How did you choose your instrument?

Subject: How did you choose your instrument?
From: Roger in Sheffield
Date: 03 Jul 00 - 12:34 PM

I have just had a quick look at the thread
When you first made music
And I am intrigued to know how people choose their instruments
Was it following in a parents footsteps or an instrument in the house just waiting to be played?

My friend bought me a flute when I said I liked the group Flook
So I chose the Flute indirectly
It is a great instrument but has its drawbacks
I can't sing and play the Flute at the same time for instance
Is there a joke in there somewhere?

Roger

Subject: RE: How did you choose your instrument?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 03 Jul 00 - 12:39 PM

I chose my two favourites because they only did recorder lessons at school and I wanted to be better than my sister, and I took up the drums so I could make a loud noise during parades..... The violin I took up because it got me out of maths lessons, and I took up the bowed psaltery because it was there, and wasn't socally unacceptable (unlike the melodeons, accordions and bagpipe that populated the house of the SO when we married and I moved in......). We now have a piano, and I'm getting better with one hand, but still can't do a tune with my right hand (very left handed, me).

LTS

Subject: RE: How did you choose your instrument?
From: Kim C
Date: 03 Jul 00 - 12:43 PM

I think they chose me instead.

Subject: RE: How did you choose your instrument?
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 03 Jul 00 - 12:45 PM

My mother played accordion (big 120 bass), is it any wonder I took up guitar?

Rick

Subject: RE: How did you choose your instrument?
From: Willie-O
Date: 03 Jul 00 - 12:46 PM

As I recall, when I was a young rascal taking piano lessons, I hated having to reposition my fingers all the time. I looked at a guitar and figured "there's only 6 strings, it's gotta be easier than piano."

Later on I found out about frets. Duh...

Also my brother had acquired a guitar from which in a destructive moment he had snapped the neck clear off the body. I rescued the remnants, and not knowing this was a difficult and precise job, glued it back together (the second time I did this I added some dowelling. Glad I didn't get intimidated about major insturment repairs until later.

W-O

Subject: RE: How did you choose your instrument?
From: Mbo
Date: 03 Jul 00 - 12:50 PM

Well, looking back on it now, I really can't remember why I decided I wanted to play guitar. I was always envious of someone who could play an instrument, and I think that's what got the better of me! All I know is I got my very first guitar (classical) on Christmas 1993 when I was 14. At that time I had no idea how to read music, or indeed anything about any other kind of music except country and oldies. But soon that would change, bwa ha ha ha!!

My sister is a huge A.C.Doyle buff (she's a member of the Doyle Society of North America), and my parents suggested to her that it might be cool to learn to play the violin like Holmes did. She wasn't interested (she doesn't like music that much), so I said "I'll learn!" So, on Christmas 1994, I received the violin. My guitar training came in handy, as I shocked my teacher by bringing in bluegrass fiddle tune (like The Johnson Boys) and arrangements of classical music--on my 4th violin lesson!

And just last Christmas, my parents got me a Great Highland bagpipe practice chanter. That one's not hard to figure out...I've loved bagpipes since I was 3 years old! In fact when I was 3, my Mom asked me "Matt, what instrument would do you want to play?" and I replied without hesitation "Bagpipes!" The dreams of youth!!!

--Mbo

Subject: RE: How did you choose your instrument?
From: Roger in Sheffield
Date: 03 Jul 00 - 12:53 PM

Kim that is surreal
Which instruments do you play and just how did they choose you?
I have a lovely image of voices calling to you in your sleep from the music shop across town!
Roger

Subject: RE: How did you choose your instrument?
From: Homeless
Date: 03 Jul 00 - 12:56 PM

Recorder was mandatory in third grade. Started in orchestra in sixth grade and preferred "that big one" and so started on string bass. My dad played organ in a roller rink when he was younger, so we he got one of those I picked it up from watching him play. "Everyone" wants to play guitar, so I picked that up. Hearing an old Steve Martin comedy album as a kid I heard Foggy Mountain Breakdown and decided I needed to learn to play that. Thus I started messing with the banjo later in life. Then learned that there was more to banjo than three finger. So I've been working on clawhammer also. Lap dulcimer I started playing after I made one (that was the easiest stringed instrument to build from scratch). When I became homeless the bass was too much to drag around, so I started on tin whistle. Messed with panpipes - again, when I was building them.

Still can't play any of them worth a damn. Enough to keep myself amused, but I wouldn't want to go on stage. I guess proficiency would follow if I were to ever choose one.

Subject: RE: How did you choose your instrument?
From: Roger in Sheffield
Date: 03 Jul 00 - 01:00 PM

bowed psaltery???
I still have not worked out what an Autoharp is but I believe it involves steam, bellows and mechanical hands

Roger

Subject: RE: How did you choose your instrument?
From: Roger in Sheffield
Date: 03 Jul 00 - 01:11 PM

Homeless I think my playing is wonderful but from the faces of others I realise that maybe its not too hot.
I like it and thats what counts and it makes me happy
My Tin Whistle playing is really awful - but I won't stop
One of these days I will find a Whistle that works

Roger

Subject: RE: How did you choose your instrument?
From: GUEST
Date: 03 Jul 00 - 01:16 PM

Drums were my first choice, inspired by "Wipeout," by the Surfaris (I guess that dates me). It also seemed a practical musical instrument for someone who had no talent for music, i.e., melody, notes, etc. (See musician jokes thread some time ago, re: what do you call someone who wants to hang out with musicians? A drummer).

Only thing was, drums were bulky and noisy. You couldn't take them to the park very easily to pass the afternoon; neighbors complained; pictures vibrated off the wall.

About then my dad came home with a Gretch "Tennesseean" electric guitar (big, orange solid body with painted-on sound holes and Bixby tremolo system) and a Fender amp, and began fingerpicking Chet Atkins style. He showed me a couple of chords, then bought me a cheap box from the pawn shop with quarters he'd saved from quitting smoking. I wish I could remember the name and what happened to that guitar.

The rest, as they say, is inconsequential. Wouldn't be without an accoustic guitar, even if I quit playing.

Subject: RE: How did you choose your instrument?
From: Peter Kasin
Date: 03 Jul 00 - 01:19 PM

My mother insisted that I learn electric rock/blues guitar and forced me to take private lessons with Clapton. I had to sneak my violin into the basement, and later started a garage string quartet with some neighborhood buddies. We annoyed the whole block with our pan-Asian classical music, calling ourselves the Buddah Pest String Quartet. But, seriously, I took up violin in high school. My parents never pushed me to take up an instrument. I've always listened to music. In elementary school I took recorder class, in Jr. high I tried french horn, then clarinet, but couldn't tongue the notes properly. You kept hearing air before each note. In high school I started violin. I loved violin music and knew that wind instruments were problematic for me, so it seemed like a natural choice. Didn't practice much, though. I'd rather wake up the next day and be a magically improved player! I quit violin a couple of years after high school, but kept the instrument in my closet. 12 years later I took it out again when I started into traditional music. Discovering trad. Celtic music changed my whole life, and I finally started to practice!

Subject: RE: How did you choose your instrument?
From: Willie-O
Date: 03 Jul 00 - 01:35 PM

Considering the chains of coincidence, misunderstandings and strange notions that seem to have led us to our "choices", I have to vote for Kim's theory.

Only thing that never works is "because someone else thought I should play the *******".

Of course this hasn't stopped me trying to influence my kids choices, but mostly I just try to make sure they're surrounded by good music.

Willie-O

Subject: RE: How did you choose your instrument?
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 03 Jul 00 - 01:51 PM

I chose 5-string banjo and guitar 50 years ago because I want to be Pete Seeger when (if) I grow up. Actually only learned banjo about two years ago, though.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: How did you choose your instrument?
From: Roger in Sheffield
Date: 03 Jul 00 - 02:03 PM

I am worried that the Bodhran I bought but can't play will choose me
I never meant to buy it
just kind of happened
I am off to the pub now
slightly worried that I will have drunken nightmares of a lonely Bodhran taunting me
must stop watching rubbish horror movies

Roger

Subject: RE: How did you choose your instrument?
From: sophocleese
Date: 03 Jul 00 - 02:51 PM

Just what you need Roger, a vision of a lone bodhran singing "Beat me with your rhythm stick!"

Recorder was taught, briefly, in elemantary school. My Dad gat a tenor one and my mother got an alto so with two brothers we would sometimes play pieces together. I tried piano but didn't get very far with it as I often lived in houses that didn't have a piano. Every instrument I tried as a teenager was usurped by my older brother so I eventually started singing as he couldn't take that away from me. I started learning guitar on my own a year and a half ago so I could accompany myself. I still sing a lot better than I play.

Subject: RE: How did you choose your instrument?
From: Melani
Date: 03 Jul 00 - 02:56 PM

At the start of the '60's folk revival, my mom informed my dad that she'd always wanted a guitar. So he got her a cheap one that he thought would look good hanging on the wall, and ahe astonished him by taking lessons. He then began wondering why cheap guitars sound bad and are hard to play, so he got her a better guitar and himself a book called "How to be a Luthier", and proceeded to become one.(He was always an amateur woodworker.) He ripped the top off the Sears Silvertone and replaced it with white spruce (I think it was solid maple), and the tone improved about 100 per cent. Soon the house was full of guitars, and one was mine. He also did banjos and one mountain dulcimer, which is also mine, though I can just barely play it. Then I discovered pennywhistles are cheap and highly portable, not to mention pretty indestructable. Also real easy to play on a basic level. Then I bought a bamboo flute at the Renaissance Faire, and immediately saw an ad for lessons from a guy who lived 5 minutes from me. Now flutes and whistles do indeed call to me from music stores, though I try to stick my fingers in my ears. But now there's this flute I just met last week...

Subject: RE: How did you choose your instrument?
From: Kim C
Date: 03 Jul 00 - 03:14 PM

Roger, et.al. ----- The piano and voice chose me when I was just a little schoolkid. The fiddle chose me at the age of 31. And I mean the fiddle really did choose me, because I never EVER had any inclinations to play it, ever. Never thought about it or anything. Now it's my baby.

I also play the guitar a little, and a few percussion things (bones & spoons). I have a bodhran but I haven't made much time to practice since I'm always fiddling around!!!

Subject: RE: How did you choose your instrument?
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 03 Jul 00 - 03:15 PM

I have dabbled with many instruments but here are the 3 I play the most.

The guitar started as the result of one of my brothers being given a toy ukele for a birthday present. A frien of my mothers tuned it up, played it and lent her a book. I had a go and quite enjoyed it so when it came round to my birthday, I was given a guitar.

I took up the tenor banjo mainly as a result of listening to the playing of Barney McKenna. I also liked other banjo tunes and in fact made the mistake of buying a 5 string banjo long before I discovered that I needed the tenor. It was getting Sully's banjo book that finally set me straight on the instrument and the tuning used - by the time I had got all this info and the right instrument, I was 27.

I was asked to play the melodeon by a couple of people who belonged to a morris dance side. They were short of musicians and I was known for being able to get a tune out of a number of instruments very quickly so I made me an offer that I found too tempting to turn down. They bought the melodeon and I agreed to pay them back at a rate of something like £5 a week.

Jon

Subject: RE: How did you choose your instrument?
From: GUEST,BLeeV
Date: 03 Jul 00 - 03:20 PM

During the folk scare, the acoustic guitar was IT. I already played piano and cornet, so I could read music. Learning guitar seemed easy at the time. Thirty-six years later, I am still learning. Music heals.

Subject: RE: How did you choose your instrument?
From: Little Neophyte
Date: 03 Jul 00 - 03:23 PM

Well Roger, I feel the same way as Kim, my instrument kind of chose me. I have always been attracted to the sound of the banjo and to the feel of the instrument.
There is some unspoken affinity I have for this instrument that is impossible to put into words. I feel very connected to the banjo and am thrilled that I am finally allowing myself to explore this bond.

Bonnie

Subject: RE: How did you choose your instrument?
From: Willie-O
Date: 03 Jul 00 - 03:37 PM

...and mostly recently, thirty years after that first guitar, I certainly did not "choose" Rick's Lowden. There was no process of selection whatsoever. I of course like to think that I know how to shop for a guitar selectively and carefully now. In this case, I was enjoying the cool of Fielding's basement studio, and noticed a battered dreadnought with no apparent maker markings, one of many nice instruments adorning the walls there. "What's this?" I inquired, casually but avariciously reaching for it. "That's a Lowden," he replied to my astonishment (I have a thing for them and never thought I could afford one). I didn't look inside the soundhole, didn't even cannily sight down the neck. Just hung on for dear life and played like I was getting paid by the lick. Doubt Rick could have pried it from my cold, dead fingers, so we made a business transaction instead. (Some transaction--he just named a figure which I thought so reasonable that I plumb forgot to dicker! I always dicker.)

After considering this matter, I am positive that this guitar was getting bored with semi-retirement and (possibly afraid that Rick might lend it to Ani DiFranco again) decided to hitch a ride out of Toronto with me.

Just call me lucky.

Willie-O

Subject: RE: How did you choose your instrument?
From: Sailor Dan working??
Date: 03 Jul 00 - 04:26 PM

I was in Key West at a joint called Sloppy Joes, where Hemingway was supposed to have hung out. While my wife, and friends sat there and poured some beer, I listened to a guy on stage who was playing the guitar and then would switch to the Banjo and play.

I always had loved the sound of a banjo and listened with rapt (beer soaked) attention. AFter about an hour, I made the profound statement, "I am going to learn to play the Banjo" With a wistul sigh I sometimes say, Dan you should have had two more beers before you opened your mouth.

Anyway that was two years ago and I am diligently working my fingers off trying to learn the banjo.

If I live to be a hundred I might even get good enough to play it properly.

Pickin along Sailor Dan

Subject: RE: How did you choose your instrument?
From: Mbo
Date: 03 Jul 00 - 04:33 PM

Right now I'm being lured by the siren song of the cello....

--Mbo

Subject: RE: How did you choose your instrument?
From: GUEST,JohnB
Date: 03 Jul 00 - 10:16 PM

I got my first guitar at about 14, a real egg slicer. It was THE instrument back then. I now have several, most are cheap and nasty. OK so that matches my playing abilities. I have been looking for a new guitar for years but still not made the plunge. Maybe I WOULD practise more if I had a dececnt one. This could be the year as I am having one of those SIGNIFICANT birthdays. I got into recorders one time when I decided to learn more about those funny little black dots. Ended up with a soprano and a really nice Tenor of Pear with an ivory mothpiece. Along the way I have also picked up Two bagpipe chanters, several whistles, a 5 string banjo, a ukeklele, a mandolin, a piano, a concertina (needs more work to be playable) a mouth organ, a hammer dulcimer (also needs work), an accordion, a dumbec, a bodhran, many percussiony things. I can bash out at least one tune on most of the above. Auctions can be great places for cheap instruments unfortunately they can be worth every penny The thing I do the MOST is of course "Singing a cappella" with seven friends. We can even get paid to do that, which I probably never will for playing any of the instruments. So my most used best appreciated and cheapest instrument is the one which my parents gave me, you might say "I just found it in my Genes" JohnB

Subject: RE: How did you choose your instrument?
From: catspaw49
Date: 03 Jul 00 - 10:24 PM

You found it in your genes? So, uh, what instrument are you referring to? I mean, I got one genetically too and it is in my jeans on most occasions, but it ain't too musical...............

Spaw

Subject: RE: How did you choose your instrument?
From: bbelle
Date: 03 Jul 00 - 10:37 PM

I had nothing to do with the voice ... g-d chose me to have it and I give thanks very single day of my life.

The external instrument ... well ... first my folks decided I should play the accordion ... I was 5 ... looked like I was 3 ... and it was a full-sized accordion ... I stood on the floor and the accordion sat on a chair. Not a good look for me. Then, at 6, it was the piano. My hands were so small, to took three passes and intricate finger placements to play scales. I was a tiny little girl with kinky, curly "everyday is a bad hair day" hair and I couldn't stand the regiment of taking lessons. (I also attended various dance schools, until Mother figured out I just didn't like to HAVE to go to lessions!)

When I decided that I wanted to perform, I sang in bands, but wanted the autonomy of accompanying myself, so I learned to play guitar. My first guitar was a Gibson LG-1 and my current guitar is a Gibson B-25. I'm currently looking for another guitar, or rather kim sherman at Cotten's Music in Nashville, is looking for me.

If you've been around here long enough and read my posts, you know I don't consider myself a good guitar player, but it has served my purpose and served it well. With the help of the Edgar Cayce Method of Guitar Instruction and "with a little help from my friends," I might just turn out to be a decent guitar player one of these days ...

moonchild

Subject: RE: How did you choose your instrument?
From: Big Mick
Date: 04 Jul 00 - 01:52 AM

I walked by this gorgeous blonde lady with curves to die for. "Hey sailor, you in town long?", she sez as I go by. Said her name was Guild, but I just called her beautiful. Then she showed me her voice. That was that. I have been through a wife since then. She took everything but my BVD's and the Guild. I had it coming, but thank God I didna have to argue about the Guild. I would have gone to jail..............LOL.

Big Mick

Subject: RE: How did you choose your instrument?
From: MMario
Date: 04 Jul 00 - 01:56 AM

since I can't seem to keep time even just clapping, and have failed miserably on any instrument I have ever tried, I stick to the one I was born with, voice.

Subject: RE: How did you choose your instrument?
From: bbelle
Date: 04 Jul 00 - 01:58 AM

On October 5, 1995, we had a 6.4 earthquake that ran right under my house in Fairbanks. When it started, I looked at my two cats ... looked at my Gibson ... and said "best of luck" to the cats. As it turns out ... we all survived. Lucky for the cats ...

moonchild

Subject: RE: How did you choose your instrument?
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 04 Jul 00 - 02:27 AM

Jon Freeman, funny you should mention Barney McKenna. I first heard Barney and John Sheehan of the Dubliners play Róisín Dubh and the Cúilin on twin bowl-back mandolins, and I said to myself "Self, that's the instrument for you." So my late Dad and I hunted high and low for a used bowl back, which he purchased for me, and away I went. Then I got an urge to copy Barney on the tenor banjo, and we repeated the process. I took up the guitar (my main instrument these days) by a different route. My sister wanted a guitar for Christmas one year, (she had just heard the singing nun, and wanted to be the next one); my parents could not afford one, but she wailed and moaned, and finally they scraped enough together to get one for her - a little Italian-made EKO - which she tried once, complained that the string hurt her fingers, and never played again. I took it up, so it wasn't wasted. All the best. Seamus

Subject: RE: How did you choose your instrument?
From: Callie
Date: 04 Jul 00 - 02:43 AM

First 'learnt' the recorder in 3rd grade. Couldn't play and cried with frustration. Was put in the 'canaries' group in the school choir with the girls who coudln't sing. My father forced me to learn guitar a year later.

It wasn't until I heard Norwegian Wood on the radio when I was 12 that it all clicked, like a revelation. Chords started to come naturally.

Then a school friend was playing the clarinet, so I learnt too. Later at Uni, I palyed in bands and couldn't be heard above the drums, so I swapped for tenor sax and never looked back.

I always liked a good 'song'. I listened to the Manhattan Transfer when I was quite young and thought they were the best. So now I sing in and arrange for several a cappella groups and conduct one.

So "up your nose" to my 3rd grade music teacher, who decided I was a musical failure, at age 8.

I'd like to learn the fiddle now, but I think it might be too late.

Subject: RE: How did you choose your instrument?
From: alison
Date: 04 Jul 00 - 04:08 AM

Learned to play the recorder at school... got picked out of a class of 9 years olds.. and told that I had the right fingers for a flute!! Was handed a flute and put in the school orchestra.. Piano was Mum's fault.. she made us learn, (good move on her part even if we didn't know it then)......

all the instruments since then have usually yelled "Buy Me!!" from the far side of a shop...... and they're just too cute to resist....

the harp I heard about from a friend.. and just "knew" that is the one for me.... so I ordered it sight unseen..... great little harp it is too... felt right from the moment I picked it up.....

slainte

alison

Subject: RE: How did you choose your instrument?
From: Bagpuss
Date: 04 Jul 00 - 06:08 AM

I can't remember a time when I haven't been singing. At 11 I took up the 'cello (because my music teacher asked me, and I quite fancied being a Du Pre type!!), and the guitar, cos it was the cool thing to play, and we had a guitar at home. It also had the advantage that I could sing with it. I never got up as much enthusism for the guitar as I have for singing, so my guitar playing isn't all that good. Now looking to try the concertina, cos it looks like fun, and again, you can sing with it.

Bagpuss

Subject: RE: How did you choose your instrument?
From: gatyamgal
Date: 04 Jul 00 - 06:25 AM

When I was 6 years old I would always play the old piano in my best friend's front room. My parents finally bought me my own piano. When I was 10 years old, my dad handed me my mother's gibson guitar, (which I still have and it is 60 years old now) He also handed me an Eddy Arnold Music Book. Dad said I could either sit and learn how to play the guitar or go outside and mow the yard. I chose to sit there in the nice central airconditioning and I taught myself the 3 basic chords of C F and G7 and I played Bouquet of Roses. When I was 12 I chose the clarinet for my band instrument. I remember the remark that it was a good instrument because my teeth were crooked in front. Later I wanted to play the oboe. The band director talked me into playing the bassoon. "It is just like an oboe" he told me. Yeah... right. I had to learn to read bass clef and I also had to lug that big thing around. But i am glad I chose to play it. Bassoons stand out in a crowd. I always seemed to get more attention. Especially when we were sight reading one day at contest and I added a note at the end. ooops.

Subject: RE: How did you choose your instrument?
From: GUEST,andy mööer
Date: 04 Jul 00 - 07:46 AM

...Dont know...,was all a blur,but one day there was a mandolin in place of my guitar.

Subject: RE: How did you choose your instrument?
From: Art Thieme
Date: 04 Jul 00 - 10:48 AM

I didn't. I won it in a raffle. Dat's de truth. It was a 1976 D-76 model Martin dreadnaught bicentennial (1776-1976) commemorative guitar. It was (at that time) too expensive to sell--$1,976.00---so the Old Town School Of Folk Music in Chicago raffled it off. Cost me $3.00 for one ticket.

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: How did you choose your instrument?
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 04 Jul 00 - 11:09 AM

Seamus, I am sure that it wasn't just us who were influenced by Barney McKenna.

I see that the actual instruments have been mentioned. Here is how I came to my current favourited.

My Guitar is a Fylde Falstaff. I fell in love with it's tone the first time I heard it being played and asked the owner for first refusal if he ever wanted to sell it. About 3/4 years later he asked me if I would give him £350 for it and I jumped at the chance. The previous owner has regretted his discision ever since and having gone through Martins and a Santa Cruz? , went back to a Fylde but still prefers mine.

My banjo is a Kildare banjo sold by Sully's. This was a once in a lifetime offer. My mother decided out of the blue that she wanted to by me a good banjo and I accepted her incredibly generous offer. We went up to Sully's shop in Maccelsfield and this one just hit me the minute I walked it the door. I tried it and loved it and then tried a few others but I sort of felt that the first one was the one I was meant to have.

The Melodeon is the same old D/G Hohner Erica that Conwy Morris Dancers helped me get.

Jon

Subject: RE: How did you choose your instrument?
From: kendall
Date: 04 Jul 00 - 11:27 AM

I came from a very poor family, and on an old battery powered radio I used to hear WWVA in Wheeling West by god Virginia, and a few Canadian stations. Being exposed mostly to "Hill billy" music, and Old timey stuff, I was drawn to the guitar. When I was 16, I got a used Gene Autry guitar for Christmas, and, it's been all downhill since. The intonation was impossible, so, I smashed it on the bed post. (fool that I am) I hear they are collectors items now.

Subject: RE: How did you choose your instrument?
From: Bill D
Date: 04 Jul 00 - 12:29 PM

took up the clarinet in 6th grade and played it till I started college, when the great 'folk scare' of the '60s hit the USA...not being a singer, I took up the recorder (easy transition) and tootled away..till my ex-wife bought an autoharp from Sears and then abandoned it...I tuned it up and messed with it. I had ONE notion to try the guitar, but....a 'friend' said he'd show me...he showed me a barred 'F' and said to practice that and he'd show me some more...so I play autoharp! Also have a dulcimer the needs a peg replaced and and old melodeon that I got in a shop for $20 ...it just needed home

Subject: RE: How did you choose your instrument?
From: GUEST,TR
Date: 04 Jul 00 - 12:40 PM

Never being able to play more than the steering wheel in the car,I was truly amazed when I discovered the Taponaxtle. Although meant to be played with small mallets, I found it to be much more expressive when just played with fingertips. Now, you are asking, what the heck is a Taponaxtle? Stop by our web site and give a listen . It is most prevalent on "Little Sister" and "Wildflower Mornings and Hummingbird Days".

Subject: RE: How did you choose your instrument?
From: Roger in Sheffield
Date: 04 Jul 00 - 02:59 PM

recently I saw some great musicians
The result being that I now want to play Bassoon, Cello and Alto Flute as well as they did
Money, Time and laziness mean I may only ever achieve the alto

I misread John Freemans reply
thought it said - ..here are the 31 I play the most
How bad that made me feel

Having looked through the replies I understand that everyone chooses an instrument that produces a tone that they like
The thing that occurs to me is that I heard a piece of Flute music and was hooked
Now I have listened to more instruments I think if I had heard one of those first...
I heard a radio programme this morning talking about the lack of youngters taking up the French Horn
A boy who plays one was asked why he chose such a difficult instrument
Because it is Shiny!!!
What a great answer
I have often been asked why I did not take up Guitar and I think the answer is that lots of other people do
I love the sound of Guitars & Violins yet I think I needed to succeed or fail with something else and Chords sound very comlicated indeed
I really envy Harp players too, I love the sound

Just clear one thing up for me Mel where did your baby come from?
was it always in the house waiting to be loved
or did you take it home from the music store orphanage when it looked so in need of Love

I am sure my Bodhran is of the pre-pubecent male variety,high pitched and whiney and though I try and love it....I don't
I know. Try before you buy and in future I will
I have seen the Bodhran threads and I think I might paint a Shamrock on the skin hang the thing on the wall
The penny has just dropped
It could be very embarrassing telling anyone that you were at home practicing on your shiny french horn
no wonder it is unpopular

Roger

Subject: RE: How did you choose your instrument?
From: rangeroger
Date: 05 Jul 00 - 01:44 AM

When I was 8 years old I was watching a Fiesta de La Luna parade in Chula Vista, CA.A float came by with a Mariachi band on it and I fell in love with the sound of that violin.My parents bought me one which I still have.Took lessons for many years, but when I was 15 decided I wanted to play guitar.
I lived in London at the time and went to a guitar shop there and bought an archtop acoustic for $25 (less than 10 pounds at the time).I saw an ad in the paper for guitar lessons for 10 schillings per half hour at an address just down the street from where we lived.When I went for my first lesson I was told that my guitar was totally unacceptable as the teacher taught classical guitar and I would have to buy another guitar. Well, I wanted to learn rock and roll, so I got some chord books and started listening to records and trying to play along.
Now 40 years later that is still how I learn new songs,although I've always wondered where I would have gone with my music if I had taken those classical lessons.
That old archtop is still hanging on my wall and does get played occaisionally when I'm looking for that particular sound it has.
rr

Subject: RE: How did you choose your instrument?
From: A Wandering Minstrel
Date: 05 Jul 00 - 10:09 AM

I made my first bodhran out of a discarded garden riddle decades back! and it still has a pretty good sound to it! I've bought a couple since then but the first is always the best. Last time I looked in the corner of the study there was a 12 string Eros guitar (you can't get them now!), a ukelele, three bodhrans of varying sizes, a concertina (bought for my wife who has never played it), some penny whistles (and they are destructible if you put them in your back trousers pocket and then sit down suddenly!) a digeridoo that certainly called out in a shop, in fact screamed, looking at the colour scheme and the family keyboard which i didn't choose but did pay for.

I'd really like to be able to afford the concert Ovation guitar thats been calling to me from the window of Rose-Martin for some months now

Subject: RE: How did you choose your instrument?
From: Jim Krause
Date: 05 Jul 00 - 02:14 PM

I've always thought of the human voice as another instrument. I can't remember a time when I didn't sing. In fact, I come from a long line of singers. Later on, in high school, I started going to choir practice with my parents every Wednesday night. Started piano lessons about the age of ten. That was my idea, not Mom's. Lost insrpiration about the time I started playing guitar. Began guitar Christmas Day, 1969. By the time the pumpkin pie was served, I had Bob Dylan's "Blowin' In The Wind" down pat in the key of A.

Left home for college at age 18, finally settled on a major in music, and voice seemed like the best thing, since I had let my piano slide, and they didn't have a guitar studies program at my school. A little later, I heard this guy playing frailing style banjo. I thought that was pretty interesting sounding. I remember thinking one evening as I heard him play "If ever I decide to learn to play the banjo, I think I'd like to learn to play like he does." Some years later, in the early '80s, I had this bar gig every Saturday night. I was doing OK with the crowd, but I felt that my act need a little spicing up. That's when I decided to take up banjo. Clawhammer seemed like the perfect style for the soloist. Then, word got around, and I met a fiddler who was into Old-Time music, and I learned a bunch of the tunes he played. Eventually I thought to myself, "Since I know all of this guy's repertoire on banjo, I may as well learn them on the instrument they were made for." So I took up the fiddle. Been playing fiddle since the early '80s.

Messed around with recorder some, pennywhistle some. However I never got very good at them. Lost some interest and only take out the recorder about every Christmas time to play a few carols with a friend of two.

The most recent instrument I have taken up is an 18^th century parlor instrument called the English Guittar[sic]. It is a sort of cross between a lute and a cittern. Tons of fun to play, easier than just about anything else. And practically no one has one. Rather than take up a bunch of space here, you can read about the English Guittar here

Subject: RE: How did you choose your instrument?
From: black walnut
Date: 05 Jul 00 - 02:49 PM

I chose piano when I was really little, begging my parents to buy me one, which they did, when I was about 9 years old. It's the same piano I have in my living room right now....

I chose classical guitar in high school because everybody plays guitar and because playing classical guitar didn't hurt your fingers if you didn't have time to build callouses, and somebody was selling their decent Yamaha for $100 so I bought it. I learned the basic chords, which I still can find to this very day.

I chose clarinet in high school because the teacher said they already had too many flute players.

I chose flute after high school, because the sound lured me in like a hungry fish, and by studying fast and furiously, I was able to enter a university music programme as a flute major.

I chose recorder and studied with Alison Melville (of Tafelmusik) after I had to quit flute (after 20 years of playing) due to a serious jaw disorder. Recorder was beneficial to my condition.

I chose fretted dulcimer when I realized that it's really hard to play recorder as a folk instrument with a mixed ensemble of other folk instruments, after taking a few beginner lessons with the amazing Lorraine Hammond.

I chose celtic harp when the strong desire to tune more than 4 strings overtook me. I study with the amazing Sharlene Wallace, if ever we are able to find time in our schedules that co-ordinate. My next lesson is the first week of September.

I chose guitar when the strong desire to tune fewer strings for the bang overtook me. My friend Jeff introduced me to DADGAD. I like DADGAD and DADGAD likes me. I am borrowing a friend's steel-string guitar, and am ever on the lookout for a perfect and beautiful guitar for under $5 Canadian.

I also play the CD player and the radio quite well.

~black walnut

Subject: RE: How did you choose your instrument?
From: MMario
Date: 05 Jul 00 - 02:55 PM

Playing CD's confuses me, but I can mange the radio...

Subject: RE: How did you choose your instrument?
From: Davey
Date: 05 Jul 00 - 03:05 PM

Back in '63 I was fresh out of school and into my first job. A pool-playing buddy introduced me to Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, and I was hooked on folk music.
Then he showed me his guitar, a basic 6-string with strings a mile above the fret board. I borrowed his guitar and a book of simple songs and went to work learning to play. When he asked for his guitar back a month later I had to get my own.
Around this time Oscar Brand was hosting Let's Sing Out on TV, and I fell in love with the sound of his Goya 12-string, so I went out and bought my own. That's the only type of guitar I played for the next 30-odd years, progressing through several until I was lucky enough to find an almost new Laskin 12-string at a great price.

Along the way I also picked up a tenor banjo, harmonica (I now have one in every key), a bouzouki, a couple of mandolins, a Larrivee 6-string about 3 years ago, and a mandocello that I liberated from Rick Fielding. I'm still learning to play them all, and at times it seems I'll never get to where I want to be (don't we all say that fairly often?)

Interesting thread, and many similar experiences from you mudcatters.

Subject: RE: How did you choose your instrument?
From: Hardiman the Fiddler
Date: 05 Jul 00 - 03:12 PM

The first time I held a fiddle in my hot, grubby little hands I felt like a catfish rising to dough-bait, and then I knew it was the instrument for me.

Hardiman

Subject: RE: How did you choose your instrument?
From: A Wandering Minstrel
Date: 06 Jul 00 - 11:03 AM

is that the A-flat Radio mmario? :-)

Subject: RE: How did you choose your instrument?
From: Jim the Bart
Date: 06 Jul 00 - 12:04 PM

One day, when I was seven or so, this guy came around the house from the local music school. My mom was hanging laundrey on the clothes line that went from the second story window to the garage in back. He came up the gangway between houses and hollered up something like: "You got any kids that want to learn an instrument?" My mom turned to me and asked if I wanted to play an instrument and I said "trombone", probably because my dad had one that he used to play. The guy said they didn't have a trombone teacher, but how about the trumpet. And that's how I happened to end up as a "child prodigy", playing trumpet in an orchestra with about 30 accordion players, and a drummer. The accordion players would set the tone on their accordions for the instrument whose part they were playing (flute, clarinet, trombone, etc.), and we'd play band arrangements of the popular songs of the day. It was all quite inspiring.

Years later, I borrowe my sister's Teisco DelRay electric guitar (from Sears and Roebuck) and I learned to play the chord diagrams in The Golden Beatle's Songbook. The first guitar I owned was a Danelectro Belzouki electric twelve string. Man I wish I still had that guitar. . .

Oh yeah, I now play harmonica on a rack. The theory being that by adding harmonica, my guitar playing is no longer the weakest part of my act.

Subject: RE: How did you choose your instrument?
From: Matt Woodbury/Mimosa
Date: 06 Jul 00 - 05:40 PM

I took violin lessons for 8 years, then swithched to viola when i went to collge, because my violin teacher said I needed a bigger instrument and they didn't make bigger violins. I switched to voice a couple years later, thinking I had better control over my voice than my fingers (since then I've learned control over my voice is counter-productive).

I tried to learn guitar to accompany myself, but never got comfortabl;e with it, and gave up. About 4 and a half years ago, I found an ad for harp lessons that included a rental, and the rental could be applied to the purchase, so i went for it. I still have the original 26 string harp I first rented, but ende up having a 20 string harp custom built last year. His name is Richard, but I call him DICK. He talks to me, insists on taking trips, and tells me what songs we have to do together.

Mimosa

Subject: RE: How did you choose your instrument?
From:
Date: 07 Jul 00 - 01:47 PM

I started piano lessons when I was five, so I suppose that particular decision was based on the fact that my mother and sister both played.

I remember seeing James Galway on a children's program when I was little and being fascinated by the flute. I started on that one as soon as they let us start learning instruments in school, which was fourth grade. In fact, I still have that flute [named Syrinx], although I need to replace a pad on one of his trill keys. Slipped it two days before a jazz concert this spring [*%&*#!]. When it's in the budget, I intend to pick up wooden flute as well because I like the warmer tone.

When I started high school, I decided to take up saxophone to join the jazz ensemble. Never actually managed to join the jazz ensemble, couldn't spare the time commitment. But I marched alto for a year and then switched to tenor. I'm not sure why I chose that particular instrument, except that I've always liked the smoky tone, and the hybrid nature of the instrument intrigues me. Last summer I got myself a Conn tenor and named him Duncan.

My fall project is to get back into piano lessons, since it's been about six years since I had a formal lesson, as a music minor I can take instrumental lessons free of charge, and I have an opportunity to study jazz piano. Some day I also mean to learn guitar. Again, though, that must wait on my humble student budget. :)

Subject: RE: How did you choose your instrument?
From: Songster Bob
Date: 07 Jul 00 - 02:21 PM

I was part of a musical family, from my mother, who played some basic piano, to my uncles, who played guitars, and a cousin who played just about everything. But my favorite uncle was Buddy, who played guitar and wrote country songs and even appeared on TV a couple of times (home-grown programming on a UHF station). Country music, always.

So I got a $15 "Airline" guitar and learned three chords (including the infamous "thumb" G). For a couple of years, that was it. The "folk boom" had started, and I heard a lot of the artists on radio and TV, but never learned any of those songs (though I'd heard a lot of them on LPs from the library) until I came to Washington, DC in 1963 for a government job. Knowing no one, I had no social life, so I had LOTS of time to practice. Got a more playable guitar and a book called "The Hootenanny Song Book," and started. Good chord charts and simple-enough songs and I was on my way. In early 1964, I got drafted, so, after basic training, I got another guitar (Harmony Stella 12-string!) and played it through advance training, went to Germany, where I got yet another guitar (I'd left the 12-string home, not knowing that instruments were the one thing they allowed to exceed the "one duffle bag" limit on the troop ships). In the Army, you get lots of time unless you like to drink and goof off, neither of which I was good at.

In 1966, I'm back in DC, reclaiming my Stella and settling into a lively folk scene indeed. By late 1966, I'd picked up a five-string, and by the end of 1968, had added mandolin, fiddle, autoharp, jew's harp and dulcimer to my "stable." I'd begun to learn to repair and set up instruments, and made a small amount of money over those years by buying broken and selling fixed.

Oh, and from my middle childhood I'd almost always had a harmonica around, so I learned to play those, too. Other than trumpet in 5th grade, it's my only wind instrument.

Of late, I've expanded to include electric instruments and Hawaiian guitars of different kinds, as you'll see if you go to

members.aol.com/rjclayton/instrums.jpg

I can never remember the html to make a blue clicky -- sorry.

Bob Clayton

Subject: RE: How did you choose your instrument?
From: GUEST
Date: 07 Jul 00 - 09:01 PM

I had three plastic instruments when I was a tiny kid: violin, sax, accordion. In first grade, we got to choose which real instrument we wanted to play (the school system had a great music program). I chose sax, but was told "you start out on clarinet and then you switch." I haven't switched yet, and I'm over 50. Then in 1960, I wanted to learn banjo, and was told "you start out on guitar and then you switch." I haven't switched yet. But I'm always learning new instruments - Besides the 20 guitars, I have a vibraphone, piano, my dad's old accordion from the 40's, cello, mandolin, a very old soprano sax, clarinet, ancient sopranino clarinet, steel drum, trap set, congas, harmonicas, and I forget what else.
Mark Roffe

Subject: RE: How did you choose your instrument?
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 17 May 02 - 08:05 AM

Somebody told me that the mandolin was an easy instrument to learn! It takes more practise than I expected but i am enjoying it,john

Subject: RE: How did you choose your instrument?
From: CarolC
Date: 17 May 02 - 08:39 AM

Oohhh... nice thread.

I think I remember being in love with the accordion as a child, but I didn't have access to one then. And then at some point I completely forgot about that infatuation, and for years I thought accordions were cheesy (ha! silly me).

About two and a half years ago, Paul Oorts showed up at the local jam session here in my town with his continental chromatic box (like a piano accordion but with buttons on both sides, but not a "button box"). Paul's from Belgium and his playing has a bit of a European flavor.

I was enchanted, and I knew instantly that the accordion was "my instrument". A few months later I was given one by the local instument good fairy. It's been two years since I started playing and I'm more in love with it than ever. What an amazing instrument.

Subject: RE: How did you choose your instrument?
From: Blues=Life
Date: 17 May 02 - 11:02 AM

I love this thread.

I took guitar lessons as a kid, gave it up, banged around on crappy guitars over the years wishing I could play.I started playing harmonica at 21, mostly so I could jam in a band, having been a wannabee for so long. I ended up being a pretty good harmonica player, but then gave it up for about 10 years due to lack of time and places to play. (Read as: career and kids, plus non-musical wife. Then 2 years ago got hijacked into a country band at church, when I mentioned that I used to play harmonica. There I was, 40 years old and feeling like a kid again. I also got to watch some really good guitarists up close when playing in the bands. Last year I was so inspired by the guy I was standing next to that I got a video tape out of the library, (Happy Traum's Learn to Play Guitar) slapped on new strings on my beat up old Yamaha piece of crap Eterna guitar, and spent the next year teaching myself to play. Well, as you might have guessed, more guitars followed. (The Eterna is now my go-camping-and-don't-care-what-happens-to-it guitar) The guitars I pretty much actually play are my Tacoma Parlor PR-40 (If my wife only knew how I felt about this guitar, she'd name it the Other Woman) , a Dean GCE Electric Resonator, which I play unplugged when I REALLY need to play the Blues, a Strat that I keep under my desk in my office upstairs (I work out of my house, and when the phone rings, I just turn off the amp and keep playing while I talk. It's my "practice my lessons" guitar) and a beautiful 1967 Vox Ultra-Sonic 12 string, a jumbo semi-hollow body with double cutaways, really cool effects like a Wah and Distortion built into the controls, and the sweetest action I've ever played. I walked into my favorite music store the weekend after George Harrison died, and they had this for sale, came in on a trade. They cut me a deal of $400 (complete with handmade custom leather case) and I bought it. Makes me feel young again. Very Beatle-esque.

In February I was down in Jacksonville, Florida, while the National Folk Alliance was taking place. Friends of mine are working folk singers (check out www.thewinstons.com)and I played roadie for them. In return, they let me play a little harmonica during a showcase they were giving, and I got to walk around and see what really good guitarists can do. I was so shamed by my lack of skill, that when I got back to South Carolina, I started taking lessons. So I'm finally getting to the point where I can play fairly well. I've even figured out how to play harmonica at the same time as the guitar. It still feels like trying to rub your head and pat your belly at the same time, but most times I can pull it off.

Hey, I'm only 42 years young, and acting younger all the time!

Blues

Subject: RE: How did you choose your instrument?
From: 53
Date: 17 May 02 - 02:13 PM

I chose the guitar after I saw the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show in 1964. That goes to show how old I am. mmmnnn. Bob

Subject: RE: How did you choose your instrument?
From: Mr Red
Date: 17 May 02 - 06:53 PM

I said to Marcus Music (01633 815612) "I'll have one of your fine tuneable Welsh Bodhrans, and I want it in RED".
"What shade of red would that be, Sir?"

And I am well pleased with it. AND it's still in tune!

Subject: RE: How did you choose your instrument?
From: Socorro
Date: 17 May 02 - 10:33 PM

A group of friends (~6 of us) were getting together weekly to sing traditional black gospel (group is racially mixed, with only 1 member who is experienced & talented in traditional quartet singing).

We lost our piano player and were acapella for awhile. Practices were at my house, and every so often we'd use the piano in my house for something (like starting a song on the same note each time). The piano had been purchased for my daughter's piano lessons, and had been unused for many years. Gradually, i started "playing". I need all the help i can get; I guess that's why i joined Mudcat!

Subject: RE: How did you choose your instrument?
From: Sam Pirt
Date: 18 May 02 - 05:22 PM

It choose me!!

Cheers, Sam (piano accordion)

Subject: RE: How did you choose your instrument?
From: GUEST,Singout/Penny
Date: 18 May 02 - 11:15 PM

Several years ago my son asked if I would loan him $100 on his Westbury Dreadnaught guitar (circa '79-'82). It sat in the family room until a year ago when I decided that it would be a shame to not try to learn to play the thing. Plus I was out of work at that time, which helped.

For years at festivals and jams I have admired and envied guitar players and wondered how in the world they could remember chords. I especially did not think I could ever do it. But here I am a year later entertaining myself with a bunch of songs I have put together in a notebook and some even memorized. ANYONE CAN PLAY GUITAR. "Green Green Rocky Road" can be played with one chord - D! Wish someone had told me this years ago.

A few months ago I saw a small, family bluegrass band and so admired the way the woman (who was almost my age) played her 5-string banjo. Not particularly fast, but so smoothly. So now I have a new banjo! This could be a whole different story and I bought one in a mid-price range with a hard case with the thought that if it proves too difficult, I will sell it. But I'd rather learn to play it.

Penny

Subject: RE: How did you choose your instrument?
From: GUEST,Celtic Soul, away from my 'puter
Date: 19 May 02 - 09:19 AM

I was a part of a troupe of performers that jad singing, dancing, and acrobatics in a "gypsy" theme. I chose doumbek, as it was the only thing that seemed even remotely appropriate at the time.

That group fissured, and I formed a music only group made up of myself and the 2 musicians that were in the former group. We played russian gypsy folk music. I played nothing but a tamborine for that. Again, it seemed the only real appropriate thing other than singing.

I was invited to play with a nautical folk group. After about short time, the person then acting as "leader" handed me a bodhran and said "Learn this in a week". Gah.

I learned the basics, but I was no great shakes in that week.

Subject: RE: How did you choose your instrument?
From: Ned Ludd
Date: 19 May 02 - 09:41 AM

I am an instrument addict. for years I hid it by running a music shop,but now i've confronted the problem and it is under control. Sure I have the guitars,bouzouki,bodhran,whistles,bagpipes and concertina,but I don't Need any more! Hurdy gurdie- what hurdy gurdie?

Subject: RE: How did you choose your instrument?
From: vectis
Date: 20 May 02 - 05:37 AM

I saw a poor, neglected piano accordion in a junk shop and bought it, got it fixed and learned to play it. Not the best of reasons to start playing a melody instrument when almost 50 but there. I could already play chords on a guitar and bang a bodhron in time to the music.

Subject: RE: How did you choose your instrument?
From: GUEST,Russ
Date: 20 May 02 - 12:14 PM

Banjo - got interested in old time music in college. Listened to the New Lost City Ramblers, Pete Seeger, etc. Liked the sound of the frailed banjo and thought "I'll bet I could do that." Got my first one with Top Value stamps.

Dulcimer - My wife had one when we got married. I started noodling with it and she showed me some basics.

Subject: RE: How did you choose your instrument?
From: Marion
Date: 20 May 02 - 03:13 PM

I took up the guitar because of two things that happened to me on the same day. Coincidence? Maybe.

The first was because I had recently learned to knit. I showed one of my friends the mittens I had made, and he wanted me to teach him to knit. At that time we were very big on the "barter economy", so I said, "Then you have to teach me something. What do you know how to do?" He could play guitar, so we agreed to get together sometime and trade a knitting lesson for a guitar lesson.

Then my roommate's boyfriend got himself a new guitar and lent us his old one to keep around the house; he brought it over the same day I was going to have this lesson exchange with my friend.

My friend taught me the chords to Blowing in the Wind and Times They Are A-Changing. So all at once, and without any particular desire on my part, I suddenly had a guitar at my disposal and the info to play songs on it. And I never knit again.

Marion

Knitting... what was I thinking...

Subject: RE: How did you choose your instrument?
From: Les from Hull
Date: 20 May 02 - 03:42 PM

I started on harmonica when I was about 14, 'cos it was all I could afford and blues was a 'thing' back then. I then got into bass guitar. I'd always liked bass lines and I was singing bass in choirs.

Melodeon followed - well that's just a mechanical harmonica anyway. And lastly bouzouki when I realised I would never be a guitar player (I think maybe I'm much happier with 4 strings/courses).