Posts Tagged ‘cheap guitars’
It is not uncommon to see the world’s biggest rock stars on stage with five or six guitars, but it is important to remember that most of these musicians came from modest beginnings, strumming discount guitars in the garage with their friends. In this day and age, many young musicians assume that the equipment is essential in becoming an adept musician. But in actuality, the instrument is the effect, not the cause.
There are dozens of stories of musicians rising from mediocrity with rudimentary instruments and little training. Jimi Hendrix, for example, grew up practicing his chords on a broom. And other famed musicians, such as Kurt Cobain, rose to stardom playing used and battered instruments.
As I’ve gotten older, I have gone through phases of infatuation with just about every genre of rock music. When I first started listening to music in my early teens, I listened to hard rock and heavy metal—the stereotypical style for the inevitable stages of adolescent angst. I then moved on to “more mellow” music: grunge. This led to a stint with classic rock, and, after going to college, I adapted a formulaic affinity for indie. With the exception of the heavy metal, I still listen to all of the genres periodically.
Watching my brother’s music tastes evolve has been quite amusing, as I’ve seen him go through an almost identical transformation. Recently he has branched out from heavy metal into grunge and the sounds of the custom guitars from the classic rock era. Although I dislike pigeonholing anyone, I am fairly confident that he will begin to appreciate the counterculture of indie music sometime soon.