This is just screaming to get out of me, so I thought I'd share.

I first picked up a guitar at age 9, when my uncle (ten years my senior) came to be a live-in kid-sitter for my single father. It was 1981 and he was really into Black Sabbath, so probably the first thing I learned to play was Paranoid. Pretty simple on the surface but there's a lot to that riff.

But I digress. We had a piano in our house, because my mother dabbled with it. When I was 5 she was playing a simple song and I asked her to teach me how to play it. She refused and instead taught me how to read the score, telling me I'd then be able to play anything in her books. She was right. I muddled through piano books for the net 14 years until I moved out, playing the piano regularly.

I also spent three years playing violin in my 4th through 6th years. I like it but felt I was going through the motions, so I quit at 11 years old. My instructor, who was great, didn't really engage me apparently, so I was bored. That's a regret.

After that time I just fiddled with the piano (pun intended). Music was always important to me and I gravitated toward pieces that had a lot of emotion to them.

Also from my 7th through 12th years, I spent most of my time alone. Watched some TV, read a lot, played the piano, and football and track.

I joined the navy at 18, and went off to school for about 20 months. Lived in a barracks that was really like a dorm for about a year. Had a friend who'd been in bootcamp with me who had a Gibson Flying-V. I spent many, many hours noodling on that over the next year, while watching TV, or sitting outside on the balcony walkway in the Florida nights.

When I left that school it was spring, 1992. Within a year I'd bought my own guitar, and I've had at least one ever since.

It's funny, when writing or speaking I typically have no problem expressing myself, but it's kind of like there's more there, and I need musical instruments to really speak. But I have the most trouble with that media even though I feel like I have a lot to say musically.

So why do I play guitar? In life it's really important to meditate. It shuts our brains off from the mundane stuff that will be there in 15, 30, or 90 minutes and lets us withdraw into ourselves for a moment of peace and serenity. To be creative. To relax. To bear our souls.

If someone took away my instruments, I'd spend my next money on getting new ones. They're part of me. Someone could empty out my home and I'd be okay with it as long as they left the instruments. With those I can accomplish anything.

It's funny. The answer to my question is because it's like oxygen. Asking me to stop playing guitar would be akin to stopping my heart from beating.

Mr Farelli,
My dad always had guitar's. He would run scales while watching TV in the evening. When I was 7, I wanted to try playing the electric guitar and especially his amp. He said I needed to know some things to be able to play through the amp. He wrote down the pentatonic minor with basic open string movable chords and insisted on alternate picking from the start. Not long after that I wanted video games. My parent's said they would not be buying video games but I would be spending my time on something. We all agreed on guitar lessons.

At 8 in 2011 I took local song based lessons. The guy gave me a good start but I wanted a situation where I could set my own pace and include some theory. We found PB in July of 2015 and gave it a try. It was tough. Like starting over. I just started working that practice sheet. Before long I was easily putting in multiple hours of practice and it started to become fun. PIMA was a favorite. After some time I started to apply the technique to music.

I play in the 7-8th grade jazz band at school. It's pretty much torture. The drummer can't keep time. I won't do that next year.

I am able to play every day. Most days for extended times. It's mostly fun now.

I avoided this thread at first. After pondering, there is no why. It just is.

I hope this makes sense Mr. F

Great thread.

Quote: heyman wrote in post #3

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I hope this makes sense Mr. F

Great thread.

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