I agree with you Dennis, the input of these guys must be gigantious but I prefer to remain a 'dedicated' amateur myself - never even thought I’d even be playing a musical instrument at all!
You’d better stop me, I get carried away…you know, back in the old days of gramophone records and radio only, my dad often played popular songs by artists such as The Ink Spots, Danny Kaye, Andre Kostelanetz & Orchestra, Tommy Dorsey, Glen Miller, Al Jolson and a couple others that I can’t recall now but especially lots of CLASSICAL music (for my mom), including Bach’s Toccata en Fugue (played by Albert Schweizer, I do remember).
All of these sounds had started shaping my childhood musical tastes …until… in my early teens ELVIS' radical Jailhouse Rock got me absolutely riveted to the radio set when at first it was aired! It was during this period (50’s) that I especially found myself liking the sounds emanating from the (electric) guitar; players like Scotty Moore (for Elvis), James Burton, Joe Maphis (for Ricky Nelson), Buddy Holly, Clifton Gallup (for Gene Vincent), Hank Marvin (for Cliff Richard, the Shadows), and then in 1962, I became especially hooked to the sound of THE VENTURES - without realising it at the time.
A little later a host of others have followed since; the song "Carry On" by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and "Goin’ Back" by the Byrds -to mention just two, still hit me every time I hear them being played but my musical roots had already been firmly established. Oh yes, I can still appreciate a select number of classical pieces but I always find myself returning to my –guitar- roots. BTW, back then I always listened to 'my' music with the volume turned down, -ha, afraid of 'hurting' my parents' ears and provoking possible negative response! How times have evolved.
In conclusion, as already mentioned, I never thought I'd ever be playing the guitar, let alone making it to be our little band's lead guitarist "Back In Time" for the time that it lasted, but it was the aforementioned players who inspired me enough to see if I had any playing abilities myself even though they didn’t turn out to be that great… but I’m having a WHALE OF A TIME still tryin'!
Took some guitar lessons along the way but they did NOT inspire me (always so ‘stuffy’…), so I'm unable to read sheet music but I do enjoy working out chord patterns of songs for the band to play, so sort of being a self-taught player.
Enough about myself.
...found this while websurfing...
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