Or have you played something else in the past? What’s your favorite piece to play?
Edit: thanks for everyone that has replied. This has been so heartwarming to read :)
Over my lifetime I’ve learned to play like 8 or 9 musical instruments, from “can squeak out Mary Had A Little Lamb” on a harmonica to reasonable on the piano. I took band class in middle and high school and was a reasonable trumpet player, though it’s been awhile.
I’m mainly a guitar player. I’ve tended toward 6 string acoustic, finger style. I tend to like the guitar because it can hold up on its own, it can be a solo instrument in a way that a trumpet can’t. Show up to a social gathering with a trumpet, see if you’re allowed to play it, compared to showing up with a guitar.
My favorite piece to play on guitar is probably a solo guitar arrangement of Bon Jovi’s Livin’ On A Prayer. This is what I aim for with it, and I’ve got…most of it, not quite that clean.
I picked up a steel tongue drum out of pure serendipity and I can’t keep my hands off of it. The good quality ones that are hand tuned by an artisan and crafted from the highest quality steel will sound good no matter how you hit it. I started just bopping random notes with mallets, then tapping patterns with my hands, and whatever I do it sounds great and feels zen and beautiful. I don’t really play any songs on it, just patterns, but it’s like the audio version of a warm bubble bath.
There are mass market dinky derpy ones off of Amazon and they’re completely different instruments. If it sounds like a gong or a bell it’s a cheap one. If it sounds like the ethereal thrumming of the deep forest magic it’s a good one.
I play a little bit of the harmonica. It’s gotten out of tune a little bit over the years and no places near me will repair it.
But what I’m really proud of is the set of ceramic bowls I’ve collected over the years to make what is called Jal tarang. Water needs to be filled in them to specified levels and struck with wooden sticks to make a musical note. Tuning it is an exercise of its own but I love playing it when I can find the time. Sounds really nice.
Here is a virtuoso of the instrument playing a song:
So buy a new harmonica. It’s cheap
i love to learn the theremin. but i like drums as well. i find it challenging keeping timings on each hand and foot.
But when you lock in to a new rhythm it’s like a mini orgasm in your brain.
30 years on the clarinet and 5 or so on the trumpet. I’m an average 2nd trumpet player but pretty good on the clarinet. There’s nothing quite like nailing a big solo in front of a couple of hundred people. I love it.
Mandolin - I like that almost nobody has heard of it so I’m usual. When I’m asked to play something I can honestly say “if you have heard of it I can’t play it” while picking out several dozen tunes, some dating back centuries.
Ah, I love this. I really love bluegrass, so a mandolin has always been playing at some point in my life. They look like they’d be super hard to play
hard covers many dimenssions.
The strings are tighter and in pairs so pressing needs more strengh than anything else I’ve tried. No bending either. If you are worred about finge strength it is is about the worst choice.
it is tuned very logically in fifths and so much easier to pick up in any key than a guitar which isn’t consistent. You only need to learn I few chords and then move them wherever you want them. But guitars are much more likely to use a capo so this may not matter.
it is light. If you are carrying it this might matter (compare to a solid body bass with amp).
now forget everything above: while it is true it is irrelavant. time spent practicing is the largest factor in playing anything. If you are willing to practice the ‘hardest’ instrument for 8 hours a day for years but the ‘easiest’ one you find boring and won’t practice more than ten minutes per year: the hardest instrument is going to be easier for you. So pick something - anything and commit to sticking with it.
I play trumpet, I’m good at it and I really like being good at it. I branch out every now and then to other instruments, none are quite as intuitive to me though.
Guitar mainly, but I can play any of the typical instruments associated with rock/metal.
My favourite thing about the guitar is all the expressive ways you can play a single note. There’s the spectrum of how hard you pick it along with what you use to pick - fingers or plectrum, what angle you attack the string with said pick, vibrato, bend up to the note or down from it, slide into or out of it, etc…
It’s such an expressive instrument. I love it. You can really hear someone’s personality come out in their playing. There truly are endless different ways to play a single song. It all just depends on the choices you make.
Violin for 10 years, and it was fucking hard. It starts sounding decent around year 7-8. Effectively matching the tone of the instrument to the components you buy and pieces you play is a trick too. My violin had a super dark tone, basically only sounded good with new strings (wound only, except for a steel E), which meant it was always sliding out of tune because of the tension. But on the occasions it all came together, it was extremely loud and resonant, and made Bach’s partitas sound pretty awesome.
My favorite thing about me playing an instrument are the cheers and frenetic applause of my neighbours when I stop it.
Really really inspiring.
Is it the skin flute?
I play guitar casually since a little before COVID. Becoming more fluent with it every time I play is an amazing feeling.
Getting into a groove, putting my own spin/expressing myself with songs I like, and jamming with friends are experiences that are unmatched in enjoyment for me.
Making up my own silly songs on the fly is fun too.
Learning to play is the best thing I ever did. I had to get over the idea that it would be hard work to get good, or the idea that I’d never be as good as someone who started as a kid, or that I’d ever even be technically good, at all. Letting go of that stuff allowed me to enjoy each moment playing, and just have fun.
I wish I could pickup trumpet again. My neighbors probably don’t share my sentiment, though. I dropped it after high school, but never really had ‘fun’ with it during that time. Would love to pick it up again to play things I want to play.
I play ukulele because when I miss a note or get a beat wrong it just makes me laugh because it sounds so silly. I got a banjolele too and that thing is ridiculous, but when it works it sounds awesome.
I play the piano but haven’t touched it in a while. But, at peak, I was playing pretty good since I did it for over 10 years. My favorite thing to do whenever I can bring myself to do it is come up with chords and melodies. I rarely write things down but the ones I do, I turn into electronic music.
No. Im not very artistically inclined. Have been in choirs and choruses but really im more the conductors instrument than a musician. I do horribly if the conductor is adamant about just learning from reading music but give me solfage and a good section anchor (also can’t match piano notes so well) and im golden.
