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| The Musicians' Thread; Discuss the joys of playing here. | |
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| Topic Started: Sep 10 2007, 07:50 PM (500 Views) | |
| will_k_williams | Sep 10 2007, 07:50 PM Post #1 |
Miscreant
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Well there's a thread for just about everything else on here and I know there are a lot of people on Parley that play at least one type of musical instrument. I thought it would be nice to have a thread to be able to discuss playing with others. Whether you want advice on how to get that Chuck Berry lick to sound right, where to find good music and which instrument or if you just want to whinge about your bandmates and the rubbish you have to play. Post it here! Of course I'm not a musician, I'm a guitarist.  Will |
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| Stormy Lass | Sep 10 2007, 09:24 PM Post #2 |
Wretch
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I play bass guitar. Not very well. But I'm learning! I've never actually been in a band, because I've never been good enough. In all honesty, I don't even care if I ever do play in a band, I just want to learn to play for myself. I love the sound of a bass guitar, I always have. Actually, I love the sound of any guitar, particularly an electric guitar, but the bass... I dunno, it just feels right to me. So I'm learning. Slowly. I used to be able to play three whole songs (w00t!), but that was years ago, I'm having to relearn a lot now. |
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| will_k_williams | Sep 11 2007, 03:26 AM Post #3 |
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Miscreant
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Sorry to say but I started playing the bass guitar about a week ago and I find it amazingly easy. I've been playing flamenco guitar for nine years, I've been playing electric for five or so and I was given a bass guitar a couple of months ago and aside from the action being too high and the frets being about a mile apart I've had no trouble. I also picked up my little Squier telecaster today and for the first time since I got it for my 18th birthday, I love it! When I first had it it wasn't the type I wanted, the make I wanted, the colour I wanted...basically I just didn't get on with it. It was properly set up a few years ago, the action lowered etc but I just didn't like it and it didn't feel comfortable. I hadn't played that guitar in at least a year, maybe two and when I opened the case I expected the strings to have rotted away or fallen off but amazingly it was perfect and still in tune! It's incredibly comfortable to play, it's light and my fingers barely have to touch the strings. The neck's still rough and it's an ugly colour but it's comfortable and considerably lighter than my hybrid Epiphone/Gibson 335. I'm so glad I didn't sell it. Will |
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| theatre savvy pirate | Sep 12 2007, 12:29 AM Post #4 |
Wretch
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I play the trumpet and the accordion in addition to being a singer. Greatest achievements [thus far] - playing the opening to "Wish You Where Here" on the accordion (during a jam session with friends). Also, winning a special award at a one act play festival for "Live Music" (as The Accordionist in Subway Circus) - playing the first trumpet part of the Pirates of the Caribbean medley in my senior year of high school. - vocally/singing; having my own song in Snoopy! (where the character of Linus sings about waiting for the Great Pumpkin). |
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| will_k_williams | Sep 12 2007, 01:06 AM Post #5 |
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Miscreant
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I have no achievements whatsoever plus the world and his dog play guitar so I accept that I'm not great or special in the slightest. Accordion is an odd instrument to play, I only know one other accordion player and it looks like the hardest thing on Earth. To squeeze, unsqueeze, press buttons and keys all at the right time just takes far more coordination than I will ever have. Well done. I know there are a lot of people on Parley that play at least one type of instrument and I hope that they'll come in here and share it with us. Will |
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| theatre savvy pirate | Sep 12 2007, 12:16 PM Post #6 |
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Wretch
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God, yes... the accordion is difficult. Last year when I was working in a theatre, so many of the crew members thought it wasn't that big of a challenge (as far as playing goes). Once they saw it in action, however, their response changed from "That isn't too hard!" to "HOW THE HECK DO YOU PLAY THAT THING? AMAZING!!!" There are still parts of the accordion of which I'm still trying to master, but I feel a great sense of accomplishment for just having learned to play "Tango Ballad" from The Threepenny Opera. |
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| Cuttlefish | Sep 26 2007, 06:55 PM Post #7 |
Swabbie
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Accordion and organs seems, to me, like the two most difficult instruments of all, when it comes to coordination. I mean, my goodness, how? Just 'How?'. I play piano. Not very well mind you, but I'm definitely improving with time. Then again, I have to since I have level A music in high school. Fortunately, it's fun and interesting for me to learn about how different types of music are composed and seeing and hearing the way a piece is created. Music is a complex but intriguing language (however corny that may sound) Woo, music! |
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| xDizzyx | Sep 26 2007, 07:35 PM Post #8 |
Smuggler
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I'm trying to learn guitar at the mo.. I have a Squier (Have no idea what that means.. my mate told me that's what it is). I don't get lessons, I'm kind of getting taught by a friend. When I get my own guitar (currently using sister's) I can get lessons (or so Im told)
I'm starting off with an acoustic... Apparently guitars hard to learn :-\.... is it? |
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| Alia Atreides | Sep 26 2007, 07:39 PM Post #9 |
Journeyman Craftswoman
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Level A music in school? What exactly is that? Just curious because at least in my state and school district we didn't really 'level' our music. It seems to be a theme that when people play music they like to stick within the same family--or double up with their instrument and then piano, but that's pretty cool. I'm a viola player, that's probably come up before, former violinist (I switched because the sound of the viola is something I prefer to the violin--the high E on the violin grated on me the longer I played the instrument), but I can still play the violin, but those are the only two instruments I consider that I actually play. I've dabbled around with the clarinet for a year, and also took some piano lessons. On the violin and viola I never got the sense of what it was like to try and get your hands to do two different things--bowing and then the fingers on the strings isn't quite playing with two hands, so I took a shot at the piano and I did get the stuff down eventually, but it was really only at the simple level. Hence the dabbling. |
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| mttomb | Sep 27 2007, 06:35 AM Post #10 |
Scallywag
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How dare you!    The violin is beautiful! Your viola can't begin to compete! 
Yeah, so, obviously I play the violin, and I've dabbled in other instruments but wouldn't really call myself good at any of them, although I did play the bells (like a mini-xylophone) in a concert, so I guess I'm not too bad, but it was a really simple song. Actaully, songs, plural, now that I think of it. The second one was kind of hard, actually... anyway, I still don't really think I'm very good at them, only that I've got enough muscle memory to get through two songs, lol. And I've got the right hand down on the piano, but I've never really been able to do the two lines at once, though I never took any lessons, so that might have helped.
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| Cuttlefish | Sep 27 2007, 06:10 PM Post #11 |
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Swabbie
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I live in Denmark, so of course I should have thought about rephrasing that. I always forget :rolleyes: Our school system is very complicated, so I wont begin to bore you with all the silly rules and guidelines, I'll just say that one can choose a subject (such as languages which only include English, Spanish, German and French, or creative classes; film study, art, music) on three different levels; A, B and C. C is the lowest (omg, teh logic!!one!) meaning that you only have it the first year of high school and only learn the pure basics of whatever it is you're learning about. It varies from class to class, but music on A level incl.: Learning an instrument (actually they'd prefer it if you already mastered one), understanding the language (reading and understanding all the rules in notes and chords) etc. etc. By the end of the year we should be able to write a piece of our own. Aaand... that's it. Hope it makes a teensy bit sense. And to the violin and viola players: I have nothing but respect and admiration for you. I love those instruments but never had the guts to even try to learn them. |
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| Alia Atreides | Sep 27 2007, 10:04 PM Post #12 |
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Journeyman Craftswoman
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In terms of reputation....no. We'll always enjoy the reputation of being a second rate instrument for violin wash-outs. For anyone who wishes to know more of this, google "viola jokes" and you'll learn all about it. You know I just started saying "viola" again and again...and now the word sounds really funky to me.
Thank you, it sure did!  Compared to your music program, the one I suffered through was horrendous. Now, keeping in mind that that varies in the US from state to state, and from district to district (my mother had an excellent music program when she was in school--and she almost went into music for piccolo and flute, but not really enough jobs), mine was amazingly inept. Music was cut from education...a while ago--to help fund other things like math and science, the sort of "core" courses, and my district really never seems to have recovered from that. In elementary school you are given the option to learn an instrument, but you have to pay for the lessons at the school, and they take place after normal hours. In middle school they forced people to either join chorus or band, so a lot of people start an instrument then, and I literally mean start. Our instructor started us off by teaching us how to put our instruments together and how to make a sound with it, as well as trying to teach us how to read music. Progress...was not really that great, but he was given a mixed class of a few string instruments (but all had prior lessons), woodwinds, brass, percussion, and had to try to teach everyone in one period--so like three days a week. Given those conditions I think what he accomplished was amazing. Then in high school you get divided into one of the two bands, the wind ensemble, or the orchestra (segregation of strings!). Strings were really not well done at my school. When I started playing with the schools in middle school, they actually shipped us up to the high school to play with their orchestra...which was a string quartet. Two violins, a cello, and a bass, plus about 6 of us who were violin players. They had so much trouble getting string players in high school, that they practically press ganged other musicians into taking up a string instrument. It was horrible. By the time I started high school, I'd only been on the viola for two years, starting my third, and I was chair of my section. Not the only viola player, thank goodness, but the other two players had just started the viola. It was just really crazy when it came to the music. We had a department that wanted to be competitive musically, but with not enough people to really support such, and that was never my goal in music. I played with a group because I loved my instrument, but there is just something fun with playing together in a group and hearing all the parts come together to create this beautiful piece. And...it's also the only way I can play in front of people--when playing with others. I left the music program after my first year, and just took another language...because I didn't want to be competitive within the group, unless it was really something that they were capable of doing--they wanted that, but they were still stuck between whether this music thing was for fun, or for trying to get a gold medal.
You have a background as a musician you know--the more instruments you learn, the easier it gets, because the fundamentals are still mostly the same. Now...they aren't cheap instruments--the violin and viola, to play, but I think the most difficult thing about learning to play them is just making sure that you get the pitch correct and stuff...well the different positions are also a source of annoyance and difficulty sometimes, but...that does fall under pitch mostly. You do piano so you would be able to adapt fairly well to the two different tasks that string players do with their hands, and I found piano harder in regards to that stuff. |
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| mttomb | Sep 28 2007, 06:20 AM Post #13 |
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Scallywag
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Alia, your music program sounds really messed up. I feel for you.
 At my grade school, you could start playing an instrument if you wanted, and it was... I think 3 days a week, although my memory could be fuzzy on that, and you got out of class for it (woot!) and it didn't cost anything. Then, in junior high orchestra was my one and only elective class, and then in high school I took it all four years as an elective as well. There were two orchestra periods, and in both together I'd guess there were about 60 people, so my school had a fairly big program. Not anywhere near as big as the band program, though. Seriously, they were huge! <_< Anyway, luckily orchestra was never threatened in my school district, although I think now they may start it one year later, fifth grade instead of fourth, but it's still there, thankfully.
Seriously. <_< And, for me, piano is way harder as far as getting your hands to do two separate things than a violin. I mean, your right arm is moving, but your fingers aren't determining notes with that hand, whereas on a piano both hands are determining notes, and then there's the two lines of music, and... actually for some reason I never really had to think about my right arm too much when I played. It came kind of naturally to me, so I was able to concentrate on the left, so I still think of it as a one handed thing, even though it's not, but my mind thinks of it like that, but if you can do two different things with your hands then you're well on your way. Although, I always found it harder to get your fingers in just the right position, cuz on a piano there's the key, and you can see exactly where your finger needs to go, but a violin's not like that. Well, to me that's what makes it hard. And I'm just rambling now, so I'll stop. Hm... when I was learning holding the thing with my chin was hard, too, now that I think about it, though now I find it really easy, so you might need to get used to that, lol. |
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| will_k_williams | Oct 1 2007, 12:25 AM Post #14 |
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Miscreant
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Guitar can be difficult to learn. It depends what you want to do with it, if you just want to strum along to a Green Day song then it's pretty easy. If you want to play the solo in Smoke on the Water it's tough. If you wish to become the next John Williams then it's very hard indeed. As for Squier, it's a make of guitar, they're Fender's cheap brand. It's not a type of guitar in itself, it's just a make. It's like saying 'I drive a Pontiac' rather than saying 'I drive a '67 Pontiac GTO'. I have a white Squier Telecaster among my collection. When you say you're starting with acoustic, do you mean a steel strung guitar or nylon? You can't really play anything classical on steel strings and you can't use a plectrum on nylons as it will damage them. It all depends on what you want to play. Will |
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| theatre savvy pirate | Oct 1 2007, 04:46 AM Post #15 |
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Wretch
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The accordion is particularly difficult because it requires upper arm strength. (the one I currently own is about 16 pounds, 32 when it's in its case). I'd like to take up piano again. Listening to The Dresden Dolls and Jonathan Larson, I'm wishing I had the skills to sit down and compose something. |
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I'm starting off with an acoustic...| Go to Next Page | |
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12:47 AM Sep 8
