Why I Love to Play Guitar

I started playing guitar when I was sixteen, of course within a year I’d formed a band and was scaring the life out of our neighbours. Before she passed away, my grandmother used to always tell me:

I will never forget watching you and your friends carrying those drums, cymbals, guitars, speakers and everything else to the bus stop and getting on the bus with all that musical equipment, it’s one of my favourite memories…

I still laugh at the thought of us getting all that equipment on a municipal bus, to travel all the way into Altrincham from Sale (dormitory towns south of Manchester); this is what being a teenager is all about.

My video above is of my playing a section of Dire Strait’s ‘Telegraph Road’, a piece I have loved since I was a teenager. The bands and musicians who originally got me into music were Blondie, Rainbow, The Smiths, Rush, Kate Bush, Hendrix, Bowie, Pink Floyd, Deep Purple, Queen, Iron Maiden and Dire Straits. 

The more music I discovered, the more I loved, getting into the 1980s alternative and goth scene was great fun, it gave me the chance to look ridiculous and hang out with a social group of people with similar interests. In my early 20s I started listening to more ‘arty’ and progressive music, which now forms much of my musical diet. 

I’m very much an amateur guitar player, it comes about more from what I have said about needing to achieve something; learning a new piece of music or a new style is such a satisfying process, and of course as a creative outlet music cannot be bettered. The sheer achievement of mastering a piece of music you love is incredibly satisfying, and remember it looks pretty flash when you’re at a party and someone pulls out a guitar, and yiunget your three and a half minutes of fame. 

So, three great reasons to play a musical instrument:

• It’s fun;
• It’s creative; and 
• It helps keep you sane. 

The great thing about guitar is that you can teach yourself. Give it a try!