Reader Poll – Do you play an instrument? What is it? – IOTW Report

Reader Poll – Do you play an instrument? What is it?

Monday, 2 September 2019, 11:40 BFH Uncategorized 102

Boehnerdict Ryan suggested this thread. I guess we’re going to put together the biggest band in the world.

(Secondary poll: Which reader will be first to write “skin flute”?)

102 Comments on Reader Poll – Do you play an instrument? What is it?

  19. Piano, acoustic guitar, sax, digital music synthesis…some folks say I think I can play fiddle and banjo.
    What’s a skin flute? Is that one of the Navy Band’s pieces?
    TWD

    7

  23. If you can play count your blessings. I have no musical talent but it would have been nice to have in stressful times. And have you seen the maggots in bands who get the girls?

    6

  24. The bigger question is what is the “Secretive Mr. Pinko’s” ax?

    I’d bet keyboards.

    Will Mr. Big dare to out him?

    P.S. Have the ability to play the above mentioned skin flute and gain a stroke when switching hands.

    4

  25. I started out on the drum kit, with plans of being a big time jazz/rock star. Funny thing about plans…..
    In 1971 I was recruited to play for a regionally “famous country star” friend of my dad because he couldn’t find an adult sober enough, with their own kit. I did the dive circuit with him for dozen or so gigs and requiring no less than 2 bodyguards assigned to me at all times, given my redneck-triggering appearance.
    Yee haw!
    A couple school friends, a drummer and a guitarist wanted to start a teenage combo, so I took up the bass(left handed).
    From late 1971 to early 1974 we were rock stars at numerous & various non club gigs(there was no venue for anything but country where we were). I got a real job in 74, and realized I preferred listening to great music instead of making mediocre music.
    Though I do not play the skin flute, I do pick my nose these days…..just to pass the time.

    5

  30. Needed one credit the last semester of my senior year in college. Decided to try piano. Plinked my way to a 4.0 without ever mastering the scales. When the little black thingy on the paper went up, I hit a higher key. When it went down, hit a lower key.

    Strange how I managed to make it work!

    13

  33. Are you kiddin? My musical aptitude hovers somewhere in the high ZERO range. As a yoot a few instruments were tried. Pals in the other rooms howled with laughter. Decided to give up music, administer a few swirlies. Tons of respect for those with musical aptitude.

    5

  35. I don’t play per se just amuse myself on my all mahogany Martin 000-15, one of my most valued possessions.

    Took lessons in early high school, paid by me own, and has been with me since and then again country blues lesssons right after 9-11 as a relief valve.

    My goal is to get a Rickenbacker and a good quality small amp.

    For my piano friends and @BFH, how bout an piano song intro thread?? Like that drumming one?

    5

  38. Guitar – I was much better when I was younger and practiced all the time.
    That is where the DrRiff name comes from.
    I still have my first guitar, a Yamaha classical, also a Fender acoustic my mom got me for Christmas in 1982, and a 1979 Les Paul standard I’ve had since 1980.

    4

  40. My mom (or the salesman) tried to get me to play the accordion. Ummmmmm…….no. Didn’t happen.
    I used to play acoustic guitar, lo, many decades ago. I used to have a Yamaha FG-180, a fine guitar in its day. Long gone.
    Still sing. On occasion. And getting worse.

    4

  45. Sing, Bass and guitar……..I was in bands from ages 17 to about 30. The last band I was in almost got signed. It’s not all about talent. Timing is 80% of it…….the record label that was going to sign us was the label that signed Matchbox20. An AR rep had contacted us and was planning on seeing us play live after hearing a CD we cut. Before she got to us, the label was bought out by Atlantic Records and she was let go……..

    5

  51. Mandatory piano lessons as a kid, then saxophone. As a young teenager I took up guitar for a while. Then I succumbed to the fumes (car fumes and perfume).
    Now I can occasionally create some interesting music after eating a healthy portion of baked beans.

    4

  53. Lazlo plays guitar, bass, keys, played in the LA scene in the 80’s in an alternative Psychedelic band
    Got signed, played all over the US and some in Europe
    Cut all that bullshit and moved to AZ around ’89 went back to my traditional country roots
    Still play a bit, when I’m not too busy.

    6

  57. I’ve been playing guitar since ‘78. My Dad taught me a couple chords, and that’s all it took. I played in bands in high school and after college, mainly classic rock covers.

    It’s funny how what impressed the girls so much back in high school is sort of tolerated when you’re doing it in your fifties.

    I took up drums last year, and just can’t get enough of it. Just me, my (electronic Roland) kit through headphones, and the music I play along with. Getting Better all the time, as the Beatles said. I’m hoping to drum on an acoustic kit, and make music with actual humans one day.

    Still have the Yamaha FG335 I started on, and it still sounds great. Main guitar is a Martin OM28, good small Folk size for playing on the sofa.

    3

  58. I can’t play an instrument or carry a tune. Hubby, however, plays accordion, sings beautifully, and can yodel. We’ll never be able to downsize to a condo.

    5

  59. Started out as music major at a conservatory until it ground the love of music out of me. It wasn’t for me. 1st instrument is the flute, Gemeinhardt, you dirty boys and girls. 2nd instrument is piano. I can sight sing but God help those who have to listen.

    5

  60. Tuba/Sousaphone in high school (I was a big boy and could read bass clef)
    Piano for over 60 years – several of those years professionally “cocktail piano” in clubs.
    Tuned pianos full time since 1982
    Retired from it all. Wish I still had a tuba.

    6

  62. Ghost, what do you want to play on a Rick? I regret getting the 360/12 12 string, because you can only use it on a few tunes. To do it over, I’d have been happier with the English cut model six string. That would open up lots more early Beatles, Who, everything by The Jam, Smithereens, etc.

    Be sure to have a good tech check out the truss rod on any used Rick you buy. Those things are easy to snap, and costly to repair.

    I’m with you on the small amps! I played a silver face Deluxe Reverb in my last band, simultaneously with a Vibro Champ.

    Got an A/B box so I could switch from one to the other or run both at the same time – it worked great. Better choice for me would have been a Vibrolux Reverb. Lower wattage, so it would naturally break up at lower volume.

    I always used a subtle amount of vibrato on the amp, too. I got into bands by having great tone, and acceptable skills.

    4

  64. @ BoehnerdictRyan – I like the ‘jangly’ tone that those old Rics made, namely George Harrison, Roger McGuinn and the Byrds, Mike Campbell (Tom Petty) etc., and also The Jayhawks.

    Correct, not a 12 string but a six string. Thanks for the tips on the amps!

    4

  67. Piano! I also play a bit of guitar, and also toyed around with banjo & mandolin. Both my brothers were in bands, so sometimes the 3 of us would perform together at local events.

    6

  71. Ghost – Jayhawks are a big favorite of mine as well. Sound of Lies would be one of my desert island albums.

    Eugenia, I’m guessing you had a 2SP Gemeinhardt. Great Flutes, and they are doing some amazing instruments these days in collaboration with Sir James Galway.

    The love of music never goes away. Whether playing or listening, I believe it’s one of those special pleasures we’re given by God.

    3

  74. NOT KIDDING. As soon as I saw the headline I thought, “I’m gonna write that I’m a prodigy on the skin flute.”

    But when I clicked on it BigFurHat was all ready and waiting…

    6

  75. Everybody loves music and everybody knows that THEY love the BEST music (just as every liberal knows that they are smarter than Thomas Jefferson or any of the founding fathers).

    I play sax, flute, and clarinet.
    Played three years in army bands.
    Played in a soul band in Texas in black clubs, as the only white guy in the place besides the guitar player – white supremacist that I am.

    Played lots more after that, and oh the stories I could tell. 😉

    7

  78. Much like golf, I would be better at guitar if i started at an earlier age. I didn’t start golf until in my forties. Guitar in my fifties. By the time I can sort of play a song passably i get bored with it. Then I don’t pick it up for another 3 months. I have a nice, hand built English guitar called a JJ. It is beautiful and sounds great.

    Now about getting The Psychedelic Big Furs together, let me know. I’ll buy a ticket.
    And if you’re looking for a round eye Yoko impersonator, give me a call.

    7

  79. My big problem was that I like so many genres that I could never concentrate on one. That and being a bit lazy, of course.

    I just wish I had someone close by that I could play music with.

    2

  80. Kudos to all you guys who can play a musical instrument…and those who have hit or miss on the road band stories! So cool!

    I don’t play anything now and barely did when I did. Coronet and baritone in middle school- only because I had a crush on the boy who played first chair trumpet. Heading to high school I had the option of staying in band or art classes-not both. Thanks desegregation! I quit band just like that. So long first chair trumpet boy. Alas.

    8

  83. Well, sounds like Eugenia and I could do some lovely flute duets. I have a Gemeinhardt also. Paid $150 for it in Junior High. Started playing in 7th grade and by the end of 8th grade was playing in the band: English Folk Song Suite. And yes, I could do the crazy flute part in the first movement. We had to take turns breathing! God Bless Mary Alyce Brown, our teacher! We would have walked on glass for her! I wound up using Mozart’s Flute Concerto in D as my main audition piece. Pretty much nailed the first movement. But now….? Just a memory!

    But this was on the radio the other day and I hummed along!
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0sC4xbyT5c

    5

  86. Clarinet through high school. Moved to bass clarinet for the last couple of years. So nice to have the notes back inside the staff where they belonged.

    A little harp, both chromatic and a marine band. But only in the privacy of my own home or out walking in the woods.

    3

  89. Guitar from age 14, drums before that. Played in lots of local bands up to my 50s. Still have a few guitars and a couple of amps. Kinda a Fender/Marshall guy, I play LOUD.

    Wanted to start a band called Stick Figure Zombies. 😃

    3

  93. Very impressive and talented line-up of musicians and players here.

    Myself, percussion and any 88-key acoustic or electronic keyboard or synth. Did around 11 CD albums and several singles after the shock of being at Ground Zero on 9/11.

    Started with mostly Classical arrangements, then some original Country, Rock and experimental. All instrumentals. Every one of them. About 110 tracks still can be heard at this site for free:

    http://www.studioelectra.com/

    then go to Player/Online to skip to the next track or album at anytime.

    Played in many show groups, rock, top forty bands, college and open air concerts (including studio recording) with some fairly well-known artists throughout the US. Then later, played solo grand piano at Country Club restaurants and dance lounges, singing and kicking bass pedals under a raised grand piano. This paid for my college education with a science degree. Thereafter, I worked for engineering firms until finally forming my own company for 15 years.

    Still have the studio and will probably make a few more albums with mostly experimental/original music, which you can hear more of in the “Air on a Lullabye”, “Only Came to Here the Movie” and “WITHINTENSE” albums. Keeping in mind that these are all instrumentals and you can skip ahead to the next track or album at anytime without getting too bored.

    Anyway, it’s a great knowing that contributors to the iOTW have talents surpassing the mere intellectual comment/discourse type.

    4

  95. @BFH – to back up your older posts (pre me) and now drummers and other musicians and non musicians love of instruments and music, how about a Friday night ‘open air mic’ about music? Kinda like C’s Sunday mornings? Good way to kick off the weekends moving on!

    A ‘This is what I am listening to tonight’ post.

    4

  97. guitar, dulcimer, mandolin, pennywhistle, fife, bagpipe chanter, anglo concertina (some), autoharp, finger drums, bongos, xylophone,
    mostly anything that has strings or that makes a noise when you hit it.

    1

  98. Pianamusic, Air on a Lullabye was quite impressive and very nicely played! Like you, I felt a need to make music after 9/11, making something good out of a bad situation.

    2

  100. On Whose Shoulders, you need a drummer? This is funny, at least to me and a bunch of my friends. You know how a club band will sometimes invite someone from the crowd to come up and play with the band? We had a friend in our group that couldn’t wait for that to happen. He was a drummer and he was adequate, but not great. Anyway, he would get up on stage as the drummer for the band, and for a few minutes he would play along with whatever song the band was playing. Pretty soon he would launch into a drum solo that couldn’t be stopped. We would all be cheering him on and laughing like crazy, that was so funny. The band didn’t know what to do, the club didn’t really know what to do, finally the bouncers would have to come up and wrestle him off the stage. Talk about getting the crowd involved, we had a lot of fun in the old days.

    2

  101. @MerryMouse these days the cats start howling when I play. My main audition piece was Poulenc’s Sonata for Flute and Piano. My ancient piano teacher Stanley R. Waterfield accompanied on the piano. It was the summer of Watergate and I was fascinated with government and politics. I knew when I auditioned it was a mistake. I never regretted changing majors.

    1

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