What are your musical preferences?

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The discussion revolves around the experiences and skills of individuals with various musical instruments, highlighting a mix of enthusiasm and self-deprecation regarding their musical abilities. Many participants express a passion for music, with instruments ranging from guitars and keyboards to traditional and orchestral instruments. Some share regrets about not pursuing music more seriously or wish they had started learning instruments like the piano at a younger age. The conversation also touches on the relationship between musical skills and cognitive abilities in fields like science and engineering, suggesting that musical training may enhance skills relevant to these disciplines. Additionally, there is a playful exchange about the challenges of learning instruments, the joy of improvisation, and the unique qualities of different musical genres, including jazz and classical music. Overall, the thread reflects a community of individuals who appreciate music, share their journeys, and explore the connections between music and other areas of life.

What instruments do you play


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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.
 
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Where's the option for none? I tried piano, but it amounted to nothing. I suppose that music is just that area where I shall never develop. :biggrin:
 
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ProfuselyQuarky said:
Where's the option for none? I tried piano, but it amounted to nothing. I suppose that music is just that area where I shall never develop. :biggrin:
Added a none option, I meant to but forgot originally.
 
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newjerseyrunner said:
Added a none option, I meant to but forgot originally.
Phew! Okay, thanks. For a moment I thought that there was no none option because every one plays an instrument and I was the lone one who didn't :smile:
 
I play guitar, build my guitar tube amps. Love it. Guitar isn't my very best skill... but I love it.
 
ProfuselyQuarky said:
Where's the option for none? I tried piano, but it amounted to nothing. I suppose that music is just that area where I shall never develop. [emoji3]
We're on the same boat :-) tried piano and recorder but I don't have neither talent nor patience and will to practice :-/
 
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Harp
 
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My first go around in high school, I bought an electric guitar, cheap amp, and a Van Halen tab book and basically dropped out. I've since returned and am just about finished, and was accepted to university. But I still noodle around when I can. Personally I wish I started learning piano at a young age.
 
Electric bass expertly, sing passably, keyboards incompetently, and dabbling in the flute. I compose and write lyrics too, though seldom.
 
  • #10
Depends what you mean by "play". On violin, viola and piano I'm up to playing major concertos, although I mostly only play them for rehearsal purposes with local orchestras to help them prepare before the "real" soloist comes for the last couple of rehearsals (which means I don't have to learn every detail unless I really want to). I also play other keyboards of course, including harpsichord and celesta, plus digital equivalents. In the past, I've played cello or flute in various ensembles. At school, I played tenor viol in a viol consort. As a student 40 years ago, I could play guitar accompaniments to just about anything by ear. I won a couple of prizes at age 11 for composing a very short and boring work for symphony orchestra. I've conducted a few string orchestra concerts and some full symphony orchestra rehearsals (including Tchaikovsky Symphony No 6 and Shostakovich Symphony No 5 - wow!) but not yet a full symphony orchestra concert.

I can play simple tunes on almost anything from a bicycle pump to my front teeth, and I can hum in three-part harmony with myself, by whistling and humming at the same time, choosing an interval such that the difference harmonic sounds as if I'm whistling another note, making a nice chord (well, for some definition of "nice").

And if pushed, I can demonstrate whistling "Rule Britannia" and humming "God Save the Queen" simultaneously. That usually clears the area quite effectively.
 
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  • #11
Had life gone differently, i would have been a professional drummer. Unfortunately, I became a chemist instead. However, in my best Chico Escuela, "Plastics be vedy, vedy, good to me."
 
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  • #12
Kevin McHugh said:
Had life gone differently, i would have been a professional drummer. Unfortunately, I became a chemist instead. However, in my best Chico Escuela, "Plastics be vedy, vedy, good to me."
Um, how is that unfortunate?? That's 6.02 x 1023 times more interesting than being a drummer! :smile:
 
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  • #13
Jonathan Scott said:
Depends what you mean by "play".

If you have a really lax definition of play... I've written a suite of functions that allows me to manipulate the expressive parameters and both free and time invariant rubato of midi streams (not in real time) which I use to realize my compositions.
 
  • #14
ProfuselyQuarky said:
Um, how is that unfortunate?? That's 6.02 x 1023 times more interesting than being a drummer! :smile:
Joe Morello would disagree w/ you.
 
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  • #15
phinds said:
Joe Morello would disagree w/ you.
I could say that for a lot of things.

(BTW, I had to look up who Joe Morello was)
 
  • #16
ProfuselyQuarky said:
(BTW, I had to look up who Joe Morello was)
I'm sure he was way before your time but he was terrific.
 
  • #17
phinds said:
but he was terrific.
I could say that for a lot of things, too!

(but okay, you're right: I'm too young. And this is subjective ground, anyway)
 
  • #18
ProfuselyQuarky said:
Um, how is that unfortunate?? That's 6.02 x 1023 times more interesting than being a drummer! :smile:
Good response Quarky. :cool: Only unfortunately because drums is my first love and passion. And there are way more drummer groupies than Chemistry groupies. :biggrin:
I still play but now I just try to expand my musical horizons with clave in 4/4 and 6/8. The 6/8 clave is a nutcracker!
 
  • #19
phinds said:
Joe Morello would disagree w/ you.

Joe was among the many other jazz greats; Art Blakey, Tony Williams, Gene Krupa, Buddy Rich, etc. Today I like Virgil Donati, Danny Carey, Dave Weckl, Mike Portnoy, and Horacio Hernandez. I forget his name but the drummer from Tribal Tech is awesome too. There are many others of course, but you can't name them all.
 
  • #20
Kevin McHugh said:
Joe was among the many other jazz greats; Art Blakey, Tony Williams, Gene Krupa, Buddy Rich, etc. Today I like Virgil Donati, Danny Carey, Dave Weckl, Mike Portnoy, and Horacio Hernandez. I forget his name but the drummer from Tribal Tech is awesome too. There are many others of course, but you can't name them all.

Senri Kawaguchi
and Dennis Chambers rool the traps.
 
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  • #21
Kevin McHugh said:
Good response Quarky. :cool:
Why, thank you
Kevin McHugh said:
Only unfortunately because drums is my first love and passion. And there are way more drummer groupies than Chemistry groupies. :biggrin:
Well, there are more chemistry groupies than agrostology groupies, so don’t feel bad o0)
 
  • #22
Kevin McHugh said:
I became a chemist instead
Also, I envy you because I love chemistry and that's what I want to major, but my school doesn't even have a chemistry course available :H
 
  • #23
Hoenbein, thanks for that link. Man, those girls can play. That drummer looks like she's 16 y/o; great chops and cool groove. Oh, to be young and have limber limbs. My hand speed peaked about 30 years ago, so now I'm all about the groove. Love to get fat in the pocket.
 
  • #24
ProfuselyQuarky said:
Why, thank you

Well, there are more chemistry groupies than agrostology groupies, so don’t feel bad o0)

Your school doesn't have chemistry, but it has argostology? BTW, what is that?
 
  • #25
Kevin McHugh said:
Your school doesn't have chemistry, but it has argostology? BTW, what is that?
Argostology is the study of grass. I never said that my school had an argostology course :oldlaugh: I just thought of that as a comparison to chemistry because I spoke to someone the other day who said that he was interested in the field (argostology).
 
  • #26
ProfuselyQuarky said:
Argostology is the study of grass. I never said that my school had an argostology course :oldlaugh: I just thought of that as a comparison to chemistry because I spoke to someone the other day who said that he was interested in the field (argostology).

In the field of grass?o0) Somebody had to say it.
 
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  • #27
I learned piano and then picked up guitar and bass. Had a lot of fun with music, it made my life more colorful and not just monotonous. worth it...
 
  • #28
I played trumpet in high school. I really really regret not learning piano. Any time there is a public piano I just want to sit down and jam!
 
  • #29
I play trombones for fun, and took piano lessons as a child, but never had the fortitude to reach any appreciable level of proficiency.

Several times a week, I take out my E-flat alto trombone, and put on some music and just improvise.
 
  • #30
I play traditional ottoman musical instruments.
 
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