Who else plays an instrument, and what's your favorite piece to play?

[Mentat]

Just attempting to learn a little more about my fellow PF members. So, who plays an instrument?
What instrument do you play?
How long have you been playing?
What is your favorite piece on that instrument (and can you play that piece, or do you just wish you could)?

BTW, I play the piano. I've been playing for almost two years, and I am about to begin "John Thompson's" Fourth Grade course (out of five grades).

My favorite piece on the piano is probably the "Nocturne in C# Minor" by Chopin (if any of you have seen "The Pianist", it's the first song in the movie). I cannot play it yet, and am looking for the music to it, so that I can learn it.

Another favorite piece is the "Rustle of Spring", by Rustle Sinding, which I can play, but not perfectly.

 

[grady]

I've been playing the guitar for 7 years and my favorite piece is the solo to Sweet Child of Mine, haha, and I can play it.

 

[Mentat]

Originally posted by grady
I've been playing the guitar for 7 years and my favorite piece is the solo to Sweet Child of Mine, haha, and I can play it.

Yeah, that's a pretty cool song.

 

[Andy]

I have been playing the Guitar for about 6 months and my favourite piece is the sweet child o mine solo also, but at the moment i can only manage the intro riff.

 

[Artman]

I play guitar, base, violin, piano, drums, something called a drumkat (an elctronic drum pad that plays its sound through a bunch of keyboards) and I write music.

The only ones that I play well are the rudimentary drum (like you hear in a marching band) and the drumkat, which I played in a band for a few years and I'm a pretty good song writer.

 

[qwpoi]

I played the violin for about ten years. Since I've stopped taking lessons, I've stopped practicing. So I have no idea how good I am right now. The violin turned out to be one of those things that my mother was right about --"You'll thank me for this when you're older," she'd say, when ever I complained. Until I stopped playing, I never believed her when she said it. Oh well.

I'd love to be able to play the 9th symphony mvt 2 by beethoven. There's a bunch of pieces that I did learn that I enjoy, cept can't remember the names of the pieces.

 

[jb]

right now, i only play bass guitar, i think the best solo I've ever learned was the intro to "calm like a bomb" (RATM).

i've got a piano and acoustic guitar sitting at home, maybe this summer i'll get around to learning to play those.

 

[Zero]

Here is the baby I am saving up for...my custom Carvin guitar, with my name on it and everything:

http://www.carvin.com/images/guitars/DC200-fts.jpg

 

[PrudensOptimus]

I play piano,

Just a short list of favorite songs I play:

To Zanarkand
Tina's Theme
Eyes On Me
Final Fantasy 7 Main Theme
Final Fantasy 7,6 Prelude
Tifa's Theme from Final Fantasy 7

 

[Mattius_]

I play the harmonica... i usually just jam along with my songs on kazaa, one more chance by the jackson 5 is probably my favorite...

 

[Andy]

WOW that's a beast of a Guitar Zero, what type of music do you like and play?

 

[Zero]

Originally posted by Andy
WOW that's a beast of a Guitar Zero, what type of music do you like and play?

I play rock, blues, and metal of all styles...which is why I am getting a guitar with every active electronic switch, knob, and doodad I can afford! That guitar is a tonal monster, gives about a million different combinations of sounds.

 

[Hurkyl]

I pretty much stopped with music once I got out of high school; until then I had played clarinet 9 years, oboe 3 years, cello 2 years (Obviously those overlapped somewhat!) and was teaching myself piano a couple years.

I think my favorite piano piece is Solfeggietto simply because at a fast tempo, it sounds a lot harder than it really is.

Prelude in C# minor by Rachmaninov was fun, but I graduated before I could get the final third of the piece down (and the only piano I had access to was the one at the school, my midi keyboard isn't big enough to play the piece ).

My favorite piece on the piano is probably the "Nocturne in C# Minor" by Chopin (if any of you have seen "The Pianist", it's the first song in the movie). I cannot play it yet, and am looking for the music to it, so that I can learn it.

One thing you might try is to find a good midi file of it (try the following site)

http://www.classicalarchives.com/chopin.html

and find a midi -> sheet music converter. It won't be perfect, and the dynamics / ornaments will either be nonexistant or unreliable, but if you know how the piece sounds that might be enough.

(Incidentally, the site lists two nocturnes in C#-, #7 and #20)

 

[Dx]

Originally posted by grady
I've been playing the guitar for 7 years and my favorite piece is the solo to Sweet Child of Mine, haha, and I can play it.

Can you play stairway to heaven too?

 

[grady]

Originally posted by Dx
Can you play stairway to heaven too?

I used to but I was trying to play it a couple weeks before school let out and realized I forgot the cords that come after that little intro part. I can pick out single notes real well by ear or memory like the solo for instance, but I totally suck at picking out chords by either ear or memory. I have to go to the tabs for that if I don't want to spend a long time transcribing.

When I was learning I just parcticed switching between weird hard-to-get-your-fingers-around jazz chords and running up and down scales as fast as I could for speed. I guess that wasn't the most ingenious way to learn the instrument and a little theory might have helped in the end.

Has anyone heard of Joe Satriani (sp?). Check out The Forgotten part two on the album flying in a blue dream. That is some great guitar playing there. I had forgot about Satriani, i might have to change my vote for favorite piece. :)

 

[Pauly Man]

I've been playing guitar for two and a half years now. But haven't really had much time to play it for the last year due to university. I finish at the end of this week though, if I pass all my exams.

My favourite song to play is probably "One Last Breath" by Creed. Although I can't quite get the rhythm yet, but I'm close.

I'd love to be able to play the solo to "Unforgiven" by Metallica, which I consider to be the best Metallica solo in existence. I can hear where it is on the fret board, which is a start. This is one solo that I'd love to work out from scratch, and not look it up, that would be a huge achievment for me.

 

[Zero]

I know that solo starts with a unison bend of the D and G strings at the 7th fret...go from there!

 

[Pauly Man]

Originally posted by Zero
I know that solo starts with a unison bend of the D and G strings at the 7th fret...go from there!

Hehe. Thanks.

 

[pace]

Classical piano and guitar for many years. But I'm playing piano more now, my guitar just got broken Can anyone send me one ?

Right now I'm practicing Chopin's Sonate #3, a really cool but horribly long piece(36pages), and I'm horribly slow at reading notes too... http://www.gressus.se/chopin/midi/chopin.html

I'm also learning Grieg's Preludium from Holberg's Suite which is much shorter. Planning to learn some other small pieces from him like Solveig's Song and Anitra's Dance.

The latest piece I learned was: Bach's Inventio 8.

Oh, and I got a Steinway & Sons Flügel in my living room , it's my grand aunt and she and my family insists that I'm going to inherit it LoL!

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I played piano from the age of 10 up to about 16. I was quite serious about it for a couple of years, but with 16 comes cars and women. I still tinker a bit from time to time.

 

[steppenwolf]

i've been playing clarinet for about 8 years i think, went through a big jazz phase but am now seriously into my classical study, I'm very seriously thinking of going to france to study with this amazing guy who I've heard all about, at the moment I'm just bumming around at the conservatoire here, working damn hard actually.

my fave piece for clarinet that i play is rossinni's intro, theme and variations but i'd love to ofcourse play the grand trio of mozart, weber and copland when I'm able.

just got accepted into our state youth orchestra, huzzah!