These guys are the reason why I play

[danktat]

I don't know if this is appropriate for this forum as there are no PRS related instruments in this video. But, these guys are the reason why I play at all. They were friends of mine in high school. I would watch them do talent shows, concerts, house parties, block parties, etc....... and would marvel at the skill that I thought was unreachable. They eventually moved on to Berklee and I would move on to prison (but I had my guitar and played in the choir while I was in there). But if it weren't for the guitar player and the bass player (who is still a MUCH better fiddler than I am and guitar isn't even his main instrument) I would not have had the drive to pick this up to begin with.

The crazy thing is that I STILL can't play up to this level. And I have actually taken lessons from the bass player (trying to steal some of that Berklee education on the cheap). But here is a video of them doing an assignment that required a live recital. Man, I'd be satisfied to be at this level that they were at at the turn of the century......Imagine where they are NOW (both still making their livings from music). I misted up watching this once I got over the 1990s recording quality and really listened.

Bear in mind that they are playing a Phish song. If you aren't familiar with that band, their music is typically set up as an "arrangement" more than just intro, verse, chorus, verse, solo and outro. So to get an idea of why I was amazed at these guy's ability to play complicated music, you'd have to get more than just a thirty second sampling of this video. Give yourself a few minutes to see where it goes. Also, this was back BEFORE you could just go on line and look up the tabs to a given song. To transcribe it by ear (which they always did) always had me amazed. Even as teen agers.

Mods, if this is not appropriate for this forum because the guitar is a Yamaha and the bass is a Warwick, I can understand if you pull this post.

 

[sergiodeblanc]

It was about fives years before this video (oldest I could find on YouTube) but, this is the hole I crawled out of:

My love and obsession for disco should suddenly make more sense.

 

[Shawn@PRS]

Four guys from Queens New York, with no musical experience, started a revolution. It showed kids like me that someone doesn't need to be a virtuoso in order to play music.

 

[shinksma]

I had a long diatribe of my musical roots, and while interesting for me to finally think about it, it probably isn't interesting to anyone else.

TL;DR version: local band of kids not much older than me that I saw when I was around 13 years old was probably the tiny seed that took years to trigger, after listening to lots of Judas Priest - I wanted to be just like KK Downing. My first real electric guitar was a Flying V clone from El Degas. (Still have it.)

Little did I know that I have slow fat hands with short fingers, and Gilmour's Floydian licks were much more my style. Comfortably Numb is still my favorite solo to play (note for note, usually). Though I have discovered that I also enjoy playing Run of the Mill, from Priest's debut album.

So naturally now I play in a Celtic fusion band, with four main singer-songwriters in the band including myself. We just did a nice arrangement of a Celtic-style song about sirens (the mythical kind) and sailors that I wrote a number of years back, finally getting it into shape.

Gah. What happened?!

 

[alantig]

It all started with this guy. Well earlier than this, but he was the spark.

Then the guitar player in this guy's band caught my ear.

And then came these guys to take me into a different genre...

A few years later, I got introduced to this guy, which took me in yet another direction.

 

[veinbuster]

Patsy Cline.

 

[bodia]

I've always been into music, and started playing sax when I was 11. I played for 4 years, until the tyrannical music teacher got the best of me. I wanted nothing to do with him, or band after Freshman year. This is also the time I started going to concerts. My first, April Wine and Uriah Heep, got my guitar juices flowing. I wouldn't say Mick Box was one of my guitar heroes, but seeing him play one handed (just pull offs) looked so cool! Next concert was Ozzy. Then Joe Walsh......amazing. Then came Dokken/Aldo Nova/Blue Oyster Cult. George Lynch IS one of my idols. After that forth concert, and seeing him live, it was a given. I was trading the sax in for a guitar! Never looked back.

 

[Nurk2]

Deodato:

John McLoughlin:

Boston:

Andy Summers:

Joe Jackson:

 

[goat-n-gitter]

When I was little, I always listened to the soul/R&B station on my AM radio. A little later, my older sister brought home records by ELO and Genesis, and my older brother brought home Aerosmith, Ted Nugent, Alice Cooper and Led Zeppelin. The first music that made me want to actually be in a band was around the 6th grade when my buddies and I would air band to Queen "A Night at the Opera". My first concert was Alice Cooper on the "From the Inside" tour in 1979, with The Babys opening. This was just a few months after I had started to take guitar lessons. I had a couple of other friends who had started playing sooner than me, so I was required to play rhythm guitar for endless rounds of "Freebird" while they noodled away. I didn't get a playable electric guitar until my sophomore year of college, and immediately started a band. Got pretty serious from the mid '80s through the mid '90s, even had management for a while, but never got a deal. I still love to play and record, and would love to get more active playing live again, but I never liked putting a ton of effort into playing covers - I love to learn and jam on them, but I always felt original music was the only way to go.

 

[Glide-bpm]

 

[danktat]

You guys are posting a lot of good music. And, certainly, ALL of the people and bands that have been mentioned so far have had at least "Some" influence on my playing. But all of them are actual "famous" bands or could be considered "Stars". Plenty of "stars" influenced me. H*ll, SRV, Santana, Trey Anastasio, Buddy Guy, Albert King, etc...etc...etc......... But, they didn't get me wanting to actually play. Because to me, they were the UNOBTAINIUM of music. They were stars, and therefore, able to do what they do BECAUSE they were the select few. It wasn't until I saw "regular" people that I knew, that were able to pull off some of the most complicated passages, strictly by ear, and then perform them in a way that I felt like they COULD have been any of the aforementioned stars, that I started to think "well, maybe I could learn to do it too".

Now, I still haven't learned it to this level. Probably never will. I didn't even start playing until I was an adult. And to me, it is kind of like language. These guys started playing as kids. Kids pick up on this much easier than adults do. It is like when a family moves here from another country, and in two or three years, the kids speak English as though it was their first language, but their parents can be here for 20 years and still don't have the best grasp on the language and have a heavy accent. BUT, their playing showed me that a "regular guy" could really learn to play music.

I can't wait until this lock down crap is done so we can hang out, drink a beer together, and play some music.

 

[Glide-bpm]

I miss my bandmates and the music!

I like to jam at the house, but once you play out, it's like a musical drug!

 

[11top]

I was in high school in the 60s. All of the British Invasion was a huge influence, but none more so than The Beatles.

But I can still remember the first time I heard Mississippi Queen and Purple Haze....

....and I was fortunate to see Jimi live.

 

[jxe]

definitely some questionable guitar choices in here.

 

[garrett]

For me it started in the magical guitar era of the late 80's/early 90's. I actually heard "Summer Song" by Joe Satriani, "Cliffs of Dover" by Eric Johnson, and "The Audience is Listening" by Steve Vai on the radio. I also got hip to Stevie Ray Vaughan, sadly due to the extra attention from his death.

So I bought their cassettes and then started playing in '92. By the time I got good in the mid-90's, no one gave a crap about lead guitar anymore.

 

[CandidPicker]

You guys are posting a lot of good music. And, certainly, ALL of the people and bands that have been mentioned so far have had at least "Some" influence on my playing. But all of them are actual "famous" bands or could be considered "Stars". Plenty of "stars" influenced me. H*ll, SRV, Santana, Trey Anastasio, Buddy Guy, Albert King, etc...etc...etc......... But, they didn't get me wanting to actually play. Because to me, they were the UNOBTAINIUM of music. They were stars, and therefore, able to do what they do BECAUSE they were the select few. It wasn't until I saw "regular" people that I knew, that were able to pull off some of the most complicated passages, strictly by ear, and then perform them in a way that I felt like they COULD have been any of the aforementioned stars, that I started to think "well, maybe I could learn to do it too".

Now, I still haven't learned it to this level. Probably never will. I didn't even start playing until I was an adult. And to me, it is kind of like language. These guys started playing as kids. Kids pick up on this much easier than adults do. It is like when a family moves here from another country, and in two or three years, the kids speak English as though it was their first language, but their parents can be here for 20 years and still don't have the best grasp on the language and have a heavy accent. BUT, their playing showed me that a "regular guy" could really learn to play music.

I can't wait until this lock down crap is done so we can hang out, drink a beer together, and play some music.

I understand what you're saying...

It was my local open-mic players that inspired me to pursue music further...first, at an acoustic open-mic formerly known as Peaberry's Cafe, then Goomba's Restaurant, then Good Life Bar & Grill.

Peaberry's was a narrow cafe situated a few doors away from where I worked, hosted by an older guy, a product of the 60's, who shared his love for old acoustic folk and bass guitar. We had an eclectic group of folks there...some who played ukulele, some autoharp, many acoustic guitar, some percussion, of all ages and skill levels. Peaberry's is where I first wrote my own arrangements for DADGAD tuning, and came up with some decent (IMHO) offerings.

A couple years later, Goomba's was introduced to me. A small Italian restaurant run by some Colombian folks who had several business holdings in town. Goomba's has a small stage area situated in the back room where a host house band could set up and play, then after the first hour, the host would ask guest players to take their turn cranking out whatever songs the guest brought to the table. The house band was knowledgeable enough that they could handle most songs. Eventually, Goomba's folded and the open-mic moved over to Good Life Grill, across the parking lot area close by.

The most complicated songs were things Like SD's "Josie" or "Peg", perhaps some jazz tunes like Blue Bossa. The house band was much better than I was, and in a short time at Goomba's, I offered my services for setting up and breaking down the house band's gear in exchange for guitar lessons from the host. 75 minutes lessons instead of the $20 pay, which the host preferred to teach as a friend, and keep his cash.

I picked up a bunch of good songs but have not retained them, simply because both open-mics have folded, and don't play out that much anymore. Every so often I'll practice to keep my chops up, but not so much for stage performance level.

Am eventually hoping to practice enough to produce some decent home recordings with a modicum of DAW plug-ins I've acquired recently. While it may take much more study to become a proficient home recording person, at least I'll have the needed tools to do the job correctly. And if this might work to my advantage, will leave something for my family that they can remember for the future.

 

[Deleted member 5962]

It was about fives years before this video (oldest I could find on YouTube) but, this is the hole I crawled out of:

My love and obsession for disco should suddenly make more sense.

Was that ...
A) a fight
B) a mugging
C) sex
D) all the above

 

[sergiodeblanc]

Was that ...
A) a fight
B) a mugging
C) sex
D) all the above

Hahahaha! I’m not so sure anymore!

 

[Deleted member 5962]

Patsy Cline.

10 minutes ago, that was more believable than Shawn being a punk rocker. Didn't see that coming... maybe I was thrown off by "the jacket."

 

[alantig]

You guys are posting a lot of good music. And, certainly, ALL of the people and bands that have been mentioned so far have had at least "Some" influence on my playing. But all of them are actual "famous" bands or could be considered "Stars". Plenty of "stars" influenced me. H*ll, SRV, Santana, Trey Anastasio, Buddy Guy, Albert King, etc...etc...etc......... But, they didn't get me wanting to actually play. Because to me, they were the UNOBTAINIUM of music. They were stars, and therefore, able to do what they do BECAUSE they were the select few. It wasn't until I saw "regular" people that I knew, that were able to pull off some of the most complicated passages, strictly by ear, and then perform them in a way that I felt like they COULD have been any of the aforementioned stars, that I started to think "well, maybe I could learn to do it too".

Now, I still haven't learned it to this level. Probably never will. I didn't even start playing until I was an adult. And to me, it is kind of like language. These guys started playing as kids. Kids pick up on this much easier than adults do. It is like when a family moves here from another country, and in two or three years, the kids speak English as though it was their first language, but their parents can be here for 20 years and still don't have the best grasp on the language and have a heavy accent. BUT, their playing showed me that a "regular guy" could really learn to play music.

I can't wait until this lock down crap is done so we can hang out, drink a beer together, and play some music.

Interesting viewpoint. I don't remember ever thinking that when I was starting out. I remember seeing Johnny Cash on TV and telling my parents I wanted to play guitar like him.

That said, the closest thing I think I had to that kind of moment was a couple years later. Where I took lessons, it was straight out of the Mel Bay book. I can remember wondering why what I was playing didn't sound like what I was hearing on the radio. I don't remember how it came about, but somehow I was talking to one of the other teachers there, and he played the intro to "Takin' Care Of Business" and my eyes lit up. Those books weren't going to take me there, but they definitely laid the foundation for what was coming.