How many of you out there are musicians, and what instrument do you play? What type of music do you play?
I know this has been done before, but its been a while.
As for me, I am a keyboardist, I play paino,organ, and synth. I also play blues harp
I mostly play blues, and mostly improv. I got into blues because I was frustated with trying to play other peoples music, Id rather make up my own. One day, I amm sitting around the house listening to an lightning hopkins album, and I started playing along. It just felt right after that.
Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from University of North Texas
I play some piano, and can strum along on a guitar, but mostly I sing. Lyric Baritone.
Mostly I do Musical Theater and contemporary Christian music, but I like all kinds, except rap, which is not music IMHO.
I play one of those kinda pianos, when I can. My mom has a 1889 steinway upright grand, that is the only thing I want as an inheritance. When I cant get the real thing, I play a generalmusic real piano pro. It has 88 keys, wieghted and balanced so it feels like a real piano. It also has electronically modeled sounds, so note you play cause other notes to sound in sympathy like real strings vibrating. You hold down low G, for instance, until it dies out, then strik and releas a high G sharply, you will hear the lower G sounding againg from virtual vibration. The end result is sommething that sounds remarkably like a real piano, but is light enough to move around.
It even has a proportional sustain pedal you can get, so there are more than just on/off for sustain, but inbetween partial muting. Kieth Emerson plays one.
Cool. I do the christian thing myself also. I play at my church on sundays(its a Gen X church, so we have a band instead of a choir). At least I used to play. I am on the disabled list currently, due to my back problem. But after my surgery week after next, I hope to go back to playing on sundays.
I play the tin whistle, flute, and mandolin. At least those are the instruments that I play reasonably well – I can mess around on a piano, dulcimer (mountain or hammered), and guitar.
I like to play traditional music – old fiddle tunes, that kind of thing. I played in an Irish band for a while, but now I’m concentrating on learning more old-time Appalachian kind of stuff on the mandolin.
bdgr, I’ve been lagging a little - a lot of stuff going on for me, so my playing is kind of on the back burner … but -
I learned on old rock classics, Stairway, Dust, that kind of stuff.
I enjoy riffing on 12 bar blues, I tend to play alot of my own little riffs that run toward a little funky, punky, ska-y.
In fact - there is this program I downloaded and registered called Tabit. It’s basic but pretty cool. You write out your tabulature and it plays it back for you. But what’s cool about it is you can layer tracks. So if you come up with something you like, you can tab it out, and then come up with a bass line for it, add some strings or horns if your feel like it. They even have drum sounds so you can pretty much build an entire song.
Anyway, if you were to have that same program I could even send you my original files.
But getting back to your question – I tend to go for old rock sounds. Zep, James Gang, Skynyrd, slippin into alternatve - Toadies, Nirvana, Pearl Jam. But I’m always up for at least trying to play anything. I’m not much of a pick artist, so I find finger picking easier and funner.
Sorry, didn’t mean to talk your ear off.
I play guitar primarily and am currently a senior studying classical and jazz.
I love music and play all kinds (yes, even rap). I’ve been through many stages, from Beastie Boys and Run DMC back in 6th grade, on to 80’s rock and heavy metal, to classic rock, to prog rock (still a huge Genesis/Yes fan), to fusion, to African percussive music, to Indian classical, to jam rock, to traditional jazz, to free form, to western classical, to my most recent and very intense love of the minimal music of Steve Reich and his contemporaries. I try to incorporate it all into my writing.
Being ADHD, I am much more successful with improvisational music (It’s so frustrating trying to sit for long hours and compose), but I love it all.
Jazz has been and is still the most difficult genre that I have come across to learn to play (I was in the school jazz combo both semesters last year and spent nearly every rehearsal in a panic hoping no one would notice that I had no clue what I was doing. I have just today auditioned to be in the Big Band as well as the combo and I must say, I’m not really sure what to hope for:))
Anyway, did this answer your question? I did say I was ADHD right?
Moe, Im ADD myself. Being add is advantage in improve. Because add poeple cant screen out outside stimuli, they pickup on the grove other people play naturally. I have watched Video of bandsi was in playing, I just kinda sit there and zone. I cant remember playing half the stuff I play, I just do.
I play drums, bass, guitar, and harmonica, and occasionally a banjo or mandolin when I can get my hands on one.
Drums are my main instrument at the moment, but I’ve been becoming more prolific at guitar as of late. My wrists have been bothering me lately, so I’ve been setting the sticks aside.
I’m into all sorts of music, mostly grateful dead, phish, moe, string cheese incedent type, jam bands I suppose. On the other hand very unprofessional bluegrass, jazz, and blues can be heard blasting out of my house at ear numbing volumes…ahhh well, enough rambling
I sing, mostly – choral and musical theater stuff. (I’m an alto.) I can also play the piano, and I taught myself the guitar, but I’m not particularly good at either. (And I can play random instruments like the harmonica, the bodhran, and the bagpipe chanter…sort of.)
And I compose. Not sure how to describe my stuff, though – sort of folk-ish.
Cool, I’ll snag a copy. Email me what you got, I’d love to hear it. I have my own studio here, I hopefully will have something recorded that I feel comfortable sharing to the world soon. I have a lot of projects going on, but being ADD, I have a hard time finishing them. I will be out of work a month after my surgery, so I hope to get some major studio time in.
You will have to re-name them to .mp3, as my provider has taken to squashing transfers of mp3s. I havent had time to write them and explain that these are my own music, not illegal copies. They are recordings of my last band. They are not the greatest, as we rented a studio for the evening and recorded for like 12 hours straight, then let the worn out engineer master it in one sitting. But they arent too bad. I had all of about 2 hours sleep in two days when we recorded it. It was a real mess. Let me know what you think.
I used to play violin, but I don’t own one-- used the school issued instruments. So it’s been years since I picked one up, but I’m hoping to save up and get a second hand one, take some lessons, and get back to playing.
I can pick out a tune or two on the piano, though not especially well.
Do it, Rosebud! Just last week I had my first violin lesson since I was fourteen. I scared myself because when my teacher put some music in front of me and told me to give it a try, I did…and I got through the first couple of measures. The fingers remember, I guess, because the brain sure as hell doesn’t.
This is going to be really, really fun. And I’m getting credit for it! I’m minoring in music, my main instrument for that is voice, but I wanted to see if I could still play a violin. And I think I CAN!
And I can play piano a bit with my right hand. I can pick out anything I need to for voice or violin, at least.
Played piano for 9 years as a kid, from 5 to 14 years old. Still remember some of my best pieces by heart, even complicated ones, but can’t sightread for shit. Oh well…
Played flute for about 11 years now. I started on that after I got out of college, and before I got my hands on the family piano. Now I play in a community band, which is great good fun, and something completely different from a solo instrument like piano. Also, gives me something independent that I can do without hubby/child. Bonus!!
Also play recorder, pennywhistle, ocarina, and other folkie wind-type instruments. Those are fun too!
PS- I stink pretty badly at all of the above, by professional standards. By non-musician standards, I sound great.
These days I play fretless bass guitar, mostly blues, and I’m trying to learn some jazz. I have an electric and an acoustic. The acoustic I defretted myself–kinda fun.
I also play around with a ceramic djembe that I lugged all the way from Marrakesh, and I sometimes play guitar, mostly fingerstyle. Used to play flute, back in high school when Jethro Tull was popular.
I’ve been playing violin most of my life, have a degree in violin performance; picked up bass guitar when I was in High School; I joined a rock band and did split-time between college and that, and started experimenting with electric violin (built my own!), going after a rock-n-roll/metal sound rather than the standard fusion or folk, have dabbled with mandolin, guitar, and have a set of bagpipes I’d love to get reeds for so I can totally piss off my neighbors. I’ve played Classical, metal, rock, blues, jazz, country, bluegrass, irish, and even had fun improvising with middle-eastern drumming groups. Mmmmmm - bellydancers…
Oh - and my measurements are 36-26-36, I like fluffy bunnies and working with children[sup]1[/sup]
bdgr - Downloaded yer .mp3’s - good stuff! If you get a chance you might want to run the conversion to mp3 again; the tracks kept ‘skipping’
[sup]1[/sup][sub]in a pig’s eye -(sorry, it’s morning and the coffee hasn’t kicked in yet)[/sub]
