is it me, or do most guitar "players" just sit around on them and strike the strings?.....

That's a little harsh going in my view. I've been teaching guitar for a few years now and i agree some do indeed waste their time. Personally I devoted 10 hours a day for 4 of the years I was learning to trying to perfect different styles and advance beyond the boundaries of guitar music. It is because of what I learned then that has led me to play; bass, double bass, violin, mandolin, cello and some piano. I ask only that you consider the few of us who put a lot into playing.

As for why I started. My dad plays so I always had the access, however despite this the truth is I started playing because of a lie. A friend told me he was a singer in a band from his old school and I told him I played guitar in one. He suggests we should start one and in agreeing I had to learn pretty quick. It turned out he was the worlds worst singer but I gained a talent from a lie.

sorry peche, no offence intended, and kudos to you for all your hard work!

None taken, there are too many occasions I'd have to agree with your statement. Besides if this was a forum for most guitarists they'd all be fighting amongst themselves by now.

True musicians have respect for all instruments. It is merely my mission to learn at least the strings side of that. Major kudos for the forum, I love to hear peoples stories.

<Added>

Curiosity killed the British guy... Why the picture of Condileeza Rice tenorsaxist?
Pure curiosity.... Sorry
x

lol, it reminds me of what american education standards really are!

I guess I forgot to tell how I started piano. Well my mom took piano lessons as an adult. She got married. My dad's cousin owns a music store. My got our piano at a discount because of being related. She played it for me when I was born. I probably banged on the keys for a couple years. When I turned 5 she taught me some stuff. I started lessons in 3rd grade and quit lessons after 4th cause I didn't like my teacher but I didn't quit playing at home. I started lessons again with a new teacher in 7th grade and am glad I did.

This is how I decided to learn sousaphone. At the end of 8th grade I was debating wether or not to play clarinet in marching band, but finally decided to learn something new. I chose tuba/sousaphone because 1. Its big and I love the sound 2. I get to wear all black like the percussionists(maybe thats not exactly a good thing). All the others have to wear the normal uniform. I've been obsessed with tubas and sousaphones the whole summer.

<Added>

3. I talked to my new band director and they have a shortage of sousaphone and trumpet players so its a perfect match.

when i say we "learned guitar" i basically ment that my music teacher had no clue how to even play giutar and none of us actually learned anything. it was a really pointless lesson

Lol, that reminds me of our music lessons - a lot of the time we'd just be sent to the keyboards, we never properly learnt how to read music or play the instrument :D

I guess maybe I should come over and teach in schools, given the lack of passion put in for you. Even still here in the UK i had some passionless teachers in the past. The violins suffered for it. I was lucky to have some of the best guidance, without that I may have given it all up. Then I'd miss those moments in music that make your hairs from your neck to your hands stand on end.

awww, you should peche, I'd love to have you in my school! you seem interesting and devoted!

Two things that got me started on violin, first after seeing Vaneesa Mae perform I thought the violin would be the best instrument ever to play, but what really got me started was when a group of musicians came to my school and played for us and offer lessons and passed out sheets that selected the instrument that we wanted to learn and obviously there was violin. I got to have lessons for free because I already had a violin or should I say my dad did than he gave it to me. It was really old and I got picked on a bit about its rough shape. (It hadn't been tune for over 20 years) After awhile though I had to stop taking lessons even though they were free. I stopped playing for about three months but then I slowly started to pick it up again. And for the next three years I taught myself surviving playing from I think called String Essentials by Hal Leonard or something like that. Soon I got bored with that music and decided to find music on the internet and that is how I found 8notes. I finally got lessons too and joined an orchestra and can't live without music now. Just think if I'd never would have gone to school that day I'd more than likely would have music in my life. Listening to celtic music got me started on harp and face it....I just had to learn piano.

I pick my 1st instrument (clarinet) because I didn`t want to play flute or trumpet, and I wasn`t sure what a saxophone was. I really wanted to play trombone, but my parents said no and that I should do clarinet. I hated it the whole way. I didn`t make an effort to improve until later. I picked my 2nd instrument (Bass Clarinet) because I was sick and tired of the stupid clarinet. I also liked the lower sound better. Now I realize that I didn`t like clarinet because of my teacher. She was mean and from the time I was a beginner she told me I couldn`t do it. She said I would never be anything great at all. She actually made me cry a few times. Then she kinda gave up on lessons and for about 2yrs. I was basically self taught, and in those few years I improved to the piont where I was playing Bass Clarinet better than some high schoolers. So, my band director suggested that i pick up my 3rd instrument (Tenor Sax) to have more of a challenge, and to be in Jazz band. I only had 1 week to learn it but I was still able to do it. Somewhere in there we had a student band director and he taught clarinet. I absolutely loved him. He was such a great director. all of us liked him. Then he saw how much I was struggling with my teacher and offered to be my teacher. I was thrilled. he is still my teacher now. Then my 3rd instrument (oboe) I picked because I loved the sound. In my orchestra was the 1st time I was really exposed to an oboe`s sound and I loved. When my band director announced that he needed someone to play it I was exstatic. he let me do it, probably just bacause I wouldn`t stop asking about it.

wow that was a long story. Sorry to bore you all. I didn`t know it was going to be this long!

Before I decided on the trombone, I knew I wanted to play brass. Strings and woodwinds were too wimpy sounding for me, (excluding the saxophone)and I wanted to do something other than hit stuff with sticks. I eventually chose the trombone because I liked the sound, and moving the slide was more fun than pushing buttons. I liked the feeling of holding so much power in my hands.

in fourth grade, we had that whole pick an instrument assembly...i wanted to do drums b/c i absolutely love them but b/c i had been doing piano for many years they told me flute. couldnt play clarinet..

then half in 7th grade, band teacher asked flutes if ONE wanted to play the bari sax (aka bari). my best friend was already playing it so i said i would. i LOVED it at first play. i had a sleepover at that friends house and we played for four straight hours! i had it down so fast!

then for high school we had auditions for this year. i had to ryout on both instruments. they didnt have enough baris so i had to play flute. so im trying to find a bari or learn to play alto. ( that friend had played alto so she has an unused alto...hmmm..)

our junior highs symphonic and concert band rank in the top 5% in the nation. So that's another reason why I joined. They'get to go to Chicago to compete this year. Besides all my friends were doing it:D I know that's a crappy reason, but it was a factor. They're going to Chicago to compete this year.

''Truth be told, any brass instrument I pick up I can't play. I think I was born to be a woodwind.''

It is the exact same thing for me if you switch the words brass and woodwind. With some time and practice (which I'm not willing to put on right now, I prefer concentrating on my main instrument), I probably could learn to play any brass instrument. I did try trumpet, horn and tuba (and Euphonium, but that's quite easy since it's the same mouthpiece and pitch as trombone) for fun. But I've tried many times to 'play' on a woodwind instrument ; clarinet, bass clarinet, baritone sax...I can't even get a sound out, and when I did success in playing a note, I noticed it was requiring me to blow my air in a very unnatural way for me, and I understood I'm really just not made for woodwinds, and I prefer brass anyway. Oh and flute, well what can I say...my father played flute in college, and I still have his old pre-WWII Selmer Signet. I've tried many times to play it and well...complete disaster? I can only blow a ''bottle'' note once every 9 or 10 attempts, haha

Anyway, this was a long paragraph of uninteresting thoughts only to say that, well, I'm made for brass instruments (maybe I could be percussionnist too, I'm pretty solid rythmically), and trombone is the one that fits me best, so up to now, I think I've made the right choice.

I chose piano at first (in year 7), mainly because my fingers didn't fit around the fretboard on a guitar! Oh, and in year seven at my school you don't really get much choice of instruments.
By year 9 though I had started listening to a lot of songs that had the piano as their main instrument, and that inspired me to stick with it! Glad I did too, nothing makes me cheer up faster than playing!!!