I can’t believe I missed this thread! I can’t help but want to share.
My first instrument was piano/keyboard. I was just a musical kid, and we had a piano at home, as well as one I heard a lot at church. The church pianist offered lessons after seeing me in the main choir (the only kid in it). And then I just kept on playing afterward. My grandmother paid a pretty penny to get me an electric one to practice on when she learned (as the piano in my house was not in great shape).
My next instrument was clarinet. Being a musical kid, I was also interested in both choir and band at school. But I was unsure what instrument. I was somewhat interested in the saxophone, but my band director noticed I had an underbite–one which I had braces to try to correct. He thought the clarinet embouchure was better for that.
I did eventually want to learn sax as well to broaden my musical horizons into a similar instrument, and the sax player at my church (a good friend of my dad’s) gave me mine. I think he originally got it for a relative to learn, but she gave it up. I also got a guitar for Christmas from my (other) grandma, for similar reasons. But I’ve not really learned them (yet).
Mostly these days I just play piano, though I do also work on my singing voice. I like that I can do both of those by myself whenever I want, rather than feeling like I need others with me to sound good. And I like the level of improvisation I’ve learned on piano that I didn’t learn on Clarinet (though I did figure out how to play by ear. But I just play the melody, like I can on anything I can get a pitch on. Not so much actual improv. I never did learn jazz.)
When I was about 6 years old, our neighbors had this cheap little chord organ in their basement. It was air-powered. You pressed a button and it played a chord, then you could play the melody on the keyboard. I loved this thing but the neighbor’s kids started complaining that I never played with them, because all I wanted to do was play with that organ.
The following Christmas, I received my own. It came with a few books that had simple songs like “Silent Night”. My mom heard me playing “The Entertainer” on it one day, and said she was surprised because she didn’t think that was in any of the books. When she came into my room, all the books were in the corner, but I had figured out a handful of songs, including that one, using only my ears.
A few years later, I formed a little band with some friends. The kid who played drums would leave them set up at my house. As soon as he went home, I would jump on the kit and start playing them. I sounded good enough that they bought me a set of drums.
Flash forward and I’ve been a professional keyboardist and drummer since I was 14, or a little over 5 decades now.
Nor any of the larger brass instruments. I played trumpet in the school band and took lessons from the school district, but there were a lot of trumpeters, and I switched to baritone, which the school provided. I couldn’t play either one now!
Marching band instruments were pushed, and the lessons were free. I “chose” trumpet because we had one that belonged to my dad. Had neither of those been the case I wouldn’t have played anything at all. My parents were frugal and would never have paid for music lessons.
My wife plays guitar, and I’m learning to play ukelele. Better late than never.
I’m one of very few tuba players I’ve met for whom it was their first instrument (well, I had a little piano before that, but that wasn’t much use for marching band). Most tuba players I’ve met started on something else, and switched because the band needed more tubas.
Or a kind of instrument variously termed “Lowland Pipes”, “Border Pipes” or “Reel Pipes”. They have the same tuning as the best-known bagpipe, the “Great Highland Bagpipe”, and a similar timbre, but are slightly smaller, bellows-operated, and have the drones in one stock. They are appropriate for playing indoors, unlike the GHB.
I had thought about it, but between expense and moving to the bass drum for the benefit of the band I never got around to it.
Huh, it didn’t occur to me until just now but “GHB” not only stands for Great Highland Bagpipes but they are also my late spouse’s initials.
My late spouse designed and built midi-capable electronic bagpipes, one regret I have is that he never kept a working set for us - when a damaged set came in for repairs he would readily offer any operating set he had lying around. In addition to being a way to play pipes when one’s lungs did not allow, the sound samples for that e-bagpipe came from my spouse’s acoustic pipe set.
I played cello and violin before, but was switched to piano because my family was moving abroad and my parents knew that piano teachers could be found in abundance but cello/violin teachers were hard to come by.
I’m still on piano, but have a hankering every now and then for flute or pan flute.
At my school, certain instruments just weren’t even used in the early band, including most of the bass instruments. I do not believe tuba was considered a starting instrument. I know for sure bass clarinet was not.
Oh, and this reminds me that, due to my piano experience, I played xylophone my senior year of high school. The old band director had been fired for a reason that much of the existing band thought was unfair, and many quit in protest. The percussion section was particularly gutted. On the other hand, the new director was our junior high director, and he needed help. And I enjoyed the music, so I stuck around.
I never could figure out how to do a proper fast enough roll on the keys, though. I didn’t have the percussion rudiments under me.
Good thread to show off my new avatar. Guitar since I was a child, because there was one in my parents’ house. Later on, keyboards, for the same reason and high-school facilities, and keyboards and bass in a band through my teenage years. Back to guitar after that, with just a crappy electric and no amplifier, and, a few years later, an acoustic that I played with a pick. I eventually learned to play fingerstyle, and haven’t looked back (non-professional). When your hands get used to the larger dimensions of a nylon-string guitar, the necks and fret spacing of electrics are way too small, like a toy guitar or something. I don’t look down on electric guitar, though. I still love the variety of tones that are available if you have the right gear (decent axe and amp with minimal effects).
When I was nine or ten I learned how to play the recorder to whatever extent was possible back then. I certainly didn’t do anything for me.
Then, in my early 20s I bought an acoustic guitar but I was in university at the time and never got around to it except for some half-assed efforts to play a chord or two. Ten years later I sold it at a yard sale.
In my late 40s I was told by a doctor that I might have to give up cycling because of knee and back issues (subsequently discovered that I could manage thus I still spend a ton of time on my bikes). So I decided I needed a replacement activity and that that would be another attempt at guitar. So I bought an electric and started taking lessons from various instructors.
I eventually replaced that electric with another that I still have, and I got an acoustic, as well as an acoustic bass guitar. I never had any dreams of being a professional musician but I just love the sound of the guitar, particularly electrics, and I spend most of my efforts improvising while playing scales, sometimes with backing tracks. Several instructors later I’ve got a really good one who understands what I want.
If I had kids I’d be teaching them to kick field goals, long snap, or play the drums. I’ve never met a drummer that wasn’t in at least a half dozen bands. If football doesn’t pan out, they’ll never be out of work.
