How and why did you first begin music?

[Kelil]

So....lets hear your story ( in short ) about how you first came to pick up that instrument and better yet what MADE you want to pick it up? When did you become interested in songwriting and so on?

For me it was when I was 6/7 years old. I raided my brothers private stash in his closet, found his shoe box which was full of odds and ends and deep at the bottom was an old cassette of the beatles early stuff like Love me Do etc etc and when I stuck it in the stereo and heard them for the first time thats when I got learning the guitar. And I wrote my first song when i was seven called ''Me and the boys''

Then I put it down when I hit the teens drifted away from it and then came back to it when I was 16/17 and started writing again.

and here I am at the moment. So my biggest influences were the beatles and John Lennon.

Whats your story?

Stephen

[DesireInspires]

So....lets hear your story ( in short ) about how you first came to pick up that instrument and better yet what MADE you want to pick it up? When did you become interested in songwriting and so on?

For me it was when I was 6/7 years old. I raided my brothers private stash in his closet, found his shoe box which was full of odds and ends and deep at the bottom was an old cassette of the beatles early stuff like Love me Do etc etc and when I stuck it in the stereo and heard them for the first time thats when I got learning the guitar. And I wrote my first song when i was seven called ''Me and the boys''

Then I put it down when I hit the teens drifted away from it and then came back to it when I was 16/17 and started writing again.

and here I am at the moment. So my biggest influences were the beatles and John Lennon.

Whats your story?

Stephen

Another Beatles story? Really?!?

[Kelil]

I know. There is just so many. Perhaps the whole thread will be filled with that kind of response actually. lol

[jazzstan]

Beatles, Bach, Brubeck, Bartok, Benson .....

[cardell]

I got hooked during the whole East Coast country/rock era in the 70's: America, The Eagles, Bread..etc..

Another Beatles story? Really?!?

oh..and I LOVE the Beatles...

Paul McCartney is one seriously good bass guitarist. Holy Cow, if that's all he did he'd be a legend... ...and please don't get me started on John Lennon...

Stuart

[Len911]

I remember singing "She Loves You" standing in the front bench seat of probably a Pontiac. Remarkably, I've never bought a Beatles record or really got into them. I inherited a Holstein cow, and the money made from the milk and her calves after all the expenses bought my first stereo. I loved to sing but always got in trouble in school because I wouldn't. Then I wanted to sing, but realized I wouldn't ever get any good songs to sing unless I wrote my own. Now I am too much about learning songwriting than getting to sing. Why? I don't know, the money I guess, then I can buy new gear. And the big money that can be made in music will help finance my food obsession, beans are getting expensive, and my high school counselor did say that a career in writing would necessitate eating a lot of beans!

[Ellwood]

Girls.....

[ottlukk]

Ellwood is correct. I admire his honesty. Ott

[marcblack30]

Another Beatles story? Really?!?

Ok Debbie Downer... what a constant ray of sunshine you are
-------------------

For me, my childhood friends influenced me the most and got me into playing music. My friend Dusty got a guitar, I bought a Kay bass, and my friend Kurt literally played buckets and pots & pans for drums. We wrote a couple of punk songs and just had fun making noise. Shortly after picking the bass as my instrument, I realized that a guitar with a distortion pedal was much more fun than a bass guitar, so I switched! I started playing by ear around the age of 14 and was learning songs by The Cult, Metallica, Megadeth, Motley Crue, Sex Pistols, VH, Led Zep etc. Later down the road, I decided to play bass "temporarily" until my band found a bass guitarist.... I ended up playing bass for about 16 years on the road and for all of my touring career.
So, my Beatles story is.......... I don't have one

[ernstinen]

So my biggest influences were the beatles and John Lennon.

Well, before my mom taught me the piano, my sissies and I sang harmonies in the car. THEN the Beatles came on the radio, and that changed my life forever!

Later on, my dad bought me a Farfisa organ, and I learned to play all the British Invasion stuff and the Doors etc.

After that, I got into Hendrix big time, guitar, and symphonic music. That led to progressive rock like YES.

I got into college on oboe, and dropped it for a composition major, Beethoven, Debussy, Stravinsky etc. Also jazz, Coltrane, Miles etc.

Now I play mostly blues/rock guitar, although I love Lennon & Hendrix the most.

Ern