I waffle between piano and guitar. I like the idea of piano better, but a guitar is easier to take with you.
Piano. I’m already a mediocre guitar player and a pretty bad pianist. Okay, let’s call a spade a spade, I’m a horrible pianist. I’d love to be able to master that.
I’m gonna be an oddball… Chapman stick
That looks very nice. It’s Yamaha, so of course the quality is going to be good. I hope she enjoys it!
drachillix–that Chapman Stick recording sounds amazing! It would be great to learn, it looks like.
I did it. Never had an instrument more complicated than a triangle in my hand until I decided I must learn to play piano in my 40s. Found a great teacher who tailored lessons to an adult learner (i.e. the music was more relevant to me than little kid stuff–I learned by playing a lot of standards, classics, pop). I started on a small keyboard; my husband bought me a secondhand piano for my birthday and I blossomed. However, I reached a wall. With enough practice, I can render some pretty respectable versions of Misty, Pachelbel’s Canon, and Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, etc, but piano will always be a cognitive endeavor rather than an artistic one for me. I love playing and exercising previously idle areas of my middle-aged brain, but I realize I will never be a real musician
I would LOVE to be able to play the banjo. Saw Bela Fleck and the Flecktones in concert a few years ago and have dreamed of strumming ever since.
Bagpipes.
I have a chanter at home (Christmas present from my wife from some years ago) but have failed so far to progress beyond barp. 
Flute, just your basic western concert flute
Cool-I’d never even heard of a Chapman Stick until now.
I came in to say voice until I read the rules. Although I have a good voice and am very good at singing on pitch, I have what I feel is a lot of trouble with the technical aspects of classical voice training (e.g., “placing” my voice, supporting in the correct way, doing all of it together, etc.). I’d love to be able to just have the technical aspects work and be able to concentrate on intepretation and nitpicky items, the way I am confident of my overall technical skill on the violin and can concentrate, when I practice, on nitpicky items and expression.
(Also, the acting skills of a singer are perhaps a little more obvious, but I’ve found that instrumentalists need some acting, in the sense of stage presence, as well.)
But since voice doesn’t count, I’ll say piano; certainly that would be the most useful for me to be able to be a master at, at least if “master” includes “able to read piano music really well, including open score.”
I don’t think that’s all of it by a long shot. I think a lot of it has to do with the two hands playing what can be completely different rhythms and notes. Violin is hard for other reasons, but at least one can be assured that they are working together to play the same (one, or at most two or three together) note. I base this on the fact that I have more trouble with polyphonic pieces in C than in non-polyphonic in other keys.
Flute. Wood, like Krishna carried. No tinny metal flute for me!
Violin music stirs my heart and soul, and certain pieces of it can actually bring me to tears if I allow them, but a flute hearkens back to my childhood and happy times.
It looks like you’ve answered your own question, doesn’t it?
Banjo. I’ve already started, and it has been pretty easy, but it starting to feel like I’ve hit a wall. Just not getting any better.
I check in on this thread and have thought about what I would want to master…
As a long-time blues and rock guitarist, I certainly get the desire. It is always interesting to play and see the faces of folks watching - there are always one or two who watch with a bit more intensity; they are the ones who come up afterwards and want to talk about what it is like to play.
In terms of this thread - I would love to play/master jazz guitar; the tools, techiques and theory are just enough out of reach that it feels like another instrument.
I would also love to be a master at boogie piano. If I could play like Meade Lux Lewis (youtube), life would be full of yay. When I am stretching out on guitar, I try to incorporate the rhythms and chords I hear when I listen to boogie piano (or T-Bone Walker on guitar) - slowly, slowly, it is getting me a bit jazzier in my approach…
So? It is still a musical discipline and worth mastering, is my point.
You are welcome to start your own thread about musical disciplines.
I understand that. Let me be clear - I have no quarrel with you, I’m just curious why you felt it was important to exclude voice and conducting from your question.
Because the topic is about instruments, and they aren’t, strictly speaking, musical instruments.
Just to be on the record, I don’t have any quarrel with you either, Czarcasm.
Is there still room for me in the cello section?
As a kid, I played violin and viola. The next logical step would be cello.
Accordian.
In 2004, after 16 or so years of having a classical guitar laying around to goof around with, I decided to buy a cello and take some lessons. I took 2 lessons, then lost my driver’s license for 3 months, and so had to teach myself from a beginner’s book. After the 3 months I returned to resume my lessons and had found that my instructor was now inferior to me. Admittedly he was a jack-of-all-trades type music teacher. I was divorced, seeing my kids on weekends, and could not go anywhere, living rurally, so practiced upwards of 3 hours/day. On a few occasions I literally played that cello for 8 hours straight.
I switched to a violin/cello teacher (mostly violin, but she could provide basics for cello), and she set me on Royal Conservatory of Music (Canada) pieces. I had played myself to a Grade 6 level in 3 months. The cello is pretty straight forward for someone with experience with strings, and, being a heavy metal fan, I absolutely love the range of crunchy sounds that come from the low register, and the emotional depth of the vibrato is untouchable in any other instrument, IMO.
I like the accordian because it’s something that can produce a multitude of sounds, and you can walk around while playing it. Also, it’s not completely necessary to use both hands at all times, so one can always grab a slug of beer and a drag of their smoke without having to stop playing!