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


redsaxophone

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My main is Trombone and i'm post-scrafty. (I hope that means intermediate in Robins terminology). :P

My 2nd is Electric Bass and I don't really know how I can tell myself how good I am, I mean, I can pull off Donna Lee at half tempo and Ornithology at close to full speed. I can groove pretty hard when I want to. I know basic walking techniques. I'll just say that I'm either very close to or a tad bit above scrafty. (Check out my "Good Bye Pork Pie Hat for Electric Bass" if you want to see my ballad skills)

My 3rd is Piano and I'm kinda good. Not alot more has to be said. I know alot of jazz voicings, that takes you far.

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Actually, now that I think about it...let me list off all of the instruments I CAN play...

Piano

-If I can play piano, I can also play Ondes Martenot, harpsichord and others

Guitar

-If I can play guitar, that means I can also play mandolin and banjo

Trombone

-If I can play trombone, I can play all forms of it

Trumpet

-If I can play trumpet, I can play fluglehorn, piccolo, and other forms of trumpet

Euphonium

Tuba

All forms of percussion

I play 20+ instruments

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I play most percussion fairly well. I'm decent on snare, okay on timpani, pretty solid on mallets (minus the xylophone - we haven't become friends yet for some reason) fairly solid on auxiliary instruments, including but not limited to tambourine, triangle, cymbals, and bass drum. I am pretty good at the tenor steel drum, by American standards, or pretty mediocre by Trinidad standards.

I'm okay at guitar - good enough to play rhythm guitar on almost anything, though I've never really been much of a lead player. Consequently, bass guitar is something I really enjoy and I feel that I'm pretty good at it - once I really master using my right hand correctly I'll feel really good about it.

I'm decent at piano - I'm better at improvising than I am at learning pieces.

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I'm okay at guitar - good enough to play rhythm guitar on almost anything, though I've never really been much of a lead player. Consequently, bass guitar is something I really enjoy and I feel that I'm pretty good at it - once I really master using my right hand correctly I'll feel really good about it.

The division of rhythm/lead guitar doesn't really exist. A good 'rhythm' player should be just as good as any 'lead' player. Too many people call themselves 'rhythm' guitarists to avoid having to become good :P

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Actually, now that I think about it...let me list off all of the instruments I CAN play...

Piano

-If I can play piano, I can also play Ondes Martenot, harpsichord and others

Guitar

-If I can play guitar, that means I can also play mandolin and banjo

etc... ... ...

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.

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  • 2 months later...

I started piano at age 5 and continued until I was 18, at which point I took a ~2 year break.

I feel like I always wanted to try string instruments (my piano teacher's primary instrument was cello) but I never felt like I had the right because I had enough difficulty making myself practice piano, so 2 instruments wouldnt have helped.

When I picked up my music major, I had decided that I was tired of piano, so I convinced them to let me do voice as my primary instrument even though I had never taken lessons before (not that I had never sung). So far I've passed 3 out of 4 proficiencies, so I guess it's working out.

Ultimately I hate classical singing, though. Aside from my natural aversion to operatic vibrato and the higher chest range in men (they didnt even sing with our modern technique until the turn of the 20th century), I cant really handle the fact that (unless you're Renee Flemming), you're always singing something that you never feel like you're good enough to sing. I still enjoy choir, though, and vocal jazz is a lot of fun. Sometimes I think that I would have benefited more in terms of composition if I had furthered my studies in piano instead, but the bottom line is that I'm really happy that I got to study voice, sing in choir, sing in the jazz ensemble, etc. It was really important to my growth both personally and musically.

Solo classical literature definitely isnt my forte. I'm fine in choir, I have no trouble with pitch and can blend with almost anything. I do fine in Jazz, and in general I feel much more comfortable with Jazz vocal solo.

I took up Viola for a year a little while ago because I wanted to have an ensemble instrument under my belt, but I didnt really have enough time to dedicate to it. I suppose I wish I had picked up a string instrument at a young age. Violin or Cello are probably the only 2 instruments I would have considered going for a performance degree in, since the competition isnt ridiculous like it is for piano, and there's really nothing like strings when it comes to having intimate control over the sound you produce. Basically it was a matter of developing the muscle memory, which I didnt have enough time to do when I was taking lessons. It's incredibly frustrating that knowing whether you're sharp or flat doesnt help at all in the midst of playing.

As for piano, I havent really pushed myself with any pieces I've done in the last several years. I suppose one of the more technically demanding pieces I've done has been alla turca? I'm assuming that is considered more technically demanding than Fur Elise or Moonlight's first movement. At the moment my scales are at about 130 with 16th notes to the beat, so yeah.

Oh, and I guess I've been playing guitar for 4 years now. No classical repertoire. I've done fine with the skills I'm able to transfer over from piano, so finger style is comfortable for me. My technique as far as my left hand goes isnt so hot. My fingers are slightly knobby (piano hands) so bar chords are a total scallop for me, and my posture when I play is never good, so reaching is pretty difficult for me.

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First instrument: Piano- playing for 5/6 years

Second instrument: Guitar- been playing for 5/6 years, but I SUCK at it, can really only play chords.

Third Instrument: Voice- Been singing for 3 years, i'm alot better at singing than guitaring though.

I really want to learn how to play:

1. Harp

2. Cello

3. Ocarina

4. Drums

oneday =]

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I play 3 instruments, violin, piano and viola...and I started them in that order.

However, I consider the piano to be my primary instrument as I play it more often and have a teacher for it etc...

Then the viola as that's what I play in my quartet and then my violin although I started it1st.

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Maybe it's because I learned piano first, or maybe it's just "natual talent" but I've never had any difficulty trying new instruments.

My dad wanted me to learn piano first, and, now that I'm older it makes more sense. Because I learned piano first, I didn't have to learn treble clef to play saxophone. Because I learned piano first, I didn't have to learn bass clef like most people do when they switch from (in my case, at least) saxophone to bassoon.

I didn't have to work on finger strength because I already had good dexterity from 4 years of piano when I first picked up a saxophone (when you're in 5th grade those low register pinky keys can be hard to push)

Because I learned saxophone first I didn't have to learn the upper register fingerings for the clarinet (but this would be a vice-versa thing, learning sax form clarinet) and, because I learned clarinet before bassoon I didn't have to really memorize any new fingerings for bassoon at first (E, D, C, B, A, G, F are all the same on both clarinet and bassoon)

Also, because I learned clarinet and saxophone I didn't have to learn new fingerings for flute, and, maybe because of "natural talent" I had a really good embouchure on both flute and piccolo (especially for not ever having lessons)

The same goes for recorder

and Accordion (with the exception of the Bass keys, but even those weren't hard to learn since I learned the circle of 4ths and 5ths when I was taking piano)

The violin, however, is an instrument I don't play. It's fingerings are different from all other instruments mentioned above, entirely. Once reason my violin is collecting dust is for that reason, I don't have any basis of knowledge like "Oh that is really close to those fingerings" or "Oh this embouchure is just like that other instrument's" etc etc.

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