Songwriting and the Guitar

Hi, I'm fairly new here, so I thought I would share a little information about myself, and also ask all of you to share something similar. I started playing the guitar so I could sing, and play some songs. I also think learning to play the guitar may help me learn more about songwriting. Why did you start playing the guitar?

I voted because I wanted to, but really... and not trying to be so dramatic, but because I had to. I was 12 and basically stole the guitar from under my mom after her first guitar night class. She showed me what she learned and... and I freaked. "I can do that!" She lovingly rolled her eyes and succumbed. I already had a thing for the radio. for TV movie musicals. For any music. I had it in me. I haven't stopped since. That was 40 years ago.

I was 15. Sick of piano lessons (I was forced into classical piano by age of 5). My father played guitar, he says that how he got through university without having to pay for drinks, by singing dirty songs and playing guitar...

I actually wanted to be a bassist, but they convinced me to get an acoustic guitar instead.

Since then I've gone back and forth from some serious time playing guitar, to a few stints on not picking up the guitar for months or years. Now, it's my main focal instrument for writing, and I'm getting back into piano after. I sort of joke with the wife that my guitars come first, since I've had them much longer than I've had her around.

Though this might be more appropriate topic over at cool jam, unless you can tie it back to song writing a bit better

To get chicks.

Duh!

Where are the options for those who don't play guitar?

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FWIW, after being rejected by a piano teacher ("no musical talent whatsoever"), I tried drums in grade school orchestra (yes, I'm so old, they actually offered orchestra in grade school from a circuit teacher who'd come to the campus a couple times a week) and, after trying to keep a steady beat on the magazine I used as a practice pad (I kept pushing on my folks to buy me a real practice pad, since, in my desperation, I felt there must be some magic missing somewhere; at least I had real drum sticks) I was finally tactfully told by the teacher that I should probably put my creative efforts into another, non-musical avenue since I had... no musical talent whatsoever.

But there was no stopping me. Exactly.

When I was 13 and the Great Folk Scare was just getting into full swing, I watched a "Kentucky Jones" episode (a sort of takeoff on the original 1963 Glenn Ford movie The Courtship of Eddie's Father -- only with a Chinese orphan as the [adopted] son and Dennis Weaver in his first starring TV role) where the kid started taking guitar lessons and by the end of the show whipped off the E major to F major move from 10,000 bad flamenco songs, which really impressed me, in that, if some Chinese orphan (I was willing to stretch reality to make the point to myself) could do it, I should be able to. I saved up my allowance and the money I made selling cleaning products door to door [it was a different time, you could do that stuff back then as a little kid and not end up getting cut up in little pieces and buried in some creepy guy's cellar... well, it was SoCal... no cellars, but the point remains] and bought an $18, barely playable guitar (back then dollars; would have been $132 today -- but you'd laugh at anyone trying to sell you this POS for that today -- but I still have it, since I foolishly cut up Silver Surfer #2 to applicque the Silvery One onto the headstock)... that I beat my head on for 6 or 8 months before deciding maybe those two music pedagogues had a point.

It wasn't until I was 20 and frustrated by my role as a college poet (while all the other cool guys were out on the quad with their guitars, and usually a girl) that I went to the mats with my old guitar and, somehow, over a few months of plunking dutifully away, it somehow started sounding ever so vaguely like music. The rest is (rather obscure personal) history.

After stealing my mom's guitar, she got me an upright grand. A full size antique, in perfect condition, awesome sounding piano. A garage sale steal. It went in my room next to my bed.

First song I learned was The Theme From Romeo and Juliet. By ear, simple and gorgous. Hey! White keys! Mancini. Then I started transposing guitar chords to the piano and saw the differences in inversion possibilities. I later wrote stuff to be performed by my high school jazz band on that beast. Then my pop/new wave band. I loved it...

That piano actually rolled cross the room at me as I woke that morning during the San Fernando earthquake, LA 1971. Holy {censored}!!!!

There are none. It has been my experience that chicks only dig guitar players.

My guitar story is quite lame. A roommate's buddy in college played and I always wanted to, so I borrowed it from time to time before finally getting one of my own (that I still have - a $200 Montana that sounds like a dream, but struggles to hold its tuning for more than 2-3 songs). That's really about it.

I actually just remember that I borrowed another friends guitar for a little while. It was an old classic piece that, being the newb I was, I put steel strings on it. So, I got the worst of all worlds, I wide neck and damn near impossible to fret strings! As you can imagine, a few months into it I came home one day to find that the neck had snapped.

More interesting is my first instrument, the drum pad. I joined 5th grade band with no idea what I would play, but somehow I got settled on the drums. During the audition, the director would tap out some beats and ask you to repeat it, and he noted down how many tries it took you to get it right, or until you said you couldn't do it.

Well, I noticed that he didn't make a notational difference between "number of tries to get it right" or "number of times until you quit", he simply jotted down a number. So, when my turn came, if I didn't get it right be the 3rd try, I gave up right there. Of course I passed the audition and of course I was genuinely terrible afterward. But it still is a fond memory of outsmarting the teacher.

A few of my high school friends were guitar players and I thought I wanted to able to do that. I remember trying one of my friend's acoustic and he had super heavy strings and incredibly high action. Somehow this didn't deter me.

After a couple of years of fumbling my way on guitar another friend (a former sound guy) suggested I try a 4 track cassette recorder and that eventually led me to writing songs (and singing).

My parents forced piano on my in the 4th grade. A little old lady came to my house to teach me... I hated it. Never practiced... she dropped me as a student claiming I was unteachable. For some reason, in 5th grade, I got the itch to learn an instrument... just not piano. My older brother plays guitar and I remember asking him what instrument would be easiest to learn. He suggested flute... why? I don't know... but the deal was done. I took up the flute (never got any chicks because of this). This led to me playing flute in church for ten years... and being forced to do the marching band in high school, which I despised. In retrospect, the decision to take up the flute indirectly influenced my introverted high school behavior... although, I did sort of lead a double life. 'Band fag' by day, 'cool' skate rat by afternoon.

In 6th grade, I started noodling on the piano... and strumming on my brother's Ovation acoustic. By high school, I was pretty good at piano and joined my first band. We were terrible, but I was on my way. In college, I bought a cheap acoustic and spent a lot of time strumming and playing songs with friends. I never really tried to learn the guitar properly, which I regret to this day... but I could get through a tune. Towards the latter part of college, I really started getting into playing keys in bands... A couple of years after graduating, I hooked up with a killer blues band and that ended up being my career for a while. Got to travel a good part of the country and play in front of lots of people.

Then I settled down, married, had some kids... and recently started getting into the guitar more and more and writing my own tunes. I've bought three guitars in the past 6 months (a Martin acoustic, Samick 335 copy, and a Squier Telecaster). Then I found this place... so here I am. About to cover one of Harmony Central's most prolific and talented writers.

There are none. It has been my experience that chicks only dig guitar players.

Jeez, and I always thought the drummers get all the chicks...

@Topic

Started playing when I was 14 because I wanted too. Played an old guitar from my father that time, which we turned into a left handed guitar using backing powder and glue (to fit the gaps at the bridge ). Anyway, being a big fan of piano playing songwriter chicks (say Tori Amos, Fiona Apple or Sarah Slean), I often regret that I never learned the piano :/

I guess I showed an interest in music at a very young age. My Mother steered me into the horns with flute-o-phone lessons and letting me fool around with the trumpet and trombone. My heart was not in it. My Grandfather gave me a Kaykraft florentine guitar and I can't remember really liking it all that much, then The Beatles appeared on the Ed Sullivan show in 1964 and I was smitten. I played that Kaykraft until my fingers bled, figuring out all The Beatle's songs. I think I took one lesson but felt it was a waste of time and money learning "Mary Had A Little Lamb".

Me too! Although it was an electric guitar in my case. After months of persistent pleading*, my mom took me to a music store to look at basses. The sales guy said I'd be better off with a guitar instead, so that's what I ended up with. I can't say I regret the decision. I eventually bought a bass a few years later, but to this day the guitar is my favorite instrument to play.

*Given my dismal track record from previous attempts to learn an instrument (piano, trumpet, and clarinet), I can't say I faulted my parents for their skepticism of my commitment toward learning yet another instrument. 20+ years later, sometimes I'm even still surprised that I stuck with it after all...

My parents forced piano on my in the 4th grade. A little old lady came to my house to teach me... I hated it. Never practiced... she dropped me as a student claiming I was unteachable. For some reason, in 5th grade, I got the itch to learn an instrument... just not piano. My older brother plays guitar and I remember asking him what instrument would be easiest to learn. He suggested flute... why? I don't know... but the deal was done. I took up the flute (never got any chicks because of this). This led to me playing flute in church for ten years... and being forced to do the marching band in high school, which I despised. In retrospect, the decision to take up the flute indirectly influenced my introverted high school behavior... although, I did sort of lead a double life. 'Band fag' by day, 'cool' skate rat by afternoon. In 6th grade, I started noodling on the piano... and strumming on my brother's Ovation acoustic. By high school, I was pretty good at piano and joined my first band. We were terrible, but I was on my way. In college, I bought a cheap acoustic and spent a lot of time strumming and playing songs with friends. I never really tried to learn the guitar properly, which I regret to this day... but I could get through a tune. Towards the latter part of college, I really started getting into playing keys in bands... A couple of years after graduating, I hooked up with a killer blues band and that ended up being my career for a while. Got to travel a good part of the country and play in front of lots of people. Then I settled down, married, had some kids... and recently started getting into the guitar more and more and writing my own tunes. I've bought three guitars in the past 6 months (a Martin acoustic, Samick 335 copy, and a Squier Telecaster). Then I found this place... so here I am. About to cover one of Harmony Central's most prolific and talented writers.

It's all about the timing. If you had played flute in 1970 or so and had a wild mane of hair and knew how to overblow, you would have got girls like there was no tomorrow. I mean, even Ian Anderson could have got chicks.* Think about that.

* He was married when they hit. In fact, to the woman credited with the lyrics to Aqualung -- which gives that work yet one more provocative resonance, I guess.

In '62, my older sister decided she wanted to play guitar, got a job and bought a lovely Gibson LG2. She lost interest after a while. In the mean time, my little brother decided he wanted to play guitar so my folks bought the Gibson off my sister and got the kid lessons. He got pretty good...but lost interest by the time he finished high school.

In the mean time, I never had much interest in playing any instrument but I was writing song lyrics (and melodies, sort of) and singing with various short-lived bands. I did get frustrated with depending on some one else to write the music. Which I usually thought rather lame. Though when I look back at my lyrics, they may have been even worse! So I decided one day, at age 26, to learn guitar.

So off I went to my parents' house where I knew a certain Gibson was sitting in a closet. I liberated the LG and still have it to this day. I also slowly taught myself how to play, eventually finding my way to my own uniquely inept style of finger-picking. It was worth it to get around to playing an instrument at that somewhat later-than-normal point in my life. It certainly was a boon to songwriting. Perhaps learning to read music as I learned to play guitar was the real boon. I understood music way better when I saw it written out on a page but that's just me.

It's all about the timing. If you had played flute in 1970 or so and had a wild mane of hair and knew how to overblow, you would have got girls like there was no tomorrow. I mean, even Ian Anderson could have got chicks.* Think about that.

I played the flute for about a month in grade 7 band, surrounded by girls but the music teacher didn't believe a boy should play the flute, and I ended up playing an e-flat melophone sitting next to the guy who played the french horn, instead of the front row with all the ladies... sigh....

Picked up the guitar when I was 12. Had 10 lessons, and the guitar has never left me since. Just something about guitars

There are none. It has been my experience that chicks only dig guitar players.

Then it was a sad day, when one New Years eve, my girlfriend at the time broke up with me to chase a drummer.

I was trying to turn that into a song the other evening, when I realized, it wasn't so bad. I couldn't remember her name

If I may allow myself to be the token

The only instrument I had ever played was the recorder (4th grade). Not sure why my parents never asked if I wanted to learn.

I was a senior in high school and bored....was poking around my dad's closet and found his old Japanese acoustic from the 70s. I spent the rest of the year learning open chords and strumming away....but put it down for the rest of college. A few years later when I was 25, I really got into making electronic music. One day I decided that I'd rather be playing an instrument than sitting in front of a laptop all day, so I picked it up again. Moved from NYC to central PA so that I could afford to spend less time working, more time playing. And I've been playing seriously for two years now. Some of my happiest moments of the last few years have been writing, playing, and recording my songs.

Great stories, btw....

I realized, it wasn't so bad. I couldn't remember her name

I realized

It wasn't so bad

I couldn't remember her name

Not a bad start on the lyrics for that song.

I picked up the guitar at the tender age of 37 after spending half a lifetime not doing anything musical or remotely artistic (of course, it might be argued that I still haven't:lol:). I was inspired by my son, who was becoming a pretty good guitar player by that time. Thought it would be good to exercise my brain in a different way. Although I don't regret taking up music, I sure wish I had done it earlier when my neural connections were still developing.

Not long after I got to the point where I could string a few chords together, I got the urge to write songs. I don't know where it came from, but I felt the need to express feelings and frustrations through music. At that point I had spent nearly half a career writing dry, technical prose at work (environmental impact analyses ). I found it quite liberating to sit down and write a few lines that rhyme, communicate a thought, feeling, or idea, and then end. But I have to admit that it is a constant struggle to keep my analytical side from turning every song into a 5-minute essay.

Great responses! It's always nice to hear people's stories, they were truly a pleasure to read. I'll be sure to include more instruments in my next poll.

You're missing an option. "To get girls"

You can always choose the "for some other reason" poll answer option. Unfortunately the survey does not provide a blank space to write your own answer in for inclusion in the poll. You can, however, include your own answer in a forum post, and it will be duly noted.

In other words, please select the "for some other reason" option in the poll if "to get girls" is your answer for why you started playing the guitar, and then write "to get girls" in a forum post to tell us your reason.

After selecting your poll option, you can also "pm" your reason directly to me if you don't want anybody else to know what it is. Thanks!