Does anybody else here play a musical instrument? I'm an amateur pianist (self-taught, 2 years experience) and guitarist (1 year of experience). I sing a little too. I usually play in my youth group band every Wednesday night, and in my church's main service every 2 weeks or so.
I played trombone in middle/high school and have fooled around on the bass guitar, but not enough that I consider myself really proficient with it (I'm not confident enough in my abilities to play for anyone else). I have a keyboard and I'm considering picking up a ukulele and messing around with that too.
I played the violin until my junior year in high school and was absolute garbage.
Quote from: Roadgeekteen on July 09, 2021, 10:12:25 PM
I played the violin until my junior sophomore year in high school and was absolute garbage.
My experience with instruments summed up right there.
I play piano well enough. Played violin all through grade school, though. Was always meh at it.
I play piano, trumpet (cornet, actually), French horn, and valve trombone. I taught myself to play the slide trombone but didn't have the time to practice enough to become good at it and traded it in for a valve.
I played the trumpet in high school concert, marching and jazz bands, piano in jazz band, and trumpet in college concert band (Penn State White Band). I've played trumpet in music worship accompaniment at various time over the years.
I'm really just so-so at the moment. I have a good sound but despite my experience with, and enjoyment of, jazz, I'm pretty lousy at improvising.
As a substitute teacher in various local school districts, I often sub for music teachers because they have a hard time finding subs with a musical background. I occasionally direct bands and orchestras in practice. That's rather fun.
I play handbells.
I played trombone from 4th grade all the way through my 3rd year of college. I was good but not spectacular. I quit after my 3rd year of college over 20 years ago and haven't played since. I also played cello from 3rd through 6th grade. I was forced to choose one instrument over the other when I got to middle school in 7th grade and orchestra and band were both held the same hour. I suppose I could've kept playing both on my own, but I gave up cello. I also sing rather badly to myself in the shower or car where no one else can hear me.
I played piano from age six and all the way through my first round of college as a music major until I graduated at age 21. I kept it up for a while, mostly playing my own music, but I lost motivation at around age 30.
Piano, trombone, euphonium - although I am embarrassingly rusty at all of them.
Interesting how a large percentage of answers so far included trombone. Maybe there's a specific gene that inspires both roadgeeking and trombone playing? :bigass:
As a child, I played piano for many years, I didn't really enjoy it back then and haven't really touched it since. I wouldn't mind trying it again though I won't lie.
From 4th grade through first year of community college including high school I played saxophone, a mix of alto, tenor, and bari. I did concert band, jazz band, marching band, and pep band during basketball season. Currently planning to do marching band my last year of college because why not? And also because things are normal again. :)
Quote from: dlsterner on July 10, 2021, 01:08:07 PM
Piano, trombone, euphonium - although I am embarrassingly rusty at all of them.
Interesting how a large percentage of answers so far included trombone. Maybe there's a specific gene that inspires both roadgeeking and trombone playing? :bigass:
Trombone signal gantries?
On the same hand, I'm surprised we don't have more trumpet players.
I play the bassoon. I learned a little of all the other wind instruments in college but bassoon is the only one I'm proficient in. Got to play a lot of contrabassoon in grad school.
iPhone
I play guitar.
I'm surprised Cra_shIt hasn't chimed in yet. I understand he enjoys playing his horn.
There are photographs, on the interwebs, of me behind several different drumsets over the decades.
Otherwise, I am a master of "playing the stereo."
I play guitar and bass (and theoretically, any fretted stringed instrument) and do programming/recording/production. I've been playing guitar for about 30 years now. I write my own stuff.
I play the drums in church every Sunday.
Also, I know how to play other percussion (pretty well, depending on the instrument), piano (decently well), handbells (decently well), acoustic guitar (halfway well), and recorder (mediocre). Besides that, I know how to sing, arrange choir music, and compose my own music (especially on piano). In school, I won the annual Kansas statewide piano composition contest twice.
Having said all of that, I personally think the drum set is my best instrument. It's the only one I at which I feel a natural skill, a freedom to play and improvise without having to think about it. I hardly ever play piano anymore, for example, except for small projects now and then.
When I was graduating high school, everyone I knew assumed I would go to college for music and become some great musician. However, I decided I didn't want music to become just a job. I'd rather have it be a hobby than a career, lest I lose the joy of it. So I didn't go into music.
I played clarinet for about 30 years in grade school, college, and then a local community band. I also played some saxophone for a couple community musicals. I haven't touched either for about 10 years. I also used to sing baritone in a men's barbershop chorus for several years. Now I'm just a patron of the arts.
Trombone in high school (symphonic, marching, jazz bands)
Short gig on the vibraphone for a high school halftime show
Piano as a kid, keyboards in college and afterward (rock cover bands)
Can play an E minor chord on guitar :-)
Long ago, wrote a few instrumentals on my Mac, like this one: https://soundcloud.com/therealkurumi/you-go-that-way
I sort of play the piano. My favorite class in high school was music theory.
I am a very active singer - I'm in a couple of community choruses, a chamber ensemble, and my church choir. I have been known to participate in karaoke.
I have recently taken up handbells.
2020 and early 2021 sucked for singers.
Quote from: frankenroad on July 20, 2021, 03:09:58 PM
I sort of play the piano. My favorite class in high school was music theory.
At the university I briefly attended, the music theory students would tell each other,
In theory, I'll see you later!
I play piano, and I passed one of the higher certifications in the Canadian conservatory system called the Royal Conservatory of Music. If you're interested, I achieved ARCT with the RCM.
I am also trying to learn guitar to no avail.
I played trumpet in gr7-8-9 but I was jack shit.
Yet another roadgeek that played trombone, but quit in high school. Marching band is what really ruined it for me. I still play occasionally and I know how to play Good King Wenceslas and a few other songs.
Played saxophone (tenor mostly, but a lot of baritone my senior year when my horn got torn up) in high school, and also in a college jazz band my freshman year. Played in a few high school alumni band performances for a few years afterwards, but I haven't touched the horn in 35 years. I can still read music and I remember the fingering combinations, but I doubt I could coax much in the way of what would pass for music out of a sax now.
I never could master the flute, though. For some reason I wasn't able to get my mouth over the mouthpiece properly to direct the air into the instrument. So there went my scholastic dreams of being Walter Parazaider.
Quote from: hbelkins on July 20, 2021, 10:25:12 PM
I never could master the flute, though. For some reason I wasn't able to get my mouth over the mouthpiece properly to direct the air into the instrument. So there went my scholastic dreams of being Walter Parazaider.
You're in the Kentucky boonies. You should have joined a jug band instead.
Quote from: kphoger on July 21, 2021, 09:35:55 AM
Quote from: hbelkins on July 20, 2021, 10:25:12 PM
I never could master the flute, though. For some reason I wasn't able to get my mouth over the mouthpiece properly to direct the air into the instrument. So there went my scholastic dreams of being Walter Parazaider.
You're in the Kentucky boonies. You should have joined a jug band instead.
During a talent show when I was either a senior or junior in high school, I was in a novelty band that we called The Skillet Lickers. There were some actual musicians in that group playing guitar, banjo, bass, etc. But for comic effect, we added a jug player (a friend of mine) and a wash tub bass player/singer (me). We dressed in hillbilly garb and played two songs -- "Bile That Cabbage Down" and "Dead Skunk In The Middle of the Road."
We got a few laughs, but we didn't win. Which was a shame, because the actual singers and musicians were pretty good.
Or bluegrass. Lotta good music out there (hidden among the bad, like everything else). There's a country musician named Roy Clark (old folks might remember him from a show called Hee Haw) born in Never-heard-of-the-place, Virginia, who guest starred on an old sitcom called The Odd Couple with an acoustic guitar, and... that guy can play.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xssnp7R51A
Roy Clark was very talented.
There's a better version of him playing it -- I believe on Hee Haw itself -- out there on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/lxDQQDF6j0Y
The piano lessons I took as a kid mostly didn't stick. Ended up doing percussion - drums in the "electric" bands I'm in / been in, and washboard & tambourine in our old-time acoustic group.
Roy Clark moved to Tulsa in the mid-1970s and lived there until his death. I didn't move to Tulsa until 2007, and I never saw him, but word is that he could often be seen out and about. He was certainly talented. He was a "shredder" before it was cool.
Quote from: kphoger on July 20, 2021, 12:17:56 PM
I play the drums in church every Sunday.
Also, I know how to play other percussion (pretty well, depending on the instrument), piano (decently well), handbells (decently well), acoustic guitar (halfway well), and recorder (mediocre). Besides that, I know how to sing, arrange choir music, and compose my own music (especially on piano). In school, I won the annual Kansas statewide piano composition contest twice.
Having said all of that, I personally think the drum set is my best instrument. It's the only one I at which I feel a natural skill, a freedom to play and improvise without having to think about it. I hardly ever play piano anymore, for example, except for small projects now and then.
When I was graduating high school, everyone I knew assumed I would go to college for music and become some great musician. However, I decided I didn't want music to become just a job. I'd rather have it be a hobby than a career, lest I lose the joy of it. So I didn't go into music.
Well, I guess I can add bass guitar to my list...
Yesterday, our regular bass player was out of town to shop for a new work van. We only have one substitute on bass, lead guitar, or drums–and he was out of town as well. But we just recently started rotating some folks from the youth department into rehearsals, including two who play drums. And so, a week ago, the band leader texted me to ask if I'd rather (1) play drums and have no bass player at all, or else (2) fill in on bass and let the guy from the youth department have his first Sunday behind the drums on short notice.
Well, I never like doing without bass guitar, so I said I'd try to fill in on that. Problem: I'd only ever played bass guitar once before, and that was more than twenty years ago, back in high school.
So my total time to learn five songs: 30 minutes at the end of Wednesday's rehearsal, a couple of hours on Saturday when I went up to church by myself to practice, and about an hour between Sunday morning rehearsal and the worship service. Roughly 3½ hours.
I must have done decently well, because the lead guitarist's wife just texted to say we sounded the best out of all the times the bassist was gone. I figure that's pretty high praise, considering it means it sounded better than it does when our regular substitute fills in. My biggest issue was that I played fairly quietly. The guys behind the sound board had my channel cranked all the way up, and it was still kind of quiet. The reason is that, without being comfortable on the instrument, playing loudly greatly increases the chance that I'll (a) pluck the wrong string or (b) not mute strings that need to be muted.
That experience was a bit nerve-racking. I could hardly ever take my eyes away from the sheet music because I can't play by ear, and I spent a lot of time looking at the fretboard. Also, my shoulder is still sore: I never really appreciated the difference in weight between an acoustic and a solid-body guitar before.
The thing that always really gets me about bass (I have one but have never managed to practice enough to be confident playing for anyone but myself) is just how much force it takes to press those huge strings against the frets firmly enough to keep them from buzzing. I got a ukulele for my birthday this year and it feels like they come from totally different planets.
I have a different problem with the ukulele–the fretboard is so tiny I have trouble getting all of my fingers in the right place without them crowding into one another on certain chords.
Yeah, my shoulder isn't the only thing that was sore. My left wrist was too, from the force required to play.