Howdy,

I have noticed some members of our community play guitar,
so why not come in here and we can share our different styles,
tips & tricks and resorces!

I've been playing since the ripe old age of eight, most of my relations on both sides of my familly where always avid lovers of musical instruments and as far back as I can remember there was always pianos, guitars violin's around me as I grew up.

Guitar was the only instrument I picked up and have loved playing/jamming with my friends cousins ever since.

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Fun songs that go down well at house partys?

This I feel is a very important, because every guitarist needs an arsenal of 'ice-breakers' when on stage, be it in a pub or at a friends house. Off the top of my head 'Hit me baby one more time' by Travis always gets a good laugh

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I'll edit this first post as it grows, adding links to tips & tricks and resorces

Pete.

I play bass quite well and trombone very badly. My best "ice-breaker" ever was picking up a five-string banjo and attempting to knock a tune out of it at a party once while I was off my face on mushrooms.

Throwing water over the audience is always a popular one (not so much at parties), or if you don't have any water handy, throw the horn section at them. Saxophonists go down particularly well.

Quote from thisnameistaken :

I play bass quite well and trombone very badly. My best "ice-breaker" ever was picking up a five-string banjo and attempting to knock a tune out of it at a party once while I was off my face on mushrooms.

Throwing water over the audience is always a popular one (not so much at parties), or if you don't have any water handy, throw the horn section at them. Saxophonists go down particularly well.

oh lord! A mushie banjo player!:tired:, did it go down well? or can you remember?

Saxophonists rock, my mother threw me a surprise party when I was fifteen. She got all my cousins over with their kits, imagine a small semi-d terriced house front room with a full drum kit, five or six on guitars one on piano and one on saxophone and too many amps was some surprise aiight, the noise was mental

Quote from CSU1 :

oh lord! A mushie banjo player!:tired:, did it go down well? or can you remember?

Yeah it went down very well. I was in the USA at the time, and I improvised for them a quaint song about Yorkshire life called "Can you lend us five quid 'til Wednesday when I'll get me giro so I can have some chips".

It was a party for Cinco de Mayo, so we also did the traditional blindfold pinata-whacking thing with a cricket bat. They were happier with me picking up the banjo than they were with the cricket bat, I can tell you!

I guess I've been playing for over 20 years now since a small lad. I have been teaching guitar (rock and folk stuff) for about a year and also building my own electrics, doing setups for people, necks, pickup upgrades, custom circuits, fret dressing, for ages, only recently people have been giving me money for doing it, which is nice.
I've played bass in Jazz bands as well as heavy rock, lead and rhythm guitar in pub covers bands, all sorts of stuff really over the years, some time in a studio with a band recording a CD of their own stuff (played bass on that - very nerve-wracking).
I've got about 15 guitars at home now, of which 6 are made/assembled by me. I'd love to have a go at a good quality acoustic some time.
I basically love everything to do with guitars, playing them, teaching them, fixing them, tweaking them. If anyone has any repair or setup work they want doing and they are in my area please drop me a pm!

I never took lessons as such, I just picked up on what others did and took it at my own pace. Was never too keen on the electric guitar tbh, acoustics have always been the one for me, I love the different sounds that can be got from different styles of playing damping the strings etc.

I sadly had to throw out a twelve string Honer about six months ago, it was given to me by my boss who's father gave it to him. He told me his father had it ever since he(my boss) can remember so it was probably nearly a hundred years old!

It had an awsome tone to it, but it literally went up in a cloud of dust when I left it lying up against a rocking chair for a second, someone walked over bumped into the chair and in slow motion I saw it keel over, land smack on its face and then died in a cloud of hundred year old dry wood dust

Atm I've got two acoustics, nothin flashy(cheap crap tbh) but they get me by.

I got my first guitar at age 16 (10 years ago now) and had written my first song a month after. Never had any lessons, just taught myself from a book of chords my dad gave me and a book of scales from Total Guitar magazine.

But I'm a singer, not a guitarist, so I make no claims to being the next Steve Vai or anything

Quote from Dajmin :

I got my first guitar at age 16 (10 years ago now) and had written my first song a month after. Never had any lessons, just taught myself from a book of chords my dad gave me and a book of scales from Total Guitar magazine.

But I'm a singer, not a guitarist, so I make no claims to being the next Steve Vai or anything

Nice, whats the bands name?

No band right now, my old one split last year, but I'm still looking.

www.myspace.com/paulmuirmusic

I had a guitar and had started lessons when I was 9. It didn't last long. I didn't practice, got yelled at alot for not practicing by my parents, etc etc. Two years ago, the wifey bought me a cheapo guitar for Christmas. A real cheapo. Impossible to play. It's not worth paying someone to look at it and get it playable, IMO. I tried to learn from sites on the net, but I'm not a read and learn kind of person. Show me once and I'll do it, no problem. But trying on my own from reading sources and I'm done.

Instead of trying to learn how to play, I'm just trying to learn a few easy songs from downloading tabs and stuff. I recently picked it up again (after it sat in the closet for about a year now) and tried to adjust the action myself. It didn't work out too bad. I'm actually able to do some stuff with it now.

I'd love to take lessons, but I just can't see driving half an hour home, waiting around then driving an hour and a half to get somewhere I could take lessons, then another hour and a half back home again after work. Living out in the country is nice, but does have it's disadvantages.

Howdy!

Been playing guitar since a little kid, plucking away on my mother's guitar. It wasn't much of a guitar, the strings just kept a bunch of wood together, one wrong move and it would collapse out of misery. But I didn't care, I got sound out of it and I liked it.
After a few years I decided to buy me a new one, a black Nashville steel-acoustic.
The strings were like meat-cutting wires so singing to it was no problem, you'd automatically cry and yell out of pain while playing.
It took me 2 months to get my fingertips thicker, allowing me to play without pain.
I didn't take any lessons on it ever, I bought a book but I never looked into it.
I improvised and wrote new songs to it, that was what I liked, no need to play stupid Mary had a little Lamb or Au Crap de la Lune.

I bought a spanish Juan Salvador guitar to broaden my collection a bit, wich enlarged my guitar hobby even more. I loved playing pasadoble songs and spanish-ish solos on it, it sounded very clear and percussive.

Then I won Jive Jones' guitar on a Dutch MTV-like tv show. (TMF)
It was a custom by Vaccaro but it was badly damaged, I spent a few days fixing the whole thing. Now it sounds almost perfect. You can hear it's a high quality guitar.

A few years ago a friend of mine told me his band were looking for a new bass-player. I told him I don't play bass, nor do I have one, but I do play guitar. He told me he had a bass, strap, chord and amp ready to go so I took the bass home and started practicing. I joined the band and improved step by step.
I instantly noticed something different, something I didn't find in normal guitars. After a short while I noticed I was born to play bass. It's just my thing.
When I improvise my style is very similiar to Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers. It even was like that before I paid attention to Flea's style.
The fast funk-rock is just in my blood. I picked up bass quite fast if I may say so myself, it's my instrument.
I have a Yamaha BB414 bass and a Peavey TNT basscombo with can resonate your stomache or blow windows out if you want.

The bass is a very important instrument in music, it's the core of music, it co-operates quite closely to the percussion but also with the guitarists. Its rythm goes with the drummer and the harmony with the guitarists/keys. Finding the place for a bass takes you a while but when you find it, you'll discover something new.

Today the band is still up and I have 4 guitars.

So there you go, haha, my history of guitar playing.

I picked up my first crappy guitar when I was about 9 years old. A little no-name strat copy. I hacked it to bits with a blunt chisel and some sandpaper at 11, and was working as a pro guitar tech when I was 20.

I`ve been doing that for about 13 years, just a lot less now than I used to. I`ve got a nice little collection of instruments & effects, but a lot less than I used to have. I think at some point I just got bored of it. I recently sold my mint 1955 Les Paul Junior, and severely customised Gibson Explorer. I`m occasionally found playing a stripped 50`s P-Bass or a burnt blue Ibanez JS1000 badly, in a blues, industrial, or death metal stylee. :headbang:

Oh, and about the Ice Breaker..

When I'm on stage, during our break, I like playing recognizable basstunes from commercials and songs one time really quick. That causes everyone to look at me, laughing, waiting for more.

That or I unexpectedly break out in a bass slapping solo to scare the crowd with the beast in me. This doesn't just break ice, it breaks conversations and windows for that matter.

Quote from unseen :

I picked up my first crappy guitar when I was about 9 years old. A little no-name strat copy. I hacked it to bits with a blunt chisel and some sandpaper at 11,

I set fire to my first bass in my bedroom, squirting lighter fuel on it, until the room filled up with smoke. Then I opened the window and threw the bass out.

But that didn't break the neck, so I had to go out there and jump up and down on it a few times. A mate's still got a chunk of charred fingerboard from it kicking around somewhere.

I treat my Warwick a lot nicer.

I've played guitar for 35+ years. Along the way, picked up bass, banjo, mandolin, and I annoy my dogs with the fiddle from time to time.

I've done solo gigs, acoustic duets and trios, all the way up to hard/progressive rock original-only bands...had a great time mostly, but never got that "break" that one needs to soar. A lot of bands ended up busting up because of ego issues, or substance abuse (which I don't tolerate)


Met some cool peeps in all those years, including Pat Travers (he had a small studio next to a place I worked at a few years ago; used to hang out back with him and smoke cigarettes and bs about music, girls, cars, etc.), Steve Miller (worked with his cousin in Dallas), as well as some folks who are still trying to break in to the main stream, but were amazing musicians.

I still have it in the back of my mind that I'll get another shot one day. I still write music, and play every day. I don't play covers too much anymore, other than learning the odd eclectic piece here and there.

Man, I dunno... I've been playing a long time, I quit for a while during the late 90's. I had three years of lessons geared towards session playing, I was in a garage band that played metal songs in dinky bars and keg parties.
Didn't make any money, didn't get any where, but DAMN I sure did get....nevermind

Now I play to appeal to that anti-social disorder in me. I play mostly bad television theme songs, punk versions of country & western songs and just about anything I can from Sting. and when I'm really pissed at the neighbors,
I whip out the old Mel Bay finger exercise book.

Actually I just sorta play whatever - mostly some sort of rock songs
I'm not in a band or anything. I just play for stress relief.
OK I do know the theme to Three's Company and Roxanne, but I only will as a last resort when company won't leave.

I'd like to be able to play this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNBev0tLDuE