Pretty much as the title says: what song or guitar player got you wanting to learn the instrument?
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Almost like we have already done this before
What’s wild is I never learned how to play smoke on water on guitar but somehow knew this anyway lol I did learn it on trumpet for band in 6th grade though so maybe that’s it 😂😂
What song is that? I see it everywhere. Must be really difficult and popular. Will I become a cool guitar anime protagonist if I learn that holy progression?
My dad said, "Girls don't play guitar."
So he bought be one for Christmas just to show me.
It didn't have strings out of the box, so i had to teach myself everything.
20 years later, let's just say my dad knows girls DO play guitar.
Nancy Wilson and Joan Jett just like, "Am I a joke to you?"
Yes, definitely Nancy Wilson! Had such a huge crush on both Joan Jett and Nancy Wilson.
Tell him about SIster Rosetta Tharpe, the woman who invented rock and roll.
It seems I keep bringing her on this sub a lot, but we really need to give her justice
I love Sister Rosetta Tharpe- to say she invented rock and roll is a stretch. Influenced, shaped, created new techniques and distortions- yes! There is not “one” person to have brought rock and roll to its recognizable genre today.
Correct. Also correct that she has not gotten her proper due.
It's talking about her influence, because for example, Chuck Berry said his entire career is trying to copy Rosetta
Eddie Van Halen and Randy Rhoads.
Although I almost never play rock anymore interestingly.
Randy Rhoads probably wouldn’t be either. He’d be playing classical fusion or something with John McLaughlin
Naturally.
It's John Frusciante for me, specifically the live in hyde park album, my mum got me it for a birthday or holiday of some sort and the energy in that album got me hooked, drove my parents mad with it, any time we'd go somewhere in the car i'd ask to put on that cd, but they figured i might enjoy a crack at it myself and got me the classic starter kit, a no name strat and a shitty practice amp, 16 years down the line and they where right, i did enjoy that.
Niandra Lades and his bedroom lick made me buy my first guitar, a strat
Lmao kinda deep place to start but fuck yeah I first heard scar tissue and under the bridge on the radio as a kid. Really moved me. I don’t think it was until I started listening to Santana and jimi and taking drugs that I decided to actually learn. And “actually learn” is a bit of a stretch haha more like play nonstop everyday till the noise some what resembled music
Love John. The Empyrean is brilliant.
"War Pigs" - Black Sabbath
T pain has a very nice cover of this.
So does Cake
Edit/P.S.: Still the best Sabbath cover ever tho! (Not Cake, btw)
I did a medium/deep dive a while back, and, they’re pretty great! More to them than I remembered—just from the radio—at least…
They’re from my home town, and shit on us on their way up, so it’s a complicated relationship.
That’s a damn good cover
Kurt Cobain.
Kurt's a strange one for me. Learning some Nirvana songs made me realise he isn't a great guitarist but more a great song writer. Simple yet quite fun to play
Often deceptively complex. Not because he was trying to be complex, but a lot of his playing is very unnatural in some way to the way I usually play
I broke my hand when I was younger and using my little finger was really awkward when I first started playing. The thing that got me to finally go beyond open chords was seeing how Kurt uses his index and ring finger rather than index, ring and little finger to play some power and Barre chords.
Yes, I agree with that sentiment. He’s not a completely basic guitarist but he’s also not a virtuoso by any stretch of the imagination. His solo on “Heart-Shaped Box” is really simple but effective, for example.
Marty McFly
Same!
Nice.
Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds. I love the acoustic guitar
Live from Radio City is such a fucking good live album.
John Petrucci from DT, the song As I Am inspired me almost 2 decades ago to become the player and producer I am today. It continues to inspire me because nowadays I picked up drums too, and I'm trying to learn the drum solo as well.
Originally it was Tom Morello, and to some extent, Nirvana.
Then I discovered Jimmy fuckin’ Page and my bar got set waaaay higher.
Jimmy page wasn’t my first inspiration. But he is what opened a whole new realm for me. Literally changed my life. The song remains the same dvd. I watched it every single night for months
James Taylor
The music video for November Rain, by guns and roses. When slash is in front of that church and raises the les Paul on his thigh. Peak motivation, it just looked so cool
Battery by Metallica
It was Angus Young. I suppose the song was Back in Black because that was what got me into AC/DC. It was 1986 - and they weren’t the ancient band that they are now (they’re still my favourite band). But actually the song that convinced me that I HAD to learn the guitar was the live version of Let There Be Rock on the If You Want Blood album.
Once I started playing guitar many other guitarists also inspired and influenced me but I’d have never started playing without Angus.
Probably my dad playing Pink Floyd in the car when I was a kid. Loved the sound. Songs like Marooned I have very early memories of hearing.
That and The Police maybe.
In terms of wanting to play guitar it was probably seeing Billie Joe Armstrong or Noodles from The Offspring.
Jimmy page
Stevie ray Vaughn - Pride and Joy
For me it was his version of Voodoo Chile
Quickly evolved into the entire Texas Flood album, the moment was as a14 year old, watching MTV’s unplugged, Stevie playing a 12 string acoustic by himself just ripping, and thought I need to learn how to do that. Bought a guitar the next day and been hooked ever since.
I did the same thing except it was a 12-string that had NO business playing at the time😂
Live At The El Mocambo still blows my mind and I always go back to it to get inspired when i've got burnout.
Jim Croce
Canon Rock, could more than likely play the song now, but I learned how to play Canon in D and I prefer acoustic anyways, so I basically achieved my own goal of being able to play Pachelbel Canon
Steve Vai originally. And most recently Unknown Mortal Orchestra, which changed how I play guitar completely
First song I sat down with was “fade to black” by Metallica.
I played cello as a kid though and was interested in music from a young age. I would say my parents playing music ranging from The Grateful Dead to Mozart sparked my interest and playing Final Fantasy 7 on PlayStation 1 cemented my interest in music.
Kurt Cobain
hendrix
Pete Townshend
Clapton
Dire Straits - Sultans of Swing
I quess it was the solo, lol.
John Mayer for me. I was already playing before I knew who Mayer was, but once I heard the intro to slow dancing for the first time I had to learn it. Then I went on a tangent and learned how to play almost all of continuum at one point.
John Mayer - Slow Dancing In A Burning Room. Bought a strat a short time later and the rest is history
Lindsey Buckingham
Black Sabbath
Frusciante's solo in Wet Sand and the riff in Even Flow
Angus!
Hendrix
James and Kirk from Metallica. The intro to "One" was one of the first things I learned.
Andres Segovia
"Pinball Wizard"
KISS lit the fuse. Then Randy Rhoads I Don't Know blew my head off. Bought my first guitar within a couple of months.
Aerosmith’s Sweet Emotion. It’s the sound I think of when I think “electric guitar”.
John Denver and Gordon Lightfoot
Prince
Smashing Pumpkins. Cherub Rock and Disarm were the first two, then all of Siamese Dream, then their entire catalog, then all grunge and alt rock from the 1990s
Stevie Ray Vaughan! I heard him when I was 12 yrs old and I loved how the guitar sounded and that it sounded like he was playing two parts at once. Unfortunately, Stevie had died a year or two before I knew who he was so I never had a chance to see him play live.
Korn
Jake kiszka
Eruption
Rammstein. Their guitar tone especially in the first 2 albums is dope.
John Lennon
I saw Pete Seeger play at a library when I was 14 years old and I was just inspired, went home and asked my brother who played a little bit of rock guitar to teach me the basics until I could convince my mom to get me lessons.
Rise against
Tom Petty
Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, AC/DC, Kiss
Billy Corgan's solo on Smashing Pumpkins' Here Is No Why.
I was like 10 or 11 years old and had stolen my sister's copy of Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. I think I didn't really care about music back then. Like, I just wasn't really interested in music in general. But I distinctly remember hearing that for the first time and thinking, "This is what music is?! I didn't know it could sound like this. Oh my gosh! I've never felt this before!"
Literally life-changing song for me.
Metallica! I had a neighborhood friend down the road who played and wanted to teach me some rhythm so he could play lead over it. 15 years later I haven’t quit yet!
Angus young and jimmy page
It was fucking weezer
Blink 182
Growing up listening to some seriously good guitarists, it was super discouraging to me to even begin to pick up a guitar, especially as someone who failed every instrument prior. However, finally seeing someone play some songs that seemed attainable, even for a klutz like me, was all the encouragement I needed to actually try. So yeah, I like to play some prog-metal and 80's stuff now, but I ultimately owe the start of my guitar playing to Tom Delonge.
John Petrucci's solo in Goodnight Kiss did it for me. I could never forget how I felt the first time I heard it.
At the time it was Green Day and AFI.
Jade Puget is such an underrated guitarist and does stuff not too many in the punk adjacent genres do
Marilyn Manson - Lunchbox
Jesse and the Rippers
Heard my dad play Wasted by Def Leppard
Cherub Rock
My dad had the play guitar with the Ventures album. That was enough for me to want to play.
Free bird/eruption
For me it was Rob Scallon. He made guitar look really fun for me and was a huge inspiration for me to come up with my own stuff.
Funny that it wasn't all the Bands I listened to, but in the end a Youtuber was the reason I wanted to start that journey
Rammstein, more specifically Amerika by Rammstein for whatever reason
"Over the Hills and Far Away". That acoustic intro, the first time I heard it, was the most beautiful music I'd ever heard.
Stevie Ray Vaughan, I definitely cannot play nearly as good lol
Pantera. I was with my dad in the car probably around 2007-2008. “Domination” came on. The breakdown hit and went into the guitar solo. I remember looking at my dad and saying something like “I need to do this and make these noises.” Fast forward to 2024 and I play every single day. I play even harder now that my dad passed away and he’s no longer here to show him my music. A close second is Tool. 🤘 if you’re reading this, I hope you’re doing well and handling life as well as you can.
Slash, paradise city blew my mind
Dire Straits - Sultans of Swing
Keith Richards made me want to play. But in 1976 my friends had a little 3pc band and they would practice in a truck repair garage. I would walk down and watch them. I never was a huge KISS fan back then, but the moment I heard Ted P playing Rock n Roll All Night with a LP Deluxe through a Fender Twin, that was it. That was the month I said "I *need** to do this! ”*
I will always regret that sound! Life changing.
Keith Richards made me want to play. But in 1976 my friends had a little 3pc band and they would practice in a truck repair garage. I would walk down and watch them. I never was a huge KISS fan back then, but the moment I heard Ted P playing Rock n Roll All Night with a LP Deluxe through a Fender Twin, that was it. That was the month I said "I *need** to do this! ”*
I will always regret that sound! Life changing.
I practiced the basics for a couple years and started some noob-level song writing, but it was the combo of Rich Sanderson and Terrin Durfey from the band Boilermaker. That’s where I found my passion. I never looked at writing as a guitarist again. I wrote from the perspective of two guitarists, and later two guitars and a bass playing off each other. They just did it so creatively.
Tool. I’m not sure if tooltabs.net is still up, but after getting my first guitar I would spend hours learning as many tool songs as I could.
I think the first song I heard where a guitar made me feel something tingly inside was the scene in Wayne’s World when Garth walks up to the girl while Foxy Lady by Jimi Hendrix is playing. I remember being a kid like “what is making that sound?”. I knew what a guitar was but not much about electric guitar even though I heard rock music before. Something about that song sparked the interest and when guitar hero came out later I was all in.
Basic answer but AC/DC
John Frusciante
AC/DCAngus young got me to want to pick it up, but Green Day/billie joe Armstrong got me to accept pick it up
La Bamba
Eric Clapton’s live version of “Cocaine”, specifically the tail-out solo, which I believe was performed by Robert Cray, and ZZ Top’s first 9 albums.
Aerosmith
House of the Rising Sun, Pipeline, Wipeout, La Bamba, Johnny B Goode, Don’t Fear the Reaper, Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress
Nirvana Nevermind album blew my fucking mind.
as a 2 year old kid my dad showed me acdc video clips and I immediately knew I was gonna learn the guitar
Led Zeppelin Gonna Leave You back in 1969
tim henson
The Doors - Break on Through
I remember discovering Led Zeppelin Vol 1 (most people experience vol 4 first) in my brothers collection. But it actually was Bonhams drums that really caught my attention. Good Times bad times, what an opening track.
Chris Stapleton - Tennessee Whiskey. I still love playing his stuff, it’s not overly difficult and is just fun to play
slash
Randomly went into a Hollister with my girlfriend when I was 15 despite being a "scene kid." If you know scene kid culture, you know Hollister is pretty much a no go. They were playing Wicked Game by HIM and was so enthralled by the cover that changed so much but you could still hear what song it was right away and I thought that was so cool. I asked for a guitar that Christmas. I no longer like the song, so I usually tell people it's Chris Isaaks' version that got me into guitar. Because I am mostly anonymous online, I will be honest here.
Honestly Guitar Hero and welcome to the jungle were what did it for me. Slash kinda became my inspiration. But then I started to watch GNR with out him as well. So I saw buckethead, bumblefoot, Richard Fortus and took a lot of inspiration from them just as much too. Other guitarist obsessions later came after.
Slash
My dad, followed closely by the “watching the detectives” riff by Elvis Costello or Pablo Honey - got a guitar for Christmas in December 1993 and started my first guitar lesson in June 1994! Yikes 30 years goes by fast 😭
BB King
Paul Simon
Originally Cream and Eric Clapton - their rendition of Spoonful but then that set me on Yard Birds, John Mayall, Jimmy Page, Hendrix, and Black Sabbath. John Mayall is clearly one who trained and taught most of these guys in that time.
Ghost was the first band I got interested in where I could hear guitar so clearly and it’s also what got me into the harder music genres so I’d have to say Infestissumam by Ghost
Layla
John Squire Jimmy Paige.
Ace Frehley
Its gotta be John Mayer for me, his flow and groove with the guitar is so inspiring to me!
Pinball Wizard
One of the first songs I ever learned.
Tom DeLonge.
Eric Bloom/Buck Dharma - Dominance and Submission
Slash - November Rain
Jesse Cook. I'd never heard Flamenco music until my dad gave me his CD "Gravity". Changed my whole view of music at the time.
Randy Rhoads.
Black Magic- Slayer
James Hetfield and his rhythm playing. I always practice leads and sweeps, but playing riffs was always so fun for me
My friend showed me buckethead and all I could think was "you can do that?!"
Warren Zevon
Dobie Gray, “Drift Away”, but I have never learned it.
The soundtrack of guitar hero 1 & 2.
Morning View album by Incubus! Mike is a hero
Iron Maiden (specifically, the songs Phantom of the Opera and Afraid to Shoot Strangers) made me want to play guitar. Midori and Miyako of Lovebites made me want to get good at it.
Sabbath
Billy Squire - lonely is the night. Ted Nugent - Stranglehold. Pink Floyd - comfortably numb solo. The clash - should I stay or should I go.
There was a creator from Machinima back in the day called Ben Buja, I’ve heard the S&M version of Battery by Metallica in one of his GTA 4 stunt videos and was instantly hooked
Frank Marino and Mahogany Rush
Phil Keaggy.
I remember when I was about 10 or so I was at my aunts house in Dominican Republic in the middle of a huge storm and power outage. I had a little battery powered radio and stumbled on Hotel California - that was a pretty big influence.
"Burn It Down" by Alter Bridge, then I discovered Opeth, Satriani, etc. Songs that carry the emotion in the guitar as much as in the vocals, I suppose.
Sur La Planche 2013 by La Femme. I loved how the guitar sounded in this one
Been playing since I was 9 but with a lot of hiatuses. When I was a teen I got back into it from the intro of your bruise by death cab. In my late 20s now I got back into it after listening to hot mulligan, specifically og bule sky.
The solo from “Princes of the Universe” by Queen. It was the first song that I really noticed the guitar itself for its own sake. No idea why but for some reason it just sounded so cool to me. Still does.
Billie Joe Armstrong
None, Guitar Hero 3 did.
Elvis Presley and Guitar Hero
Seeing green day live in 9th grade. I remember everything clicking and going THAT'S WHAT I WANT TO DO as soon as their set was done.
Honestly? Black Star by Malmsteen. I love classical music, and I was blown away. That was “the spark”, needless to say I still have a long way to go lol
John Hartford.
Mark Knopfler & Marcel Dadi
Bocchi the Rock. Never thought an anime could inspire me so much.
Eddie Van Halen. I saw Live Without a Net and that was it.
Jose from Quiet riot.
No other answer than the magic Brian May created with Queen !!!
Scotty Moore
The intro to Love Rollercoaster by the Ohio Players.
Iron Maiden
Black sabbath - Into The Void
Mimi Hendrix
Practically the whole The Last of Us 1,2 OST + Jigsaw Falling Into Place by Radiohead
Ain’t talking bout love
Pride n joy - SRV
Tony Iommi and James Hetfield
You know what?. Theres just too many. It wasnt even a song or artist in particular. Its like a feeling i cant explain. I liked all the old skool rock, blues, surf ect.
After listening to some records at a way too high volume, my dad kicked my door open in anger to turn the °bleeeep° volume down.
I looked at him and said thats it dad. I really want to play a guitar. He had no argument. He played drums and guitar.. Convinced him i would take lessons.
And so it went, and it never ended 😎🤘
Eddie Van Halen at first but then I discovered Genesis and got into Steve Hackett and found an acoustic 12-string, King Crimson’s Belew era got me into both Stratocasters and Gibson. Picked up Telecaster years later from listening to a load of Andy Summers and Steve Howe.
If we were vampires - Jason isbell
Guns N’ Roses - Paradise City
Bob Dylan. Like a Rolling Stone.
Slash and Synyster Gates. Pretty much everything either of them played was my religion from 12-15.
Id say Guitar Hero was what first really sparked the interest in actually learning the guitar though.
Nirvana
Miyavi (idk if I’ll ever reach his skills lol) but also (pop) singer songwriters of the 2000s like Marie Digby, Kina Grannis, Norah Jones, etc
Explosions in the sky
Kurt Cobain, James "Munky" Shaffer and Brian "Head" Welch basically made me buy a guitar in the first place. However, when I actually started playing SRV and Kenny Wayne Shepard became my main inspiration.
Scrolled right through and didn't see a single mention of Chet Atkins, but then again I guess most of you are not in your late 70's.
Seether's Broken
Stef and chino
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Don't these posts start to seem familiar?