Do you play an instrument? What's your favorite thing about it?
-
I play guitar casually since a little before COVID. Becoming more fluent with it every time I play is an amazing feeling.
Getting into a groove, putting my own spin/expressing myself with songs I like, and jamming with friends are experiences that are unmatched in enjoyment for me.
Making up my own silly songs on the fly is fun too.
Learning to play is the best thing I ever did. I had to get over the idea that it would be hard work to get good, or the idea that I'd never be as good as someone who started as a kid, or that I'd ever even be technically good, at all. Letting go of that stuff allowed me to enjoy each moment playing, and just have fun.
When I was a teen, music was how I made money. When my friends were flipping burgers or bussing tables, I was playing in multiple bands, and playing 3 or 4 gigs a month. That gave me enough pocket money to take my girl out.
So music and income became tightly linked for a long time. I got a degree in Music History, and worked for record labels for a few decades. Then I got out of music for a couple of decades.
When I took up the guitar again during the pandemic, I had absolutely no intention of performing ever again. I just wanted play for my own entertainment. To a certain extent, I also really wanted to conquer the guitar. I played it as a kid, but I never got very good. It beat me, and that always bothered me.
I've been playing again for 5 years, and I'm getting pretty good. I've far surpassed where I was as a kid, and can credibly call myself an intermediate player. The main thing is that money is no longer involved, I'm just doing it for fun and that took some getting used to. I just do it for love of music, self-satisfaction, and mental health.
Buying all these used guitars is costing me a fortune, though.
-
Ah, I love this. I really love bluegrass, so a mandolin has always been playing at some point in my life. They look like they'd be super hard to play
I love the mandolin, and I'd love to play one regularly, but they are just too small for my fingers. I play guitar, and that's enough to keep me occupied for life.
I was in a great band as a kid, and on our way to gigs, one of our guitarists would strum the mandolin from the shotgun seat, and we'd all sing along, and practice our harmonies. I remember doing that, smiling wide, and thinking it was the most fun I'd ever had in my young life. Easily one of my favorite teen memories.
-
I used to program electronic music and play live keyboard until I wrecked my hearing on stage.
I picked up playing drums 1.5 years ago and love it. I've been teaching drums for almost 2 months now at a music school.
Drumming relaxes me a lot, it's a good workout and even with my impaired hearing I can still play them.
I was a classical musician, so I really babied my ears over the years. Now I'm old, and I have a touch of tinnitus that just registers as background noise and is easy to filter out, so my hearing is still excellent.
-
I play early music, and what we call a viol de gamba is a different thing; the viola is fretless and held under the chin like a violin, while the viol de gamba is a renaissance/baroque-era fretted instrument that is held between the legs and comes in treble, tenor, and bass sizes.
Savall plays the latter.
To further confuse the matter, there's a renaissance-era instrument called the vielle that is played more like a modern violin or viola.
While they look similar, the violin and the gamba family are separate branches, sort of musical cousins.
Of all the stringed instruments, the upright string bass is the closest in shape to the gamba family, and is technically evolved from that. The shoulders on a violin, viola, or cello, come straight out from the neck, while the shoulders on a string bass slope down. That's a typical characteristic difference in shape between violins and gambas.
-
Yup, they use wrapped gut frets. They're moveable so that the musicians could adjust intonation in the period before equal temperament was invented.
Can you imagine having to shift individual frets, untying and retying them to get the instrument in tune?
What a pain in the ass. No wonder they went extinct.
-
Viola sounds amazing but yes, fun pieces are written for violin.
Do you know any great viola music that is on par with great violin music?
That dark velvetiness that violas have is gorgeous. It is too bad that not much is written for it, but at least you can adapt violin or cello music.
I grew up playing trombone. There's no good music for that either, and you can't even adapt other stuff well to it. I never enjoyed playing it back then, even though I love music. Today, I'm a guitarist. Much more satisfying than trombone.
-
Or have you played something else in the past? What's your favorite piece to play?
Edit: thanks for everyone that has replied. This has been so heartwarming to read
my favorite part about playing the cock and balls is the cum
-
Get a mute for your trumpet, and head for the basement. Maybe even build a little insulated chamber to cut down the sound more, or play in a closet. Once you get your chops back and start improving, other people won't mind hearing you.
Thanks for the tips! I never heard of a trumpet mute. Unfortunately I’ll have to work on getting another trumpet as well as a basement before I try your suggestions. I’ll still save your comment, maybe one day I could try again.
-
Thanks for the tips! I never heard of a trumpet mute. Unfortunately I’ll have to work on getting another trumpet as well as a basement before I try your suggestions. I’ll still save your comment, maybe one day I could try again.
You can pick up used trumpets on Facebook Marketplace for cheap. The most common mutes are straight and cup mutes.
Jazz players use them a lot. It gives them a cool, quiet, strained sound. Miles Davis used a straight mute often. So did Dizzy.
Get a cheap trumpet, stick a mute in it, and stand in your closet door, and play into your clothes.
-
Can you imagine having to shift individual frets, untying and retying them to get the instrument in tune?
What a pain in the ass. No wonder they went extinct.
I play the renaissance lute, which also uses tied frets. I just play in equal temperament because its easier and my ear isn't that good. I'm merely an ambitious amateur though, maybe I'll get into it one of these days.
-
I play the renaissance lute, which also uses tied frets. I just play in equal temperament because its easier and my ear isn't that good. I'm merely an ambitious amateur though, maybe I'll get into it one of these days.
wrote last edited by [email protected]I play guitar, but I've never held a lute. I'd love to try one sometime. They are astonishingly beautiful works of art. I love everything about them.
Goddammit, now I have to buy a lute.
-
Or have you played something else in the past? What's your favorite piece to play?
Edit: thanks for everyone that has replied. This has been so heartwarming to read
Bass. It basses.
-
I play guitar, but I've never held a lute. I'd love to try one sometime. They are astonishingly beautiful works of art. I love everything about them.
Goddammit, now I have to buy a lute.
It's so hard to get into it; I'd never played one before I picked it up either.
This is a good entry-level lute. I had wanted one for a while before I got mine, but I was worried about spending so much and having it be unplayable.
I fortunately talked to another musician who had one of these already and he sounded fantastic, so I decided to take the plunge. I'm glad I did! There's nothing like playing period music on the actual instrument that would have been used (modern convenience like temperament aside) and reading from historical tabs.
I ran into the guy again about a month ago, and he has an incredible luthier-made theorbo that sounds amazing. Maybe I'll get one of those some day lol!
-
When I was a teen, music was how I made money. When my friends were flipping burgers or bussing tables, I was playing in multiple bands, and playing 3 or 4 gigs a month. That gave me enough pocket money to take my girl out.
So music and income became tightly linked for a long time. I got a degree in Music History, and worked for record labels for a few decades. Then I got out of music for a couple of decades.
When I took up the guitar again during the pandemic, I had absolutely no intention of performing ever again. I just wanted play for my own entertainment. To a certain extent, I also really wanted to conquer the guitar. I played it as a kid, but I never got very good. It beat me, and that always bothered me.
I've been playing again for 5 years, and I'm getting pretty good. I've far surpassed where I was as a kid, and can credibly call myself an intermediate player. The main thing is that money is no longer involved, I'm just doing it for fun and that took some getting used to. I just do it for love of music, self-satisfaction, and mental health.
Buying all these used guitars is costing me a fortune, though.
That's awesome you got back into it for pure enjoyment!
Gear acquisition syndrome is real though. Fortunately for me I was able to recover from it in the context of guitars. Unfortunately for me I picked up photography as a hobby...
-
You can pick up used trumpets on Facebook Marketplace for cheap. The most common mutes are straight and cup mutes.
Jazz players use them a lot. It gives them a cool, quiet, strained sound. Miles Davis used a straight mute often. So did Dizzy.
Get a cheap trumpet, stick a mute in it, and stand in your closet door, and play into your clothes.
Yeah, they are a lot cheaper than I expected. I appreciate the push and I’m very tempted, but my final excuse is just that I’m hella ADHD. I’ve got a long history of picking things up only to quickly put them back down and I’ve grown to be very careful when I think of getting into anything new. It’s why I’ve mostly played small instruments, they’re cheap and easier to store. I gotta think about it and talk to some people.
-
Or have you played something else in the past? What's your favorite piece to play?
Edit: thanks for everyone that has replied. This has been so heartwarming to read
Probably piano, my favourite thing is probably jazz music theory and lovely thick chords
-
Or have you played something else in the past? What's your favorite piece to play?
Edit: thanks for everyone that has replied. This has been so heartwarming to read
Having tulips on my organ
-
Or have you played something else in the past? What's your favorite piece to play?
Edit: thanks for everyone that has replied. This has been so heartwarming to read
I used to play harp when I was a teenager. But haven't touched that in 20 years. I like synths because they make amazing sounds which are very versatile, and it's possible to make an entire song yourself by sequencing.
-
Yep, grew up playing trombone in band, and string bass in orchestra, and played guitar and electric bass in basement rock bands. I went to a conservatory for college and stopped playing guitar and bass. Got a degree in Music History, went into the classical/jazz music biz for a couple decades, then my own non-music biz for a couple decades, and never played anything for all those years.
Then I was going stir crazy during the pandemic quarantine, going nuts from daytime TV, so in 2020 I took up the electric guitar, and got back to it.
I improved quickly, but about 18 months ago, I got into fingerstyle, and now I'm obsessed. All I ever wanted was to be able to play well enough to get through entire songs, and entertain myself. With finger picking, I can do that. I have a strong music background, so I don't use tabs, I just create my own arrangements.
The result has been amazing for my mental health. I came to realize that I had been operating with a low-grade depression for a long time, maybe most of my life, but playing the guitar has lifted most of that. That's how I knew I had been depressed - when it improved. It had just become my baseline existence.
Favorite things to play? I'm all over the place, from classical tunes, to modern songs. Some of my favorite pieces to play are two songs by Stephen Foster - a lullaby called Slumber My Darling, and a beautiful ballad called Hard Times, Come Again No More, which was Foster's own personal favorite, and the song he used to sing in taverns for free drinks as a broke, degenerate alcoholic.
It's so satisfying to sit on the front porch on a sunny late afternoon, looking out over the pond, and play my own music. If I was a religious person, I'd say it was one of God's greatest gifts.
Finger picking came fairly naturally to me, and I got to the point where a pick feels wrong. I can do more interesting things without.
-
Or have you played something else in the past? What's your favorite piece to play?
Edit: thanks for everyone that has replied. This has been so heartwarming to read
I have been on and off for the past 7 years due to moving overseas, but up until then, I'd been playing instruments since I was 8 (so over 20 years). Starred on clarinet, then flute, alto/tenor/baritone sax, some piano. Started to learn trombone, but I graduated so no longer had access.
I've always loved playing jazz and just general big band music. Pink Panther has always been a fun one to play. One of my friends here is in a band (vocals, drums, guitar, bass) and keeps hassling me to get a saxophone so I can guest gig and play "Careless Whisper." lol.
Since moving, I've missed my saxophone dearly, but it's expensive to ship and expensive to buy. I currently have a kalimba and low Irish whistle. They've been in the box for a few months due to moving houses. Seeing all of these posts make me want to break them out again.
