i wanted to start this thread to see how everyone here got to the point where they discovered neo-classical. and try and start back as far as you can remember :) im interested to see what all the background influences of the members are.

seeing as its my thread ill start :)

i remeber growing up in germany (untill i was 7) and my mom sang in a band, the very first music i remember hearing is the cover songs they used to play. the band was called "white room", that should give you an idea of that they played :):) this was in the late 80s early 90s

apparently even prior to that i had an quite the dancin ants in my pants for the likes of george thorogood and meat loaf haha.

then up untill i was 10 or so i just listened to kid music and whatever my parents had on in the car. about that time i discovered Radio Disney :) o yeah ill rock the RD with pride mammajammas :)

that went on for only a few months for i quickly discovered my first "alt rock" station and was flooded with blink-182 (who im not ashamed to admit I AM A FAN OF and i dont care how gay you think that makes me ) AFI, Greenday etc... i got into that for a while until i came across master of puppets and ride the lightning by metalica

the solo on master of puppets was what made me want to get into playing guitar

after that i kind of got into metal music a little bit but by the time i was 14, it was all about PUNK FUCKIN ROCK!!!

i did the whole rancid, badreligion, badbrains, DK, etc all that, had the mohawk and plaid pants hahaha

then is started playing in bands and realized that punk was fun, but as a guitarist and growing musician, the style didnt hold my playing interest for long.

i then discovered HxC metal/metalcore/scream shit that was (screaming aside) when i learned that people were doing things with the guitar that i had never even thought about or was exposed to.

(im about 16 at this point)

then i meet a friend through a band and he moves in with my family and introduces me to dragonforce and rhapsody of fire, which when mixed with copious amounts of marijuana i never got over.

after finding DF and all the progmetal out there i soon came across the amazing world of neoclassical.

and here i am now, i think this has been a steady path of musical appreciation. i think the better and more competent i get at playing my guitar, the more and more i appreciate the talent of those whos style is having a profound impact on what i chose to play.



so thats my tale in pretty chunky chunks and now its your turn, i copped to some of the stuff that is less than impressive haha so lets hear where you came from.


btw, a little perspective:

the first album in ever remember buying in my life is "the food album" by weird al (age 9or10)

today at this moment im downloading bach, vivaldi, becker, malmsteen, and a couple others. (age 21)

damn how times change :)


lay it on me

sounds like quite a journey, I guess i'll tell my story lol.

Well as i can remember it all started with sitting in my dads car listening to classic rock. Most memorably would be the Whole Lotta Love solo by Led Zeppelin, Shoot to Thrill by AC/DC, and Get Ready by Rare Earth. From there I didn't really listen to music besides in my dad's car. When I was in my last years of high school I began liking bands like Sum41 and others. Oddly enough, Sum41 is from the same town as me. I didn't really listened to them, but I liked them. From there I started listening to classic rock again just more intensely. I started getting some AC/DC and Zeppelin tunes and started to listen to them. I also started listening to other bands like Black Sabbath and Deep Purple. Then came School of Rock. Not an amazing movie, but it made me want to pick up an axe. Then two months later i finally acquired the strat pak. I began my musical quest starting with the first song i learned, back in black. From there i just fumbled around and didnt really learn anything theory wise. When I got to high school in '04 i met dev and everything changed. I got into Iron Maiden and tonnes of other metal bands. I learned scales and my playing got a lot better. Eventually Devon started finding guys like Yngwie and thats where i came to Neo-Classical Metal.

I listened to Classical music exclusively (my family are all musical) until I was 10 years old so I have always had a great love of this style especially the Baroque era. My Dad who is a guitarist got me started on the guitar at a tender age and when I first heard Yngwie Malmsteen (1985 I think) who was using Classical scales and progressions in his rock music it was a match made in heaven. I have been into this genre for 23 years now and have a large collection of music from all neoclassical bands and guitarists. :)

I had a friend who i used to hangout with and we used to listen to metal but he was into alot of stuff that i wasn't into at the time and he first put me on to vinnie moore and tony mcalpine and i loved it i asked him what type of music it was and at the time he told me thats called melodic rock.I later got into joey tafolla, joe satriani steve vai as well as cacophony (jason becker and marty friedman) david t chastain al dimeola (although i know he is jazz) The same friend eventually told me that it was called neoclassical fusion but at first i knew it as melodic rock.

Well i've only been playing for not even a year-almost..but hell!

My family is 0 musically talented, other than myself. :P

My dad,mom and bro (he tried guitar,sucked) have never gotten into an instrument.

In the beginning when i started playing guitar..i wasn't really into it honestly for half the year because my guitar teacher was teaching me boring as hell a minor c chords whatever you know..like tom petty songs..etc.My music taste wasnt any really. Then, once he showed me a song sheet that had tab (wow! the beggining to pretty woman!)
i realized the tab was what i had seen on the interenet on how to play songs. So after then i got pretty dwelved into it all, started learning just the nirvana crap..then got into a little jimi hendrix and that's when i learned bout lead playing..

That's where i realized even more that guitar was a perfect match forme.
I then started playing loads more, learned songs like Voodo child, purple haze,hey joe, barracuda, you know classic rock songs.

Ooh then once i learned the begining to master of puppets..i was learning one (intro) ,some very easy guitar solos..enter sandman.

Then! OMg i got a new teacher! Who actually TAUGHT me things!

He started me off and how to improvise (this is 3 months ago) started me off with licks (bluesy..) From then i was playing with scales and improvising all the time. Until i heard the Crazy Train solo on the radio. That was the first time i had heard a technically slightly difficult song..He helped me with the tapping after he saw my attempt. Saw i had an interest in metal and started teaching me more tapping licks, and after the lesson one day,(he is really nice goes after lessons to show me stuff.) he was like man i think you would really dig this guy..went on my computer, and typed in Far Beyond the Sun. After that video i was hooked. (This is 1and a half month ago.) Since then, i have been learning about his style after reading a magazine article about how he played bach things and such where he got alot of his stuff. So i then learned the one solo, then now, i really into the neoclassical thing. Now im jsut blazing through runs i find in classical songs i find...playing metal licks, sweeping (learned this 1month ago! quite good at it i guess) tap sweeping, and wow do i love this genre. As a 12 year old musician i guess i have had alot of wonderful discoveries so far ;). I'm learning pedal points from this site, learning classical songs like Fur Elise, Toccatta, Summer, and trying to find tabs for other songs! Oh yes i learned part of "virus" by bach as well..just youtube it. I guess i am pretty technically good for 9 months or so because i can tap pretty well, sweep..ehh kinda good,my improv is now sounding very classical and such ;)
Very long description of a year of guitar..lol

Well, I'm not sure if I can type that much. (Wait a second, did I just say that?)

My musical tastes were relatively mainstream (ie, nonexistant) for most of my life, until I found the music of the late 50s (Buddy Holly was a favorite). From that point, I just charged forward through the decades until I found the metal of the 80s, and it resonated well. Buddy Holly is still the shit, though.

I started playing (well, "playing") guitar at the age of, maybe, 11? I liked playing, but it wasn't too important to me, and my teacher was too far away to travel to during the school year, so I dropped it for a few years. This was after I had played cello in the elementary school, where I had been told that I had "musical talent" but I didn't believe them. Still don't, I was terrible.

After picking up guitar again (still before I found neoclassical metal), I started playing simple stuff (I picked up the guitar again just to play the main riff from "Cities on Flame" by the unholy BOC), and soon after I transitioned into playing more metal ish stuff, even detuning my guitar to D Standard to accommodate lower notes (much to my teacher's dismay). Eventually, after getting a new guitar, equipped with a floating tremolo, and with a new interest in so called "neoclassical metal", I tuned to standard again to learn the note names, and away I went, learning things. After that, I started exploring jazz and Hindustani, but I'm not here to bore you (contrary to popular belief, of course).

@24fretstohell: Your journey sounds exciting, I recommend learning how to read music on staff and studying other types of music, so your improv doesn't sound "classical" and sounds "you". Also, based on your post, I'm sure we all want sound clips, if possible (I'm still working on that) :D

Thanks Lektro. Your story sounds quite interesting as well!

But yeah...T3lent is giving me a little bit of tutorial which will lead me to be able to read notes (a,b,c,etc.) and such.
And that will eventually lead me to be able read sheet music.

Yeah..i could work on the recordings just my recording sounds very flat and toneless..kinda like midi sound (crap) and well yeah..everything i do sounds bad on recording that way. But..my b-day is coming up soon, so new guitar and new side thing day!

Thinking of a jackson dinky and one of those thingers where you hook it up to your amp you know?

But yeah, voice is definately something i'm trying to get at. Just i like the style of musical content of neoclassical. In other words i like the way it sounds. And that's the genre i want to get at- then i will have my own licks and such. Kinda hard for me to do that know though on a Bronze series Mockinbird and a very cheap crate.

THanks

Actually, I'd guess that your lack of vibrato is probably contributing to the lifeless sound (at least on the longer notes). I don't know how you're recording, but Line 6 sells some reasonably priced PODs you could use. Don't let your equipment limit your playing, though; you shouldn't be limited that much by playing even the least expensive gear, compared to the best. Any correlation between your gear and your creative abilities is in your head (which may be a good thing, who knows).

No the sound is just idk..
i've played my guitar on clean,sounded okay,
recorded it on clean (dang thing cant record distortion anyways) and sounded like crap.

Sounds like you've got the Neoclassical bug big time 24FOH. I'm a bit jealous if truth be told because there is some great music out there that you're about to discover and start learning. :)

Ha yeah ID
It's growing every day :D