“I had always loved music. I grew up listening to classic country, Waylon Jennings, Merle Haggard. My dad loved Vern Gosdin and Keith Whitley. So I kept going to class and started getting totally into playing guitar and teaching myself these songs.” CountrySongClassTeachingListeningGrewDadGrew UpGuitarMy DadClassicKeithPlaying GuitarHaggard Author:Jake Owen
“I started playing guitar and writing songs when I was 15. I think what mainly sparked my interest was just the fact that I grew up listening to Cheryl King, Joni Mitchell, and James Taylor, and was just always inspired by that sort of organic art, and organic songs and just very natural songwriting that came out of some of those artists.” ThinkingWritingArtFactsArtistSongInterestNaturalListeningGrewKingsGrew UpInspiredGuitarSongwritingWriting SongsPlaying Guitar Author:Kate Voegele
“I was listening to Jimi Hendrix and Pink Floyd, because that was new music for me. I really hadn't been up on them. I mean, I'd heard of them, but I wasn't up on their music. And I kept listening to Radiohead, and I was like, Man, I want to make hip-hop that feels like Radiohead. I want to make hip-hop that can use guitars and soul and jazz and just fuse it all together.” MenWantFeelsMeanSoulUseTogetherHeardListeningJazzGuitarHip HopHipsHopsNew MusicHendrixFuseRadiohead Author:Will Ferrell
“I kept listening, kept going to see people, kept sitting in with people, kept listening to records. If I wanted to learn somebody's stuff, like with Clapton, when I wanted to learn how he was getting some of his sounds - which were real neat - I learned how to make the sounds with my mouth and then copied that with my guitar.” PeopleIfsRealWantedStuffSoundRecordsListeningMouthsSittingGuitarNeat Author:Stevie Ray Vaughan
“I've played the violin since I was seven but stopped because there was a stage when it became 'uncool'. I was listening to Nirvana and wanted to play the guitar, so I ditched the violin.” PlayWantedStageListeningSevenGuitarViolinUncool Author:Emun Elliott
“After months of playing air guitar to 'Free Bird', what really got me into guitar was watching a documentary about Jimi Hendrix and picking up the Woodstock soundtrack. Listening to his version of 'Star Spangled Banner' and 'Purple Haze.' My brother played acoustic guitar and, idolising him, I thought, 'I'm going to get a guitar.'” StarsAirBrotherListeningMonthsBirdGuitarVersionsMy BrotherDocumentariesPurpleAcousticsBannerSoundtracksHendrixHazeAcoustic GuitarWoodstockPurple HazeAir Guitar Author:Kirk Hammett
“Im a huge fan of Joe Walsh and a big James Gang fan. A lot of what I know about playing the guitar I learned from listening to him.” KnowsBigsFansHugeListeningGuitarGang Author:Tom Scholz
“I know what love feels like. That is one thing I have found. That is one thing that is much clearer because of fibromyalgia. Because once you experience real pain you recognize the vibration, the feeling of being healthy, happy and loved. If I'm not living from my heart, I get sick. I need to do things that feed my soul, like being with people I love, or playing my guitar, or listening to music.” PeopleIfsKnowsNeedsFeelsHeartRealSoulFeelingsPainFoundOne ThingListeningMy HeartHealthySickGuitarMy SoulListening To MusicVibrationsReal PainHealthy Happy Author:A. J. Langer
“Listening to as many guitar solos as possible is the best method for someone in the early stages. But saxophone solos can be helpful. They're interesting because they are all single notes, and therefore can be repeated on the guitar. If you can copy a sax solo you're playing very well, because the average saxophonist can play much better than the average guitarist.” IfsWellsPlayInterestingStageListeningMethodNotesGuitarAverageHelpfulCopiesSoloGuitaristSaxophoneGuitar Solos Author:Ritchie Blackmore
“Performance and music are inexorably tied together. And hell, I'll watch Brittany's Toxic music video all day. But there's a difference between that and listening to Leo Kottke play guitar. One is entertainment. The other is Music.” PlayTogetherDifferencesWatchesHellListeningPerformancesGuitarEntertainmentVideoToxicTiedBrittany Author:Patrick Rothfuss
“I'm from the generation that's always been recording, from the very beginning. I learned to play the guitar on the four-track. I started listening to music at a time when people were doing recording at home, when the discussion about songwriting correlated to the discussion about producing and engineering. I think that's a description of my generation.” PeopleThinkingPlayHomeFourGenerationsListeningGuitarTrackDiscussionDescriptionSongwritingEngineeringListening To MusicMy Generation Author:Sufjan Stevens
“It was by listening to Goodman's band, that I began to notice the guitarist Charlie Christian, who was one of the first musicians to play solos in a big band set-up.” FirstsPlayBigsChristianListeningBandMusicianGuitarSoloCharlieGuitaristGoodman Author:Alvin Lee
“I had a big background in listening to classical music and I started trying to compose, like I was playing the guitar but I heard an orchestra in my head.” TryingBigsHeardListeningGuitarBackgroundsOrchestraClassical Music Author:John Fahey
“If you go to Japan, they're still buying vinyl, and they want the education. They know who's playing on what tracks from the '60s and the '70s - who the guitar player is, who the drummer is, who the producer was, what studio it was recorded in. That's how I grew up listening to music. We bought albums. We read the liner notes. It was important to know the whole history behind it.” IfsKnowsWantStillsImportantWholeBehindsPlayerListeningGrewGrew UpNotesGuitarTrackAlbumsStudiosProducersBuyingJapanListening To MusicDrummerGuitar PlayerVinyl Author:Lenny Kravitz
“I started writing little short stories and poems as soon as I learned to read and write. I think I was six years old. And then when I got to be eleven, twelve, and into my teens, I was just listening to records all the time, and I got a guitar. I started to take guitar lessons when I was twelve.” ThinkingWritingYearsLittlesStoriesRecordsListeningLessonsSixGuitarShort StoryTwelveTeensElevenJust ListenSix Year Olds Author:Lucinda Williams
“I grew up not really listening to guitar players. Especially when I was studying music, I was just interested in piano players and arrangers and composers; I came to playing in a band from the perspective of someone who never expected to play guitar in a band.” PlayStudyPlayerPerspectiveListeningGrewBandGrew UpGuitarExpectedPianoComposerGuitar PlayerStudying Music Author:Daniel Rossen
“I enjoy listening to Olla Bell. There is also this young guitar player, John Duke Lippincott, he sometimes goes by Johnny Duke. He is the most brilliant guitar player from right here in Wilmington, DE.” SometimesYoungEnjoyPlayerListeningGuitarBrilliantBellsGuitar PlayerDukesTime Goes ByWilmington Author:David Bromberg
“There is no way that I could pinpoint just one person. When I first started, I was listening to Randy Rogers quite a bit, and I was also pretty big into Josh Grider back then. I remember going to a lot of Kevin Fowler shows early, and Eli Young Band was another one of the groups I listened to a lot of when I was learning to write and play guitar.” WayWritingFirstsPersonsPlayShowsBigsRememberYoungBitsGroupsListeningBandGuitarJust OneRogerKevinJoshRandy Author:Curtis Grimes
“As a songwriter, you tend to develop your own style, your own technique, based around what it is you're trying to write and perform, in terms of your own music. So a way of evolving a guitar style as a songwriter is much easier, I think, than developing a true style of your own just from listening to music or playing other people's music.” PeopleThinkingWayWritingTryingTermStyleListeningEasierGuitarTechniqueDevelopingEvolveSongwritersListening To Music Author:Ian Anderson
“Most of the EDM tracks right now are not very musical, they have one note that keeps playing. You really don't need to be a musician to do records like this, so I think me playing guitar for so many years and listening to rock 'n' roll and real music helps me when I work with vocalists like Lana Del Ray and Miley Cyrus.” ThinkingNeedsYearsRealHelpingRecordsRocksListeningRight NowMusicianNotesGuitarMusicalTrackHelp MeRaysRock N RollPlaying GuitarVocalistReal MusicMileyEdm Author:Cedric Gervais
“I suppose ever since I was about 14, I remember listening to "Sgt. Pepper's," and I remember thinking, "how do you possibly write songs like that?" I remember starting to try and write songs around that age, but just sitting around with an acoustic guitar, and try to come up with ideas for songs, and that's just what I've done ever since. I just never really stopped doing that, I suppose.” ThinkingWritingTryingIdeasDoneAgeRememberSongListeningSittingGuitarStartingCome UpAcousticsSitting AroundPeppersAcoustic GuitarSgt Pepper Author:Colin Hay
“In the morning I'd write these essays, anything that I'd feel like writing, and in the afternoon, I'd spend time with my guitar. I had decided after listening to my last four or five albums that my biggest weakness musically was melody. the reason I had been singing in a monotone over the chord patterns in my songs was that I never practiced doing melodies.” FeelsWritingReasonLastsSongMorningFiveFourListeningSingingWeaknessDecidedGuitarPatternsAlbumsMelodyAfternoonSay AnythingEnd TimesEssaysChordsSpend TimeDoing Me Author:Iggy Pop
“I kind of grew up a guitar nerd and I tried to figure out how to shred on an acoustic guitar as a kid, while listening to jazz or whatever. So that is kind of a different thing and my church background, growing up with worship kind of the ground that I learned how to play music from. Those are all odd ways of growing up, compared to most people, so I think the music has plenty of uniqueness in that.” PeopleThinkingWayKindDifferentPlayKidsChurchGrowing UpGrowingFiguresListeningGrewWorshipGrew UpJazzGuitarBackgroundsPlentyOddDifferent ThingsUniquenessNerdAcousticsAcoustic Guitar Author:Michael Gungor
“I started playing guitar when I was 12, and I started getting into more metal, like Maiden and Metallica... Of course, as I kind of got better and better in the guitar, I was listening to more guitar players, so then I got into, I guess, more of the prog side.” KindCoursesSidesPlayerListeningGuitarMetalsGuitar PlayerMaidensPlaying GuitarMetallica Author:John Petrucci
“If I want to be moved by the track, I don't want it to be sequenced, I want it to be somebody playing the guitar or piano or a horn arrangement where you can hear the breath. You can almost smell the studio while listening to the music. For me, that's what moves me emotionally, that's what I came from. I think that's always going to work best for me.” IfsThinkingWantMovingListeningBreathsMovedGuitarTrackStudiosSmellPianoArrangementsGoing To WorkHorns Author:Eric Benet
“Hearing your voice and your instrument kind of breathe in the room, it affects the way you perform the songs. For instance, if you have that reverb, you can give the songs a little more space. You can play them a little slower or you can play less of the guitar part and just let it open up, which I really love. It's so nice to play a listening room, because the audience feels a certain way too.” IfsWayGivingFeelsKindLittlesPlayCertainSongVoiceSpaceRoomsAudienceNiceListeningInstrumentsGuitarHearingBreatheInstanceHearing Your Voice Author:Denison Witmer