Poll: Who also plays guitar? Drums? Keys? Sings?

[Leigh Semmens]

Pick one. I play 'em all! I now my way around a piano, but am not proficient enough to say I play it.

 

[CallMeAl]

I've taken some piano lessons; I'm a terrible reader but pretty good with chords and chord charts.

I picked up acoustic guitar and uke around 2007, and electric in 2020. Nowadays I play more electric guitar than anything.

 

[smtp4me]

I'll add pics later...

In addition to bass, I play keys and acoustic 6 string. I used to also play saxophone and clarinet. My first instrument was piano, around the age of 6 or 7. Saxophone was my primary for many years (age 10 - 25). I didn't dive into bass until I was 13.

I studied music for 2 years in college before changing to a different major. Vocal lessons were part of the required curriculum. I know how to sing and my technique is fine, I just don't have a natural voice for it. My voice is meant for backing vox.

 

[definenredefine]

I was five years old and I worked out the melody to "Doe A Dear" on my grandfather's piano.

The "lesson" I was given was: "Major chords are four up and five down". Anyone who plays knows that's an inversion.

When I was eight or so, I latched on to Elvis and started really digging the music. I needed an electric guitar.

My grandparents bought me a harmonica and said if I learned to play it, they would buy me a guitar. I became pretty good on the harmonica and waited for my birthday present. My grandparents got me ... an acoustic guitar and insisted I had to take lessons.

My instructor was insistent that I could ONLY play what he was teaching me; nothing else. No learning stuff on my own (even with this "junky" acoustic my grandparents - having no knowledge of guitars - had bought me).

Well, that didn't help me advance my dreams. So, I started delivering newspapers, shoveling snow, cutting grass, etc. and saved $110 (1977) and bought myself a used electric.

I got pretty good. I was in a band which started my junior year of high school. That summer (leading to senior year), we had an entire summer (minimum three gigs a week) booked at the Jersey Shore. With three weeks before the first gig, our bass player just up and walked.

I was third guitar/lead singer and I had maintained my crazy work ethic. So, I was dragooned into the bass position. I took to it, immediately.

We got signed, we recorded, we toured. We did okay. I occasionally played some keyboards, too; just accents and stuff.

As a result of playing the bass, a close musical relationship grew between the drummer and myself and I was glued into what he was playing. We were sitting around, shooting the breeze one night in the studio and someone suggested we cover a Judas Priest tune. The drummer kind of made a face and I said: "I'll play it, if you want." He laughed.

I got behind the kit and signaled the guitar players. I played it (almost perfectly) and the drummer was floored.

"Where did you learn to play?"

"From watching you."

A year later, for his birthday, I bought him a drum set he had been drooling over (an old double-kick Rodgers kit). As a result, he gifted me his old set and I began really learning.

fast forward (quite a few years). I wasn't playing very much life had changed. I'd started a family ... in 1999, I lost two fingertips on my right hand (middle and third). No more fast triplets on the bass for me!

I was mostly playing guitar, drumming and singing.

My old band wanted to do a whole reunion package. I told them my sad tale. So, that was out.

I started playing bass again (mostly using a pick).

Last year, I lost my right leg. I'm currently learning how to play the drums "lefty".

ETA: I apologize for the long post, but that's my story (and I'm stickin' to it!).

Don't be sorry - that was a great story!

 

[Bajo Clarkko]

I started playing guitar when I was eight. (I play guitar as well, or better than than bass; I played guitar in an instrumental rock trio about 20 years ago.) I added bass in my teens. I can sing if necessary. (My voice is decent enough, I'm just not preoccupied with it.) I also have a lap steel I bust out once in a while. Can't actually say that I can "play" it.

The vast majority of men in my Dad's side of the family play at least one instrument. My Grandfather played the fiddle, and from what I've heard, was pretty good. My Dad played clarinet, and sang in Barbershop Quartet with his brother when they were in college. To that end, I got a violin back in the nineties (when I was well into my thirties), and tried to learn to play it, but no bueno. My bowing technique was banned by the Geneva Convention as a form of torture, so I gave it up.

I'll post some guitar pics later this morning.

 

[lbbc]

In my band, I primarily play bass and sing lead and backing vocals. I play keyboards on 6-7 songs and play tenor sax and flute on 3 songs. At home, I also play electric guitar...

 

[mapleglo]

I play guitar, electric and acoustic.

And some keyboards.

And sing.

And even a little mandolin.

 

[jmlee]

I started out on guitar, but when my brother turned out to be much better (he went pro) I wisely switched to bass. However, I've continued to play other things onstage for performances including guitar (6, 12, slide), banjo, mandolin, keys, and percussion.

 

[dfreeland83]

Sax player all throughout high school, I still pick it up occasionally but have lost a bit of mojo.

Moved to drums my senior year and fell in love with them. I'd say I'm an objectively great drummer… only have an e-kit now.

Moved to bass when I moved into my first apartment 20 years ago, I'm a solid bassist. I play it more than anything else now.

Picked up guitar years ago on a mission trip and use it mostly to lead worship, but I'm venturing into electric territory.

 

[GrayGoesBlack]

Besides bass I also play guitar, mainly electric, and I love mucking about with synthesizers and drumcomputes. I'm not a keys-player, no piano or something old and boring like that, just sequencers and modular randomness.

 

[chazolson]

Besides electric and upright basses, I am a pretty good rhythm guitar player. Lousy at leads. Good at programming drums, MIDI, etc. Sing leads and harmonies.

 

[cheapbasslovin]

I've played bass for nearly 30 years.

I've had guitars and keys laying around for years, but only in the last year have I started taking guitar seriously enough to say I play it. I'm still very bad, but there's a handful of styles/ songs I could be called upon to play reliably so I included it.

I sing about as well as I play guitar, but it works well enough to back the band in the few passages I do sing.

 

[Sam Evans]

Saxophone was my first instrument, as a kid, played from grade school through high school, pick it up and noodle on it once in a very blue moon. It's tucked away in a closet, no pictures to share at the moment.

I consider piano my main instrument these days, though I'm not very good at it yet ... Here's a picture of my mid-life crisis present, a Roland GP609. Also, my kitty / lounge singer Gigi.

I noodle on guitars, but not enough to check the box.

I sing. Hard to take a picture of that, so here's a video.

 

[Jackass76]

I was a guitar player first...took up bass because we couldn't find a bass player for my old band...still have most of my gear going way back. Here is my newest squeeze and my last touring stage amp:



They still hang here in my office...I still play and write etc. on guitar. No way would I lug that rig to gig these days!

 

[wango55]

Started out as a guitar player...added bass in my college days. Am now in my 40's and only just realized that I probably should have been a bassist from the start. I do also play ukulele.

 

[TTPbass1]

I also play drums and sing

 

[GregT]

Once in a grocery store a guy recognized me from a show I did. I had played guitar, banjo, fiddle, etc. What he actually remembered and what he said was, "Hey, you're the harmonica player!"

 

[T-boneParish]

pedal steel guitar!

 

[WI Short Scaler]

I played accordion for awhile as a kid (insert jokes here) Dad plays them and still gigs so he thought it was a way to get started.

Moved on to drums and first gigging bands in high school and college were me hauling my kit around.

I sold the drums around the time we got married and started on bass. Didn't take it real seriously for a few years.

Over time added a Strat, had and sold some drums, acquired another accordion, and play some campfire quality acoustic guitar.

 

[logdrum]

Guitar , Piano, Sax (Soprano, alto, tenor, baritone), Keys and modular synths, drums. first instrument piano (2 recitals), was in school mandolin band and then learned guitar then -- learned bass at 18, sax after that, drums on the side and bought a set in 2004. OK sight read level and can play in jazz bands

Picture - drums.