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The Multi-instrumentalists Club

#41
Bass, guitar, [home studio only] keys (take fifteen...), Irish Bouzouki/Mandolin, sing a bit, and it's been a while but I probably wouldn't sound horrible on a 'cello.

Oh, and my son was quite shocked when I could play the crap out of his recorder!

....and you should hear me on an egg-shaker.
 
#43
I am primarily a bass player and drummer, and get to do both in two working bands. I can play guitar as well, but not in a working band. I can fake the keyboards but it's awkward and not smooth.
 
#45
I was a professional trumpet/cornet/flugle horn player, toured the US and Canada as one...the neo-klezmer-gothic-americana movement was good for me. If it weren't for bass playing, I'd now be in a punk costumed New Orleans street type band. (Look up the HONK festival)
I started bass a year or 2 after trumpet though and they have taken turns dominating my life. Bass is in ascendancy now and I don't expect that to change. Playing trumpet is like being in the front line of a pro football team or prepping for the Olympics. You can not take a day off unless you've been performing hours daily...like when on the road. Then you have to play through bruising and learn to use your wind to do the work your lips used to do. Now I practice enough to sound good for a half hour... Easy to carry, an ordeal to maintain. You've got to love it.
I also have an exotic percussion & bell collection, an ocarena collection, multiple wooden flutes and tons of effects.
 
#49
Started on piano like nearly every other kid in my country about 14 years ago. Picked up a traditional chinese instrument, the guzheng the next year, which became my main instrument for the next 10 years. About 8 years ago I started doing percussion in the orchestra and another traditional chinese instrument, yangqin (similar to dulcimer). From there, I realized I'm more of a percussion kind of person, but still kept that as a hobby. Around 5~6 years ago I started doing violin... and about 4 years ago I started drumming and that slowly took over everything else as I started to get really sick of all the classical examination systems. Last year I started bass, got really addicted to it and now I'm playing bass in three bands and guitar in a 4th band (started guitar pretty recently but I've always knew how to play it from theory, just never took it seriously).

It's because of my classical background on the violin that frets feel really really weird to me and I play fretless most of the time.

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Well this is my "studio". Doesn't show my piano though, or the guzheng at the bottom of the photo-

(my "studio" about 4 years ago)
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I'm proud of this- but sad too now that I bass so much much much much more than I drum or do any of my classical instruments. A major factor is being able to practice at night.
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Evil Undead said:
I think it would be a lot different personally but I've never played one, so not sure.

But it's fretless, bowed, tuned differently...
Click to expand...

Pretty different- the tuning differently part makes quite a lot of difference... and changing finger spacing really sucks. It's easier for me to transition between fretless bass and violin because the spacing is so different my mind treats them differently, but with double bass or cello my fingers tangle themselves up. That's why although I really want to play those, I don't. It''ll be too much work and I don't have that much time.

But give it a try by all means! Just treat it as a whole new instrument.
 
#51
zenrad said:
Those were the days...the gool 'ol the neo-klezmer-gothic-americana movement era.

:hmm:

:D
Click to expand...
Yes, it came after the neo-cocktail space-aged patchelor-pad era and the neo-surf era (tequila!). Co-era to Balkin Punk like Gogol Bordello.
Tom Waites helped kicked off the neo-americana movement and neo klezmer was already going strong. The Decemberists, Dvotchka, the Illuminated Orchestri, even Arcade Fire...many many more
"Neo" means old wine in new bottles...eclectica.
 
#52
I started playing violin at the local conservatory (formal classical school) when i was a kid. I left after the examination at the end of the fifth degree (out of 10, total). In the meanwhile, i learnt to play some decent rhythm acoustic guitar, and piano/keyboards.

Next, the 6th of May 1989, about at 12:00, i started playing electric bass... ;) And it was my main instrument, and along some years playing bass was my job. Not it's not.


And i have to say that 2 years ago, after 20 years, i picked up violin again, to discover that quitting playing it was a big error .......
Now, i'm studying quite a bit of material, with violin, because i'm starting playing with two different bands .... ;)
One of which is some sort of traditional italian folk dance music, entirely with all acoustic instruments.


NB: the luthier who built two of my basses (one of which is my main one) also built the violin i'm using now. And the bow, too.
That person is astonishing, as are his creations ........
 
#54
I currently play drums in a cover band, play drums and bass in another project (until we can find a suitable drummer), and bass in two other closely related projects (intermingling musicians)

I started playing guitar and drums in 1975/1976, played drums in middle and high school marching bands, but played mostly guitar in garage bands in the 80's.

Backstory: I had a liquid induced epiphany one night in 1987, jamming on a friends bass. The next day, I sold my guitar rig and immediately built up a bass rig, started playing bass full time after that.


:hyper:
 
#56
I've dabbled on lots of things but can't truly say I learned to play most of them. Took piano lessons as a kid but just couldn't get the hang of my hands doing different things. Also had a drum kit for a while and had the same problem. But besides bass, I played saxophone (tenor) for about five years in school, I picked up mandolin as a camp counselor to bang out campfire tunes to, I can manage OK with a bodhran, and I've figured out a handful of chords on my wife's guitar. We sometimes do a guitar/mandolin thing for kids at the library where she works. But mediocre at all of them, definitely.
 
#58
I learned myself rhythm guitar and drums first; I taught myself bass in order to supply my music with bass lines. I learned after being drafted into a band that bass is my main instrument. I never matured at drums, however. I can think them, but can't play them any more.

I also noodle a bit with mandolin and keys.
 
#59
-Bass guitar -> Both fretted and fretless (durr)
-Upright bass -> I believe that the upright bass can be classified as a different instrument when compared to a bass guitar. There are no dotted inlays of any kind, it's physically harder to play, it requires a (when compared to most bassists) different technique, et cetera.
-Guitar -> Solidbody and acoustic
Drums -> Typical drum kits
Tenjor banjo -> I'm going to begin playing more Celtic styled banjo

In the works: Piano and harmonica
 
#60
JimmyM said:
bass, guitar and drums are my main instruments, although i could use a good 3-4 months of regular practice behind the drums. but i also play a little keyboard, flute and trumpet.
Click to expand...

Same here. Except for the part about trumpet.

And while it would take 3-4 months of solid practice to get my drumming chops back to where they were at the height of my abilities, it would probably take 3-4 years to get my flute chops back to where they once were!

Maybe I should just say I play bass & guitar.

Wait, my guitar chops are kinda rusty these days. Nevermind, I'm out...
 

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