JRock Guitar Lab

HOW I STARTED PLAYING THE GUITAR

Today, I’d like to write about my influences so that you can get to know me better.

I’m Japanese American born in raised in Los Angeles, CA.  I was forced to take piano lessons at a young age just like all the other asian kids.  Long story short, I hated it.  I dreaded even looking at the piano and because of it, I hated music.

When I was around 11 years old, my mother decided to add some cable channels on Television (remember TV?) and MTV was one of my go-to channels because all the cool kids watched it.

One day, the TV was on and I turned to MTV but wasn't really paying attention to what was on until a strange music video came on.  

This music video takes place in a mental hospital with a bunch of sick people in the background.  A hospital employee appears with a guitar in his hands, plugs it in and hands the guitar to some guy.  Soon afterwards, he starts playing the guitar and starts singing the first verse of the song.  

Nearing the end of the verse, the another guy in a wheel chair gets pushed in front of a drum kit with some help from another hospital worker. The verse finishes up and the guy on the drums starts hitting the hit hats to support the singer during the Prechorus.  Then a third guy, who appears to be the sickest of the trio, gets help him from a nurse getting in position with his bass as the First chorus unwinds.  

And then BAM!! 

The song takes off with an exploding drum fill, and then comes simultaneously the full blown distorted guitar chords and the low end starts pumping from the bass right of the gate!!

and the rest is history for me….

The wall of sound that came from those 3 hospital patients just melted my face away, blew my mind and had me in a trance for the rest of the 3-4 minutes. My eyes were glued to the screen and my ears just couldn’t get enough.  My heart was pounding like never before (and perhaps to the beat of the song), and surely this was one of my first head-banging experiences of my life.  One of the catchiest rock tunes I ever heard and it sounded so hip and fresh.  The lyrics are funny but strangely relatable, the chord progression is simple but effective, great support and tasty fills from the bass, and a solid and dynamic drum performance all around!  The vocals were melodic and catchy with enough edge from the delivery and lyrics are so memorable.  I love the interaction of the musicians in this song and the video definitely highlighted that very well.  If I can only use one word to describe this video it would be "FUN".   

When the video finished, I didn’t quite catch the title and the band name the first time because my eye sight was starting to go bad and I had no eye glasses at the time.  I desperately looked for this song on the radio and asked my classmates and friends about this song.   No one seemed to know or care.  Luckily, this video played again not too long after my first encounter on MTV and I made sure to have the VHS recorder on stand by (yes, remember those?) so I can record it and watch it over and over and over again.  After a few weeks though this song became a huge hit and pretty soon everybody and their mother knew about this song.  I started hearing more Green Day songs on the radio at least several times a day.  I guess I was one of the first kids to hear it in school.  

My reason for picking up the guitar is I wanted to play the guitar like Billy Joe.  

What I loved about the video was that Billy Joe plays the guitar in a very exciting and cool way that I have never seen before.  It looked like he was having the time of his life (haha) jumping around, dancing and not giving a care in the world. I was truly envious and that energy he displayed was an inspiration to me and got me curious to pick up the guitar.   In short, it just looked really "fun".         

  

I begged my mother to buy me NOT an Acoustic Guitar but an electric guitar.  

It was around the same time I found my Father’s old beat-up acoustic guitar in the garage and I was a bit curious about the instrument before I discovered Green Day’s music.  

I don’t think I ever wanted anything this bad ever in my life.  

I wanted a guitar so badly and not just a guitar but an electric guitar, just like Billy Joe’s guitar.  

I had a feeling the mother would be reluctant to start me off on the electric first but I didn’t give up. 

I begged and begged and begged and I was able to convince her (or annoy her enough) to get me the electric guitar.

Fortunatley, my mother knew some people who knows a guy who owned a guitar shop in the Hollywood area.  

Mr. Sugai, from Performance Guitar and his staff hooked me up with a used Kramer electric guitar.  

It was black and it was VERY heavy! It didn’t even look close to a Fender-type guitar that Billy Joe had but I didn’t care as long as I got an electric guitar.  They set me up with the usual starter accessories with a practice amp, cables, a tool set, whammy bar, picks, polish cloth, cleaner…etc

And there you have it,  That’s how I started playing the guitar.  The music of Green Day taught me that music should be FUN because what's the point if you are not enjoying it? And at this point, I didn't really care if I was considered one of the cool kids.  I just wanted to play the guitar because it looked FUN.  

Thank you Green Day for the beautiful music.  

Without your music, I would’ve been a souless lifeless person.   

“No Music, No Life” rings very true.  

Music was and still is the best medicine when I’m feeling down.  

You brought joy to my early teenage life and got me to start playing a musical instrument that I still enjoy playing to this day.   

By the way, I have an acoustic finger-style cover of “Basket Case” on my YouTube Channel.  

https://youtu.be/CUrGo7kMvMc

What was the reason you started playing guitar or started listening to and loving music?