What Type of Instrument Do You Play?

Originally Posted by The Unsung Hero

What's the difference between a prostitute and a violist?

A prostitute knows more than one position.

:/

LOL! that made me laugh very hard.

It's true though, the neck of a violin is so small you only need to shift like, once to get to the end of the finger board. on a bass there's about 12 or so shifts to get to the end of the fingerboard :/

That's excellent! It's a very good skill to be able to learn a piece of music by rote. It means you have a good ear.

I have played the violin for 11 years, the guitar for 6, I have studied voice for 3, and I just recently picked up the piano and a little organ. I'm currently a Music Performance for violin at UW Milwaukee. Generally, I practice about 3 hours a day on my main instrument, but I've been trying to bump it up to 4 because I've hit a block right now and I'm progressing very slowly.

Anyways, that's what I play and stuff. So yeah.

Yeah, my dad tells me that I have a good ear. 11 years? you must be beastly. 3 hours a day? that's alot. I play maybe, an hour a day, sometimes more. depends on the weather. I used to play viola, but then I fell in love with the basses deep right tones. What kind of styles do you play? classical? country? Blue-grass? I myself play classical, jazz, blues, and rock.

I play a little bit of keyboard.

Originally Posted by zeldask8r

Yeah, my dad tells me that I have a good ear. 11 years? you must be beastly. 3 hours a day? that's alot. I play maybe, an hour a day, sometimes more. depends on the weather. I used to play viola, but then I fell in love with the basses deep right tones. What kind of styles do you play? classical? country? Blue-grass? I myself play classical, jazz, blues, and rock.

My professor is a Juliard graduate, so he expects us to do an outrageous amount of practicing. I'm a pretty good violinist, but I'm not a virtuoso or anything. Apparently, I'm really tense when I play so I'm currently trying to get my left hand more relaxed and bowing arm more free. If ever I can get my hands on a mic (my old one is at home), I'll record myself playing for you guys. I composed some pretty awesome variations on Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. :DDD

For violin I almost exclusively play classical. Mostly because I have a very hard time learning Blue-grass and Fiddle type stuff without sheet music, and that's what my instructor makes me play. But when it comes to guitar, I try to putz around with just about everything. Right now I'm in a big Rockabilly phase. Go figure.

But it is a very good idea to practice every day, even if it is just for half an hour. Playing a musical instrument isn't like riding a bike, and if you take a break from it for too long you can 'lose your edge', so to speak. So for any up and coming musicians out there, practice on a regular basis.

You'll thank me later.

Originally Posted by silver_wolfe

On my set, I have Sabian AAX cymbals and Zildjian ZXT cymbals with a wuhan china, but Sabian are my favorite, they're excellently crafted and are nice lookin' too haha

Ah, one of them Sabain fans, eh? Almost every percussionist but me at my college like Sabians too. I'm more of a Paiste guy, though. Paiste's are shmexy.

Also:
Q: What's the definition of a minor second?
A: Two violas playing at the same time.

Originally Posted by The Unsung Hero

I composed some pretty awesome variations on Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. D

I lol'd. Why did I lol?

Ah, one of them Sabain fans, eh? Almost every percussionist but me at my college like Sabians too. I'm more of a Paiste guy, though. Paiste's are shmexy.

Sabians are great, but Paiste makes some damn good cymbals too. I used to have a Paiste splash and i loved that thing, but it broke....

Originally Posted by I Am Me

The brass players at my school have a stupid grudge against the percussionists. I really hate them...

just about everyone has a grudge against percussionists, especially auxilliary!!
(flag/majorettes)

I play a Ocarina, I got it straight after I loved the Zelda games.
I can play a key-board as well. "-"

I play the keyboard....... a bit. I taught myself everything from playing to reading sheet music. I cant read sheet music while i play so i learn all the music of by heart.
And i wouldn't say i am amazing at it though and i only mostly play Zelda music.

I play guitar (electric, accoustic, classical, and slide), bass(just electric), drums, trying to learn piano but i suck at it

Originally Posted by The Unsung Hero

My professor is a Juliard graduate, so he expects us to do an outrageous amount of practicing. I'm a pretty good violinist, but I'm not a virtuoso or anything. Apparently, I'm really tense when I play so I'm currently trying to get my left hand more relaxed and bowing arm more free. If ever I can get my hands on a mic (my old one is at home), I'll record myself playing for you guys. I composed some pretty awesome variations on Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. D

For violin I almost exclusively play classical. Mostly because I have a very hard time learning Blue-grass and Fiddle type stuff without sheet music, and that's what my instructor makes me play. But when it comes to guitar, I try to putz around with just about everything. Right now I'm in a big Rockabilly phase. Go figure.

But it is a very good idea to practice every day, even if it is just for half an hour. Playing a musical instrument isn't like riding a bike, and if you take a break from it for too long you can 'lose your edge', so to speak. So for any up and coming musicians out there, practice on a regular basis.

You'll thank me later.

I see. I'm quite relaxed when I play. My problem is that I make rediculus faces when I play! I like, make all these weird expressions, and I don't really notice it when I play, but one time I recorded myself playing, and I was laughing at how silly my face looked. But, I suppose how you look isn't nearly as important as how you sound.

Well, learning blues and jazz isn't very difficult. All you need to know is like, a B flat, and E flat, blues scale and a 1411,4411,5411 chord progression and you can pretty much play anything! Plus, on the bass you only need to shift once to play a blues scale, so it's easy to play on bass. I would imagine with the violins short neck, it wouldn't require much effort. rockabilly? The place were I bought my bass, one of the salespersons was a rockabilly player. He was insane! he could do like, 16th notes, slapping! which is hard, (most people don't realize how difficult slapping an upright bass can be). I hardly slap or play rockabilly though, slapping completely RUINS the fingerboard, and it's like, maybe 150 dollars or so to get it replaced, so, not much slapping on my part!

Oh, I practice plenty. I know what you mean though, when I go on long vacations, when I come back it takes me a while to remember everything again! XD

i play the clarinet and aucustic guitar.

Originally Posted by zeldask8r

Well, learning blues and jazz isn't very difficult. All you need to know is like, a B flat, and E flat, blues scale and a 1411,4411,5411 chord progression and you can pretty much play anything! Plus, on the bass you only need to shift once to play a blues scale, so it's easy to play on bass. I would imagine with the violins short neck, it wouldn't require much effort.

I'd personally learn more than just a B and E flat thing if you're going into jazz. There's a LOT of peices in C major at the very least.

yeah seriously. to play jazz you need to know every scale in every key, and you need to know every scale degree perfectly by heart, you need to know how to harmonize chords on the spot, etc. you can't play jazz just knowing an e flat blues scale :| i guess you could but a real jazz player would laugh at you ,

Originally Posted by trashbeast

yeah seriously. to play jazz you need to know every scale in every key, and you need to know every scale degree perfectly by heart, you need to know how to harmonize chords on the spot, etc. you can't play jazz just knowing an e flat blues scale :| i guess you could but a real jazz player would laugh at you ,

It isn't a terrible challenge to play any scale in different keys if you have a good grasp of theory. In fact, playing scales in different keys is a piece of cake for strings. F# Major sounds daunting, but if you break it down you're just moving the tonic to another starting note and using the same basic structure of steps. Same with modes. You just have to remember what note you're staring on in the scale (ex: Aeolian starts on the 6th), and what your original key signature is.

Also, it helps to realize that Jazz music is heavily pentatonic, which makes harmonizing easy. It isn't like you're improvising Bach-esque counterpoint, or Allegri style polyphony on the spot.

I love when Jazz musicians make music theory sound much more complicated than it really is.

Originally Posted by The Unsung Hero

It isn't a terrible challenge to play any scale in different keys if you have a good grasp of theory. In fact, playing scales in different keys is a piece of cake for strings. F# Major sounds daunting, but if you break it down you're just moving the tonic to another starting note and using the same basic structure of steps. Same with modes. You just have to remember what note you're staring on in the scale (ex: Aeolian starts on the 6th), and what your original key signature is.

Also, it helps to realize that Jazz music is heavily pentatonic, which makes harmonizing easy. It isn't like you're improvising Bach-esque counterpoint, or Allegri style polyphony on the spot.

I love when Jazz musicians make music theory sound much more complicated than it really is.

I don't actually recall either of us saying theory was difficult. And frankly, most of the jazz players I know don't have much of a grasp on it anyway.

I play electric guitar(lead in my band) I also play the flute and I don't know if it counts but I do vocals in my band

I play electric guitar, it just seems so much more appealing and satisfying to play than other instruments. I play classic rock/80's metal. I iknow my minor pentatonic scale and am going to aim to learn pentatonic, then the minor and major. That's all you really need for my style of music Hey simplest is best right . I can read sheet music at a pathetic level, it takes me ages to work out each note and to be honest sheet music doesn't lend itself to gutiar very well, considering how the notes repeat themselves so often on the neck. Tab is quicker and gives you a better idea what is going on technique wise.

Lol, now I realise how stupid I've been music is SOOOOOO complicated no way I can get by with just pentatonic and the minor and the major scale.. I've started learning modes and arpeggios .... it's gonna be a long time before I'm a decent musiscian composing is way harder thn learning songs to play

I have a Yamaha keyboard/piano that I play sometimes. I'm not really good at all, but it's better than nothing. I'd like to practice a lot more over the summer, unless I end up getting a job... which doesn't seem very likely.

Ive been playing trumpet for 3 years.

I've been playing the piano/keyboard for about two and a half years now. I only have a keyboard, but I can practice on the piano in school and fleegin'. My favourite piece is "Farewell Hyrule King".