age to start

who are some great players who picked up a guitar quite late in life is it vital to start young? i know mayer started at thirteen is that late.

i have to say tht u can start at the age u can fit ur hand round the fret board. never too young, hell, i started golf at 1 and a half, the second i could walk.

never to late either.. unless ur really old and u cant play =p

Or if you are a cripple like Jason Becker :( Dammit he was good!
I started when I was 10. MY first guitar was a christmas present.

My friend was playing since he was like 7 or something like that.
I will ask him tomorrow and tell you's. He was young though.
Sadly I played way more than him lol

Never to late to start. I started when I was 13, and my guitar teacher started even later than that.

The guys in Metallica started when they were 15ish or so.
Jason Becker said he had only played 3 years before recording with Cacophany.

I was 13 and I think in a year I've gotten pretty good, so I'd say your never too young but those who start too young are often preasured and end up hating it

yeah, i think i was 11 when i started acoustic.. i really did not like it .. i picked up electric when i was... 13 or 14... which is only 1 or 2 years ago.. but i still dont remember =p

yeah I started by fuckin around on an acoustic then I picked up tab and started learning stuff on my electric

What's really weird is every one of my friends started with acoustic, and apparently most of you guys... I started on electric ;p

My dad has his old acoustic (The Fender Gemini II) but I only started that like 9 months in to playing -.-

yeah parents like to buy acoustics when your starting out. it's not quite as noisy and such.

I started dickering around on my mom's acoustic she had way back it was some sears brand it may have been a harmony or airline or something. it was hard to play. when i got my electric i started being more dedicated.

I would say it's never too late to start. If you feel you have a lot of catching up to do then you may need to fine a teacher, or ask for help on how best move forward with lessons etc.

I started playing Bass when I was about 12-13, and I just recently picked up Guitar. There's no "right" age to start playing, really.

Around this time last year I bought a bass and amp. i liked it at first but it gotkinda boring because I like to bust out crazy solos and stuff

Well you can't expect the bass to do that, GB. It's a completely different instrument than the guitar.

I've seen some really crazy solos on bass. My jazz band teacher has the whole "walking bass" thing nailed. Our bassist dropped out for a while, so he played bass AND directed at the same time. He has a kind of bebop/free jazz style, and it blew me away. Other than that he's an ass, haha.

Yeah, but it's not really a solo. However, guys like Victor Wooten, Cliff Burton, and John Entwistle may very well prove me wrong.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYpfMsJDjz4

bass/guitar duel

Well you can do solos you just can't do like bigass climbs and stuff then crazy bends and taps.
You can do a form of soloing though, it's just not as fun

yeah its alot harder too, since the strings are alot thicker, higher and the frets are twice as big

John Entwistle apparently doesn't agree with you:P
...but seriously,the only guitar playing technique that can't be applied on bass guitar is IMHO sweep picking.Pretty much everything else can be played on bass guitar. It'll just sound a few octaves lower.:)

Don't tell Cliff Burton that GuitarBoy. He played the bass like it was a guitar. Also look up Billy Sheehan. He plays bass for Steve Vai, and he does some really incredible stuff.

Cliff Burton was a fucking awesome bassist!
I heard him play before, fucking shame he got killed ):

It's actually easier, you just have to be able to keep a good beat and play with the drums.
But the fact that the neck is bigger and the frets and thicker strings is tricky, but the fact that it's all notes makes it easier.

This is one of the coolest bass/guitar battles I've ever seen. Victor Wooten on bass vs. his brother Reggie on guitar. Vic is so fast!


But to answer the original question, it's never too late to start. If someone starts playing when they're 5, they may make it farther than someone who starts when they're 20, simply because they have more time in their life to play.

But if someone starts playing at 5 and they hate it, and they never practice, they may not progress as fast as someone who starts later but plays more.

People sweep on bass, Calvin, you just don't really see people doing it on a 4 string bass.

Sweeping is always possible as long as you have an implement to sweep with, not common on bass but stil existent, and whoever mentioned Billy Sheehan, he is like Dragonforce theres no melody no rhythm its just mindless shred that means absolutely nothing

See, I hate that early Metallica and Anthrax shit because it was just "OMG I CAN GO FAST!". But, Pantera came along and added......dare I say it?.........RHYTHM!

early Metallica was the only thing that was half decent, Pantera didn't add rhythm rhythm was always there

Meh, Metallica was bleh in their early years.

It kind of sucks to learn on an acoustic guitar, especially the one I have (very very high action). It does toughen up your fingers and make your playing more precise, but it is kind of a pain for a young kid. My parents got me an acoustic guitar and a song book with traditional songs in it. I learned all of that (it was in staff notation, neato!) before they would let me buy an electric.

@Crunch

I learned the same way, but my guitar was 1/2 size acoustic. Then I moved up to 3/4 size, and now I finally use a full size. I'm glad I started small, since a full size would have been bigger than me!

But starting on electric makes more sense. A little kid won't get interested in playing if it's hard to make a decent noise. If it's easier to play, they'll want to learn and get better since it's fun.

yeah but the thing is that when kids get electrics you don't want to invest in something expensive but you also don't want to get a piece or crap thats why most kids are given acoustics to start, I still hate playing my acoustic because it has shitty tone and the action is that of a slide guitar

At some point it's probably better to invest more money and get something out of it rather than buying a piece of crap and turning the kid off from music.

That's true. Most decent electric + amp combos are at least $200, but you can get an acoustic for under $50

lol, my friend got a 75$ starter pack, amp and guitar lol. the amp is the size of my laptop, and the guitar is worse then the one i won at the bar mitzvah lol. its like he fking won it in those machines where u insert the coins and try to win a prize, he got the ones tht come in those little clear covered round things lol.

man i fucking started a year and a hlaf ago when i was 16 and holy fuck i can shred circles around folks that have been playing for years. its all about feel man if you can become one with the motherfucking strings by the way slash and zakk wylde started when they were 15 if you wannna play guitar yoiu just will man its as simple as that dont matter how fuckign old you are

Tilikidis are you hammered or jsut in a fuck saying mood, but I agree anyone can start at any age and it won't change much

I started when I was like 14. I was only interested on being a rhythm player so I learned like a thousand chords that I eventually forgot. I eventually became interested in shredding like Kim Thayil and Miles Zuniga. Anyways Metallica were pretty rhythmic and had good music. Pantera didnt add rhythm they just slowed it down and added Pentatonic grooves. Thrash bands actually have complex rhythms that are harder to play than Pantera (I like Pantera)


Thrash is to Metal what Bebop is to Jazz.

Thrash is to Metal what instruments are to music =p