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

[kbraker]

Piano
Mandolin
Cello
Pedal steel
Dobro
Upright bass
Be able to sing somewhat in key
Still wanting to get the guitar thing sorted out

[catt]

I've had the good fortune to indulge in study of most all of the instruments I've wanted to play - from every family: strings, woodwinds, free-reeds, drums...including obscure ones like oud, guzheng, hardanger fiddle...

But I've not yet procured a nyckelharpa, nor have I had much opportunity to study Indian classical music on sarangi.

[Jeremy]

I’ve wanted to learn piano for a long time. But every time I start into it I convince myself that the energy would be better spent improving my guitar skills instead.

[yaharadelta]

Sax and violin, they can be so expressive as blues/jazz solo instruments, I'm in awe of those players who can bring it on those instruments. Both, I guess, can play in the range of the human voice and slide into notes and phrases that work so well with blues and jazz. I've never played a sax, I sometimes have dreams where I'm blowing some solos with a group and feel like I have full control over expressing myself. Awesome feeling, there's talk of conscious dreaming, I'm in that state when I dream of playing the sax, I'm listening to myself and am totally amazed that I can do that. Wish my right and left hand worked as well when I'm playing the guitar.

If wished were horses, then beggars would ride.....

[6L6]

Pedal steel.

[tinnitus]

Not necessarily "another" instrument, but for me (after half a century of random rock/pop bar bands and reinforcing self-taught shortcuts/bad habits) it might as well be.

Fingerpicking

[Mandobart]

Originally Posted by Jeremy

I’ve wanted to learn piano for a long time. But every time I start into it I convince myself that the energy would be better spent improving my guitar skills instead.

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.

[DavidE]

Piano. But really mandolin at this point.

[tinnitus]

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.

Reminds me of my dad, a decades-long violinist. When I gave him an old mandolin for Christmas (tuned the same as his fiddle), he pulled it out of the case and played it very competently, especially considering the transition from a bow to fingerpicking.

But I get the translation to less similar instruments too. That mandolin is mine now and I'm discovering a pattern of inverse chord shapes, some almost mirror-image to what I play on guitar.

Incidentally, it is said that learning a third spoken language is easier than learning a second one.

[Steve DeRosa]

Pipe organ - BTW my favorite test track when auditioning audio equipment, and if this one doesn't give you goosebumps the size of basketballs you've got no soul:

[Andyrondack]

Bowed psaltery.
If you're in the same room as one of these the sound is heavenly.

[FrankHudson]

All of them. After all, we're just talking wishes.

If I had to prioritize I'd say one of the bowed string instruments, and I'd probably start low with bass and move up in steps to violin.

[frenchie]

Piano. My son is a concert Violinist, so that's covered😀

[tinnitus]

Originally Posted by 6L6

Pedal steel.

No kidding! A well-played pedal steel can be pure musical emotion. Great (quirky) song here with awesome pedal steel fills and responses throughout. Solo starts at 2:40.

[catt]

All you need is time - and the humility to be a 'beginner' at something. Let yourself go - fulfill some wishes.