The First Time I Picked up a Guitar
The First Time You Play
When I was a kid, I was in a band as we all like to think we were, even if we couldn’t really play anything. With two classmates in tow, we played about once a week at my friend’place and made quite a lot of rather strange noises we thought was amazingmusic!! But we were enthusiastic and loved the idea of being “rock stars.”
We never really thought about concerts or anything serious, we just plodded along rehearsing in with our 10 watt amps when his went away and we were skipping class. We had no idea how tone deaf we were and I thought I could play anything, anytime, anywhere. I didn’t understand that I had to play some sort of scale or key!! I just played anything!!!
Eventually, we went to the year 10 leaver’s social at the local memorial hall. In those days, entertainment was always live. DJs didn’t really exist (yes, it was that long ago!) and so bands were hired.
The group that was performing was rather lame, playingtunes not really suited for a bunch of hormonally challenged 14 – 15 year old youths. In fact, they reminded me of the scene in the “American Pie” movie where the band is doing an awful version of “don’t you forget about me” and all the kids are bored.
Some friends at school knew my friends and I had a band and suggested we play. All of a sudden our ego disappeared and we got shy. We’re not ready we said. We just play for fun. Fright entered all of us and none of us wanted to go.
However, next thing we know, the “tough boys” who played football and were athletic heroes came over and told us we should play. We didn’t want too but they insisted. We said no. Then they say “get on stage or we are gonna punched ya heads in.” It appeared we didn’t have a choice.
So with the prospect of our heads being smashed heads and loss of any degree of cool we ever thought we had, we trundled toward the stage. Playing others people guitars, amps, and drums is akin to wearing some body else’s underwear- it just doesn’t fit right!!! But we got up there any way, ready to be booed off the stage and into the dark recesses of the hall. We played and the place went wild and with everybody dancing and yelling and smiling. We thought “hey this ain’t so bad” so we kept paying whatever we knew. Nobody, especially us, seemed to care. Everybody loved it. We kept going and going. The tough boys applauded and the girls smiled. My guitar solos still not in any scale or key but hey, there we were a real band on a real stage!! We were suddenly too cool for school and the “it” thing at school.
What we thought was torture turned out to be great and we ended up getting a gig with the other band. It was the start of a long musical career that still continues to this day.
Axebay
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8 Responses to “The First Time I Picked up a Guitar”
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January 2nd, 2010 at 9:35 am
What was your experience when you first picked up a guitar and starting playing?
I’m thinking about getting an electric guitar just so I can have a fun hobby to do. (and to annoy my mom at 4am) I just wanna know what the first few weeks are like when you first start playing. Because the closest thing to me having a guitar in my hands is Guitar Hero. I have no experience what so ever. I’ve heard that your fingers sometimes gets blisters and stuff o.O
January 2nd, 2010 at 2:37 pm
give it your 100 percent and the fingers / blisters be damned
if you want to be an international sensation
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January 2nd, 2010 at 2:39 pm
The first few weeks are the toughest. Your fingers will start to grow callous’s which will be painful until they are grown in. I have found a solution to this is to soak your fingers in oil after playing for about a minutes which lessons the effect. Also the level of discipline required will be frustrating. Unlike guitar hero, which offers instant gratification, it can take months of playing the guitar to start producing the sounds you want and years to master them. For this I say have patience and do whatever you can to make the experience more enjoyable. Don’t quit! It will be worth it.
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Been playing 9 years
January 2nd, 2010 at 2:41 pm
It is horrendously boring and a bit painful (and if your first guitar is electric, it will probably be painful again when you learn acoustic because of the thicker strings), but the boredom wears off when you start getting your chords down and learning songs (and it’s exciting when you just NAIL that troublesome bar chord sequence for the first time), and the pain isn’t terrible, and after a few weeks of practice you get callouses and don’t feel any pain at all. I strongly encourage you to learn.
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January 2nd, 2010 at 2:43 pm
"What do you mean C, a, c!" It was a bit of a complication but got there in the end.
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January 2nd, 2010 at 2:45 pm
I started with a nylon string guitar so it wasn’t too bad on my fingers. It takes some getting used to to be able to play chords and to stretch your fingers, but otherwise, I fell in love with it and now the guitar is an extension to my soul =]
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Experience
January 2nd, 2010 at 2:47 pm
Curtail your immaturity and insensitivity to annoy your mom. Get an acoustic guitar and put your mind into learning it quietly. Why do you want to be contentious with your mother?
My first experience at learning the guitar was having mild frustration over training my fingers to do things totally out of character–that is, forming chords. Next, it was bearing up to the temporary pain of sore and tender fingertips until the calluses grew.
Yes, your fingers will grow blisters, but no stuff. After the blisters where the fingertips are white they will eventually toughen into calluses. Are you able to endure a little pain to learn how to play?
Remember, there are no instant guitar players. It takes years of dedicated practice to achieve the levels of expertise that are available. If you are a quitter and can’t take the frustration and pain for a little while then quit now.
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Guitar picker of 53 years
January 2nd, 2010 at 2:49 pm
My experience was extraordinary.
I felt an immediate connection with the instrument and my fingers began to glide along the fretboard like little musical fairies. I began to twirl and sing, and my voice and fingers carriedancient melodies to the farthest reaches of my soul.
The music commanded my body, and my mind obeyed, I became an ambassador of harmony and a chaperon of love to my fellow man.
As I waded through in the colors and textures of the musical stream, I drank from the wealth of emotion and knowledge that has been floating along since early man first spoke the language of the gods, and I was complete.
All the world was listening, and I spoke to it in a manner befitting only the greatest of men.
Then I got all the tang I could ever ask for!
Best of luck!
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