Page 2 - Do you play any music instruments?

I play a few instruments, double bass, bass guitar (not much different from double bass), clarinets, and I just started at piano (I'm a music major, so I have to know it).

As for the actual instruments, here's the list:

Double bass:
An Epiphone from the 50's. It's OK, but is only plywood, so it doesn't have the best sound. I've saved up for a solid wood German bass, but don't have it yet - it's acclimating to the dry Utah climate and they won't give it to me until that's done.

Electric:
I have two fretless electrics, a solid-body Yamaha (my first electric), and a hollow body Godin (from Canada, very nice axe).

Clarinets:
I have a Buffet R-13 Festival for concert work, and a Yamaha plastic student horn for the out of doors (I work every summer in an outdoor theatre doing musicals).

As for Bass Clarinets and E-flat Sopranos, I borrow from people when I need them. They are expensive (bass clars, especially).

Piano:
Just got a new Kawai.

Heh... It seems like there is a high crossover between computer geeks and music geeks. I think you have to have similar technical abilities, especially with all the equipment that is available these days. I was a music geek first, getting my first guitar when I was 4 years old. A couple of times I was actually considering a career in music, but certain things didn't work out.

I have omnivorous musical tastes, so I ended up in a progressive band, a couple rock bands, a few jazz gigs, and even one Jamaican band that played a combination of reggae, black gospel, and jazz. (That was a test of my stretching capacity...) The latest band I was in was called Solomon Grundy (not the Solomon Grundy band from New York). It was a collection of originals by a friend of mine, in the alternative/roots rock vein. In the late 90s we played a few places in South Florida, even a couple times at the classic Tobacco Road (Florida liquor license #1), until we broke up in '99.

These days: no band, since I got married and had a child. Not a bad trade-off, though, and I do get to play gigs occasionally, as well as help out with our fairly rocking church band. (don't laugh, they have some real musicians). But anyway, I am playing around with my own digital studio experimenting with some composition ideas. (will provide links when available ).

Main instrument: guitar
Present inventory: Gibson ES 135. (I also had an ES 335, but it was stolen ), Simon & Patrick acoustic (cedar top), Vantage Fender strat copy (cost me $100 used, but somehow plays better than most real Strats), Fender Bassman 100, and Fender Bassman 70 (old tube amps that actually work better for lead guitar than for bass).

Secondary instrument: harmonica
Present inventory: Hohner "Chromonica" chromatic, Hohner C "Bluesband" blues harp

Tertiary instrument: piano/keyboard
Present inventory: one beat-up old spinet piano, no keyboard (used to have the analog classic Prophet 600--first MIDI keyboard ever, but it was stolen along with my ES 335, on Christmas Eve, if you can believe it). Also, I use my computer as a synthesizer these days. There is some awesome software out there.

Quaternary instrument: bass guitar
Present inventory: OK, I have never really owned a bass, but I plan on getting a fretless 5-string as soon as I can afford it, just for kicks.

Question: is there any sort of forum similar to DevShed, but aimed at musicians? If not, then why don't we start one? It could be kind of fun, trading our own mp3s, etc... Open source music .

Erm, is there a book on this? Everyones's throwing all this titles and specs and I'm just sitting here like 'aha... ok... very interesting...got it... when do we eat, btw?' not getting any of this Electric/Clarinets stuff and titles&names are like in japanese.

It is indeed interesting how so many computer guys play music, although I don't think this has a lot to do with 'geekness level'. I guess there are things certain people are good at, and in this case it's because logic/music/math are very closely related. Should I call another poll about math? I think we'll get some high results there too.

I qualified for the Associate of Victoria College of Music (they do grades 1 through 8 (or 9) then bronze, silver and gold awards through to the Associate exam and then the Fellowship, which is as high as it goes) in... Electric organ playing. Hehe. That was about 8 years ago now.

I started learning the guitar at about the same time as passing that, formed a band, did a few recordings and many gigs with that band (I'd played piano and keyboards at all sorts of events before then). The band split in '99 and I haven't played much since then. I haven't played the Electric organ since I passed the last exam I took. I took Music Technology at degree level, which concentrated on the production and engineering of tracks, together with the construction of mixing desks, acoustics, etc - but decided to go into computing as a profession rather than following that route - I didn't like coming home at night and not feeling like putting on a CD (which is what happened whilst I was doing that course). And I had been into the Net for a few years by the time I'd come to that decision.

Anyway, I suppose I could upload some MP3s somewhere if anyone's interested in hearing them.

Am I looking at technical forum ????



JD

Actually, if you learn the Piano or Guitar learning the other is not a big leap.

I played guitar for several years through my late teens thru early twenties. Unfortunatly I haven't picked up one in about 7 years so I probably could only play something like smoke on the water now.

Ah, one of the classic tunes... Wonder how many people that don't play the guitar but still knows how to play that intro?

//NoXcuz

I would have said that I know how to play stairway, but I don't even remember that one.

I think those two are probably the most played songs in a music store.

There's a sign on the wall in my favourite music shop that says something about those who play stairway will be thrown out...

Is it safe to say that they don't make music like that anymore?

//NoXcuz

During my junior year of high school there was this guy that took guitar lessons at the school. After about 6 weeks of work on chords, frets ,whatever he finally was able to play the smoke intro... his pal Don took the guitar from him, and, with no previous experience what-so-ever, figured it out in less than a 80 minute class period. The guy was pretty steamed

i know a lot of guys who didnt take any formal lessons but in a few hours can widow some very complicated solos. made me wanna kick them in the *** for being so naturally gifted coz it didn't seem fair to me at all.

I used to play a lot actually, back in grammar school but when I started studying further and write websites it kinda died. I used to play drums, bass, keyboard, and guitar. I have a keyboard and a two guitars at home, though they've only been collected dust for the past few years.

Bought some new strings yesterday and thought I'd give it a shot. Remains to be seen if I still can play

Lol - nice thread.

Played guitar since I was real young. Started with classical, then moved to original music. Still have a trustee fender tele, but often play simply a classical, but my styles

Also sing, play piano and harmonica (so-so). Like everything from Neil Young (god father of grunge and all-n-all musical legend) to Tool (heavy broody guitar). Also love Celtic Tunes (Loreena Mckennitt, Engima), but of course that is another forum -

If you want to share MP3's then I suggest mirc/irc, because this works really well Of course I prefer forums to chatrooms, but for actually sharing the music IRC is definately better.

Awesome, Z.