What a great idea for a thread!
First, I just want to thank all you guys for sharing your thoughts on why you play, when you learned. what your inspiration was, etc.
I grew up in Texas, but learned how to play in NYC, when I was around 19. In Tejas, I had sung in a very good church choir for a number of years as a youth and understood the concepts of 'hard practicing' and 'working with others'. In NYC, a friend was learning how to play Chord-Solo Jazz. I would watch him play for literally hours on end, every day. One day he looked at me and said, 'Do you want to learn how to play?'
I did! We settled on electric bass. My buddy taught me some blues lines, along with some 'Motown'. I liked it and practiced the few things I knew.
Once, while my bass was in for a fret job, I borrowed a cheapo classical to 'keep my chops up'. Turned out it was pretty boring playing bass lines on a classical, so I started picking out melodies. The first song I picked out was 'Isn't It Romantic?' by Rodgers and Hart (I'd first heard it in/on the movie Sabrina).
'The Hook' was set, but I didn't know it for a couple of years. I continued practicing on bass, but gradually, I was more attracted to the guitar. Oh, I couldn't play guitar as well as bass, but the higher melody aspect of guitar intrigued me and eventually I quit playing bass (for 20 years, anyway) and turned to guitar.
At first it was a disaster! I could play chords okay but, sadly, my solos sounded like strangled bass lines! I tried writing songs. I'd play two chords I liked and figure out a bass line to connect them. Then, I'd find two more chords and do the same thing. Eventually, I had a mix of chords, interconnecting bass lines and short melodic fills, enough for a few good songs. My guitar soloing ability got a little better over the next few years, but nothing wonderful.
All my 'heroes' were the guys who'd played mainstream Jazz in the '30's thru the '50's. I heard George Barnes play, along with Les Paul, Jim Hall, Kenny Burrell, Tiny Grimes, Toots Thielmans and Bucky Pizzarelli. And that's just the guitar players!
Here's the embarrassing part. I thought Rock sucked and didn't realized the validity of it as music until a couple of years later, when I tried to play like Keith Richards for a joke and realized how hard it was to do it 'right' (thanks, Keef!).
Things stayed the same for about 30 years. My playing didn't get better and didn't get worse. Then, a few years ago, I bought a cheapo '60's classical and began to play it at night to fall asleep.
I kept it next to the bed. If I woke up in the night, I'd play it in 'pitch black' dark. Interestingly, it made me a better player. With my eyes 'out of the way', I'd play what I heard, not some 'blues pattern' I'd learned 35 years ago.
I've gotten a lot of different chord forms out of it, too, as well as some two octave arpeggios, partial chord lines and a few songs that sound different from anything else I've done.
That's my story, Harry
