His guitar journey - He explained: "My only actual guitar instruction was with Pete Seeger's guitar tutor record. It was an LP with a big book, it had all the chords that you might need.
"It started out with a pitch pipe playing six notes of a guitar, so the most important thing was to learn how to tune it. (Source: ultimate-
guitar.com)
"The second band was teaching you how to play a D chord, which is three fingers on a guitar which you then strum, and then he sang some words so you could do a song, instantly, with just one chord.
"So from the beginning of learning the guitar I was learning singing as well. And singing is just as important to me."
Chatting with Guitar.com, David explained how he can't shake the sound he makes, even if he wanted to.
He said: "My sound is what it is because of the way my hands and fingers are made, and due to my musical taste as well.
"I can't sound like anything else. I've never tried to make it like that, it's just the way I am. The fact that it is distinctive to other people is something that at first - in the early years - I was kind of unhappy about.
"I wanted to sound like other people. I had my moments of wanting to sound like Hendrix, or Eric Clapton, or Jeff Beck. Eventually, I got to like the way I sounded, and I think things got better from that moment - not just accepting it, but really liking what I sounded like, because there was a time when I just didn't like what I sounded like.
"Sometimes I feel comfortable with the way I play - it just depends on the moment. There are moments on tour when I feel like I've played every lick and every note there is to be played, and I get bored with myself. Then the next night, I think, 'No, it's great,' and I find something new to explore, someplace where I haven't been."
He added: "I have a certain style because I was given these particular fingers. They are the ones I got, and they are not terribly quick. There are some things they can't do, and there are some things they do better than anyone else, thank God [laughs]. I can rehearse and I can practice for months, but I don't get any quicker. I've given that up years ago. And I can't be bothered with too much practicing, I'm afraid. I should, but I'm terribly lazy about it. 
Asked if any of the fast technical players have ever piqued his interest, Gilmour replied: "There aren't many of the speed merchants that I have any great curiosity about. Eddie Van Halen is great, a brilliant guitar player. Some of his solos on his own stuff and on Michael Jackson's 'Beat It' are short, concise, brilliantly crafted solos. They're not just about speed. He can do a bit of something that's quite gentle and then throw in something that just blows you away because of the sheer pace of it for a second. And then he goes back to something else.
"There are moments when I would like to be able to do that, but, as I said, you get what you're given. I mean, Jeff Beck is still my guitar hero, really. He's the one that pushes the boundaries. He's consistently exciting. Jeff can play damn fast - he can do speed, but he chooses not to most of the time, and that's what impresses me. It's what he chooses to leave out rather than what he chooses to stick in. I played with him once doing a Jan Hammer song, I'm not sure where now, but I played the bass and Jeff played the guitar. That was a bit of fun."
