What has inspired you to play the guitar?

I was drawn to the guitar from day one, as far as i remember. What inspired this?? hard to say really, I don’t actually think it was anything to do with the guitar per se. The gravity started with a natural joy for music and later the idea of learning an instrument emerged.

Early memories remind me of my dad taking me to see his mates band rehearse. They were nothing special, just a cheap cover band who had nothing on thier minds but playing loud and fast. I still cant say what made me chose guitar but I can tell you what allmost made me not do it.

Around the same time, I was about 10 years old, some of the same guys from the cover band were at my place visiting. One had his acoustic with him and somehow it found it’s way into my hands. As I was trying to get a sound out of this strange instrument I managed to drop the plectrum down the soundhole (something we are all victim too). Anyway, I had no idea how to get it out so I took the guitar back to the guy who’s it was and told him what had happened.

Suddenly he looked very angry and began telling me that I had ruined the guitar. That the only way to get the pick out was to cut the guitar in half. Needless to say, Impressionable and Naieve as I was at that age, I took it seriously and got quite affraid. He said it would cost $500 to repair the guitar and get the pick out.

It was about 3 or 4 years before I even picked up another guitar. Still under the impression that you had to mutilate a guitar to get the pick out.

Lucky for me the next axe I played was an electric (no holes to drop the pick down 😀 ) and had a ball of a time making scratchy horrbible sounds with it. After that, I knew what I had to do!

I suppose like alot of young up and coming players, it was Metallica that did it.

It was weird because I heard them on the radio, and thought “my god, that is AWESOME!” so I wanted to play just like Kirk Hammett but ha no idea where to start until I got my first starter guitar package for Christmas that year.

So yeah, that’s about it. And the rest… is history!

It was all down to seeing a classical guitar player at school when I was about 8/9. After that..it was to the axe.
🙂

To me, owning a guitar was one of those things that very few people had and could afford…it was kinda like a dream before I started playing. I went over to my buddy’s house and he had an Ibanez GIO from some beginner kit and I thought it was the coolest thing ever that he actually owned an electric guitar. He then played the intro to “Otherside” by Red Hot Chili Peppers and I was then blown away that he could play something that I recognized. 2 weeks later I bought my first guitar and couldn’t stop playing.

@InternetH3ro 748 wrote:

Then I heard John Petrucci. He was the one who really inspired me to learn theory, technique, and to become the best player I can be.

Same here. Over time I’ve been inspired by many guitar pros, but Petrucci is definitely the first one I was exposed to that really got me excited about the guitar. I went straight from playing Creed riffs to learning Dream Theater songs, and my guitar life was never the same! 🙂

Back in the days I used to play football (as in european football). And I mean a lot of football. Practicing with my teams 5 days a week and then 1 serious game in the weekend and one not so serious. However I got an knee injury that put me out of the game for 2 years. Tried playing a few games again but I kept having problems. Decided to call it all off (well…I might start again soon after almost 6 years out of the game (since first time I was injured)). Anyways, it all began short after I was injured. Football was a very large part of my life and I had to find something else to do over those next couple of years. For whatever reason it became guitar.

Many things inspire me to play now, everything from Books, Movies, Videogames, Music of course, discovering new bands, going to concerts, But in the beginning it was Iron Maiden. I was really drawn to the guitar styles of Dave Murray, Adrian Smith, and Janick gers. Dave, with his super smooth legato speed runs, and slow bluesy solos, to Adrians rock driven solos with some of the coolest licks, and Janicks manic massive reaches, where any one us would tap, he plays it with his fretting hand, and his spontaneous harmonics really grabbed me.

when metallica kill em all came out, i picked up the guitar the first time… I thought that if i could play along with that cd i would be the baddest guitarist… i learned the whole thing and learned a whole lot more, then life took over and i took a 12 year break… now my girlfriend’s son got a guitar for christmas and i told him i used to play… I picked up his guitar and started to play again…since then ive spent 1000 on my own guitar and have gotten my own amp… been playing everyday since my birthday on january 15th… having to relearn alot of stuff, but some of it is like riding a bike, never forget it… Seems like i never forgot my love for metallica’s kill em all though… baddest cd to play ever… fate’s melissa is a close second

I never learned to play with the metronome, just played with alot of drummers and along with cds