Other than guitar, what instruments do you wish you could play?

[Photojeep]

If I could snap my fingers and suddenly be able to play any instrument, it'd be the piano.

Best,
PJ

[Jeremy]

Originally Posted by Mandobart

At the risk of further over-use of the term, there is a synergy that arises when cross training on a different instrument. When I focused mainly on mandolin for a few years, my guitar and fiddle playing improved as well. Much more than during the previous non-mandolin playing years.

Thanks. I do also play mandolin.

[dirkronk]

Wish I could play instruments I associate with my family. Mom's side anyway...dad's side wasn't musically inclined.

Piano. My mom played, had a nice upright when I was a small child, but it just didn't fit in our tiny 2-bedroom/1-bath house, so she let a neighbor whose daughter was learning to play borrow it with an option to buy. They moved the piano out but next thing we knew, they'd moved from their house without returning the piano or paying for it. My mom was kinda heartbroken.

Violin. Still have my grandfather's violin, which I never got to hear him play. I've posted about that here on AGF years back. I still pick it up and use it as a talisman, simply holding it when I want to catch a sense of my grandfather in the old wood.

Cheers,
Dirk

[ceciltguitar]

Originally Posted by Mandobart

At the risk of further over-use of the term, there is a synergy that arises when cross training on a different instrument. When I focused mainly on mandolin for a few years, my guitar and fiddle playing improved as well. Much more than during the previous non-mandolin playing years.

Other than random occasional dabbling, I don’t really play instruments other than guitar.

However, I feel like I get this sort of “cross-training” effect by switching between different guitars on a daily basis. Guitars throughout the day seems to help me from developing rigid mental, psychological and musculo-skeletal habits.

All my guitars are nylon string - except for an Amicus - but they all have different nut widths, different string separation at both the nut and at the bridge, flat versus radiused necks, different cutaways (versus non-cutaway) different neck thicknesses and different body thicknesses, different string heights.

[thefsb]

Oud.

I have one and can almost kinda play it badly. Learned a tune called Oak by Rahim Alhaj from this recording.

The first 2 min 30 sec are improvised intro. The theme is stated first at 2:30.



The idea of fret-less melody play appeals to me greatly. And the languages of melodic improvisation traditionally used on oud are hugely appealing. I feel I could usefully incorporate aspects of them into my idiomatic improvisation.

[Pura Vida]

"Other than guitar, what instruments do you wish you could play?"

What makes you think I can't play guitar? Have you been talking with my wife, family, friends...?

(kidding)

I actually have a fantasy of owning a huge music room, filled with all kinds of instruments. Piano, cello, violin, trumpet, trombone, percussion, etc. I'd love to play around with all of them. Of these, piano is probably at the top of my wish list.

[FrankHudson]

Originally Posted by Pura Vida

"Other than guitar, what instruments do you wish you could play?"

What makes you think I can't play guitar? Have you been talking with my wife, family, friends...?

(kidding)

I actually have a fantasy of owning a huge music room, filled with all kinds of instruments. Piano, cello, violin, trumpet, trombone, percussion, etc. I'd love to play around with all of them. Of these, piano is probably at the top of my wish list.

You've been in my dreams or I've been in yours, or something like that. Lack of space and funds have led me to this solution: sampled Virtual Instruments played via a little plastic keyboard or a guitar MIDI pickup.

The sampled VIs are professionally recorded sounds of the real instruments, usually taken at various part of their pitch range and often with a variety of articulations. Besides the usual orchestra instruments and lot of drums, I have collected a bunch of VI "world instruments" of various kinds. I have a decent VI pipe organ instrument, an example there of something that wouldn't fit in most home music rooms. The computer based grand pianos and things like Leslie speakers can sound uncannily good, all the while saving cost and space.

[My Angel]

I would love to play the harp. I have formal piano training, so I would imagine harp would be fairly easy to pick up. Honestly, I’ve been keeping my eyes open for a decent floor harp for an affordable price.

[catt]

If you're a natural 'finger style' guitar player, the treble hand will flow natural on harp too. You'll already have a feel.

When I was young and spending a lot of time in the mountains, i happened to hear some 'celtic' wire-strung harp on the radio. I didn't know what it was, but it totally enchanted me - it and the high peaks compelled a passion for me for many years, and I always carried the sound in my head. Decades later, I was telling this to an older person - in the context of lamenting I was too old at 50 to take it up. She said that someday I would, and I didn't believe her. Somehow, I spent the subsequent 10 years studying harp.