It seems that in reading thru the assorted boards, we have quite a bit 'o musicians here. So, what do ya'll play?

My main instrument is alto sax, am top in the school, and was top in several joint-county groups.

Other than that, I play electric guitar, harmonica, and of course....... kazoo!

I started taking violin lessons when I was 4.5. I switched to cello in second grade, and to double-bass in sixth (the curse of having my father as my orchestra conductor). I took piano lessons in elementary school. I started playing electric bass in eighth grade, and started playing guitar at 15. Now, I primarily play the guitar, as that is the instrument I feel most comfortable composing on.

Having been in bands since I was 14, I have picked up the drums and hand percussion. I can play the djembe fairly well, the congas fairly well, and the drum set decently.

The result of all this? I'm one of those people who can pick up almost any instrument, goof with it for a couple of hours, and produce something resembling music. I couldn't play violin in an orchestra, but I could use a violin on my own recordings (since I could play it slowly, then speed it up on the edit!). I would also probably hold it more like a cello!

When my daughter took up violin last fall, I audited the course with her. But she did not feel the instrument was for her. We dropped the course.

Her grandmother left an upright piano to her. So we have started piano lessons. I think it will go better than violin.

I can pick out a tune or two on a harmonica.

Does a person's voice count as an instrument in this thread? If so, I like to sing and so does my daughter.

I'm a good whistler!

The human voice (and probably whistle) was the very first instrument, so yeah, that counts.

I noodled on guitar since 10 (gad, how time flies!) and took it serious after college (circa 1976-ish) by taking one lesson. The guy showed me how to move chords. Blinky-on went the light.

Later, after getting stuck, took a theory course from a hippie-dippie music school, West Bank School of Music in Minneapolis. That kept me going for years.

So now I can pick out melodies off sheet, figure in some chords, get a bass line going with rhythm and lead notes, mess with it until it's solid, record it and put it up into repertoire. Some tunes have been with me from the beginning and have become more complex over time.

Did some open air gigs last summer for the city of Manitou Springs. Ten bucks an hour plus tips, not bad for squeezing out a few tunes. People would stop & chat, and I got to know the folks at The Dulcimer Shop pretty well. One Asian tourist was taken with the slide work, fascinated with how a brass slide and National go together like biscuits and gravy.

Can't imagine life without music. Vice versa too, although some of the stuff out there comes pretty darn close (obligatory musician's *!snort!*).

I took piano and French Horn lessons starting in fifth grade. After several years, I dropped the piano since the only songs the teachers taught were classical and it was so boring. I stuck with the French Horn (and Mellophone) until college. In high school, I got good enough to be in the Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra, albeit last chair. Since then I've never picked up the French Horn. However, now I'm trying to pick up the harmonica. I LOVE that instrument. What other instrument can you play while also driving your car (well, besides singing and whistling)?

otseng,

Harp! Yeah man, tootin while travelin, the best!

Electric Guitar here. I can crank out a helluv an Aerosmith

I play the viola, have for over six years. At the risk of sounding conceited, I think I'm fairly good at it I also played piano when I was younger, and the violin in 4th grade. I'd like to learn guitar, but there's too many strings

Don't worry about the strings I'd never played a stringed instrument in my life before I took up guitar. The 6 strings make it easier for me, because you don't always have to slide to the next note, you can just move to an adjacent string.

I always had a strong interest in music. I remember constantly begging my parents to get a piano. Finally they relented. So I started piano when I was 8.5 (Quark I am jealous of your 4.5) and took private lessons till I was 17. In junior high school and the first semester of high school I took violin. I was really terrible and didn't practice enough! The second semester I took flute. I only took it to get out of the orchestra and the piano class was full, so I bided my time. By my sophomore year in high school I moved into their piano program where I immediately became my teacher’s pet! The school taught piano on electric keyboards, not real piano’s. The first day of class I made a comment to my teacher that I was having difficulty since the keys weren’t weighted. After that I was allowed to play in the music office on their real piano. This actually turned into a problem, all of the cute boy’s in the guitar program used to hang out there during their free periods. I spent more time hanging out with them than practicing. About 4 years ago I started taking guitar lessons. This has been a lot of fun and satisfying! If I decide to learn another instrument I think I will go with the bass. I love watching a bass player!

Music is so wonderful and peaceful for me. It is a great escape. I have a tremendous amount of respect for those people that can play professionally and write their own music! Quark!!

I play guitar, (six and twelve string accoustic, as well as electric), piano and violin.

Piano and guitar I've played for more than 30 years, but it wasn't until my daughter started learning the violin that I picked one up, learning from her and her teacher. Not nearly as good as she is, though. She has a real talent for it.

I tried the clarinet in junior high school. I was really lousy at it, and gave up pretty quick. I have no artistic or musical abilities at all, and I have great admiration for those who do.

I started the violin at 11 as part of my music requirement in middle school - I really wanted to play the Cello, but my mother had played violin so they didn't see wasting the money on a cello when we had a perfectly good violin! I was pretty decent at into high school (won a few spots and usually made first chair second violin - as in third best - in the state wide competitions)... but it was never really quite my passion and when I got into a rather infamous argument with a new orchestra teacher in my junior year of high school I quit the orchestra - which barred me from any of the county or state orchestras on a high school level... since I wasn't quite good enough for adult, I just put it away in a huff.

Of course, kind of regretted it for years... then it occurred to me I just didn't like playing all the orchestral music and in the orchestral style! So I started fiddling with it again (literally ) just a few years ago... and the fiddle lead me down the bluegrass path to my current favorite instrument - the banjo! Something I've wanted to play for years. I play a five string with a resonator - so of course, I would be laughed out of any serious music festival in the Ozarks - but it alllows me to play a lot of the more popular tunes - like you might hear on the "O Brother" soundtrack

I love music though - and its really fun for me to turn a regular tune into an exciting banjo tune - Beethoven, christmas carols, Korn and Britney - I love it all

Cello, French Horn, Piano, Voice. (main ones I was good at at one point or another... currently I am concentrating on piano and voice)

Ocarina, Trumpet, Recorder (ones I can/could play but not ever really any lessons)

Violin, Viola, Tuba, Harmonica (ones I can play if I work hard at it for a little bit)

Guitar, drums, bass (ones that I want to learn)

I play all kinds of percussion:

tenors, snare, bass, marimba...

I also do alot with the keyboards, and compose my own music. In high school, I use to sell the songs I created, but as they got more and more complicated I began to grow insanely attatched to them.

Now I create them for the enjoyment of me and only me!

I am another one of the percussionists here at AD. I was quite good when I was younger - went on scholarship to a music camp (which is quite different from 'band camp', LOL) and I don't recall the honor, but I'm a member of some sort of national honorary band. It's probably like the "Who's Who in America" stuff - not much of an honor since probably half the high school population receives an 'invitation' to be included...I was always 1st chair though

I went to a performing arts high school and played drums for 2 years as my "major" before switching to voice (I was getting bored with the drums there because everything was all about snare and I wanted to do more with the cool instruments like congas and marimbas). Then my senior year I was in the percussion ensemble (newly formed) and mostly played marimbas (on which I was, not to toot my own horn too much, a total natural). quark and I were discussing music in chat one night a while back and amazingly, he knew about another precussion instrument I prided myself on being quite proficient at - the quica (Afro-Brazilian I believe). It's really cool instrument - a picture http://www.brazildrums.com/headspages/images/quica.jpg a sample of it's sound: http://www.tambourine.net/Media/notebl.gif (it will begin a small download of a 7-8 second clip). To play it, you have to rub the stick on the inside of the drum - it is rather difficult to get a good sound out of it.

I think I'm best at the instruments that are played with the hands on the head of the drum: congas, djembe, etc. My mom is also a drummer and has a couple djembe drums...she's waiting for me to come home so we can jam! She just added another to her collection. They had enough money to either buy the drum or a pretty nic epiece of jewelry - of course my mom chose the drum.

Oh I almost forgot my favorite percussion instrument of all, which I was REALLY good at: steel drums (actually called steel pans). I played the bass, which is 6 large drums that look like big aluminum trash cans (the bass steel pans are the only ones that don't sit on a stand - if memory serves correct). I played in college as part of our steel drum band and would have continued to play if the ensemble didn't conflict with my major schedule It was the most fun thing I've ever played and I really was very good. They have a band for grad students and the director of our band (the "beginner" band for undergrads and for anyone else who just wants to play and never has or hasn't played for long) and apparently the director of the grad student band was rather impressed with me and wanted to work with me (bummer that it didn't work out with my schedule). Me being a dancer, I told them I wanted to play the bass (bass players have to move around alot and have much greater opportunity to move/dance than those playing the other steel pans) since we had to give our preferences as our audition. It was SOOOO much fun!!!! I would LOVE to play again!

I play piano, mostly by ear. Though I can obviously read music, I find it more fun to play by ear since I'm not erally classically (or otherwise) trained on the piano. I took lessons when I was 7-8 but didn't have time to continue because of dance taking up so much of my time.

I also sing (as I mentioned before), though other people seem to think my voice it better than I do. I have perfect pitch though - something I pride myself on! I used to be a soprano with a very impressive range, but my voice deepened quite a bit my senior year in high school and I consider myself an alto now! I don't like singing "solo" though - I was in jazz choir in high school and though I was definitely the most natural sounding scatter (sounded improv rather than rehearsed), I would never take scat solos because I didn't like my voice enough. Oh well.

I swear I'm missing an instrument...probably just a percussion instrument. My sister played the violin and trumpet for a little while. My father (bio) played the viola and my mother plays drums. If anyone has heard of the Dave Brubeck quartet (other than quark cause I know we've already had this discussion), my mother's teacher was Joe Morello (drummer for the quartet). She has a number of autographed pictures of the two of them playing set together - one with me as a one year old "playing" in the background, hehe. Oh and I was never good at set. Basic rhythms I was fine - but for some strange reason I could not for the life of me play a complicated bass line...my right foot refused to cooperate! I think it's odd because as a dancer I was very good at isolation stuff - singling out one body part to move it and only it. I guess I just couldn't do that many different things at once!

I do love music!!!!

Trumpet, guitar, drums (a bit), Timpani, bass guitar, keyboard, and washboard (kidding).

Self-taught on all but trumpet.

I have played guitar for about 13 years now.

I first gave it a shot when I was about 10 or so, but just couldn't quite get a handle on it. This was probably because the guitar I used was an old Yamaha classical that had been restrung with steel strings. If you know anything about guitar, you know that nylon string guitars and steel strings do not mix.

Anyway, I couldn't do it at 10, so I put it away for a few years. Then, at about 12 or 13, I picked it up again. This time it went much better, most likely because the three inch fretboard was a bit more comfortable in my hands.

I played the heck out of that guitar, and it is still my favorite guitar to this day.

In '93 I picked up a really nice strat. Unfortunately, I beat it up all throughout high school. I'm ashamed to say that it has hit the ground on more than one occasion. It now sits in pieces in the extra bedroom awaiting some new pickups, a new nut, and a good professional setup.

A couple years ago, I picked up a little Ibanez guitar, mainly because I wanted something with humbuckers so I could come a bit closer to the BB King tone (as if a $300 guitar has any shot at sounding like Lucille). It does have a pretty nice tone, though, most likely from the solid mahogany body.

On the classical guitar, I mainly play folky traditional-type music-- lots of chords, finger picking, etc. I've gotten into the Jimmy Buffett folk-ballad style a lot in the last couple of years.

On the electric, I almost exclusively play blues. My style mimics a lot of Buddy Guy's style-- dirty, loud, and in-your-face followed by clean, slow, could-everyone-be-quiet-so-I-can-hear-the-guitar type blues. Recently I have been analyzing some of BB King's music, trying to mimic his style. His vibrato is very difficult to duplicate. The nice thing, though, is that he really only plays 5 notes.

I am completely self-taught on the guitar. The only actual musical training I have involves a school-year's worth of daily piano instruction. I also was a member of my high school orchestra, with my first year as a senior. I played the bass, and was more interested in the fact that the school loaned me a $1200 instrument than playing the actual music. It was a good time, though, and I did learn a lot about composition and theory.

In the future, I would like to pickup a piano or an organ. It's just a matter of finding someone who wants to give one away.

Mike

No musical instruments here. My body is an instrument though.... almost 10 years of ballet, tap, jazz and modern dance. After my formal training, I've been a performance artist now for 9 years.

I started playing guitar when I was 16 because I was a dork and that was the only way I could get a date. Took a couple lessons, but am self taught. Having accomplished players laugh at your playing is LOTS faster in getting you to learn then having a music teacher praise you for basically, sucking.

I bought an anniversary model Les Paul in '78 and that's the guitar I still use to this day. I use a Marshall stack, ART effects, BOSS pedals, Nady wireless, and Bud Light. Rack mount is the only way to go when you have to play 40 weekends a year like I do. In my rock band, I sing harmony vocals on almost everything and lead vocals about half a set.

In my 3 piece acoustic band (happy hours and coffee shops during the week or my weekends off), I play an Alvarez AJ-60 acoustic, share lead and harmony vocals, and play Hohner harmonicas. After all these years, I'm back to looking like a dork again because of the device which holds my harmonicas so I can sing and play makes it look like I'm wearing a retainer. Go figger.

I don't know if this is an accident or not, but my Les Paul is blonde, my acoustic is blonde, my ex-wife is blonde, and my wife is blonde. It's possible there's a message in there somewhere.

I play what I feel and learn everything by ear. When somebody asks me if I read music, I answer "not enough to hurt me". I've been influenced by a lot of the great guitar heavyweights (Van Halen, Steve Vai, Eric Clapton), etc), but my biggest influences include Washington, Jackson, and Lincoln.

If you don't play music, start. Sing, play a harmonica, bang on a tambourine, or whatever. Everybody has the ability to play, so don't let what you perceive as a lack of talent stop you. Nothing sets you free from the crap that goes on everyday like jamming to some of your favorite music.