{ Lick That Riff! }

So Are You? Or don’t you want to be?

This relates back to an article I read a few weeks back about guitar motivation. I had plans to write a post about it back then but I was busy so it must have been pushed to the back of my mind. Until I seen a picture of the Hendrix statue in Seattle. This immediately sparked a thought process. Why do we decide to learn the guitar in the first place? What is it that draws us to want to tame this magical beast? Potential Fame? Commanding a Stage? Or maybe just for the general Fun Factor of it?

This prompted me to think of my own reasons for getting into the guitar in the first place. I was around 12 years old and my Best Mate’s Dad had just bought my friend his very first guitar. It was amazing. We fiddled around with the gain and distortion and had hours of fun. A few weeks later I had my first electric guitar. And still to this day, the favourite of all my electric guitars, well the one with the most happy memories. Y’know when the guitar is completely new to you. It’s an unknown land just waiting to be tapped. Untouched crisp white snow waiting to be trodden on. The unripped Christmas paper on your very first present as a child. With your first guitar the possibilities are endless, or at least they seem it at the time. With this axe you are going to conquer the world, get all the chicks and play to thousands of people.

So I guess the first factor why I chose to learn guitar was the Fun Factor. It just looked so cool. Although this is probably more down to peer pressure, as I wouldn’t have got a guitar if my friend hadn’t. But that couldn’t have been the only reason why I would have picked up the guitar. Another big factor that made me pick the guitar up was the way music was heading around that same time. Well let’s look at some of the bands that were emerging at that time.

The Strokes had just blasted onto the Indie-pop scene in 2001 with their debut Is This It. The Libertines had pretty much just release their debut Up The Bracket around the same time that I considered picking up a Guitar, and the general shift in music was starting to edge back towards the guitar. So it’s no surprise that I picked up the guitar. These were the times of the great Indie riff! We had Hate To Say I told You So, Get Free, Reptilia, Don’t Look Back Into The Sun and a new supergroup were surfacing with one mighty riff Audioslave with their ega Cochise. All around this time there were great Inide Guitar bands emerging everywhere, and they were littered all over MTV2, which again was probably another factor.

Anyway I’ve strayed somewhat from the main point. My reasons for playing all the way back then were so different to they were probably a year or two later. By that time I was really hoping that my guitaring would put me in good stead within a band and hopefully make me famous. I was like that for a good 6 years or so. However now, as I near my 20th birthday, I have slipped into a lull and have probably come to terms with the fact that is never going to happen. So now days I think I just play for the fun. I play for the party trick. The feeling of when someone asks, “Do You Play Guitar?” And you can proudly say yes!

So I guess my question to you guys today is: Where did you want your guitar playing to take you when your first started? And Where do you know want your guitar playing to take you? Maybe it’s the same. Maybe its changed a lot. Do you want to be in a band? A Songwriter? Do you do it for fun? General Love of music? Do you still want to be that guitar hero you once yearned to be?

I would love to know your thoughts on this one as it means quite  a bit to me and I have realised my different reasons and ambitions with the guitar.

Thanks Guys and Girls.

Subscribe in a reader

Popularity: 1% [?]