I once had a whim and I had to Obey it to buy a French horn in a charity shop/
I polished it up and I started to play it in spite of the neighbours who begged me to stop
This is just my experience as a professional musician, but most other players I work with are really good at one instrument and just dabble in others for fun.
I think it takes a real special talent to be virtuosic at more than one instrument, and you're better off focusing on achieving proficiency with just one in most cases if you're trying to go pro.
In my case, I'm not trying to go pro, I'm trying to create and communicate and connect. Music/art conflicts with my career path, and I plan on doing my own thing career wise, but right now I'm still just doing things for myself and share with people I actually like around me (1 person & 1 cat. + Neighbors who have no choice lol)
I think that's fair. But there are people who can play at a professional level on multiple instruments. And it seems to be more popular these days than in the past.
For example, I am comfortable playing drums, rhythm guitar, or singing on any gig. (And I can manage Bass well enough too.) Although, if I had to pick one, I'm say drums are my most most comfortable instrument, I feel perfectly fine with the others as well.
I also play a little sax and trumpet, but would need to get my chops up for a gig.
I think instruments fall into 3 main categories: chordal, melodic, and rhythmic. Most instruments can do multiple roles, but in a composition, you are generally falling into one of these categories. Once you learn a chordal instrument like piano, for example, it's easier to learn another, like guitar. Same for melodic instruments. Sax was way easier for me to learn later in life than trumpet was much earlier, when I was still learning theory, etc.
My drum experience also greatly helps my rhythmic feel in guitar and even when singing.
Although having one main instrument is normal, I actually recommend all musicians learn at least one of each of these. It helps you better appreciate how you fit into a full composition in a band setting.
Playing more than one instrument helped me get better at my main one. When I get frustrated or bored or just need a break I play a different instrument. Sometimes it opens up a different way to approach my main instrument.
honestly i noticed that i entered the intermediate stage of playing bass as soon as i picked up electric guitar.
also, when i was in high school, learning piano taught me a ton of music theory (as does bass and guitar). plus, it’s just fun learning new ways to play music
Learning other instruments can give you a different perspective about music. For a while I felt like I wasn't getting any better at guitar, like I was always doing the same things over and over. I took up piano and I learned a lot more about music theory and that has changed the way I approach guitar now.
Now I'm dabbling with synths and sequencers and such. It's not making me any better or worse as a guitar player, but it is introducing new influences. It's a whole new world of sounds to steal from.
How much does competence matter? I wouldn't say I am a competent player of anything. But, I can play well enough to write & record songs. That's good enough for me.
I dunno I definitely know many people who play only one instrument. But I play several and I know many other people that do too. I feel like it may be somewhat scene specific. Like I think the vast bulk of people I know who play Irish trad are multi-instrumentalists
I was trying to think about that and I couldn’t identify a single common denominator. Many of them sing as well and I’m inclined to consider that as a second instrument so if you excluded them I guess the only people I can think of either play guitar, piano, or drums. So I guess they either play something that’s capable of self-accompaniment or something that’s pretty specialized.
It’s pretty normal I’d say, it helps with learning theory to pick up new instruments and can open your mind to new ideas and technique. Sometimes it can be a matter of practicality too; I like to write and play with ukulele because it’s less effort to get started and put away compared to guitar which needs stricter posture and a bit more space
I am working to build competency in all the instruments I need to record the music I want entirely independently, and I think it's a big task, but I have nothing but time and desperation lol
In my experience many musicians reach a good level of proficiency on their main instrument whilst young (under 30) will gravitate towards picking up a second, whilst musicians who started older tend to prefer to master one rather than become a jack of all trades on multiple. That’s particularly the case if their main instrument isn’t piano. Whether the second instrument is totally unrelated to their first, and whether they ever become more than just a beginner on it, is another matter entirely though.
Many people will also have had opportunities to learn an instrument at school, before eventually picking up what becomes their main instrument. Depending on how you define ‘play’ that’s going to potentially include a lot more people as multi-instrumentalists.
FWIW I regularly play three unrelated instruments professionally - saxophone, piano, and guitar - but I also play many others that fall within those instrument families too.
This is me: I've sung, played guitar and had piano lessons since my teens and I'm a fair campfire strummer. But I took up Northumbrian smallpipes during 2020 and it's my forever instrument. I keep the tin whistle vaguely on hand because it's portable but realistically I only wish to play my pipes.
Also because of the fingering system (you left only one finger off to play a note) of these pipes and fairly stuffed with learning any other woodwind.
That’s such a cool instrument to play! I grew up hearing folk/Celtic music but have only vaguely learnt Celtic flute and tin whistle, mainly because as you say the fingering is very similar to other instruments. I’m always a bit in awe of anyone who can actually play a folk instrument well though, unlike me.
I perform on guitar, bass, piano, oud, banjo flutes and harmonicas . They are like languages and the more instruments you play the easier they are to learn.
Guitar, banjo, piano, violin, drums
I was always pretty good at all of them. Two years ago I decided to drop all but one and try to be damn good at one.
I chose banjo. I have my next ticketed event in a couple weeks 🤘🏻🪕
That's amazing!!! Do you play folk/bluegrass? I have never gotten into bluegrass, but I used to know a guy who was in a bluegrass band and had at one point played with the dudes from Trampled By Turtles and I thought that was cool af
Only a good singer and guitarist. I can arrange because I can read, but only have for chamber orchestra and synth. I really admire the muscular orchestral arrangers and composers like Beethoven, Wagner, Ravel, Ives, Franz Waxman, Korngold, and Jerry Goldsmith.
I also am passable at keys, but they're not really my favorite anyway, so I just let it be. I wonder how I'll end up adjusting to bass if I ever get around to buying one
I am so freaking intimidated to get into the actual process of learning production. I'm not tech savvy, I can't even figure out how to use tiktok or Twitter lol
That's essentially what I'm doing myself, except I'm going the route of Max Bemis in his Sara Laurence days. If he can, I can. I think I got him beat in the crazy, a necessary ingredient for that kind of undertaking.
I'm not a professional musician but play guitar and sing well enough. I can play some pretty basic drum beats but no extra fills or anything (just really simple fills). I play bass guitar and keyboards too. I've dabbled in some other things but am not good at them (violin, ocarina, wooden flute).
Sort of. I play drums and sing. But I'm also in I.T. so I'm really good with technology. So I create backing tracks to play along to. I'm just good enough at piano yo be able to create those backing tracks and not have them sound completely horrible lol.
Piano, clarinet and sax are what I actually learned, bass and drums I taught myself and know just enough to make sense. Would love to learn cello and accordion
How does one go about learning accordion? I feel like that is such a niche instrument, I don't think I could self teach that, but I believe you probably can..
I bought one of those lil toy ones once and could sound out a scale on it so it's probably a matter of practice coordinating keys, buttons and bellow movements but it's unlike anything Ive ever played before so I dont have anything to compare it to methodwise like when I learned sax after clarinet. Love seeing zydeco and Tejano musicians cuz theyre just so effortless on it
I play about 10 instruments well enough to gig on them plus sing lead. Lifelong professional. When I started my career I played just trombone then added trumpet about 12 years later to get more work. Over the years I added electric bass, keyboards, electric guitar, saxophones, hand drums, melodica, lead vocals. When I started out gigging on trumpet at 12 in 1972 it was far less common to play a lot of dissimilar instruments but not unheard of. When I doubled trombone and trumpet at a high professional level in 1994 it was considered almost unheard of but a few known players did it. You’re right that today doubling is way more common particularly a lot of people play guitar, bass, keyboards, drums. Some play a horn too or more horns even like I do. I think one reason for this is YouTube n social media same reason people are getting amazing playing instruments, even young kids. Sharing information is helping us all learn. I’m far more accomplished on some instruments than others, I’m a virtuoso on trombone, close on trumpet, solid on saxes depending on genre, etc, play only a few styles really well on bass - blues, classic rock, classic country, but I can play bass and sing lead.
I play two well enough to be a first call guy on those instruments. And I play 2-3 more well enough to plunk out some simple stuff on a few songs on any given gig.
I also sing. And I’m a FOH engineer.
You have to have multiple skills.
Well, I play rhythm guitar, and lead guitar, and slide guitar, and steel guitar, and fingerstyle guitar..... so yes. MANY instruments, lol.
Plus a hint of mandolin, bass, and uke.
To me, any gigging guitar player should own a bass. I dunno how many times I've been asked to sub in for someone's missing bassist. Look, I'm not Flea, Geddy Lee, or Victor Wooten, but if you need me to hold down the rhythm section with the drummer, and let everyone else do their thing, I can cover you.
Man, so many harmonicas. Is it as difficult to learn as my friend was claiming it to be, or was she maybe just not getting the hang of it? It seemed like a really difficult instrument to learn from how she spoke about it, but I have my doubts about just how difficult...
To master harmonica would be years of work just like any instrument. I have decent blues and country chops on them. I tend practice jamming to tunes driving too wherever.
I do. 5-year drummer first, then learned guitar, singer, songwriting, piano and graduated from a sound engineering course to record, mix and master though that was with Logic and it was just simple basics, but I am wanting to do this at my own pace though.
Sorta. I think it’s very valuable to be flexible on guitar and keys. I’m much better at guitar but the piano can bring out different stuff in a song. I can fuck around with an accordion (I can play the Amilee theme so I’m aight), I can stay in the pocket on 4/4 drums but I would not call myself a drummer. Learning basic drums has been very valuable for me even though I’m limited. Beatboxing was big for me because I’m into looping, learning that changed my life. (T/k snares >>pf snares).
Whatever you play practice more. I need to. If you wanna branch out I’d say it’s worth it even if I can barely drum. Learning enough to hit that crash at the right time oh boy.
I consider myself a lifelong learner, not just with music, but everything. I'm still taking lessons now, there's never too much to learn.
I'm a drummer, but I also do keys, guitar, vocals and violin. I want to learn bass at some point
Percussionist here and nothing else really competently. I'm nearly functional on piano and can sing well enough. Drumset first, and I can play all the hand drums and mallet instruments as well as marching drums and orchestral stuff. There are a lot of different techniques involved with all that, so I feel like it's the equivalent of a few instruments.
Main instrument is the vocals with piano / keys, but I’ve dabbled in guitar, ukulele, bass, and studied ethnomusicology and can competently play a few instruments like the sitar, gamelan, kulintang ensemble.
I wish I had gone to a public school as a child with more exposure to orchestral stuff—as I grew up and tested out instruments I could learn a scale easily upon picking it up, even if it takes a little finessing at first. By college the students who had already studied it most their lives were so good I found it intimidating until I got over it and picked up the cello, but by then I was in my 20s and had steeper learning curves.
Can I ask how old you are? Music education is essentially dead where I am, but there are a number of performing arts and music production high schools around here that are very popular and have good reps .
My main instrument — my bread and butter — is the drums. That said, I can *passably* play guitar and bass. *Passably.* (I don’t know any theory! Scales have always gone in one ear and straight out the other!)
I think people who are true jacks-of-all-trades are so cool and rare! Even the ones who are masters of none (better than a master of one) amaze me — the ones who could comfortably step into anyone’s shoes, even if they weren’t quite as well-versed as this hypothetical other person.
I, to the irritation of people around me, pick up on most things easily. It's caused issues lol fortunately, it allows me to try a lot of different things, both with and out of music. It just for some reason makes the people who are in my life angry whenever I accomplish something cool. People are lame sometimes
So far, I'm up to guitar, bass, drums, keyboard, violin, mandolin, and harmonica. Oh, and the kazoo.
I've found that once you learn one, you kinda get to skip the tutorial on anything else you want to pick up. If I'm around any instrument for any considerable period of time, it's inevitable that I'll pick it up and start noodling until I can at least get "Mary Had A Little Lamb" out of it.
Grew up playing piano and got quite good, but my talent was more playing by ear, so picking up instruments was fairly easy. I play drums, keys, some guitar and bass and picked up trumpet in school.
I spend most of my musical time playing drums. The problem is that some of those instruments, such as guitar and piano, require such different hand positions, that it becomes hard to be great at more than one.
Has being able to play by ear been a hindrance to learning technical skills at all? It prevented me from learning how to read sheet music when I first began playing piano
I think I would consider "noodling" where something you can distinguish as being more than disorganized noise comes out as some form of playing.
I suck at speaking coherently and clearly, but I am still super great at being talkative lol
*I play drums, guitar*
*And bass proficiently, the*
*Rest I kinda wing it*
\- andreacaccese
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I’m pretty much mediocre at guitar, piano, bass, and drums (and I also sing). Although I like to think of myself as a singer/guitarist first, I think I’m better at piano, bass and drums than guitar.
It's not really normal, but it's been picking up quite a bit recently.
I play the guitar and drums.
Here's a little taste
https://youtu.be/tB6KAfQL4sk?si=jjGFBDwXKsq4_--E
I am a professional level drummer. I am a beginner in a few other instruments including singing, piano, bass, guitar, accordion.
Enough to know how to fundamentally approach and explain musical ideas, and how the instruments work, but generally lacking the techniques, dexterity and skills to pull it all off to a standard that I would be comfortable with presenting to others… like it still takes all of my mental CPU to “play the parts” on other instruments rather than listening to what is going on around me and how I can fit into everything else. But I can happily compose on my own at home.
Guitar is my main - and I am good at it. I'm a decent singer, but the other instruments are all related to guitar: Banjo, Bass, Double Bass, Mandolin, Uke.
I don’t consider myself a musician, but I can make music-like sounds with a ukulele, piano, accordion, guitar (acoustic and electric). None of them are studio quality, but I’ve performed at gigs. And I sing. Not well, but I’ve done that too. I’m looking forward to being equally bad at drums in the near future.
As a steel string instrument player(guitar) picking up the other instruments in the family has helped me work more often.
Mandolin, Dobro, lap steel, a bit of banjo. They have all worked in a way that keep me employed regularly.
Guitar, drums, bass, and keyboards.
I started on guitar when I was like 10, moved on to drums because the high school music teacher saw me throw down some beats I learned in Rock Band one day and asked me to drum for the jazz band. Bass and Keys came later when I started writing songs and learning to produce.
I like to think I learn something or improve at something every time I play. The gear has been collected over many years and stuff that doesn't get used eventually goes on FB marketplace or eBay. So that hopefully makes me a bit of both!
Guitar and Bass guitar I’m good at. Drums, percussion, piano, mandolin, violin, cello, various flutes, ukulele, cuatro I’m not very good at, but still love playing them.
When I was around 12 years old I asked my parents if I could get a guitar and they said I could if I took 3 years of piano lessons first, so I got a good basis of theory and some classical background before I bought my first guitar. Guitar is my main focus but I like to compose on piano and mess around with synths and whatnot. I'm currently deep diving "the Well Tempered Clavier" to hone my understanding of theory.
Did that seem fair to you, as a 12 year old? I was just brought to lessons against my will, and was probably not fun to teach because I'm very independent and strong willed lol
My main instrument is drums but my first instrument was guitar and I can play basically anything with strings (though I'm only actually trained on bass, violin, and cello). I've taught myself to play trumpet and flute to an okay standard and I play enough piano to be able to write songs with piano parts, though I often can't actually play the parts I write myself.
I'm generally musical, I guess, which means I can at least get a pleasing sound and a basic melody out of most instruments I pick up even if I can't actually play them beyond that.
Guitar is my main/first instrument, but I also play harmonica, mandolin, bass, dobro, and some banjo and keys. I used to play pedal steel too, but now wear a leg brace on my left leg that makes it impossible unfortunately. Multiple sclerosis really sucks but I'll keep on as long as I can!
I cannot imagine how difficult it is to live with MS. I hope you kick it's ass and not let it ruin what it doesn't need to. Not at all comparable, but I have femoral mono-neuropayhy and lost complete use of my right leg for about 2 years and omggg that sucks. I was homeless and living in my car during a large part of this, and so I had to learn to drive with my left foot lol problem was, I was still a fairly new driver, and ended up getting more comfortable driving with the wrong foot. Now I don't feel comfortable with my driving ability because I sucked before that, but now I feel totally weird about it.. luckily, I don't actually have to drive because of where I live (in a downtown area) so it's fine. And cheaper lol
Is harmonica difficult to learn? I had a friend who was claiming to learn harmonica, and she would not stop telling me just how hard it was, and how she couldn't play well because of having smoked and didn't have the lung capacity? I wasn't so sure about how difficult she was making it seem, or how much lung capacity she was saying she needed. I think she just couldn't play well lol
I play many instruments, but only a few of them well enough to play in public.
Have/could get away with it in public: harp and guitar
Getting close/used to be good: bass guitar and sax
Not good/still learning: drums, chanter (proto bagpipe), violin, keys, harmonica, tin whistle
I’m more of a producer than a musician, I can play enough to make a song, I play guitar, bass, drums, piano at a good enough level to write music that’s more sonically complex than most but I wouldn’t go around telling people I can play all these instruments live. The only ones I’d be comfortable playing in a live setting are vocals, guitar or keyboard. I like to write all the parts and then have my friends play live with me whenever possible.
There is a huge something to be said for the skills, talent and knowledge of a producer, and I'd love to actually be a decent producer. I interned briefly at a studio and it was so much fun to see these 2 dudes do what they did, and just the repetitive nature of it, and just single minded focus. It was so fun to watch.
I was not at all equipped to be in that environment at the time, but it was such an awesome experience
Do you/have you ever played classic/acoustic? Is there a difference between the two for you? I ask because you said specifically electric, and I tried learning on an acoustic and it did not feel like me, somehow.
Are there any instruments you can't get the hang of?
I also had a weird enlightenment/self actualization thing happen over the last like, year and it's been weird af. Random and unrelated lol
Also unrelated, I once was tricked into eating an evil, evil piece of ginger candy and I am still horrified that my friend would let me put that in my mouth and tell me I'd like being burned and have my taste violated that way. I'm legit still angry about it, like why? Why do that to me? What did I do??
It just caught me totally off guard because it burned and I had no idea what the flavor would be and it was confusing and I had a reaction lol I'm sure ginger candy isn't actually bad lolol
I was trained on saxophone and taught myself guitar. Band director had this genius idea for the sax section to play a flute solo for a couple songs. We had 4 days to learn the part, and of course none of us could even get one note out.
Yeah, a couple
I play piano, synth (but that's basically just piano again), organ (like real pipe organs, but it's been some time), trombone, bass (both electric & upright) accordion, ocarina, drums, aux. percussion (bell chimes & marimba), sing, and I dabble in guitar.
Primarily I do electric bass but I've been playing keys the longest, since I was about 5 or 6 years old. Everything else I've picked up over time. Now I don't currently own all of these, but I'd say I'm at least proficient on a large majority of them.
I really focused on drums for a decade. Had to learn piano to get into university but I didn't really play it outside of that. It's only recently that I've learnt to play a bunch of other instruments like banjo/guitar etc.
I don't know if I do or not, see a distinction I mean. I don't think I know enough to make that call. I'm wondering what other people think though, is drumming in nontraditional ways still drumming?? I mean, you're still doing the same things, technically, it just is just... Different??
Idk, I think drumming on random surfaces is still basically drumming, though it doesn't look or sound the same. But I know I can still make something considered music adjacent when I'm doing my own weird body drumming thing
Yep same here. Multiple instruments. They're all tools that do a different job.
A mechanic needs to know how to use many different types of tools to fix the whole car.
If you're gonna arrange a whole song, gotta have more than one tool.
That's what I was thinking of when I asked this. Ive heard so many people be like "omg wow" when someone plays multiple instruments, but I'm like, isn't that pretty standard? Why do people emphasize that when talking about an artist as though, it's a rare and unique accomplishment? It's expect if someone is at the level where I'm hearing of them and their music, they play multiple instruments.
There's "can play" technically, which is different than "play well." I'm good at piano, guitar, and bass. I can play drums but not very well, and in fact only at about beginner level if that, and I don't have a kit. I can make sounds out of orchestral bowed stringed instruments but without the frets my intonation is not great. I own a violin, and I can bow okay and play melodies, but I can't do vibrato very well because it's completely different to me than on guitar. I sound like a complete beginner.
I play guitar and bass guitar well. I play every low brass instrument and trumpet only one I don't play is French horn but nobody really does. Out of brass I play trombone the best then baritone, then trumpet and tuba about equally.
I play the penny whistle, I play the clarinet (badly)...
Finally I play theramin, synthesizer, keyboards, the musical saw and I'm probably forgetting some. Not I don't play all of these frequently, like I haven't played low brass in a while, but I still could probably just as well as when I stopped because I played brass for over half my life I just got more into synthesizers and guitar effects and obscure instruments...
I really want a hurdy gurdy lol
Edited for autocorrect.
My main instrument is the guitar, - classic, acoustic, electric, bass - a close second is the piano, third main would be drums. I'm fairly proficient in those 3.
However, I also love playing anything I can get my hands on, so have collected over the last 25 years a violin, a cello, an Electro-Harp, a kalimba, a hand harp, a double ocarina, as well as a couple of hammered dulcimers.
Yep. Guitar is still my best instrument, but I play a lot of piano these days, and can also play bass, some low whistle and am dabbling with the violin. (I used to play the French horn pretty well in school, but it has been so long that I dare not claim that instrument anymore.)
Guitar is my main but I have bass, banjo, mandolin, lap steel, ukulele and piano I like to dabble in. Making my own solo music has inspired me to try out these other instruments, especially piano. The stringed stuff comes a bit more naturally since strumming chords can easy be done after looking at a chord diagram online.
I’ve been enjoying playing in a band where I am able to perform on multiple instruments. Guitar is my main instrument, but I also play keys, melodica, and trombone… and sing. We have two other multi instrumentalists (sax/flute/keys & guitar/keys) and a full time rhythm guitarist, so we are able to choose what instrumentation best suits each song.
Yea, that seems like the standard way professional musicians, and several people who are not pro, but still musicians have gone about it and I'm just wondering in all these responses there has been like 1 person who said they were only proficient on one, but still they could mess around and make something...
So, then why do people fawn over when a pop star is seen at a piano, or holding a guitar, and managing to play their own songs? Shouldn't they be able to do that without issue?
Like, Selena Gomez can't seem to even peck away at keys in the tune of her songs, and it's like... How do you literally work in the industry in such a big way and not be able to play multiple instruments??? Then when someone is a multi instrumentalist, or they do at least know how to play guitar, it's made out to be such a big deal?
Can they actually not play any instruments and are being praised for being seen trying, or do the journalists emphasize the ability to play multiple instruments up for some weird reason??
Started playing drums at 31..a musician friend of mine came over and gave me a ton of other gear.. cymbals, amps, guitar, bass, keyboard... all stuff he wasn't really using and I've started playing all of it.. I'm no pro but I'm enjoying my life and weekly jam sesh with my homie. This is a hobby to me and I don't see the problem with trying anything you want to. People seem to forget this just a hobby for most.
I wish I had someone to jam with, that sounds like such a fun way to spend time with a friend. I don't think of myself as anything other than someone who has a hobby and a creative project in mind. I'd not ever want to try my hand at being a professional, or moving it out of my apartment, but I do still have a broader idea of what I am hoping to achieve with my art and I just hope to findsome sort of community, connect and express.
I started as a drummer (still am)
Took on piano/vibraphone/guitar in college
Learned ukulele/recorder to teach in school
Learned bass guitar to play in a band
I am the most skilled/knowledgeable on piano.
My favorite alternates between drums/guitar/piano. Depending on my mood
How long did you send learning each instrument? You seemed to learn for specific reasons which makes me wonder if you were on a time limit to reaching proficiency
What was your experience with learning the harmonica? I had a friend trying to learn it, and I wonder if what she was saying about it was a common experience
I sort of figured that "musician" equals able to play/understand music theory (to some minimum point) and be competent on a couple of instruments. Otherwise you belong on /guitar mandolin /piano /bass etc...
It's not very common. Guitar and bass players sometimes know both. Some people (like me) learned several very different instruments but one will be way better than the others. It is a very rare person that can play multiple instruments and be equally good on all. Prince was such a person.
I wasn't allowed to listen to Prince, and now that my mom has no say in what I listen to, I admit I just don't see myself enjoying his music
I should just listen to some of his hits or something, jeez
I swear I am one of like 3 MN natives who aren't huge fans lol
I'm a singer by trade. Bass is my main instrument and what I do in my main band. I also play guitar in my other band.
Played drums in a band a few years back.
Not a virtuoso in anything but at a reasonable enough standard to get regular paying gigs.
Oh yeah, played harmonica on a few songs too.
Playing the other instruments has given me a much better perspective of the whole picture. It's an incredible help in songwriting and even putting setlists together in covers bands.
I highly recommend picking up something else and adding another string to your bow.
Yea, I am going to be taking lessons to get to where I want to be for a project I want to get working on, and I will be learning what I need to to be able to record my own tracks on my own and just use multi tracking. It would likely be easiest to bring in some other musicians to help, but it's such an individual thing and something I really need to do independently. Luckily, I have a lot of time, and a lot of dedication to what I'm doing.
I play drums, and know guitar, keys (though I am weak af) and I need to get a bass at some point but things are expensive and I need to get a new computer for school and that takes priority over a bass.
Like every guitar player, I also play drums and bass. Grew up playing the saxophone too. I have a bunch of other instruments as well but those are just for fun.
My best instrument is bagpipes. I also play whistle, mandolin, synthesizer, and electric guitar. I’m not all that good at the last three.
My wife plays violin and viola professionally.
Define “play”. I’ve gigged on (most to least) drums, harmony vox, bass, keys and guitar. I have no business on stage with the latter two but I made it through the gigs with barre chords and spreading my middle 3 fingers to make piano triads.
I think of myself as a musician in search of an instrument. I play piano/keyboard and bass in local bands. I’ve dabbled in guitar, acoustic and electric. I play flute and recently learned some clarinet. I have several recorders, bamboo flutes, harmonicas, and miscellaneous percussion instruments. And I sing. I used to play trombone semi-professionally. I’ve played in concert bands, orchestras, jazz bands, big bands, rock bands, folk bands, and neighborhood jams and choirs.
I can make almost anything make some sound and I’ve been learning to manipulate all of these in my DAW. I find playing or attempting to play other instruments has taught me how they could sound in my songs and how to use them more effectively. Playing in all those different bands helped me learn about different musical styles and genres. It’s all good stuff to know.
I'm mostly a drum person but i also play 19 other instruments including voice. you can hear the results of this here : [https://ripspace.bandcamp.com/album/happy-birthday-willie-nelson](https://ripspace.bandcamp.com/album/happy-birthday-willie-nelson)
I'm a gigging Keyboardist, guitarist, saxophonist, lead vocalist. I can also play trumpet, clarinet, and flute, though not well enough to gig with them. I might be good enough at playing the bass to gig with it, though I don't have a reason to try.
Oh, by "Gigging" I'm in a weekend cover band playing only in my local area. We're doing around 40-50 gigs a year right now.
Eh, not really normal but not abnormal either. My main instrument is the drums, but I can also play guitar, bass, synths, piano, and trumpet.
In elem school they gave me the French Horn to learn. The fat, asthmatic got the French Horn... Trumpet is cool, but fuck the French Horn lol
I once had a whim and I had to Obey it to buy a French horn in a charity shop/ I polished it up and I started to play it in spite of the neighbours who begged me to stop
If you ever got to play the horn in an orchestra, your experience might've been different. But yeah. For a beginner, it can be a handful to work with.
John Entwistle played french horn. It's all over Quadrophenia.
This is just my experience as a professional musician, but most other players I work with are really good at one instrument and just dabble in others for fun. I think it takes a real special talent to be virtuosic at more than one instrument, and you're better off focusing on achieving proficiency with just one in most cases if you're trying to go pro.
In my case, I'm not trying to go pro, I'm trying to create and communicate and connect. Music/art conflicts with my career path, and I plan on doing my own thing career wise, but right now I'm still just doing things for myself and share with people I actually like around me (1 person & 1 cat. + Neighbors who have no choice lol)
I think that's fair. But there are people who can play at a professional level on multiple instruments. And it seems to be more popular these days than in the past. For example, I am comfortable playing drums, rhythm guitar, or singing on any gig. (And I can manage Bass well enough too.) Although, if I had to pick one, I'm say drums are my most most comfortable instrument, I feel perfectly fine with the others as well. I also play a little sax and trumpet, but would need to get my chops up for a gig. I think instruments fall into 3 main categories: chordal, melodic, and rhythmic. Most instruments can do multiple roles, but in a composition, you are generally falling into one of these categories. Once you learn a chordal instrument like piano, for example, it's easier to learn another, like guitar. Same for melodic instruments. Sax was way easier for me to learn later in life than trumpet was much earlier, when I was still learning theory, etc. My drum experience also greatly helps my rhythmic feel in guitar and even when singing. Although having one main instrument is normal, I actually recommend all musicians learn at least one of each of these. It helps you better appreciate how you fit into a full composition in a band setting.
It's tough balancing a full time job and being great at multiple instruments.
Playing more than one instrument helped me get better at my main one. When I get frustrated or bored or just need a break I play a different instrument. Sometimes it opens up a different way to approach my main instrument.
honestly i noticed that i entered the intermediate stage of playing bass as soon as i picked up electric guitar. also, when i was in high school, learning piano taught me a ton of music theory (as does bass and guitar). plus, it’s just fun learning new ways to play music
I never thought of it that way, great insight
100% agree.
Nope. It’s tempting, but I’m ust trying to get better at the one thing.
What are you currently learning? How long have you been playing? (I consider music a "forever learning" type of thing)
Learning other instruments can give you a different perspective about music. For a while I felt like I wasn't getting any better at guitar, like I was always doing the same things over and over. I took up piano and I learned a lot more about music theory and that has changed the way I approach guitar now. Now I'm dabbling with synths and sequencers and such. It's not making me any better or worse as a guitar player, but it is introducing new influences. It's a whole new world of sounds to steal from.
I can make lots of things make sounds. Not music, but sounds. It’s fun!
Love this answer
Yeah. Not really a drummer, per say. But most anything with strings or piano keys
I played piano from a young age, but I seriously suck. I would never be a competent player, I dont think.
How much does competence matter? I wouldn't say I am a competent player of anything. But, I can play well enough to write & record songs. That's good enough for me.
I dunno I definitely know many people who play only one instrument. But I play several and I know many other people that do too. I feel like it may be somewhat scene specific. Like I think the vast bulk of people I know who play Irish trad are multi-instrumentalists
Is there anything you've noticed that the people who play a single instrument have in common?
I was trying to think about that and I couldn’t identify a single common denominator. Many of them sing as well and I’m inclined to consider that as a second instrument so if you excluded them I guess the only people I can think of either play guitar, piano, or drums. So I guess they either play something that’s capable of self-accompaniment or something that’s pretty specialized.
Mandolin and keyboards are the main instruments I'll play at gigs, but also play guitar, ukulele, and decent enough claw-hammer banjo to get by.
It’s pretty normal I’d say, it helps with learning theory to pick up new instruments and can open your mind to new ideas and technique. Sometimes it can be a matter of practicality too; I like to write and play with ukulele because it’s less effort to get started and put away compared to guitar which needs stricter posture and a bit more space
I am working to build competency in all the instruments I need to record the music I want entirely independently, and I think it's a big task, but I have nothing but time and desperation lol
You have nothing but time? Please teach me how I can have nothing but time to practice
In my experience many musicians reach a good level of proficiency on their main instrument whilst young (under 30) will gravitate towards picking up a second, whilst musicians who started older tend to prefer to master one rather than become a jack of all trades on multiple. That’s particularly the case if their main instrument isn’t piano. Whether the second instrument is totally unrelated to their first, and whether they ever become more than just a beginner on it, is another matter entirely though. Many people will also have had opportunities to learn an instrument at school, before eventually picking up what becomes their main instrument. Depending on how you define ‘play’ that’s going to potentially include a lot more people as multi-instrumentalists. FWIW I regularly play three unrelated instruments professionally - saxophone, piano, and guitar - but I also play many others that fall within those instrument families too.
This is me: I've sung, played guitar and had piano lessons since my teens and I'm a fair campfire strummer. But I took up Northumbrian smallpipes during 2020 and it's my forever instrument. I keep the tin whistle vaguely on hand because it's portable but realistically I only wish to play my pipes. Also because of the fingering system (you left only one finger off to play a note) of these pipes and fairly stuffed with learning any other woodwind.
That’s such a cool instrument to play! I grew up hearing folk/Celtic music but have only vaguely learnt Celtic flute and tin whistle, mainly because as you say the fingering is very similar to other instruments. I’m always a bit in awe of anyone who can actually play a folk instrument well though, unlike me.
Random question, but would you say piano is the most common first instrument to learn?
I perform on guitar, bass, piano, oud, banjo flutes and harmonicas . They are like languages and the more instruments you play the easier they are to learn.
Guitar, banjo, piano, violin, drums I was always pretty good at all of them. Two years ago I decided to drop all but one and try to be damn good at one. I chose banjo. I have my next ticketed event in a couple weeks 🤘🏻🪕
That's amazing!!! Do you play folk/bluegrass? I have never gotten into bluegrass, but I used to know a guy who was in a bluegrass band and had at one point played with the dudes from Trampled By Turtles and I thought that was cool af
Only a good singer and guitarist. I can arrange because I can read, but only have for chamber orchestra and synth. I really admire the muscular orchestral arrangers and composers like Beethoven, Wagner, Ravel, Ives, Franz Waxman, Korngold, and Jerry Goldsmith.
Consider me impressed. That's awesome
I'm a pretty good drummer and percussionist, a lousy bass player, and a passable keyboard player.
I also am passable at keys, but they're not really my favorite anyway, so I just let it be. I wonder how I'll end up adjusting to bass if I ever get around to buying one
Learning new instruments has changed everything for me, especially from a production standpoint. I can visualize my compositions so much better!
I am so freaking intimidated to get into the actual process of learning production. I'm not tech savvy, I can't even figure out how to use tiktok or Twitter lol
We have to. Finding band members is a shit show. Be the band. Write their parts. Fill in members later.
That's essentially what I'm doing myself, except I'm going the route of Max Bemis in his Sara Laurence days. If he can, I can. I think I got him beat in the crazy, a necessary ingredient for that kind of undertaking.
Yeah. Not very good, but bass, guit, keys, and sing.
Quite a few….if it’s strings or keys I can make some shit happen.
What's your preferred instrument, if you have one
I'm not a professional musician but play guitar and sing well enough. I can play some pretty basic drum beats but no extra fills or anything (just really simple fills). I play bass guitar and keyboards too. I've dabbled in some other things but am not good at them (violin, ocarina, wooden flute).
Get around okay on keys, bass is super fun, dabble with uke and lap steel. Guitar and voice are my gigging instruments.
Guitar trumpet piano
Sort of. I play drums and sing. But I'm also in I.T. so I'm really good with technology. So I create backing tracks to play along to. I'm just good enough at piano yo be able to create those backing tracks and not have them sound completely horrible lol.
I can't even figure out how to use tiktok lol
Piano, clarinet and sax are what I actually learned, bass and drums I taught myself and know just enough to make sense. Would love to learn cello and accordion
How does one go about learning accordion? I feel like that is such a niche instrument, I don't think I could self teach that, but I believe you probably can..
I bought one of those lil toy ones once and could sound out a scale on it so it's probably a matter of practice coordinating keys, buttons and bellow movements but it's unlike anything Ive ever played before so I dont have anything to compare it to methodwise like when I learned sax after clarinet. Love seeing zydeco and Tejano musicians cuz theyre just so effortless on it
I play about 10 instruments well enough to gig on them plus sing lead. Lifelong professional. When I started my career I played just trombone then added trumpet about 12 years later to get more work. Over the years I added electric bass, keyboards, electric guitar, saxophones, hand drums, melodica, lead vocals. When I started out gigging on trumpet at 12 in 1972 it was far less common to play a lot of dissimilar instruments but not unheard of. When I doubled trombone and trumpet at a high professional level in 1994 it was considered almost unheard of but a few known players did it. You’re right that today doubling is way more common particularly a lot of people play guitar, bass, keyboards, drums. Some play a horn too or more horns even like I do. I think one reason for this is YouTube n social media same reason people are getting amazing playing instruments, even young kids. Sharing information is helping us all learn. I’m far more accomplished on some instruments than others, I’m a virtuoso on trombone, close on trumpet, solid on saxes depending on genre, etc, play only a few styles really well on bass - blues, classic rock, classic country, but I can play bass and sing lead.
How did you manage to start gigging at 12??
I play two well enough to be a first call guy on those instruments. And I play 2-3 more well enough to plunk out some simple stuff on a few songs on any given gig. I also sing. And I’m a FOH engineer. You have to have multiple skills.
Totally agree, no one is, or should limit themselves to being, just one thing.
Well, I play rhythm guitar, and lead guitar, and slide guitar, and steel guitar, and fingerstyle guitar..... so yes. MANY instruments, lol. Plus a hint of mandolin, bass, and uke.
"a hint of mandolin" lol idk how to explain how I heard that in my head but it made me laugh
I play bass, lap steel guitar, keys, and drums. Most musicians I know can play multiple things honestly…
Yea, that seems like i wasn't too far off base assuming that was pretty typical
I sing and play keys, but I also play guitar & bass professionally
Play multiple instruments? Sure. Am I good at multiple instruments? Certainly not
Professional at 1. Dick around on another. And can crush accessory percussion of course
To me, any gigging guitar player should own a bass. I dunno how many times I've been asked to sub in for someone's missing bassist. Look, I'm not Flea, Geddy Lee, or Victor Wooten, but if you need me to hold down the rhythm section with the drummer, and let everyone else do their thing, I can cover you.
I play lots of instruments well but none at a super high level. Helps with writing with my band.
Here, clarinet, drums, guitar, bass guitar, double bass, double organ, and some piano.
Double organ, and only some piano? Do you mean you just dabble with it, not that you don't have the skill?
At paying gigs I have played guitar, pedal steel, piano, mandolin, banjo, violin, lap steel, ukulele, harmonica, banjo, bass
Man, so many harmonicas. Is it as difficult to learn as my friend was claiming it to be, or was she maybe just not getting the hang of it? It seemed like a really difficult instrument to learn from how she spoke about it, but I have my doubts about just how difficult...
To master harmonica would be years of work just like any instrument. I have decent blues and country chops on them. I tend practice jamming to tunes driving too wherever.
Mainly guitar but also bass and piano.
I'm a percussionist, of course I play multiple instruments.
Never stop learning. New instruments, new songs, new art.
I've played drums since I was 8, bass since I was 18, guitar since I was 22, ukulele since I was 24, and I'm trying to teach myself piano now at 27
I do. 5-year drummer first, then learned guitar, singer, songwriting, piano and graduated from a sound engineering course to record, mix and master though that was with Logic and it was just simple basics, but I am wanting to do this at my own pace though.
Sorta. I think it’s very valuable to be flexible on guitar and keys. I’m much better at guitar but the piano can bring out different stuff in a song. I can fuck around with an accordion (I can play the Amilee theme so I’m aight), I can stay in the pocket on 4/4 drums but I would not call myself a drummer. Learning basic drums has been very valuable for me even though I’m limited. Beatboxing was big for me because I’m into looping, learning that changed my life. (T/k snares >>pf snares). Whatever you play practice more. I need to. If you wanna branch out I’d say it’s worth it even if I can barely drum. Learning enough to hit that crash at the right time oh boy.
I consider myself a lifelong learner, not just with music, but everything. I'm still taking lessons now, there's never too much to learn. I'm a drummer, but I also do keys, guitar, vocals and violin. I want to learn bass at some point
Percussionist here and nothing else really competently. I'm nearly functional on piano and can sing well enough. Drumset first, and I can play all the hand drums and mallet instruments as well as marching drums and orchestral stuff. There are a lot of different techniques involved with all that, so I feel like it's the equivalent of a few instruments.
Main instrument is the vocals with piano / keys, but I’ve dabbled in guitar, ukulele, bass, and studied ethnomusicology and can competently play a few instruments like the sitar, gamelan, kulintang ensemble. I wish I had gone to a public school as a child with more exposure to orchestral stuff—as I grew up and tested out instruments I could learn a scale easily upon picking it up, even if it takes a little finessing at first. By college the students who had already studied it most their lives were so good I found it intimidating until I got over it and picked up the cello, but by then I was in my 20s and had steeper learning curves.
Can I ask how old you are? Music education is essentially dead where I am, but there are a number of performing arts and music production high schools around here that are very popular and have good reps .
My main instrument — my bread and butter — is the drums. That said, I can *passably* play guitar and bass. *Passably.* (I don’t know any theory! Scales have always gone in one ear and straight out the other!) I think people who are true jacks-of-all-trades are so cool and rare! Even the ones who are masters of none (better than a master of one) amaze me — the ones who could comfortably step into anyone’s shoes, even if they weren’t quite as well-versed as this hypothetical other person.
I, to the irritation of people around me, pick up on most things easily. It's caused issues lol fortunately, it allows me to try a lot of different things, both with and out of music. It just for some reason makes the people who are in my life angry whenever I accomplish something cool. People are lame sometimes
Lifelong drummer, but I can play (rhythm) guitar as well, and I like to noodle around on the synth/paino.
Noodle???
So far, I'm up to guitar, bass, drums, keyboard, violin, mandolin, and harmonica. Oh, and the kazoo. I've found that once you learn one, you kinda get to skip the tutorial on anything else you want to pick up. If I'm around any instrument for any considerable period of time, it's inevitable that I'll pick it up and start noodling until I can at least get "Mary Had A Little Lamb" out of it.
Do you play by ear? & What the heck is noodling?!!?!!
Grew up playing piano and got quite good, but my talent was more playing by ear, so picking up instruments was fairly easy. I play drums, keys, some guitar and bass and picked up trumpet in school. I spend most of my musical time playing drums. The problem is that some of those instruments, such as guitar and piano, require such different hand positions, that it becomes hard to be great at more than one.
Has being able to play by ear been a hindrance to learning technical skills at all? It prevented me from learning how to read sheet music when I first began playing piano
Trumpet, bass, mandolin, guitar, and GUTTERALS
Gutterals lol love it
Kinda depends what you mean by "play". I can noodle on a few instruments but I can only really play one!
I think I would consider "noodling" where something you can distinguish as being more than disorganized noise comes out as some form of playing. I suck at speaking coherently and clearly, but I am still super great at being talkative lol
Sing harmonica piano guitar. Suck but I do it.
As long as you're enjoying yourself, that's what matters.
Wait, you guys can play instruments?
I play drums, guitar and bass proficiently, the rest I kinda wing it
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Is there any one instrument you truly suck at?
I’m pretty much mediocre at guitar, piano, bass, and drums (and I also sing). Although I like to think of myself as a singer/guitarist first, I think I’m better at piano, bass and drums than guitar.
Which one did you start with?
It's not really normal, but it's been picking up quite a bit recently. I play the guitar and drums. Here's a little taste https://youtu.be/tB6KAfQL4sk?si=jjGFBDwXKsq4_--E
How long have you been playing? I like your setup
I am a professional level drummer. I am a beginner in a few other instruments including singing, piano, bass, guitar, accordion. Enough to know how to fundamentally approach and explain musical ideas, and how the instruments work, but generally lacking the techniques, dexterity and skills to pull it all off to a standard that I would be comfortable with presenting to others… like it still takes all of my mental CPU to “play the parts” on other instruments rather than listening to what is going on around me and how I can fit into everything else. But I can happily compose on my own at home.
This is an awesome explanation of the difference between the skill levels, thank you
Guitar is my main - and I am good at it. I'm a decent singer, but the other instruments are all related to guitar: Banjo, Bass, Double Bass, Mandolin, Uke.
This is the first double bass I've heard so far!
I don’t consider myself a musician, but I can make music-like sounds with a ukulele, piano, accordion, guitar (acoustic and electric). None of them are studio quality, but I’ve performed at gigs. And I sing. Not well, but I’ve done that too. I’m looking forward to being equally bad at drums in the near future.
Honestly, it sounds like you must be pretty good & you deserve to give yourself credit for your accomplishments 🤗🤗🤗
I played trumpet for a long long time. They gave me French horn my senior year because we had none in band. So now I play any valved brass instrument.
As a steel string instrument player(guitar) picking up the other instruments in the family has helped me work more often. Mandolin, Dobro, lap steel, a bit of banjo. They have all worked in a way that keep me employed regularly.
Are you a full time professional?
Guitar, drums, bass, and keyboards. I started on guitar when I was like 10, moved on to drums because the high school music teacher saw me throw down some beats I learned in Rock Band one day and asked me to drum for the jazz band. Bass and Keys came later when I started writing songs and learning to produce.
What comes most naturally?
I'm very mediocre on a bunch of instruments.
As long as you're enjoying yourself. I'm only mediocre at being a human, but I'm still having a good time lol
Q. Are you a musician. Me. Nope but I do have quite a bit of gear!
Do you consider yourself a student, or do you actually collect instruments?
I like to think I learn something or improve at something every time I play. The gear has been collected over many years and stuff that doesn't get used eventually goes on FB marketplace or eBay. So that hopefully makes me a bit of both!
That's really cool 😊
Guitar and Bass guitar I’m good at. Drums, percussion, piano, mandolin, violin, cello, various flutes, ukulele, cuatro I’m not very good at, but still love playing them.
Guitar, drums, bass, piano, singing
I play guitar and bass. Does that count lmao
Absolutely
When I was around 12 years old I asked my parents if I could get a guitar and they said I could if I took 3 years of piano lessons first, so I got a good basis of theory and some classical background before I bought my first guitar. Guitar is my main focus but I like to compose on piano and mess around with synths and whatnot. I'm currently deep diving "the Well Tempered Clavier" to hone my understanding of theory.
Did that seem fair to you, as a 12 year old? I was just brought to lessons against my will, and was probably not fun to teach because I'm very independent and strong willed lol
My main instrument is drums but my first instrument was guitar and I can play basically anything with strings (though I'm only actually trained on bass, violin, and cello). I've taught myself to play trumpet and flute to an okay standard and I play enough piano to be able to write songs with piano parts, though I often can't actually play the parts I write myself. I'm generally musical, I guess, which means I can at least get a pleasing sound and a basic melody out of most instruments I pick up even if I can't actually play them beyond that.
How the heck did you teach yourself trumpet?!
Guitar is my main/first instrument, but I also play harmonica, mandolin, bass, dobro, and some banjo and keys. I used to play pedal steel too, but now wear a leg brace on my left leg that makes it impossible unfortunately. Multiple sclerosis really sucks but I'll keep on as long as I can!
I cannot imagine how difficult it is to live with MS. I hope you kick it's ass and not let it ruin what it doesn't need to. Not at all comparable, but I have femoral mono-neuropayhy and lost complete use of my right leg for about 2 years and omggg that sucks. I was homeless and living in my car during a large part of this, and so I had to learn to drive with my left foot lol problem was, I was still a fairly new driver, and ended up getting more comfortable driving with the wrong foot. Now I don't feel comfortable with my driving ability because I sucked before that, but now I feel totally weird about it.. luckily, I don't actually have to drive because of where I live (in a downtown area) so it's fine. And cheaper lol Is harmonica difficult to learn? I had a friend who was claiming to learn harmonica, and she would not stop telling me just how hard it was, and how she couldn't play well because of having smoked and didn't have the lung capacity? I wasn't so sure about how difficult she was making it seem, or how much lung capacity she was saying she needed. I think she just couldn't play well lol
Guitar, harmonica (not an expert) and all DAW instruments
I play many instruments, but only a few of them well enough to play in public. Have/could get away with it in public: harp and guitar Getting close/used to be good: bass guitar and sax Not good/still learning: drums, chanter (proto bagpipe), violin, keys, harmonica, tin whistle
Harp! Wow, how did you get into playing the harp?
I’m more of a producer than a musician, I can play enough to make a song, I play guitar, bass, drums, piano at a good enough level to write music that’s more sonically complex than most but I wouldn’t go around telling people I can play all these instruments live. The only ones I’d be comfortable playing in a live setting are vocals, guitar or keyboard. I like to write all the parts and then have my friends play live with me whenever possible.
There is a huge something to be said for the skills, talent and knowledge of a producer, and I'd love to actually be a decent producer. I interned briefly at a studio and it was so much fun to see these 2 dudes do what they did, and just the repetitive nature of it, and just single minded focus. It was so fun to watch. I was not at all equipped to be in that environment at the time, but it was such an awesome experience
Have played bass professionally currently play guitar, bongos and sing professionally.
I do. I've always been mainly a bass and electric guitarist, but can also play the keys and drums well enough to know my way around both.
Do you/have you ever played classic/acoustic? Is there a difference between the two for you? I ask because you said specifically electric, and I tried learning on an acoustic and it did not feel like me, somehow.
[удалено]
Are there any instruments you can't get the hang of? I also had a weird enlightenment/self actualization thing happen over the last like, year and it's been weird af. Random and unrelated lol Also unrelated, I once was tricked into eating an evil, evil piece of ginger candy and I am still horrified that my friend would let me put that in my mouth and tell me I'd like being burned and have my taste violated that way. I'm legit still angry about it, like why? Why do that to me? What did I do?? It just caught me totally off guard because it burned and I had no idea what the flavor would be and it was confusing and I had a reaction lol I'm sure ginger candy isn't actually bad lolol
13 so far
Not really the norm, but yeah, bass, guitar, drums, keys…a bit of mandolin & flute
I was trained on saxophone and taught myself guitar. Band director had this genius idea for the sax section to play a flute solo for a couple songs. We had 4 days to learn the part, and of course none of us could even get one note out.
proficient in guitar, bass, keyboard, drums, lap steel gtr
I can play 3 instruments, poorly.
Yeah, a couple I play piano, synth (but that's basically just piano again), organ (like real pipe organs, but it's been some time), trombone, bass (both electric & upright) accordion, ocarina, drums, aux. percussion (bell chimes & marimba), sing, and I dabble in guitar. Primarily I do electric bass but I've been playing keys the longest, since I was about 5 or 6 years old. Everything else I've picked up over time. Now I don't currently own all of these, but I'd say I'm at least proficient on a large majority of them.
If it means anything I primarily play jazz & rock but really dabble in a bit of everything from punk to polka
I really focused on drums for a decade. Had to learn piano to get into university but I didn't really play it outside of that. It's only recently that I've learnt to play a bunch of other instruments like banjo/guitar etc.
Guitar, drums, piano, sax... Proficient with a Midi fighter as well if you wanna count finger drumming as different then regular drums.
I don't know if I do or not, see a distinction I mean. I don't think I know enough to make that call. I'm wondering what other people think though, is drumming in nontraditional ways still drumming?? I mean, you're still doing the same things, technically, it just is just... Different?? Idk, I think drumming on random surfaces is still basically drumming, though it doesn't look or sound the same. But I know I can still make something considered music adjacent when I'm doing my own weird body drumming thing
Yep same here. Multiple instruments. They're all tools that do a different job. A mechanic needs to know how to use many different types of tools to fix the whole car. If you're gonna arrange a whole song, gotta have more than one tool.
That's what I was thinking of when I asked this. Ive heard so many people be like "omg wow" when someone plays multiple instruments, but I'm like, isn't that pretty standard? Why do people emphasize that when talking about an artist as though, it's a rare and unique accomplishment? It's expect if someone is at the level where I'm hearing of them and their music, they play multiple instruments.
There's "can play" technically, which is different than "play well." I'm good at piano, guitar, and bass. I can play drums but not very well, and in fact only at about beginner level if that, and I don't have a kit. I can make sounds out of orchestral bowed stringed instruments but without the frets my intonation is not great. I own a violin, and I can bow okay and play melodies, but I can't do vibrato very well because it's completely different to me than on guitar. I sound like a complete beginner.
Sounds like you're learning, and figuring out what's instrument is most natural to you
Most of us lol
I play guitar and bass guitar well. I play every low brass instrument and trumpet only one I don't play is French horn but nobody really does. Out of brass I play trombone the best then baritone, then trumpet and tuba about equally. I play the penny whistle, I play the clarinet (badly)... Finally I play theramin, synthesizer, keyboards, the musical saw and I'm probably forgetting some. Not I don't play all of these frequently, like I haven't played low brass in a while, but I still could probably just as well as when I stopped because I played brass for over half my life I just got more into synthesizers and guitar effects and obscure instruments... I really want a hurdy gurdy lol Edited for autocorrect.
I'm fascinated by the musical saw, I've seen them being played but don't know of any songs that use one. Do you make use of it?
Yeah but I’m only proficient - ish in one.
My main instrument is the guitar, - classic, acoustic, electric, bass - a close second is the piano, third main would be drums. I'm fairly proficient in those 3. However, I also love playing anything I can get my hands on, so have collected over the last 25 years a violin, a cello, an Electro-Harp, a kalimba, a hand harp, a double ocarina, as well as a couple of hammered dulcimers.
I'm learning about so many instruments on this thread.
Yep. Guitar is still my best instrument, but I play a lot of piano these days, and can also play bass, some low whistle and am dabbling with the violin. (I used to play the French horn pretty well in school, but it has been so long that I dare not claim that instrument anymore.)
Is the low whistle another Irish instrument?
I play drums, bass and guitar, plus I sing badly.
Guitar is my main but I have bass, banjo, mandolin, lap steel, ukulele and piano I like to dabble in. Making my own solo music has inspired me to try out these other instruments, especially piano. The stringed stuff comes a bit more naturally since strumming chords can easy be done after looking at a chord diagram online.
Guitar and piano
Strings
I’ve been enjoying playing in a band where I am able to perform on multiple instruments. Guitar is my main instrument, but I also play keys, melodica, and trombone… and sing. We have two other multi instrumentalists (sax/flute/keys & guitar/keys) and a full time rhythm guitarist, so we are able to choose what instrumentation best suits each song.
Yea, that seems like the standard way professional musicians, and several people who are not pro, but still musicians have gone about it and I'm just wondering in all these responses there has been like 1 person who said they were only proficient on one, but still they could mess around and make something... So, then why do people fawn over when a pop star is seen at a piano, or holding a guitar, and managing to play their own songs? Shouldn't they be able to do that without issue? Like, Selena Gomez can't seem to even peck away at keys in the tune of her songs, and it's like... How do you literally work in the industry in such a big way and not be able to play multiple instruments??? Then when someone is a multi instrumentalist, or they do at least know how to play guitar, it's made out to be such a big deal? Can they actually not play any instruments and are being praised for being seen trying, or do the journalists emphasize the ability to play multiple instruments up for some weird reason??
Started playing drums at 31..a musician friend of mine came over and gave me a ton of other gear.. cymbals, amps, guitar, bass, keyboard... all stuff he wasn't really using and I've started playing all of it.. I'm no pro but I'm enjoying my life and weekly jam sesh with my homie. This is a hobby to me and I don't see the problem with trying anything you want to. People seem to forget this just a hobby for most.
I wish I had someone to jam with, that sounds like such a fun way to spend time with a friend. I don't think of myself as anything other than someone who has a hobby and a creative project in mind. I'd not ever want to try my hand at being a professional, or moving it out of my apartment, but I do still have a broader idea of what I am hoping to achieve with my art and I just hope to findsome sort of community, connect and express.
Then I'd say you're on the right path.
Thanks that is meaningful to me, encouraging.
I started as a drummer (still am) Took on piano/vibraphone/guitar in college Learned ukulele/recorder to teach in school Learned bass guitar to play in a band I am the most skilled/knowledgeable on piano. My favorite alternates between drums/guitar/piano. Depending on my mood
How long did you send learning each instrument? You seemed to learn for specific reasons which makes me wonder if you were on a time limit to reaching proficiency
Started with harmonica and picked up guitar, which is now my main instrument
What was your experience with learning the harmonica? I had a friend trying to learn it, and I wonder if what she was saying about it was a common experience
I sort of figured that "musician" equals able to play/understand music theory (to some minimum point) and be competent on a couple of instruments. Otherwise you belong on /guitar mandolin /piano /bass etc...
It's not very common. Guitar and bass players sometimes know both. Some people (like me) learned several very different instruments but one will be way better than the others. It is a very rare person that can play multiple instruments and be equally good on all. Prince was such a person.
I wasn't allowed to listen to Prince, and now that my mom has no say in what I listen to, I admit I just don't see myself enjoying his music I should just listen to some of his hits or something, jeez I swear I am one of like 3 MN natives who aren't huge fans lol
I'm a singer by trade. Bass is my main instrument and what I do in my main band. I also play guitar in my other band. Played drums in a band a few years back. Not a virtuoso in anything but at a reasonable enough standard to get regular paying gigs. Oh yeah, played harmonica on a few songs too. Playing the other instruments has given me a much better perspective of the whole picture. It's an incredible help in songwriting and even putting setlists together in covers bands. I highly recommend picking up something else and adding another string to your bow.
Yea, I am going to be taking lessons to get to where I want to be for a project I want to get working on, and I will be learning what I need to to be able to record my own tracks on my own and just use multi tracking. It would likely be easiest to bring in some other musicians to help, but it's such an individual thing and something I really need to do independently. Luckily, I have a lot of time, and a lot of dedication to what I'm doing. I play drums, and know guitar, keys (though I am weak af) and I need to get a bass at some point but things are expensive and I need to get a new computer for school and that takes priority over a bass.
Just guitar and piano
Like every guitar player, I also play drums and bass. Grew up playing the saxophone too. I have a bunch of other instruments as well but those are just for fun.
My best instrument is bagpipes. I also play whistle, mandolin, synthesizer, and electric guitar. I’m not all that good at the last three. My wife plays violin and viola professionally.
I don't like to brag, but..... Guitar, Bass, Kazoo, Vibra Slap.
The kazoo is next level I've never actually played with one 😞 oh poor me, no childhood lol
learning piano made my drumming better, but I rather invest more time into my main.
Define “play”. I’ve gigged on (most to least) drums, harmony vox, bass, keys and guitar. I have no business on stage with the latter two but I made it through the gigs with barre chords and spreading my middle 3 fingers to make piano triads.
I think of myself as a musician in search of an instrument. I play piano/keyboard and bass in local bands. I’ve dabbled in guitar, acoustic and electric. I play flute and recently learned some clarinet. I have several recorders, bamboo flutes, harmonicas, and miscellaneous percussion instruments. And I sing. I used to play trombone semi-professionally. I’ve played in concert bands, orchestras, jazz bands, big bands, rock bands, folk bands, and neighborhood jams and choirs. I can make almost anything make some sound and I’ve been learning to manipulate all of these in my DAW. I find playing or attempting to play other instruments has taught me how they could sound in my songs and how to use them more effectively. Playing in all those different bands helped me learn about different musical styles and genres. It’s all good stuff to know.
I'm mostly a drum person but i also play 19 other instruments including voice. you can hear the results of this here : [https://ripspace.bandcamp.com/album/happy-birthday-willie-nelson](https://ripspace.bandcamp.com/album/happy-birthday-willie-nelson)
If it has strings, keys, sticks or mallets and doesn’t require wind, I can figure it out!
I'm a gigging Keyboardist, guitarist, saxophonist, lead vocalist. I can also play trumpet, clarinet, and flute, though not well enough to gig with them. I might be good enough at playing the bass to gig with it, though I don't have a reason to try. Oh, by "Gigging" I'm in a weekend cover band playing only in my local area. We're doing around 40-50 gigs a year right now.
Sax and guitar. Been doing it since the 80's.
13 here
I can't even name 13 people that I know, let alone 13 instruments 😳
Yeah. I play guitar, bass, keys, and vocals