Why We Play Guitar - ASK ZAC EP 36

well hello friends and welcome to
0:49
another Ask Zac today we're gonna talk
0:51
about how and why I started playing the
0:55
guitar in the first place while you're
0:57
thinking about it please go down in the
0:58
corner and subscribe if you haven't
1:00
already and to support the show go to
1:04
askzac.com and go to the store and
1:06
you can pick up a mug or a t-shirt and
1:09
that's greatly appreciated alright so
1:12
just kind of going in the Wayback
1:15
Machine to you know right before I
1:17
started playing the guitar I did not
1:22
come from a musical family nobody played
1:25
an instrument my father had been a music
1:29
fan
1:30
you know before his children were born
1:33
so before I and my sister and I were
1:35
born he used to go and see a lot of live
1:37
music he saw Elvis in the 50s and Little
1:40
Richard and Ray Charles and Ray Price
1:44
and on and on and on but you know but
1:50
when when my parents got married and
1:52
they started having kids music and of
1:55
course you know kind of nightlife things
1:56
kind of ended for them so the only time
2:00
and yeah we didn't have music playing
2:02
through the house the only time I'd
2:04
really hear any music was when when it
2:07
was my dad and I in the car he would
2:10
have it on a country station and so you
2:13
know this is you know so he'd hear a lot
2:15
of John Denver this is this the late 70s
2:17
early 80s when I really remember stuff
2:20
so you're hearing John Denver or Mel
2:24
McDaniel baby's got her blue jeans on or
2:27
Conway Twitty tight-fitting jeans or
2:30
different things like that so and the
2:36
other kind of musical input I was
2:38
getting was from from the school bus so
2:41
you know of course there was always some
2:42
kid with or with a radio on
2:45
you know and they'd be so from that I'd
2:48
hear like Michael Jackson Billy gene or
2:50
Toto you know Africa and and you know
2:53
Rosanna and things like that you know
2:56
that was the early 1980s so and as far
3:02
as what I was into at the time I was way
3:04
way way I was obsessed with the second
3:07
world war and I have no idea why but I
3:11
just read about the second world war
3:13
like crazy and played war games and
3:17
played war games with a lot of older
3:19
kids so again we're talking about I'm
3:22
like 11 or 12 years old and I was
3:24
playing with guys that were like 15 16
3:26
17 years old and otherwise you know I
3:32
did was a real introvert and I wasn't
3:35
really I didn't really have any friends
3:37
I had one friend that I hung out with
3:42
some and yeah so here's like one of the
3:47
war games that I would play Axis and
3:51
Allies so this is something I spent
3:53
hours and hours and hours you know
3:54
playing and I still have it and I still
3:57
have all the pieces and everything to it
3:59
of course because I'm because it's a
4:01
sickness and so this would be like a
4:06
typical book that you know that I still
4:08
have so this is d-day you know just
4:10
again obsessing you know over over the
4:14
Second World War so my mother decided
4:17
that it would be a good idea if I had
4:22
another hobby that I could do by myself
4:24
and so she just thought out of the blue
4:29
why don't I get him a guitar and sign
4:31
him up for lessons so that's what she
4:35
did so you know I got this little you
4:40
know Carlos acoustic guitar which was
4:43
you know a guitar that was distributed
4:47
by command who of course at that time
4:50
was also distributing Takamine
4:52
innovation
4:53
and it was just a really inexpensive all
4:55
plywood you know acoustic guitar with
4:58
the chipboard case had a little blue
5:00
strap with it
5:01
and that's that's what I you know learn
5:06
to play on and my guitar teacher was the
5:09
music minister at our church and so the
5:12
first platoons I learned how to play you
5:16
know I learned the chords to certain you
5:19
know courses that we play at a church
5:21
and then of course on my own I was I was
5:26
learning things like Peter Gunn you know
5:31
[Music]
5:33
and and of course I could I could sit
5:37
around and play that for just forever
5:40
and then as I've said in some past
5:45
episodes my parents really didn't let me
5:47
listen to you know popular music I
5:50
couldn't go out and buy you know rock
5:52
music of the day but I had a record
5:57
player in my room by this point record
5:59
and cassette player and I found my mom's
6:03
old 45s and in there were the ventures
6:08
so from that I learned walk don't run
6:11
and perfidia and different different
6:13
things and also early Beatles
6:16
so Beatles from around 64 like I want to
6:19
hold your hand and you know she loves
6:23
you yeah yeah yeah and you know thinking
6:27
back on it you know those early things
6:31
that you hear that really kind of drive
6:33
you to play those those stick with you
6:37
and so I have to admit that the ventures
6:39
and early Beatles and you know Elvis and
6:44
and different things over my mom's 45s
6:47
those were a big part of you know what I
6:52
thought a guitar should sound like and
6:54
the way I thought it should be played
6:56
and so those tones were all cleaner you
7:01
know what until later that the Beatles
7:03
you know start
7:04
you know doing things like revolution
7:06
you know where they're you know plugged
7:08
in and diamond the board and getting a
7:09
fuzz sound or even the ventures started
7:13
using more Drive and fuzz and things
7:15
like that on their recordings so those
7:18
those recordings really you know kind of
7:22
left an indelible mark on what you know
7:26
guitar should sound like it's of course
7:29
in the beginning I didn't want to
7:30
practice and my mother made me practice
7:33
and but you know then I got into it and
7:38
then the you know the the pastor of our
7:44
church again I'd only been playing the
7:46
guitar for a couple of months but he
7:48
said you need you need to start playing
7:51
you know in in church and I was like I
7:56
didn't say it but I was like really so
7:59
again I just knew some basic chords and
8:01
things like that but he was he was
8:04
wanting to you know really I guess
8:07
support me and push me musically and so
8:10
I started playing with the the youth
8:13
group right away and then after a short
8:16
period of time
8:17
I started playing on Sunday morning
8:19
Sunday night Wednesday night
8:21
you know services at our church and
8:22
again by this point I'm 13 years old and
8:26
I've only been playing a couple of
8:29
months six months maybe at best and you
8:34
know I'm playing playing at her church
8:36
now here's the thing now by by the time
8:40
I was actually playing in church you
8:43
know of course the Carlos guitar was not
8:45
you know was not cutting it so my dad
8:49
bought me an ovation
8:52
balladeer cut away with a pickup and a
8:55
little sidekick reverb 35 amp and so I
9:00
had those and I would play at church but
9:03
I wouldn't be miked up and so I would
9:05
actually have the amp turned toward me
9:08
just so I could kind of hear myself over
9:10
the whole rest of the band remember this
9:11
is a Pentecostal Church and even in the
9:14
mid 1980s they've got
9:17
drums and bass piano organ Fender Rhodes
9:23
you know acoustic guitar you know a
9:25
bunch of background singers and of
9:27
course a lot of people with tambourines
9:29
and shakers and things like that so just
9:33
to hear myself I needed that and so
9:34
that's what I did in the beginning and
9:36
there were no charts at all
9:37
of course the tunes weren't horribly
9:39
complex but I mean most of the tunes had
9:42
you know three to six chords total in
9:45
them but there were no charts at all and
9:49
so you would just play the song and well
9:54
they would they would start playing the
9:55
song and I would have to learn how to
9:57
follow along and so I learned a lot
10:00
about voice leading and kind of ear
10:03
training from that because I started
10:05
hearing okay you know we're in the key
10:08
of you know we're in the key of D okay
10:13
we're probably gonna go to you know it's
10:15
like what what choices do you have from
10:16
there well most of time it's probably
10:18
gonna go to either a G or an A or a B
10:20
minor and I started learning about okay
10:25
the melodies doing this I couldn't you
10:28
know I couldn't explain it at that point
10:30
but I started learning like you know
10:33
when when you go to a you know a
10:35
dominant 7 chord it's probably gonna go
10:37
to the you know probably gonna go to the
10:39
4 chord and I started learning all these
10:41
voice leading things at how to play and
10:43
how to follow other people and how you
10:46
know some of the worship leaders at the
10:48
church didn't play an instrument and
10:51
they would just give symbols like like
10:54
this and or I was like what does that
10:57
mean and you know and they would just
11:00
dive into some song and it was the
11:04
number of sharps or flats so you know
11:08
they would the thing however many
11:10
fingers they did up that was sharps and
11:12
so then you have to figure out what key
11:14
you're gonna play in or fingers down
11:17
would be you know flats and you know so
11:21
this one singer was always you know
11:23
singing songs in e-flat and of course he
11:25
you know had learned how to use a capo
11:27
and
11:28
all that jazz so that was amazing
11:31
training for me because as a 13 year old
11:34
again I was playing in youth group on
11:36
Friday nights I was head rehearsal on
11:40
Thursday nights for big church as it was
11:43
played Sunday morning and Sunday night
11:46
and then also played Wednesday night and
11:49
I did that every week weekend week out
11:52
for you know a number of years and you
11:56
know eventually you know picked up an
11:59
electric guitar I picked up a squire you
12:02
know made in Japan strat and in a chorus
12:06
pedal and you know I kept using that
12:09
sidekick reverb you know for a while and
12:11
then you know made my way through all
12:13
sorts of you know different pieces of
12:16
gear but yeah it was it was really kind
12:20
of strange because the guitar was not
12:22
something that I necessarily wanted to
12:24
do it was something that was kind of
12:26
forced on me in a way and you know
12:30
because I think parents gonna do that at
12:32
times they try to expose their kids to
12:34
different things to see what what
12:37
catches them what gets their attention
12:38
and so I'm grateful for my mom for for
12:42
exposing me to the guitar I had no idea
12:44
it was gonna become this you know kind
12:47
of lifelong obsession that I've been
12:50
involved in you know in music you know
12:54
since I was 12
12:56
I've either been you know kind of been
12:59
going to school and playing music on the
13:02
side or you know I've been you know
13:05
guitar tech and a guitar player and I've
13:07
worked in the you know kind of EMI
13:09
musical instrument realm and of course
13:11
working for true tone for close to 13
13:13
years now but it kind of you know really
13:17
steered my life in a in a neat direction
13:21
and I'm grateful for that
13:23
so thanks mom and yeah so I hope I hope
13:28
you've enjoyed me kind of telling my
13:31
story of how I started playing the
13:33
guitar I hope that you know some of you
13:37
will go ahead and write
13:38
in the comments how you started playing
13:40
the guitar because I think it'd be fun
13:41
to kind of share our stories of how we
13:44
started playing the guitar I was always
13:46
jealous of the guys that had you know
13:48
they were older than me that had the
13:50
story of I saw the Beatles on Ed
13:52
Sullivan
13:53
yeah I always thought that was you know
13:55
and I heard that a lot in the true tone
13:58
lounge you know I saw the Beatles on Ed
13:59
Sullivan immediately knew I had to be a
14:02
guitar player all right well thank you
14:05
guys so much for watching I hope you all
14:07
have a great week and I'll see you next
14:10
time on the ask Zack show see you bye
14:12
bye