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How did you get started playing music ?

Hey - you are very welcome here, you know. We are all songwriters and we all have music up. If you'd like a few listens, the best way to get them is to post a link to your song, along with the lyrics, in the MP3 thread. At the same time, review a few other people's songs and take part in the general community discussion... raise your profile, so to speak. JPF is a great network & folks here are willing to listen if you also spend some time participating.

cheers
Hummin'bird

By moving one or both of my hands on a toy tom-tom.

John

In 2nd Grade I started playing the little plastic flutes called Tonettes in class and actually learned to read the music from it. In 4th Grade we were tested on musical ability/knowledge and I tested very well. The teacher wanted to know where I had taken private lessons, but I had only learned from the plastic flute and my own personal interest to learn more. She didn't believe me when I said I had never had any lessons except the Tonette. She wanted me to be in the band, but we were pretty poor at the time since we were fairly isolated where we lived up on the side of a mountain and my father was out of work, so instead of renting me an instrument they gave me one to use. I chose the saxophone.

About a month or two after starting in the band my father came home with a $20 dollar Mexican made classical guitar he bought with money from some odd jobs he had picked up. He came into the house with it and my eyes got big, but he told my brother and me not to touch his guitar. Naturally, the next time he left the house I picked it up along with a fake book of folk songs someone gave him. The first day I taught myself the song I Gave My Love A Cherry. After about two weeks of practicing on his guitar every day while he was gone, he walked in on me while I was playing and I did not see him. He stood there quietly listening to me for a minute, then walked past me into his bedroom and never said a word about it. He realized I could already play better than him, so he did not even pick the guitar up for another six months. When he did he came to me and asked me to teach him how to play a Leadbelly song that I had been playing.

I don't have a real good answer to your question, I guess. I always liked the sound of guitar music. My father played rythm...no lead. He showed me abour 6 o r 8 of the "open" chords on the guitar. I guess I just have a certain inate ability. I was 12 years old the time I picked up and guitar and asked my father to teach me something. He taught me those few chords. By the time I was 14 years old, I was playing in a band for money every weekend. I am completely and totally self-taught, except for those first half dozen chords that my father taught me. I do not read music what-so-ever and have no formal kowledge of music theory. I simply hear something and then I can usually play it very soon afterwards. It's just a God-given gift, I suppose.

And when I write an original song, I just put together chords and a melody that seem to work well as a composite work. I do not sit and plan out a song before I write it. I just write it as I go. I've had a few good ones and few clunkers.

My start was simply wanting to be able to play the sounds that I enjoyed listening to. No real good story. Like police detective Joe Friday on the old TV series "Dragnet"...just the facts; just the facts.

Al

Well, it depends. Musician? Writer? Artist?

I learned how to play guitar to impress a girlfriend. (No longer have girlfriend. Still play guitar.) In the '60s, that was the way to get chicks--everybody knew that. I'd say I wasn't sure it works, except my current wife is a bluegrass fan and I met her when I was playing in a bluegrass band. So maybe it does.

Also wrote my first song to impress same girlfriend. Was awful (the song, that is). The epitome of talentless, self-centered teen angst--a lot like a lot of pop music you hear on the radio, in other words. I did get better, but it took years. I think it helped to have gone around the block a few times and been hit by oncoming traffic. (Didn't say it was pleasant. Only that it helped.)

The Dodson Drifters happened by accident in the mid-'70s. It's just what happens when you take four guys from completely different backgrounds and stick 'em in a town of 50 people where the power goes out every night in the winter. (Oh, and if one of 'em looks and sounds like Willie Nelson.) What was more suprising than our becoming decent musicians after playing together every night for over a year was that somebody discovered we existed.

Years after the band broke up, I started performing again, mostly because I'd figured out nobody was going to perform the songs I wrote except me. Still miss having a band for company, though.

Bottom line: I'm still learning how to play guitar, still trying to become a better writer, and still trying to learn how to perform. Been a fun ride, though.

Joe

Beating the snot out of my little brothers.
Their heads were like tuned coconuts.
Learned to develop a syncopated beat.

I grew up singing in Church and then my G'ma Katie taought me a C Major chord when I was about 8 or so. The rest is history I guess. I began playing by ear and wrote my first song shortly after that. Six years of lessons followed that, and here I am today writing keys. Writing - I began by writing some poetry or not some poetry a long long time ago, jsut as a place to vent.

LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Still LOL!!!!!!!!!!

Yep!!!!!!!!!!

"The best way to predict the future is to create it"

Hey Tiffany,

I've seen that quote attributed to several different people. Any idea who actually said it first?

Brian

I started in 4th grade playing the flute in the school band. I took a lot of crap for it (being a boy) but I got to sit smack in the middle of 15 girls and I didn't have to schlump a sousaphone home every night so I figure it was probably worth it.



Chuck

Hi Brian. I have no idea who said it originally. I have a daily calendar with awesome stuff like this for everyday. IT was on one of them. I just loved it...it totally says what I believe. Thanks and pleawse let me know if you ever find out who originally said it. I'm glad to be here!!! Marlene brought me on over.

Well lets see here


Hey Songzman. I started when I was about 19 years old. My dad had played guitat for years. He was ok at covering other peoples stuff and had written some (not many) of his own songs.

After he passed away(when I turned 19) I decided to persue music. I decided I didn't want to wallow in mediocrity for years as he did. So I went and bought a book on lead guitar. That didn't work out so well though I did learn some general ideas of music theory and scales. I then took about 6 lessons. From that point on it just kinda came to me over time sort of like Alan said.

I know some music theory though for the most part I just emulate ideas I have heard before. These days I can write a song pretty much off the cuff without even thinking. I guess you could call it a gift ot a curse lol. Half the time I don't even remember them. I think everyone has their own journey in music though so good luck with yours!

Well, probably not as exciting of a story as all of yours, but this is the deal. Took a few years of piano lessons starting when I was eight or so. I never got very good at it but I loved it and did learn to read music. I always loved to sing, but suffered severe stage fright when I tried to perform alone, so I would sing in choruses in school music productions of The Music Man, South Pacific etc. But, country music was always my very first love. I wanted to be the next Patsy Cline but, knew in my heart I'd never step foot on a stage alone. I started writing from the time I could hold a pencil. Mom says she rarely saw me without one. Wrote some freelance pieces for local publications when I was in my twenties. When I was in my thirties I returned to college. Did alot of writing there. I was told by several professors to never give up writing. Well, at the time, I was also raising seven children, with my husbands help of course, but it left very little time. So, unfortunately, it all got put aside for many years. Well, true story, in 1996 two of our sons put a band together (lead singer and one the drummer). Now they are fairly famous, at least in this part of the country. I watched them progress so much over the years, heard the stuff they were writing and putting on their cd and thought, hey, I'd like to do that before it's way too late. So, a few months ago I picked it up again. Now I write 6-8 hours a day and have finished dozens of songs, some that my sons will produce for their next cd. and some other lyrics that I have posted on these boards. I am a prime example that you are never too old to just get back in the race. It's not over until you say it's over unless someone higher up decides first. If that's the case, I'll take His call.

That's where I'm at,

Jan

I had always wanted to play guitar since 8 Feb. 1964, but didn't get the chance until my Dad bought me my first guitar when I was 11. It was awful, very high action, the steel strings broke every time I tried to tune it, and it wouldnt stay in tune anyway. The name on the headstock was Lori (name of my later ex-wife too, I must have a problem with Loris). Anyway, I had earlier tried my older sister's guitar, which was a classical, and no way could I fret it - too wide. But I borrowed her lesson book ( I think the guy's name was Hy White) and taught myself chords, G7, C, D. And the rest, as they say, is a hangover fuzzy memory.

I was about 10 and saw my father's brothers play guitar, one strumming and one fingering, acting like musical fools, and loved it. Then I found what looked like a guitar pick and said, "I'm on my way. Now all I need is a guitar. And to learn to play." And voila! 40 years later, I'm starting to learn.

Wow! Janice, seven children and energy to do anything is amazing. I got a guitar at seven but it was one of those early stellas. It warped so badly that it couldn't make music. I tried though. I got my first electric at eleven or 12. That was a Kent, triple pick-up jobby. Little Kalamazoo amp. Thats when all the trials and tribulations of the old Stella fell into place. The rest is history and mystery.

To make a VERY long story relatively short...I went thru my rebellious teen-age faze, went to war with my parents and the law..Dropped out of high school on the condition that I get a full-time job and get my G.E.D.{which I did} Worked a dead-end job for 7 years while I honed my musical skills...Hooked up with a couple of local music veterans who saw my potential, and started playing out full time. Quit the dead-end day job after we'd been playing out 6 nights a week for a year, and had become one of the most popular bands in the city... The band leader had a serious drug/alchohol problem, and the band broke up, but by that time I had enough loyal supporters of my own to go solo, so I did, and 20 years later, I'm still at it...God Bless America!!!!

when i was a kid we lived in a really small town..

my parents were not the nicest people and iwound up in church one day..

i heard them singing and i really liked it..
i began arriving early every sunday so i could see what hymns were posted for the service..
i sat in the first row and sang louder than anybody else so they'd look at me

some things never change

bob

Bob "born a showman" Young...so "because of the girls" must have come later...when you reached puberty


Great stories all. I guess in my case writing came first because I was always into a good lyric. In my early teens I got a guitar and lessons as a Christmas present, but I hated practicing so the lessons soon stopped. But I plucked around a bit and always retained an interest...trying to put music to my "poems"...though I was never any good....at least that's what people kept telling me


Everything changed when I spent a year in Banff Alberta, where I worked the front desk of a hotel. Since I always checked in the band every Sunday night, I got to hang with them, and in that year, I basically learned enough to begin writing a bit on my own. When I found JPF, that part exploded.


Like Alan and some others, I have no formal music training, and most of what I write is done within known chord progressions and knowing what key I'm supposed to be in....so knowing the available "chord menu". So I play by ear, which has gotten much better over the years as my ear has become "trained" ....though I admit it's far from perfect

My dad always played Waylon Jennings & Johnny Cash records on the weekends when I was a kid. My older sisters had Beach Boys & Beatles 45's. Music was always playing in our house.

I took a guitar class in 6th grade and the songbook they used was a Lennon & McCartney book. First song I learned was Norwegian Wood.

Now I have my own kids, and I try to continue that family music tradition. We have a music hour every night where we dance, sing, yodle, blow a kazoo, or just bang on a pot while playing music. The kids love it.

BTW...my wife just sprung some American Idol Concert tickets on me tonight. The show is tomorrow. My 7 yr old daughter is obsessed with Sinjia. Oh well, it could be worse...she could like Ozzy!

I always loved music and wanted to make it. I remember having an uncle who'd play guitar when I was really little, he'd play the Bonanza theme for me while I sat on his lap and watched. I started bugging the parents for a guitar when I was around 7 or so, they finally got me one when I was 10...I dove right in, and have never really stopped since, that was 35 years ago.

Hootenanny

I was listening to Judas Priest one day, and rocking the air guitar in the full-length mirror in my bedroom, when it occurred to me that I wanted to do that for real.

I told my parents, and wound up getting a cheap Strat knockoff at a flea market on my birthday. Took guitar lessons for a few months, then quit and learned by jamming along with records and getting tips from friends who actually played well

HA! I feel your pain Bob. I've had people actually move away from me at church because I sing loud. It happened on three different occassions at least! That's okay....they were petty dorks anyway.


When I was five I would stand on my grandparents' fireplace and sing "Tomorrow" from Annie. I had a block for a microphone which I called my woo. I sang in the school choir and even had a solo at a school play. But then there were the years between 5th and 10th grade when I didn't really even listen to any music, let alone sing. I "played" percussion in high school.

When I was 16, I was going through a "rebellious" stage and just to be impertinent I started writing songs that were "Christian." Then I gave my life to Christ and started writing all kinds of songs, including Christian ones. Then I sang at a teen meeting for church....I was loud, but I was really pitchy. So when I went to college I got voice lessons which corrected that.

But I was going to a really "interesting"(AKA controlling) church, which didn't think people should use their gifts outside of the four walls of the church building. So for years I sang on the church music team. FINALLY I got fed up with feeling stifled and used by the church leadership. I got rebellious again and recorded my first CD in 2004. I don't like it. When it was recorded a lot of my personality was suppressed by this church. I feel like it sounds plastic....but some people like it. Whatever.

Then I left that church...FINALLY! hehe and found who I really am...which is ridiculous because who really has found their true self. I find that I change in my thinking often. Which might be because of my church/cult background. (It's really hard for me to admit that I was in a borderline cult under the guise of a church for most of my life...but there it is. I can't deny it.)

Okay, I'm blabbering. SOOOOORRRRY!

Hey Tiffany and Brian,

I know this one:

~The best way to predict the future is to create it~

This quote is attributed to Abraham Lincoln. But I think his version was "The best way to predict your future is to create it."

It would be nice to say something people remember throughout the ages! Best I can come up with is: "A little pain never hurt anyone." Oh well, I tried.

I wanted to learn to play piano at 15 and paid for my own lessons until my babysitting money ran out. (I used to babysit the neighbor's kids in exchange for being allowed to practice on her piano.) My mom knew I wanted to play but couldn't afford a piano, so she offered to get me a guitar and some lessons. I really wanted to play piano, but I was desperate to make music, so I took her up on it. I began writing my own songs when I ran out of new music and couldn't afford to buy sheet music.

I am remiss in my duty to give credit where credit is due. I did attend parochial schools. They had us singing in chorus and choir constantly, the downside was that they lacked funds for proper music lessons. A few of us boys would trade off what ever we could learn on our own guitars. I had a conversation with a couple of guys from that era last week, I had forgotten that there weren't any guitar teachers in our area back then. I did take a couple lessons when I was in my mid-teens. The instructor was more interested in my sisters, but I stil remember "Tea for Two" to this day.

My writing started in college, when I was living in a house that had basically nothing but a piano and a book of poems. I started reading the book of poems, copyright 1918, and started to put music to them. Then one Wednesday night, I was at choir practice,(I was the organist), and one girl said that she was just at the hospital, and a good friend of mine had just died. I was so shocked, that I wrote a song entitled "sleep", the family liked the words so much, they made copies and brought them home with them all across the nation. Been writiing ever since, and now slowly getting into the internet thing, IE soundclick. Sometimes the songs are slow in coming, (Twenty minutes) but others just come. Now I am looking for lyricists to cowrite wiht me. I have about 100 melodies with no words. I will be getting some of them up on my site soon, (JUst putting them into mp3 format.

Listening to Beatles records while they were coming out, with my older sister...we'd pretend we were them, she was Ringo and I was John. I was obsessed with them (still am). When I was eight I sang Hey Jude into a little cassette player, then I sang harmony along with it, recording on another tape player. I thought I'd invented multitracking. Learned piano, later picked up a guitar and then it was off to the races.

Ohhhhhh
Back whe times were tough, and there never was enough.
left over from living, for the giving of of a lot.
And so I was a real pleased boy, when one birthday, I got.
A harmonica given to me.

Now Daddy played the bagpipes, and their key is B flat.
And the harmonica was in C, so it was a real hard task for me.
To figure out a way, I could play.
Along with that, successfully.

But a lot of years on, and daddy gone,
I've still got the memories.
Of a litle kid learing quite by chance.
How to bend.
Harmonica.
Keys.

Thanks for today's song Lyle.
Graham

Nice tale Graham, is it a song?? Should be...

I only wrote it in here off the cuff Rick, but I have it almost ready to sing now.
Watch out for Bagpipes And Poverty or similar as a title in MP3 forum or a soundclick near you.
It will be in B flat.
Graham

ill wait for it graham.

jj.

Hi,

I took piano lessons for about a year, then quit. After this, my dad had wonderful LPs of folks like Fats Waller and Sam Price. I would listen to our stereo system upstairs, then run downstairs and pick them out on the old upright piano. After highschool, I picked up the guitar and bass.

Well from childhood my mother would have myself and my two older sisters singing and recording stuff on a cassette recorder (those cassettes are still alive today we listen to them when ever we are all together). From there singing in church school competitions etc. Well the "break" came when I copped first place in the Local Full Gospel Song Festival with my own song Leaving It All Behind. That's the long and short of it.

Here ya go.
All done
http://www.jpfolks.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=553176&page=1#Post553176
Graham

I started writing and producing musical plays in my carport when I was seven. We sold tickets to the neighborhood for 25 cents.

hied, do you still work in the music production business

Yes, rkdad.

My first ever public performance was age eight, and it was so bad, I never sung in public again until I was sixty and past the stage of careing what anybody thought, I just wanbted to have some fun, and most of my other forms of enjpoyment, age was stealing from me at a frightening rate.
Graham

For me, it all started with a an old Spiegel's catalog from which my mom and dad ordered my first guitar. Shortly after that, I started listening to some old 45 and 33-1/2 rpm country records, always amazed when I'd hit the right chord in a song. It's been 44 years now, and I still experience the amazement of the music - but the old Spiegel's guitar is naught but memory now.

In the late eighties I met a metal drummer and guitarist who were in the same band together. I traded licks and beats and had a lot of fun learning "Paranoid" on drums and guitar and "Shout At The Devil".
Then I met a jazz musician that had a fixation on The Cars. He had a bunch of mixing and recording equipment and we recorded some originals.
My father purchased a keyboard for me when he found out how interested in music I was to be recording with that jazz musician.
I have been interested in playing for 19 years, but because of people moving on and having to just worry about surviving, I hav'nt been able to spend longer than a week on it until 2004.

I have an inerest in film music, as well as being eclectic in general, and don't want to be loud all the time.
But my interests started with metal.

Great thread you guys,

Me ? Always had a piano in the house. Grandfather was a dance hall pianist ( wicked for those days ) and my mum a classically trained pianist who was broadcast on "live studio radio" around about the 50's. She got her first paycheck, and my grandfather gave her the money, didn't cash it, then framed it and hung it on the wall.

He bought her a beautiful Steinbech upright grand, which she still has, and is currently used when we go to see granny with my kids. We sit around it and bash out a tune.

And I wonder why my kids are musical......geez....no brainer.

Now, lets see...dance hall musician who died a pauper, mother who's doing OK, but not through music, me who gave it away for ten years because it couldn't pay the bills any longer......is there a trend developing here ? must just be in the genes.

cheers, niteshift