Your Musical Instrument

[SimonDoom]

I checked, and there were a few threads on this subject a long time ago, but nothing recently as far as I could tell.

Do you play a musical instrument? What? How long? How good do you think you are? What do you like about it? How important is it to you?

Is it your favorite instrument? If not, what is? Why?

If you are a musician (or even if not, and you just like listening to it), how do you compare playing music to writing, if you do at all?

 

[SimonDoom]

My answer:

I have played guitar, off and on (often off, I must say), for many years. I had an electric guitar and played a little with friends when I was young. Beginning in college I took up classical guitar on a nylon string guitar, and that's what I've focused on since.

I'm not a steady player. I go through phases of picking it up and learning some pieces, and then I don't play for a while. So I've never been good. But I sometimes get to the point that it is quite satisfying to learn a new song. It's also been a way to learn more about guitar music, whether it's classical, Flamenco, jazz, or other types.

I can't say I have one favorite instrument to listen to. I like them all, at different times and for different reasons. Nothing quite beats the phrasing of a well played violin. Piano is wonderful for the range and beauty of what you can play on it. I love trumpet and sax in jazz pieces especially.

But there's something about the guitar I like. The sound of the plucked string. Putting all those pluckings together in different ways. It's not the most dynamic instrument, it doesn't have the greatest range of pitch, but there's something about that sound that gets to me.

One of my New Year's resolutions is to take it up again and learn some new pieces. I'd like to teach myself this one:

 

[MrPixel]

I certainly don't hide that I am a musician (see signature!). I have written a handful of LitE stories about experiences as a performing musician, but usually only to set the stage - so to speak - about ensuing naughtiness. Other than that, there is no correlation between playing/performing and writing. There just isn't.

I first started on flute at 9 years old and became moderately proficient, entering high school as "medium advanced". I was bored with the flute, and expressed interest in the French horn. The band director pointed me to the cabinets full of school-owned instruments, and I took one home, a single 'F' horn. I practiced that night, and having heard me warm-up for band the next day, seated me in the horn section. After two or three pieces in rehearsal, he stopped and said something to the band to the effect of, "You guys have got to hear this," telling them that I hadn't even had 24 hours with the instrument. He directed me to play the march we were rehearsing. Not note-perfect, but pretty good. From that point on, I was instructed to "take any instrument you want" from the cabinets.

Long story shortened, I play acceptably on piccolo, flute, oboe, English horn, and bassoon in the woodwind family; trumpet, French horn, euphonium, and tuba for brasses. I've "dabbled" with the instruments missing in those lists, having two Bb clarinets, and bought and sold an Eb sopranino clarinet, Eb alto sax, and a middle-of-the-road trombone. My professional instruments have been tuba, trumpet, French horn, oboe, and English horn. I held a union card 50 years ago, playing tuba for studio work and filling-in for small orchestras. Most recent pro work has been on oboe and English horn, plus a handful of tuba gigs.

I have done some teaching, but not all that good at it. I did have one successful oboe student, but I haven't kept up with her since her time with the college wind orchestra.

How good am I? Good enough to be paid to play! Tuba's my strongest instrument, in both senses (even at 70, I can still peel paint off ceilings). English horn is my current fave, but oboe gets most of the glory. It's all survival-grade important to me. There was a brief span when I didn't play, and those were my darkest years with life in general.

Which reminds me, I've been slacking off since our symphonic winds concert the first week of December. Rehearsals resume in two weeks, and the literature I've bought for the winds group has a moderately-challenging oboe part I need to get crackin' on.

I'll footnote here that my education and performance experience is all classical, most recently modern concert wind band. I never "got" jazz in any of its forms, and couldn't read a jazz chart if my life depended on it.

 

[Tio_Narratore]

I was a folkie in the 60s, and so banjo, guitar, penny whistle, and bodhran were my instruments. I also played bass drum for a marching band. I don't play any more other than drums of various sorts; carpal tunnel syndrome in both hands have left me with little sensory response in my fingers.

As far as listening, I have no favorite instrument of genre. I very much agree with Kurt Weil's observation that there are only two kinds of music: good and bad. I do prefer the good of any genre.

 

[Katie_Mae]

I do not play a musical instrument. However, I did play piano for about ten years as a child/teen. I didn't really question what I liked about it, or even if I liked it. It was just one of my extra-circular activities.

How good was I? Not especially. Enough to pass my exams and enter the occasional competition. How important was it to me? When I had to stop I missed it a little but moved on, busy with other things, so obviously not too important in the grand scheme of things.

I wouldn't compare playing music to writing at all, however I would compare composing to writing. I did quite like composing.

 

[ronde]

Current instruments are acoustic guitar, mountain dulcimer, and autoharp. In high school, it was french horn, tuba, bass viol for a 40's style stage band, and electric guitar for a small band that didn't go anywhere. I've taught myself enough piano that I can make myself happy until my wife threatens to burn the piano.

I don't really have a favorite instrument. All musical instruments can be relaxing to listen to if played well.

I would say that a professional playing a musical instrument can come close to writing, although it would qualify more as paraphrasing. The notes will be the same for any musician. It's the emphasis and timing of each note that makes an artist from just a player, just as a writer can use words to paint a picture.

 

[nice90sguy]

Piano, every day. I thank God for it

 

[pink_silk_glove]

I write music, pop, dance, rock, punk, all kinds. I compose, write every note of every melody and lead, every chord, every change. I know all the theory and put it to good use. These days I write it all on the sequencer. Just hear the notes in my head and draw them in the screen, fun fun fun! I also write all of the lyrics.

I sing. I'm a little pitchy but only the highly trained aren't. I have some training, some technique.

I dabble a few instruments, guitar mostly. I have a Yamaha acoustic that I like but I love my telecaster because it's so easy to play. I have a korg synth but I can only really plunk away with the right hand.

Some day I will write a story with a music soundtrack and post it here as an audio.

 

[soflabbwlvr]

I played trumped in junior high and high school. Haven't touched it since. I don't think I could play anything on it anymore.
If I could go back and do it again, I would pick up guitar and play as much as could. I lived in a rural area and we had a detached garage, so I had the perfect place to practice. At least it would have been perfect in the summer and early fall.

 

[munch2much]

I am a self taught on guitar and a little piano. I love songwriting and long ago used to write stories. I’m a decent songwriter. I guess people are generally impressed/surprised. Same with my guitar work.

I don’t think on the two types of writing as similar. Words seamed to be much easier in stories. In songs I’m never happy. At least in songs I can just play and experiment until it all suddenly comes together.

 

[onehitwanda]

I got to grade 3 Piano before abandoning it at age... 14. I played violin in the school chamber orchestra, and as I've previously said in ancient threads, I played the bagpipes - which didn't help my tinitus at all. I also sang in chamber and chapel choirs from roughly the age of... 8 until my mid-twenties.

It speaks volumes that of all of them, it's Piano I've returned to in middle age. I used to own a digital keyboard, but about three months ago I indulged myself in a Yamaha digital grand piano; I love owning something that has a skill level so far beyond mine that it will not restrict me.

I play probably at a grade 4 / grade 5 level. I'm no improvisor, I have very little talent there. But I feel like I can give voice and emotion to the pieces I love, and that's good enough for me.

As to writing... writing is, for me, like playing a piano. The choice of words in a sentence, the inclusion or removal of an alliteration, a pun is like altering the pressue of a keypress ever-so-slightly, or moving from minor to major or vice-versa.

Music and words both require skill. I'm glad I have the appreciation I have for both of them.

 

[SimonDoom]

If there's one talent I don't have that I wish I had, it's the ability to sing. I'm not terrible, but I'm not great and my range is limited. I could probably be trained with work to get in the back of a choir and sing with a limited mid-baritone range, but that's about it. Since I like playing guitar I'd love to be able to sing along with it, but I don't like hearing myself sing. I think I sound like a drunk guy at a bar trying to imitate Jim Morrison and doing it badly.

 

[StillStunned]

My instrument isn't in the least bit musical. No matter how many times I play with it.

 

[nice90sguy]

My piano is my best friend, it's been there for me all through my life, and it's never let me down. It's wise, patient and never judges me. A few months ago I decided to thank it, for its unswerving loyalty and good advice.
This is my "Thank you" to my dear Joanna:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/VFUE633Y

No matter what, there's always the piano.

 

[Blind_Justice]

I'm a self-taught drummer, played for about ten years in several hobbyist bands, mostly rock, punk and metal. Along the way I picked up the basics of bass guitar and learned how to squeak a few chords out of a guitar. Thanks to an amazing band workshop at my boarding school, I also picked up some synth fundamentals. Oh, and I met my lady love at that same workshop.

Fast forward 30 years and when Covid broke out, my lady love asked if there was anything I'd like to do before the world ended. Jokingly I said "how about making music again like in the old days?" Problem is, we live in a small apartment, don't have access to a fully-stocked (and sound-proof) practice space any more so... we picked up a drum machine and a cheap synth just to see how it would feel.

Now, about four years later, this is how my former office looks like now - or rather how it looked like in 2022. I've moved a few pieces of kit around and added a couple more synths since then.



We have released an EP and two full albums. The music we make is a very weird mix, mostly late 70's/early 80's synth stuff - think Jean-Michel Jarré, maybe Tangerine Dream, John Carpenter or the like, plus a smattering of other ideas. I can't get out of my metal head despite loving spacey, synth-y stuff so there are occasional attempts to bring guitars into the mix too while my lady love skews our music towards folk and classical. If you want to check it out, link to our Bandcamp is in my sig.

As for the differences between music and writing - I find making music MUCH easier. It's almost instinctive, much less constrained by rules. The only "hard" part about it is putting it all together in the end - recording, mixing and mastering is fucking WORK, especially using modern audio software like Ableton Live. A far cry from just hitting "record" on a tape recorder like we had back at our practice space. But I think I'm finally getting the hang of it - our music sounds pleasant and "airy", maybe a lot less punchy than most pop recordings which have been processed to high heaven and back but we don't aim to make people dance, we want to take our listeners on a journey.

 

[Bamagan]

I'm kind of disappointed no one has quipped skin flute yet.

 

[Tio_Narratore]

I'm kind of disappointed no one has quipped skin flute yet.

StillStunned implied it.

 

[Rob_Royale]

I've a very decent singing voice, tenor/ baritone. I sang in school choirs and vocal ensemble. Sang for a while in a pop group in the late eighties as part of a duet. Just local gigs. It was fun but I'd no intention on doing it for real. If I'd taken voice lessons I probably could have done something with it, but didn't really have any interest. Now I just sing love songs for my wife and that's fine with me.

 

[MillieDynamite]

I play fiddle sticks on my wife's clitty.

 

[MillieDynamite]

I play a little guitar (really seriously small), the ukulele, and a bit of banjo. My sister plays the flute, the violin, viola, cello, and base (violin). My brother plays the trumpet, french horn, tuba, organ, and piano. Sis is still active with violin and cello. Bro still has his trumpet and plays occasionally. They are naturally gifted in music, and I am not, though I sing rather well. My adopted family comes from a long line of musicians, going back to my father's grandfather's grandfather.

 

[MrPixel]

I'm kind of disappointed no one has quipped skin flute yet.

I've never been happy with that bit of slang. The word "flute" immediately conjures visuals of the transverse flute, in both formal Western orchestral and indigenous peoples contexts. That's typically not how one performs on a "skin flute".

Technically, then, a "skin flute" would actually be a "skin recorder" or "skin whistle", but neither captures the concept. "Skin clarinet" would be closer.

 

[Bramblethorn]

I've never been happy with that bit of slang. The word "flute" immediately conjures visuals of the transverse flute, in both formal Western orchestral and indigenous peoples contexts. That's typically not how one performs on a "skin flute".

Technically, then, a "skin flute" would actually be a "skin recorder" or "skin whistle", but neither captures the concept. "Skin clarinet" would be closer.

*pedantry appreciation face*

I learned the piano for about ten years as a kid, because I was in the kind of demographic where kids learn instruments. I was never spectacular at it; maybe part of that was that most of 20th-century music was unknown to me (weirdly sheltered childhood) and I hadn't discovered the stuff I liked yet, so I had nothing much I was keen to play.

I haven't touched a keyboard in decades but my fingers still remember a lot of it. I think it's given me more appreciation for classical ingredients in modern music and probably helped me with learning to touch-type.

 

[ChloeTzang]

Well, I went to music school classes all thru elementary school, from when I was 5 thru to about 12 but I stopped after I started high school - taekowndo was taking up most of my spare time by then. Learnt acoustic and electric guitar (I still have both sitting in a closet) as well as keyboards (that's leaning against the wall behind me) and Chinese mom, so I also learnt to play the pipa, which I was actually pretty good at. I still have my pipa too but I don't really play any of them...I have no real inclination towards playing anything altho every now and then I blow the dust off my pipa and say hi to it. I get much more out of listening to music rather than inflicting my questionable musical talents on innocent bystanders.

This is what a pipa can sound like if you're really good - I was never that good LOL. There's some really beautiful pipa music tho.

 

[mildlyaroused]

I've played the piano since I was 8 or 9 - mostly self-taught, with a few lessons during my childhood. I'd say I'm pretty good, at least technically: I could play almost any piece if I really set my mind and time to it, though progress is often slow for the most advanced pieces. I can play ABRSM grade 8 pieces while drunk, which lets me indulge in some unhealthy hubris when there's a piano present at a party.

The caveat to this is that my knowledge of musical theory lags far behind my ability to play complex pieces. As I'm self-taught and have never aspired to play for any reason beyond the personal, I've never put much effort into all the basal skills professional pianists need to foster to perform at their best. My technique could certainly be better. No doubt certain skills like dynamics, pedaling, or articulation (etc, etc, etc) could be far improved if I did put more effort into studying them. For now, I can sightread, and I understand the fundamentals of musical theory, which is good enough for me.

As a non-composer, music and writing are two very different art forms for me. Writing is much more mentally taxing, while music gives me an emotional outlet. Emotionally and intellectually, they're fairly independent of one another. Though my latest novel is about a pianist. If I'm writing a difficult scene, you'll constantly catch me crossing the room to spend a few minutes at the piano before returning. They go hand in hand (... in hand, with tea, the third of my Holy Trinity).

 

[Voboy]

I taught myself acoustic guitar in college, then fell in love with surf music and bought a Stratocaster. Once I played a Telecaster, I'd found my favorite. I played guitar for many years before deciding I'd probably be better on bass.

I was right.

So now that's mostly what I play. I own too many basses, but they're hard to sell once I get my hands on them. And they all do something different. I gravitate toward Fenders and G&Ls. I don't read music well, but I learn very quickly by ear; on bass, I can have a piece ready to perform in a few hours. Guitar takes a few days.

It's nothing like writing. Writing is a solitary endeavor; music is best played with, or for, or in preparation for performing with, other people. I enjoy being in my low-key [bass joke!] band at work. We play out a few times a year. I can also dabble in lapsteel, penny whistle, and harmonica. I've built my own ukuleles, whistles, and guitars in the past, from scratch. That was fun.