Musical duffers check in here.

[Binkie The Clown]

I just got a piano!

I took piano lessons when I was seven (back in 1952!!! Yikes! Has it been that long?)

Now retired with time on my hands I thought I'd see how much, if anything, I remember about how to play it. I'm surprised that I remembered how to read music. I figured I would have forgotten all that after 65 years.

I'll never be good at it, but I sure do enjoy plinking around. Proud to be a ham-handed duffer.

[NRaleighLiberal]

1. Self taught guitarist - been playing since I was 8 years old or so!

Was in a really bad rock cover band at 16. Still love to play, but don't play often enough....therapy!

[Binkie The Clown]

2. I tried the guitar once. The word "terrible" doesn't begin to describe that attempt. nt

[NRaleighLiberal]

3. I am actually OK on lead - complex chords throw me a bit.

I have a good ear - listened to Tull and Deep Purple albums and just tried to copy all of the lead solos.

When I started listening to my main jazz guitar hero Pat Metheny I pretty much decided to give up....he is so, so good!

[Binkie The Clown]

9. I could never play a chord without my fret fingers damping or buzzing on the open strings.

My fingers are too short for a classical-width guitar neck and too fat for the narrower steel string neck. Piano keys, on the other hand, are just the right size for my fingers. I can usually hit just the one I'm shooting for.

[fierywoman]

4. Good for you !!!

If you want to check out improvising, look up Forrest Kinney's series.

Whatever happens, have fun !

[TomSlick]

5. Trombonist here.

I hadn't played since college but my Church started a band and asked all former players to show. It took two days to clean the horn. (It's still a bad memory.)

The chops came back sooner than I would have thought. I started playing in a community band a year later and have been playing for years.

I think I'm now a better player than I was in college - mind you still not particularly good, but I keep up. Now playing at Church and the community band is what I do to maintain what's left of my sanity.

[mindem]

6. Banjo Player

I play multiple styles, and I'm a Legacy Artist with the state of Minnesota. I tour playing 19th-century banjo styles and Victorian music in venues ranging from libraries to universities. I even play replica banjos from the period. Of course, I do the bluegrass thing too.

[cemaphonic]

13. That parlor banjo music is really interesting and hardly anyone does it.

I play oldtime banjo (mostly clawhammer, though I'm starting to learn the various 2 and 3 finger styles as well). Like Scruggs-style too, but don't practice it much, since it's much more suited to a band than solo, and I don't really have the time or inclination to play in a band.

Can you give me some essential listening for the classic banjo style?

[mindem]

15. Tim Twiss

Go to youtube and look up Tim Twiss, he plays exclusively in the nineteenth century banjo style and even plays some of the parlor songs from the period.

[mindem]

16. Here is a Civil War song I recorded

I played this one on my solid wood banjo I use in the shows.

[TEB]

7. Been exploring the fretboard for 40 years

My mother tried to teach us piano but it was all over when I discovered ZZ TOP.

[Binkie The Clown]

8. haha. My folks tried to get me to take up accordion. It was cheaper than a piano.

But that didn't work out at all. You just can't play ragtime or jazz on the accordion! Not convincingly, anyway.

[TEB]

12. That is funny

[flotsam]

10. I don't know if it counts...

...but I play guitar in the shower. It's tough on the guitars but everyone in the house says that's where it sounds best. That reminds me-anyone selling a dry guitar?

[TEB]

11. Just looking out for you

Only acoustic in the shower never electric friend.

[Iggo]

14. Been blowin' out my bedroom windows and bothering the neighbors every time I'm the only one home...

...for about 33 years, now.

Funny thing happened while I was playing the electric unplugged for the last ten or so years: My vibrato became really kinda good! I actually have to back off it a little when I'm plugged in. I've always been kind of naturally good at string bending, but with decent vibrato added, I'm turning into a decent slow blues player.

Fun, fun, fun. (And that's really the point anymore.)

[kydo]

17. It's like riding a bike, you never really forget. I can attest to that with this

My first instrument was the sax. Played from the 4th grade through college. Last time I played was the UF/FSU game 1988. I marched in the band.

Ok fast forward to 2002, when my daughter decided to play the clarinet. We got her horn, and I start playing it. Rememberd almost all the scales. My daughter was pissed. She says, "Mom I thought you played sax! That's my instrument!" And grabbed her horn back. I said yeah, but the fingering is the same, and I had to play the flute and clarinet at times for jazz band, I was lead alto. I also played the oboe. She say, "go back to your guitars!"

I started playing guitar around the 10th grade. Self taught there. Oddly I get paid to play these days.

My son was smart he picked the trumpet. He knew I didn't play brass. He did well with the trumpet. He marched in drum corps, (Boston Crusaders). During his age out year he won the DCI solo competition and is now a music teacher. He got a degree in music performance and education and is the music teacher at Louis Carrol Elementary School in Merritt Island. I was surprised he actually got a job in music without having to be a waiter first. Normally if you are musician or actor, being a waiter is a prerequisite.

Currently I have probably too many interments. A classical guitar (my primary guitar), a martin, a 12 string taylor (that thing is sweet!), an electric, a 5 string bass, a mandolin, a banjo, a ukulele, many harmonicas, several recorders, and my sax with the big gator sticker on it.

[Binkie The Clown]

18. Nice story. If we're going to compare lists of instruments in the house...

I built a kit folk harp, which I never was able to play. It decorates one corner of the living room now.

Other than that and my new piano, I have a genuine Irish tin whistle, which I also can't play! You'd think anyone could play a tin whistle. Not so!

[kydo]

19. I wish I could play the piano.

Oh I can find the C and F. Hack my way through chop sticks and play the solo from I Ran by Flock of Seagulls. And trust me that is NOT an impressive solo.

One thing I can also attest too. Playing my guitar alone is a lot better then watching the orange turd destroy our country.

Enjoy the new piano.

[ProfessorGAC]

20. Good For You!

Started piano at 4 and still playing 57 years later.
At 19, after graduating college, I bought a guitar because I wanted an instrument I could carry.
Not sure I really belong on this thread though Bink!
At the clear risk of sounding immodest, I played in regularly working club band (90 - 100 gigs a year) from 1977 to 2005.
I can play some!

[HeartachesNhangovers]

21. My father-in-law gave me a baritone ukelele

(it's strung/tuned like a guitar without the lowest 2 strings). I played with it this year, but have officially resolved to learn to play it in 2018. Then I can carry it around in case a gig breaks out.

[fergomfer]

22. Love Piano

Is very relaxing