I think the synth is an interesting instrument cos most of the synth players I know started off playing something else, such as classical piano or guitar and eventually moved onto synth.

I'm not sure if there are many people out there who JUST play synth and started off with the goal of being a synth player. I certainly don't think I've met any.

For what it's worth, my route to the synthzone started off with me as a struggling guitar player. I had always loved Jimi Hendrix and bands like Led Zep and Queen (I still do!). I played since I was 12, but by my early 20's my guitar playing seemed to hit a ceiling. I had trained my fingers to move as fast as they could (which was NOT very fast!) and they weren't gonna get much faster. I found it very difficult to improve, but as well as that I also started to get a bit bored with the guitar. I felt very limited in what sounds I could create with a guitar.

Anyway, one day I discovered the album, Ray of Light. I have to tell you, I can't STAND Madonna one bit, but I think the guy who played synth on that album (William Orbit) is the Jimi Hendrix of the synth world! I later found out that pretty much all of the synth work on the album had been performed on an old and relatively cheap Juno 106.

As you can imagine, I was pretty blown away to find out that you could make all these amazing sounds from such an old an cheap instrument.

So, that's what got me into synth.

I'm curious to know what everyone else's stories are.