Who here plays a musical instrument?

Do you play a musical instrument

  • Yes, I picked it up as a kid and still play

    Votes: 43 58.9%

  • Yes, I picked it up as an adult

    Votes: 8 11.0%

  • I played as a kid, but don’t as an adult

    Votes: 19 26.0%

  • Nope, never did and still don’t

    Votes: 3 4.1%
  • Total voters
    73
skier

skier

Line Up and Wait
Joined
Jan 8, 2007
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Display name:
Skier
The title is pretty self-explanatory, but who here plays some sort of musical instrument?

My wife recently decided to learn piano and we just had our first piano delivered today. Before this we were just playing with a cheap 61 key keyboard. What a difference the a real piano makes. Unfortunately we’re having some difficulty finding an instructor we like.

I’m sure there are some pretty good musicians on here. So what’s your story?
 
Started on piano as a kid. Then flute, switched to bassoon. Did that all the way thru high school and the first year of college before I hung it up for aviation focus.
 
Tried two different instruments, failed miserably at both. Came to the realization that I have no natural aptitude and the the only thing I should play is the stereo.
 
Used to play violin, then I tried alto saxophone. I wasn’t great at either of them.
 
Percussionist. I learned to play set when I was in 3rd grade since my father played. I prefer drum set but have played 4-mallet pieces on marimba in high school, and dabbled with keyboard. Captain of snare line for OU drumline my senior year. I hack around on an acoustic guitar but only gave it enough time to learn a dozen of the common chords (which lets you strum along to fairly large number of popular music).

Piano is great for learning and understanding music theory and chord progressions. That knowledge transfers well to vocal music as well as other instruments. Wish I had taken lessons when I was younger. Pianos are great, but it’s hard to practice quietly, much like acoustic drums/guitar. Keyboards let you plug in headphones and practice quietly.
 
I can play a couple of chords on the guitar, but mostly I suck at it.
 
Violin, Viola (just a bigger violin), Cello (an even BIGGER violin), guitar, piano... Then I suffered a double-compound fraction of my primary arm and lost the effective use of a couple fingers*. No more music for me. That was nearly 40 years ago. Lately I have been trying to work out how to play my Saxophone well enough to belt out a couple Pink Floyd solos but it is not going very well. :(

*Bonus: After nearly two years in rehab I became ambidextrous. I can now write equally poorly with both hands. :D
 
Music runs in the family. Everyone in my immediate family plays multiple instruments. I play piano, sax, clarinet, harmonica, guitar, and ukulele. My brother is a professional musician, lead singer/lead man. My mother was a music teacher for a junior high, plays pretty much everything but woodwinds. My dad played trumpet in a band that helped pay his way through college, and he's also pretty good on guitar. My son plays drums / percussion (he plays well, but hes the tone deaf one of the family, lol). My daughter plays piano and ukulele.
 
Played pipe organ for 8 years. Bought an electric church organ (proper one that imitates a pipe organ) after buying my first house and still have it, but really haven’t played since graduating high school.
 
Played baritone, trumpet, and clarinet all pretty well back in high school. Not so much since then...
 
I played violin since about six. I wasn't bad when I was in practice, and I played in a youth symphony, but I never really had a passion for it. I still have the 3/4 sized violin made in France in the 1800's I learned on, as well as the full size I played in the youth symphony. These days I sound like Benny Hill.
 
Played alto saxophone from 2nd-12th grade. I picked up guitar in 9th grade and have been playing ever since, mostly in church

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Took guitar lessons off and on as a kid. Picked it up again around 21 and played in bar bands for 25 years.
Opened for Montgomery Gentry, David Nail and Billy Bob Thornton. Had Billy hold the door open for me while I dragged all my crap in.

Tried to teach myself saxophone. That didn’t last very long. Apparently, that actually takes skill.

Lots of fun.


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jordane93 said:
Played alto saxophone from 2nd-12th grade. I picked up guitar in 9th grade and have been playing ever since, mostly in church
Click to expand...

Are you left footed? Is that a volume pedal or an effects pedal on the left?
 
I play bass guitar. I was in a band for a while and we released 3 CDs and toured the tri-state area pretty extensively. Now I only play 2 or 3 times a year.
 
Jordane...nice pics !

I play ES335 and custom Zion Strat ....modified Bassman and Twin Reverb amps. Build and design amps when I get the bug. Have a recording studio here in my home..Kawai grand, C3 and leslie, drums, etc....Been spending too much time at the airport...need to get back in the studio.
 
SoonerAviator said:
Percussionist. I learned to play set when I was in 3rd grade since my father played. I prefer drum set but have played 4-mallet pieces on marimba in high school, and dabbled with keyboard. Captain of snare line for OU drumline my senior year. I hack around on an acoustic guitar but only gave it enough time to learn a dozen of the common chords (which lets you strum along to fairly large number of popular music).

Piano is great for learning and understanding music theory and chord progressions. That knowledge transfers well to vocal music as well as other instruments. Wish I had taken lessons when I was younger. Pianos are great, but it’s hard to practice quietly, much like acoustic drums/guitar. Keyboards let you plug in headphones and practice quietly.
Click to expand...
Full-size keyboard connected to Roland synth using headphones. No problem practicing even in an apartment.
Piano since grade school. Right now, the piano is furniture in the living room. Really needs tuning. I play the electronic keyboards instead.
Clarinet since grade school
Alto & C melody Sax since grad school
Oboe for one year because my clarinet teacher thought it would be good practice
Never did learn the flute
Backup percussionist for local community band because I can read music to play the bells, chimes and tymp.
Went to engineering school at UT on a music scholarship. Don't ask.

A competent musician, but not much talent and not interested in teaching little kids. Hence I'm an engineer.

Organizer and 1st chair for the Armadillo Truckin' Band at the University of Texas. We made our debut (55 strong and in appropriate uniform - I still have mine) at the Texas/Texas A&M game many decades ago, with a 12 foot mobile armadillo after the Aggies released a bunch of real armadillos on the field a few weeks before. We were also invited to perform at the Cotton Bowl on Jan 2.

For those not familiar with the original Southwest Conference before it was broken into tiny pieces, Cotton Bowl game was always played on Jan 1. But we really did get an official invite to perform on the field for the grounds keepers and anyone else around if we wanted to show up.
 
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Justin M said:
Are you left footed? Is that a volume pedal or an effects pedal on the left?
Click to expand...
I’m a lefty but play righty. Yea, all the way to the left is my volume pedal. I mostly placed it there because the cables worked out that way. I didn’t want to solder my own custom length cables to fit it somewhere else so I just stuck it all the way to the left.
 
I have a slight guitar problem.....

My stable:

Rickenbacker
1959 335F
1991 335
1996 330
2011 350 Swamp Ash
1992 360V64
360C63 12 string
1935 B6 Lap steel
2016 625

Gretsch
1965 6120 Chet Atkins
1998 Tennessee Rose
2000 Duo Jet
1990 Traveling Wilburies

Fender
2018 Eric Clapton Stat
2018 American Professional Telecaster
2007 Jazz Bass

National
1927 Square Neck Tricone Resonator

Rick Turner
Model 1-C-Lindsey Buckingham

Gibson
2012 Les Paul Traditional

Martin
2018 HD28

Loar
Mandolin

For amps I have a ‘65 Princeton Reverb re-issue and an early ‘90s VOX AC30
 
I’ve maintained for years that there are more musicians in the cockpit than engineers.

I know that’s over pidgeon holing, but I’d bet you could get a pickup band out of any pilot lounge that has half a dozen people in it if everybody carried their instruments along. ;)
 
MauleSkinner said:
I’ve maintained for years that there are more musicians in the cockpit than engineers.
Click to expand...
And cue the engineer-musician-pilots to come out of the woodwork... :)

As for me, played violin when I was younger but have been noodling around with piano lately. In between, messed around with guitar a little and kind of got into some of the bass lines a bit but not enough to hold my interest.
 
As a kid I had guitar (mostly folk and some classical) lessons. I've not much picked it up, but I played my son's from time to time when he was still living at home.
I picked up various keyboards in high school and still play the piano.
I had a trumpet donated to me and was never much good at it (still have it).
I had a few violin lessons to participate in a parent's orchestra.
I have a banjo and I'm passable on that.
I own countless harmonicas and three accordions (which Margy points out is three more than any person needs).
 
I bought be a strat type guitar. It plays well. I know because I’ve had friends come over and play it. The thing sounds great. Me... I long to be more musical but I have not made the time to practice regularly enough to get past learning a few chords. One day perhaps.
 
Hardly even play the stereo now but played the clarinet 5th grade through high school sophomore year. Am also an engineer and athletic.
 
I've played the cello for 30+ years. Started college as a music major. Ended college as an accountant because I wanted to eat. Before moving to Europe I played in the local symphony. I still get to play over here for church services (including just last week even). My cello can buy a lot of avgas but I would still like a nicer one.

I also play piano.
 
MauleSkinner said:
I’ve maintained for years that there are more musicians in the cockpit than engineers.

I know that’s over pidgeon holing, but I’d bet you could get a pickup band out of any pilot lounge that has half a dozen people in it if everybody carried their instruments along. ;)
Click to expand...
I know a guy who is a retired 777 FO that used to bring his Martin with him on trips.
 
I taught my self guitar at 15. I was never really very good no matter how hard I tried. I just didn't have an ear for music I guess. Regardless a few friends and I formed a band and we played at a few parties and as backup at a few clubs. For some reason we never got called back for repeat performances.

Fast forward about 20 years. My wife was quite accomplished on the flute, piano, cello and piccolo. She asked me to teach her the guitar. After about 3 weeks she was better than I ever was. I never played that darn thing again.

This is the wife I met when she came to work in my department at a large fortune 500 company. I was a systems programmer at the time and I was training her. Within months she proved she was a better programmer than I was, even though I was a much better programmer than I was guitar player. I got promoted into management and did well, but later she quit to go to Vet school. Then we both quit to open our own clinic. Best thing we ever did. She was a great vet and I did pretty well as practice owner/manager.

She still plays musical instruments. I just play.
 
Picked up guitar in my early teens and still love to play....primarily electric with single coils if you couldn't tell by my screen name :) I started building tube amps 10 years ago and enjoy that almost as much as I enjoy playing. My best is a true point to point Matchless C-30 based amp. One of these days I hope my son appreciates having a true tube driven tone monster in an age where everything is quickly going digital.
 
Trombone, baritone, tuba in high school. Acoustic guitar - I know about 6 chords. Bass guitar - Started out with a Fender Precision but now have a Carvin.
 
Bass player. Was in band for past 4 years. Thinking about finding a new gig but aviation takes up a lot of time.


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Fearless Tower said:
I know a guy who is a retired 777 FO that used to bring his Martin with him on trips.
Click to expand...

Uncle of mine was a corporate pilot for many years, would either take golf clubs or one of his guitars with him to pass time while the execs were doing their thing. I think he brought his Ovation along most of the time when grabbing a guitar since it’s a little more compact.
 
MauleSkinner said:
I’ve maintained for years that there are more musicians in the cockpit than engineers.

I know that’s over pidgeon holing, but I’d bet you could get a pickup band out of any pilot lounge that has half a dozen people in it if everybody carried their instruments along. ;)
Click to expand...
I'm in agreement about computer people, too. In our department of 7 senior/tenured computer science faculty, 5 have been or are still semi-pro or pro musicians. At a SIGGRAPH many years ago ('92?) the conference couldn't afford entertainment for the big party, so we created a pick-up band (t-shirts, of course, with the treble clef signature as the S in SIGGRAPH) of 7 musicians and 4 singers in the style of Manhattan Transfer. The band sounded better the more the audience drank. And the more the band drank, too. Some interesting big names in the CGI world were on stage....really is amazing how many musicians gravitate to software. I tell my beginning students that music is both a linear and multi-dimension graphical environment. Perfect example - music notation.
 
flyingron said:
As a kid I had guitar (mostly folk and some classical) lessons. I've not much picked it up, but I played my son's from time to time when he was still living at home.
I picked up various keyboards in high school and still play the piano.
I had a trumpet donated to me and was never much good at it (still have it).
I had a few violin lessons to participate in a parent's orchestra.
I have a banjo and I'm passable on that.
I own countless harmonicas and three accordions (which Margy points out is three more than any person needs).
Click to expand...
I've always wanted to learn the banjo! I also want to learn to juggle. Incompentent at both.
 
Hello, my name is Kenny, and I'm a gearaholic.
I make no claim to be a musician, however.
My list of goodies would be generally newer than some (nothing before 1964 except for autoharps) but perhaps longer than, I'm afraid. I'm also a Gretsch fan, with a couple of vintage Monkees guitars, plus a few newer bits (including a Setzer). Have but one Rick (see my avatar!), four Gibsons, nine Fenders, three Rainsongs, even Charlie Cushman's banjo from a tour with Vince Gill (long story, can't unbuy it now).
You can add several other banjos, a couple dozen other guitars, both bass and 'regular', of lesser-known brands (Ibanez, Matsuoka, Ibanez, D'Angelico, , with four, six, eight, and twelve strings, and one with two necks (the real thing, a custom shop EDS-1275); a decent Yamaha keyboard, a violin (the first instrument I learned, starting 55 years ago), a mandolin, a baritone uke, a lap steel, a sitar, a couple of autoharps, a drum kit that is somewhere between what Ringo had and what Neil Peart had (including a cymbal signed by the latter).
Hanging on the wall is the first guitar neck I made, poorly shaped and poorly fretted, from 1972 or so. It's a reminder to stop making guitars and get a real job.
There are seven amps (three Voxs, looooooove that sound!) and a couple of Fishman SA220s for the music room (which is my office.)
Hell, I even had a Skyhawk at one time!
Because I was a single man for most of my life.
If only I could play (I have slight physical deficits in my right arm, but I really, really try). Or sing (cross Geddy Lee with Bob Dylan, and that's as good as it gets). If anyone can do either of those, drop by and I'll watch!
 
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