Instruments you DON'T play: Why?

Subject: RE: Instruments you DON'T play: Why?
From: Gy Morris man
Date: 20 Nov 10 - 03:11 PM

Tin whistle, overblowing is easy.

Subject: RE: Instruments you DON'T play: Why?
From: GUEST,Desi C
Date: 20 Nov 10 - 07:27 AM

I also specialize in Not playing the fiddle also, but would dearly love to. It is I feel the most expressive instrument of all. I'm still struggling with the guitar, but at least with that I was able to play some kind of tune within a few weeks. Having often heard rank begginers on the fiddle, it really isn't a pleasant sound at an early begginer stage! What does a half decent fiddle for a begginer cost can onyone tell me?

Subject: RE: Instruments you DON'T play: Why?
From: LadyJean
Date: 20 Nov 10 - 01:06 AM

Anything that isn't an appalachian dulcimer. When God was handing out the hand eye coordination, he gave my share to someone else. I can't seem to manage Oh, and I can play the autoharp, but they're a nightmare to tune.

Subject: RE: Instruments you DON'T play: Why?
From: Micca
Date: 19 Nov 10 - 05:41 AM

I don't play Guitar because, back in the late 60s I sat about 5 feet from Stefan Grossman(at Les Cousins in Greek st London) and watched him play Dallas rag and realised 1 I could never play like that, 2 I had not the patience or dedication to try.
I "revisited" his recording of it last night and it still amazes me and I still dont know how he does it without an extra digit on each hand!

Subject: RE: Instruments you DON'T play: Why?
From: Marje
Date: 19 Nov 10 - 04:46 AM

Reading back through this thread, isn't it great that we all react so differently to instruments? Otherwise we'd all end up playing one type.

I'm all for trying out different instruments - dabbling with other instruments is fun, and can enhance your general musical understanding. But the way our bodies and minds respond to the varying demands of instruments seems to be a very personal thing, almost as if some of us are hard-wired to play strings, or push/pull systems, or things that you blow. I don't think there's any point in struggling to master an instrument that you don't get on with if you find you relate better to another type.

Marje

Subject: RE: Instruments you DON'T play: Why?
From: buddhuu
Date: 19 Nov 10 - 04:26 AM

Keyboards and drumkit.

For some reason those defeat my ability to coordinate my limbs. On piano I can just about whack out easy chords with the left hand while playing a laughably simple melody with the right, but I can't get enough of a handle on it to make the exercise worthwhile.

A kit of drums not only tries to make me coordinate four limbs (ain't going to happen), but a kit is big and cumbersome. For someone used to carrying mandolins, fiddles and tin whistles, a large instrument doesn't appeal come packing up time.

Uillean pipes, great highland pipes... actually, ANY kind of bagpipe. I would love to, but life's too short and pipes too pricey. Years ago, the rocker in me would have laughed the idea of bagpipes out of court. Liam O'Flynn, Finbar Furey, Katherine Tickell and the fella out of Tannahill Weavers soon converted me.

Subject: RE: Instruments you DON'T play: Why?
From: katlaughing
Date: 18 Nov 10 - 11:50 PM

Anything guitar-like...I learned three chords on the baritone uke as a kid and I have one my grandson loves to strum, but it's just never been comfortable for me.

After reading some of the above, I feel very lucky to have had violin lesson and dad's fiddling in my ear, so I can do either IF I practice which I don't because I've found I don't enjoy playing by myself any more. I feel badly because there the fiddles sit except for once in awhile when my grandson and I get them out. Right now, we can't play anyway as I have to get all three bows rehaired.

Love playing the piano and, since coming to Mudcat and learning about the lap dulcimer, I love it.

Various others I don't play mostly 'cause, as someone else mentioned, I'd have to win the lottery: I'd dearly love to try a hurdy-gurdy and I want a lap harp, a good one, as well as uilleann pipes, but whose got the dosh?:-)

Wind instruments. I can get one or two tunes out of my Native American flute, but, again, the kid sounds better on it than I do and I never did "get" the harmonica, so just enjoyed going up and down the scale with it as a kid.

Love playing rhythm and would love a bodhran, already have the tipper, but might have to wait until I don't know when.

I want one of these and hope when my Rog retires, he'll help me make one! Dennis also has plans for a hurdy-gurdy to make in a weekend! Check him out on youtube for more fun and inexpensive instruments to make.

Subject: RE: Instruments you DON'T play: Why?
From: Bobert
Date: 18 Nov 10 - 10:35 PM

Ummmmmmm, most wind instruments... I play a little harmonica... Very little... The rest??? Trombones, clarinets, french horn, tubas, piccolos, etc??? Fir someone else...

Drums and strings I understand...

B~

Subject: RE: Instruments you DON'T play: Why?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 18 Nov 10 - 10:29 PM

Violin - my dad was so good - now I'm a bit old and arthritis is setting in...

Harmonica & related tuning style button boxes - was trained on instruments on which the same key/button always makes the same sound....

Guitar & similar related instruments - never could get my head around it....

Subject: RE: Instruments you DON'T play: Why?
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 18 Nov 10 - 08:30 PM

Wow, Bill! That Contrabass Sarrusophone is something else! Looks more like the exhaust system for a Fiat than a musical instrument. And the way the player holds it makes it look like he has a humongous erection and he's experimenting with autofellatio. You're right about showing up with one at a party being weird. "Hey, who's the guy in the corner with the six-foot brass boner trying to give himself a blowjob?"

Subject: RE: Instruments you DON'T play: Why?
From: Bounty Hound
Date: 18 Nov 10 - 07:53 PM

Banjo, 'cause THEY won't let me!

(not strictly a true statement, I smuggle it out when surrounded by morris dancers)

Subject: RE: Instruments you DON'T play: Why?
From: pontyrogof
Date: 18 Nov 10 - 07:23 PM

Steel drums: too expensive to get ones that are properly tuned
Persian Ney: Can't turn off the drool reflex
Harmonica: Hurts my teeth on the draw

I agree with Marje above about the fiddle.

Subject: RE: Instruments you DON'T play: Why?
From: Bill D
Date: 18 Nov 10 - 04:24 PM

As with many others...fiddle. I had no idea when I was young that there was anything but 'violin', and one needs to start early.

Guitar...because I had one lesson from a smart-ass who started me on a barred-F! I took up autoharp & dulcimer.

oh...and contra-bass sarrusophone, because...well..you look so weird showing up with one at a party.

Subject: RE: Instruments you DON'T play: Why?
From: jennyr
Date: 18 Nov 10 - 03:03 PM

Fiddle, because it would take a lot more time than I've got to get to even a reasonable standard, let alone anywhere near the numerous excellent players who surround me.

Guitar: I tried. I couldn't. I don't really know why - I can do the left hand and pick out tunes OK, but beyond that I just don't know what to do with it.

Cello, not nearly portable enough.

Hurdy-gurdy, because I can't afford one.

Subject: RE: Instruments you DON'T play: Why?
From: framus
Date: 18 Nov 10 - 02:14 PM

I play a tenor banjo because it has 4 strings.
I don't play a balalaika because I didn't know then that it had only three strings.
By the way, has anybody noticed that "had banjo" is an anagram of "a hand job"?

Subject: RE: Instruments you DON'T play: Why?
From: GUEST,Fyldeplayer
Date: 18 Nov 10 - 10:08 AM

Thank you Steve for raising a smile, 'lugubrious' bellows technique is a great image. I wish you future success, look me up and we could form the White Elephant Melodeon Orchestra, ideal for short gigs.

Tonite I go back into man v melodeon battle - I'm inspired!

I also don't play mandolin because my darling wife would leave me.

Subject: RE: Instruments you DON'T play: Why?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 18 Nov 10 - 09:47 AM

I also have a white elephant D/G Erica. I started to follow Mally's beginner course but I missed those low notes that aren't there for some Irish tunes (I know I could get that fixed). In addition, and far more seriously, as a harmonica player I found I was breathing in and out as if I were playing the notes on the harmonica. In spite of huge efforts to resist this I couldn't overcome it. I also found that my bellows "technique" was lugubrious and clumsy in the extreme. I might have another go some time.

Subject: RE: Instruments you DON'T play: Why?
From: Mooh
Date: 18 Nov 10 - 09:44 AM

Pipe organ. I listen to it (organlive.com) and there's a pretty good and well maintained Casavant at my church, but I never kept up my keys training enough to have a serious go at it.

Fiddle and cello. I have a good fiddle that was my grandfather's, and I can play it a little but there's not enough time to do it justice.

Drums. I love to mess around on a friend's kit, and I have some hand drums I enjoy, though I really want a kit. I play guitar because my folks didn't want a drum kit in the house. "Too big, too loud, too expensive.", they said. Now there's not enough space for the instruments I do have, never mind a drum kit. Maybe when I retire.

Peace, Mooh.

Subject: RE: Instruments you DON'T play: Why?
From: GUEST,Fyldeplayer
Date: 18 Nov 10 - 09:35 AM

Melodeon - I have a D/G Erica, I very quickly learnt about 6 standards, did key changes, even learnt some French tunes, loved the physical feeling after a hard work day. Some phrases would leap out with ease whilst some convoluted cross row lines would drive me back to strings.

Now it just sits on the piano, mocking my previous attempts - and it drives me nuts at festivals when I see 1000s of melodeon players as if its a life skill like driving. Grrrrrr.

My wiife has recently acquired a second duet (crane system) maybe we could play duet duets?

Subject: RE: Instruments you DON'T play: Why?
From: Mrs.Duck
Date: 18 Nov 10 - 04:50 AM

Guitar - got my first one at age 12 and really tried but could not make my hands and fingers make the shapes. I persevered for a couple of years but it really wasn't happening. Many years later I bought a new guitar with a narrower neck and although it helped a bit I still couldn't get my fingers onto the strings without the palms touching other strings and nearly standing on my head. Geoff assumed it was just lack of practice and if I kept trying my hands would get there but in the end he had to agree I was a lost cause. I tried exercises but nothing helped so I bought a concertina instead.

Subject: RE: Instruments you DON'T play: Why?
From: Tootler
Date: 17 Nov 10 - 07:53 PM

Almost anything with strings that has to be fretted.

At various times I have had a go at guitar, lute and viol. In each case it was a disaster. Somehow I just don't seem to get strings. Piano and I did not really see eye to eye either, though I still have a keyboard which is useful for plonking out chords for tunes I write. Plonking pretty much sums up my standard of playing.

I am generally happy with things you blow or which make different notes on suck and blow. That seems fine to me. English concertina I did not really take to but the Anglo I was getting tunes out of in a fairly short time.

Subject: RE: Instruments you DON'T play: Why?
From: GUEST,Fuzzy Wuzzie
Date: 17 Nov 10 - 07:00 PM

Instruments are like people in relationships.
You fall in and out of love with them, etc.

Subject: RE: Instruments you DON'T play: Why?
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 17 Nov 10 - 05:50 PM

My washtub double-bass is one instrument I almost never play, although it's been going to festivals with me for around 20 years now.

Of the two reasons why I don't often play it, the obvious one is that I'm not very good at it -

But the important reason is that when I throw it out on the street around midnight at festival it usually draws a crowd and lot's of people who want to know why it sounds so different than the average jug.

The guys who are willing to try it out usually are pretty good at it, and it has a certain fascination for regular bass players. The ones who aren't fairly confident tend to have too much "male ego" to mess with it.

But the GIRLS seem to be much more willing to have a try. Quite a few of them have been pretty good. A lot of the rest have been pretty bad musically, but may be cute.

So the REAL REASON I hardly ever play it is it's a lot more fun as



     CHICK BAIT!!!!


and I get to stand back and take pictures of people having fun.

John

Subject: RE: Instruments you DON'T play: Why?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 17 Nov 10 - 03:06 PM

I have two bodhrans, one not bad one (heheh) and one with a huge Guinness logo on it. I have played neither for over twelve years. I also have a beautiful tipper that was hand-turned to my specifications by Tony Dixon, he of whistle and flute-making fame (he wasn't famous in those far-off days). I always feel guilty now about the tipper and tell meself it's the confounded goat I've spurned, not the tipper. In a gig the other night I got the tipper out and played the back of a tray with it for about thirty seconds. The reaction of the other chaps confirmed that my decision to abandon this most vile of "instruments" had been the correct one.

Sorry, Jim, by the way!

Subject: RE: Instruments you DON'T play: Why?
From: Crowhugger
Date: 17 Nov 10 - 02:49 PM

Fiddle--mostly because I don't have one, also my fingers are big and when I tried my mother's I felt very awkward trying to finger the notes close enough together anywhere above first position. Would I go get one? Probably not, there are other instruments higher on my life-longing list. But fiddle music in its many forms is always one of my favourites.

Subject: RE: Instruments you DON'T play: Why?
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 17 Nov 10 - 01:19 PM

I also don't play bodhran. My wife plays it pretty well and I don't see much need to have two bodhranis in the same family.

Subject: RE: Instruments you DON'T play: Why?
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 17 Nov 10 - 10:27 AM

Damn - Steve Shaw beat me to it - because I'm a music lover, and it doesn't really count as an instrument anyway.
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: Instruments you DON'T play: Why?
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 17 Nov 10 - 10:13 AM

The harp. I found that playing strings that stretch out in front of me is nowhere near as doable as playing keys or frets that go to the left and right. (That's just for me, not necessarily for others.)

Subject: RE: Instruments you DON'T play: Why?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 17 Nov 10 - 09:01 AM

Bodhran (I can't believe I'm the first to mention it). Because I aspire to becoming a gentleman.

Subject: RE: Instruments you DON'T play: Why?
From: Charmion
Date: 17 Nov 10 - 08:58 AM

Anything you blow because I ain't got the wind.

Accordions, melodeons and concertinas because they're expensive -- and loud.

The fiddle because the cat won't like it.

Subject: RE: Instruments you DON'T play: Why?
From: Mr Happy
Date: 17 Nov 10 - 08:27 AM

I observe many above have had bad experience with the fiddle - me too!

Unlike most other insts.[not in the bowed family] there's twoinstruments to learn & co-ordinate with each other.

Like most string players, I can achieve tunes on a fiddle pizzicato - but bowing - ouch!!

Subject: RE: Instruments you DON'T play: Why?
From: Midchuck
Date: 17 Nov 10 - 08:02 AM

If you try the guitar and it hurts your fingers too much:

1) Start on a classical (nylon-strung) guitar. If you want to play steel-string, switch once your fingers have begun getting used to it.

2) If you are using steel strings, use extra light gauge, or silk-and-steel, at first.

3) Whether steel or nylon strings, spend a few extra bucks on the instrument. The cheapest ones are the most likely to have a painful action.

4) Get a setup (adjustment of the nut and saddle height, and the amount of relief in the neck) by a competent professional. Don't take it for granted that even an expensive guitar is properly set up "out of the box."

P.

Subject: RE: Instruments you DON'T play: Why?
From: GUEST,chris cole
Date: 17 Nov 10 - 07:58 AM

John Kirkpatrick famously said "You've either got a "suck blow" mentality or you haven't!"
    I know a music teacher who can play guitar, violin, keyboards to an exceptional standard but can't get a tune out of a melodeon!

Subject: RE: Instruments you DON'T play: Why?
From: GUEST,Alan Whittle
Date: 17 Nov 10 - 07:43 AM

Nose flute
frequent nasal blockages

Subject: RE: Instruments you DON'T play: Why?
From: GUEST,LDT
Date: 17 Nov 10 - 07:43 AM

"The fiddle is probably less sore on the fingers, but the lop-sided way you have to hold it and support it with your chin seems counter-intuitive and awkward to me. I am also put off it by the fact that it takes a long time to learn to make even a moderately pleasant sound on a fiddle. It's not an instrument for the lazy or the careless."

@Marje
I thought it hurt fingers like the guitar untill I tried my friends violin and realised it didn't...at least not if you don't play it for hours on end.

On the other point. Its been just over 5months from when I started having lessons...and I think I've got a semi-acceptable sound out of the fiddle now. Which isn't as long/bad as I thought it might be.

Subject: RE: Instruments you DON'T play: Why?
From: A Wandering Minstrel
Date: 17 Nov 10 - 07:39 AM

The Harp, even though I love those interludes in the Marx Brothers films. mainly because:

a: I don't have a furniture van to move it around in
b: the folk club's in a very small pub

I could always start with a clarsach I suppose, but they cost more than the hammered dulcimer and the Northumbrian smallpipes combined.

Subject: RE: Instruments you DON'T play: Why?
From: Marje
Date: 17 Nov 10 - 07:37 AM

Interesting thread.

Like LDT above, I have tinkered with guitar but find it so uncomfortable on the finger tips, I can't persevere with it. Same applies, I suppose, to mandolin and related instruments. My melodeon, by contrast, has smooth buttons that are a joy to handle - for me, it's got to feel agreeable (or at least not painful) to hold the instrument and make a sound on it.

The fiddle is probably less sore on the fingers, but the lop-sided way you have to hold it and support it with your chin seems counter-intuitive and awkward to me. I am also put off it by the fact that it takes a long time to learn to make even a moderately pleasant sound on a fiddle. It's not an instrument for the lazy or the careless.

Hammer dulcimered is another thing I wouldn't want to play, as it's so bulky and takes up so much space at a session. Its delicate sound can also get drowned out by with other instruments, so it's really better doing solo pieces, which wouldn't appeal to me.

Apart from those, there's not much I wouldn't like to have a go at, and if I had several lives to live in parallel (or even in sequence? who knows?) I would try to master another instrument or two. Or maybe even master the ones I play already ...

Marje

Subject: RE: Instruments you DON'T play: Why?
From: Newport Boy
Date: 17 Nov 10 - 07:35 AM

Bagpipes - I did start to learn once and got on fairly well. Then I hit a snag.....

Around 1950, Newport Scouts band (bugles & drums) decided to add bagpipes. I was an early volunteer and reasonably successful. However, the bandmaster didn't want bagpipes on every tune (how unreasonable!), so bagpipers had to play the bugle as well. I tried and tried - and failed. I still can't play any brass. My lips will do all sorts of things, but won't play brass.

So I was drummed out of the band - 'No bugle, no bagpipes.'

(I did continue with my practice chanter for a few years, but it wasn't popular at home.)

Phil

Subject: RE: Instruments you DON'T play: Why?
From: G-Force
Date: 17 Nov 10 - 07:21 AM

I once borrowed a tenor saxophone to try it out. I could hardly lift the thing, let alone play it.

Subject: RE: Instruments you DON'T play: Why?
From: Midchuck
Date: 17 Nov 10 - 07:21 AM

Piano, and keyboard instruments generally. But whorehouse, not classical. I was given lessons on piano in childhood, from a classical approach, and hated it so completely I avoided the whole idea for many years.

The pipes - the big Highland war pipes. I've always found them loud and annoying, but after all these years of acoustic guitar, I'd like to make it as difficult as possible for others to ignore me and carry on a conversation while I'm playing...

Peter

Subject: RE: Instruments you DON'T play: Why?
From: C-flat
Date: 17 Nov 10 - 07:17 AM

Mandolin.
I'm a reasonably competent guitarist (40 years and counting) and over the years I've picked a number of stringed things and been quickly able to get an acceptable sound from them.
The problem is my fingers!
I've got really really thick fingers!!
My fingers are so thick that a guy once approached me after a gig and said..
"I just wanted to tell you, that after watching you over the years, you're the reason I decided to learn to play the guitar"
My flattered ego was quickly pricked by:-
"I thought that if you can play guitar with those fingers, then anyone can!"
That's why I don't play the mandolin. Because it's physically impossible!

C-flat (aka fat-fingers)

Subject: RE: Instruments you DON'T play: Why?
From: Jack Campin
Date: 17 Nov 10 - 07:02 AM

Trombone and cello.

I've always loved the sound of the trombone, but with an oronasal fistula, nowhere near enough teeth and lips scarred from surgery, no way.

I never seemed to get the chance to do anything with a cello until it was way too late to be any good on it.

Subject: RE: Instruments you DON'T play: Why?
From: GUEST,jonny sunshine
Date: 17 Nov 10 - 06:59 AM

Fiddle. I tried to teach myself, but realised that starting in my mid-20s, having mobility problems with my right arm, and being in a band with a superb fiddler were quite compelling reasons to stick to what I knew..

Subject: RE: Instruments you DON'T play: Why?
From: Bernard
Date: 17 Nov 10 - 06:49 AM

Fiddle... I have one, but have never felt the drive to go through hell before I get to heaven! I play mandolin, guitar, banjo...

Cathedral Organ? No problem - I played at Manchester Cathedral for two 'Going Down' services whilst at college in the late 1960s... the instrument is a very impressive Harrison & Harrison with consoles in two different positions... I was organist at a local church for around 34 years...

Melodeon? I can get by on that, but prefer Anglo concertina - I also play English, and piano accordion...

I can make a good show on pretty much any instrument I turn my hand to, but the fiddle? Naah!!

Subject: RE: Instruments you DON'T play: Why?
From: Nobodys bard
Date: 17 Nov 10 - 06:45 AM

"but have no musical ability" ..... ha ha -- never stopped me!

would love to play the English Concertina also, but blimey - when I had a go (on a very cheap one) it didna half take some muscle power!

Subject: RE: Instruments you DON'T play: Why?
From: Phil Edwards
Date: 17 Nov 10 - 06:37 AM

One night a couple of years ago I passed a shop selling quirky and 'inspirational' posters. One of the ones in the window said "What would you do if you knew you couldn't fail?" Before I could stop myself I said out loud, "Take a Law degree and learn the English concertina".

So that's my dream instrument... and that's why I don't play it!

Subject: RE: Instruments you DON'T play: Why?
From: Roger the Skiffler
Date: 17 Nov 10 - 06:03 AM

Too many to list. I play them all in my head but have no musical ability.

RtS

Subject: RE: Instruments you DON'T play: Why?
From: Leadfingers
Date: 17 Nov 10 - 06:01 AM

Northumbrian Small Pipes , and Hammered Dulcimer , BOTH for purely financial reasons - NO way could I jutify the cost of either !

Subject: RE: Instruments you DON'T play: Why?
From: Zen
Date: 17 Nov 10 - 05:58 AM

Anything that gives a different note pushing and pulling, or blowing and sucking (no rude comments please), causes my brain to shut down abruptly for at least a week.

Subject: RE: Instruments you DON'T play: Why?
From: Nobodys bard
Date: 17 Nov 10 - 05:54 AM

Trumpet - after years of smoking (given up now) I just don't think I'd have the puff for it!