Music: Play an Instrument? Post your instrument/equipment!

[KitKat]

I play bass guitar. I'm not very good though. I don't mean this in an "I'm just being modest" way, because I really honestly suck. I think I could be decent if I took the time to practice, but being in an engineering program doesn't leave me with much time leftover and I'm sad to say the video games usually take precedence when I find myself with a bit of free time. I'm hoping to play a lot more next year though, cause I'm moving to my brother's house, and he is building a recording studio in his basement. Between him and his housemate, they have 6 guitars, a sweet drum kit, a keyboard, several amps (my brother also works at a music store so he often brings instruments home to fix them) and I'll be adding my bass and two amps, as well as my keyboard (Kurzweil, 88 keys, weighted) to the mix when I arrive.

I'm much better at piano than at guitar, although I haven't played too much of that since I started university either. In highschool though, I did my grade 9 conservatory exam. I love playing the songs from the Final Fantasy piano collections. Hopefully I'll start playing more piano next year too. Maybe a lot more if I end up being unemployed for a while....

[IFHTT]

@Uchiha Barles: Sweet. I didn't start getting what I'd call decent until about 4 years in myself. It really wasn't until I got serious about it and threw all my cash away for better equipment that I started getting pretty decent. I'm self taught. What about you?

I play bass guitar. I'm not very good though. I don't mean this in an "I'm just being modest" way, because I really honestly suck. I think I could be decent if I took the time to practice, but being in an engineering program doesn't leave me with much time leftover and I'm sad to say the video games usually take precedence when I find myself with a bit of free time. I'm hoping to play a lot more next year though, cause I'm moving to my brother's house, and he is building a recording studio in his basement. Between him and his housemate, they have 6 guitars, a sweet drum kit, a keyboard, several amps (my brother also works at a music store so he often brings instruments home to fix them) and I'll be adding my bass and two amps, as well as my keyboard (Kurzweil, 88 keys, weighted) to the mix when I arrive.

I'm much better at piano than at guitar, although I haven't played too much of that since I started university either. In highschool though, I did my grade 9 conservatory exam. I love playing the songs from the Final Fantasy piano collections. Hopefully I'll start playing more piano next year too. Maybe a lot more if I end up being unemployed for a while....

About video games coming first I know how that is as I'm the same way now. I want to learn to play piano but I don't have the money to buy one. I am planning on getting a keyboard but I don't know enough about whats good and bad for what price so I am holding out till I research a little more.

Edit: @XanBcoo below: "Playing in the orchestral band just got boring."
Thats exactly why I quit playing trumbone. It just got boring. that and it was making my lips protrude from my face from blowing in the mouthpiece. That damned buzzing makes your face go numb.

[XanBcoo]

I'm working on playing bass. My friend's got one that he's letting me borrow. I can't play that well, so I usually just copy cool basslines from songs I like. Which is good enough for the moment.

Like masamuneehs, I also played Saxophone in high school. I was pretty good, but I wish I could have been in our Jazz band so I could really enjoy it. Playing in the orchestral band just got boring. I also can play a few songs on the piano by ear, and can play a mean blues harp.

[Uchiha Barles]

@ TonTon:
For the first year I took lessons, but I wasn't very serious about them, which I regret. So I'm mostly self taught. I did learn to read music, so I use that to train in classical techniques. I also trained from rock and roll instructional books but I'm done with those, so I mostly train in song books of the bands I like, or from articles in guitar player/world when it comes to that type of music.

As far as equipement is concerned, I have 2 guitars. My acoustic is an ebony epiphone PR-100. Its kinda crappy and hard to play. But I love it, because by practicing on that and making sure the songs sound nice on the crappy guitar, I'm just that much better when I switch to my electric or a superior acoustic. In fact, I'm almost twice as fast on my electric as I am on my acoustic. I recommend this to everyone who has the patience and fortitude to deal with the initial pain on their fingertips. My electric is a brownsville les paul remake, I'm not sure about the exact model. I paid 300 for it, marked down from 600. It sounds great because the humbucking pick ups on it are really good, but its shoddily constructed in two places: the peg at the bottom that holds the strap just refuses to stay on, and the jack for the cable slipped into the body. I have an extended warranty on it from Sam Ash so I can get them to fix the issues and only pay for parts, which should not cost me anymore than 50 bucks.

[Dug88]

I've been playing guitar for about 6 years now usually either metal or heavy punk stuff I've never had real lessons or anything though just a shitty class at my old school where we never really got taught anything but I mostly just play for fun. I've been trying to get a band together for a bit but it's hard to find a drummer in my new town so not a lot of luck there.

[IFHTT]

@ TonTon:
For the first year I took lessons, but I wasn't very serious about them, which I regret. So I'm mostly self taught. I did learn to read music, so I use that to train in classical techniques. I also trained from rock and roll instructional books but I'm done with those, so I mostly train in song books of the bands I like, or from articles in guitar player/world when it comes to that type of music.

As far as equipement is concerned, I have 2 guitars. My acoustic is an ebony epiphone PR-100. Its kinda crappy and hard to play. But I love it, because by practicing on that and making sure the songs sound nice on the crappy guitar, I'm just that much better when I switch to my electric or a superior acoustic. In fact, I'm almost twice as fast on my electric as I am on my acoustic. I recommend this to everyone who has the patience and fortitude to deal with the initial pain on their fingertips. My electric is a brownsville les paul remake, I'm not sure about the exact model. I paid 300 for it, marked down from 600. It sounds great because the humbucking pick ups on it are really good, but its shoddily constructed in two places: the peg at the bottom that holds the strap just refuses to stay on, and the jack for the cable slipped into the body. I have an extended warranty on it from Sam Ash so I can get them to fix the issues and only pay for parts, which should not cost me anymore than 50 bucks.

I used to have an epiphone acoustic, I wish I still had it. It was a lot better than my current acoustic. Yeah strap pegs getting loose is a common problem. Thats easy to fix. Just fill it in with some wood glue, then screw the peg back in after it dries... Fingertip pain is inevitable but the more you destroy your finger tips the harder they come back.

@Dug88 : The reason I stopped being in bands was because around where I live there is so very few musicians that follow your certain style that it makes it damn near impossible to get a band together... Good luck though.

And as said previously. Music is an excellent stress reliever. I love to play out my woes and anger through the strings of a guitar. Infact confliction is the fuel that drives the power behind music. No emotion. No music.

[darkmetal505]

I self taught myself how to play piano after guitar, it was a wonder on how easily I could pick up after learning the chords.

It also seems like piano would be a basic instrument for everybody in learning the mechanics of musics. Maybe thats why it is compulsary for all music majors at my school to take piano.

[Uchiha Barles]

Yep, the relationship between notes and scales (from which chords are built) can actually be SEEN on the keyboard much more naturally than on any other note layout that I'm familiar with. I took a music theory class and we used this paper keyboard printed in a book as a visual aid to our studies. I would actually learn to play the piano and continue music theory study with a keyboard, if I had a keyboard. I simply REFUSE to play notes on that stupid fucking piece of paper. As soon as I can afford one, I'll be purchasing a keyboard.

[KitKat]

Yeah, for those of you looking to buy a keyboard, I recommend searching around and finding a decent one rather than cheaping out on a crappy one. Keyboards are great because they're way more portable than pianos, but they can also be really low quality if you're not careful what you buy. I guess what you need to take into consideration is what you want to use it for. If you just want to play around and learn chords, maybe a cheap one would work for you. But if you're interested in learning to play well, or if you're going to use it to make recordings or play for other people, here are some things to take into consideration:

First is sound. Does your keyboard have a good range of different sounds it can simulate? How authentic are those sounds? Does is simulate a real instrument, or does it sound crappy and synthetic?

Next is size. I highly recommend having a full size keyboard. Mid-range keys are ok, but having those extra low and high notes gives you so much more scope to play around (and if you ever play any FF music, you'll learn that Nobuo Uematsu makes quite a lot of use of those low and high ranges). This is probably less important though than some of the other considerations. The advantage of smaller keyboards is that they are lighter and more portable.

Weighted keys: Ok, so this is maybe a frivolous add-on, but playing a keyboard that actually feels more like a piano is so much better. The biggest advantage of this is that the harder you press the keys, the louder sound you can produce, so you have a much greater range of expression. I love this so much, and I highly recommend it.

Compatibility and versatility: Can you hook up your keyboard to your computer? Can you make recordings on the actual keyboard? Does it allow you to lay down a track and put in different instruments? Does it require any special software? These things are good to know if you want to make any recordings or compositions.

Good luck with keyboard hunting!