11 Things Picked Up over 11 Years of Guitar Playing

11 Things Picked Up over 11 Years of Guitar Playing

11 Things Picked Up Over 11 Years Of Guitar Playing

http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/columns/general_music/11_things_picked_up_over_11_years_of_guitar_playing.html

Be warned this is long, take your time or read it in bits, or complain about the length in the comments, either way please rate it, this is my first…
Strumming away the other night, I almost fell off my chair when my Mum mentioned that it was almost twelve years since our last family holiday. It was true, it was July 1992 when my Mum, Dad, Sister and I flew out of our mild Perth (Western Australia) winter into the lush tropics of Bali, Indonesia.
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The trip was significant for two reasons:
1. I bought my first Iron Maiden album. A pirate cassette copy of “No Prayer For The Dying”, chosen simply because it had the coolest cover (well in my 12 year old eyes it did). And
2. I got my first guitar. Sure it was a heap of shit, pirate copy Yamaha classical bought for $30 Australian from a department stores sporting goods section (figure that one out). But it had 6 strings and had the potential to make some of notes I was hearing Dave Murray play on my new favourite album, "No Prayer For The Dying" (it was another three days before someone pointed out Number of the Beast to me).
Six months later I was playing an old Ibanez Blazer (I snapped the neck on the classical guitar after trying to put acoustic strings on it… live and learn) and paying a 16 year old with a mullet and a pointy Jackson to teach me to play like James Hetfield or guitar virtuoso’s such a Kurt Cobain (hey I was 12, it was 1992 and I had much to learn).
Eleven years on I am still learning, although I have changed my notion of virtuoso slightly to the Vai, Petrucci, and Malmsteen school of thought.
I am far from a good guitarist, hell it took me two weeks to nail the solo from Beat It. To save a lot of messages after this article, Yes! you probably could play me...

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