What instrument do you play or want to play ?

You have to tune the guitar yourself you know... it's not a defect!

I pluck six strings on guitars and press keys on pianos once in a while but it'd be nice to know how to play those instruments.

 

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You don't if you have one of these:

Self tuning Les Paul

I want one these...bad!

 

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Bass, motherfucker. 2 years, now.

 

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I would choose the cello because of its abilty to match any mood from skittish to sad, not to mntion the ravishing sound.

 

I wish I knew how to play the piano.

 

I've played piano since I was 5, and I've played flute and guitar for about 5 years now, Funnily enough, I'm far better at flute and guitar then I am at piano because I stopped playing real music and just improv on piano now.

I wish I could play violin and saxophone. My brother's learning sax, so I'm going to get him to teach me hopefully though.

 

i am 15 and about to take the penaultimate grade on both piano and violin i think that i am quite good and talented

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good luck, but don't just rely on written music, learn to improvise and create your own music

 

You do, just not very "smoothly", shall we say.

It's a matter of sitting there and boring the snot out of yourself learning the difference between what you do with one hand, while you're doing something else with the other.

But, like knitting, you put it together eventually.

I started young, btw., but I've "forgotten how to play" at least twice, and re-taught myself, though I guess not from "scratch".

I guess if you know you know you can do it, then you do.
It'd be shit-hot if you could just plug a memory stick into your head or something, and play like Tchaikowsky (a new version of a player piano, where you're the scroll).

I'd like to learn the sax and bagpipes, I had a trumpet-playing friend so learned how to do a bit of tapping. I can pick out a tune on the git, too. I want to build my own axe and tube-deck maybe with some of those new flat digital jobs for speaker stacks, but there's that big old financial elephant, so not much headroom right now. All that "build it yourself" stuff is on the net though.

 

Don't play any, although I had to play something for my GCSE music course a couple of years ago, so I sat down for two days and learned a shorter version of "Moonlight Sonata" and nailed it perfectly. I can't even read music well and can't play a new piece from a sheet, I have to earn it bit by bit off by heart.

So I guess I can play the piano (although not properly)

Although what tickles my fancy is the Jew's harp. They are just mesmerizing.

 

I play classical guitar.

 

I think playing an instrument without learning to read music must be like learning how to do algebra without learning math.

 

It's more like painting without learning how the colors are called. No problem.

 

Seriously? What if someone asked you to do something in mauve and chartreuse, with dashes of orange hues, not too like a desert, but suggestive of ochre and vaguely pastel shades, then you paint something with black and white splotches for a background, with big purple dots?

No problem.

 

You can still paint what you want yourself.
Similarly, you can play what you want without knowing the notes.

Playing something someone asked you to play is not the definition of music.

There are musicians that can't read notes, and they are doing well.

 

The definition of "musician" has a somewhat different meaning in recent decades. Because you can be a musician if you know how to use software on a computer.

There are several languages now available - MIDI, for instance. Sheet music isn't the only notation, but it's a bit of a standard, like algebra has standard notations.

It's also a way to communicate ideas between people who can read it. You don't have to solve math equations if you're familiar enough with the notation used, to get a rough idea what they are conveying (if they "sound right"). Sheet music is "music math", you don't need to learn standard algebra notation to do math either, you can invent your own, but there's a really good reason math is "spelt" in a standard way.

A shopkeeper doesn't need to know calculus, or even more than basic arithmetic, but uses standard notation - the decimal numbers, like everyone else, to do the math.

 

You are somehow defining making music as writing music..

Music is just self-expression, like drawing, singing, painting.. whatever. You don't have to know anything to do it.

 

No, I'm not defining music.

I'm saying there are musical algebras, like there are speech algebras.
Why does math have a standard way of setting out the "language"? Why doesn't everyone use a personal one, or why do written languages exist? Why do we say or write the same word for "music"?

 

I said "I can't read music well", so I just go through incredibly slowly, learning it off by heart, then patch it all together. Works well for me.
Even if I could read music well, it's a different story trying to get my fingers in the right place.

I find that the piano roll is a much better musical notation.
Example...

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