How good are you at your 2nd or 3rd instrument?

Jack of all trades, master of none. As people have mentioned before.

I do believe that learning at least how to play an instrument is very helpful from a composer's point of view, as Gardener pointed out. Hindemith could play virtually all instruments of the orchestra pretty damn decently. And he was a brilliant orchestrator. However, so was Berlioz, and he could only play the guitar. So that doesn't leave us anywhere in particular.

However, the point with learning an instrument is that you don't have to learn things by heart - you touch the instrument, and slowly you get to know its physical limitations and bam, there you go. Pick up the violin, take 2 lessons, give it up. But you'll never have to search in an orchestration book what the open strings of a violin are.

On the other hand, there's the "fun" factor. I really enjoy trying my way around different instruments, just for the sake of being able to make a sound out of them and just play a jolly tune.

The instrument I pay more attention to is the piano, mainly because I really enjoy playing it, I've been playing it for more than the other instruments, and because I think the piano in particular is a difficult instrument to write for if you don't play it to some degree (which is one of the reasons why Berlioz wrote nothing for the piano). But also because I really enjoy playing in public, and playing the piano in public is a lot easier for me than any of the other instruments.

I can also play some guitar (self-taught), a little bit of clarinet (not the very high notes :x ) (a friend of mine taught me some stuff and recommended me a book which I tried to follow but then go interested in the), xiao flute (I wanted to use it for a piece of mine, but no one was willing to sit down and learn how to play it, so I sat down and worked my donkey over learning it for a recording and a performance last month), some percussion instruments (west african percussion, but also the cas-cas) (to some extent) and that's about it. We also learned some recorder at school but nothing like the baroque recorded, so that's out of the question.

So there. On all the other instruments I'm not even remotely proficient as I am with the piano, but I do enjoy playing around with them and stuff.

Cardew learned how to play the guitar in a very short period of time just so he could take part in the premiere of Boulez's "Le Marteau sans Maitre".

:x

My primary instrument is the piano. I had also started learning the cello in 2002 or something, but quit after a couple of years because of lack of time. Now I am trying to relearn what I've forgotten, learn new positions etc. Apart from that I play decently the baroque recorder (I have a little difficulty playing the sopranino because of its being tiny and I also haven't tried yet the bass recorder) and I am always looking forward to learning something new...

Alexandros

On 12/31/2008 at 5:46 AM, James H. said:

In order to play Ondes Martenot you need to fluently know your way around using the volume control, which I believe when depressed certain ways results in different attack qualities. You'll also need to know what all the synth thingies are and how to mix and match them to get the correct tone. I play the piano and I don't know what these things are called, so apparently knowing a little piano doesn't help in being a decent Ondes Martenot-ist.

Guitar, banjo, and mandolin are all rather different. Rarely do you run across the guitarist who uses banjo technique on his instrument if he doesn't already play banjo. Plus, if you play guitar, you can't just pick up a banjo and start picking - all the strings are tuned and used differently so the fingerings will be different. Mandolin is tuned like a violin and has it's own techniques as well.

Sure maybe you could play a few notes are chords on these things, anybody could, but not begin to play a standard repertoire work. At least get all the faults and cracks out of your arguments before trying to mock the rest of the community.

 

Similarly, guitar, banjo, and mandolin each require unique techniques and fingerings, making it challenging to switch between them without proper training.

My 2nd and 3rd instruments are too good and they are nowhere to be seen haha!! I have learnt Chinese instrument Erhi before since it's mandatory to learn Chinese instrument in my university, but I play it as 💩since I don't like it and never practice it! 

P.s. @murphybridgetIt won't be mandolin or banjo for me!!🤣😝

Henry

No problem Henry, I just noticed you're running a youtube channel.

On 3/4/2024 at 3:00 PM, murphybridget said:

No problem Henry, I just noticed you're running a youtube channel.

Yeah, please come and subscribe it and share it!! Don’t hate me even if I don’t play mandolin haha.

Henry

Sure why not. I'd love to do that.