What age did you start playing guitar?

[Skyhook]

I started at 11.
Here's the guitar. Still with me after numerous mods and re-paints.

 

[dougstrum]

Started at 13 my little brother and I both really wanted to learn. I was kinda shy around adults and my brother was as gregarious as anyone could be.
So he started taking lessons from an old jazzer at the local music store and would show me what he had learned when he got home.
After about a year and a half of playing scale exercises we decided it wasn't what we wanted to learn. He quit the lessons and we bought a Beatles and a Dylan song book. Then figured out what the chord symbols above the notation were, and we were off to the races

 

[Jakedog]

I started when I was 12. That was 1985. I messed with it, not super seriously, but I wanted to play and sing solo acoustic like my dad. By the time I was into it about a year I could sing and play 30-40 songs confidently. I started gigging at 14 in little restaurants and pubs and stuff. The rest has mostly been a blur.

Since 1987 when I did my first gig I’ve never stopped. I started singing in rock and metal bands in high school,then became a default bassist when someone stopped playing because his parents made him quit and spend all his free time at church. Then got into blues, rock, country, lots of alt and new wave stuff, and it just keeps going. Spent a whole lot of time on the road up until about 2018. Now I work mostly regional/local stuff. Still travel sometimes but not as my full time gig at all.

It’s just always been what I do.

 

[jazzlettuce]

I started playing bass when I was 11 or 12 to play AC/DC songs with my best friend who had a guitar. Didn’t pursue it much outside of making a racket in his garage every now and then.

I really got going on guitar when I was 18 and living in an apartment with between 1 and 5 roommates at any given time. Good times.

 

[BryMelvin]

I was late as a child with guitar. But already played woodwinds and keyboards Started on accordion at 5 years old.

 

[Swirling Snow]

I didn't start until I moved out of my home town. I think I was afraid I'd embarrass myself. (And I really would have.)

 

[Wilharnauld365]

I started when I was 13 with my older brother's classical guitar, and then i quickly played bass in my first band ... there were already two guitarists, and they asked me to take the bass (it was in the late 70's) ! Today, my bassist is one of these two guitarists

 

[naveed211]

Age 13 is when I started. That’s when I became interested in playing and writing music. Took lessons for about a year and then switched to bass for a few years.

Really took to the guitar again at age 16, mostly self taught, and started my first band. Haven’t stopped since.

 

[tele-nova]

Got a harmony electric and a little pos amp with it when I was ten. I still have them both.

When I was learning on it I got so frustrated with the F chord that I remember wanting to smash it but I didn't have another one so I bit it (LOL) really hard on the back end of the body. The teeth marks are still in it haha!

 

[tonepoet333]

When I was learning on it I got so frustrated with the F chord

I recall having a problem learning barre chords like F, and a classmate suggested putting classical nylon strings or Martin Silk & Steel strings on the guitar for a while and then switch back to steel strings, which is what I did. It made learning barre chords less frustrating.

tonepoet
www.jackshiner.com

 

[VeeMcwiththeRobin]

By "when" I mean either

1) When you really started playing regularly with drive and passion
or
2) When you became inspired to pick up the guitar, even if it took a while to get one. I.e., I did yard work for almost a year before I came up with the cash to buy one, but I was otherwise driven to get one at that point.

You'll notice it's pretty specific in a specific decade, and that's because I suspect that this is where most of the entries will hit. Let me know if you disagree!

I had one summers worth of lessons when I was 7 or 8, but the teacher was horrible and I quit with the deeply held belief that I was uniquely incapable of playing instruments. I truly believed I had something about my coordination or thinking process that could never be overcome, and so contented myself to be a super-fan. At 18 mt first girlfriend suggested I learn to play. I tried a course at the local JC and failed at their material, but figured out a WHO song and a AC/DC tune on my own. That same GF knew a fellow in a local band and had her brother introduce us- his name was Jaime and he played bass for a band called Headface. Jaime bid me come around to one of their practices, and after asking if I’d ever played bass went ahead and taught me some fundamentals. As it happened he noted I had natural sense of time/good groove and a fairly accurate ear for melody, which he said were great blessings. I soon after that got a used Ibanez RIC copy and began learning bass lines from records- Cream, Death Angel, Judas Priest, Sabbath and Motörhead- I was HOOKED ! I played bass from 18 to 24, then shifted focus to guitar. It’s been an enduring obsession ever since. I quit playing twice- each time for about a year, but always came back to it- eventually developing my singing as well. Over the years I decided to focus on songwriting, and I consider myself to be a songwriter who plays guitar and bass- there are a million players who can shred in ways I haven’t been able to, but I feel confident that my voice as a writer is my strength, and writing songs is where I find the most meaning and satisfaction…Four of these six are my compositions

 

[Bonneville Bruce]

I like to think I am speaking for most everyone here, but we all seem to face some form of "impostor syndrome" when it comes to guitar. We all say "I wish I could be better" or "I wish I had practiced more" or "I wish I had started earlier" or "I wish I had known what I know now back when I first started". It's the nature of the beast when it comes to something that can't be measured or quantified in hard numbers. We all tell ourselves "it's not a contest" but we all fall into that same trap and same series of self-deprecation scripts when we see or hear someone that can do something with great skill that we can't yet do.

I've struggled with this, you've struggled with this, we've all struggled with this. Again, it's not a contest. It's not about who's great and who's not. It's all about doing what gives us joy and happiness.

I regularly tell myself the same stuff I wrote above and yet I still fall into the same traps I know I should avoid. Something something "the dark side of being an artist" something.

Thanks for the deep perspective, It helps to know that we are not alone.