What are your musical preferences?

[Dr. Courtney]

Need an option for bass guitar.

 

[pinball1970]

Need an option for bass guitar.

From memory you said you wife has told you that already have a lot of guitars...
My mate picked up a fender copy in cash generator (UK - you may have same in the states) for £35. Sounds beautiful, growly even without plug in.
Do you have gumtree?

 

[Dr. Courtney]

From memory you said you wife has told you that already have a lot of guitars...
My mate picked up a fender copy in cash generator (UK - you may have same in the states) for £35. Sounds beautiful, growly even without plug in.
Do you have gumtree?

She has two (acoustic Martin 6 string and Yamaha 12 string) and I have two (Ibanez SG Bass and Telecaster). The family shares a Kurzweil 88 key synthesizer. Recent comments have focused on my number of fishing poles. Haven't counted lately, but I often take 9 at a time in the boat and there are still 4-6 (at least) in the garage. I have too many hobbies to own more than two guitars. But my wife and I practice five times a week and perform in public regularly. Lots of fun.

 

[pinball1970]

She has two (acoustic Martin 6 string and Yamaha 12 string) and I have two (Ibanez SG Bass and Telecaster). The family shares a Kurzweil 88 key synthesizer. Recent comments have focused on my number of fishing poles. Haven't counted lately, but I often take 9 at a time in the boat and there are still 4-6 (at least) in the garage. I have too many hobbies to own more than two guitars. But my wife and I practice five times a week and perform in public regularly. Lots of fun.

View attachment 252857

A link with sound? Is that permitted?
A Martin!? And I am recommending a glorified thrift shop! Ok you need something pretty to compliment a Tele/Martin. An actual fender jazz? Or what about one of those little Hofner cello bass like Macca played with the Beatles? I saw him 2003 and he was still playing it. He said it went out of tune a lot now but the sound was just as it was. Warm and full. I bet you have huge huge music shops in the states, you must have a favourite? Try some of these bad boys out.
I think a Ricky would be a bit too growly but they look just so iconic.
Keep me posted.

 

[jim mcnamara]

I played soprano & tenor recorder until my right index finger got friendly with a lawnmower blade. My finger got sewed back together. It mostly works, but not for playing recorder ...I was never very good to start with.

 

[pinball1970]

I played soprano & tenor recorder until my right index finger got friendly with a lawnmower blade. My finger got sewed back together. It mostly works, but not for playing recorder ...I was never very good to start with.

Not very rock and roll Jim..

 

[Dr. Courtney]

A link with sound? Is that permitted?
A Martin!? And I am recommending a glorified thrift shop! Ok you need something pretty to compliment a Tele/Martin. An actual fender jazz? Or what about one of those little Hofner cello bass like Macca played with the Beatles? I saw him 2003 and he was still playing it. He said it went out of tune a lot now but the sound was just as it was. Warm and full. I bet you have huge huge music shops in the states, you must have a favourite?

I had a Fender Jazz bass some years ago. Great bass, just not as playable in my hands as the Ibanez SG line. I'm on my third Ibanez SG. The thin neck fits my hands very well. The sound of any bass can be tailored with the effects and amp, so playability is my main criteria. I don't go to music shops often unless I have a specific need in mind. Impulse buys (like the Fender Jazz bass) get expensive. Our 4 guitars meet our needs very well for most of our music. Once in a while, I wish for a second 6 string acoustic, but we get by.

 

[QuantumQuest]

What does the choice and expertness with a musical instrument mean, OUTSIDE OF ANY MUSICAL NOTATION, in relation to studying/using/practicing any of Chemistry, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering,Physics,Computer Science?

I think that these things are rather unrelated, at least regarding the essence of the question. The first is pure art and the second is science. A person can study - or work in, a field of science and in his / her spare time or maybe more, can potentially learn some specific instrument(s) according to his / her own mentality and maybe due to particular emotional or other reasons.

Going to a more general comment regarding learning of music, talent is a somewhat oversold term in my opinion. Behind every good instrument player / musician there is a vast number of hours of listening, practicing, transcribing, composing and working on music - for music, in general, as is the case mutatis mutandis for a good scientist: a vast number of hours of studying, practicing through problems and projects and experimenting - for the sciences which have it. Particularly for music, behind "great talents" in most cases there is a family or relatives who are musicians, so, for a child who is in touch every day with music and have the right guidance, it is more than obvious that some day will become a great musician as long as he / she will devote the time and efforts to learn music. So, in my opinion and according to my experience as a bass - in past, and electric guitar player for over thirty years, the most essential is the will to learn and finding good guidance of any available form - be it good teachers, videos, books, musical staff, any combination(s) or any other related thing. Personally, I don't come from a musicians family nor do I have relatives that are musicians. What led me to learn music and the musical instruments I did, was personal interest for the music as an art i.e. as an expressive means.

Now, about musical notation, it can really be something interesting for a scientist as it is a global language that conveys components of music like timing, measures, notes etc. but this is not music: it's a very useful - I would say indispensable, means of conveying musical ideas which coordinates the communication among different instrument players but up to there. It is by no means a critical factor in order to learn playing an instrument and be really good at it or learning music - in classical music it is absolutely necessary but again communication is the reason. In contemporary genres, it is good for anyone to learn reading and writing musical staff but it is not necessary unless he / she will play in a big orchestra. Personally, I learned musical staff initially at my eight for piano - which I finally abandoned, and later I continued at my sixteen with classical guitar. I didn't like the idea of learning this way; I felt it like something habitual or even obsessive. So, I picked the way of self learning through musical books with tabs combined with audio tapes to learn electric guitar and bass. Later on, I almost abandoned tabs and relied exclusively to my ears using recordings.

Music is all about ears. Anyone willing can learn chords, scales, arpeggios, phrases, cool licks by ear. Through a lot of practicing comes the mapping onto a specific instrument. For me it is utterly wrong to force a beginner to learn where is each note on the fretboard for instance. After one hour or one day he / she will forget it. Repeating good exercises every day for warm-up, fingers flexibility and for muscle memory reasons, trying honestly to learn playing what you can't play - this is very important: not what you can, and exercising ears especially through transcribing - a real pain for a beginner but it definitely pays off in the long run, comes the good learning and the good performance. From there, experience takes the lead.

... and I've always admired rock / folk musicians who seem to have an entirely different skillset. They think nothing of picking up an entire different instrument (switching effortlessly from guitar to flute to piano for instance), or changing the tuning of a guitar and still knowing where to find all the notes. They can listen to a recording and mimic it. They can improvise. They can make a piece sound like a particular style. They can transpose on the fly. I have none of those skills.

In my opinion, if you really want to learn something you can as long as you're absolutely willing to devote the time and efforts to learn it. It takes a lot of years but if you persist , you'll finally approach your goal - "disappointment due to no progress" as is commonly spoken or perceived and in many cases is just a wrong feeling, is something that every good musician has experienced /experiences from time to time during learning. As a great greek electric guitar player and teacher says "you'll going to make it whichever way you pick as long as you walk this way exerting honest efforts".

 

[symbolipoint]

Now, about musical notation, it can really be something interesting for a scientist as it is a global language that conveys components of music like timing, measures, notes etc. but this is not music: it's a very useful - I would say indispensable, means of conveying musical ideas which coordinates the communication among different instrument players but up to there. It is by no means a critical factor in order to learn playing an instrument and be really good at it or learning music - in classical music it is absolutely necessary but again communication is the reason. In contemporary genres, it is good for anyone to learn reading and writing musical staff but it is not necessary unless he / she will play in a big orchestra. Personally, I learned musical staff initially at my eight for piano - which I finally abandoned, and later I continued at my sixteen with classical guitar. I didn't like the idea of learning this way; I felt it like something habitual or even obsessive. So, I picked the way of self learning through musical books with tabs combined with audio tapes to learn electric guitar and bass. Later on, I almost abandoned tabs and relied exclusively to my ears using recordings.

and some of...

Music is all about ears. Anyone w..., ...

Saying that well is difficult. I have the same understanding about the difference between playing instrument and reading/writing of music in notation.

 

[pinball1970]

Going to a more general comment regarding learning of music, talent is a somewhat oversold term in my opinion.

I disagree with this, it is difficult to quantify biologically but what makes a good musician and great one comes down to talent like everything else.
You cannot learn to play football like George best, you have to be George best. One can practice get better get fitter learn things but one cannot "learn" to play like that.
You cannot learn how to sing like Ian Gillan or play Drums like Buddy Rich, it is who they are/were.
We have had similar discussions about talent regarding mathematics, can anyone get a PhD/published in Mathematics? answer? No.
You could take someone with some ability as a kid (me say) and then tutor them nurture them, sure they may do ok (A level is far as I went) but it was quite obvious there were one or two students who just "saw" it before me, got it before me. Had more elegant methods, missed out steps with one foul swoop and arrived at the answer.
Talented musicians hear things others don't pick out harmonies without knowing the implications of certain notes or chords.

A great example of is Macca, I don't think he analysed things too much as George Martin said he had an "instinctive" feel for harmony.
Ill be back - A song by John, a little sad and lonely typical reflective Lennon. However what makes it great is PM harmony over the top taking you from major to minor and back. Ill stick my neck out and say he did not intend to mark the major to minor he just sang it. You cannot learn that. Listen from 1.50 in the link. I love these guys, the break down Beatles harmonies and its an extra touch that they have these Italian accents underneath everything.

 

[QuantumQuest]

I disagree with this, it is difficult to quantify biologically but what makes a good musician and great one comes down to talent like everything else.
You cannot learn to play football like George best, you have to be George best. One can practice get better get fitter learn things but one cannot "learn" to play like that.
You cannot learn how to sing like Ian Gillan or play Drums like Buddy Rich, it is who they are/were.
We have had similar discussions about talent regarding mathematics, can anyone get a PhD/published in Mathematics? answer? No.

Well, I have to disagree with all these too but in any case I respect your opinion. We just see this thing from a different angle. Personally, I think that people attribute to talent things that are not at all obvious or even evident that belong there. In order for anyone to be sure if there is such thing and in this case if it is an all-in-one cure for all, he / she has to have the exact same reasons to conceive and learn music, the same concentration and the same "environment variables" regarding home, family and a multitude of other things - not to mention a multitude of personal character features, with a "talented" person. This, obviously, cannot be done, so it leaves a huge ambiguity, at least for me, that the second person "was born" to be a musician or anything else for that matter. Also, I don't like at all the extraordinary magic nature that is attributed to talent. If a person has not great will to learn music or in other words music "does not speak" to his / her soul then he / she will never learn. Trying to learn something just for fun or for the heck of it cannot lead to anything great but definitely to something mediocre at best.

Of course, needless to say that I can't claim or prove that there is not such thing as talent but even if there is, I don't really thing that it is what many people believe to be.

Jimi Hendrix himself - which I regard as the huge difference that gave to electric guitar a whole new sense, meaning and he put it in orbit regarding the way this instrument was used before him, was very moderate and when a journalist told him "People regard you as the best player in the world" he responded by looking at the chair in which he was sitting and said "who is this guy you talk about?" - I just give it in my own words but with no loss of its original meaning. How many hours did he practice and played / composed songs? Countless. What were his real innate reasons about learning music? No one can tell with a hundred per cent accuracy. How concentrated was in what he was doing? Very much. How much did he love his guitar and playing? Really excessively. So, after these questions, did the "talent" made him what he become or even if there was talent, can we attribute his huge success to talent alone? I don't know for sure but I don't think so.

 

[StatGuy2000]

I had a chance to quickly look at the poll. It does appear that the majority of respondents (67.4%) can play the guitar, with keyboard/piano coming in second (41.3%).

Woodwind players like me are a small minority!

 

[BWV]

Have one of these, which probably puts me in a real small group

 

[pinball1970]

Well, I have to disagree with all these too but in any case I respect your opinion. We just see this thing from a different angle. Personally, I think that people attribute to talent things that are not at all obvious or even evident that belong there. In order for anyone to be sure if there is such thing and in this case if it is an all-in-one cure for all, he / she has to have the exact same reasons to conceive and learn music, the same concentration and the same "environment variables" regarding home, family and a multitude of other things - not to mention a multitude of personal character features, with a "talented" person. This, obviously, cannot be done, so it leaves a huge ambiguity, at least for me, that the second person "was born" to be a musician or anything else for that matter. Also, I don't like at all the extraordinary magic nature that is attributed to talent. If a person has not great will to learn music or in other words music "does not speak" to his / her soul then he / she will never learn. Trying to learn something just for fun or for the heck of it cannot lead to anything great but definitely to something mediocre at best.

Of course, needless to say that I can't claim or prove that there is not such thing as talent but even if there is, I don't really thing that it is what many people believe to be.

Jimi Hendrix himself - which I regard as the huge difference that gave to electric guitar a whole new sense, meaning and he put it in orbit regarding the way this instrument was used before him, was very moderate and when a journalist told him "People regard you as the best player in the world" he responded by looking at the chair in which he was sitting and said "who is this guy you talk about?" - I just give it in my own words but with no loss of its original meaning. How many hours did he practice and played / composed songs? Countless. What were his real innate reasons about learning music? No one can tell with a hundred per cent accuracy. How concentrated was in what he was doing? Very much. How much did he love his guitar and playing? Really excessively. So, after these questions, did the "talent" made him what he become or even if there was talent, can we attribute his huge success to talent alone? I don't know for sure but I don't think so.

Am not claiming magic, it's biological.
Evolutionary process at play, hunting attracting mates imitating birds animals ritual dance, all part of our ancient history.
No amount of nurturing, training and diet can change your genes.
George best is a great example because diet life style and training facilities were primitive compared to today. He played on cobbled streets as a kid and on mud soaked quagmires in the 70s, pitches I would have turned my nose up at, playing football Sunday league.
However the beautiful football he was able to produce was astounding.
You cannot learn that, you are born like that.

 

[KinggMalcolm]

I primarily do mallet percussion (Marimba/Vibraphone if you want to get even more specific), but this year my director wanted me to try out french horn. I plan on expanding my skills out even more and being able to play a variety of instruments!

 

[newbiegirl]

I'm just curious; this forum is full of people who excel at creativity thinking, something essential for music and art.

I play the keyboard and an electric guitar, but I'm not practiced in either, I just dabble.

I played piano as a child then woodwinds in high school. Apparently the students classified flute as dainty and most of the girls chose that instrument for music class

 

[RachelAnne]

Seem the guitar is the most popular one, or the most easy one to play.

 

[symbolipoint]

Seem the guitar is the most popular one, or the most easy one to play.

Portability could be a strong influence leading to popularity.

Easy or difficult to play depends on just what and how to be played. Also, of just how much effort the player gives to developing.

 

[CrunchBerries]

Relative. Piano, violin etc... the quality of play is directly proportional to the depth of knowledge and skill. Its easy to play a tune on any intrument, hard to reproduce genius.

 

[phinds]

 

[MathematicalPhysicist]

I play mainly Guitar.

I have a classical guitar, electric fender guitar and electric fender bass guitar.
Though I play rarely nowadays, can't find the time to play; now and then I still play my classical guitar.

I much prefer playing with my fingers than with a pick.
But I don't make money from playing guitar.
Now and then, I get bored with the repetitive music that I hear and play my "chaotic" music on my classical guitar.

I once tried reading the musical theory, but I much prefer to improvise; sometimes I improvise something that I heard, I remember some bass guitar lines from a gong's Espresso track.

 

[richard101]

Hi to all musicians out there

I just want to share my own experience. I've started playing guitar when I'm on 4th grader. My brother was also a musician. But, I've stopped for a long time just to focus on my studies. Also, as a young kid, I wanted to play rather than to practice.
When I got worked, I learned to play a violin. But I can play only one piece of composition that my brother arrange. I didn't continue for so long because I stopped again just for nothing.
For now, since I have worked again, I'm trying to play the piano. I was inspired to play to our church so I keep practicing.

It's just nothing. I want to share my side. But, if you have any comments for me, I will greatly appreciate that. Thank you very much for listening.

 

[Mary Conrads Sanburn]

I can really play the harmonica. I love it! It makes me happy!

 

[Vanadium 50]

I bought a trombone; figured I'd learn to play it while isolated.

A gentleman is someone who knows how to play trombone. But doesn't.

 

[Mary Conrads Sanburn]

Dear Vanadium 50 please practice your trombone. Get out into your backyard and wake up the neighbors! Tell them to sing along as you play your trombone. They would probably enjoy your talent.

 

[BWV]

I have been arranging songs for guitar for the past few years, here is the Steely Dan tune Aja

 

[pinball1970]

Dear Vanadium 50 please practice your trombone. Get out into your backyard and wake up the neighbors! Tell them to sing along as you play your trombone. They would probably enjoy your talent.

Why do you dislike Vanadium's neighbours so much?

 

[symbolipoint]

A great thing would be to pair this poll to the voters' choices for scientific or engineering subject-area and THEN such a poll might tell use how subject area is or is not related to musical instrument choice.

 

[GiriBang]

I don't play keyboard that much though I learned to play keyboard in school. In fact I don't even have it now. Thappu a percussion has been my fav instrument since childhood. Sometimes I even play by using plates and spoons

 

[Bob Walance]

I'm just curious; this forum is full of people who excel at creativity thinking, something essential for music and art.

I've a theremin signed by Bob Moog. I can sort of play it, but I'm no Clara Rockmore.

Also, the keyboard was recently modified to be in a 'balanced' format. See my post from yesterday.