Can You Play An Instrument?

[Mr Brightside]

I play guitar well enough to be able to play Paranoid Android.

I like your avatar.

[spamwangler]

double bassist, (though relagated to shortscale baritone guitar for now due to broken finger)

was a teen shred guitar person, but have since recovered.

learning drums currently, im learning by telling bands looking for a drummer that  im a drummer and then learning as much as i can, getting kicked out at the audition stage.

drums are a proper instrument Mrbrightside, sort yourself out

[Dr Syntax Head]

Guitar to a reasonable level - held down a position in an unsuccessful indie rock band for a couple of years (yeah. look impressed). Am now doing a similar thing on bass in a fractionally more successful (relatively - we get to play at dive bars on weekends for no money, instead of on a Tuesday) synthy punk band. Bass is great, though I use a pick and loads of fuzz which probably irks the purists. The problem is now the guitar feels all small, like a toy ukulele.

I started playing bass with a pick because Robert Been and Debbie Googe get some brilliant riffs going, especially with fuzz. Because I'm a bit of a playing obsessive with a strong work ethic (from my teenage years spent in my bedroom playing along to music on guitar for hours on end while my mates were out having lives) I've since learned finger style and getting into slap. Been playing bass of about 6 months after my wife bought me one just because I wanted some bass over my more shoegazey guitar work. Couldn't help it, had to learn the thing for real.

I totally get the guitar now feeling small, it's weird. I tend to over bend now which is annoying.

Talking of pick bass. I was reading about session bass musicians who recorded on soul songs in the 60s and 70s and in the studio they almost exclusively used a pick and heavily damped the notes in order not to overpower the recordings with bass and help leave more space.

Nowt wrong with picked bass.

[Dr Syntax Head]

There are loads of funk and soul and funk records where the break-beat solo is the best bit.

I wouldn't want to listen to it in isolation for three or so minutes, mind.

Indeed. Consider the amen break. It's as well known and important as almost any guitar solo. Drums are an instrument. Anything that creates noise for musical purposes is an instrument

[Dr Syntax Head]

Drums. Fell out of love with it about 5 years ago and haven't picked up me sticks since.

Pick up sticks, come to Plymouth because I have several collabs I want to get going but finding a drummer is next to impossible. I'm going to be teaching myself soon though given the time.

[Neomod]

Geetar, Bass, piano, drums (badly)

[Sebastian Cobb]

I've got a yamaha dd8 in my loft. One time me and my then housemate did a decent post-pub rendition of Vienna using it and a stylophone.

[MuteBanana]

Once bought a cheap acoustic guitar but couldn't do it. Small child hands see.

[Noddy Tomkey]

Once bought a cheap acoustic guitar but couldn't do it. Small child hands see.

Mutey Matey just get a small child's guitar. Doubt they'd put up much of a fight.

I can get a (lame or esoteric) tune out of anything. Haven't got the attention span for proper study so I'll stick with being a hardnut auteur, pleasing myself is all I want to do.

I play bass in a sort-of band - I plays with me fingers, and often palm-mute if I think it works better with everything else. Couldn't restrict myself to playing with a pick as bass is a very sensual business.

[NoSleep]

Size of hands is irrelevant; you can play with hooks for hands and you can play with two fingers of a withered hand like Django Rheinhardt:

[Nice Relaxing Poo]

20 years playing the guitar before losing interest in it a few years back. Wasn't interested in being in bands anymore and got no pleasure from playing anymore.

[Depressed Beyond Tables]

Talking of pick bass. I was reading about session bass musicians who recorded on soul songs in the 60s and 70s and in the studio they almost exclusively used a pick and heavily damped the notes in order not to overpower the recordings with bass and help leave more space.

Nowt wrong with picked bass.

Who needs a pick? Just get chucking.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnBJWwK4kks

[MuteBanana]

Well I seem to remember it being difficult, painful even stretching to reach the strings. Unless that just the price guitarists pay.

[NoSleep]

It hurts at first (or at least it feels awkward). No pain, no gain. Once you acquired callouses on the tips of your fingers you're sorted. Then you need independent muscle control of the fingers on your left hand (if you play right handed). It takes a bit of training to make them move on their own.

[Stoneage Dinosaurs]

I heard somewhere (I think from my Dad) that you can build up that callouses quicker and easier by dipping the tips of your fingers in white spirit every now and then. That might be bollocks though so I take no responsibility for it being so

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

20 years playing the guitar before losing interest in it a few years back. Wasn't interested in being in bands anymore and got no pleasure from playing anymore.

What have you replaced this with?

Playing the guitar is like writing a diary for me. Each tune I write is like a link to that point in my life. I can't imagine ever stopping playing.

People find it hurts to play the strings at first but a lot of the time its because they grip the neck and the strings too tight in order to get a clean chord sound. If you have breaks and give your fingers a rest it doesn't have to be painful. Also buy lighter strings to practice with. Play every day, prat around, get to know the instrument as more than that difficult thing in the corner; have fun.

[Nice Relaxing Poo]

What have you replaced this with?

Played Battlefield on the Xbox for a few years now I've increased the amount of time I spend in the gym and started to learn Finnish which is my missus' 1st language and is a total fucker to learn.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Yeesh. That is one Finno-Ugric short straw. No wonder...

[Jockice]

My dad was a very good musician, as are several others on both sides of my family. I did piano lessons aged 11, after a year of which my teacher decided to go back home. To Communist Poland. I'd like to think I had something to do with that. When my dad told me I burst out laughing at which he took the huff and told me he wasn't paying for any more lessons. And that was the end of that.

All I learnt in that year was to play Happy Birthday on one finger. I can still do it!

[NoSleep]

All I learnt in that year was to play Happy Birthday on one finger. I can still do it!

Your "teacher" was teaching you how to play using only one finger? I'm calling shenanigans.

[Jockice]

Your "teacher" was teaching you how to play using only one finger? I'm calling shenanigans.

It wasn't his teaching that was the problem. It was my total ineptitude. And after about three weeks, disinterest.

[Utter Shit]

I make hip-hop beats...so no I can't play an instrument :(

[SpiderChrist]

Bollocks. You could make a piece of solo piano music and it would work perfectly well. Drums by themselves would sound like someone banging around in the kitchen. Drums are like a glorified metronome. They're necessary, don't get me wrong, but it's not a 'real' instrument.

Fucking hell, you're serious? Lol

[Neville Chamberlain]

Played Battlefield on the Xbox for a few years now I've increased the amount of time I spend in the gym and started to learn Finnish which is my missus' 1st language and is a total fucker to learn.

Tervetuloa. Minun nimeni on Neville ja olen englantilainen mies. Asun talossa Berliinissa saksassa. Hauska tutustua! Soitan kitarra ja tiibetiläistä anushuilua.

[Rich Uncle Skeleton]

I started playing bass with a pick because Robert Been and Debbie Googe get some brilliant riffs going, especially with fuzz.

Two words: fretless bass. Got one soon after becoming fucking obsessed with English Settlement a few years ago and never looked back, so from the little I know about you that should be enough to swing you if you don't have one already haha. Sounds wicked with a bit of fuzz too, to get back to your point there.

Talking of pick bass. I was reading about session bass musicians who recorded on soul songs in the 60s and 70s and in the studio they almost exclusively used a pick and heavily damped the notes in order not to overpower the recordings with bass and help leave more space.

Nowt wrong with picked bass.

Agreed! I'm a guitarist who picked up bass later and just started with a pick out of habit. I try to play it "properly" with fingers but you can't beat a really fat and chunky picked bassline. For some reason it never occured to me that it leaves more space on the recordings, I'll remember that in future.

[NoSleep]

Tervetuloa. Minun nimeni on Neville ja olen englantilainen mies. Asun talossa Berliinissa saksassa. Hauska tutustua! Soitan kitarra ja tiibetiläistä anushuilua.

Käytitkö Google-kääntämistä kirjoittamaan sen?

[NoSleep]

Two words: fretless bass.

I'm in dire need of a fretless bass as I customised a guitar to fretless last year and need to complement it. Did it not so much for the sound as to get at the notes in between the usual 12: there's nothing quite as sweet as a perfect septimal VIIth. I'll probably convert one of my existing basses (but which one?) or buy one of the Thomann fretless basses which look really good for the price.

[Neville Chamberlain]

Käytitkö Google-kääntämistä kirjoittamaan sen?

Only the bit about the Tibetan anus flute was from Google Translate. The rest was genuinely from my rudimentary knowledge of Finnish.