Who made you pick up your instrument?

Following on from the "First Song" thread, Which artist inspired you enough to pick up your instrument?

Me being a bass player starting in '94 My biggest heroes were
Mike Dirnt (Green Day)
Brian Ritchie (Violent Femmes)
Simon Gallop (The Cure)
Mani (Stone Roses)

Looking at all these artists, I still see a lot of my playing is still reminiscent of the above. I'd lean towards using the same tone as Gallop, the underlying swing of Mani, the odd (for the song) fiddly bits of Brian Ritchie and I'd try to fill space the same way Dirnt does. Strange how some things stick with us...

feylya

Kirk Hammett.

And a warning to all, there will be NO calling guitarists crap or anything of that nature in this thread. Anyone who does takes a 2 week break from the Instruments forum.

Doctor J

10th of May, 1988.

Olympic Ballroom, off Wicklow Street.

Megadeth, supported by Sanctuary.

Dave Ellefson playing the intro to 'These Boots...' for about 5 minutes, just the descending bassline for ages, then a wee bit of drums and some tasteful lead by Jeff Young.

"I wanna play bass!" I realised

Karl Hungus

Probably Metallica.

jcoote

clapton and brian may

Kenny_D

lol probably Brian May for me too. Just loved those Queen solos

fish-head

The Foo Fighters and The Beatles made me want to be in a band. Nirvana too.
So I decided a guitar would be as good an instrument as any to start with.

With regards to bass, it was it was Matt Freeman and John Entwhistle that made me wanna play touch the low end.

Zapp Brannigan

Flea and Jason Newstead.

Pyr0

It would have to be Pantera for me, when I first heard "Cowboys From Hell" I thought "Pffft sure I could play that"

And I still can't play 1/2 of it after nearly a year

sei046

i wouldnt worry bou not being able to play half of it after a year!

Kirk for me too

Can you still see their resonance in your play?

kennier

Jimi. Voodo Child. Got tired of Air Guitar-ing along to it. Can play it nearly note for note but it still sounds sh*te. Must need a 'fro or something to get the sound right. Or just need to buy more gear

LundiMardi

Slash originally

Page made me not want to put it down

sei046

i have moved on To Petrucci and the likes but i will still alwayslike kirk for some reason

jcoote

yeah u can still here clapton in my playin...unfortunatly i'm ****e:p

i'm not putting him down but i have never wanted to play any of pages stuff...great guitarist but he just doesn't interest me

Rustar

Chris Squire, Geddy Lee, and John Paul Jones for bass;

BB King, John McLaughlin, and Steve Howe for guitar.

And my man Carmine Appice for drums

...and Boots Randolph and Branford Marsalis for sax (tenor and soprano respectively)

Shrimp

I play the keyboards because of the doors.

Steoob

ok im not saying a guitarist is **** or anything.. but kirk hammet.. what is it about him that wanted you to play guitar? its not like ANYTHING hes ever done is awe inspiring.. unless you can prove me wrong.. i mean i can play most of his stuff and i suck on guitar.. its just all pentatonic stuff

Rustar

Steoob wrote:

...i mean i can play most of his stuff and i suck on guitar.. its just all pentatonic stuff...

I say we make Steoob prove that with an mp3 of his own

It wasn't me!

Whatever about Hammett, he wrote some brilliant music in his day, which is as good a reason as any to mention him. Listen to Battery and tell me that lead playing doesn't rock!

Niall123

Probably just repeting people here but what the hell, Hedrix, Page, The Edge (Dave Evans), Clapton, Gary Moore, Brian May, Christy Moore, David Gilmour, Rory Gallagher etc, etc. The list is endless. No one person really inspired me, it was numerous different "legends".

fish-head

I dont think any of the bands that made me want to pick up the guitar are really an influence on me anymore. Cept the Beatles. They'll be with me forever.

carpothepunk

my sister brought me to see pearl jam....................nuff said

Quattroste

What made me pick up guitar was a night back in about 1991 at a gathering in a flat in Ballymun. A gang of lads joined the party with guitars, bongo's, tamborines and a load of weed and I thought "I have to be part of this" Bought an acoustic a couple of weeks later.

Guitar influences that I would like to play like now(even 10% like), but probably never will, would be Carlos Santana, Dave Gilmore, Gray Moore. That screamin(but melodic) sort of tone.

Sombody help me get there pleeeeeeeeease!!!

Johnny Storm

My original guitar influences at the time when I learned to play were Richie Blackmore and Phil Manzanera (from Roxy Music). Probably a few more I cant remember. Then a few years ago I bought a live DVD of Blue Oyster Cult and was blown away to see Buck Dharma playing all the great solos I remembered from the seventies and eighties. He really inspired me to get back into playing.

Patricide

I realised i wanted to play an instument after going to ozzfest back in 02' although i got stranded in the worst class in school from second year on till 5th i must say well worth it, I wanted to play guitar allways to make music and to see the reaction of a crowd after playing it, no guitarists/bassists inspired me to play origionally it was the buzz in the crowd on that faithfull day....Ill never forget it being around 4 foot tall getting thrown into the pit against people twice my height and the buzz coming off the music.Inspiration in a jar.

-=al=-

Chad smith from the Chili Peppers......

I remember i was thinkin about gettin a guitar when i seen him on tv one night accepting an award for the song "road trippin" and he said somethin about not enough rock n roll or somethin etc etc.... so got a guitar and learned me some chili pepper songs

Eoin Madsen

Pearl Jam, Alice In Chains, The Smashing Pumpkins, Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson and Metallica. Just listening to albums, not gigs.

But really they just gave me the idea, I picked up the guitar because I needed to write songs about a girl. :rolleyes:

Patricide

Patricide wrote:

I realised i wanted to play an instument after going to ozzfest back in 02' although i got stranded in the worst class in school from second year on till 5th i must say well worth it, I wanted to play guitar allways to make music and to see the reaction of a crowd after playing it, no guitarists/bassists inspired me to play origionally it was the buzz in the crowd on that faithfull day....Ill never forget it being around 4 foot tall getting thrown into the pit against people twice my height and the buzz coming off the music.Inspiration in a jar.

Ahhh... But why did you decide the guitar in the band, and when you started playing, you must have said, "jesus I love his sound, how can I do something like that"

Jimi_Knopfler

C'mon guys, give a little love for Mr Knopfler . He's just so darn cool. I remember the first time i heard the Brothers in Arms album.... awesome

Eoin Madsen

Papa Smut wrote:

Ahhh... But why did you decide the guitar in the band, and when you started playing, you must have said, "jesus I love his sound, how can I do something like that"

Well, personally anyway, I just wanted to make music. We had a guitar, so I learned guitar. Got in a band, drummer left a kit in my house... I learned drums. Brother got a bass... I learned bass. Somewhere along the way I realised that my singing voice was poxy and underused so I went and got lessons for that as well.

But we've always had a piano and for some reason I never learned that. Which is odd, because most of the music I write lately is for piano.

I'm thinking I might learn a little violin and then get into doublebass.

Fusion251

"Today is gonna be the day that you're gonna pick up guitar" sang Liam as I walked into Musician Inc in Dun Laoghaire....

Oasis

Fusion
:cool:

Mr. CooL ICE

No one bassist inspired me to pick it up... More like a general lack of bassists made me realise that it was possibly the best instrument to play to get into a band. But what made me keep playing was a combination of Steve Harris and Flea.

Steoob wrote:

its just all pentatonic stuff

Y'see, when youre picking up an instrument, you dont know that kind of thing.

gracehopper

Stone Roses were very cool at one stage, i was in Awe of both their albums. Songs like Waterfall, tightrope made me pick up the guitar. Rory Gallagher, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Led Zep made me continue to play through the years

Paladin

Cant say any guitarist inspired me to pick up the guitar. I just said one time Id like to give it a shot. Strummed on my friends guitar. Loved it. Bought a guitar and never stopped playing.

goin'_to_the_PS

the eagles/queen

Sauron

Jimmy Chamberlain from the pumpkins.. still my favourite drummer... Chad Smith played a big role too..

Mongo

Tim Commerford from RATM for me.I had been listening to them for years but when I got older I realised how cool his tone and lines were

shanethemofo

kurt cobain... although i admire dave grohl

mickymg2003

Nothing really made me choose guitar. When i was 11 i just decieded out of the blue that i wanted a guitar for my birthday. But then i switched to bass and that started with the bass solo in "the Hunger" by the distillers i just thought bass is fricken cool!!! Then the intro for "Higher ground" by the chili peppers made me go an buy a bass starter pack and go for it.

Patricide

Papa Smut wrote:

Ahhh... But why did you decide the guitar in the band, and when you started playing, you must have said, "jesus I love his sound, how can I do something like that"

well i just thought i cant sing, and the drummers wayyyyy back there and id have the most creative input as a guitarist so i picked guitar, learned bass afterwards though.

the_obsolete

I can't rem how I first got into drummin, but my earliest influences were roger taylor n brad wilk, nice somewhat simple stuff with a few interesting ikle bits. Also brad's the reason i have a cowbell on me kit now...who ever thought a cowbell could be useful in metal, eh?

NotMe

No artist influenced me to start playing guitar I just decided I wanted to learn it.

Beer is Life

Andreas Kisser from Sepultura got me into guitars. I still remember the night i first heard "Propaganda" on the computer. I nearly shat myself. i had only ever listened to dance music, never heard anything like the power of palm muted distorted guitars before. That was in 1999 and that was me sold on guitars. I moved on to Hetfield and all the other metal guitarists, and im basically a clone of them now which isnt something i like, its too one dimentional. Been trying to develop more melodic playing lately to get a new side to my playing, but i always come back to face melting thrash!

Baggio

Welll..
.first folks to make me want to PLAY rather than just Listen,,,were Horslips from here, great band with great talent....but for drums well really One man started it all....coming across and listening to my older bro's All The World's A Stage album,,,the first live Rush album 1976...Neil Peart's drumming just was of a whole different galaxy and i just kept listening over and over and yep THATS what i wanted to play and HOW i wanted to play
Others after that well the excellent Barrymore Barlow of 1970's Jethro Tull and Les Binks first drummer in Judas Priest aslo helped the cause.....but It's really Pearts fault!!

ciao' amigos...Baggio.............

mc nuggets

My friend lauren was going on about how hard guitar was, so i said meh it's so simple even i could do it......I was wrong. Guitarists like The Edge, Slash and Brian May made me keep it up though.

Janacopolis

Laugh all you wish but if it wasn't for Mark Hoppus making the bass so fecking appealing to me at the age of 15/16 I wouldn't have wanted to learn an instrument. Bass just seemed and sounded like the coolest fu*king instrument in the world to me. Tom DeLonge was also a big help in me trying my hand at guitar a year later.

If it wasn't for Blink, I wouldn't have wanted to be in a band and was heading for a lifetime of bad dance and crappy rave.

So for any music snobs, my taste is as broad as can be now and I can play pretty much anything I set my ear to, both guitar and bass....so in future please don't just immediately write off any musician who didn't get into the game because of big guns such as Page, Jaco, Slash, JP Jones etc.

Beer is Life

Janacopolis wrote:

Laugh all you wish but if it wasn't for Mark Hoppus making the bass so fecking appealing to me at the age of 15/16 I wouldn't have wanted to learn an instrument. Bass just seemed and sounded like the coolest fu*king instrument in the world to me. Tom DeLonge was also a big help in me trying my hand at guitar a year later.

If it wasn't for Blink, I wouldn't have wanted to be in a band and was heading for a lifetime of bad dance and crappy rave.

So for any music snobs, my taste is as broad as can be now and I can play pretty much anything I set my ear to, both guitar and bass....so in future please don't just immediately write off any musician who didn't get into the game because of big guns such as Page, Jaco, Slash, JP Jones etc.

Even though im so metal i walk around in a suit of armour all day I still enjoy blink 182, especially the new album!

Anyway, dont want to get banned so back to the topic...

Ardent

Angus Young

ferdi

YOUR MA!!!

every time i see her, i pick up my instrument/.

Quattroste

ferdi wrote:

YOUR MA!!!

every time i see her, i pick up my instrument/.

Jesus Ferdi. Me MA's dead. How could you?