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What Was Your First Musical Instrument?

#61
Accordion.. My parents used to make me practice all the time..😆 Got good enough to do two appearances on a local tv show,(Don Mahoney).
My teacher made a living with it her entire life, playing festivals in the US, and Europe. It's a great first instrument to learn on.. sight reading written music in both bass, and treble clef... (like piano)~ ...One day she showed up to the lesson with a Cordovox... blew.my.mind... 😲
 
#63
Piano at 6, then bass at 8.
Grew up in a very musical family. Both parents were school music teachers and pro performers too ... and I had multiple generations of musicians beyond my parents.

In my family you started on piano around 6. After I played piano for 2 years I got to choose another instrument, and I chose bass (upright) at 8 and have been playing bass ever since then. School orchestra and school musical pit band until middle school where I started playing electric too. Did my first paying gig at 12 (middle school) and have never stopped. I kept up piano instruction through highschool and am still a capable (but not great) keyboard player.
 
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#65
Here in Ireland, at least back in my school days around the 1970s, our education system decreed that a knowledge of The Tin Whistle was an essential part of our education. Not sure if that's still the case, but for me that was my first musical endeavour. I still have the occasional nightmare about those classes.
My first real instrument of choice was bass guitar, and while I've dabbled briefly with mandolin and low whistle, and of course, being Irish, have an innate natural ability on bodhrán, bass remains my calling.
 
#68
Piano.

But, since this is a bass site, my first bass was identical to this fella, a Hofner HS 185. It came with a Selmer, faux-croc case with red velvet plush interior. I can still recall the lovely vanilla smell when opening the case, as smell that seemed to have permeated the body of the bass as well.

HS185.png
 
#75
Bongo drums when I was about 12 (1962). Then when The Beatles hit the scene, my parents (at my urging) got me a Harmony Spanish guitar. I think it was about $35.00 at the time. I didn't realize it at the time, but the action was so high that it was almost like trying to play a dobro without a slide!!

I did get an after-market pickup added so that I could play electric music with others. But I pretty much sucked, and felt MUCH more "at home" when I later switched to bass.
 
#77
Either the Conn Song Flute or a Magnus Air Organ... both equally capable of driving my parents crazy:

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Not long after, they gave me one of these for Christmas... there was probably a message in it lol.

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Funny how I never seemed to have any drums...
 
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#80
BigBoneRed said:
One day she showed up to the lesson with a Cordovox... blew.my.mind...
Click to expand...
Aaaahhhhh, Cordovox! One of my accordion teacher's former students bought a Cordovox and brought it in to show it off. I loved it, but it was way to expensive for a 14 year old kid. At the time, I had a pickup system on my accordion, so I could run it through an amp. I was always chasing an organ sound (using the tremelo on the amp) , but never found it.
 
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