First song you learned...

[Rain]

My older cousin used to babysit me, she was a bit of a singer and had learned a few things on the guitar, so, officially, the first thing I learned was a one finger/one note at a time version of Twist and Shout. On a cheap, toy acoustic guitar.

That guitar was destroyed by a friend of the family, but a few years later, I finally got a cheap electric to replace it. 

By then, I was into heavy metal, but it soon downed on me that I would never be able to play Eruption unless I went back, and back, and back to where it began.

I started with my old friends Elvis and Scotty Moore and tried to orient myself from there.

Eventually I found this record in my parents' collection.

It is the first guitar solo I tried to teach myself. I still remember... I really earned every single note, one at a time...

Kids today have NO idea.

I remember playing the first bit of that song for friends in my grandparents backyard when I was 13. Everybody's wearing Iron Maiden and Saxon t-shirts - including myself - but I am making a point - although no one seemed to get it. 🤣

But I knew I was right. This is where it all came from.

What's YOUR story?

[T Boog]

 The first guitar solo I learned (minus the harmony part) was Bonnie Tyler's "It's a Heartache". I learned it from my big sister's 45" single. I still remember being very proud of myself when I figured it out. 

The second solo I learned was a basic version of Willie Nelson's Blue eyes crying in the Rain from my mom's record. I still remember having trouble figuring out the double stops( I prob scratched that record to sh*t). But it was good early ear training. Those are some good memories.

Cheers 👍

[Shane_B.]

The first song I learned to play without having my Complete Beatles book in front of me for the chords was Misery by the Beatles.

The first solo I learned to play was Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain by Willie Nelson. That was the song that changed my life. The very first time I heard the needle set down on the record player at home and I heard him do his trademark hammer from the A to B note, it triggered something in me as a child and I've had a guitar in my hands almost every single day since.

I used to sneak in to my brother's bedroom and practice on his guitar, but it didn't feel right. He plays right handed, and I'm right handed, but I cannot play guitar right handed. So I learned to play backwards on his right handed Ovation until he caught me and got mad. He bought me a an actual left handed guitar for my birthday that year and I had to relearn playing all over again with the low E on top.

But Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain did something to me. It triggered something in my brain as a child and I've had music running in my head 24/7 ever since. The flip side of the 45 was Remember Me. Both of those songs are very old. His versions were remakes and he left a verse out in Blue Eyes to fit the time limit back then and add a lead.

I can play that lead note for note with his slides and all. You can't hear me playing along I can emulate it so closely. We just blend together. If you listen really close you can hear he double track the first few notes, but only those. If I had to guess, I'd have to say he did multiple takes and left those first few notes as timing markers? I don't know, but I always thought it was odd that just the first few notes were double tracked.

I have about 15 different versions of Blue Eyes. Conway Twitty,, Hank Sr., Marvin Rainwater, Hank Snow, Roy Acuff, just to name a few.

That album was very well recorded. All of his recordings sound really good even if you don't like his music. 

I still have the very first recording I ever made. 12 year old me playing and singing Bungalo Bill and Strawberry Fields Forever. Fake British accent and all.

Sorry if there are a lot of typos. On my cell and the screen is cracked and changes stuff I type and I don't have my glasses. Lol.

[T Boog]

1 hour ago, Shane_B. said:

I'm right handed, but I cannot play guitar right handed

Mark Knopfler is left handed, but he cannot play guitar left handed. That, of course, means you're his evil twin  🧑‍🤝‍🧑    

[hockeyjx]

3 hours ago, T Boog said:

Mark Knopfler is left handed, but he cannot play guitar left handed.

That's me as well.

[mettelus]

I grew up with piano and I didn't take up guitar till I was 18, but learning guitar taught me more about piano/music theory than doing anything with piano ever did (pretty much like studying a foreign language teaches you more about English than you learn in English class). I had borrowed an acoustic with a pretty bowed neck from my Little Brother's aunt, then a friend sold me his old electric setup pretty cheap. I always liked the acoustic intro to Tesla's Love Song, so started with that, then when I got the electric I sat down to figure out the solo. One weird thing that happened with that is the intro has a Bm in it, but most of it is intervals, so I played that Bm with my pinky across the F# and B and do that about half the time to this day. My left pinky has  noticeable hook in it because of that... one of the perils of teaching yourself.

I know I have mentioned this before, but the coolest learning experience starting out was the power went out one night. I learned more from playing in the darkness in a few hours than I had in the 6 months prior... at least I got the dependency of playing with my eyes out of the way early on, so I am thankful for that.

Quick edit: I had to chuckle... I didn't think this song was ever posted online. My room mate first year had let me borrow a copy of a band called Babylon A.D., so when I got the electric the first lick I taught myself was the lead in on "Bang Go the Bells" (and I just kept playing it for probably 20 minutes). Greg was next door then, poked his head in and said, " I USED to like that song." LOL... funny how when the rest of the song is missing, parts are only interesting to the person playing them!

 

Edited 1 hour ago by mettelus