Miscellaneous Who plays other instruments....

[Jules]

The title pretty much speaks for itself.....
I myself started with flute prior to sax, have played gob irons with various blues bands (harmonicas), consitute a reasonable strummer on the guitar & love my musical saw (gig on this one quite regularly!)... how about you guys?

 

[dooce]

Started out on the flute - and still play a bit, I've always managed a reasonable bass guitar (Dad was a string-bass player so I must have picked it up from him), can do a few stumbling keyboard pieces and very basic 6-string guitar, but that's about it. Oh, and a passable bongo - especially after about 4 pints

 

[Sue]

A bit of clarinet - have currently got a bass clarinet which belongs to a wind band I play in and love the sound but don't think I'll play it much. I also play some basic keyboard stuff. Okay on chords on the left hand and tune with the right hand but it's like patting the head and tummy together - I can't seem to get them both right at the same time! I had a couple of drum lessons but same thing - no coordination - I'd love to play drums properly

I prefer to just stick with the saxes really

 

[ArtyLady]

Grade 3 on flute and Grade 4 on piano - the flute stays out permanentely on its stand so I can pick it up and practice scales as and when, as the fingerings are fairly similar to the Sax. I Used to strum the guitar a bit in my yoof - House of the Rising Sun et al

 

[ByteOfTheCherry]

Started on clarinet at 12 was pretty serious about it till 16 then transferred to sax, have now(age 60) bought a bass clarinet that I plan to play alongside BariSax in the WindBands/ensemble that I participate in, used to play not bad folk style acoustic but have decided to transfer what remains of this to a 'short scale' bass electric playing 'finger picking' stylee...

 

[old git]

Play? Nothing except the gramophone. Can however knock out tunes on banjo, guitar, mountain dulcimer and autoharp from my semi-pro folk period; melodeon, whistle and keyless flute from the Morris period; keyboard, Böhm flute and tenor for now.

Not that you would enjoy any of it.

 

[visionari1]

Played piano as a youth. Brief period of nightschool guitar class. Started on Clarinet in my mid 30's cause I liked the sound. Then Saxes and got sort of hooked on them. now dabbling on Keyboard and finding this opening my understanding of theory. With my accent I should have had a go at Bagpipes.
With another lifetime I'd take on drums and harmonic.
Ciao

 

[half diminished]

Sorry, according to mrs hd - all I can play is the fool.

No instruments at all.

 

[Pete Thomas]

I think my first instrument was guitar, but closely followed by spoons.

 

[Mikec]

I have so far failed to master guitar, piano and violin, and am in the process of failing to master flute and sax. I think next year I will begin the process of failing to master the clarinet. I love every minute of it. Apart from the bits to do with reeds, that is.

 

[Linky Lee]

My first instruments were the recorder and flute (age 6/7). I then picked up the violin (8) and quickly dropped it in preference of the piano (8/9). (Biggest mistake of my life, stopping the piano). I then bought a guitar (about age 12) My Dad plays so showed me a few chords to get me going, got a bass guitar too (14) and a drum kit (15). Spent a few years with them playing in a couple of my own bands. Somewhere in all that I got hold of bagpipes... and about 5 harmonicas. No longer have the drum kit or violin. I got a piano again when I was about 16 but never managed to play anything that good. Absolutely love the instrument though.

I picked up the saxophone most recently (about 15/16) and have mainly focused on sax for last 4/5 years though I play my acoustic guitar a bit here and there and used to play the keyboard quite often but I sold it and am looking for a nice new one when I get some money.

 

[jonf]

I started on clarinet aged 11 and was taught classical until I was 16, by which time I'd got to grade 8 standard. I was finding it a bit boring though. When I was 15 the school bought me a battered, crap second hand tenor sax, which was a revelation. My Dad bought me my own sax and a Lawton mouthpiece a year later for which I'm still very grateful. A real eye opener in many respects at this time was playing in a Musicians Union sponsored big band in Northern working men's clubs. It was quite a shock to the system for a naive 17 year old. What a bunch of characters. One of them periodically went to "work in Switzerland" which I only discovered later was a euphemism for a spell in jail.

A little later came oboe and flute, both as a result of being shacked up (at different times) with young ladies who played these. I also got a soprano at about this time, for a bargain price as it had been mispriced in the old Pro Brass shop in Kentish town. I also played gob iron a bit at this time. Always preferred the Marine Band over the Blues Harp for some reason lost in the mists of dope.

In my late 30s/early 40s I added alto bari and C Mel saxes. Now I only really play the saxes, and flute occasionally. I still love it and play every day. Off to give the alto a blast now.

 

[Jules]

Hm- the vast majority of us also paly flute, hardly surprising. Shocked there are no other saw devotees out there..... or.... er... maybe not

 

[TomMapfumo]

I play trumpet, cornet, flugelhorn, and tenor trombone in addition to the various saxes, and like the fact that there are fewer buttons to press, less to go wrong, and that back strain is virtually nonexistent.

Currently playing trombone exclusively in order to reach intermediate standard, and mastering the works of the Specials (currently 4 tunes - Gangsters, Rudi, Guns of Navarone and Ghost Town).

Brass and woodwind seem to have little in common - I like the differences - apart from type of metals used.

Kind regards
Tom

 

[losaavedra]

My Mum taught piano so my first 'musical' experiences came from the dreaded 4pm daily lessons for myself and my sister. I really wish I'd concentrated more. Got my first guitar when I was 12 and since then have never been without one, I currently have five ... classical, jumbo, 2 electrics and a bass. I did have a banjo and a violin once but neither survived my tendency to want to take things apart to see how they worked. My first public performance on anything was on a tea chest bass in a pub on the Norfolk coast in 1963. Some band work followed on lead guitar in the same year, then I went to bass for a bit when back in London. Interest in 'the blues' added a harmonica collection. Later came a couple of MIDI keyboards and my own piano. More recently a trumpet, clarinet and alto sax have been added to the instrument list. I've so far failed to get anything remotely musical out of the first two. With sax I can honk out bits of a very small number of tunes but really don't think I'm sufficiently focussed to be any better than that. Although its not an 'instrument' as such, I get my biggest buzz out of my multi-track recorder because it allows me, with my limited musical capability, to lay down (say) a bass track, add some guitar parts, a simple keyboard riff, blues harp, percussion, vocals and vocal harmony, even some crowd noise if I want to make the result sound like a 'live' performance. There's a couple of my early efforts, from when I first got the multi-tracker, at ... http://www.soundclick.com/rojalesbluesband ... if anyone's remotely interested. Its all 'smoke and mirrors' of course but the closest I'm going to get to playing with anyone else these days!

 

[Jules]

Wow- the hendrix of the saw!!!!!

 

[AndyB]

When I went to college and stopped playing sax I continued playing guitar. I've played rock, blues and flamenco. Accompanied flamenco dancers for 10 years. Played guitar on a NG film "The Great Inca Rebellion" and for a Spanish play by Lorca called "Bodas de Gloria" two years ago. Then I hurt some ligaments in my elbow and had to stop playing guitar to heal so I picked up the saxophone again.

 

[thomsax]

I started to play the piano when I was 10 years old. Played the piano for two years before got an old Conn alto around Christmas 1968. Since then I've just played the saxophone. But I have an old alto (Eb valve) trombone that I play with a tenorsax mpc. Weird, but fun to play. I own other instruments but I don't play them. Nothing for me. Sax is my instrument.

Thomas

 

[jonf]

Wow- the hendrix of the saw!!!!!

Gordon Bennett, the things you find on You Tube. Well, at least I now I know it's not just you who plays a saw. Because until today I genuinly believed you were the only person in the entire world who thinks it is a good idea to use cutting implements as musical instruments.

 

[Jules]

Gordon Bennett, the things you find on You Tube. Well, at least I now I know it's not just you who plays a saw. Because until today I genuinly believed you were the only person in the entire world who thinks it is a good idea to use cutting implements as musical instruments.

Check out my musical guru- David Coulter.. a guy who can make the saw sound positively angelic. Interestingly, he was involved with Damon Albarn's musical- Monkey- where his saw blended perfectly with traditional Chinese instruments....