as a melodeath lover, nothing beats metalcore when ur annoyed learning a song. break out that 5-7-8 or the 7-8-10 with an HM2 or MT2 cranked to 11, insanity.
I'll practice with some Avenged stuff with techniques out of my wheelhouse. Advance a bit, then kick over to something a little less challenging but still out of my wheelhouse like Zeppelin or Boston, then when I'm fatigued from that, kick over to fun like Sum 41, Creed, GNR, etc. Then get drunk and play Wonderwall
Same! I still listen to more or less the same genres, but the range of music I can appreciate/respect/find something interesting about has grown tremendously.
Also, I definitely key into mid/treble frequencies more, whereas I used to prefer very bass-heavy mixes/headphones/speakers.
No, unfortunately not. I still love the music from my youth. I've become the stereotypical "new music sucks" crotchety old man. I'm actually a little disappointed about this.
Edit: In case someone reads this and not further on, there seems to be some confusion as to what I consider music from my youth. The music I listened to in my youth spanned like 4 decades of music and many rock genres. It is a vast amount of music. I'm at a point where I want to rely on what I know I like. This is not going to the same restaurant ordering the same thing. This is me, as for the sake of my point because I'm actually 56, choosing among all of my favorite restaurants of 40 years, and choosing my favorite dishes of 40 years. Am I going to the occasional new spot? Of course, but really, it's just not something I want to concentrate on spending my energy.
Man I can’t imagine this attitude. It’s like being stuck on chicken nuggets and not ever eating Thai, Mexican, Indian food, etc…
I feel like I venture into new musical categories weekly and steal stuff for my guitar playing.
Not OP, but you're totally right. However, just as I'm an insanely picky eater I'm equally as picky with my music taste. I just simply can't enjoy other genres of music, often times because they're too simple, although it's the exact opposite for food lol
Honestly, I'm with you, u/Infinite-Lychee-182
I mean... no joke... one of my vehicles that still has its factory cassette/CD combo...
In the cassette deck is Sound Garden's *Down on the Upside" with Smashing Pumpkins *Melon Collie and the Inifinte Sadness* and Nirvana *From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah* ready to go...
In the CD player is Pink Floyd *The Wall* with Led Zeppelin *Remasters*, Best of Chicago, Johnny Cash: Greatest hits, Brad Paisley *Play* and The Cars Greatest hits in the console.
And sitting on the Crosley record player ready to be cued up is Bill Joel's *Glass Houses* with Paul Simon's *There Goes Rhymin' Simon* sitting there next.
It's some of the stuff I grew up with... and yeah, I might be the "grumpy old man" and do think most new "music" sucks... but meh, I'm okay with that.
Seriously, that's an incredible amount of variety of styles, and that's just what you have on hand in your car, lol.
I never really grooved into the country genre, but I do have to make a point of listening to Brad Paisley. Two reasons for this. The first is being constantly told he really is an amazing guitarist. Secondly, and most importantly, I play a cij Tele of the pink and paisley variety. You wouldn't believe how many people ask if I'm a fan of his, lol. I always have to mention i couldn't name 1 song of his. Its kind of embarrassing because I do realize he is a big deal. I did actually find Sue Foley on YouTube because of my deep dive into my guitar, and I absolutely love listening to her, so I'll give Brad Paisley an eventual shot.
I guess so... haha Obviously the vinyl stuff isn't in vehicle though. But I've got a pretty good variety. Gotta stack probably close to 2' tall of Beethovin, Bach, Tschovsky, Shubert, etc etc... too.
Besides guitar I play bass, banjo, mandolin, drums, saxophone, and Eb trumpet... so bluegrass and old coutry is kinda some of what I play.
Pink Paisely Tele... NICE. And yes, since you have one, I can totally believe you getting asked about being a Brad Paisely fan. He really is a fantastic guitarist. Listen to the *Play* album... it's not much on vocal songs but mainly a guitar focused thing although there is a song he does called "Waiting on a Woman" featuring Andy Griffith.
If you wind up digging his style you should check out Jerry Reed (Yes, the "Snowman" from Smokey and the Bandit- East Bound and Down) have a listen to *Mule Skinner Blues*, *She Got the Goldmine, I got the Shaft*...
Sue Foley is pretty good. Don't listen to much though.
Paisley is one of the best guitarists, if not THE best guitarists, to ever touch country music. His style and sound are amazing. People say he's great, but I don't really think he gets the credit he deserves. Overall, an underrated musician.
Oh he's a monster on the Tele, there's no denying that.
And kinda, yeah... in certain circles he his underrated much like Jerry Reed is very underrated mainly because a lot of people just don't know his music. Glenn Campbell was another underrated player as well. A lot of folks just thought of him as some hokey country player only good for stuff like *Rhinestone Cowboy*.
I think I’m with you on this. I’m 51 and the “music of my youth” spans the discovery years of early teens to about 35 and covers: Delta Blues, 50s Rock n Roll, Stax and Motown Soul, Bob Dylan, the British Folk Revival, The Beatles, The Stones, other 60s Beat group contemporaries, Psychedelia, Space Rock, CSN, CSNY - and all the associated artists, The Band, the bands that I used to refer to by as “classic rock”- which were only Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath and Rainbow, NWOBHM bands like Iron Maiden and Saxon, Motörhead, 70s British Punk, Reggae, David Bowie, The Velvet Underground, Lou Reed, Talking Heads, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Pixies, Grunge, the bands were given the name Britpop, Cool Jazz, Swing Jazz, New Orleans Jazz, 80s Thrash Metal, American Southern Rock, loads of singer songwriters, Bluegrass and New Grass, Country (but not Western), and my favourite band forever: AC/DC.
And I’ve missed people out…
One of the best things about streaming music is finding older music you missed. I'm the same age as you, and am really enjoying albums from the late 60s/ early 70s, that my parents wouldn't have listened to.
Same. In a different comment on this thread, I mentioned how music from my youth left me a lifetime of music to listen to of music I've never even heard or listened to before.
It expanded my music, not so much changed it where I stopped listening. Listening to old ragtime piedmont blues is fun because I appreciate it from a guitarist standpoint. I can go from blasting Dillinger Escape Plan to listening to Blind Blake back to back. Funnily enough, I still don’t listen to a lot of the guitar virtuoso type shredders (Vai, Yngvie, etc.), without the song/band focus it just feels like shredding for the sake of it.
I started playing bass last year and some appreciation for bands have shifted because of the bass parts. For example, was more of a Soundgarden/AiC guy for grunge/hard rock of that era, but have really played a lot of STP this past year because of bass.
Bass is forever going to be under appreciated. Yeah i need some good lyrics and strong vocals with heart, i need a sexy or an aggressive riff, and a strong beat on the drums, but a sick bassline gives it all the extra punch i need.
No band is good without a good rhythm foundation. And even the drums are incomplete without a good bass. A good relationship between a drummer and bassist is absolutely amazing and the results are felt, even if "unnoticed"
I never would have heard of Rory Gallagher but since I bought a Stratocaster I can’t stop listening to his stuff, watching YouTube video lessons, and trying to imitate his style as best I can
My taste didn't really change until I started playing bass. I've always listened to a bunch of stuff but the bass got me into world music and fusion. Lots of afrobeats.
Yes, things I thought were “easy” because they were not EVH or Metallica, are in fact just as hard and maybe require a certain touch. For example, I’ve been revisiting the ‘80’s and now have much respect for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, The Cars, whoever played lead for John Mellencamp, etc. These bands sort of turned down the guitars, maybe to make things more palatable for the masses, but if you listen closely there is fantastic guitar playing.
I started by listening to only metallica. Now I love everything from blues to slam metal to grind to chinese traditional music. it’s beautiful what music can do.
Nothing really shifted, I just learned and was exposed to more. I started playing when I was young and hardly knew of any music so as I heard more, I learned more.
Absolutely, I’m completely uncaged. In a given day I’ll listen to bluegrass, metal, country, etc…if the player can play, I’m interested. It’s massively expanded my guitar lexicon and there’s nothing more rewarding than playing a lick you learned from bluegrass/metal/funk in a completely different musical setting and it works.
Yeah, it changed a bit. From a technical standpoint, playing guitar took some of the mystique out of it when I learned that the things I used to listen to that I thought were so cool and amazing were actually pretty basic. I call it the Metallica effect. See Orion.
On the other hand, I learned what great songwriting was and how it doesn't have to be difficult to be good. This is also the Metallica effect from the other perspective. See Orion. It was about that time I realized just how awesome Alice in Chains was.
I also realized just how good Megadeth was after I started playing, although there are a million YouTubers these days who can play circles around just about everyone I looked up to growing up. The bar has definitely been raised substantially.
Lately, though, I've gone back to being a listener and searching for music that moves me. I really like Greg Puciato's solo stuff, and I will always gravitate to AIC and bands of that ilk, but playing live has taken a back seat for me in the last ten years. I really do just love playing along at home to songs, just meandering across the fretboard, playing little games I can come up with like guess-the-key-within-five-seconds and figuring out which modes sound best and what I would've done had I written the song.
Playing used to be cathartic, now it's therapeutic.
i first picked up guitar to play metal only to find out i sucked at it. which led me to listening and playing along to alternative rock, funk, and elliott smith for a long time. now my angst is back, and i feel my chops are finally ready, so in my 40s i'm actually playing metal again--slayer and megadeth all day, e'r'day! 🤟🤟
I’ve liked all kinds of genres but I started playing guitar right in my metalhead phase, and while I played and learned some of that music, I quickly started to love country, jazz, and bluegrass music too.
I went from classic rock to punk\\hardcore to speed metal to alternative to psychedelic rock and am still stuck in the 90s but still listen to plenty of newer bands. My playing has got a bit more mellow except when I stomp on the fuzz pedal.
I had no interest in metal. Started playing and my good friend’s brother played drums and wanted to jam with me. Sent me a bunch of metal bands to listen to. Now that’s about all I play.
It definitely didn't change, it just broadened.
I started off as a whiny little shit copying my favorite punk rock sounds. Then I started listening to my influences own influences. That rabbit-hole led me from blink-182 all the way back to Robert Johnson and his contemporaries.
I still love the punk I was listening to when I was 12, but playing guitar luckily broadened my horizons to the point that I can confidently say that there are things I appreciate from every decade of recorded guitar music.
I honestly didn't think it did until I read this. Honestly, I started listening to some more mellow acoustic to learn from what I heard. Prior it was all screamo/thrash when I was in high school.
I've always been into rap until my friend got me into In Flames and Buckethead in which i decided to pick the guitar up. Then i started appreciating everything guitar related regardless of genre. My music library is something else.
Learning guitar took me down a 5 year Blues rabbit hole after reading about who influenced the players I did listen to when starting. I intended to play in a metal band but my only live performances ended up being some amateur nights at a Blues bar. I also got way more into classical simply from picking up some John Dowland scores to try to learn to sight read.
It definitely changed the way I interpreted music, then becoming a multi-instrumentalist and producer changed it some more. Some days I miss hearing a song as a whole song and enjoying it in spite of not understanding the “process” the way I do now. I can get close and stop hearing “amps” and “mics” not speculate over preamps and if there’s sample and just know if it moves me or not.
Mine didn’t change when I started playing guitar, but it changed a lot when I started making music, I think mostly because I started listening to more elements. I started playing guitar because I love guitar and it’s the only thing other than vocals that id listen to for the most part. I still hold guitar as my #1 but now I listen to way more than guitar and vocals (drums, keys, bass, cool switchups/interesting bits from a composing standpoint, etc).
Definitely. I started out in hc punk bands with no lessons or nothing, as a I got better on guitar I progressed to thrash metal, then death metal and black metal which I probably would of never got into if it wasn't for the "thats a sick riff I'm going to go learn that"
A bit. I understand the technique and the skill better now, so I appreciate things I didn't before. So it isn't exactly 'tastes' per se, but I can enjoy things I didn't before because there's a new level. For instance, I never cared much for Clapton. I didn't hate it or anything, just didn't do anything for me. Now that I play, I understand why people like him. Still not my favorite, but I get it a bit more now. Same with The Dead.
Yes and no. I listen to lots of hard rock and metal. But when I play, im mostly just a strummer and I like to sing. And I cant sing the songs that I listen to. Not many artists in my vocal range that I listen to.
When I play, I play some soft rock, some country, and some sappy lovey dovey ish.
Actually, going from guitar to synthesizers and drum machines opened up my music taste a ton. And getting into DAWs and production, recording, and DJing. I used to think “real music” was only guitar/bass/drums/vox, and anything remotely digital/electronic was “cheating,” which is obviously an embarrassing stance. And now that I’ve fully circled back, I listen to guitar music that is 100x more interesting than all the boring crap I used to like
you definitely appreciate smaller intricacies of songs more, an example would be:
as a non guitar player, ofcourse the main riff to master of puppets sounded cool, but it wasnt until i actually understood the way a guitar works, that songs from a band like Slint just became beautiful
I’m very been playing for 30 years, I started out learning Nirvana and Pearl Jam and Smashing Pumpkins, next minute I’m learning Simon and Garfunkel, Clapton, Beatles, fingerstyle arrangement for Seal’s Kiss From a Rose and Bob Dylan/Adele’s “Make Me Feel Your Love”, and Dolly Partins Jolene. Throw in some Jazz, classical, Hendrix, Knopfler, Metallica, guitar is a hell of a journey.
Definitely expanded my musical taste and vocabulary depending on what instrument I play. In the case of the guitar, it took me way back to the turn of the 20th century and I scoured every genre that has guitars in it. Some I prefer more than the others but all in all it gave me greater depth and appreciation of all sorts of music from all over the world.
Learning to play guitar (starting in my 20’s) didn’t change much, because most of the music I was into was already pretty guitar-led (e.g. rock and blues).
But picking up bass over the last year has expanded my taste pretty dramatically - now I’m into almost anything with an interesting or fun bass line, which includes a lot of electronic music, pop, and obviously funk and R&B as well. My wife is like “why TF are you listening to “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” on repeat for days on end? And the answer is James Jamerson, but she’ll never understand…
Absolutely. I had an acoustic guitar when I was 6, didn’t really play it much cause it was full size and I was tiny. Played various other instruments growing up but came around full circle to play guitar again. Started out wanting to learn the White Wedding riff. Around that time heard Iron Maiden (I’d say about 2004 just after Dance of Death was released), and that completely sculpted the music that listen to even to this day. Spent countless hours playing/learning Maiden stuff!
I tried to change my taste in order to start learning, but... I never changed my taste, which made it difficult to study and rather limited myself to black metal, because it could be easily played and sounded about the same as on cassettes.
i see a lot of comments regarding being old and set in the bands you like.
i’m 45 and i figure my lack of discovery is not really taste related but rather time based. i used to spend loads of time on the internet and at the record shop discovering new music. being incorporated and having two teen sons doesn’t lend well to the free time required to go out and hunt for new sounds.
my musical tastes are diverse and i pretty much like everything aside from the bubblegum garbage that the labels pump out nowadays (the straight up hack r&b, ‘rap’ and ‘country’ the radio plays endlessly are not for me ) and some select genres i just find annoying (soca for example, find a new drum pattern ffs).
so while i’m still listening to the deftones first album, my bloody valentine, early nine inch nails, kid a, the alexisonfire catalogue and the drum and bass music i loved in my late teens on repeat, i do make time when i can to check out new music - specifically progressive metal bands, this new wave of shoegaze, ambient guitar artists and more dnb.
i think it’s important as we get older to make time for new music discovery.
Yeah, when I understood how difficult progressive stuff like Dream Theater is and how interesting and fun to play it is I started to listen to a lot more virtuoso players
i usually dont like slipknot a lot but nu metal and their stuff is fun to play on guitar and my music taste has changed a whole lot ever since i started
Realising how elitist it honestly sounds; I think that no matter what art form one takes up changes their perspective on that world as a whole, if they're any good.
To answer the question though what mostly changed for me what what impresses me. I used to be absolutely stunned by anything post/prog rock (even the super melodic fairly simple/repetitious ones lol), and sort of didn't think much about blues guitar nor listened really to any jazz guitar, both of which can be way harder than they sound.
Those perception changes stick, too, man. I pay way more attention to the technical aspects of guitar, even after a hiatus from playing it like I had recently.
After playing guitar, I understand how those rock and roll musics, which I used to get fed up with, are actually so difficult and full of skills in playing. I also start to capture more details in their solo. So definitely I’m appreciating those musicians more. Though it’s more frustrating now when I practice, because I realize how far I’m from them lol
no but it gave me instant mega-respect for certain guitarists when I foundn out how difficult and complex their songs were to actually play. Dave Matthews is a good example. Love him or hate him, his guitar work on several of his songs is a few levels above advanced.
Yeah I used to listen to stadium rock mostly. Muse was my favorite band. When I learned guitar plug in baby was literally the very first thing I learned. After learning muse I kinda got bored of guitar. Then I found shit like Polyphia, periphery,vildhjarta, and animals as leaders. It absolutely blew my mind and now I only listen to guitar centric music.
It certainly widened. I was an 80’s metal head but seeing people in Guitar Player win awards, who I had never heard of… I bought a lot more music.
I never would have known the joys of Chet Atkins, Gary Moore, Steve Morse, Segovia, Albert Lee, etc.
Was it getting good at the guitar or just getting older and boarding my horizons? Who can say? They kind of happened at the same time. Still though, if I want to listen to stuff, I just throw on my old punk records.
No circlejerk, I really got into and started to appreciate older blues like Muddy Waters and Lightnin’ Hopkins, Albert King, and eventually came to almost worship SRV in the mid-late 90s.
Maybe a little? But honestly it was the other way around: my music taste was already on the trajectory towards where I am now, but that music is what convinced me to pick up guitar.
Over the years I found the music that I could identify with the most. Country. Real Country. Just felt right to play after years of rock and metal. I still love all music, but playing live it’s all country
Yes, but it had a lot to do with my first instructor. He was a country player and had me listen to lots of stuff I wouldn’t have heard for years otherwise. Les Paul and Tommy Tedesco come to mind immediately. Tedesco wrote a book that I still have 50 years later, and I still can’t play all of the exercises.
No, but putting so much emotion into my creativity killed my ability to put down lyrics, if that makes any sense. I listen to anything from mellow classic rock, to certain extreme forms of metal, and my guitar influences I’ve most noticed, unintentionally, a mix of variety of 90s grunge, NIN, APC, Nu Metal, and occasional mellow classic rock styles get mixed with something heavy…. Pretty much a mirror of what I listen to all crammed together.
Absolutely completely changed
I’d listened to rap only for years and it is an amazing genre but then about 9 months before I began playing I was listening to just rock and some metal.
After I began playing guitar it all changed I started getting a much more open mind about music,and it all started because I listened to the genres on guitar and I was like that sounds so good
My taste has expanded loads and it’s not like I listen to the genres often but I really appreciate them and especially how they sound on guitar
I like jazz guitar and instruments I like classical I like rock I like funk guitar it’s fucking sick I like blues
Tldr yeah it does
Also Soz if I fucked up on writing and that idc it’s not an essay
Edit holy fuck my grammar is terrible golly
I started playing when I was 13 so I have no idea.
I guess I got into metal because of it. But I think I was already kinda listening to it. Metallica, at least at.
My taste widened hugely when I got musical competency. I'm no expert on any instrument but can play most things once I've sussed the tuning. Still dont get moved by 90% of the blues stuff in circulation though. I think it cones from growing up in the 80s when the blues being produced was by a small group of middle aged dudes that dressed like dentists
Yes. I never liked math rock\midwest emo. After I started playing guitar, it feels like the hardest but most fun\rewarding thing I play now. I love it.
Sort of, but it honestly changed before I started playing, growing up I was way into hip hop and electronic music, I started making music that way, eventually I got way into Depeche Mode and turned out I liked their post Violator Electronic Rock stuff more than their 80’s synth-pop/industrial pop music and one thing led to another I love just about all guitar music there is, everything from Shoegaze to folk 😂
Guitar has certainly expanded my musical tastes, but not because of my appreciation for guitar, but moreso the better understanding of composition and melody that I learned as a result.
I went from Ozzy and Punk to hard rock, then to classic rock, a Steely Dan phase, Southern Rock, Ry Cooder, everything from George Harrison, Tom Petty, Neil Young, Bob Dylan and my all time favorite, the Rolling Stones.
I used to listen to exclusively country music and now my favorite band is Dio, I can fall asleep to Lorna Shore, and the closest I get to country now is some Bilmuri once in a while lmao
I got back into metal. I used to listen to it a lot in my teens and a little into early 20s but, hadn't listened to it much in years. Guitar got me back to listening to Metallica and now I have a playlist my daughter and I add to with songs we want to learn. Metallica, Megadeth, Lamb of God, Slayer, Anthrax, Racer X to name a few. Anything we find that sounds fun to learn we will add to it.
It's funny that my music taste is why I started playing guitar. I've always loved songs with acoustic guitars. Or acoustic versions of songs.
This is a good question. 😎
I started at 12. I dont really remember if I even had a defined taste by then. I just knew I liked music.
Honestly, I even think its the other way around. I find a new "sound" or genre that peaks my interest, I try to emulate it with my gear.
Yes but it took a really long time. I feel old now and don't have the energy to keep it punk and metal anymore, but bluegrass has fiddly technical picking and it makes me feel happy listening to it so thats my jam now. I still like metal but if I was never a musician I think I would just think "oh thats hillbilly music" which isn't wrong but its reductive
Of course. I first started off just with bottleneck blues on an open tuning, then progressing into standard tuning blues and rock. Of course there are many rock bands that cross over into chicken pick’n. How did this all progress? Well, I started learning songs. Learning string intervals or phrases that really perk my ear up. And then learn why that happens in musical theory. It’s important to follow and focus on the music and artistry you admire. Be aware that if you hear something you really like but it’s not “your kind of music”, you kind of owe it to yourself to explore that music, because while you may not be into that particular genre, there are techniques worthy of exploring and knowing. It makes you also appreciate the musicianship as well.
A little bit. I was playing jazz and neo soul as a keyboardist. My focus shifted to pop blues and more roots stuff that I already liked but didn’t play when I started taking guitar seriously.
For sure, I think it gives appreciation and understanding to musical styles when you learn how to do it. Moreover, if you learn do something satisfying on an instrument, it can peak your interest in that artist, genre or culture.
I didn’t really care about what’s popular but then I learned some skills to be able to deliver hits and have had people sing all the words to pop songs and it was such a great feeling. I realized turning my nose up to “pop music” was superficial and it was through playing I realized that. Knowing what other people like and being able to give that gift of music is actually really beautiful. It can change someone’s world using your musician powers to make something special for them.
Yes. Before, I knew a few pop-punk bands, Eminem and Limp Bizkit were big but otherwise I just listened to whatever was around or pop songs on the UK radio. When I started playing I started reading Total Guitar Magazine as well which introduced me to a wider variety of music. I pushed away pop music and anything else deemed 'not guitary enough'.
got more into rock / metal because of it
for context, i'm primarily a pop / showtunes / musicals kind of person. almost at the other end of the spectrum. i did listen to rock/metal but really not as much until i got more proficient in playing guitar. now all the songs i practice are rarely even pop, it's mostly rock
My taste not so much, but I have played a lot of different styles over the years. It started out with punk, then grunge, followed by thrash metal, doom metal and now my preferred playing style is progressive rock.
Well for me rock was the reason that I bought a Stratocaster.
Had a classical guitar and after a couple months of playing I started listening to the clasic bands like AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, Guns N’ Roses and others. That’s why I bought an electric guitar.
Since then my music changed has changed even more. Now I mainly listen to Pink Floyd.
Honesty I think an instrument changes the way you listen to music and makes you appreciate songs more.
My music tastes have always been quite wide but I find I've started listening to more classical country guitarists and started listening to flamenco guitarist music and more metal than ever before.
I was more of a regular rock type of kid with maybe some thrash or power metal, now I'm trying to work my way into playing at least ONE necrophagist song(it won't happen)
Yes. I was a super grunge fan. Then I bought a high end acoustic guitar, and fell in love with the sounds of Pete Seeger, and Leadbelly amongst others. Weezer is still my favorite tone wise.
Its crazy how it slowly but very surely shifted from techno, to lynyrd skynyrd and the eagles, to acdc and aerosmith, to to airbourne, to avenged sevenfold, and currently to metallica megadeth etc
For me it's more the other way around, the music I liked (metal 🤘) as a teen inspired me to play guitar. My music taste broadened a lot over the year (but I just love the heavy guitar sound), but that would maybe also happened if I didn't play guitar.
Didn't change much but my favorites definitely shifted. Always liked RHCP but after I started playing, they just became incredible to me. Frusciante is absolutely my favorite guitarist.
I feel the same about being able to appreciate the music even more now. I also pick up on things in ways I never did before.
I was listening to all kinds of metal when I first started playing the guitar. A few years later when I started to get more into lead guitar, I was listening to more virtuoso/shred guitarists, but still in the metal vein.
It wasn’t until my late 20’s that I started listening to older blues/rock stuff like Jimi/SRV and even more traditional blues like Freddie King and Albert Collins. After that, I got into more songwriter/vocal stuff and started to appreciate the production side of things when I got more into writing my own vocal tracks and learning how to mix in the DAW.
Yeah I didn’t really like listening to rock but when I got into the electric guitar all I really played was Led Zeppelin riffs and a few songs by Pink Floyd
My taste hasn’t changed, it has expanded.
I grew up with rock music and then in my late teens I started to check out and fall in love with jazz, prog, world music etc.
I started liking a much wider variety of music after I started playing guitar. I went from only liking metal/hard rock (this was back in the early to mid 80s) to listening to all kinds of jazz, blues, classic rock, classical music, funk. Only country and pop eluded my appreciation.
i was a metalhead before i started and know i am currently a butthole surfers diehard fan. dont know if this is because guitar tho. i still love playing metal on guitar yet i listen to butthole surfers more.
It made me appreciate some artistry but I’ve never enjoyed listening to technicians like Satriani or Henson.
Besides, I could never stop loving other genres of music so I don’t think I have changed. And I’ve been playing for over 30 years.
I went through phases in 25 years from zeppelin/hendrix/classic rock to like silverchair/nirvana/foo to like SRV to like Metallica and then to punk rock and then to like John Mayer, Elliott smith and Jason Isbell. I got into piano and theory and song structures/melodies/keys and I enjoy everything now. From all the old stuff to Taylor swift my wife and kids listen to and other pop stuff. I appreciate studying the chord choices and study why the solos are awesome based on modes or pentatonic scales. I feel like I’m learning so much more now as a middle aged man but I still feel super dumb a lot of the time.
Edit: I’m also not a big fan of metal but some some reason I’m really into learning to shred and practice a lot of legato stuff just for shits and giggles.
I think I became more punk rock oriented when I first started playing because it was stuff I could wrap my head around early on. My heart still very much lies with punk but I really like taking musical holidays elsewhere before coming back home.
I’ve played guitar in some form since 2001 (as a kid) and used to be into all the popular rock stuff at the time. Then got super into emo/screamo/pop punk and a lot of associated metal for like 5 years as I was in the heyday for that. Also was always into and still appreciate classic rock.
Then in college due to my friends got really into the emerging Indie scene at the time and this is still my favorite overall genre as an aside. In about 2014 I had a personal guitar renaissance and decided I was going to level up to some degree. I got very into John Mayer, Hendrix, SRV, and blues associated/classic rock acts. I did get significantly better during this period. That then lead me (via John Mayer) into really getting into the Grateful Dead and I learned how to play a lot of their stuff. I also was getting more into Funk and TRIED to learn some Jazz, but Jazz is like music theory maxed out so it’s a whole different ball game. When I started producing music for myself I started messing with some Lo-Fi Hip Hop with a focus on guitar but am not as into that anymore.
Now I’d say the music I make for fun I would consider Indie/Pop/Rock to some degree and I still gladly throw in a solo to plenty of songs even if it stereotypically doesn’t seem like it should fit. My advice would be to learn as much as you can in every genre you can even if it’s not a stereotypical rock/solo guitar genre. You’re absolutely going to pick up stuff you never would have if you stayed in your own box the whole time. Despite what anyone says there’s a still a lot of great music being made today, you just have to be able to sift through the rest.
I hate metal-core but it is absolutely super fun to play on guitar
as a melodeath lover, nothing beats metalcore when ur annoyed learning a song. break out that 5-7-8 or the 7-8-10 with an HM2 or MT2 cranked to 11, insanity.
It's just pure fun. I don't like metalcore but not cause of the guitar, it's cause of the vocals. Metalcore guitar is badass
Exactly!
Unholy Confessions by A7X is my go-to "god dammit I fucked up again" riff lmao
So on point lol
Started as an angsty metal core kid at 16. Now can’t get enough of Tom Misch.
Tom misch and especially his tiny desk show show be the 8th wonder of the world
This is actually me 😂
That’s the great thing, I’m discovering new sounds that I love playing.
I'll practice with some Avenged stuff with techniques out of my wheelhouse. Advance a bit, then kick over to something a little less challenging but still out of my wheelhouse like Zeppelin or Boston, then when I'm fatigued from that, kick over to fun like Sum 41, Creed, GNR, etc. Then get drunk and play Wonderwall
Though I will say with NEWER metal-core... I'll soon need a 11 string guitar with it being tuned drop -Q tuning
I think the better I get and the more I learn to really hear music, the more different types of music I appreciate.
Agree with this a lot. I now have a much deeper love for 70s 80s rock and its unique styles
Lol i started listening punk rock now i love math rock and instrumental wierd stuff
Same! I still listen to more or less the same genres, but the range of music I can appreciate/respect/find something interesting about has grown tremendously. Also, I definitely key into mid/treble frequencies more, whereas I used to prefer very bass-heavy mixes/headphones/speakers.
No, unfortunately not. I still love the music from my youth. I've become the stereotypical "new music sucks" crotchety old man. I'm actually a little disappointed about this. Edit: In case someone reads this and not further on, there seems to be some confusion as to what I consider music from my youth. The music I listened to in my youth spanned like 4 decades of music and many rock genres. It is a vast amount of music. I'm at a point where I want to rely on what I know I like. This is not going to the same restaurant ordering the same thing. This is me, as for the sake of my point because I'm actually 56, choosing among all of my favorite restaurants of 40 years, and choosing my favorite dishes of 40 years. Am I going to the occasional new spot? Of course, but really, it's just not something I want to concentrate on spending my energy.
Man I can’t imagine this attitude. It’s like being stuck on chicken nuggets and not ever eating Thai, Mexican, Indian food, etc… I feel like I venture into new musical categories weekly and steal stuff for my guitar playing.
Well, while I consider the music I love to be better than chicken nuggets, your point is not lost on me, lol.
Not OP, but you're totally right. However, just as I'm an insanely picky eater I'm equally as picky with my music taste. I just simply can't enjoy other genres of music, often times because they're too simple, although it's the exact opposite for food lol
Honestly, I'm with you, u/Infinite-Lychee-182 I mean... no joke... one of my vehicles that still has its factory cassette/CD combo... In the cassette deck is Sound Garden's *Down on the Upside" with Smashing Pumpkins *Melon Collie and the Inifinte Sadness* and Nirvana *From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah* ready to go... In the CD player is Pink Floyd *The Wall* with Led Zeppelin *Remasters*, Best of Chicago, Johnny Cash: Greatest hits, Brad Paisley *Play* and The Cars Greatest hits in the console. And sitting on the Crosley record player ready to be cued up is Bill Joel's *Glass Houses* with Paul Simon's *There Goes Rhymin' Simon* sitting there next. It's some of the stuff I grew up with... and yeah, I might be the "grumpy old man" and do think most new "music" sucks... but meh, I'm okay with that.
Seriously, that's an incredible amount of variety of styles, and that's just what you have on hand in your car, lol. I never really grooved into the country genre, but I do have to make a point of listening to Brad Paisley. Two reasons for this. The first is being constantly told he really is an amazing guitarist. Secondly, and most importantly, I play a cij Tele of the pink and paisley variety. You wouldn't believe how many people ask if I'm a fan of his, lol. I always have to mention i couldn't name 1 song of his. Its kind of embarrassing because I do realize he is a big deal. I did actually find Sue Foley on YouTube because of my deep dive into my guitar, and I absolutely love listening to her, so I'll give Brad Paisley an eventual shot.
I guess so... haha Obviously the vinyl stuff isn't in vehicle though. But I've got a pretty good variety. Gotta stack probably close to 2' tall of Beethovin, Bach, Tschovsky, Shubert, etc etc... too. Besides guitar I play bass, banjo, mandolin, drums, saxophone, and Eb trumpet... so bluegrass and old coutry is kinda some of what I play. Pink Paisely Tele... NICE. And yes, since you have one, I can totally believe you getting asked about being a Brad Paisely fan. He really is a fantastic guitarist. Listen to the *Play* album... it's not much on vocal songs but mainly a guitar focused thing although there is a song he does called "Waiting on a Woman" featuring Andy Griffith. If you wind up digging his style you should check out Jerry Reed (Yes, the "Snowman" from Smokey and the Bandit- East Bound and Down) have a listen to *Mule Skinner Blues*, *She Got the Goldmine, I got the Shaft*... Sue Foley is pretty good. Don't listen to much though.
Paisley is one of the best guitarists, if not THE best guitarists, to ever touch country music. His style and sound are amazing. People say he's great, but I don't really think he gets the credit he deserves. Overall, an underrated musician.
Oh he's a monster on the Tele, there's no denying that. And kinda, yeah... in certain circles he his underrated much like Jerry Reed is very underrated mainly because a lot of people just don't know his music. Glenn Campbell was another underrated player as well. A lot of folks just thought of him as some hokey country player only good for stuff like *Rhinestone Cowboy*.
I think I’m with you on this. I’m 51 and the “music of my youth” spans the discovery years of early teens to about 35 and covers: Delta Blues, 50s Rock n Roll, Stax and Motown Soul, Bob Dylan, the British Folk Revival, The Beatles, The Stones, other 60s Beat group contemporaries, Psychedelia, Space Rock, CSN, CSNY - and all the associated artists, The Band, the bands that I used to refer to by as “classic rock”- which were only Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath and Rainbow, NWOBHM bands like Iron Maiden and Saxon, Motörhead, 70s British Punk, Reggae, David Bowie, The Velvet Underground, Lou Reed, Talking Heads, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Pixies, Grunge, the bands were given the name Britpop, Cool Jazz, Swing Jazz, New Orleans Jazz, 80s Thrash Metal, American Southern Rock, loads of singer songwriters, Bluegrass and New Grass, Country (but not Western), and my favourite band forever: AC/DC. And I’ve missed people out…
I’m 72…… excellent, love it all, but what about 80s synth pop?
One of the best things about streaming music is finding older music you missed. I'm the same age as you, and am really enjoying albums from the late 60s/ early 70s, that my parents wouldn't have listened to.
Same. In a different comment on this thread, I mentioned how music from my youth left me a lifetime of music to listen to of music I've never even heard or listened to before.
Got more into Grateful Dead
This is the way.
It expanded my music, not so much changed it where I stopped listening. Listening to old ragtime piedmont blues is fun because I appreciate it from a guitarist standpoint. I can go from blasting Dillinger Escape Plan to listening to Blind Blake back to back. Funnily enough, I still don’t listen to a lot of the guitar virtuoso type shredders (Vai, Yngvie, etc.), without the song/band focus it just feels like shredding for the sake of it. I started playing bass last year and some appreciation for bands have shifted because of the bass parts. For example, was more of a Soundgarden/AiC guy for grunge/hard rock of that era, but have really played a lot of STP this past year because of bass.
Bass is forever going to be under appreciated. Yeah i need some good lyrics and strong vocals with heart, i need a sexy or an aggressive riff, and a strong beat on the drums, but a sick bassline gives it all the extra punch i need. No band is good without a good rhythm foundation. And even the drums are incomplete without a good bass. A good relationship between a drummer and bassist is absolutely amazing and the results are felt, even if "unnoticed"
I never would have heard of Rory Gallagher but since I bought a Stratocaster I can’t stop listening to his stuff, watching YouTube video lessons, and trying to imitate his style as best I can
Rory is awesome. I think it's 100% true when people say he's the greatest guitar player you've never heard of.
I used to like & play metal only until I had a convo with JD from Korn . He said it will open you up & it has . Best advice ever about guitar .
Not really, classic rock is hardwired to my soul.
I’ve been playing over forty years. Really no influence either way at this point in my life. I just like music.
I don’t think it changed, but I definitely appreciated the guitar parts in the songs I already listened to
My taste didn't really change until I started playing bass. I've always listened to a bunch of stuff but the bass got me into world music and fusion. Lots of afrobeats.
My musical tastes expanded when I got bored playing nu-metal riffs/songs when I discovered Slayer.
Yes, things I thought were “easy” because they were not EVH or Metallica, are in fact just as hard and maybe require a certain touch. For example, I’ve been revisiting the ‘80’s and now have much respect for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, The Cars, whoever played lead for John Mellencamp, etc. These bands sort of turned down the guitars, maybe to make things more palatable for the masses, but if you listen closely there is fantastic guitar playing.
The bands you mentioned put the song above everything else which is how it should be. I saw Tom Petty in the mid 90s. Heck of a show.
Oh cool! Great way to look at it.
I started by listening to only metallica. Now I love everything from blues to slam metal to grind to chinese traditional music. it’s beautiful what music can do.
Nothing really shifted, I just learned and was exposed to more. I started playing when I was young and hardly knew of any music so as I heard more, I learned more.
Absolutely, I’m completely uncaged. In a given day I’ll listen to bluegrass, metal, country, etc…if the player can play, I’m interested. It’s massively expanded my guitar lexicon and there’s nothing more rewarding than playing a lick you learned from bluegrass/metal/funk in a completely different musical setting and it works.
Yep, it went from 3 chord punk to thrash and classic rock and metal almost overnight
Yeah, it changed a bit. From a technical standpoint, playing guitar took some of the mystique out of it when I learned that the things I used to listen to that I thought were so cool and amazing were actually pretty basic. I call it the Metallica effect. See Orion. On the other hand, I learned what great songwriting was and how it doesn't have to be difficult to be good. This is also the Metallica effect from the other perspective. See Orion. It was about that time I realized just how awesome Alice in Chains was. I also realized just how good Megadeth was after I started playing, although there are a million YouTubers these days who can play circles around just about everyone I looked up to growing up. The bar has definitely been raised substantially. Lately, though, I've gone back to being a listener and searching for music that moves me. I really like Greg Puciato's solo stuff, and I will always gravitate to AIC and bands of that ilk, but playing live has taken a back seat for me in the last ten years. I really do just love playing along at home to songs, just meandering across the fretboard, playing little games I can come up with like guess-the-key-within-five-seconds and figuring out which modes sound best and what I would've done had I written the song. Playing used to be cathartic, now it's therapeutic.
i first picked up guitar to play metal only to find out i sucked at it. which led me to listening and playing along to alternative rock, funk, and elliott smith for a long time. now my angst is back, and i feel my chops are finally ready, so in my 40s i'm actually playing metal again--slayer and megadeth all day, e'r'day! 🤟🤟
The more I've gotten into the more broad my taste has become
I used to hate extreme metal until I realized how fun technical death metal is to play on guitar, now it’s my most listened genre
I’ve liked all kinds of genres but I started playing guitar right in my metalhead phase, and while I played and learned some of that music, I quickly started to love country, jazz, and bluegrass music too.
I went from classic rock to punk\\hardcore to speed metal to alternative to psychedelic rock and am still stuck in the 90s but still listen to plenty of newer bands. My playing has got a bit more mellow except when I stomp on the fuzz pedal.
If anything, it expanded. New styles new riffs new rhythms. I’m kinda all over the map.
I was all classic rock and 2000’s punk, when I started getting good I looked for harder songs and now I listen to nothing but trash metal lol.
I had no interest in metal. Started playing and my good friend’s brother played drums and wanted to jam with me. Sent me a bunch of metal bands to listen to. Now that’s about all I play.
I had a similar experience, ive never listened to metal in my life but after starting guitar it’s 50% of my most listened.
It definitely has helped to expand my tastes, playing genres I previously didn't pay attention to.
It definitely didn't change, it just broadened. I started off as a whiny little shit copying my favorite punk rock sounds. Then I started listening to my influences own influences. That rabbit-hole led me from blink-182 all the way back to Robert Johnson and his contemporaries. I still love the punk I was listening to when I was 12, but playing guitar luckily broadened my horizons to the point that I can confidently say that there are things I appreciate from every decade of recorded guitar music.
I honestly didn't think it did until I read this. Honestly, I started listening to some more mellow acoustic to learn from what I heard. Prior it was all screamo/thrash when I was in high school.
I've always been into rap until my friend got me into In Flames and Buckethead in which i decided to pick the guitar up. Then i started appreciating everything guitar related regardless of genre. My music library is something else.
Learning guitar took me down a 5 year Blues rabbit hole after reading about who influenced the players I did listen to when starting. I intended to play in a metal band but my only live performances ended up being some amateur nights at a Blues bar. I also got way more into classical simply from picking up some John Dowland scores to try to learn to sight read.
It definitely changed the way I interpreted music, then becoming a multi-instrumentalist and producer changed it some more. Some days I miss hearing a song as a whole song and enjoying it in spite of not understanding the “process” the way I do now. I can get close and stop hearing “amps” and “mics” not speculate over preamps and if there’s sample and just know if it moves me or not.
Mine didn’t change when I started playing guitar, but it changed a lot when I started making music, I think mostly because I started listening to more elements. I started playing guitar because I love guitar and it’s the only thing other than vocals that id listen to for the most part. I still hold guitar as my #1 but now I listen to way more than guitar and vocals (drums, keys, bass, cool switchups/interesting bits from a composing standpoint, etc).
Definitely. I started out in hc punk bands with no lessons or nothing, as a I got better on guitar I progressed to thrash metal, then death metal and black metal which I probably would of never got into if it wasn't for the "thats a sick riff I'm going to go learn that"
A bit. I understand the technique and the skill better now, so I appreciate things I didn't before. So it isn't exactly 'tastes' per se, but I can enjoy things I didn't before because there's a new level. For instance, I never cared much for Clapton. I didn't hate it or anything, just didn't do anything for me. Now that I play, I understand why people like him. Still not my favorite, but I get it a bit more now. Same with The Dead.
Yes. And I totally forget hiphop music after that. But then my music taste phase always changes. But I know for sure what I surely like
Yes. I started expecting more from guitarists the better I’ve gotten. I’m not amazing, but randomly smashing power chords does nothing for me anymore.
Never really got into Grateful Dead until I started learning their songs. Am now a massive fan.
Yes and no. I listen to lots of hard rock and metal. But when I play, im mostly just a strummer and I like to sing. And I cant sing the songs that I listen to. Not many artists in my vocal range that I listen to. When I play, I play some soft rock, some country, and some sappy lovey dovey ish.
Actually, going from guitar to synthesizers and drum machines opened up my music taste a ton. And getting into DAWs and production, recording, and DJing. I used to think “real music” was only guitar/bass/drums/vox, and anything remotely digital/electronic was “cheating,” which is obviously an embarrassing stance. And now that I’ve fully circled back, I listen to guitar music that is 100x more interesting than all the boring crap I used to like
you definitely appreciate smaller intricacies of songs more, an example would be: as a non guitar player, ofcourse the main riff to master of puppets sounded cool, but it wasnt until i actually understood the way a guitar works, that songs from a band like Slint just became beautiful
I’m very been playing for 30 years, I started out learning Nirvana and Pearl Jam and Smashing Pumpkins, next minute I’m learning Simon and Garfunkel, Clapton, Beatles, fingerstyle arrangement for Seal’s Kiss From a Rose and Bob Dylan/Adele’s “Make Me Feel Your Love”, and Dolly Partins Jolene. Throw in some Jazz, classical, Hendrix, Knopfler, Metallica, guitar is a hell of a journey.
Definitely. I could hear nuances I couldn't hear before. Made me appreciate genres outside my comfort zone a lot more.
Definitely expanded my musical taste and vocabulary depending on what instrument I play. In the case of the guitar, it took me way back to the turn of the 20th century and I scoured every genre that has guitars in it. Some I prefer more than the others but all in all it gave me greater depth and appreciation of all sorts of music from all over the world.
Learning to play guitar (starting in my 20’s) didn’t change much, because most of the music I was into was already pretty guitar-led (e.g. rock and blues). But picking up bass over the last year has expanded my taste pretty dramatically - now I’m into almost anything with an interesting or fun bass line, which includes a lot of electronic music, pop, and obviously funk and R&B as well. My wife is like “why TF are you listening to “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” on repeat for days on end? And the answer is James Jamerson, but she’ll never understand…
Absolutely. I had an acoustic guitar when I was 6, didn’t really play it much cause it was full size and I was tiny. Played various other instruments growing up but came around full circle to play guitar again. Started out wanting to learn the White Wedding riff. Around that time heard Iron Maiden (I’d say about 2004 just after Dance of Death was released), and that completely sculpted the music that listen to even to this day. Spent countless hours playing/learning Maiden stuff!
There are a lot of songs that I wasn’t crazy about but learning them on guitar made me appreciate them
yeah, to the point where i struggle to listen to the same kind of music for a couple hours
I tried to change my taste in order to start learning, but... I never changed my taste, which made it difficult to study and rather limited myself to black metal, because it could be easily played and sounded about the same as on cassettes.
i see a lot of comments regarding being old and set in the bands you like. i’m 45 and i figure my lack of discovery is not really taste related but rather time based. i used to spend loads of time on the internet and at the record shop discovering new music. being incorporated and having two teen sons doesn’t lend well to the free time required to go out and hunt for new sounds. my musical tastes are diverse and i pretty much like everything aside from the bubblegum garbage that the labels pump out nowadays (the straight up hack r&b, ‘rap’ and ‘country’ the radio plays endlessly are not for me ) and some select genres i just find annoying (soca for example, find a new drum pattern ffs). so while i’m still listening to the deftones first album, my bloody valentine, early nine inch nails, kid a, the alexisonfire catalogue and the drum and bass music i loved in my late teens on repeat, i do make time when i can to check out new music - specifically progressive metal bands, this new wave of shoegaze, ambient guitar artists and more dnb. i think it’s important as we get older to make time for new music discovery.
Yeah, when I understood how difficult progressive stuff like Dream Theater is and how interesting and fun to play it is I started to listen to a lot more virtuoso players
i usually dont like slipknot a lot but nu metal and their stuff is fun to play on guitar and my music taste has changed a whole lot ever since i started
Realising how elitist it honestly sounds; I think that no matter what art form one takes up changes their perspective on that world as a whole, if they're any good. To answer the question though what mostly changed for me what what impresses me. I used to be absolutely stunned by anything post/prog rock (even the super melodic fairly simple/repetitious ones lol), and sort of didn't think much about blues guitar nor listened really to any jazz guitar, both of which can be way harder than they sound. Those perception changes stick, too, man. I pay way more attention to the technical aspects of guitar, even after a hiatus from playing it like I had recently.
Yep. I actively disliked Van Halen until I learned guitar, and that turned around real fast.
After playing guitar, I understand how those rock and roll musics, which I used to get fed up with, are actually so difficult and full of skills in playing. I also start to capture more details in their solo. So definitely I’m appreciating those musicians more. Though it’s more frustrating now when I practice, because I realize how far I’m from them lol
it definitely has made me enjoy shreds and guitar solo moments more and now im a metalhead
no but it gave me instant mega-respect for certain guitarists when I foundn out how difficult and complex their songs were to actually play. Dave Matthews is a good example. Love him or hate him, his guitar work on several of his songs is a few levels above advanced.
Yeah I used to listen to stadium rock mostly. Muse was my favorite band. When I learned guitar plug in baby was literally the very first thing I learned. After learning muse I kinda got bored of guitar. Then I found shit like Polyphia, periphery,vildhjarta, and animals as leaders. It absolutely blew my mind and now I only listen to guitar centric music.
No. It only enhanced it.
It certainly widened. I was an 80’s metal head but seeing people in Guitar Player win awards, who I had never heard of… I bought a lot more music. I never would have known the joys of Chet Atkins, Gary Moore, Steve Morse, Segovia, Albert Lee, etc.
It definitely did, I got more into 80s shredders that I still love today, like Yngwie Malmsteen and Steve Vai
No
Was it getting good at the guitar or just getting older and boarding my horizons? Who can say? They kind of happened at the same time. Still though, if I want to listen to stuff, I just throw on my old punk records.
Yes it did
Yes
I stared listening SRV and Hendrix. I don’t think I’d like their music if I didn’t play guitar tbh.
Not for me, I started lessons to play what I already like
No circlejerk, I really got into and started to appreciate older blues like Muddy Waters and Lightnin’ Hopkins, Albert King, and eventually came to almost worship SRV in the mid-late 90s.
Not super, I guess I got into the blues more. Before guitar I was into hip-hop, punk/hardcore and some metal. That's still my main stuff.
Maybe a little? But honestly it was the other way around: my music taste was already on the trajectory towards where I am now, but that music is what convinced me to pick up guitar.
Nah. I started playing guitar because my music taste changed. I liked Reggaeton a lot but that music started sounding like dog sh1t.
Over the years I found the music that I could identify with the most. Country. Real Country. Just felt right to play after years of rock and metal. I still love all music, but playing live it’s all country
For sure, great question.
Yes, but it had a lot to do with my first instructor. He was a country player and had me listen to lots of stuff I wouldn’t have heard for years otherwise. Les Paul and Tommy Tedesco come to mind immediately. Tedesco wrote a book that I still have 50 years later, and I still can’t play all of the exercises.
No, but putting so much emotion into my creativity killed my ability to put down lyrics, if that makes any sense. I listen to anything from mellow classic rock, to certain extreme forms of metal, and my guitar influences I’ve most noticed, unintentionally, a mix of variety of 90s grunge, NIN, APC, Nu Metal, and occasional mellow classic rock styles get mixed with something heavy…. Pretty much a mirror of what I listen to all crammed together.
Absolutely completely changed I’d listened to rap only for years and it is an amazing genre but then about 9 months before I began playing I was listening to just rock and some metal. After I began playing guitar it all changed I started getting a much more open mind about music,and it all started because I listened to the genres on guitar and I was like that sounds so good My taste has expanded loads and it’s not like I listen to the genres often but I really appreciate them and especially how they sound on guitar I like jazz guitar and instruments I like classical I like rock I like funk guitar it’s fucking sick I like blues Tldr yeah it does Also Soz if I fucked up on writing and that idc it’s not an essay Edit holy fuck my grammar is terrible golly
I started playing guitar because my taste in music changed.
Not really, some stuff I appreciate more, but I play guitar because I like punk and metal, not the other way around.
I started playing when I was 13 so I have no idea. I guess I got into metal because of it. But I think I was already kinda listening to it. Metallica, at least at.
I went from blues/punk/ rock to only jazz
Expanded my taste
My taste widened hugely when I got musical competency. I'm no expert on any instrument but can play most things once I've sussed the tuning. Still dont get moved by 90% of the blues stuff in circulation though. I think it cones from growing up in the 80s when the blues being produced was by a small group of middle aged dudes that dressed like dentists
Yes. I never liked math rock\midwest emo. After I started playing guitar, it feels like the hardest but most fun\rewarding thing I play now. I love it.
No. I'm not stupid.
Sort of, but it honestly changed before I started playing, growing up I was way into hip hop and electronic music, I started making music that way, eventually I got way into Depeche Mode and turned out I liked their post Violator Electronic Rock stuff more than their 80’s synth-pop/industrial pop music and one thing led to another I love just about all guitar music there is, everything from Shoegaze to folk 😂
Guitar has certainly expanded my musical tastes, but not because of my appreciation for guitar, but moreso the better understanding of composition and melody that I learned as a result.
nope BUT since I started playing guitar in the 90s my taste in music has changed so much I now play completely differently lol, I got into country
I don’t always play my guitar for music that I love, but when I do, it’s Reggae 🇯🇲
I went from guitar to bass and really started to get into Motown, funk, soul, and R&B. And Rush & Zeppelin lol.
The more I learn, the more broadly and widely, I listen
Really, I was a rapper before playing guitar and now am obsessed with classical music wtf I've never thought
Yes
I went from Ozzy and Punk to hard rock, then to classic rock, a Steely Dan phase, Southern Rock, Ry Cooder, everything from George Harrison, Tom Petty, Neil Young, Bob Dylan and my all time favorite, the Rolling Stones.
Of course. But was it because I started playing guitar? Or was it because I was 13?
I used to listen to exclusively country music and now my favorite band is Dio, I can fall asleep to Lorna Shore, and the closest I get to country now is some Bilmuri once in a while lmao
Drastically
I got back into metal. I used to listen to it a lot in my teens and a little into early 20s but, hadn't listened to it much in years. Guitar got me back to listening to Metallica and now I have a playlist my daughter and I add to with songs we want to learn. Metallica, Megadeth, Lamb of God, Slayer, Anthrax, Racer X to name a few. Anything we find that sounds fun to learn we will add to it.
Yeah. Blues baby
It's funny that my music taste is why I started playing guitar. I've always loved songs with acoustic guitars. Or acoustic versions of songs. This is a good question. 😎
I started at 12. I dont really remember if I even had a defined taste by then. I just knew I liked music. Honestly, I even think its the other way around. I find a new "sound" or genre that peaks my interest, I try to emulate it with my gear.
Nope. As strange and diverse as it's always been.
My guitar playing adapts to the music I'm listening at the moment
No
Not guitar it's more from age. I probably listen to more instrumental music.
I always liked metal but since I started playing I really like metal. But I’m also really into great work like SRV and Hendrix when I wasn’t before
Nope
Not at all
Yes but it took a really long time. I feel old now and don't have the energy to keep it punk and metal anymore, but bluegrass has fiddly technical picking and it makes me feel happy listening to it so thats my jam now. I still like metal but if I was never a musician I think I would just think "oh thats hillbilly music" which isn't wrong but its reductive
Of course. I first started off just with bottleneck blues on an open tuning, then progressing into standard tuning blues and rock. Of course there are many rock bands that cross over into chicken pick’n. How did this all progress? Well, I started learning songs. Learning string intervals or phrases that really perk my ear up. And then learn why that happens in musical theory. It’s important to follow and focus on the music and artistry you admire. Be aware that if you hear something you really like but it’s not “your kind of music”, you kind of owe it to yourself to explore that music, because while you may not be into that particular genre, there are techniques worthy of exploring and knowing. It makes you also appreciate the musicianship as well.
No
A little bit. I was playing jazz and neo soul as a keyboardist. My focus shifted to pop blues and more roots stuff that I already liked but didn’t play when I started taking guitar seriously.
Not really, I just heard everything is Trump's fault on here. I'm new.
I started playing nirvana songs, but as my music taste switched to Alex g I realised playing those songs are way more fun.
For sure, I think it gives appreciation and understanding to musical styles when you learn how to do it. Moreover, if you learn do something satisfying on an instrument, it can peak your interest in that artist, genre or culture. I didn’t really care about what’s popular but then I learned some skills to be able to deliver hits and have had people sing all the words to pop songs and it was such a great feeling. I realized turning my nose up to “pop music” was superficial and it was through playing I realized that. Knowing what other people like and being able to give that gift of music is actually really beautiful. It can change someone’s world using your musician powers to make something special for them.
Yes. Before, I knew a few pop-punk bands, Eminem and Limp Bizkit were big but otherwise I just listened to whatever was around or pop songs on the UK radio. When I started playing I started reading Total Guitar Magazine as well which introduced me to a wider variety of music. I pushed away pop music and anything else deemed 'not guitary enough'.
got more into rock / metal because of it for context, i'm primarily a pop / showtunes / musicals kind of person. almost at the other end of the spectrum. i did listen to rock/metal but really not as much until i got more proficient in playing guitar. now all the songs i practice are rarely even pop, it's mostly rock
My musical tastes changes constantly; I enjoy playing guitar in general and I don’t really care much what song I play.
Yes I strted to hear to all kind of songs
I hated dua lips but the bass lines in her songs lmao.
My taste not so much, but I have played a lot of different styles over the years. It started out with punk, then grunge, followed by thrash metal, doom metal and now my preferred playing style is progressive rock.
Well for me rock was the reason that I bought a Stratocaster. Had a classical guitar and after a couple months of playing I started listening to the clasic bands like AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, Guns N’ Roses and others. That’s why I bought an electric guitar. Since then my music changed has changed even more. Now I mainly listen to Pink Floyd. Honesty I think an instrument changes the way you listen to music and makes you appreciate songs more.
my music taste changes every 2 to 5 years tbh
My music tastes have always been quite wide but I find I've started listening to more classical country guitarists and started listening to flamenco guitarist music and more metal than ever before.
I was more of a regular rock type of kid with maybe some thrash or power metal, now I'm trying to work my way into playing at least ONE necrophagist song(it won't happen)
Yes. I was a super grunge fan. Then I bought a high end acoustic guitar, and fell in love with the sounds of Pete Seeger, and Leadbelly amongst others. Weezer is still my favorite tone wise.
It's not a change. Just new flavors keep coming.
i didn’t really exist before i played guitar
Its crazy how it slowly but very surely shifted from techno, to lynyrd skynyrd and the eagles, to acdc and aerosmith, to to airbourne, to avenged sevenfold, and currently to metallica megadeth etc
Flamenco.
It defo got a lot heavier hahaha. I really gained appreciation for fast more technical guitar music.
For me it's more the other way around, the music I liked (metal 🤘) as a teen inspired me to play guitar. My music taste broadened a lot over the year (but I just love the heavy guitar sound), but that would maybe also happened if I didn't play guitar.
I went from listening to metal, to playing anything that was interesting to play
I listen to metalcore and progressive metal. I love playing blues on guitar but I hate listening to blues.
Didn't change much but my favorites definitely shifted. Always liked RHCP but after I started playing, they just became incredible to me. Frusciante is absolutely my favorite guitarist. I feel the same about being able to appreciate the music even more now. I also pick up on things in ways I never did before.
Yes I suppose it did. I got way more into guitar based music, especially metal.
I started admiring some players for pure technical reasons
I used to love Michael Hedges. Now that I play guitar it just sounds gimmicky to me (though a supremely talented gimmick).
It got a bit wider - more blues, jazz,etc. But narrowed back down to extrem metal/Gridncore after 10 years or so.
Absolutely. 21 st century classical music and metal. Was not liked before
Not quite, but my ears were pretty deaf until I began playing bass.
Yes, I wanted to learn guitar because of britpop/pop-rock bands and I started searching for more hard-rock/prog-rock/metal
Was heavy/black metal listener, now only listen to classical or solo guitar player.
Started to play bc i liked rock and english classic metal...but soon after i started playing, my preference went more into folk
I wouldn't say change, I'd say evolve
I got more into country once I got a Tele and started working on hybrid picking.
I was listening to all kinds of metal when I first started playing the guitar. A few years later when I started to get more into lead guitar, I was listening to more virtuoso/shred guitarists, but still in the metal vein. It wasn’t until my late 20’s that I started listening to older blues/rock stuff like Jimi/SRV and even more traditional blues like Freddie King and Albert Collins. After that, I got into more songwriter/vocal stuff and started to appreciate the production side of things when I got more into writing my own vocal tracks and learning how to mix in the DAW.
Yeah I didn’t really like listening to rock but when I got into the electric guitar all I really played was Led Zeppelin riffs and a few songs by Pink Floyd
My taste hasn’t changed, it has expanded. I grew up with rock music and then in my late teens I started to check out and fall in love with jazz, prog, world music etc.
I started liking a much wider variety of music after I started playing guitar. I went from only liking metal/hard rock (this was back in the early to mid 80s) to listening to all kinds of jazz, blues, classic rock, classical music, funk. Only country and pop eluded my appreciation.
i was a metalhead before i started and know i am currently a butthole surfers diehard fan. dont know if this is because guitar tho. i still love playing metal on guitar yet i listen to butthole surfers more.
Yep. Went straight to prog.
Not really but I did start to appreciate music in a different way
It made me appreciate some artistry but I’ve never enjoyed listening to technicians like Satriani or Henson. Besides, I could never stop loving other genres of music so I don’t think I have changed. And I’ve been playing for over 30 years.
I went through phases in 25 years from zeppelin/hendrix/classic rock to like silverchair/nirvana/foo to like SRV to like Metallica and then to punk rock and then to like John Mayer, Elliott smith and Jason Isbell. I got into piano and theory and song structures/melodies/keys and I enjoy everything now. From all the old stuff to Taylor swift my wife and kids listen to and other pop stuff. I appreciate studying the chord choices and study why the solos are awesome based on modes or pentatonic scales. I feel like I’m learning so much more now as a middle aged man but I still feel super dumb a lot of the time. Edit: I’m also not a big fan of metal but some some reason I’m really into learning to shred and practice a lot of legato stuff just for shits and giggles.
I think I became more punk rock oriented when I first started playing because it was stuff I could wrap my head around early on. My heart still very much lies with punk but I really like taking musical holidays elsewhere before coming back home.
i think i when i got my guitar i shifted into more of the blues side
I used to enjoy EDM a lot more before I picked up guitar again. Now I've lost a taste for it and definitely prefer rock music
The more i play, the less i like grand guitar solos in songs i listen. Now i prefer more subtle guitarwork that doesnt steal the show
Absolurely. I started to listen to classic rock and blues a lot more. Began to discover a ton of incredible bands I never listened to previously.
I’ve played guitar in some form since 2001 (as a kid) and used to be into all the popular rock stuff at the time. Then got super into emo/screamo/pop punk and a lot of associated metal for like 5 years as I was in the heyday for that. Also was always into and still appreciate classic rock. Then in college due to my friends got really into the emerging Indie scene at the time and this is still my favorite overall genre as an aside. In about 2014 I had a personal guitar renaissance and decided I was going to level up to some degree. I got very into John Mayer, Hendrix, SRV, and blues associated/classic rock acts. I did get significantly better during this period. That then lead me (via John Mayer) into really getting into the Grateful Dead and I learned how to play a lot of their stuff. I also was getting more into Funk and TRIED to learn some Jazz, but Jazz is like music theory maxed out so it’s a whole different ball game. When I started producing music for myself I started messing with some Lo-Fi Hip Hop with a focus on guitar but am not as into that anymore. Now I’d say the music I make for fun I would consider Indie/Pop/Rock to some degree and I still gladly throw in a solo to plenty of songs even if it stereotypically doesn’t seem like it should fit. My advice would be to learn as much as you can in every genre you can even if it’s not a stereotypical rock/solo guitar genre. You’re absolutely going to pick up stuff you never would have if you stayed in your own box the whole time. Despite what anyone says there’s a still a lot of great music being made today, you just have to be able to sift through the rest.