Your Inspiration
Discussion
Assuming you play an instrument, who or what was your inspiration to pursue playing your instrument of choice?
I started learning the guitar back in 1989, and initially was based on listening to Led Zep and Black Sabbath type stuff. Muddling around trying to form chords, and taking a few lessons from someone who was founded on folk music was frustrating. Hard work and little direction.
Back then, I used to visit a little independent in Shrewsbury called "The Rok Shop" for strings / picks / pedals and such like and one time I bought a book (which I still have) titled "Chicago Blues Guitar". A brilliant book with a potted history of The Blues, combined with tabs of classic blues guitar licks by Muddy Waters / Otis Rush / Son Seals / Freddie King and such like. The section on Albert King did fascinate me. Played a Gibson Flying V, left handed, upside down so the high E string was where the low E string would be normally.
A little time later, browsing Rainbow Records in Shrewsbury, I happened across this:-
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And this was on the album:-
That was it, for me.
I had direction. I had inspiration. I loved the music, and suspected I could just about play blues like that with a lot of practice, Eventually, I could.
I started learning the guitar back in 1989, and initially was based on listening to Led Zep and Black Sabbath type stuff. Muddling around trying to form chords, and taking a few lessons from someone who was founded on folk music was frustrating. Hard work and little direction.
Back then, I used to visit a little independent in Shrewsbury called "The Rok Shop" for strings / picks / pedals and such like and one time I bought a book (which I still have) titled "Chicago Blues Guitar". A brilliant book with a potted history of The Blues, combined with tabs of classic blues guitar licks by Muddy Waters / Otis Rush / Son Seals / Freddie King and such like. The section on Albert King did fascinate me. Played a Gibson Flying V, left handed, upside down so the high E string was where the low E string would be normally.
A little time later, browsing Rainbow Records in Shrewsbury, I happened across this:-
And this was on the album:-
That was it, for me.
I had direction. I had inspiration. I loved the music, and suspected I could just about play blues like that with a lot of practice, Eventually, I could.
Well, I was born in '76 less than a mile from the Marshall factory in Bletchley so it was kind of inevitable that I would play guitar from the start really!
When I was around 4 years old my father's company relocated us to Stourport Upon Severn and my parents had a decorator come to paint the house who I remember was called 'Lace', he had long hair, a leather jacket and a '70s custom van. He listened to a mix of what I now know to mainly be '70s hard rock and metal with a heavy bias towards Ritchie Blackmore's bands and to a 4 year old me this guy was a god! (Lace not Blackmore, although as you can tell the Blackmore worship also rubbed off on me!). The initial conscious spark was hearing Burn by Deep Purple, that riff just made me want to play guitar so badly. I often wonder if Lace knew Diamond Head as they came out of Stourport at the time we were living there and I also wonder whether a young Lars Ulrich walked past me in the High Street when I was out shopping with my mother, he visited Brian Tatler (Diamond Head guitarist) whilst we were there and Lar's future band were to have a massive impact on me later on.
Consequentially it was only years later that I realised I had been indoctrinated to the metal genre at a very tender age! From Blackmore and Iommi I had a daliance with more traditional hard rock in the form of May, Gilmour and Knophler in the '80s before getting into the really heavy stuff and the likes of James Hetfield, Scott Ian, Jeff Hanneman, Dimebag, around this time I actually bought a guitar (ironically a black strat albeit a Squire!) and jumped in at the deep end by learning Metallica and Slayer riffs.
Latterly more doom and black metal artists like Steve Von Til, Ihsahn, Kirk Windstein and Pepper Keenan have inspired me all od which led me to being a 45 year old guitarist with an extensive rhythm repertoire! Recently I have broadened my horizons somewhat and I've been learning a more diverse portfolio of songs by the likes of Van Halen, Prince, Muddy Waters and Pink Floyd to work on my lead licks a little as I have somehow graduated to being the lead guitarist in my band.
When I was around 4 years old my father's company relocated us to Stourport Upon Severn and my parents had a decorator come to paint the house who I remember was called 'Lace', he had long hair, a leather jacket and a '70s custom van. He listened to a mix of what I now know to mainly be '70s hard rock and metal with a heavy bias towards Ritchie Blackmore's bands and to a 4 year old me this guy was a god! (Lace not Blackmore, although as you can tell the Blackmore worship also rubbed off on me!). The initial conscious spark was hearing Burn by Deep Purple, that riff just made me want to play guitar so badly. I often wonder if Lace knew Diamond Head as they came out of Stourport at the time we were living there and I also wonder whether a young Lars Ulrich walked past me in the High Street when I was out shopping with my mother, he visited Brian Tatler (Diamond Head guitarist) whilst we were there and Lar's future band were to have a massive impact on me later on.
Consequentially it was only years later that I realised I had been indoctrinated to the metal genre at a very tender age! From Blackmore and Iommi I had a daliance with more traditional hard rock in the form of May, Gilmour and Knophler in the '80s before getting into the really heavy stuff and the likes of James Hetfield, Scott Ian, Jeff Hanneman, Dimebag, around this time I actually bought a guitar (ironically a black strat albeit a Squire!) and jumped in at the deep end by learning Metallica and Slayer riffs.
Latterly more doom and black metal artists like Steve Von Til, Ihsahn, Kirk Windstein and Pepper Keenan have inspired me all od which led me to being a 45 year old guitarist with an extensive rhythm repertoire! Recently I have broadened my horizons somewhat and I've been learning a more diverse portfolio of songs by the likes of Van Halen, Prince, Muddy Waters and Pink Floyd to work on my lead licks a little as I have somehow graduated to being the lead guitarist in my band.
Got quite good at playing the keyboard in my teens by relentlessly learning Jean-Michel Jarre tracks, all by ear. Couldn't read music.
Can't play to save my life these days but, by the grace of modern technology, am able to cobble together self-indulgent electronic music inspired by Jean-Michel Jarre, Vangelis and Enya and also Trance inspired by Alex M.O.R.P.H., The Thrillseekers, Jorn Van Deynhoven, etc.
Can't play to save my life these days but, by the grace of modern technology, am able to cobble together self-indulgent electronic music inspired by Jean-Michel Jarre, Vangelis and Enya and also Trance inspired by Alex M.O.R.P.H., The Thrillseekers, Jorn Van Deynhoven, etc.
The guy at the end of our street when I were a lad was/is the drummer in a 60’s revival band and I remember going to his house with my dad and beating the f
k out of his kit whilst the men drank warm beer in the garden. Must’ve been 5 or 6.
Farted about on the school kit for a bit, until I hit the ‘angsty, rebellious teenager’ phase and fell in love with punk and pop punk music. Blink 182 we’re starting their ascent and when I heard Travis Barker playing, I knew that was who I wanted to play like. Got on a kit the next day and never looked back (still can’t play like him though!)
He doesn’t really do anything you don’t cover in drum lessons now, but the way he does it - the accents, the speed, the fills - just moved drums from a supporting instrument in to an instrument in their own right for me. Something to do solos on and add melody to a song without having to fight for a spot at the guitar table!
k out of his kit whilst the men drank warm beer in the garden. Must’ve been 5 or 6. Farted about on the school kit for a bit, until I hit the ‘angsty, rebellious teenager’ phase and fell in love with punk and pop punk music. Blink 182 we’re starting their ascent and when I heard Travis Barker playing, I knew that was who I wanted to play like. Got on a kit the next day and never looked back (still can’t play like him though!)
He doesn’t really do anything you don’t cover in drum lessons now, but the way he does it - the accents, the speed, the fills - just moved drums from a supporting instrument in to an instrument in their own right for me. Something to do solos on and add melody to a song without having to fight for a spot at the guitar table!
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