I first picked up the guitar when I was 13 years old. My mother had an old Gibson in the closet under the stairs that she never learned to play, fortunately for me. My parents set me up with some lessons at the local music store. The year was 1988. I remember that I had about 5 lessons with a real instructor, at about $35 a pop or something like that. The instructors rented out these rooms in the back that weren’t any bigger than a small prison cell. I remember my instructor would usually get through about 5 camel filters in 30 minutes, sitting his cigarette on the music stand when he was playing. Those were the 80′s…The only thing I learned during those lessons was G, C, and D, with the intro to Boston’s “More Than a Feeling”. About a dozen notes….
I was driven though, and taught myself from then on, usually relying on guitar magazines and tablature books. I was lucky to have the time, after all I was 13. On my 14th birthday, I got my first electric guitar. And I loved it. But I still always went back to my acoustic guitar, and write 90% of my music on the acoustic guitar. All of these years later, the electric guitar sits idle in it’s case…and I just bought my 3 year old his first acoustic guitar this year.