Does anyone here play an instrument? and what are people's favourite instruments and ones they would most like to learn if they could?

I figured most of the topics here are about music that people listen to, not play, so here's the thread to discuss instruments and pieces that you love to play.

I play the piano- Have done for a long time. It's one of the best forms of release in the world! I also play the guitar, but I don't take it as seriously as the piano playing- it's really just for fun.

I play guitar, piano, drums, and harmonica.

My favorites to play is Guitar and the Drums.

My absolute favorite instrument in the world is the cello..I can't play it and I don't think I'd like to learn because I think it might ruin it for me but it's like the most beautiful sound in the world. I think if I could make it it might cheapen it for me a little.

I actually like to write my own songs, I'm in a band so we do all originals and I have alot of fun writing songs...it's probably my favorite thing in the world to do. It's just so cool to see people really connect with something YOU wrote...best feeling in the world.

I play guitar, bass, banjo, mandolin, fiddle, piano, tin flute and so on.

Haha, people tend to say I'm somewhat musically inclined

I play a passable harmonica.

And cowbell, of course.

I got a fever

I used to play the saxaphone in like the 5th grade, as well but I realized it just wasn't my thing and graduated to guitar in 9th grade and it's been guitar ever since...picked up everything else on the way.

I play the flute. I bought myself a guitar with the intent on learning how to play it, but... hmm, haven't done it yet. I would like to learn to play the piano and cello also.

Lol. I play piano, flute, an itty bitty bit of guitar, and I sing. Oh, and I could probably play recorder if I tried, it's been a year or two since I've played it.

My main instrument is piano though, and I love playing Mozart and Grieg. At the moment I'm learning the Fantasie in D minor by Mozart, and In The Hall of the Mountain King by Grieg and The Earlking by Schubert. Oh, and Claire De Lune by Debussy, but that's been dying a little due to lack of practice.

I would also like to learn cello, but harp is beautiful as well.

Edited because The Earlking is by Schubert, not Grieg.

hi all (especially the lioness33
my favorite mozart work to play is his concert rondo in d k.382
give it a try and see if you too don't fall in love with it.
someplace else here you mentioned that you were about to teach a youngster.
here is a site i just came from (you would need to install shocksomething
but it might prove to be interesting and fun for a young and an older person.
let me know if s/he likes it.
actually i will just be pleased if you use it.
http://www.nyphilkids.org/lockerroom/main.phtml?
hope this works. also has a brief intro to composers, build your own instrument. fun to play? [don't forget to click on the ears or whatever it was to actually play little bits]
yep, it did. this opens up to an instrument storage locker where you can learn about instruments. the movement between is not as good as the idea.
btw, my favorite works for teaching the instruments of the orchestra include:
saint-saens the carnival of the animals, prokofiev peter and the wolf, and my absolute favorite benjamin britten's a young person's guide to the orchestra which has a wonderful tune by henry purcell which britten does up as gloriously as ravel's bolero in terms of his skills at orchestration! luscious
do yourself a big favor and listen.

hi all again
sorry forgot to mention schubert's cello quintet so deeply beautiful.
my favorite cello concerto is the dvorak cello concerto.
my favorite cellist is janos starker. also heard casals, fournier, and the man who used to be in trios with artur rubinstein a russian and a couple of other really fine players (if i could remember their names better i would have mentioned them).
drat, in the old days, i never forgot stuff like that.
another favorite instrument i learned to play was the viola.
but the piano has always been my instrument on which to improvise and to practise the great piano works of the concerto repertoire.

Dr. Bob. I think the website you suggested might be a bit young for her. She's 12, and knows the basics.

However I will check out the Mozart rondo. How hard is it, gradewise?

I have played piano since I was 4, which makes it 26 years now, including classical training, jazz training and winging it in a couple of rock bands. One band was mostly covers with blues and funk originals, the other was mostly originals with reggae and girl-rock covers. I've recorded an album as keyboards and backup vocals. Which means, as you may guess, that I sing. (Voice is an instrument, I swear.) I sang in concert choirs growing up, and both backup and lead vocals in the bands, depending on the song.

I played violin until my sophomore year of high school, but orchestra couldn't cut it next to theater. I have dabbled in guitar and bass guitar, but never very seriously. I play drums on the keyboard at need.

I think my favorite pieces for piano are Moonlight Sonata by Beethoven, which isn't techically challenging, I guess, but is such a lovely, full-voiced piece, and so haunting, I get all caught up in it while I play. I've always enjoyed the piano arrangement for Stairway to Heaven that I have. It's weird to hear it on piano, but it's really fun to play. You get 8 of ten fingers on some chords there, and moving pretty fast. One of my favorite gig pieces on keyboard was always House of the Rising Sun by the Animals.

I love to sing, and I sing all the time. I sing along to the musak in stores, I sing in the car, the shower, just for no reason at all in the silence... I think my favorite pieces to perform were probably the Kyrie we sang in concert choir. I think it was Haydn. And also, I love to sing Janis Ian and Don McLean.

Oh, how I envy you who play the piano. I had always wanted to learn to play. When I was a child, I actually wanted lessons, when my friends hated taking theirs. But we didn't have a piano in the house for me to practice on so I didn't get to learn. I did, however, play the flute for a few years in school. I still have my flute (O these many years later) and could probably only play "Mary Had a Little Lamb" if given the chance.

Flute is a wonderful instrument, It's tone is so beautiful. I don't think it's ever possible to forget how to play something, even if your brain forgets, after a few practices, your fingers will remember.

I did piano for 4 years when I was little, stopped for 5, and have just taken it up again about a year ago. I'm finding that it's easier to learn harder songs as my fingers remember the basics.

Lothruin, I also love moonlight sonata, but I can't seem to get the first movement quiet enough. I havn't tried the 2nd and 3rd yet, though I finally printed them off.

On another note (excuse the pun) On the radio the other day, I heard the Armenian national instrument - the DukDuk (dook dook). It is a double reed instrument, and it has a lovely mellow deep sound.

Edited to correct spelling.

Yes, Luthrian, I agree that vocals are an instrument and I sing as well.

Voice has been and will always be an instrument to me.

It makes a musical sound, which in my opinion makes it an instrument.

If you have a spare 15 minutes, you may want to have a look at this.

It is a video of 2 people playing Grieg's Piano Concerto in A. One playing the piano solo, the other playing the orchestral accompaniment arranged for piano.

It is absolutely amazing watching the hands move.
The guy in black is playing the solo.

I always wanted a saxophone so on the day I got my first student loan I 'blew it' (no pun intended lol) and bought a second hand one and a couple of books of practise exercises and simple tunes.
I already played recorders so I managed to get a tune out of it and got so you could at least tell what I was playing
One day I'll start practising again, they take a LOT of 'puff' I was amazed how tiring it was when one lets it lapse, and atm I just don't get time - plus it is LOUD and the kids hate it...sigh lol

Flute, piano and vocals.

Morrigan

I wouldn't say piano is hard to learn, just hard to be good at.

I have only played accordion once. I ignored the buttons for chords and only used the piano like keys, they being the only ones I knew how to operate.

It was fun though.

Organ must have been interesting!

Quote:

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I wouldn't say piano is hard to learn

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I would!
I've been a singer all my life, can sight read, and know some theory--but I've never been able to get beyond the basics of piano. I just don't have the coordination.
Rather depressing, really, as I come from a family of musicians.

Au_Naturel, if you can play accordion, I'm sure you could play piano.
What styles of music do you play? My Uncle played accordion (his main instrument was cornet, however), and he played many styles well, but he was particularly skilled at classical. You don't hear classical accordion very often, but it's very nice.