What Intrument to learn?

[Bigfoot3814]

I'd have to say harmonica. Definitley. It's portable, not very hard to play, and works with almost every kind of music.

 

[nonconformist]

Dude, pick up the piano accordion. It's a satisfying instrument

 

[Left]

My mother burst into my 3rd grade classroom and played Anchors Away on the accordion on my birthday. I am not making this up.


Then you can do that to your kids.

 

[odintheking]

@Odin

I would say a decent piano is the most expensive thing on there...unless you're talking portable keyboards.

Well I meant a keyboard to learn on. An actual piano or a high-end sampler would obviously be more expensive (whichever one best suits your style) but there are some really good quality portable keyboards for >200$.

And also, bass is REALLY fun to play. I was going to buy a guitar, but then I started messing with my bassist's bass and I had a great time playing it, especially slapping. You can stand out if you have a cool approach to playing bass (like Fieldy from Korn or Flea from RHCP) or have killer licks and a solid technique, as long as you communicate with your band members on what parts you want to have bass really featured (John Paul Jones from Led Zeppelin or even Adam Clayton from U2 on songs like New Year's Day)

 

[The Yankee]

The nice thing about playing the sax, although its expensive, is that you will always have work. Good horn players are hard to come by, and bands are always dying to get one to sit in. If i went to a blues society jam, and I played the sax well, I may not have to leave the stage all night.

If you're looking to get work from it, then you're set there. Got to supplement the public policy income in those early years. And, well, I'm biased. The sax is fantastic.

Piano could work also, you're certainly free to speak/sing. While my future mother-in-law was pointing out my long fingers to my girlfriend, she was saying I might be a fit for a pianist. But let's just say I have nary a creative bone in my body.

 

[Ecofarm]

Sax, of course.

 

[sourboy]

Learn guitar. Guitars and pianos are the same system of string use, only in a different tool. To understand one is to understand the other. You only need to learn the hand movements independently. Guitars are easier to access and store, let alone allow playing of more modern music. Both are excellent though.

 

[Kozmos]

A banjo. An electric banjo.

 

[Mirc]

Learn guitar. Guitars and pianos are the same system of string use, only in a different tool. To understand one is to understand the other. You only need to learn the hand movements independently. Guitars are easier to access and store, let alone allow playing of more modern music. Both are excellent though.

Nope, guitar is plucked string while piano is percussed string.

The harpsichord has the same system as the guitar.

The piano has the same system as the dulcimer, for example.

 

[eddfire3]

While you have previously rejected the trombone as too hard and too expensive, I am going to ask you to reconsider, myself having played the instrument for 6 years. You can get a good entry level trombone for <$500 that is still good quality. As to the difficulty, I would say it would be much easier to learn then tenor sax. You don't have to deal with reeds, and the trombone has an intuitiveness to the use of the slide, you pull in, the sound goes up, you push out the sound goes down. On top of that, each position (there are only 7) has a half step difference in pitch, making it similar to the guitar (each fret is a half step).

 

[sourboy]

Nope, guitar is plucked string while piano is percussed string.

The harpsichord has the same system as the guitar.

The piano has the same system as the dulcimer, for example.

Point is, if you laid out the notes on each of the 6 strings of a guitar, you'd have the same notes as each key laid out on a piano. Maybe my terminology is wrong, I never took a class, I just self-taught myself guitar and learned piano was the same.

 

[Mirc]

Point is, if you laid out the notes on each of the 6 strings of a guitar, you'd have the same notes as each key laid out on a piano. Maybe my terminology is wrong, I never took a class, I just self-taught myself guitar and learned piano was the same.

Yeah, that's correct, but unless I'm still not getting your point, that's true for most instruments, even Pan Flute - 1 tube = 1 semitone, as in guitar where 1 fret = 1 semitone and in piano where 1 key = 1 semitone.

 

[sourboy]

Yeah, that's correct, but unless I'm still not getting your point, that's true for most instruments, even Pan Flute - 1 tube = 1 semitone, as in guitar where 1 fret = 1 semitone and in piano where 1 key = 1 semitone.

Point is, he's asking which (guitar vs piano) is recommended. I'm telling him that they work the same way, and so to learn one essentially means to learn the other. The difference is just the method of literal play. That said, guitars are easier to access, are portable, and more compatible to modern music styles.

 

[downtown]

While you have previously rejected the trombone as too hard and too expensive, I am going to ask you to reconsider, myself having played the instrument for 6 years. You can get a good entry level trombone for <$500 that is still good quality. As to the difficulty, I would say it would be much easier to learn then tenor sax. You don't have to deal with reeds, and the trombone has an intuitiveness to the use of the slide, you pull in, the sound goes up, you push out the sound goes down. On top of that, each position (there are only 7) has a half step difference in pitch, making it similar to the guitar (each fret is a half step).

I've had some bad luck with brass instruments.

The real problem witht he T-bone though, is that they're inpractical. Trombones are used in marching bands, orchestras, bands with *full* horn sections (which are rare), and New Orleans Brass Bands....so not a whole lot of oppertunity to play out. It wouldn't be a smart investment.

Although, oddly enough, Aces High had a Trombone player.

 

[Chazumi]

Um... I haven't seen bagpipes yet? Then you can play at funerals. Plus chicks dig the kilt.

 

[Trajan12]

Point is, if you laid out the notes on each of the 6 strings of a guitar, you'd have the same notes as each key laid out on a piano. Maybe my terminology is wrong, I never took a class, I just self-taught myself guitar and learned piano was the same.

True, but the fact that there's six strings and not one continuous line of repeating notes like on Piano makes guitar a bit harder to figure. On Piano everything's arranged much more neatly, chords and scales and modes are easier to see. On guitar be prepared to spend some time memorizing chord/Arppegio patterns and shapes you normally wouldn't have much trouble with on Piano.

 

[sourboy]

True, but the fact that there's six strings and not one continuous line of repeating notes like on Piano makes guitar a bit harder to figure. On Piano everything's arranged much more neatly, chords and scales and modes are easier to see. On guitar be prepared to spend some time memorizing chord/Arppegio patterns and shapes you normally wouldn't have much trouble with on Piano.

It may be neat, but it spans a larger area. It's easier to move fingers up and down strings when the progression is broken into 1/6th's -- as opposed to reaching up and down a piano. Personally, I find both about the same to learn. Again, I'm just giving advice about the ease of guitar availability and social links... piano is more sophisticated.

 

[Mr. Keith]

Downtown, I don't really understand this thread.

You're already a musician and you're asking us bozos at CFC which instrument you should play?

There is only one correct answer: whichever instrument intrigues you the most!

And since you are already a musician, I am sure you already know the answer to your own dilemma.

 

[Mirc]

Personally, I find both about the same to learn.

In that matter, yeah, but there's more to it.

When playing the piano, you will need a much greater distributive attention and multitasking. Basically, you need to learn or be able to do totally different things with your two hands.

When playing the guitar, you'll need much more coordination between your hands, since when playing fast, a 1/10 of a second of delay is enough to make your note sound terrible, and you'll need an awful lot of physical force in your left hand too (at least when playing acoustic, for electric strength itself is not that important).

So basically, yeah, you can find certain similarities, but there are a lot of things that aren't the same. For example, I can play anything I've tried on (classical) guitar, yet on piano, even the simpler stuff is incredibly hard and takes me months to learn. And I've been playing piano for some years (we have to, in music highschools), just never gave it too much attention, and from the results it seems pretty obvious that playing the guitar isn't going to help too much with the technique.

There is only one correct answer: whichever instrument intrigues you the most!

QFT.

 

[Hitti-Litti]

Joke answer: [wiki]Berimbau[/wiki].

Serious answer: Sax, it's one of the coolest instruments in music, if not the coolest. Also you can play a neat solo before stepping up to give a breathtaking speech as the president of USA.