Piano and cello.

But, my favourite has been the ukulele. How can one not be happy playing a ukulele. You can take them everywhere.

My daughter and I joined a community group a few years ago and were known as ”The Uklear Explosion”. We had so much fun. It was a blast. 🤠

My main instrument was cello, I have barely played since college, and for the past year or so have really been missing it. I don’t expect I would ever get very good at it again, but if I could get decent enough to join a community orchestra or some other local group, that could be very fulfilling. It'll tske a lot of work and dedication though, I suppose. And lessons.

Flute since I was 8. My daughter played the same flute, until the school loaned her a better one. I was in the school orchestra, wind ensemble, concert band, and marching band. I sat first chair in concert band, and played a very strong third flute in wind ensemble. We didn't even place chairs in wind ensemble because we all know each other so well, we sat where we belonged. I was challenged more than once, and nobody took my chair from me in concert band. I was one of four section leaders for flutes in marching band, but the piccolos were my gals.

I also play piccolo in the orchestra. And of course I love stars and stripes when I'm playing piccolo. Talk about a song featuring an instrument!

My daughter will play the flute when she's feeling emotional, any direction, and plays whatever comes out. It always reflects what she's feeling, because I can sure feel it after she does that. I'm trying to figure out a way to write down what it is she plays, but have yet to succeed.

Playing instruments is wonderful because it requires both left and right brain involvement.

I was so terrible at every instrument that they made me play harp at summer camp because nobody else wanted to and they knew I couldn't easily try to take it up at home. I was ballet all the way. No time for music.

I played piano and flute and recorder. My brother played guitar and Mom played the piano and accordion. My Dad played the radio...

Piano in middle school and early high school. Once we had a house, I inherited the family piano. I dabbled off and on over the years. I got rid of the piano when we downsized in 2019, but last year i had an urge to play again. I got a nice keyboard, and have picked up some of my old music, mostly Beethoven and Bach.

I am also aware of diminishing brains, and playing is good mental exercise.

Started piano lessons in 3rd grade and fortunately had excellent teachers. Took lessons (classically trained) through around 8th grade and then my current teacher asked me about learning organ. I was happy to learn that as I always loved the majesty of the music one could play. It was both fun and interesting as we had access to pipe organs in two different churches in our town. Plus it gave me a part-time job playing organ for a start-up congregation for a couple of years while in high school.

I am so rusty now it would take a while to get back to playing again. I used to fiddle around with some of my old music now and then, but now it seems as if there is never time to do so.

Ha - I had years of piano, starting around 3rd grade too, IIRC, but never got the hang of reading music - I frustrated my teacher to no end because I'd memorize what she demonstrated and play it back by ear. Tried violin around that time as well, but my fingers were too soft and weak to hold down the strings. I can easily play chords on the piano, tho.

My dad played piano beautifully by ear with both hands, and pedals too. We had a piano in the living room and messed around on it often. My mom could read music and play piano haltingly. One of my younger sisters has a music degree, and gives music lessons now. Son also played bass in school orchestra and was invited to join a regional boys' choir too, but declined. Lots of musicality in our family.

I've never been that great learning to use keyboards properly - not typing either, but I can sing and have very good pitch - sang mezzo soprano in church choir for years. Still can't read music very well at all, tho 😏

Hubby gave me a ukulele once upon a time, and I learned a couple of songs, but I'm terrible at making chord changes - my fingers just won't connect with my brain for that skill.

I wanted to learn flute in 8th grade. The school provided insturments. My rotten brother knowing that chose the last flute when his section of the class got to choose insturments so he could be in the band with his best friend who was playing drums The only person who learned anything was me. I learned to make sounds and could play a scale in the two weeks he took band. Dang. I eventually bought and did learn a little but had no one to teach me. I did learn recorder on my own and guitar but my main claim to music is lap dulcimer which I learned in the Appalachians. I got quite good at it. I play by picking and use banjo techniques on the frets. I cant strum for spit. I actually made a dulcimer but the one I have was made for me by a guy on the Blueridge. I also have a hammered dulcimer which my DH made. A thing of beauty but I have tried to make myself learn with music rather than by ear. Not too successfully. It isnt hard to play but hard to play well.

patriciae

Outside, I have always been amazed by and afraid of organs! Now, through bell ringing, I am meeting more organists, and realizing that one of their additional challenges is, every organ is a little different. I can’t imagine how they go from one to another; even playing the same piece, there might be different stops, number of keyboards, timings of sound. I heard about Anna Lapwood and follow her a bit on Instagram, she was just on tour in the US and played at Longwood Gardens.

Back to the question, I played piano as a child and had a couple of wonderful teachers, and one (my second) who kind of took the joy out of it. I still like playing, but it just wasn’t the same. I played French horn in school (I came to that school a year into their band program, and they needed a horn player). It’s a beautiful instrument, I never did it justice.

Now I ring handbells, and I just love it.

I wish I’d had my first piano teacher for a few more years, he was really ”wholistic” in his approach. I think I missed out on my progression in understanding and appreciation of musical structure. I took theory in high school, that was so interesting. And I dated a couple of guys who were really into performance and conducting, I learned so much that heightened my appreciation.

I also tried to play recorder, still would. Nobody at home liked it and they certainly let me know! Sheesh, brothers. (even my parents!) I have three nice instruments! I don’t think I’d want to perform, just play with a few people for fun and improvement.

Piano, flute, harpsichord, trumpet, violin.

I started taking trumpet lessons starting around the 2nd grade (Thanks Mom!). I had a precocious interest in the popular music of the time (late 50s) that my mother recognized and thought learning an instrument would be a good fit. I enjoyed it from the start.

I played in the elementary school orchestra. In Jr. High, the music department had an excess of trumpeters and the teacher, with my agreement, developed me into a utility player. I played the baritone (like a euphonium) in the band, and French horn in the orchestra. My trumpet teacher helped me with the details to adapt. School instruments were furnished at no charge, though I did of course have my own trumpet.

As high school approached and teen social awareness developed in me, I realized I was more inclined to and more interested in being one of the guys who "played" on school sports teams and less inclined to be one of those who "played" instruments while sitting with the spectators.

My brass instrument career ended at that point. But my interest in and love of music has remained permanently attached to me.

In keeping with the times, I bought a guitar in college, taught myself how to play, and had a lot of fun with it. After graduation, "life happened", the guitar remained in its case for decades.

My first midlife crisis happened in my 30s. Feeling a need to get back into playing, I got out the old guitar to get reacquainted and started taking lessons to get better quicker than I could do on my own. I soon decided I needed an electric guitar, then another, then a better acoustic guitar, then another, then a bass guitar, and here I am today. Over the years, my playing has been about 75% solitary playing and about 25% with or in front of others.

I play mostly rock and folk music. My largest audience, when I played in a band as part of an event, was about 700 people. Many others in the 50-100 range.

I had a paying monthly gig for about 5 years to play background music at a quiet (not rowdy) place that usually had a crowd of 25-50. That ended a few years ago and I miss it.

Other hobbies and interests have come and gone. But beginning as a young kid of single digits age who started his music collection by successfully begging my mother to get me the 45 record of Venus by Frankie Avalon as a birthday gift, popular music and playing an instrument have always been a big part of my life.

I had piano lessons for many years and got pretty good at it. Once I left home i no longer played and got very rusty. I suppose I could pick out something simple now.

I sold the baby grand piano when I sold my parents house.I actually gave it to the buyers since pianos are not in demand these days.

I also took flute lessons at school, which was a total waste of time. I just couldnt get it and you cant see your fingers when playing.

I recently sold my high school guitar. Thought i was going to be Joan Baez but that didnt pan out.

The only thing I played was the recorder from grade 3 through to grade 10. It was an optional part of the music programs of the schools that I went to. Learned enough that I could sight read basic music.

Which held me in good stead when my kids joined their school bands in grade 3 and played the trumpet and the baritone.. In high school when the one who played the baritone was asked to shift to the tuba because the band teacher really wanted a tuba player he was thrilled. Like the bass viol it adds a certain depth to a band or orchestra.

Bpath, you are right, every organ is slightly different in some way just as you described. It definitely requires some practice sessions and is tricky sometimes to work out how you will transfer how you’ve played it on one instrument and then figure out how to make it sound similar on another organ. It’s why you usually see a lot of handwritten notes on the music as to the settings used.

There is an organist in this town who has a PhD and is a very talented organist. She serves a large church as their organist but also holds at least one free organ recital open to the public each year. Last summer she played theme music from various popular movies, with scenes from the movie playing. She can slay a difficult Bach piece and then beautifully played all this contemporary music (e.g., the Star Wars theme music was one) that sounded as if a full orchestra was performing it.

OMG, pipe organs are the absolute best. Another instrument I wished I could have learned (we had a pump organ in the home which my dad & I did play, as well as the baby grand piano, but for a full pipe organ I would again have been far too short to manage).

In my next life, I am going to be taller. And be musically talented. And have a lovely singing voice. And will never have thinning hair with a balding spot. Oh, yeah. =)

I had a few years of piano. Not my thing. My offspring all play multiple instruments. DH is going to follow is daughter's lead and teach himself the bag pipes in his retirement. We are off to Scotland in a few weeks!!

I had about six years with piano lesson when I was 6-12. When I was taking Introduction to Music in college who would appear as the prof but my piano teacher who I loved. He was astonished how little I remembered. I adore ALL music but country and loved opera and classical as a kid and still do.

I started playing clarinet in grade school, most mostly because I had a late great uncle who played it in the local symphony and so his instrument was available. It was a gorgeous silver piece, but the teacher determined it was too vintage to use (I guess the keys were in different locations than newer instruments) So my mom traded it for a newer one and I hated it. I really disliked the vibrations in my mouth and I didn’t love the sound either. I wanted to play piano, but our house was too tiny to fit one. I sometimes think about how beautiful that vintage clarinet was and wish it would have remained in the family.

There's something interesting I've observed with many (maybe most?) people who at one time or another have taken instrument lessons. For these folks, the music never "penetrates" their exterior. They play songs mechanically, by rote physical movements. If you asked them to play something "with feeling", or with their interpretation of the piece, they're stuck. They can play it over and over again the same way, as they learned it, but no other way.

These people don't have the ability to play songs intuitively and never did. They simply repeat movements as they were taught and following what the music notation says to do.

I jokingly say there are 25 million people in the US who took piano lessons and likely many can remember years later how to play Für Elise. Don't ask them to play simple tunes like Happy Birthday or Jingle Bells, unless they learned those by rote too. Because most can't. Without sheet music and practice, many can't "play" anything by heart or using a sense of music. Because it's something they never developed.

Oly, I’m sorry that you didn’t get to keep that lovely silver clarinet. You had a passion for it. It would have worked out. Passion and music.

Our house was small and chaotic.

The only instruments I had access to were a fog horn and cellophane over a plastic comb.

I envy those of you with instruments and lessons.

Almost all of my college friends were music majors and I learned that the ability to learn music without sheet music or accompaniment is not a common tallent. Some of these people were really gifted but my ability to hear something and be able to reproduce it was not common. It is a musical gift I have no control over nor any merit from. I remember pitch. I can stay on pitch. When DH and I took a couple of courses in musical instrument building (nickleharpa and hurdy gurdy) I stunned the seriously musically gifted teacher of the course by singing a complex song and ending on exactly the right note. He had perfect pitch and could play any which way on multiple instruments. To him I had been a hausfrau. Now I wasn't. In college I would sing with a group of amazing singers at Christmas and me with my adequate soprano was vital because we did 5 part harmonies and you must start on the right pitch and stay on the right pitch. A pitch pipe gets you started but.... I had no idea that the letters of the notes on a staff are alphabetical. Really. No earthly idea. To not be able to remember music is not going to keep you from being a major concert musician so obviously they really do feel the music but you arent going to be able to play folk or bluegrass. You cant do a riff and end back up in the right place for everyone else to carry on. Forget Jazz. But there you are.

I also envied kids who got to learn an instrument.

patriciae

"my ability to hear something and be able to reproduce it was not common."

I'll say "Yes, but" to this.

I think it's very common among working musicians and among some for whom music is just a hobby. That is, hearing something or knowing a song and being able to sing or play it the first time with no charts or reference material at hand.

I also think it's something quite different from being able to sing in tune. Many musicians have perfect pitch (as with tuning instruments without a tool to do so, or to identify a component portion of a song in which an instrument or singer is out of tune), can identify note and chord progressions by ear and reproduce them, but can't sing at all.

" To not be able to remember music is not going to keep you from being a major concert musician so obviously they really do feel the music but you arent going to be able to play folk or bluegrass. You cant do a riff and end back up in the right place for everyone else to carry on. Forget Jazz. "

I completely disagree.

Think of any musical performances other than large symphony orchestras. Bands or other performing groups, for example. There's no sheet music, no notes to follow. People know the songs and their parts and play them. It's not done by rote.

What gets one through a rambling solo or other component part of a song, or even through a song for that matter, and knowing where to be or end up when, is knowing the song, the key and the chord progression. And feeling it.

Adding-

we each have had differing experiences. So be it.

My process was, memorize the piece, so that the fingers did their own thing, while my brain allowed me to process the emotion and insert it into what was being played. I think that's why I was good as I was? I mean hours of practice every day of the memorization, to get to the point of being able to put the two together.

Why my child is as good as she is? Taught her the same process. She too was in wind ensemble and marching band. Both of those require more effort then other ensembles.

I agree with Elmer that it takes more than just rote playing. There may be other processes, but that was how we did it.

I’m wondering if the term “perfect pitch” is being used correctly here, as I don’t think many people have it. Someone with perfect pitch could sing or tune to a 440 A without reference, or hear a note and say “E flat.” Not to be confused with relative pitch, which is what’s needed to sing or play “in tune.”

As for being able to recreate a tune without sheet music, I don’t know but I’d have to think that any halfway accomplished musician could do this on their instrument at least to a certain extent. Even after decades of not playing I find myself subconsciously “playing along” when I think about or actually hear music.

Improvisation though is a skill I lack. I’ll at least partially blame my training, all of which came with sheet music, but there’s probably something innate missing as well.

The only "instrument" I play is (was) my voice, though you might not consider that an instrument. Anybody can open their mouth and make noise, but it doesn't always make music. I sang in competitions beginning in my teen years, singly and with groups, Acapella and with other instruments. I sang at many weddings and funerals, even for people I didn't know, but who had just heard about me. My instrument isn't what it used to be, but I still play it.

Donna, it is definitely an instrument. Like the girl in A Chorus Line, ”I could never really sing”. I love to, though, so I save it for when no one is home, in the car, or when there are lots of people around to drown me out!

Went to ”piano bar karaoke” the other night for the first time. The accompanist was amazing. He took a moment with each brave soul to pull up the music they wanted to song, set the key, tempo, anything special, and then during the song, deal with people who can’t count or keep to a beat or have only sung along to one recording of one version, or guide them when they needed a boost or harmony, and above all not be the star, it’s the singer’s moment. And match without over-reaching when the singer is amazing! Accompanying is a whole other skill.

I asked DS if the accompanist knew all the songs, or had the music, or just the chords, and DS says it all depends on the selected song and arrangement.

I agree with food's comments and it got me thinking -

I'd missed, read too quickly, that patricia's comments were coming from a person who did not have significant experience playing an instrument. That disqualifies many of her comments.

And following on from what food said, I think I confused the term "perfect pitch" with what I had in mind, "relative pitch". In my experience among people playing and singing to produce music (I don't want to use the word "musicians", that to some means something else), "perfect pitch" is a concept never considered and "relative pitch" is always front of mind. Another term is "being in tune", which sometimes is out of kilter with absolute frequency marks but as long as all the instruments are "off the mark" to the same extent and in relative pitch agreement, no one would ever know.

As for

" Improvisation though is a skill I lack. I’ll at least partially blame my training, all of which came with sheet music, but there’s probably something innate missing as well. "

To a degree, improvisation can be learned. There are tools and shortcuts that help. At a very simplistic level, playing notes in the chords that correspond to their places in the song, but in different orders and tempos, is an easy starting point. Beyond that, which I know from guitar playing and not from piano playing but with the same concept, there are altered "scales" for any given chord that evoke certain moods. One is the pentatonic scale, taking the 8 notes of a scale and throwing out 3, to leave 5. Another is the blues scale, which is related but different.

A step more complicated, there are 7 modes, which change certain notes in a major scale to produce different sound relationships.

It's too involved to get into more. Suffice it to say, like most other activities, there are techniques that need to be learned that aren't intuitive. Picking up the instrument and goofing around with it may take you through these different regions but only by happenstance. Some learning is required.

I left out commenting on this.

" I don’t know but I’d have to think that any halfway accomplished musician could do this on their instrument at least to a certain extent. "

YES! Very much so, and true for even less than halfway accomplished instrument players.

For very many, but not all.

I have a friend, also a guitar player, who I've played with in bands. He's quite skillful but he takes a very academic and, I think, sometimes overly rigid approach to playing while I'm more seat of the pants. I like to tweak him sometimes. We have conversations like this:

He- Hey, what were the notes in the riff you just played. That sounded good

Me - I don't know (honest answer)

H- Well, how did you play them if you don't know what notes they were?

M - I just played them.

or

H- What key is XYZ song in?

M- Whatever key you want it to be in.

H- No, I mean what's normally used?

M- Whatever key puts the melody in the range of whoever's singing it. Pick one you like

I think singing harmony on the fly can be a challenge. I recall a musician friend in a cover band who was auditioning a new member, and was surprised that he couldn’t sing harmony on the fly. I suppose it can be learned, but maybe not easily. It might go along with an ability to learn languages easily?

I have perfect pitch. The tuner they used in our classroom? I was always on pitch. So much so, we quit using the tuner. The concert band tuned to my b flat. Wind ensemble, that was left to tradition, and Laura, my bestie, and the only oboe, was their tuner.

He reads minds! My childhood IMAGINATION? Seriously? I don't think I'm the one who's imagining in this instance 🙄

If I can hear how the flute is playing, and it's in perfect pitch, then I have perfect pitch. As I mentioned up thread, I stepped back and played a different role, on purpose, in wind ensemble. I didn't need to be first at everything all the time? Laura was perfectly capable of tuning the group. It was okay to let my friends be first at something too. It made the group stronger. Cheryl was much better at being first chair there.

You have the strangest ideas about my childhood, and I really don't think I understand why you think you know more about me than I know more about me? were you there? If not, stop reading between the lines in my life because you're getting it wrong. You always have, and you always will. So quit trying already.

rob, the adult director (I presume there was one) would have asked an oboist for a note to tune to, first choice. Whoever was holding it was who was asked to play the note. The oboe produces the pitch, not the player.

With no oboe, a flute or clarinet would be the one the director would want to play a note. It was the instrument playing the note and the instrument's pitch, not the person holding it.

I mentioned that tuning was relative and absolute accuracy was never needed for a performance. I mentioned the term 50 cents. I'm going to guess you don't know what it means but you may look it up to respond. Or not.

I think the question is if Rob tuned her flute to her mind’s reference point first, or if she just picked it up and played an A.

Back when I was practicing and playing regularly, I could pick up my untuned cello, play the open A, and ”feel” if it sounded right. Adjust and go from there, sometimes readusting if other strings didn't feel right. I wasn’t perfect at it but generally pretty close. Even if I were reliably spot on, I'd stop short of calling that perfect pitch. I couldn't sing or identify a note out of thin air, I just had a decent feel for how my instrument should sound when properly tuned.

It's conceivable to me that Rob had a good feel for what her flute should sound like. Similar to me and my cello, but more reliably. It's also possible that she has perfect pitch. When I looked yesterday I saw one estimate that 4% of musicians have perfect pitch. Another estimate was 1 in 10,000. Take your pick!

And now I'm curious. My cello hasn't seen the light of day in years. Later this morning I'll pull it out and tune it with no reference tone and check how close I get. I'll be very impressed with myself if I'm within a full note high or low, but I kind of doubt it!

Borderline impressed with myself. Strings were 100% loose, I tuned it, checked it, and was a whole note low. A surprisingly exact whole note - I don’t know if that was coincidence.

That’d be two bucks, Elmer?

" I think the question is if Rob tuned her flute to her mind’s reference point first "

I think the instrument mostly does the pitch work. Pitch adjustments tuning other instruments are more common.

If you were exactly a whole step low, I'd say the pitch you hear in your head is way off. Yup, two bucks. Stick to using a tuner, young man.

Again, when different instruments are playing together, as long as there is no keyboard or piano involved, everyone could theoretically be two bucks off. Though, the tuning adjustments on wind instruments can't produce that much variation.

I play guitar and keyboards entirely by by ear, which means listening to and playing along with recordings to learn songs. Not so much these days but most certainly back in the era of the music I prefer - recordings of music from the 60s-70s-80s, so long as no electric keyboard was involved in the song, people would be surprised how often recordings are off pitch in an absolute sense. Relatively in perfect tune, absolutely, way off. And how off pitch then can be. Pianos weren't needed, tuning forks easily obtained.

Depending on what it is and what I need to learn, I deal with that by either

-ignoring the pitch difference, as painful as that is sometimes

-change the tuning of the guitar to make it the same "out of tune" in an absolute sense to conform to the recording.

-play a digital version of the song I want to learn using software I have that can alter the pitch of the music being played without changing the tempo.

I've learned that out of tune recordings sometimes resulted in those days from recording processing. Or were done intentionally - "let's speed it up a bit". In days when that could be done only by changing the tape speed, doing that also changes pitch. Some groups/artists seem to have been attentive to being in absolute tune, others apparently didn't care.

My trumpet teacher always had a tuning fork in his pocket and we'd tune with it before starting a lesson.

I never played flute so I have no idea how much they need to adjust ro concert A. But I’ve played ofher woodwinds (recorder, krumhorn) in rennaisanse and baroque groups and we absolutely have to tune to each other regularly.

“ignoring the pitch difference, as painful as that is sometimes”

That hurts to think about. If I hear that I assume the player has no ear.

I was talking about when trying to play along with a recording to learn a song, when the recording pitch is off the absolute pitch my instrument is tuned to.

.

I've played in groups where a person or two can have trouble with or be inattentive to correct tuning. So long as the setting is informal/rehearsing and not a performance, I stop and mention that the tuning needs to be checked. In a performance, I wait until the end of the song. Again, in such settings, so long as there's no piano or keyboard, everyone can tune together, be out of kilter with absolute tuning but be in relative tune, and that's fine. No one can usually hear the difference. I don't.

Concert A is B flat on my flute and I only tuned into my ear before trying the tuner. Until we quit using it.

Food is correct.

That isn't my understanding. This site disagrees with you, I'll leave it there:

" There are instruments that play a C and it sounds like a C on the piano. These are called Concert Pitch Instruments and include the Flute, Oboe, Bassoon, Trombone and the Piano! "

See this link:

Understanding concert pitch

That's because you think you're the only accomplished musician on this forum.

There are others who are as good as,if not better, than you.

I wasn't being specific, I was just saying they're alike. He's correct in that I was tuned before I tried the tuner. I just mean concert A is similar to B flat on the flute that I was playing for everybody, and that we tune to.

Stop trying to tell me I'm not good. I was. I also won the director's award for a 250 member band my senior year. I could still play if I needed to or wanted to. I certainly trained my child who was quite good at sight reading and won blue medals across the board in independent events for the state. I didn't feel the need to list every single accomplishment. I was also in instrumental technique, which helped junior members of the band. I can list other things but I'm not going to. I'm accomplished at what I do.

I'm not sure if you are, but you sure brag about it so you're not the only one? You can get off the high horse now. I'm sure others listed in this board are awesome and really really good at what they do or accomplished also.

Um, violin, euphonium, bodhran, but mostly singing. Have good enough pitch to sightread and tune my strings. Dissolute lifestyle(ahem) cocked up my voice, and my band days are long gone.. Can be persuaded to play abanjo when drink or spliff has been had

You can be sure that everyone reading your comment is quite impressed with what you've said.

PS - I don't believe sight reading and tuning strings relatively require or are facilitated by having good pitch.