I believe that everyone's experience with music is unique and extraordinary. Some of us knew from an early age, and some of us found out later in life that we had to create something that can be heard. Why was your outlet music? Why not painting or literature? What is it about sound that draws you into your nirvana and eases your mind? My earliest memories revolve around toy record players, a plastic marching snare, or my mother's guitar. My childhood years had me listening to music, but not yet wanting to participate in the making of it. As I grew older, I heard it calling me more and more. I began to notice that when I listened to music, I started to feel more and more empty...but couldn't figure out why. Pretty soon, there was this giant void present every time I passed a radio or watched a music video. I began to think that perhaps deep inside I hated music, so I reluctantly stopped listening to it. Then, one night when I was twelve, I was in my room being bored like most kids are on a Sunday evening before another grinding day of school. I casually clicked on the radio (old habits are hard to break), and a rush of sound came out of the speakers and just engulfed me. It was my one religious experience that defined me forever. To this day, I can't tell you what song it was...and maybe it wasn't a song at all. It could have been a blast of static, but it was a sound as big and loud as anything I had ever heard and it spoke directly to me. The next thing I knew, I was thumbing through the Sears catalog looking for a musical instrument. There it was...a visual confirmation of my destiny. I ran downstairs and told my mother that I absolutely had to have a guitar for Christmas. She smiled. And that was it. I've been a scholar of music ever since that night. It is the closest thing to a religion that I ever had. When my friends were out looking for new sins to indulge in, I was at home in my temple with a pair of headphones wrapped around my head. When they went to church the next day with their families to repent for what they had done the night before, I was at home content with myself and the world around me...still listening to last night's sermon, looping through the headphones. What is your story? -David "Avi" Scott www.myspace.com/kayfabesound

I took the blue pill at 12-13, I had been playing clarinet, piano for years but never felt that need. Then I heard Clapton's Sunshine of your Love, and I was sold. Stole my dad's guitar, overtook his playing in a week. Never looked back. I think that since then I have developed a music coprocessor in my head - I cannot work without music playing in the background, and it doesn't distract me - I can hear every word, every chord change without breaking my main thought process at all... I <3 my guitar. And I am buying a beautiful classical acoustic in three weeks, so that I can really do asturias justice...

">John Williams[youtube]

EDIT: damn forum syntax... linky fixed!

when my brother and i were little. i was 5 he was 8. we would go on long roadtrips. out of boredom, my mom would make up stories and actions to go along with the ever changing dynamics and mood of random classical music that was playing on some am station. that was the first time i really understood and respected the special relationship between music and stories. somewhere around that time, my mom purchased a new pickup truck and in the cassette deck, came with a tape of john williams. jurassic park, indiana jones, et, star wars and back to the future. it was destiny. back home, i would play the tape over and over and act out scenes with my toy dlorrean. when i was 10, my mom bought me a casio keyboard and i learned the whole jurassic park theme the first day. at one point, my keyboard broke a few days before xmas. i told my mom i would die if i didnt get another one for xmas, because i couldnt imagine life, or a single day without playing music. luckily she didnt want to deal with a manic, suicidal 10 yr old so she bought one. from then on i never asked for toys again. strictly music equipment. the next year, i asked for a kareoke machine so i could record. after owning one, i found out that you can record an instrument on tape 2 while playing tape one... the discovery of the over dub!the next christmas, i had to have a 4 track tape recorder. i learned of mixing and eq. then i upgraded to a boss digital 8 track recorder that used zip disks. finally, i put together a computer. i used to record bands in my basement with the 4 track tape recorder. i played guitar for some punk bands and one artsy emo band, but nobody really understood my music writing. i was into classical and they were into power chords. i would always hear the potential in small pieces. i was tired of the arguing egos and lack of vision so i just write and record my own stuff. i never had any classes, but i figured, why waste your time learning to play guitar like zepplin or hendrix? they already existed and were great because they were unique, copying them gets you nowhere.