Where did you start on the guitar?
 

Hello everyone,,
I know for me, Dimebag Darrell was it; I had to play guitar after listening to "Cowboys From Hell".

It's amazing that I went from playing that music (still do), loving the weird guitars (I don't really see the appeal in those weird star shaped/Michael Angelo Batio type guitars anymore though), to listening to post rock, Electronic, to Jazz, to Classical, to Drone, to Math Metal/Rock.

I still listen to it all, but it's amazing that it all started with Pantera.

I was cranking Zep, Sabbath, and Deep Purple.
Self taught for the most part. I just played my favourite songs over and over and over and over and naturally improved (yes, I realize it's bad for my technique). So I had lessons on and off for a couple years.

When I was in HS I got my first decent guitar, and went for guitar lessons. The first two songs I wanted to tackle was Clap by Steve Howe and Horizon by Steve Hackett.

Mine were Into the Void by Sabbath and Segovia's Chaconne Partita.

:rofl:

You learn them, or you wanted to learn them?

I took guitar lessons only when I was in HS. He was a great guy, taught my uncle too, so there was a rapport from the beginning. I remember he was teaching me scales, chords and finger exercises and one of the first thing I asked him was to teach me Horizon. He picked it up by ear, which amazed me. My guitar teacher gave me a old Classical guitar book (torn & with missing pages) I remember learning most of Leyenda, the only piece in it I recognized. I was into Steve Howe, and I was lucky enough to find a book of his, but it was in standard notation. I learn Mood for a Day and parts of Diary of Man Who Disappeared (Steve paying homage to Hank Marvin & Chet Atkins at the same time), Meadow Rag, and Surface Tension.

I bought music for Chaconne, but misplaced it so I never got to learn it, even though I wanted to. I also obsessed over Vals Criollo by Antonio Laura.

I learned about the first 5 minutes before giving up. Too much memory skill required. My fave classical piece for playing is Rucuerdos de la Alhambra.

Once you get the constant tremolo picking down the rest isn't hard.

It's over thirteen minutes long, so there is ton material to memorize. I would be happy just to play 4:33 to 5:57.

Christopher Parkening - J.S. Bach: Chaconne


It's actually called Recuerdos de la Alhambra (Memories of the Alhambra).
Calling it "Rucuerdos ... " is like calling it "Mumories ..." :rolleyes:

Dimebag Darrell was also what made me want to play guitar as a kid, but it could've been anything at that age given my environment. My parents played and I listened to guitar-heavy music all the time because of my dad, so it was bound to happen. Dimebag Darrell made me have that lightbulb moment as kid where I noticed guitar in the music versus just taking it in as a whole song or focusing on the vocals. First song I learned was Frère Jacques from a teach yourself guitar book, then my dad taught me for a while, then I taught myself the rest.

I figured out how to tune my first guitar to an open string major chord and then just used my index finger to bar the frets for Black Sabbath's Iron Man. I did this through a small Peavey amp with the gain cranked. I did this a lot. All the time. That's all I knew.

Daaa naaaa, daa naa naa, da naa na naa na naa na na naaaa naaa naaaa...

My parents hated me until I learned the intro to Roundabout, then I started to regret it since they wanted me to play 'that one song' all the time.

Eventually, I got a Mel Bay book and learned some proper chords and tuning.