I won't list them all, but I really wanted to learn the mountain dulcimer, so I got a strumstick which is very much like a mountain dulcimer except the strings are reversed and you can hold it like a guitar and it's really cute. I spent many gleeful hours learning to play a few tunes on it. But then my flute playing suffered. I realized if I want to be a good flute player I have to focus on it to the exclusion of the dulcimer. I had to choose, and the flute won.
I still want to learn a few chords on my strumstick (forget about learning tunes, just learn some chords) so that maybe I can put some light backing on my recordings of myself on the flute. But that that means I have to learn how to do backing and I have no clue how to do that. I have the utmost respect for backers because what they do is magic.
And someday I really want to learn to play the mandolin. I just have a sense that I could do well with it. However, the flute...the flute...the evil beast. The taskmaster. Evil mean old flute taking over my life.
~ Diane
Flutes: Tipple D and E flutes and a Casey Burns Boxwood Rudall D flute
Whistles: Jerry Freeman Tweaked D Blackbird
3 acoustic guitars (2 steel, 1 nylon) - I play those all the time at work. I'm a public school elementary general music teacher. A surprisingly un-musical profession.
5 electric guitars - haven't played them in years, though I often think about it.
1 fretless bass - love it, but never get to play it.
1 digital drum set - see above.
1 digital keyboard - i play it some, not a lot.
- this list is kind of depressing -
1 trumpet - that was my first instrument, haven't played it in more than twenty years, but I still have it.
1 mandolin - I don't have much time for it, but it's fun when I get a minute here and there.
2 harmonicas - I gave up on those years ago. I never could figure them out.
10 whistles - I play those fairly regularly - every few days. But not nearly as much as I'd like.
1 keyless flute - this one's new, and judging by how I sound so far, I can't get too much practice time.
Should I suddenly become wealthy, of course, I'll quit my job and have all the time in the world to play. Well, after the house repairs are caught up. And the yard work, and working on the car, and the truck, and ...
sbfluter wrote:
I still want to learn a few chords on my strumstick (forget about learning tunes, just learn some chords) so that maybe I can put some light backing on my recordings of myself on the flute. But that that means I have to learn how to do backing and I have no clue how to do that.
well, Tom put a great chord wizard on our site - so whenever you decide you want to learn them.....
folks, you do have time to learn the harmonica. i followed the on-line free lessons and in one hour had a basic understanding of the instrument and could play songs. my nephew is learning disabled and has actually received a diagnosis of mental retardation, though i doubt that but it took him a whole day to figure out the harmonica but he was home alone at the time. when we get to see each other, we play duets of christmas carols.
i have microsoft word documents of christmas carols in harmonica tab and also in letter notation in the key of C. pm me if you'd like a copy.
Rose tint my world. Keep me safe from my trouble and pain. 白飞梦
mutepointe wrote:my nephew is learning disabled and has actually received a diagnosis of mental retardation, though i doubt that but it took him a whole day to figure out the harmonica but he was home alone at the time.
Somehow, that doesn't help me feel any better about my inability to learn harmonica. Though in my defense I've never been officially diagnosed.
Recorders (they were first in my interests)
Whistles (lots of cheap ones and a few not-so-cheap ones)
A flute or two (haven't really learned to play 'em)
Celtic/Folk/Lever harp
Lately, the harp has been dominating my practice time (though I still play the whistles fairly regularly, and enough on recorder to not completely lose it).
Apparently my goal is to be "jack of all trades, master of none"...
We just had a baby (our 5th!) so the harp is probably a better choice if I don't want to wake her up...
At the end of it all, I want to be told "Well done". I don't want to _be_ well done!
There's something sort of gross to me about sticking my tongue into the harmonica. No thanks. I'll take a pass and stick with my gross enough dribbly flute.
~ Diane
Flutes: Tipple D and E flutes and a Casey Burns Boxwood Rudall D flute
Whistles: Jerry Freeman Tweaked D Blackbird
Tell us something.: Playing Scottish and Irish music in California for 45 years. These days many discussions are migrating to Facebook but I prefer the online chat forum format.
I've been really cutting back on the "instrument aquisition" thing: within the last year I sold all my flutes (Irish fully keyed in D and E flat, a bamboo in E, a Baroque alto flute, a B flat fife) but there's plenty left:
-Two sets of Highland pipes (the gig set and the pipe band set, pitched at 440 and 453 respectively)
-uilleann pipes
-20 or 30 whistles (in every key except F sharp)
-bodhran (made by Bo Hinricks in the 70's)
-two sets of Scottish smallpipes
-Scottish 7/8 size set by Glen (c1900) with Swayne "Lowland" chanter
-Cornish doublepipes (has two chanters so you play in harmony)
-Gaita Gallega in C
-extra gaita chanter in B flat I can use in the gig Highland pipes
-Kaba Gaida (I used to have also a djura gaida with four chanters in different keys)
-kaval
-all the sizes of Bolivian panpipes from the bass Toyo up
-Bolivian quenas and quenacho
-set of Bolivian tarkas
-Bolivian bombo
-various recorders I never play- came in handy when my daughter needed one for school
-Appalachian dulcimer (made in West Virginia of course!)
-Takamine Martin-style guitar
-piano
-my grandfather's fiddle
jlunt wrote:
Somehow, that doesn't help me feel any better about my inability to learn harmonica. Though in my defense I've never been officially diagnosed.
Wow, jlunt. I live in NC too! And if that avatar is really you, I think you actually live next door to me!
I agree that (diatonic) harmonica is a very easy and fun instrument to pick up on. I went through a phase with it, then progressed to chromatic, which I never could get the hang of at all. (No wonder they called Stevie Wonder "the genius of soul", or was that Ray Charles?).
Amazing how expensive the old 'Marine Band' has gotten over my lifetime, though!
Charlie Gravel
“I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I am saying.”
― Oscar Wilde
Tell us something.: This is the first sentence. This is the second of the recommended sentences intended to thwart spam its. This is a third, bonus sentence!
