Music instrument players, anyone? (yes, voice is an instrument!)

[rosareven]

I bought a guitar as the Christmas present for myself this year. When I was little I learned a little bit of basic violin, which I have given up now in place for guitar.

Compare to violin, guitar feels a lot easier to begin with, and I can manage learning it myself. A friend referred me to http://www.wholenote.com which is a great resource website for guitar learning.

I tried both steel strings and nylon strings. While steel strings is kind of painful to the fingers, the neck of nylon-string guitar is just too wide for my hand to wrap around.

Enough of me blabbering... Any fellow Gigalic performers want to share your experience? XD

 

[Caroline Centa]

I am a flautist and have been since I was 11 (I'm almost 36 now.

I don't play so much so any more, as I've got other things that take over my time, but I am interested in taking up the drums. I've dabbled with keyboard and guitar, and while I enjoy the keyboard, neither really motivate me to keep wanting to play.

 

[helpremember]

I tried both steel strings and nylon strings. While steel strings is kind of painful to the fingers, the neck of nylon-string guitar is just too wide for my hand to wrap around.

You can build up strength and callouses (not as bad as it sounds) pretty quickly with daily playing. Just try not to overdue it and get your fingers too raw or blistered (those will slow you down) and you'll be fine.

I've been playing for a while - too long to not be any better than I am, but it doesn't matter - and I love it. It's one thing in life I've always just wanted to do freely without having to feel like I have to achieve any particular goal. It's a great release and relaxation.

 

[cocinalo]

[No message]

 

[dxverm]

Hello, I play guitar as well and will say I enjoy it very much. It is great way to express emotion and something really fun to do when your bored. I use Ultimate Guitar to learn songs, they also have apps for your Iphone/Android Devices that include tools like a metronome, chords diagrams, and tuners.

 

[helpremember]

Learning to sing better helped my guitar playing a lot. If I can sing something, hear and hold the notes, then it's easier to find them on the guitar.

 

[dxverm]

I can see how that would help, but personally I can't sing, but sure can scream and yell like Danny Worsnop, Ronnie Radke, M. Shadows, and others.

 

[jwar64]

I have been playing guitar for about 8 years now. I's nice to meet you :good:

 

[cheekybrew]

I have been playing guitar and several other instruments for 20+ years. There is nothing like being able to express yourself musically.
Cheers to a fulfilling future playing guitar.

 

[phuclorddn]

I play piano, drums, and beginner of guitar

 

[rockforlife]

I am a 41 year old singer/Frontman whose been touring the World off and on for 23 years. I am a trained percussionist and a self taught guitar player.

 

[Yozora]

Anyone know of any helpful resources to learn piano? I'm starting out learning, and began working through a piano lesson book I found at my library, but I'd really love to know about any more good resources which helped out fellow members!

 

[Genesis]

I'd say first option are a few lessons by a classical piano teacher. Just so she/he can teach you how to hold your hands, move your fingers. One of the first things they will teach you will be finger exercises and scales. Those are worth it for the teaching as practicing the scales would be key to developing technique. If you're very serious about piano you can then learn some theory as well and maybe do the first Primary Exam. Or just get the teacher to teach you to read the music. There are people however who are born with an ear for music and can play from memory.

Here's one genius like that :smile: - just watch how he moves his hands and fingers. If you like classics, you could check out some of his other YouTube shows just to study the movements of his hands and fingers.

[video=youtube]

 

[Yozora]

Thanks Genesis! That was really helpful! Do you play piano?

I should have mentioned that I can play most tunes by ear, in a one-note-at-a-time version, but I never tried to learn sheet music (as well as chords, and such) for more than a week or so before forgetting what I had learned, and going back to figuring out tunes myself, or with Synesthesia, which I can connect to my keyboard and use like sheet music. Learning tunes by ear felt more natural to me, so maybe I just got frustrated by sheet music easily or something, and so I stopped for a while. But lately I've started to try to learn more about how to read sheet music and chords. The former because a lot of the music from Japanese movies or anime I'd like to play is available in sheet music form only, instead of midis, which I could play with Synesthesia. The latter so I can figure out chords as well as notes when playing by ear.

I'd love to have lessons at some point, but all the piano teachers' fees here are so pricey I might need to wait on that.
I'm not as serious about piano as I'm sure some people are. That is, I don't really want to perform in front of others. Being on stage usually makes me forget whatever I had to say, unless I've really memorized it beforehand. Piano would likely be the same, I'm guessing. Even playing with someone else in the room makes me nervous... I'd be happy just to play something like this without tripping over notes. Just watching his hands move so fast makes me wonder if I'll ever get there.... I should think positive and get back to memorizing the sheet music notes!

Wow, the guy in that video is so good! Makes me want to check out more of his videos! I'm far from an expert on classical music, but I do like to listen to it sometimes, especially the piano-heavy pieces.

 

[Genesis]

I haven't played the piano in many years. I did get some lessons.

I also like some of the music of the anime movies. Probably should get me something like you have one day and see whether I could still do something with "piano". I was thinking back to all those scales I used to practise, and I probably have forgotten most. Can't remember much of theory either. Wonder whether I'd be able to still read sheet music. I used to at one stage.

 

[Yozora]

Yeah, a lot of people I know are the same. They took lessons as kids and then stopped, either because they gained other priorities, or they grew to hate the piano. In some ways I feel like an anomaly trying to learn it as an adult.

Synesthesia has a free version you might want to try. It has some demo songs, and will let you use midis, but it doesn't include the mode in the paid version where it waits for you to play notes before moving on, so it's probably better for slower songs. It also includes an optional scrolling sheet music panel. Flowkey.com seems also kind of similar, though I haven't really tried it out yet.

 

[Genesis]

Will definitely check it out thanks very much. Going to be a total different experience from before where I used to have the huge piano with plenty of notes available. May make it more exciting though, something completely new with head phones, so no problem with disturbing neighbours and all.

 

[seliol]

Used to play the keyboard and classic guitar. Been a long time, now I just like to sing.
Will check out the resources you guys mentioned. :good:

 

[XENGS]

Not an instrument but quite close, I'm very much into Sound Engineering, Live sound in particular - It's what i'd like to do for a living in the future, in fact! It's really enjoyable, especially when you like the songs as well... I'd like to find a sort of job (internship or something) in a local live sound company next summer just for the fun of it, and getting to know what it's really like to to do such work on a daily basis, cause I know it's very different to "relaxed" mixing at home.

 

[Lunoru]

I don't play any instrument honestly, I never was good with them, even though I have a very good taste of sound..

But I am a singer. I sing a lot of english rock, pop songs in front of few hundred people every weekend