Guitarists [or any other musicians I guess]: At what age did you start playing?

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And how old are you now? Would you say you are a pretty good player?

I was just wondering what the average beginning age was around here..
 
I started playing trumpet in the fourth grade...whatever age that is. Stopped playing when I was 17. Havent touched a brass instrument since.


Started playing guitar this year.

I am 21 now.
 
Started playing bass at 12, I'm 18 now. I'd say I'm a "good" player. I'm no heavyweight, but I can hold my own with most anything you could toss at me.
 
Not long enough. Started January 2003 (I was 17). So I've been playing for a year and a half (I'm 19 now). I'd say I'm ok at best. I can't use my pinky for solos because my finger co-ordination on my left hand is terrible. I can do some pretty quick stuff with my longer three fingers, but my pinky is hopeless. I'm workin' on that.

What I'm ridiculously good at is playing by ear. I have a very well trained ear; I can listen to a song once and get all of its chords down. Still...the whole solo thing I'm workin' on. I love shreddin. :(
 
If he took lessons, he would be using that pinky. Not that it matters, I prefer the self taught guy with some balls to one of these classically trained jerkoffs anyday.
 
Not necessarily, ballhog. I'm self taught and use my pinky religiously.

But yeah, if he was taking lessons, they'd be making him work chromatic scales daily for 20 minutes for the first month.
 
Yeah, I'm just dicking around, I would describe myself as a semi-self-taught jerkoff. I use my pinky like crazy, but my my chording is poor. But I do recommend those stupid chromatic scales.
 
Self-taught. I have musical blood in my gene pool, so I was never worried about having a teacher. I caught on pretty quick.
 
of the instruments i've played for any amount of time (i'm 19 now):

violin: 6-17...i still pick it up occasionally (well, really pretty rarely)
guitar: 12-present
piano: 8-9 (really only for like 6 months before it started getting in the way of violin)
banjo: just got it 4 days ago, learning the standard rolls and stuff i guess but it's slow progress

i want to play the piano more so i can stay on top of my reading (i've gotten pretty bad at it), and get back to where i have perfect pitch. i should really take guitar lessons because i only took them for a few months, then the rest was self taught. i'd like to learn more jazz guitar and classical guitar, but i never take the time. i always end up playing styles i like instead of forcing myself to try and learn new ones.

i also want to get a mandolin because it's basically a violin, so it would be really easy to learn.
 
I started playing guitar when I was 10, and I'm 22 now (23 in October).

I would say I'm pretty good; better than most, but most guitar players really suck. :P
 
I started when I was 13 and am 25 now, but I'm nowhere near as good as one should be after playing for 12 years. I have had no formal training and haven't really progressed in ability since my teenage years, at least not noticably. I also play drums and bass, though, so I tend to hop from one instrument to the next every time I start to get good at one of them. At this point I'd say I can definitely 'hold my own' at all 3.
 
I play saxophone... tenor and alto.

I've been playing since I was about 11, I believe. I haven't been playing as regularly for a couple years now, though.
 
I started playing guitar about, ohh, four hours ago.

piano: 1st grade - present (22 yrs old), although stopped taking lessons after high school

violin: 4th grade- ditto
 
Started playing at 26, now im 27. Teaching myself and play at least five hours a day, fuck a social life. Friends who are musicians say I'm making great progress tho.
 
Around 8. I used to take lessons, but since hitting University I've been forced to stop doing that. I still play here or there, but I'm not nearly as good as I used to be, and hell, I wasn't exactly Hendrix at the top of my game. Still, I think I'm pretty good.
 
Started at around 15, am now 29, but I haven't been playing for most of that time - only really picked up the guitar in anger again a couple of years back.

And I suck at it. :)
 
Started playing guitar when I was 18, I'm 29 now, and I can do enough to get by, but that's about it. Started playing bass when I was 27, and I can just about do enough that people don't throw things at me :)
 
I started playing Bass when I was 15, but haven't touched one in 8 years. (Still get the urge though, I really will have to pick up another sometime soon.)

I consider the mixing desk my instrument more now, it's amazing just how creative you can be with other peoples sound :)


Freeburn.
 
Started in 1994 at age 14. Now I'm almost 24. So playing for ten years. I can rip any motherfucker apart on the guitar.







Ok, ok... I'll be modest. I can absolutely murder anybody. Cut off their head and shit down their neck.
 
Only been playing about 6 years(13 when I started), but I bet I could give anyone here some pretty good competition. Teaching myself via dream theater and children of bodom tends to do that.

Error....is that a challenge I hear?
 
Started at 13, now I'm 28 and I've studied metal, classical and some jazz.

Yeah, I'd say I'm alright with a guitar, I'd never claim to be Lynch after 3 years of copying others people solos though. ;)
 
morbidaza said:
I'd love to do it, I think it would be fun and a healthy way to try and elevate all of our abilities.

Are you guys up for it?
Click to expand...

Hell, even *I'd* be up for it, and I can't play lead to save my life.
 
I did tenor sax all through JHS (7-9th grades) for orchestral band.

I was pretty decent since I made it to the senior band (there were 8 to 12 players in 7th grade between the two or three 7th grade bands and I ended up 2nd chair out of 2 in senior band). I could've made the city band if I wasn't lazy and cared about playing since it came pretty natural to me, but I didn't care about learning anything beyond what was required of me. My buddy, who was the 1st chair tenor player, said if I cared to practice I could've gotten into LaGuardia HS in NYC (musical HS, tough to get into). Ahhh well.

I haven't played since JHS.
 
LaGuardia is the most pretentious school NY has to offer. I hated whoever I knew from that school.
 
I really liked that first thing you posted, Raxel. Really slippery melodic sound to it, and lookin at the tabs thats all legato which i find pretty easy to be sloppy on stuff like that but you sounded clean as a whistle, bravo.

I'll try and get some clips up by tommorow, still not quite sure what I'll record.
 
morbidaza said:
Error....is that a challenge I hear?
Click to expand...

Whoops! I thought my post was a little bit heavy on the sarcasm. There are definitely many people that are better than me. On the other hand, I won't sell myself short. I will say that I also practice my Children Of Bodom licks. :)
 
I thought it might be a bit too boastful to be entirely serious, but if it's all in fun anyway, whats the point in not getting some guitar stuff going? At worst, we can learn from each other.
 
What form is this thing gonna take? A long backing track that we all record on with identical chord progressions, or just a 1 minute solo shred? Or perhaps just a common musical theme? I dunno.
 
No idea, I was planning on just goofing off and posting random clips, but if we wanna actually strutcure it that would be cool, and probably a little more fun since we'd all be working within similar constraints. I like the idea of all playing off the same chord progression.
 
Got 1 clip recorded, it's a boring picking excersize, but I decided to record it because it's one of the best excersizes I've ever seen and some other folks might benefit from it. Really works on keeping that picking hand precise.

Where can I go to host it? Is there a place out there thats good for hosting files and free?
 
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