Your musical beginnings?

[Progbass]

I'm not sure but maybe I was about 8, when my sister ordered three casettes: Alice Cooper - Trash, Aerosmith - Pump and Skid Row - Self Titled. I especially liked that Alice Cooper. I also played some toy guitar and few years later some keyboard. Along the way I listened to some rock bands like Green Day, Offspring, Blur. That was about 10 years ago. Then very shortly after that I just got into heavier stuff and had to get almost all the metallica and megadeth CDs. I also started to play bass at age 16. When I had enough of playing and listening to metallica, I think I heard Pull Me Under by DT and loved that kind of stuff. Images and Words played many hours in my CD player, then I got my hands into Twilight in Olympus and surprise surprise, bought DG, TDWOT, V and later The Odyssey. Listening to those albums really changed the way I play bass also.

 

[J-Dubya 777]

In short, it started with me getting bored with kiddie records, and having my older sister turn me on to The Beatles in 1972. I ended up finding her Deep Purple & Hendrix records as well. Listened to some radio, but nothing really stuck with me, I kept on falling back onto what was familiar (& louder) to me.
Around 1978, I found out about AC/DC completely by accident. That same year, a friends sister brought home and cranked up this Van Halen 8-Track.
A couple years after that, Iron Maiden & the whole New Wave of British Heavy Metal. Didn't pick up a guitar until I was 16, although I can remember wanting to play from about the age of 8 or 9. That was my sister's fault. She conned our folks into getting he a nice classical guitar and paying for lessons. She didn't last long and that set the tone for no guitar lessons for me, until I paid for them myself. I did have about a year of piano, but I had the Hitler of piano teachers who hated kids. I've been around for a while, and seen LOTS of changes in attitudes toward music in the mainstream. I hated grunge and despised what it did to a flourishing metal scene, flourishing at least until the early 90's. If I haven't stopped listening to hard rock/metal by now, I doubt that I ever will. Oh, my first Sy-X cd was Damnation Game. I went to Impulse to get DWoT, but they were out of stock, and I had to "settle". Still one of my favorite Sy-X cds to this day.

 

[Key]

I did have about a year of piano, but I had the Hitler of piano teachers who hated kids.

Memories, memories..
My piano teacher was an old lady with that kind of oldschool approach to teaching kids.
I came into her room and instantly knew she would kick my ass!!!
Yes, this approach can teach someone having respect for the teacher,
but most certainly not for the instrument itself..

However, my drum teacher gave me all freedom I needed
to develop own techniques on the drums.
He only had one rule,
and that was to keep respect for the instrument while doing so.

He was a real genius with his guitar. And he never talked much.
The only communication happening between us was on the musical level.

And then... Strange how death can change your life.. So suddenly.
Can't forget this happening.. But it shaped the relation between me and my instrument.
Before, it was playing. Now it's travelling between two worlds.

Greetings,
Alex

 

[Rose Immortal]

To make a long story short, I started with classical music, then went into prog rock because it was the only thing that satisfied my expectation of how well thought-out an album ought to be--and then I started wanting something more intense. Took awhile before I discovered it, but I then got into metal. Now I adore prog and power metal!

 

[Horus]

Here's my story. Kinda long, but still interesting.

My dad was a guitarrist. He never wrote anything of his own, or played in a band. He just liked to play other stuff. He played alot of Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, and he literally knew how to play every single Greatful Dead song ever written. (Literally is still being debated.)

My mom was a hippie, and she played guitar in college, and eventually forgot. She listened to music all the time, as well as my dad. She listened to alot of the Beatles, The Dead, the Turtles, Elvis Costello, and in June, she took me to see Clapton at Madison Square Garden, adn again, with ToRuinAll (Where the hell has he been?) to see Cream.

The first music I ever listened to was actually Rap music, which my brother used to listen to. Then, over time, it got boring, and I started to enjoy my parents' music. Then I got back into Rap.

In September of 2001, (I think it's easy to assume what day.) my dad was killed in the World Trade Center. I knew I had to somehow remember him in more than just saying "Rest in peace dad," so I picked up his guitar and learned how to play.

In 2003, I first heard Metallica, and I realized that Metal was my calling. I loved the guitar playing: the solos, the riffs, the speed, anger, etc. and I began learning all of their songs and stuff. I first joined a band after a jam session with ToRuinAll and 2 other people. I started playing Maste of Puppets and he said "I want you in my band." And so I joined.

In the summer of 2004, at my sleepaway camp for A.D.D. kids, I helped run an activity with 2 counselors called "Rockband". It was there, that one of the counselors showed me a new band that would change my life. This band was a cool band that was new to me. I'd never heard of a keyboardist in Heavy Metal as of yet, and I was willing to try something new. The song was called "In the Dragon's Den." I heard it and was left speechless and needed to change my underwear. (I literally did have to change them.) When I asked what the name of the band was, he told me "Symphony X." I was destined to follow this path.

And in January, after the breakup of my old band, Me, ToRuinAll, and our awesome drummer reformed the band with new members, and a new name, as well as a new genre. We became Progressive Metal. I had no idea what tha was as of yet, until Febuary, when I bought my first Symphony X album, entitled V: The New Mythology Suite. Thats when I found out what Prog is.

I loved it, bought the Odyssey, and registerred here, where I found out about many awesome bands, including Dream Theater, and also Adagio, thanks to Luis' signature. Thanks Luis!!!

So here I am, a regular concert goer, Prog/ Pwer head, with music being my life, talking with a whole bunch of kick ass people, talking about the thing that is my life: Music. I've been my happiest since getting into Prog, and I hope to stay this way.

I do apologize for making this so long, but I really am physically unable to put this into less words.

METAL = GOOD TIMES

 

[Tubbs]

Here is a relatively short intro of me:

at the age of 11 I asked my brother if I could use his cd player. He let me use it (it was the first cd player I've ever used) and I asked him if he had any cd's (I listened to trendy garbage at the time) he said he didn't have any, being the cool brother that he is, and instead gave me Metallica's ...And justice for all! It took a while, but it finally grew on me. In 2 years , while I was 13, I was at my friends house, and I noticed he had a guitar with very fat strings. I was like "woah, hey what is that?" He replied "thats a bass guitar" I asked him if I could try it, and everything just went on from there. After 3 years of listening to the entry-level metal bands, I started getting into the more complex stuff like DT (or Symphony X, duh). 1 year after that, My other brother, after not seeing me for 13 years, came to my house. he showed me his awesome guitar skills, which really impressed me! (Jason Sebek, google him, you wont regret it!) That's when I decided to play guitar, too, to be like him. Now that I can play both bass and guitar, I finally feel useful for something! Oh, and I have another brother who has played guitar for a long time, so I guess it runs in my generation's bloodline. Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep.It's weird, because my dad can't play instruments, my grandad, etc. it just doesn't go back.

 

[PoisonSeed]

It's cool alot of people have been into playing music since they were kids...

My parents are both in love with music, mostly baroque, romantic era and early music. They always felt music was something really important and they managed to deliver that feeling to me as well.

I started with violin (Suzuki method) when I was around 5 years old, kept playing until the age of 9 when i dropped it because of a shitty teacher and started piano. Played piano for another 5 years as well as a traditional greek string instrument called Tambouras for 2 years, then dropped both because of shitty teachers. At that point I was actually really dissapointed in the whole pedagogical aspect of music and was seriously thinking of staying away from it for good. That couldn't happen of course so after 1-2 years, I got myself a classical guitar and started lessons, that was it, for the last 7 years i've been playing guitar (classical and electric) and will keep on doing it. =]

 

[arglebargle]

In September of 2001, (I think it's easy to assume what day.) my dad was killed in the World Trade Center.

Holy shit dude, that's terrible.

 

[Beelzebub]

I started with violin (Suzuki method) when I was around 5 years old, kept playing until the age of 9 when i dropped it because of a shitty teacher and started piano.

I learned violin Suzuki method too, and I also thought it sucked.

 

[Rafaga]

I owe my love for music to my dad. He used to play it for me since I was very little, and his collection was great and diverse. I use to liten to classic music (from Beethoven to Gershwin) jazz, blues, country, rock'n roll, swing, etc.

He also had a large collection of Mexican music, and latin american music too. He taugh me the basic chords for guitar.

When I was 12, (1982) an uncle lent me Iron Maiden's Killers and that was it, no other music provoked the same emotion in me, as metal did and continue to do.

My music career died when I graduated as civil engineer and started to work, that was back in 1994. But I still try to grab my guitar from time to time, and music is a very important part of my life.

This is a great topic, brough some memories back to me.

 

[Phrozenspite]

Hmm as far as I can remember I wasn't really aware of music in a true sense until around 6th or 7th grade, before than my main exposure probably came from my parents who were big on 50s and early 60s music... so not really too much to draw from there. in about 4th grade I started playing Trumpet(In and out of school), I continued on that path to the point where at one point I was considered close to prodigy level... Needless to say at that point I heard some Metallica on the radio one day and I was just draw to the sound of feedback... I quit trumpet at that point and traded it in for a guitar, which I left alone for another few years.
During this period of time I remember seeing a video for Du Hast by Rammstein on MTV and I was extremly hooked on the use of electronic elements as well as the visual aspect of the video... from there on I started to get into Nu-metal like NIN, Orgy, Static-X...
By the time Slipknot and Mudvayne started getting lots of airplay though I was already kind of tired with that type of sound and plus I wasn't really big on the "raw" sound(I considered anything without keys at the time to be raw), so I delved deeper into Industrial music and began listening to stuff like Ministry, Throbbing Gristle, Skinny Puppy, Chemlab, KMFDM, Einsturzende Neubauten... Skip a few years, during my Sophomore year in HS I bought a copy of Terrorizer because it had Fear Factory on the cover and stories on them and Rammstein. Inside were some articles on Dimmu Borgir and In Flames amongst others...
I checked out Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia and it was simply the most mindblowing thing I'd heard up to that point, during the next couple days I remember checking out nearly every name I could find for underground metal and coming across Opeth who after Blackwater Park finally sank in bridged me to clean and growled vocals, also I'd never heard musicianship like that before...(my past exposure to prog was limited to Rush who I've never truly grown to like, though I do respect them greatly).
As a result of my exposure to Dimmu and In Flames I first began to check out Melodic Death and Black Metal, at which point I got into everything from Bathory to Aborym to Dark Tranquillity. I remember listening to Emperor's Prometheus and realizing how complex metal could be, and how epic it could be if done right.
At this point for some unknown reason outside of Mikael Akerfeldt I had a hard time appreciating growled vocals, so I started seeking out more unusual avantgarde bands, like Green Carnation, Agalloch and Summoning.
Than one day I took a ride home from some kid I hadn't talked to in years, he was blasting Cradle of Filth(who I despise), and I asked what else he had with him at the time just to silence that awful midget... and he put in Symphony X, whose name I had heard but nothing more... the album was V and I was awestruck... I think I went out and no joke, bought the whole symphony x discography that weekend.

I'm not sure what happened next but at some point I got into Tech Death(probably because I started playing the guitar I bought all those years ago), and than Power Metal. Recently I've been getting into Doom/Death and Drone Doom, as well as Dark Ambient and Power Electronics but it goes in cycles for me. Like I heard Sunno)))'s Black1 the other day and as a result in the past couple days i've started listening to quite a bit of black metal again...

Overall though I'd say I just love Metal in general now, no one subgenre over another(also at some point I got into Classical and Avant-Jazz but my memory is fairly spotty in terms of a timeline)

 

[Eternal Dragon]

I guess I'm kinda like most other people in that my musical taste has evolved over the years. I got into Symphony X when I was challenged by some friends to try and learn Sea of Lies on guitar. I had only been playing guitar for a year at the time, hahahahaha. So yeh I've loved them ever since.

My musical history is as follows. Been playing piano for 6 yrs, guitar for 3, bla bla bla.....same boring story.

Now i've gone even further and started making music electronics. At the moment i'm making a preamp for my guitar, and eventually I want to design my own FX pedals and an insane amp.

 

[PoisonSeed]

I learned violin Suzuki method too, and I also thought it sucked.

Maybe there are not enough teachers that can teach it properly... I don't know.

 

[Rose Immortal]

ptah knemu--Sorry to hear about your father. I know it's small consolation, but I would imagine he's very pleased to know you did gain something like playing music that's going to last you your entire life.

 

[Aqualung]

Hmmmm, no one knows me on this forum so I won't drag on too much...

I was raised in a Romanian/Greek family in Wellington, NZ by my Grandmother. My Grandfather was an opera singer (was even on tv once or twice), and even though he died when I was 1 year of age, I inherited - among other things - many of his taped practises and home recordings, so I grew up listening to him u could say.

I was singing from the age of 3 or 4, and several years later (probably partially my grandfathers genes) developed a keen interest in mainly Italian opera which eventually led to me taking serious singing lessons for a few years with the long term goal of an operatic career (in between all this I also played the violin for 10 years, including a two year stint in the wellington youth orchestra). This fell apart when I started getting more into power and prog metal, and I quit the thrash band I was playing guitar in to try and concentrate more on this type of music.

I had zero luck finding anyone in wellington enthusiastic about this stuff, so after a friend from Sydney suggested I move over and try my luck I did it! After 1 year and a 1/2 of doing fuck all and nearly starving on more than one occasion, I got myself together and auditioned for power/prog band Transcending Mortality and was accepted after prentending that I could actually sing (they are yet to discover the deception!).

Hmm, quite a bit longer than I thought it would be. Oh well hehehe.

 

[Meedleyx10]

Yep, it's a baritone horn.

It's interesting that Metallica was the first metal band so many people listened to. I kind of just dived into prog when I read a recommendation for Symphony X on some random website, and the rest is history.

The actual name is Euphonium. Yes, im a band geek and work in a music store so i know these things.

As far as my start in music goes...........the first band i was really into was KISS. From there, i started listening to a lot of 80's hair metal. Then in 7th grade i got really really into metallica and started playing guitar. By the end of that year, I could play the rythm parts to all but two or three of their songs and was starting on solos too. For the two or three years following, I learned every metallica and megadeth album start-to-finish and devoted pretty much all my time to guitar. Through megadeth, i really got into Marty Friedman (my first realy guitar shredder hero), so i got all his solo stuff, then his cacohphony stuff which led me to jason becker, which led me to guys like Yngwie, Vai, and Satriani.

9th grade year i disovered Symphony X, and a few months later got into Dream theater, became a huge fan, and haven't looked back. They are still my favorite band by a longshot. I've been into the whole prog scene ever since. In 10th grade i joined the school jazz band. Ive been playing a lot of jazz/fusion ever since in addition to prog/shred and whatnot. I really got into guys like greg howe, frank gambale, and allan holdsworth. That same year i started taking guitar lessons. My teacher is the most incredible guitarist i've ever heard, he realy really pushed me to achieve quite a bit. He also got me into a bunch more jazz fusion stuff and introduced me to prog bands like Dali's dilemma and Adagio and got me into shred guys like Vinnie Moore and George Bellas. The keyboard player who teaches at the same school got me into stuff like Yes, Echolyn, Transatlantic, Spock's beard, etc. I also started up my first band........we kicked ass

Last summer, I ended up moving here to great falls Montana due to my dad's job. I haven't yet found any competent prog musicians out here, so no bands or anything and nobody really worthwhile to take lessons from or anything. Ive got a lot of spare time to practice though which is always good. IM in the jazz band at school, i play with another jazz band at the local college, i play with my boss's jazz combo, and I have my own combo that i started with some people from the school jazz band. I also learned how to play the string bass this summer and I now play that in Symphonic band. I also now have a great job at a music store.

I graduate this year, from there i will be going to either Berklee, MIT, or possibly University of Idaho. I actually have my Berklee audition next tuesday, so wish me luck.

 

[OfSinsAndShred]

Hm... I was never seriously in my early childhood. My dad listened to a lot of classic rock - it's ironic, he's a huge fan of all the bands that people like Symphony X list as their influence. Neither of my parents were musicians (my dad was a kickass drummer but gave it up before I was born, from what I hear).

Then, when I was 12, I heard "Black Dog" on the radio, and immediately asked if I could have a guitar. About a year later I had one, and I was SO BAD, but I stuck with it. The only thing I would even put in my CD player was Led Zeppelin IV - I was convinced nothing else was worth listening to. Until I heard Korn's "Freak on a Leash" on MTV (I know! Ew, MTV! ) and started to get into metal as well as rock.

I did the whole numetal thing while still loving classic rock. But the numetal obsession came to an end when my friend who played bass came over and said, "Dude... my friend from where I used to live burned me this CD, this band's called Rhapsody, they're insane!" So yeah, imagine being a numetal kid and hearing Emerald Sword by Rhapsody. I was blown away by the whole symphonic metal thing, and he told me if I liked neoclassical to listen to Yngwie. So I downloaded Trilogy Suite from Napster (those were the days) and again, my jaw was on the floor. At this point, I began practicing guitar like I was possessed, and within the week he introduced me to Dream Theater.

Then, thanks to John Petrucci's forum, I was introduced to Symphony X, and later Children of Bodom. Being into Symphony X got me into baroque and romantic music, too. Then a whole slew of other power/prog/fusion/shred/everything else artists panned out from all this.

Lately I've been getting into older metal, thanks to the guys in the two bands I'm in. Megadeth, a little Pantera, 80's thrash. There's some really cool stuff that was influential toward all this modern metal.

 

[greenaxer]

Hey all,

Grad school has been keeping me so busy I've barely had time to pick up my axe, or even breathe for that matter But I wanted to reply to this post.

I discovered a LONG time ago (probably around age 4), that I could listen to a song and identify the note, or chord, being played. I know that, since then, music was to be a vital part of my life.

I got interested in the guitar around age 10, but being the typical undisciplined kid, I dropped it after about a year. Boy do I regret that. I got into band in sixth grade (played the saxophone), and learned how to read music. Once I turned 13 (and desperately tried to find an identity for myself), music really helped me find myself and gave me self confidence. That was when Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, etc. were really huge, and that was my introduction to rock. Later I discovered prog music when I was completely floored by a band called Dream Theater, who's album 'Awake' I'll always treasure as the one that made me want to be a serious musician. I'd been playing guitar and bass for a year, and Myung and Petrucci just made me want to really play to the best of my ability. Listening to them really helped me improve my ear for composition (as well as the chops, of course).

From then on, I was into harder, epic rock, and discovered Savatage and Trans-Siberian Orchestra. It made me interested in classical music, so I explored some of that. Later I got into stuff like jazz, world, and ambient music. I got into film scores, which I am so passionate about to this day. But when I discovered Symphony X (fall 2002), I found a reaffirmation for my love of hard rock, as well as truer appreciation for classical music. SX has shown that there are still gifted musicians out there who can create some of the most beautiful melodies and still rock the shit out of anyone! It's so cool that Michael Romeo is influenced by composers like Beethoven, Holst, and John Williams, as I really enjoy the music of each of them as well. Those influences have come through in my playing. As for SX, I can listen to their albums and not get tired of it no matter how often I hear them. THAT is one mark of a great artist or band. It's bands like them that inspire me to always aim to play more and get as good as I can be. Now if only I could find some TIME TO DO IT!!!

 

[Bat2710]

Hiya, I'll keep this as short as poss!

When I was younger I liked that pop-pap stuff, 80's music. Then I heard The Final Countdown by Europe and really liked the guitar sounds in the song (I know eh?!). By the time I was 11, I was listening to Europe, Def Leppard, and Aerosmith. Then my sister bought Aerosmith's Get A Grip alb, and I loved it!

A year or two later, a friend at school recorded a cassette for me: Iron Maiden's Fear of the Dark, and I was blown away. So I bought as many Maiden alb's I could, whilst getting into Metallica, Megadeth and Judas Priest at the same time.

It wasn't until '98, when we had cable-radio that I heard a song called Devil In Disguise by Yngwie Malmsteen. I never really knew who it was or anything, so kept listening to 80's hair metal, until my uncle (who introduced me to drumming) had it on CD. He did me a copy of the Eclipse album and I realised I loved neo-classical stuff, so I got Yngwie's albs and heard a lot of Tony MaCalpine too.

When I lived in Nottingham in 2002, I was searching on the net for neo-classsical bands, and the band Stratovarus popped up, so I gave a lot of time to them, and Gamma Ray. For whoever mentioned Napster, my ex girlfriend at the time had WinMX, and I was looking for a Stratovarius track, and there was one called Odyssey that was 24 mins long, so I got hold of that. It didn't sound like Strat, so I found out the band was Symphony X. I went online and bought the CD's after splitting with the ex, and am now into SymX, Threshold, Stratovarius, Savatage, and also a passion for classical music has arisen too, like John Williams, Mozart and Bach.

Sorry it's long !