Trumpet at 9. Was pretty good, but...
Bass guitar 16. Stopped playing trumpet. Regrettably.
Played in a recorder ensemble in middle school. When I wasn’t playing D&D.
MIDI programming at 18. Helpful, as I program drum machine etc. in my band.
Picked up guitar at 18. I’m ‘competent’.

Pretty much a bassist.

benadrian wrote: Thu Jun 03, 2021 2:20 pmAge 8 - Recorder. I still have it and annoy my friends.

Oh, me too! A tiny bit. I was 9 or 10 I think. Learned to read sheet music in no time I remember.

There were some recorder lessons at primary school. My dad taught me four chords on the guitar when I was 10. I had piano lessons for a couple of months when I was 13 or 14. Found out that I could play Violent Femmes songs with the four chords my dad had shown to me, so we formed a band with some friends when I was 15 then.

I guess I was 10 or 11 when I started playing drums in the school band. That was early 80s. Took lessons and played classical percussion thru HS and into college, although by 15 or so I was down with the rock and roll music and had a drum set, and a couple years later I heard punk and well, we all know what happens to people at that point, right?
Played in some bands thru the 90s and made some records and did a little touring. By the mid 90s I had a real job and while I've been playing since, recording when I can, it's not at any level where I'd book a tour or whatnot. I really desperately miss playing with people the last 15 months and am eager to get that going again.

My parents saw me air guitarring along with my Kiss records, so they had me start taking lessons when I was 9 and bought me the standard learner's acoustic.

I stuck with my lessons and after about a year I convinced them I needed an electric guitar and an amp so I could play like Ace Frehley. My first electric was a Kay copy of a burgundy SG with one pickup. I remember the guitar cost $60 and the amp $40 (this is around 1978).

My first songbook was Kiss Destroyer / Rock & Roll Over. The day I could actually play the riff to God Of Thunder was a milestone in my prepubescent life.

My first couple guitar teachers were probably in their 60s, but when I was 13 I wound up with a young guy who had played in bands before he got married and settled down. One of the first things he asked me was, "Do you like Led Zeppelin?" Being 13 I of course said yes. Then he told me, "Well, I'm going to teach you how to play Stairway To Heaven." I gaped at him. "No way. The whole song?" "Yep, the solo too." And he did.

I started my first band when I was 16. And the rest, as they say ...

[I can still play Stairway To Heaven and God Of Thunder, if anyone out there needs a tutorial.]