how did you get started?

[heartthedead]

I remember that i have always sung, but guitar i started a couple of years ago, and then i got bored of guitarso i thought i would play the drums, and then i got bored of those so i got a violin and played it since...and occasionally i would play the other insturments.  

[sweet_mentality]

My primary school used to hold these little musical shows twice a year and i found i could could sing at my first audition (about yr 3) and since then i got the harmonies and main roles in the plays...From there i took up singing lessons and i'v been in a few concert type things for charity. A few of my mates got together to make a band and they asked me to be the lead singer. They found out that i could play guitar too. I tried to teach myself for about a year but there were a few things that i didn't get so i got guitar lessons. biggrin *glad i did* i also used to have violin lessons and played in a few concerts and i can play the keyboard.
Wo, i sure had alot to say...thanx to any1 that actually read all of that. whee
As you can see music is a huge part of my life. Infact...i'm sure I'd be lost without it  

[Eccojedi]

I got my start as a musician when I was 15 months old, I have been told. As a baby/toddler I was able to sing (gibberish) on key along to songs on the radio that I had previously heard before I had gained the power of speech, and I've been told this by many of my relatives. Unfortunately, during my tender developing years, I was not exposed to the classics such as Zepplin, The BEATLES, The Who, Pink Floyd, etc... I was exposed to COUNTRY MUSIC! YAY!... so there are tapes of me singing Randy Travis as a little child. I would not be as embarassed of them if it was 'Sewgeant peppew's wonwey heawts cwub band.'

Anyway, when I was about 4 and a half, we moved back from Florida, where we had been living for a while since my mom got a divorce and got all screwed over. Anyway, she remarried to a jerk (wrong forum for that story), but we would go to church, and she took me up to the piano and taught me where middle C was, where F was, and what a 5th was. A few minutes later, I was playing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, because I worked it out myself by ear. A few weeks later I was playing the wedding march when me and the other children would pretend wedding after church.

I was eventually put into lessons, though I basically ignored the teacher and did what I wanted while learning more and more by ear. The teacher's sole job was teaching me to read music and denying the existance of what I would later learn to be called Music Theory. (according to her, music's rules were "read the page and don't improvise.") All the while, I was doing shows at nursing homes with my sister, who would sing oldies while I'd play the piano... and we'd RAKE IT IN from those old farts. We once made 80 bucks playing for 30 minutes to a group of old people at this christmas party. What can I say, we were cute ^_^!

Fast forward, My sister broke her leg and we never did a show afterwards. I got bored and fed up with my piano teacher, as she was now actively telling me to destroy my ear and only learn to read, which I still hadn't done. I kept asking her about the "rules" of music and different things about chords, but she insisted still that there was no such thing and that composers just knew what sounded good or something... there was no such thing as theory in her book. I eventually dumped this piano teacher at the same time my mom divorced and married a bassist.

Fast Forward. I learned the bass at 17. It's now my 2nd best instrument to piano. I went into the military for a while, and got out soon after because I was going insane. I realize now it was because I didn't have access to a piano or any instruments.

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I DISCOVERED BEN FOLDS FIVE.
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I consider this a turning point because I was still very novice on piano until I started learning Ben's songs, and thus was forced to start learning about music theory, the term I had just recently learned. From here on, things looked up.

Fast Forward - two years ago... I took a theory class, learned the secrets, and decided to learn every instrument I could get my hands on. I also discovered I still didn't know s**t about the bass, and not much more for piano. So I changed this, and also learned guitar, drum set (with other percussion), harmonica, saxophone, flute, clarinet, and a lot of others I can't think of right now because I just had a shot of vodka. (I'm of age, don't worry!)  

[sweet_mentality]

Wo that seems like alot..*is amazed* eek  

[[Drunken-Butterfly]]

i've been playing cello since about i was i think... 7 or 6...
i also had a year of piano, but i couldn't stand it... sorry,
and i taught myself flute, guitar and clarinet,
my mums a teacher so she kinda gave me free lessons >.<  

[L a d y b i r d]

i was at a scout jamboree (haha) and one of my friends wanted to start a band. One of the other guys from another group that was camping with us had played electric for about 2 yrs and could also play sax. So i took up guitar and my other friend took up bass. That was at the beggining of 04 and at the end of that year, we picked up a drummer who goes to the same school as me.  

[manchopancho]

couple of reasons... yeah theyre lame, well i liked michelle branch, so i started playing guitar, and another kid who was awesome also influenced me...  

[Lantis0001]

I've been singing since age 5. Gotta love public schools for that stuff. Made it to several local competitions. Then, when going into middle school (grade 6) my friend started the viola and that made me want to join the orchestra, so I did and I started playing bass. Fast forward 2 years when my mom grounded me for a month for coming home late, and my music teacher let me borrow her nylon-string acoustic guitar, and I was hooked. My grandpa tried to introduce me to the electric guitar when I was 6 or 7, but the strings hurt my fingers. What a wuss I was... but a year after the acoustic, I went electric. That's a wrap!  

[TheUnabomber]

i have been singing since the dawn of time and not letting up. choir and free lance singing is cool. i was able to do somithing that people won't normally be able to. i was able to sing at the national cathedral. and it was the best thing ever once in life time opportunity.  

[SamielLucavi]

I play'd drums in little kid school, but dropped out of band in 6th grade. During 8th I picked up my dads guitar and started teaching myself, then I started taking lessions, then joined jazz band.  

[spyxz27]

aurora_413

i started when i was in 2nd grade, and one of my brother's friends (of whom i was in awe) got a clarinet. from then through 5th grade i kept begging y parents to get me a clarinet, and finally for chanukah of 5th grade, i got my clarinet. i immediately fell in love with it and love it still, especially since it helped me make one of my closest friendships ever, that of the girl who plays clarinet next to me in band.
so how did everyone else get started playing?

I was bored and my friend from football lives next to me. he taught me to play the EZ version of smoke on the water and me and him worked together then my dad tought me bass but i couldn't stretch and switched back to guitar and now im pretty good  

[Sijogab_88]

Started playing guitar 2+ years ago.

After seeing my Uncle play, and after years of seeing/hearing Rock Legends just string it out.

First guitar was an old Gremlin Acoustic. Was very small and all the frets around the 10-13 markers were just dead. Gave it away~ And now i'm jamming with a full fledged music maker and the natural sound of a black Greg Bennet acoustic.

It's always there to pick me up~

~\m/  

[x.Marsh[mel]low.x]

gonk Parents buying little kids instruments, they never got me an instrument much as I liked music. Of course I would always take my step dad's acoustic with rusted, corroded, 4 strings instead of 6, and take something (mostly my fingers) and twang away on it. Of course I was wayy too young to get the concept of pressing the frets and it didnt help that the acoustic was almost as big (and thick!) as I was >.O  

[justlex]

well i have been singing in showchior since 4th grade then i started 2 play the violin in 4th also