, for a long, long time. Now, I play 10 or 15 minutes at a time (since the Mrs retired), beating out licks that I learned 30 years ago. I keep telling myself to get back on the horse, but I never do. I still suck!

At least you didn’t get bucked by the horse".................

 

[CandidPicker]

The first month I had a guitar I didn't know how to tune it. I just strummed open strings, or played on one string, for that month. Once I took a lesson, and learned to tune, I was off to the races. The lessons didn't last long because I wasn't interested in learning Row Your Boat or Mary Had A Little Lamb. Thankfully, I started about the same time that Guitar For The Practicing Musician hit the stands. I learned some licks from those issues. I had a practice regime because I had played Alto and Baritone Sax for 5 years. I got good enough to "jam" with a couple of buddies, but mostly played at home. I was never in a band, and never really aspired to be. Not sure why, but I hate playing in front of people, even my wife. That makes me scratch my head because I loved playing in Band with the sax, and in Jazz Band, which was only 7 or 8 players. Once I moved out of the house, and to Chicago (from Iowa), my playing days went to nil, for a long, long time. Now, I play 10 or 15 minutes at a time (since the Mrs retired), beating out licks that I learned 30 years ago. I keep telling myself to get back on the horse, but I never do. I still suck!

Gotta say, if you were into SRV at that early age, kudos to you.

 

[bodia]

Gotta say, if you were into SRV at that early age, kudos to you.

Indeed, I was. I got my first guitar in December of '83. I saw SRV for the first time in May of '83 opening for Huey Lewis & The News. But, I actually thought of that as I was typing M.H.a.L.L. in my original post

 

[Alan Manning]

I was shown 3 chords by a friend and played them straight of the bat. I strumed to George Harrison's My sweet lord in half an hour ( In a fashion).But soon came the dreaded bar chord ( Oh B*****ks). I went through the whole of the Beatles complete song book for months dodging the satanic shape.!!! Moving forward I played mainly rythm in bands and the best thing i did was beat that obsdacle. Probably used that shape more than any other.!!!

 

[jxe]

I really sucked when I was in middle school, I remember playing Dust in the Wind using my dad's old acoustic guitar

i think went to your school.