Do you play another instrument than the guitar?

[Jimi75]

Hey, I know that the guitar is the most attractive instrument to us fretters, but do you also play another instrument - I mean really play and not having a drum kit in the garage that is touched once a year :p

I have started to concentrate on my piano playing again some weeks ago. I was pretty rusted after 14 years and it is like starting all over again. Thank god the internet provides you with all stuff needed to get a good start. I did not know that piano tabs exist :DR

It is a challenge, becuase I only played some partson my midi keyboard, just single lines and now I am cought by the fever again.....

How about you, any love besides the guitar?

[sunvalleylaw]

No, not at this point. I used to "really" play piano, but that was years ago. I hope to follow in your footsteps and play regularly as an adjunct to the guitar here soon. Jimi, what was most helpful to you in getting back into it? My expericence was mostly classical with some jazz and ragtime thrown in.

[Jimi75]

No, not at this point. I used to "really" play piano, but that was years ago. I hope to follow in your footsteps and play regularly as an adjunct to the guitar here soon. Jimi, what was most helpful to you in getting back into it? My expericence was mostly classical with some jazz and ragtime thrown in.

I hope I understand your queston correctly. For me it was helpful that I had a classical background which allows me to understand orchestration. If you mean what motivatedme, it was that I saw a documentary on John Williams and he played some scores on the piano only, from there on I couldn't do anything else than thinking of playing such things, too....

[Tone2TheBone]

I play bass guitar (if that counts besides guitar) and I play piano but mostly by ear. I can keep a pretty good rock beat on the drums.

[Iago]

no, but I would like to play keyboards or drums! :D

[sunvalleylaw]

I hope I understand your queston correctly. For me it was helpful that I had a classical background which allows me to understand orchestration. If you mean what motivatedme, it was that I saw a documentary on John Williams and he played some scores on the piano only, from there on I couldn't do anything else than thinking of playing such things, too....

Thanks Jimi. I was also interested in what resources (you mentioned internet tabs and the like) were most helpful in getting you back into piano/keyboard. For instance, what were your favorite sites? I will check out some John Williams scores. I have always liked them, but have not listened or been exposed to them for some time.

[Jimi75]

Thanks Jimi. I was also interested in what resources (you mentioned internet tabs and the like) were most helpful in getting you back into piano/keyboard. For instance, what were your favorite sites? I will check out some John Williams scores. I have always liked them, but have not listened or been exposed to them for some time.

I visit www.tabgrabber.com and www.pianovillage.com
This get me started for first.

[tot_Ou_tard]

I've never played an instrument until I picked up the guitar a little over 1 year ago. I'm d@mned envious of all of you. ;)

[SuperSwede]

I play the piano, I started playing piano when I was 6 or 7 years old but I havent really played much recently.

[Spudman]

I play a little synth. I'm self taught and use it for filling in on my guitar compositions and some writing comes out of it as well. If you told me that you were going to do a 1-4-5 in E and wanted me to play along on keys I'd just laugh and go sit down.

[Ro3b]

Currently I play Irish flute, mandolin, bouzouki, tenor banjo, button accordion, and bass guitar. I've also dabbled in piano, Boehm-system (modern) flute, recorder, krummhorn, English-system concertina, and Breton bombarde. And my first instrument was the trombone. It's no wonder I'm not a better guitarist than I am.

[Jimi75]

Currently I play Irish flute, mandolin, bouzouki, tenor banjo, button accordion, and bass guitar. I've also dabbled in piano, Boehm-system (modern) flute, recorder, krummhorn, English-system concertina, and Breton bombarde. And my first instrument was the trombone. It's no wonder I'm not a better guitarist than I am.

That's quite a list. How does one single person come to play so many instruments?

Impressing really.

[jpfeifer]

I play bass, although I don't have my own rig - just the bass. I actually love playing bass, but I have to trim off my fingernails on my picking hand so it messes up my acoustic guitar playing if I have to do that.

I'm also a hack piano player. I love to play with chord progressions on the piano for fun, but I'm not really good enough to be a serious piano player, just good enough to so basic synth parts for recording. The nice thing about midi is that you can go back and fix your mistakes which is great for a hack piano player like me.

-- Jim

[Robert]

I play bass too. I never use a pick with the bass, unless I'm playing Black Sabbath...

I find playing bass very exciting, but also very hard.

[Ro3b]

That's quite a list. How does one single person come to play so many instruments?

Extreme lack of focus. :-) Not impressive. Everytime I hear a really good guitarist, I wish I'd put all my energy into just that instrument.

On the other hand, I think the more instruments you fool around with, the easier it is to learn a new one. It's like languages. You start to see how they're more alike than different. Mandolin, bouzouki, and tenor banjo use the same or similar tuning; fingerings on the Irish flute have some overlap with the modern system and a little bit of similarity to the bombarde; likewise recorder and krummhorn; and the bass is like a big guitar that's missing the top couple of strings. A little more weirdly, the way half and whole steps lay out on the trombone has a lot of intuitive resonance with the way they work on a stringed instrument. I remember when I got my very first guitar and was starting to learn my way around on it, I was visualizing the six strings as trombone slides. As I said, no wonder I'm not a better guitarist.