# How many instruments do you play?



## playpiano

I want to know how many instruments you play, how long you've been playing and to what standard you play them


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## Bix

playpiano said:


> I want to know how many instruments you play, how long you've been playing and to what standard you play them


Answer these questions so that we know about thee.


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## Taggart

I only play the piano. Technically, I've been playing for over fifty years but .... I've had massive gaps. I started as a kid and gave up when I went to secondary school, then I started up again about twenty years later and did about three years before work got too much for me. I'm now retired and have taken up the piano again and am now about (English ABRSM) grade 6 standard.

I tried the guitar but didn't get anywhere with that.

What's your playing ability like?


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## Ingélou

Yes, playpiano, do please tell us about yourself and your own experience.

I play the violin but I haven't taken any exams. I'm on Suzuki Book 3 and also play folk fiddle and recently Klezmer. I can also, after a fashion, play a) the recorder and b) the fool.


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## playpiano

i play piano and am currently working on my grade 6 exam. I've beenplaying piano since year 3 in primary school, i was about 6 or 7 i think, so ive been playing for about 8-9 years. I gave piano up for a year becasue i had a bad teacher and was making no progress but then realised how much i missed it and started again, thankfully i found a brilliant teacher  i recently passed my grade 5 theory exam with a merit - 84%, Im also trying to learn flute and violin and havent done any grades on them since im not that good yet.


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## Lunasong

http://www.talkclassical.com/2511-how-many-instruments-do.html


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## Ravndal

Only the piano, for almost two years. Under a month till my first day in the conservatory.

I'm probably going to try learning flute/clarinet/oboe or something like that later.


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## hreichgott

Wow, Ravndal, you've only been playing 2 years?

I've been playing piano since I was tall enough to reach it and official lessons started at age 7; I won't tell you how many years ago that is but it is more than 20.

Also organ for a total of about 3 years including now, bass for maybe 4 years but never seriously, flute for around 2 years in elementary school, guitar enough to play a few chords only, and am a beginner at cello.

Piano will always be my first and greatest love


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## Praeludium

Guitar : I began with electric (actually, I only owned a bad nylon stringed guitar lol but I wanted to play rock'n'roll !) guitar at 14, switched permanently to classical guitar at 16. I'm now 19 (soon 20), and in my fourth year of classical guitar.

Piano : I tried to begin piano just before switching seriously to classical guitar, but eventually stopped in my first year of cg (I hadn't really begun, jut kind of tried...). Began seriously in January 2012, now also studying piano at the conservatory 

To anyone who plans on learning classical guitar and piano : either you keep your nails extremely short and play guitar without them (à la Pujol, Tarrago, etc.), which probably won't be possible if you intend to be a professional classical guitarist, and you won't have any problem with piano, or you let your nails grow enough to play (even if it's really short, eg. at the same level as flesh) and keyboards will be a pain in the *** (forget about the short keys of the old keyboards instruments and organ, and it restricts your range of movement with the modern piano, even though some virtuosos seem to not care much about the length of their nails (Trifonov, for instance)).
In short, don't mix keyboard and classical guitar


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## amywhite

I play piano only.when i was growing as a teenager,my father gave me piano in my 15th birthday party.Then i started learning my electrical piano.But at the time i lost my interest from it.


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## Borodin

Generally just one at a time.


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## Jaredpi

Piano: about 2 years, no lessons, self taught, not serious about it though.

Guitar: about 6 months, no lessons, self taught, not serious about it though.

Recorder: about 2 years, no lessons, self taught, not serious about it though.

Cello: 2 years at school, love to play it, seriously considering it for a side job when i'm older!


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## DavidA

Piano and guitar.

Not very well for either!


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## Rehydration

Piano (8 yrs.)
French horn (5)
Mallet percussion (3)
Generic percussion (3)
Organ (>1)


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## Bix

DavidA said:


> Piano and guitar.
> 
> Not very well for either!


At least you play, do you enjoy it?


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## PianistFingers

Piano and saxophone! Love them both, but prefer piano.


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## HeartofGold

Instrument: Cello
Years Playing: 3.5
Level: Grade 4 

Also teach myself keyboard/piano, but I'm not very good.


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## appoggiatura

Piano: since 19 years. I was 2 years old when I started, blame my parents, both professional pianists.. my level is like a conservatory student I think. Debussy l'isle joyeuse, rach prelude op. 23 no. 5, Gershwin preludes... i don't know a thing about grades, sorry. I 've been taught at home.

Guitar: 5 years. I taught myself. My skills are kind of mediocre... I can play things like tears in heaven, yesterday, misty... I play mostly to accompany my singing. I write songs. Leads me to...:

Singing: since forever. Seriously since 1 year or so. Grade, no clue. I get lessons occasionally from my aunt who is a good singer and teacher. My voice has to develop a lot, but I can say I sing in tune and my breath management is okay. I sing things like Faure - Mai etc.. No queen of the night aria yet. (HA... HA.. HA)

Viola: theoretically since one year, but some weeks had passed without touching the viola. My uncle needed an extra violist in his student orchestra :') he is a violinist himself. I can kind of play in tune. I started playing in the third position and I played a Haydn quartet on a student concert this summer. Says pretty much it, I still sound scratchy.

Harmonica: self taught, since 10 years. Level is again, pretty mediocre. 

I have on and off relationships with my instruments. Sometimes I play one or two instruments a lot, then I leave them in a dusty corner for some time and focus on another instrument. I'm dying to play drums. I have bongos, I want an Irish bodhran.
The only stable relationship I have is with the piano. But then, I'm kind of lazy. I like reading music, hence my pretty good sight reading, but I practise only a few times a week at the very most. Won't help me to master Chopin etudes. I need to practise more often.


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## Mujician

I grew up in a musical family, I first started playing violin, taught by my mum, then drums and piano. I stopped having lessons on my violin, a started playing trombone taught by my dad. 
I switched to bass trombone when I was 16/17. 
Studied bass trombone at music college. After music college I started teaching brass. I have recently started playing mandolin, bass guitar and singing in a folk band!


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## Manxfeeder

playpiano said:


> I want to know how many instruments you play, how long you've been playing and to what standard you play them


I've been playing saxophone since the fifth grade. To what standard? I don't know. Back in the day, I used to play in dance bands, rock bands, orchestras, pit bands, whoever would pay me. I've been on a few studio recordings (nothing that went major). I gave that all up when it was so consuming that it was all I could think of. Now I play in my church band, alternating alto, tenor, and soprano, and I absolutely love that.

If you play sax, you also play clarinet (hate it) and flute. And if you study music in college, you play piano. I also took organ lessons. The manual dexterity prepared me for my career as a court reporter. The bad thing is, since I pound my fingers all day, I don't want to keep pounding them on a keyboard at night. So my wife is the keyboard/pianist.


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## Manxfeeder

Mujician said:


> I switched to bass trombone when I was 16/17.


I had a good friend in college who played bass trombone. He was so adept at projecting, a couple people wrote pieces for him in our jazz band. One featured him where he would play a note, and he would get the sound to bounce off the back wall. I learned to really respect low brass from him.


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## Manxfeeder

appoggiatura said:


> Singing: since forever. Seriously since 1 year or so. Grade, no clue. I get lessons occasionally from my aunt who is a good singer and teacher. My voice has to develop a lot, but I can say I sing in tune and my breath management is okay. I sing things like Faure - Mai etc.. No queen of the night aria yet. (HA... HA.. HA)


I admire people who can sing. The idea of putting something out there without some instrument doing it terrifies me. If there is a mistake, I have nothing to blame it on.


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## Manxfeeder

I just realized I'm responding to messages from 2013. Oops. It's like I'm making a phone call to the past.


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## Bourdon

Manxfeeder said:


> I've been playing saxophone since the fifth grade. To what standard? I don't know. Back in the day, I used to play in dance bands, rock bands, orchestras, pit bands, whoever would pay me. I've been on a few studio recordings (nothing that went major). I gave that all up when it was so consuming that it was all I could think of. Now I play in my church band, alternating alto, tenor, and soprano, and I absolutely love that.
> 
> If you play sax, you also play clarinet (hate it) and flute. And if you study music in college, you play piano. I also took organ lessons. The manual dexterity prepared me for my career as a court reporter. The bad thing is, since I pound my fingers all day, I don't want to keep pounding them on a keyboard at night. So my wife is the keyboard/pianist.


You have To work harder on the clarinet,when you like to play both better start with the clarinet and than the saxophone.


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## flamencosketches

I play guitar (for about 12 years now), bass (upright and bass guitar, but haven't touched an upright in years) and started learning piano at the beginning of the year. Sing a bit too, but I'm not classically trained.


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## Merl

I allegedly play acoustic, electric and bass guitar. Only started playing guitar properly 5 years ago but im still what id term a beginner. As long as you can play Wonderwall, though, you'd be amazed at how many people think you're a good guitarist. Lol. I play for my enjoyment (not others'). If it stopped becoming fun or if others hated it, though, I'd stop.


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## Dan Ante

Double Bass semi pro for years and started Flute but stopped at grade 6, now I just listen.


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## TMHeimer

Clarinet since 1963. Professionally since 1973. Master of Music in performance and many years in orchestras & bands, mostly in the NYC area.
Done a lot of E flat clarinet as well.
So my level is very high.
As a Band Director I can of course play all the band instruments to an acceptable level to teach them. Sax is easiest of course.
I'm pretty decent on Trumpet, minus any kind of decent range.


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## TMHeimer

Clarinet since 1963. Professionally since 1973. Master of Music in performance and many years in orchestras & bands, mostly in the NYC area.
Done a lot of E flat clarinet as well.
So my level is very high.
As a retired Band Director I can of course play all the band instruments to an acceptable level to teach them. Sax is easiest of course.
I'm pretty decent on Trumpet, minus any kind of decent range.


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## Taplow

*Violin*: About grade 7 (but gave up for about 20 years and then 5 or so years ago picked it up again).
*Flute*: 3-4 years in high school.
*Recorder*: Competent enough to play a lot of renaissance repertoire, but struggle with baroque. I have instruments ranging from sopranino to great bass. Anyone want to join me for a jam?
*Chalumeau*: Learning. I have a nice, hand-made baroque instrument.
*Piano*: Self-taught. I play mostly pop repertoire but also hack out some Bach, Mozart etc. on occasion.
*Analog Synthesizers*: What can I say? I'm still 13 years old at heart!
*Guitar*: I can find my way around and play a few chords.

The only things I've never really tried to play are brass.


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## Manxfeeder

Taplow said:


> *
> Recorder: Competent enough to play a lot of renaissance repertoire, but struggle with baroque. I have instruments ranging from sopranino to great bass. Anyone want to join me for a jam?.*


*

Hats off to you! Those things are unforgiving; you change intonation problems not with mouthpiece adjustments but through alternate fingerings. Back in my college jazz band, I was handed a sopranino recorder and a page of sheet music on Monday and told that I had to learn the recorder and play a solo in a concert on Friday. Somehow I pulled it off, but I learned, you can't hide your mistakes on something that small, loud, and piercing.*


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## Gordontrek

I play two: piano and classical guitar. I played trumpet until about seven months ago, when I gave it up after a fruitless four-year struggle with musician's dystonia. Sometime in the future I may try to pick it up again but that won't happen for a long time.


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## Guest

Just the piano for the last 31 years. I was a music major in college, but I had no desire to be concert artist.


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## mikeh375

Just piano for me too although I started in music with Jazz guitar.


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## Heck148

Bassoon was my major, and I held professional orchestra principal positions for c.40 years...I also play contrabassoon, and all the saxophones and clarinets...I used to play lots of professional theater work - mostly a Reed 5, or 4 book...this usually required 2bling or 3pling - ie - bassoon, bass clarinet, bari sax...or bassoon, tenor sax, Bb clarinet....could be different combinations....good $$ for 2bling, 3pling....i used to play pretty decent recorder, as well  ;-)


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## arpeggio

All of the wind instruments except the flute. I never could get a decent sound out of the instrument. I was essentially a utility wind player in college back in the 1960's.

Today on concentrate on bassoon and bass clarinet.

I recently had to give up the contrabassoon because of my disability. I had trouble handling the instrument. Sold it to a real nice lady.


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## Adam Bodlack

If you consider using midi software - Limitless!

However piano and drums are my main instruments I'm trained in.


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## Flamme

None. I used 2 mess around with bass guiatr in (ancient) past...


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## Musicaterina

I play the recorder (sopranino, soprano and alto) and I'm learning to play the tenor viol.


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## Animal the Drummer

Piano, which I've played for most of my life. I had classical guitar lessons as well 15-20 years ago and passed a few exams but ultimately didn't stick with it, partly because of its limited repertoire (compared with the piano anyway) and partly because there were too many other things to do in the time available.


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## starthrower

Acoustic guitar since 1977 including steel string and classical guitar.
A bit of electric bass since 2018.
I started on drums in 1971 but quit in '77.

I have a hard time with playing these days due to tendonitis and arthritis.


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## Caesura

Piano since 2012 (my best instrument, probably at a beginner/intermediate level)
Clarinet since around 2016 (beginner level), bass clarinet since 2018 (also beginner level)


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## Manxfeeder

Animal the Drummer said:


> Piano, which I've played for most of my life. I had classical guitar lessons . . .


With a name like Animal the Drummer, you'd think there was another instrument you play. Color me surprised.


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## SanAntone

For a long time I was a professional bassist, upright mostly, but haven't played in a while. But my first instrument was guitar, which I still play daily, and banjo which I am practicing again, and getting my chops back.


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## Guest

I play the piano and the stereo; one not very well and the other when the damn thing works.


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## Piers Hudson

I started playing the electric guitar when I was 10, which was where I began my musical journey. I started to shift my priorities from guitar to composition around the ages of 14-16 (although there's always been an overlap). 

Along the way, I've learned the electric bass guitar, classical guitar (even did a few concerts!), and a whole number of other guitar-like instruments. I have also done a great amount of noodling on other instruments such as the piano, saxophone, clarinet, violin and cello.

At 23, I'm now trying to build some serious piano technique; scales/apreggios, Bach inventions, sigh reading, and all the rest.


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## mikeh375

Piers Hudson said:


> I started playing the electric guitar when I was 10, which was where I began my musical journey. I started to shift my priorities from guitar to composition around the ages of 14-16 (although there's always been an overlap).
> 
> Along the way, I've learned the electric bass guitar, classical guitar (even did a few concerts!), and a whole number of other guitar-like instruments. I have also done a great amount of noodling on other instruments such as the piano, saxophone, clarinet, violin and cello.
> 
> At 23, I'm now trying to build some serious piano technique; scales/apreggios, Bach inventions, sigh reading, and all the rest.


We have a similar background Piers. I started on Jazz guitar, but eventually left it behind to study composition and piano. When I was in media as a composer, I found in the guitar and bass guitar a very useful resource.


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## En Passant

Formal training with Piano:

Piano/Harpsichord 
Guitar/Bass 
Violin (‘Fiddle’)
Flute
Drums


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## Allegro Con Brio

Piano (somewhat intermittently) for about 13 years, now at an (early?) advanced level. Ditched formal lessons, perhaps to my detriment. I’ve also been playing pipe organ for about 2 years now, but since COVID I have not been able to find any churches to practice in so it’s been 5 months since I’ve put on a pair of organ shoes.


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## Piers Hudson

mikeh375 said:


> We have a similar background Piers. I started on Jazz guitar, but eventually left it behind to study composition and piano. When I was in media as a composer, I found in the guitar and bass guitar a very useful resource.


I have to admit that finding a purpose for my guitar ability as a composer has been difficult to realise, with the exception of a composition project for electric guitar and bass voice that I did three years ago.

With that being said, I think the situation will change in the near future; I'll be working with the Plus-Minus ensemble as part of my postgraduate composition studies, and one of the group members is an electric guitarist. I've already been devising ideas for how I can approach the instrumentation; the guitar may feature as a soloistic role, but not really in a shreddy way; it will be more lyrical instead, like Derek Trucks, perhaps.


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## Pauli91FIN

Three: piano as my main instrument (since the age of 4), alto saxophone as my second instrument (since the age of 23) and sitar as a curiosity. My parents bought a sitar for me as a Christmas present from Tallinn last year because they were aware of my fascination for Hindustani music.


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## abcedem

Guitar, Bass, Voice and occasionally inept keyboards


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## Guest

Just the piano.


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## 6Strings

I've played classical guitar for a few decades and piano for a few years.


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## Haydn70

Formal training: 
1. classical guitar; my main instrument, the one on which I fulfilled my instrumental proficiency for my Bachelor of Music degree (I was a composition major) and auditioned with for my entrance exams for graduate school.
2. cello; I took lessons for about 4 years at the start of my college music studies.

I played in rock bands for many years. My main instrument was bass guitar. I still have my Vox Astro IV complete with built-in E tuner, treble/bass boost and fuzz tone...never did get to play "Think For Yourself" though. I also played guitar, drums and a bit of keyboards and sang lead and backup vocals.

Miscellaneous:
I played double bass in wind ensemble for one semester.


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## vincula

Saxophonist here. The bari's the one I consider my main one. I concentrate all my efforts on jazz & blues, the music I like to play. 

Rusty piano, mainly to have a grasp on harmony. Started on violin and cello but gave up on it many moons ago. Sang in a choir for a few years. Baritone too, of course 

Regards,

Vincula


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