Paul McCartney knows how to play many instruments, including the guitar, the bass guitar, and the piano. Most of his songs include him playing these songs, and he is commonly seen performing with a guitar in his hands. However, the first instrument he learned to play may be one his fans are surprised by since he rarely uses it.
The first instrument Paul McCartney learned to play was a trumpet
In an interview for Apple Music with Zane Lowe, Paul McCartney discussed how he developed his love for music and the first instruments he learned to play. The former Beatle said that the trumpet was the first instrument his dad ever gave him. However, he later gave up on the trumpet because he wanted to use an instrument that he could play while singing.
“The first instrument I ever had was, my dad gave me a trumpet. And he’d been a trumpet player when he was younger. He played a little trumpet. And, actually, it was kind of in fashion. There was a film called The Man With the Golden Arm and it was like Harry James…So, it was kind of glamorous, you know, at that point. But I realized I couldn’t sing with this thing in my mouth. So, I swapped it in for a guitar. It started my love of guitars.”
The guitar became therapeutic for Paul McCartney
While Paul McCartney enjoyed playing the trumpet, he fell in love with the guitar because it provided him with a way to work through his problems. Anytime he needed something off his chest, he would find himself alone with his guitar and convert whatever irked him into a song.
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“They’re really a great help when you’re growing up because you’ve got so many questions and things flooding in that if you can get off in a quiet space with a guitar and you kind of can tell your troubles to the guitar and often in doing that, you come out of the other end going, ‘Oh, it’s a song,’” McCartney explained. “We used to think it was like the greatest therapy.”
McCartney taught himself how to play the piano
When McCartney was growing up in Liverpool, everyone, poor or rich, seemed to have a piano in their house. McCartney’s father had a piano that he would often use to entertain guests. In an interview with Wired, the “Let it Be” singer said his father wanted him to take “proper lessons,” but they never caught on, so he taught himself how to play the piano.
“[My dad] said, ‘You’ve got to get proper lessons,’” McCartney stated. “So, I took proper lessons and couldn’t really get on with it because the music I was hearing in my head…I couldn’t do that. Now, you know, I think kids learning, continue. I don’t want to tell you not to, but I couldn’t just ever get with it. I kind of learned myself. I just picked out chords on the piano. That would have been when I was about 14 or so.”
