So, do you play an instrument? And if so, what do you play?

I've played guitar for about 12 years, and consider myself to be pretty good. I am completely self taught on the guitar. I received some instruction playing bass in my high school orchestra. They needed a bassist, and I figured it was just a guitar with two less strings. I've had a little bit of piano instruction, too.

I like to play blues, both acoustic and electric, but am certainly better electric. My favorite blues guitarists are BB King and Buddy Guy. I've stolen quite a few riffs from them...

I've got a Fender Stratocaster that I've been trying to put back together for some time now. I beat it up a lot when I was younger and more stupid, and am going to make it nice again. In the mean time, I picked up a cheap little Ibanez guitar, and it sounds pretty good for the money.

I've been considering building my own amp from scratch for a couple of years, but just can't find the extra few hundred dollars for parts. Some day...

Anyway, I'm interested in seeing how many of us play an instrument, and which ones.

Mike

Piano.

I love playing ragtime!

I had lessons when I was very young while we lived in Europe but we didn't bring the piano back with us to the States. I started playing again on my friend's piano when I was in Junior High so my parents finally went and got another one.

I always wanted to play ragtime and everyone always discouraged me because it requires very large hands. I love the liveliness of it.
Fortunately, I grew into my desire because I have very long, slender fingers. It was very hard to learn. The main thing that kept me playing the piano was my desire to accomplish this specific type of music!

I, too, tickle the ivories... I'm not very good, though. I had some lessons when I was about 22 or so, and taught myself the rest of what I know about it... Which isn't much, I should say. I enjoy it nonetheless, and I find it very relaxing. I loved piano music from my childhood and was determined as an adult that I would learn how to play it... So I did.

Thanks for the topic, Mike!

My parents are musicians - my father got his Masters in conducting, my mother in music education, so you can imagine our household was music oriented, to say the least.

I was started on the violin when I was five. Being the son of the school's music department head (my dad), I was prone to being the one who learned new instruments as they were needed. I switched from violin to cello in third grade, becasue we needed cellists. In sixth grade I moved to upright bass, and stuck with that through high school.

When I was 14, I started playing guitar. Since then, my main musical expression has been songwriting and playing the guitar (19 years! Seems so long now!). I just got a brand new Martin Jumbo acoustic, with a handy fishman pickup. It's beautiful, and cost a bit of change!

My sister is a professional violist, and plays in the army "band." The orchestra and the chamber orchestra for the army do all the high muckety-muck stuff, so she has played in the White House (recently at a dinner for the Bushes, Cheneys, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff!) and at a lot of high-up functions.

Music is my life (apart from my family)! My band Baaba Seth worked out of Virginia for almost 10 years. We had two of our songs used in the soundtrack for MTV's Real World and Road Rules shows, that was pretty cool. Right now, living as remotely as we do, I am focussed on songwriting and recording acoustic music. Of course, half the time when I should be practicing, I'm reading and writing on this damn web site!

I also play the djembe, the congas, a little piano, and I'm trying to learn the trumpet.

Yeah, have my degree in Music Ed. Primary instrument is trumpet secondary is french horn. I was in drum and bugle corps for 10 years. Played alot of gigs all over the place, jazz, big band, symphonic I have played with the Chicago Symphony brass before and did a gig with the Kansas City Orchastra...and as God is my witness Mariachi..LOL. Also, studied under Art Davis at the Chicago Conservatory of Music. Alot of beer in those days.

Darcaine

Guitar here

Aerosmith...move over BOY

I'm another trumpet, playing for my school marching and symphonic band, and I'm aiming to play in college, as well.

QOHS Trumpets - http://www.geocities.com/qotrumpets/

Wow, Darcaine I love Drum and Bugle Corps. . .Which one did you play in? I love going to their field show competitions!

I play the Alto Saxophone and the Sousaphone. . .I know, weird combination. Funny side story, a few years ago I say a t-shirt in the mall that said "And this one time at band camp. . . ." on it. I bought it immediately because I thought that totally sounded like me. . .it was only 'til a few months later that I found out it was from American Pie. I'm such a band geek!
I also collect antique/old instruments and decorate my walls with them.

-Kisov

This is a great thread, Mike! I love hearing about people's histories and what they're doing with music these days. Here's my story:

My father played guitar and built his own pickup and amp back in the 1940s. He played barn dances: Hank Williams, Jimmie Rodgers (singing brakeman), and other country stuff of the time. My old man could yodel to shake the house. He gave me a Silvertone cheese cutter for my 10th birthday and tried to teach me, but one of his fretting fingers had been cut off, so the bass runs just wouldn't work. I later took up finger style on a classical guitar, learning from the folk guitarists around town.

After college (English) I took theory from the West Bank School of Music, Minneapolis. That lead to a duo act with a harmonica player. We taught each other and did old timey country blues. He later went on to electric guitar, and I stuck with acoustic--did solo gigs, guitar/harp/shouting (a little like singing). Kept semi-pro for about five years. Put it up for about another eight years--and then I met Lydia, my sigoth.

Lydia is a pianist, classically trained, and a folk music (from all over) afficiando. She wanted me to pick up the guitar again. I played what I could remember, and she said, "No, you only have licks! You need beginnings, middles, endings, and maybe parts!" Well, I knew all that was left was a handfull of licks. Geez, don't be so hard on a guy!

So, I got myself some classical repertoire and started that study. That was about nine years ago. Since then, I've learned more on arranging my own stuff from sheet, got the ear back, and do a sort of classical/folk fingerstyle hybred. Oh yeah, slide style has always been part of all this with open tunings like D and C. Jazz techniques have entered in. I have no idea what to call this style--mutt?

We were doing some Christmas carol duets for the family this past season, and someone commented on my "Jimmie Hendrix" fills. Oh, gee, sorry. Guess I was bending it a little on "Oh Come All Ye Faithful!" And then there's the rhythmic slants on "What Child Is This," but that's because I learned it as "Greensleaves" way back when. Sorry. To me it is a secular love song, you know, like it originally was? Lydia was laughing and broke into some "Bumble Boogie," just out of spite I guess.

About five years ago, Lydia and I were browsing around the Folk Arts music shop in downtown Colorado Springs. They had a reissue National Steel on hand, so I played that a while. Lydia liked the sound, so she bought it for me.

Huh. Gee, hey, let me try out that jumbo Martin over there! She said no. Emphatically. So the National Steel is my main box, a cheap Dean electric/acoustic koa wood comes in next, and then a relatively cheap Epiphone Sheridan for straight-up 30s/40s jazz work. Amplificaton through mics, PA, Crate acoustic amp, or Dean Markley electric amp.

Guitar heroes: Pat Donahue (listen to A Prairie Home Companion--he's the top dog guitar man now), T-Bone Walker, Brownie McGhee, Hendrix, Reinhart, Pass, Segovia, and on and on. And then there's my father who told me that no matter what I play, play from the heart. If it's not exactly like the record, screw it and keep doing it your way. Make the tune your tune.

Lydia disagrees, of course. "Sheets of sound," she exclaims! "Back to the melody, jerk!" Well, yah, I see her point--get it on back home. I'm no Coltraine, that's for sure!

But I still maintain that the way I do the melody for "Goodnight Irene" is the way Leadbelly did it--she knows the more modern, softened version. So THERE, Lydia What a pair we make.

I love almost any kind of music, eventually, after I get acclimated to it.

Hey AuthorMusician, great post! I don't know if you've heard much African music, but I truly think that some of the most interesting guitar work in the world is coming from there. Specifically, I recommend:
for acoustic, check out Habib Koite. This guy has a beautiful sound.
Electric, check out some soukous music (from Zaire), particularly featuring Diblo Dibala or Nene Tchakou.
And for the true roots of the blues, check out Ali Farke Toure.

I promise you won't be disappointed! All you guitarists, check this stuff out. I swear it will change your musical world!!!

Play on, brothers and sisters, play on!

Mine's a very short story: I had a few piano lessons as a child (and still dabble occasionally - about as well as I type), then moved to clarinet and sax, mostly restricted to high school, though I did a brief stint with a jazz band in the mid-seventies. Oh - and I'm not bad at playing the saw (seriously - and I prefer a bow to a hammer). I'm an avid listener to music, though.

I played the clarinet from 3rd grade to 9th. I was too cool to do the marching band thing so I had to quit.

I've always wanted to learn how to play the violin and play in an orchestra. Maybe someday when I'm rich and can afford INTENSIVE lessons.

Sorry to burst your bubble, Danya, but marching band is cool.

I was in Phantom Regiment. Glad you have great taste !

Darcaine

quarkhead,

I'm going to hit the Net to see about African guitar. Thanks for the tips!

Yaaay. Great topic!

I've been an avid guitarist since I was 8 years old, and I'm gonna be 35 in March... I haven't done the math yet. I haven't got hardly anything to show for it in the way of a resume', but I am mostly into it for the fun in the first place. It's a way to unwind, and to party . I did put out 2 CD's in 1996 that I feel the time frame for production compromised the quality of somewhat, but which I am glad I was able to do. One was my family's band "Omenz" album title "The Lost Tribe", and the other was a keyboard buddy and myself as the band "Stained Glass" and the album "Light Forms".

My first "official guitar lessons" were a semester in 8th grade during which the basics of reading music and proper fretting and right hand technique were emphasized. To this day I do not use a pick... hardly ever. I took guitar throughout high-school but was pretty much on my own because my first guitar teacher... Ruled. Ron Grossweiler in Denver Colorado at what was then Lake Junior High School. Inspired the hell out of me to stick to that right-hand technique that I still use. I don't plan on becoming a Leo Kotke but he was a definate "hero".

I listen to Jazz, but on an acoustic guitar I default to balladic/classical stuff, and on the electric guitar my default behavior is decidedly hard-rock/metal with jazz or punk inflections, with an emphasis on harmonic textures.

I spent most all of 1991 practicing 10+hrs a day 7 days a week glued to my fretboard.... Loading the CD changer up with everything I could get my hands on and teaching myself lead guitar by ear. Before that time I had spent over 8 years from the 5th fret down on acoustic guitar playing most everything either by sheet music or by ear in a live accompaniment. This period of time "crunching" and the decade or so before that learning my way around the feel from chord to chord below the 5th fret really helped my ear.. I reckon.

The early reliance on sheet music allowed a fair degree of exposure to theory and transposing on sight from any set of flat keys to the next logical natural or sharp keys... cause I could not really control the nature of the sheet music I was getting my hands on, I used anything written from below the staff to the "A" note above the staff written in treble clef.

I bought my first guitar in 1986.. an acoustic 12 string, and played on that until 1992 at which time my hands were fairly ravaged by my fanaticism. The time had come to buy an electric guitar. I've kind of struggled with pushing the envelope for speed or calculated complexity, but I've also mostly learned to trust those long established instincts for what to play...

I got away from sheet music in about 1992 as well and set to focusing on improving my overall abilities as a cohesive player... writing songs and trying constantly to improve my ability to record, the quality of the equipment I was using and my overall prowess as a lead player... Already had that rhythm thing goin from that early right-hand technique emphasis.


I believe that there are 2 kinds of musicians... primarily. Them that know "what to play" and them that know "how to play". You get that middle ground somewhere in either case, but the end from which you approach middle ground is what I meant by that. I decidedly am of the "how to play".. and for all my sheet music exposure and years of exposure.... I don't have hardly anything "stored" in a perma-repetoire. It's like one of those rules of software engineering that I was told about by a NOAA software engineer.... "Never store that which you can compute".

Basically now, I'm a freak of nature on my guitar... no pick, not even an actual guitar amp. I use an semi-transparent green stain finished Ibanez S series (the action of melted butter but the sounds of rock), with a GK2A synth driver pickup, into a Roland GR-30 Guitar synth, which sends it's stereo Piano, Flute, you name it, "real sounding Sax" etc. to the PA which I use instead of a guitar amp. The GR30 also sends a guitar signal from my onboard guitar pickup system (the signal from my guitar goes outta the jack on the guitar, into the GK2A synth driver mounted on the surface... that has a 3 way switch for "Guitar - Both - Synth" to selectively allow the guitar signal out of the GR30..) to my Morley wah, thru to my Digitech RP21d guitar pre-amp processor foot controller (all in 1 unit!) which basically creates all the groovy guitar sounds most anybody could need, then that has a stereo output that I run thru a stereo volume pedal to my PA (pans set wide :-D ).

I've been in a few struggling band scenarios, most of which suffer for want of "complete crew with similar vision". I'm a sequencing nut these days too.. Using Cakewalk Pro Audio 9.0 w/EMU Proteus and EMU XL1 Extreme Lead electronica modules which can either be slaved by my Roland SD-35 sound canvas or become an extension of my Guitar Synth via a MIDI cable.

It's a passion. I attribute MOST of that early interest to grandma bouncin around the living room with her accordion rippin Weird Al Yankovik a new one before he even knew how to hold an accordion... Weird Al is one of my hero's too. All of this emphasizes the idea that music for me is really for "the fun of it"... its true therapy.. self medicating physician heal-thyself stuff... haha well.. Im no doctor.... but still... Doctor of what? I'd say I more appropriately compare with frankenstein.

I started playing the French Horn in 5th grade. I eventually got good enough to be in the Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra in my junior and senior year of high school. During marching band season, I played the Mellophone. I was also involved in a community orchestra and a jazz band. During college, it was too much to keep on playing it, so I completely dropped it.

Currently, we have a grand piano (my wife is the pianist in the family), so sometimes I try to play a little bit of it. And I know how to strum a few chords on the guitar. Lately though, I'm trying to pick up the harmonica. It's pretty neat to be able to carry an instrument in your pocket and just whip it out anytime. Now, if someone could just teach me how to do a bend...

Darcaine, I am a Cavalier fan myself (it must be all the hot guys ), but Phantom Regiment is my second favorite. I'm originally from the Midwest so those are the Drum and Bugle Corps that are the nearest and dearest to me!

-Kisov