Do you play any instruments?

[Kinz]

I looked all through Chatter II and I couldn't find this. I was really surprised... but anyway. Correct me if I'm wrong and there is a topic on here about playing musical instruments.

Does anyone here play any instruments? I play the violin and have for... let me think... *counts on fingers* going on 8 years now. My orchestra teacher's awful though; she can't conduct (I could do better than her), and there's a whole bunch of things about her that I'm not going to get into here (it's not the right place) that make me mad. The only thing keeping me going right now is the fact that a.) we're playing excerpts from Phantom of the Opera for our concert on Saturday, and b.) we're playing at Carnagie Hall in New York during spring break (early April, I believe). So if anyone lives in New York, come see us!

Back on topic: I've also taught myself piano and a bit of guitar. I love playing Vanessa Carlton and Evanescence songs on the piano. *nods* I'm working on "Half A Week Before the Winter" right now. Anyone else play anything?

[KizzyShima]

I've played cello for... Well, as of this year it's nine years. I didn't really practice much until I got a private lesson teacher who had me practicing a lot and made cello more fun for me. Plus, the orchestra environment at my school is pretty awesome.

I also can play a bit of piano, as in I can read the notes and play the keys. No two-handed stuff though.

[Kinz]

*coughs* I still don't practice much. But don't tell my private teacher. Actually, I think he knows, but he's really cool so he doesn't get mad. And my orchestra at school is cut into two different orchestras, Chamber (the good one that you have to audition to get into) and Symphony (the one that I'm in, aka the bad one). I never auditioned for Chamber, and so I don't know if I could get in, but the conductor obviously favors Chamber. They get to play more songs, cooler songs, and she raves about them to us in Symphony. The people in orchestra are cool, for the most part, but most of my friends are in Chamber. :/ And about piano, I shut myself up in my room with my keyboard and a couple piano songbooks and taught myself bass clef and how to use both hands. It wasn't particularly hard, although I do feel stupid when this guy in my orchestra class plays piano. I think he's been taking lessons since he was around 4 though, so I think he's got a bit of an edge on me.

[Cress]

I LOOOOOOOOOVE piano. I've been playing for about 10 years now, maybe going on 11. I'm not entirely sure. Anyway, I think I'm pretty good. I haven't been taking lessons regularly, but I just started taking jazz piano which is really fun. It kind of annoys me when people are like "Oh, I can play piano, I taught myself aren't I good?" and then they proceed to play something (rather badly) that isn't very hard. Mostly cause I know a lot of people who are like that and have no musical talent/background whatsoever which makes it even more frustrating.
Other than that I play taiko, which is a kind of Japanese drumming. It's absolutely amazing, so if you dont' know what it is then go find out all about it NOW!
Then I played guitar for a little bit. Not very long and I didn't like it very much so I quit.

[Garrett Fitzgerald]

I played clarinet regularly from 1976 to 1999. I still play (several local community musicals since '99), but much less regularly than I used to. :-(

You can hear a short sample from Man of La Mancha (2003?) here, but it's a pretty big download.

[Dee]

[Dragon Writer]

I can swear i can remember posTing on some topic about this yesterday...maybe it was chat forum...either way, no instrument for me unfortunately...I was going to learn guitar, but my dad gave it away...

[Garrett Fitzgerald]

Ah, much the same here. :-) I'm a big fan of Aubrey Atwater and Elwood Donnelly, and Aubrey's a pennywhistle expert. You can hear some of her work on "A Pity Undue", which is one of the songs from their albums .

[the_peridexis]

I'm not nearly so accomplished as many of you people, but I played clarinet for a year ...and hated it. was actually pretty good, but my teacher was a...yes, you get it. She was incredibly demeaning, and made me cry more than once, and I couldn't stand her. So the next year I switched to percussion, and I loved it, (that's why I tend to memorize beats and rythms instead of lyrics) and ended up playing it for three years but...*sob*....I've had to stop drumming. I'm so sad. My sister wanted me to take a credit class, (hence Spanish) and she said I was better at art so she wanted me to take Advanced Art instead of drumming. If I argued with her, I know I'd be in trouble with my whole family. It's crazy how much influence she has on my mom and dad and other sister. I miss my drums,(soooooo much...) but I'm going back, of course. ASAP, I'm getting a job and paying for private lessons and a drum kit myself. But still...it's a long time to wait.

-peri

-per

[Angel_Star]

I play flute...and have played for what, five years now? I think that's it. Anyway, I'm not that great. I mean, I'm not awful, but I'm not amazing. I want to start taking lessons again, though. I need some motivation to practice. I'm in the Chamber Choir at school as well, though that's really not instrumental. I played sax for like two weeks, but then it started messing with my teeth (like, in a veeeerrry bad way), so I had to quit. It made me sad. Oh, and I played one song for pep band on piccolo 'cause our picc player had to do something. Mr W was like, "Here, (insert last name here), play picc." And I looked at him like he was crazy, but I eventually took it and _tried_ to play it right. I messed with my friend's violin, and I want her to teach me just so I can say that I can play _something_ on violin. My ex tried to teach me a bit on guitar...didn't work. Maybe that's 'cause I gave up real quick. I can mess around with a piano, but anybody can do _that_. It's fun to mess around with instruments. Oo! I played a note on my other friend's bassoon.

[Kinz]

I never said I was very good at piano... I just said that I like playing it. I don't go showing off. It's more like a hobby than something to show off. I might play for a camp talent show next summer, but if and only if I get good enough. Anyway, I lerf my violin. I can mess around on viola a bit too, sometimes my viola friend and I switch instruments for a while. It's hard for me to read alto clef though, even though I had to learn for orchestra class. THe closest I've come to cello is playing my violin cello-style, which I haven't done since fourth grade.

[Cress]

I know Kinz, sorry if I got all creepy on ya. It's just one of my HUGE pet peeves cause we have a ton of really show offy people at my school. I didn't mean you. I'm rather sad that I can't play anything else, but I don't have any opportunities to play anything else...I know some people who play trombone, but I can't just steal their instruments. I'm pretty good when it comes to the technical aspect of stuff, so I could probably pick up most things easily once I figure out fingering etc.
AND I forgot, I've been in choir for...five years. Four years? Something like that. Anyway, I'm in the "good" choir this year, but nobody knows how to read music or anything and it's VERY frustrating for me. I really can't learn music the way we do, and I'm about to explode. But I do love to sing. I'm not very good, but I love it. Sight singing and stuff like that is hard, but really fun.

[Mel]

This is....*counts* my 9th year playing piano. It's crazy, I can't believe I've done it this long already. But, I've been around pianos for 11 years (when my brother started), and I have an ear for music (hearing popular songs and just playing the tune on the piano). That's mainly becuase, I thuink I've been around pianos so long, and have been influenced by many classical CDs and jazz and big band, and occasional 80s music when I was younger.

I have also recently started Organ in July (though I need to start lessons again soon; my teacher went to AFRICA for her vacation! That is a very long way away from here....)

Finally, I've been doing choir for some years. I was in a...uhm...Archediosecean Choir, and we got to perform at a local and prestegious hall. The walls were designed to be held in place by weights, so that with computers, Each little tiny section of the wall could move so the soundwaves wouldn't echo, but would still be loud. Amaazzzing stuff out there.

Kinz:
My orchestra teacher's awful though; she can't conduct (I could do better than her)

Boy, do I know that feeling. In the school's choir, I could conductg better than she. She gets terribly off beat sometimes. Besides that, her voice isn't much better than mine (which is not good, any more) and she can't play piano for her life, which is needed for us in learning tunes. I guess I just miss our old director...

Ahh, cool! I've always wanted to play fiddle! Too many country influences, I guess. Is it hard? *bites nails*

Ahh, well, I think I'd better go now. I don't really think I have anything more to say on the topic, except that music is seriously half of my heart at soul (the other half goes to books, )

[Dragon Writer]

Don't short yourself peri...you're probably better then you're telling. personally, i don't play at all, so you're already one upping me...Now, i really must go and post, so i'll be seeing you later! *runs off real quick after disbanding the idea of taking something from pendragon series and fluming to another forum* what do you know...this is my last post of thd day! *cheers* well, on this forum anyways...

[Dee]

Mel:

Ahh, cool! I've always wanted to play fiddle! Too many country influences, I guess. Is it hard?

Nah, it's not really hard at all. In fact, I think it's much easier than classical violin. Though that could be because I hated classical. I'd practice as little as possible, now I love practicing. But yeah, when I was doing classical I had all these really snooty teachers who I hated, and whenever I had a lesson I always got aggravated that THEY never had THEIR violin out, they just watched me and "instructed". They didn't teach. They bossed.

I went through a ton of violin teachers. I hated all of them. This one lady was supposed to be the best in the city, and I had her for a month and she was just awful for me, we did not get along. I thought they were all too hands-off, none of them wanted to get into the music with me, they all just sat there and said "More vibrato! You're out of tune! You need to feel the music! Do it THAT way!" None of them ever said "Here, watch me, do it like this."

So I had just finished a lesson (my last lesson) with another teacher who yelled at me for "not feeling it", when I was walking home, thtough downtown, and I heard this wonderful music... and I rounded the corner, and there was this tall, 50 year old, bald guy with a red face and a big nose and scruffy clothes, and he was playing the most beautiful music I'd ever heard- at least it sounded like it at the time. It was a Celtic piece, and he had his fiddle case set out for spare change. He saw my violin case and grinned at me and I just stood there stunned... at the end of the song he asked how long I'd been playing and I said something to the effect of "I think I just started. Do you do lessons?" And he said he didn't usually, but he'd consider it for me, and gave me his name and number.

So now I play bluegrass with Nick. Instead of making me come to a stuffy studio, he comes to my house. Instead of sitting in a chair with glasses on and a notepad and telling me what I'm doing wrong, he gets his fiddle out and plays right along with me, or demonstrates when I need to see the right way to do it. His secondary objective, aside from teaching me, is to get me to laugh hysterically at least twice each lesson. XD

So, yeah. Sorry that was so long, I sorta started typing and didn't know how to stop... but I answered your question, right? XD Or maybe not. But oh well.