I just got a modern classical guitar a week ago, courtesy of my sister. I never really listened to Spanish music before, but after playing some strings I was able to appreciate it. I added that genre to my classical music and heavy metal. I also like pianos, but I don't believe I'll be buying on anytime soon.
Yes, I play piano mainly but I also play guitar, drums, and I sing. Most of my songs and lyrics are written at the piano and once I have something down that I like I translate it into synthesizer compositions and record them with vocals. There is some really gorgeous Spanish guitar music out there and another style I enjoy is Portuguese fado guitar. One particular method of guitar playing I would absolutely love to learn myself is Hawaiian slack key. It's so incredibly beautiful and relaxing. Because it's a whole different way of tuning and playing it's just something I haven't got around to learning, but maybe some day.
I've been a guitarist for almost forty years now. I also sing. I used to play the flute, but I don't have one anymore and haven't for twenty years or so. When I was a kid I took piano lessons, but I never got very good at it. I have a keyboard synthesizer now, but I mainly use it for its MIDI capability and to record some moody chords to back up my voice and guitar when I record. The older I get, though, the less time I spend playing guitar and the more time I spend singing. I guess I'm mainly a singer and have always been one.
I started playing guitar twenty five years ago. I don't do any songwriting but I currently play in a local classic rock cover band.
All my family is musically talented, expect me. As a child I tired the piano and flute, both which didn't agree with me (I couldn't read sheet music for the life of me and the flute gave me migraines). Might as well be tone deaf. Though I've always wanted to play the violin.
Guitar and bass I play well enough to gig. Keyboards and drums, I'm pretty much a hack; I can play basic stuff and jam with other musicians, but not well enough to go onstage. Guitar is my primary instrument, and on that I play hard rock, blues, jazz, and some classical. I compose, as well.
I had expected more "exotic" instruments, or at least anything other than guitar and the piano. More content. MORE.
Punk and Indie guitar. I wrote music for a couple of bands before I began writing stories, and find i use a lot of the same sensibilities for both.
Well, in addition to guitar and the flute I used to have, I had several recorders and penny whistles, as well as a steel drum, a concertina, a five-string banjo, a really nice chromatic harmonica, a dulcimer, some bongos and other assorted percussion instruments, an autoharp, and probably a few instruments I'm forgetting right now. But they were all at my parents' house, and they got divorced when I was about 25 and the house got sold and I never saw any of these instruments again. (I also lost a big collection of vinyl LPs I had stored there and about a ton of science fiction books.) So I can't say I can play these instruments any more. But we were a musical family (my dad played violin and my mom played piano) and we tended to accumulate instruments.
Here's one of my demos from way back when. Forgive the singing, enjoy the music. https://soundcloud.com/thumpalumpacus/the-aftermath This one is pretty much melodic heavy metal, with some cool playing in it, and as an added benefit, none of my singing: https://soundcloud.com/thumpalumpacus/going-tharn This instrumental was written as a sort of homage to those 70s car-chase soundtracks -- picture Starsky & Hutch or The French Connection. This is the music I would have set behind those chase scenes: https://soundcloud.com/thumpalumpacus/lookin-for-five-0
I used to play the clarinet in middle school, though that was over 10 years ago. I wish I could play the violin or the piano.
I am primarily a cellist, and I also play the violin - although poorly. Hopefully this is not too off topic, but I was just wondering ... I find in 90% of my writing, because music is such an enormous part of my life, that I am forever incorporating it into my work. I am a dark fantasist, (for the most part) and I have found that music is a fantastic way for me to connect with my readers. I've written about a luthier who has crafted parts of his instrument from human anatomy. I have written about a musician who becomes so obsessed with a viollin he literally goes mad whenever he hears it played. I have even used music in a "Pied Piper" type of arrangement, where it is used to draw victims to my villan. I have also used it to set the pace, mood, tone of the piece... Just wondering if I am alone on this. Do you other musical folk find that your musical artistry plays a part in your written work?
I get a soundtrack in my head for this or that passage, which definitely helps me establish mood. I don't actually listen to the music, but I have it in my mind's ear as I write.
I played classical guitar with my cousin when we were younger. I came to the cold, hard realization that I just wasn't very good, while he completed a bachelor of music and now is touring with his band. So no
I've been playing guitar for about 5 or 6 years now. I play it mostly for fun to be honest, though I've helped a few friends out with gigs, playing rhythm guitar or bass (which I can also play). I don't own a bass though, my skills with that come from playing friend's basses, but my current axe is a 2007 Fender stratocaster with a maple neck. It's a lot heavier than my last stratocaster and has a much sharper sound, though still has the Fender 'tinngyness' that I'm beginning to discover you either love or hate. I love my guitar.
Sorry Sylvertech, I can't help you with any exotic instruments. I'm a guitar player as well. However, I do play scruggs-style banjo at an intermediate level, but I usually don't claim it. How exotic that is, I don't really know. I'm from the South. It's kinda ubiquitous here.
I play the ukulele poorly, and the guitar even more poorly. Don't even get me started on my mandolin. I however do have a washboard tie that I play rather...well...poorly. I also own a dizi (chinese flute) that I can't make a sound with.
I did the cover band thing and wrote a bunch of original stuff and recorded it. You can hear my stuff on my website. Mostly hard rock.
In third grade I was in the lap dulcimer group at school. I got my own dulcimer for Christmas shortly after I joined, it's a beautiful instrument. I only know basic songs and haven't picked it up for years, but I still have it. I played the clarinet in my seventh grade band for a few months before I was home-schooled and had to give it back to the renting place. Loved it a lot though and I'd totally play it again. So much fun!
I play guitar, with my most recent axe being a seven-string Ibanez 7321. Been playing for nearly 8 years now, and I've also started producing my own music with drums and things! Music production is fun, but mastering is haaaard. Always wanted to learn to play the drums...
I sing passably well, play a little guitar, a little better on Piano, I used to be decent on the clarinet but not played for a long time. I tried violin at school for three years and gave up in despair of ever getting a nice sound from one.
