Are there any instruments you wish you could play but don't ?

grimtraveller

grimtraveller

If only for a moment.....
Are there any musical instruments that you can't play but wish you could ?
If so, what prevents you from learning it/them ?
And, notwithstanding VSTis, are there any musical instruments you'd like to use in your recordings and would do so if you had access to them ?
 
Saxophone. A well-played sax is a great addition to a lot of rock/pop songs. I guess I culd start learning (I played clarinet badly in grade school), and after annoying wife and neighbors for the next 5 years might get to the same stage I can do now with a keyboard-driven sample.
 
Kazoo…. :)


Actually....I wish I could play just about any/every musical instrument out there, but it's not a realistic goal, and I don't have the time, so i focus on what is already accessible and what I have an existing foundation in.

That said....there's probably few instruments that I couldn't do a quick study on just enough to be able to use them for some basic "ear candy" in a recording if I really needed them.

Lately I've been toying with the idea of buying an inexpensive viola and/or cello....just to have for shits-n-giggles, though I doubt I would go off and formally get lessons and all that.
I'm at a point where the type of instruments I need for the music I like to write/record are already pretty familiar to me enough so I can make it work. Anything else that comes along is just for ear candy purposes.
 
mjbphotos said:
Saxophone. A well-played sax is a great addition to a lot of rock/pop songs. I guess I culd start learning (I played clarinet badly in grade school)....
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I was eager to add a saxophone to my guitar and piano when I was in grade school.....then the teacher persuaded my parents that learning clarinet first would be better, since the transition to sax was easy, and I would have two new instruments for the price of one, so to speak.....but man, HOW I HATED THAT CLARINET.
I couldn't stand the sound of that thing from a beginner’s perspective. I mean, there are guys who play it well and I don't mind hearing a clarinet....but going through those early stages, I just HATED IT!!!
I tossed the clarinet and then never bothered with the sax.

So much for the teacher's logic...instead of learning two instruments, I ended up with nothing.
 
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grimtraveller said:
Are there any musical instruments that you can't play but wish you could ? Yes. Keyboards. Ive tried over the years and I can hunt and peck around. But play? No way.
If so, what prevents you from learning it/them ? Too much going on. Im not a spring chicken, so I budget time now :o
And, notwithstanding VSTis, are there any musical instruments you'd like to use in your recordings and would do so if you had access to them ? Yes. Access to a really large pipe organ. Not much, but Id sure like that
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mjbphotos said:
From 2011, but still relevant.
Not everyone subsists on raunchy-loud electric guitar.
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Shame on them if they don't. Interesting link though. So you think those are rock songs huh? Pop, I'll give you that. But where's the rock in that list of sappy sax gems?

Bottom line, put a sax in a rock song and you sound like 1983. That was my point in asking what year you're stuck in. No biggee.
 
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Question 1: Banjo. I love the sound of banjo in rock music. Neverclaim, Kutless, Needtobreathe, etc.
Question 2: I spend 6-8 hours a week practicing/playing drums. About two on the keys. 4-6 on my guitars and very little on my bass. I don't have time for more...unless maybe I stopped spending 30+ minutes a day here! Hey, anybody got a great used banjo and want to get rid of me bad enough to send it?
Question 3: Hammered dulcimer.
 
Violin -- But I could never get around the backward tuning thing (put me in front of a contrabass / double bass and I have no problem). And bagpipes. Sorry, I just think it'd be cool. And think of the gigs...
 
Violin. I picked one up and I "practice" until the wife threatens me with extreme violence if I don't stop. I got the left hand down as I already play mandolin but the bow part sounds like I'm water boarding a cat.
 
Track Rat said:
Violin. I picked one up and I "practice" until the wife threatens me with extreme violence if I don't stop. I got the left hand down as I already play mandolin but the bow part sounds like I'm water boarding a cat.
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Use more rosin or more pressure if you're using enough rosin. The thin, awful tones are usually from too little pressure on the string, or not enough abrasion from the rosin to make the string "sing".
 
I bought a cheap violin not too long ago hoping to use it in some recordings.....NOT YET,if ever:facepalm:
But ever since hearing the Jack White song 'Love Interuption' I have been kinda drawn to that clarinet/bass clarinet sound....
The one instrument that I would really like to be able to play properly is the upright bass. Im a bass player primarily,have been for about 24 yrs now.
When ever I come across a double bass I always try to play it.I can get some decent sounds out of it, but it would be nice to own one and get lessons on the basics of posistioning,technique etc....
 
I've been starting to GAS for a cello. Can't really afford one, but I've been thinking of maybe finding a student model to rent-to-own or something. It's worth mentioning that you don't have to tune these things to fifths. As long as you find yourself the proper string gauges and don't mind sacrificing a bit of the tonal range, you can do whatever the hell you want.

On a similar note, for the drummer who wants to learn banjo - get a 6-string banjo, it's tuned like a guitar so you won't have much to relearn on the left hand at least. Not that I want to encourage anyone to pick up the banjo, but you're a drummer so you're already ruined!
 
miroslav said:
Actually....I wish I could play just about any/every musical instrument out there
That said....there's probably few instruments that I could do a quick study on just enough to be able to use them for some basic "ear candy" in a recording if I really needed them.
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I feel a similar way. I can play various drums, congas and bongos but there was a time when I wished I'd learned the actual drum kit. The reason I didn't and don't is because there's always been drummers around that I've been friends with and they would play on my stuff so there was no real urgency to learn.
I don't think I play any instrument "well", but again, I don't really need to. I can find my way around the mandolin and various keyboards and multitracking has always enabled me to be a naughty boy in the studio and use some jiggery pokery to achieve certain desired results. :D
I'm fortunate in that I know a number of instrumentalists and vocalists but I'd love to have access to a sitarist, a tabla player, a trumpeter and a viola or violinist.
Massive Master said:
put me in front of a contrabass
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j.harv said:
The one instrument that I would really like to be able to play properly is the upright bass. I can get some decent sounds out of it
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I used to have a double bass then I sold it 10 years ago when the VSTi bug bit. The bug actually bit because of a sensational double bass sample I heard that came on a CD with Computer music or Sound on sound. I assumed a great double bass VSTi would be easy to find.......how wrong I was. I never found one that approached the quality of the one I heard back in 2004. The bowed sounds were OK but it was the pizzicato sounds I really wanted. As dismissive as this sounds, every one I heard was......well, unsatisfactory. Also, it was weird playing them off a keyboard, which never bothered me with other instruments that you bow or blow. So, in 2012 I just went out and bought a cheap 3/4 size one. I figured that even a shitty cheap one that I could play with my cackhandedness was better than any sample/VSTi {The same thing had happened with drums, I had an electric kit for a couple of years but for me, nothing beats the acoustic kit so I bought one again, which 8 years on I still have and use}. I worked out where the semitones are, painted fretlines and set up the bridge myself. I don't care if it looks ugly.
It's beautiful to my ears.
 
Interesting reading this thread.......Last week I watched this( below) and thought how cool the cello can be......and here you guys are taking about that and other instruments!! Being a drummer my wish is to play guitar and keys someday....I practice both and can get by a little but have sooooooooo far to go!!!..............

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKezUd_xw20#action=share
 
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