Why did you get started playing music?

I'm curious as to why everyone started.

I started because my parents played and I always loved music. I first picked up a guitar so I could play in a band for an eighth grade talent show in which I ended up playing bass and loving it.

What about you guys?

Don't really remember, started with the suzuki string method when I was like 6 or 7.

Edit: But I didn't get very serious about it until I graduated high school and dropped out of college.

My entire family is musically inclined.

I played trombone in school band 4 years, but I was more 'baseball gifted', and played comp into my early 20's.

At age 15, I worked for, and bought my first electric guitar, Lotus Les Paul copy(I still have it!! lol).

From about that point on, my baseball (and trombone!) skills deteriorated, at about the same rate that my guitar skills were increasing :)

No regrets, I can never say "I'm bored!" All I need do is go down to the basement and hookup :)

Piano lessons in middle school....not very many before I ended up stopping and picking up a bass...because it was cooler or something, and my brother played guitar so I couldnt COPY HIM NO WAY.

I really, really regret not continuing piano lessons and learning to read music back then...bbaaaddd call.

i forget why i got my first guitar. but keyboard was taught to me since grade 5 till grade 8. then i took a music class in highscool and played guitar for about 6 months and stopped which continued for a few years. then i met my gf and she likes to write. so its like a together thing now

My friend showed me how to play some Nirvana songs on his guitar. I was hooked and bought a cheap electric a couple days later.

What made me want to learn guitar:
http://www.dudes411.com/guitarsRandyRhoads.jpg

What made me want to PLAY guitar:
http://www.thepigpage.com/vaughngenetics/images/srv.jpg

I fell in love with this album at age 7, and it still is among my very favorites:

http://static.rateyourmusic.com/album_images/1286121.jpg

That's Glenn Gould playing three of Beethoven's titled piano sonatas: The Pathetique, the Moonlight, and the Appassionata.

I was absolutely transfixed by this music. I listened to it over and over again and I'm so glad that I got early exposure to Glenn Gould in particular.

So anyway, my parents gave my brother and I the choice between karate lessons and piano. Neither of us hesitated to choose music. The rest is history.

My brother had a guitar when I was young. He learned how to play "Smoke on the Water" and "More than a Feeling", and taught me how as well.

I was 16 when I got my first guitar - a beat up no-name mexican nylon string. My sister agreed to teach me the basics if I would play in church with her. She taught me the open position chords.

At age 19, having played on and off since 16, I bought an electric with money from a summer job, and took lessons for about six months. I learned the basic scales, progressed to the modes, and then started learning some chord theory and the rudiments of songwriting.

Then I started playing in bands. I bought a bass at age 26 or so, and played that on and off; and then bought a drumkit at age 30 and have been playing that too. Lately I've been picking up the bass a lot more. It's a different beast than guitar.

I played the snare in the school band back in elementary and middle school. I lost interest for the most part through highschool but was given a hand me down Yamaha electric about 2 years ago so I started learning. Mostly so I could play along w/ music I listen to.

I've always found myself listening to more music than my friends.

So I kinda know I've had an affinity for it. It chose me. And it runs in my family like a disease