who plays instruments?

[V Knid esq]

I can't play anything at all... fundamentally bad co-ordination and lack of discipline - but I'm wondering how many Erutufoneers play instruments to any degree of seriousness, and if so whether it affects the way you listen to and/or make electronic music.

[Loz]

I've been busy teaching myself to play keyboards, which is getting easier and easier. I'm not doing it with any degree of seriousness, ie, no practicing and stuff day in day out. More just trying out more and more stuff every time. I'm not really interested in learning to play other people's songs, more interested in coming up with my own stuff.

I have, for obvious reasons, picked up the Melodica really quickly.

I also sing.

[emef]

thats interesting

[grievous G]

I play didj.

Lived in Australia for 7 years and picked it up over there. Someone gave me one and I got the circular breathing pretty quick, met some English guys who taught me a bit of technique, bumped into an Aboriginal guy called Alan Dargin who turned out lived just down the road from me and spent the next few months hanging out, drinking beer and learning some crazy shit.

Wicked instrument to play... met loads of wicked players... bit like the electro scene really but with much less people... loads of cool people doing crazy shit. Picked up bits from everyone, I play quite a percussive contmpory style but with a bit of traditional technique, sort of like speaking drum rythms down the didj, bit like beatboxing... haven't played nearly enough since I got back to England. You lose a lot of sound definition and speed if you don't play regularly so it's a bit shit but I don't really like playing in front of people these days because I know what I used to be able to do. Should hammer it for an hour a day for a couple of months and get some form back... used to have big muscles in my cheeks... didj players girlfriends always have big smiles on their faces!

The last three years over there I earned a good living doing nothing but playing didj. Got a job in a mental didj shop and did a bit of busking and got gigs at the weekends playing with bands. Used to do a live P.A. at free Trance parties in the bush. Me and a mate wrote pretty basic tunes... just bass and beats... and would play over the top through a chaos pad and echoes and that. A couple of aboriginal friends would get dressed up traditional and we'd give them a couple of pills and they'd dance they're arses off. Played for the sunrise a couple of times... happy days... feeling well nostalgic.

When I came back through customs to the UK I had to put my occupation and I put "proffesional didjeridoo player"... I was well chuffed.

Righto I'm off to the bathroom to bust out a few rhythms right now (ace accoustics).

[Jeniffer Mills]

bass guitar when 16-17

[marcel]

thats interestinglol

[garew]

I can play guitar, bass, drums, piano. Never tried wind inst. Master of none though.

[mdk]

guitar im alright..dont know enough theory wise but I know my way around..
keyboards, I can twiddle about..cant do two handed stuff much though..its too weird.

i used to play the trumpet..would like to again... and i own a kaval (balkan shepherds flute) which I need to practice more.

[komakid]

i play drums since im 12 or so... i still practise and play.

[Rhys]

Started playing guitar about 7 years ago and got pretty good but went 2-3 years without hardly picking one up at all, now i'm getting back into it again in the past 6 months. I'm a bit dissapointed that i've never done anything with it or been in a band or anything but i hardly ever meet anyone who's into the same stuff as me.

[thepigjockey]

I had singing lessons for two years. The music teachers (very good ones) all said 'there's no such thing as tone deaf, we'll have you singing by the end of the course'. They couldn' manage it, and neither could I. I'm properly tone deaf so I really cannot sing at all.

Tried the cello, the piano, the cornet/trumpet but never really got anywhere with any of them.

However I love music, couldn't live without it. I DJ and know very clearly what I like and what I don't like. Sometimes I can even try and put this into words.

[V Knid esq]

I'm the same, Pigjockey. Like so many writers about music I'm a frustrated musician. That's why computer music is such a joy because I can at least manifest some of the musical ideas in my brain though programming, though as I pretty much have to programme rather than playing it's painstaking process. Having said that I can come out with very hooky melodies if I'm doodling on a keyboard - though my timing is awful, quite often I'll find that if I record something that I think is awful and clumsy, as soon as I quantise it it sounds pretty good, and there are at least the seeds of good ideas that I can cut & paste or get a real musician to play properly.

[terminal viscosity]

(balkan shepherds flute) .



that sounds like some kind of seedy codename uttered only in the more adventurous massage parlours

[darius_Er]

i can switch on and switch off my winamp, and personal players, nothing more at all...



i dont need to create a sounds.

[Whuffle]

been flirting with guitar and voice for the last 18 months, but really keyboards are my thing. been playing since 9yrs old.

Bit of drumkit, didgeridoo for the hippies, bodhran, whistle etc etc.

When it comes to writing electronic stuff, tbh I think all but keyboards get in the way rather than helping. Computer music has always been about breaking barriers, and if I try to think "instrument" then I am thinking limited, if that makes any sense.

[V Knid esq]

Very interesting, Whuffle. Yes I've always thought (or is that hoped?) that my incompetence as a musician could help me not be limited by what you're supposed to do.... it's that Eno thing of deliberately being a non musician

[cut out]

started playing guitar, bass and keyboard at 13. always kept playing but stopped progressing when i was about 18. enough to keep me going though.

[Spandex]

i can play keys, guitar n drums enuff to fool people who can't play into thinking that I can.

[JE:5]

I was a professional drummer, sadly i've let it slip quite a bit so i'm rusty as fuck now.

[iain c]

played the drums since 14,in a punk band just now,just getting on with it trying to get gigs

[iain c]

I was a professional drummer, sadly i've let it slip quite a bit so i'm rusty as ---- now.

you never lose it ,although ye might not be as fast as you once were

[JE:5]

you never lose it ,although ye might not be as fast as you once were

Yeah, just a bit rusty and tense the last time, I can feel it all come back though if I can relax.

[iain c]

@ je:5
when you say professional,in what way ?do ye mean like a session drummer or like in an orchestra or summin??

[tania]

I did piano and music lessons for 6 years when i was much younger, but haven't played the piano for years.
My boyfriend has just tought me how to play the bass. He has an acoustic bass that makes some lovely sound, so i'm having lots of fun with it :-)

[emef]

always fancied playing slap bass, slide guitar and keyboards but i can't, and i've done nowt about it beyond buy a couple of teach yourself keyboard books then let them gather dust

[bracket]

I can play bass and drum.

[emef]

if you're up for it... dan and me might take advantage of that next time you visit ben :)

[dan gulberry]

Learnt piano from an early age and I (think I) can play a bit on most other instruments, but wind instruments are beyond me (apart from alto sax which I can get a lousy tune out of). Haven't played in a band for a long time so I guess I can only 'doodle' nowadays. Would love to get good again.

[joe pinapples]

I can play yon Bass Guitar and normal Guitar, and tonight I been rocking the Twatty Banjo like Steve Vai on Crystal Meth

[Jamoid]

30 replies and no mention of a hairy banjo. wtf.

i can't really play any instruments. i have a drum kit, but sadly i kind of lost interest when i started making computer noise.

i wanna learn how to play the harp though, gotta be one of the most beautiful noises on the planet.

[love_tempo]

Also played the guitar a LOT and just as I was getting good, I gave it up just long enough to forget everything before taking it up again.

I also play the violin and started late in life because I am a sadist and a sado-masochist and like to make life difficult for myself. I see a pattern :)

[Loz]

I'd love to be able to play the violin. Played well, it's the most beautiful and haunting sound ever. However, played badly it sounds shit and horrible.

[Jamoid]

I'd love to be able to play the violin. Played well, it's the most beautiful and haunting sound ever. However, played badly it sounds shit and horrible.


yeah, it's definitely the best for creating strange atmospheres.

i was chosen in primary school to start learning the violin. i enjoyed it, and regret that i stopped of course, but the teacher i had was just too horrible for me to stick at it.

proper child hating monster of a woman. me being a shy little kid, she'd always get me to play fucking twinkle twinkle little star infront of the whole class. i have a panic attack every time i hear it now.

[emef]

I'd love to be able to play the violin. Played well, it's the most beautiful and haunting sound ever. However, played badly it sounds shit and horrible.



i used to 'play' violin at school for a short while... after the beatings i wasn't so keen on it anymore :o)
not a good instrument if you live on a council estate

[love_tempo]

When I play it creates a shit, horrible and haunting strange atmosphere. Plus, it's irish traditional music so I get racist abuse too. I like the beatings.

[Jeniffer Mills]

I`d love to pick up the bass again....It`s a wonderfull instrument, between rythm and melody...I used to mess around with all sorts of bands untill i was 26... And tbh it`s more fun playing than doing electronic music... Ooohh... how i want a Rickenbacker now.....

[nico]

at the moment, i am playing on the bass every day ;) i used to play saxophone some years - and some chords on the piano and guitar and some beats on the drum-set are in my range, too...

@warren: word !

[Scoz]

Used to play the recorder (who didn't) but I preferred the squeeky noise it would make when you blew too hard to to the noises it was meant to make.

Also used to play the Trumpet but I too had an evil witch of a music teacher who I am sure hated me and kept on changing the day I was meant to have my lessons at a whim, and of course I was, obviously, meant to lug the damn thing around every day just in case she decided that day was going to be the one, rather than the day it was meant to be when I would bring it in. Used to play a mean Jingle Bells though.

[Yer_Maw]

guitar bass drums. im a one man band, playing one instrument at a time.

[V Knid esq]

I play the pink oboe with style.

[gypsy_cream]

i used to play the trumpet

could also play recorder and other boring instruments

[Whuffle]

i used to play the trumpet

could also play recorder and other boring instruments

SalvationArmycore!

[notorious J.I.M]

I played piano and trumpet during school and taught myself the drums for a couple of years but I haven't played an instrument seriously for about 13 years.

[emef]

i wish i could play the piano like les dawson... thats the way to do it... proper knackered

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[terminal viscosity]

i used to be scared of les dawson when i was really young cos he always seemed really grumpy

[decadnids]

i play the mbira and kalimba.

[kams]

i used to play the trumpet

could also play recorder and other boring instruments

the recorder isn't boring...



I can play guitar to an OK, self taught, standard - keys badly (enough to get stuff into a sequencer - not well enough to leave unquantised very often) - I have loads of random bits like a kids xylophone, electric harmonium, melodica, ukelele lying around.. which is mostly for grabbing little sampled phrases.

my wife on the other hand is an excellent musician - plays violin at concert standard and piano amazingly also - she finds writing/jamming/composing really hard though - not in the sense that its difficult for her - it just doesn't interest her at all.

[thomas hooked]

i learned piano, guitar and clarinet. haven't kept any of them on though as i never had the discpline to learn rote, which is a big part of learning an istrument. i can make good, weird sounds out of things fairly naturally, bt cannot learn scales or anything. its useless. i'd like to take up piano again.

[adsr]

I only dance, which I've always felt it's kinda like playing an instrument..

sorta like interpreting what you hear maybe..

dunno...just a philosophical view...

[V Knid esq]

I only dance, which I've always felt it's kinda like playing an instrument..

sorta like interpreting what you hear maybe..

dunno...just a philosophical view...



It's engagement with the music that's for sure, and - like being a musician - helps understanding of music in physical terms, which opens up so much more than just conscious understanding of the sounds, I think.

[emef]

haha

[V Knid esq]

Sorry I forgot to add this at the end: "man"

[thesnailsshow]

I mainly play the guitar, I've got some years practicing, but I don't have a "superfast" technique (I think I'm still working hard to get it !).
I also play Bass, Drums, and a bit of clarinet and Keys, altough, some of the stuff I "do" with keys is fairly easy to play.

For the electronic composition part. Well I guess lot's of my sequences actually "look like" guitar arpeggios. Even when the idea in my head is something "purely" electronic, my thinking goes back to the guitar. It's kinda difficult to explain ya know ?

Hope ya get me !!

[adsr]

haha

??

[keo]

I played the recorder at school, not very well or out of choice.

I was given a harmonica earlier this year as a present, but haven't bothered trying to learn it....yet!

hopefully I will get the finger out soon and learn to play it.

[Paddy]

i played the recorder at school, i can still play mary had little lamb quite adeptly ;)

and a few years ago i started to teach myself the harmonica, pretty easy to get the basics goin. i fact someone gave me a harmonica on friday night but i think i gave it away oh well.

[dirtyho]

http://achamilton.co.uk/drums/pictures/td8kv.jpg

I have a set of these bad boys which I play nearly every day. I used to play when I was younger but after moving out of home and living in flats it was impossible to own drums. You can play these with headphones on and they are amazing. I've bought several sheet music courses on afro-cuban, jazz, brazilian etc drumming because although I can play my technical skills are poor as I've never learned methodically. I LOVE them.

[nempsey]

i used to play the trumpet.

and of course the hairy banjo

[mdk]

I LOVE them.

I want a set...ive always wanted some electronic drums..

maybe one day..

[emef]

Sorry I forgot to add this at the end: "man"

;)

[Orang Utan]

I am an accomplished harpist

[kams]

really?

i just want it to be true

[thembuzz]

i play guitar and bass, some keys. i wouldn't say it has any effect on the way i listen to or make electronic music. in fact, i'd say the reverse is true

[emef]

I am an accomplished harpist

hehe that would be ace

[Daddys Girl]

I used to play the Piano when I was in secondary school - haven't palyed for years though... should start again.

I want to learn how to play the drums.

[thembuzz]

i used to be halfway competent on drums, then i stopped playing in bands, stopped having access to a drumkit. now i'm shit again

[Orang Utan]

really?

i just want it to be true

Yes - I can also play the sousaphone and the tuba - I picked the sousaphone cos it's the only instrument you can wear

[Whuffle]

I like the look of this. A lot.

http://oddmusic.com/gallery/om13110.html

[ckpqerjwrpwp]

Update: I still can't really play an instrument. I'm 0.005% better at playing guitar.