Losing Interest in Guitar

[ivan]

Originally Posted by monkeyman

You say you don't have much money. How much is not-much money? You can get a keyboard for fairly cheap, pretty easily. You should go into that. I think that the piano and the guitar are the two most versatile instruments out there....they can very easily be put into almost any style there is (except for the weird stuff like African tribal dances, and the like).

Yeah, I was thinking of that. I might get myself a midi keyboard. Keyboards are awesome!

Originally Posted by dudewithasock

You should try unicycling.

I unicycle about 10 hours a week on the average. Plus, I'm looking for something musical.

[dudewithasock]

Originally Posted by ivan

I unicycle about 10 hours a week on the average. Plus, I'm looking for something musical.

I was being sarcastic.

[James_Potter]

Learn the ukelele!
Or the mandolin...or the nose flute

[BillyTheMountain]

What are your goals? Why do you think an instrument might help you achieve those goals?

What is the Mission Statement for your life?

Are you on track? You say you don't finish things. There's a good place to start.

[Tomahawk]

Play the drums. You don't need a $300 drumset to play. Just get some everday items and build your own drumset! You'll need a base drum (the biggest and deepest sounding object), a snare drum (a loud, crisp object), three toms (one hight pitched, one medium, and one deep). Then you'll need some cymbals. I'd recommend trashcan lids. Get a high hat and at least one other cymbal.
Now arrange them into a basic configuration: The base will sit on the ground at your right foot, the snare will be elevated right above your lap, the high-hat will be to the left of the snare a few inchs higher, the toms will be facing you so that the highest pitch is closest to the high-hat, the medium will be to the right of the high tom, and the low tom will be sitting on the ground face up to the base drum. As for the other cymbals, they generally are above and behind the high tom and the low tom.
Now all you need is some sticks and a book of basic beats to start you off which you can purchase at your local music store.
Once you get really good, you can do it for money to buy a real drumset! This made a set completely from white buckets! http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1385/street_drum/

[BillyTheMountain]

Originally Posted by Tomahawk

Play the drums.

On the other hand, you could study finance and make a LOT of $$$, and have great musicians play at your private parties....

[Chexjc]

Wait i've got it!

The digaradoo however you spell it. You know what i'm talking about?

[john_childs]

Music is about emotion and being able to express feelings through the instrument. That's one reason why stringed instruments are such great instruments. Stringed instruments allow the musician to do a lot to add emotion to the music. You can bend notes, slide notes, vibrato, sustain, dynamics and other techniques to add emotion and feeling to the music. Stringed instruments can do a lot. That's why they're so popular.

The piano can get you some of that emotion. The piano's saving grace is that it is stringed. Most other keyboard instruments are lacking in their ability to transmit the musician's emotions and feelings. For raw power the pipe organ is the king of instruments, but for feeling it is lacking. The accordion is fun to play and allows a single player to do both the bass and the melody at the same time, but for feeling it just doesn't have it. An electronic piano would give you the advantages of a real piano without requiring the space of an acoustic piano. Just get one that has a good piano style keyboard with proper weighted keys and proper piano feeling action.

If you plan to study music or make playing music playing a part of your life then learning the piano would be important from a practical standpoint. It can do a lot and will teach you areas of music theory that you won't get from playing a guitar. A piano is also a good way to play around with a melody or play around with accompaniment. Being able to play both guitar and piano makes you more flexible and rounded.

The accordion is very fun to play. It is also difficult to play well while also being easy to play poorly (I can play the accordion poorly). It can be a one man band. The bass buttons on an accordion are actually logically arranged for the type of music that accordions are used for. The bass buttons go in fifths and thirds for the individual notes while the other buttons are used for major, minor, seventh, and diminished chords. Most accordion and much popular music has chords that progress and alternate between fifths and thirds so the arrangement of the buttons on the accordion makes sense for that type of music. What is more difficult is playing scales, arpeggios or music where the chords on the bass don't follow fifths and thirds.

New accordions are very expensive. Used accordions can be found for much much less, but you need to be careful that you don't get one that has issues. A used accordion may have sticky keys, out of tune notes, or other problems. Tuning an accordion is $400+ and it will need to be sent to a specialist shop to do the work. If multiple banks of reeds need to be tuned it gets even more expensive. If you go used you need to make sure it is in good condition and plays properly. The drawback to the accordion is that it doesn't allow too much in the way of emotion. You can't add dynamics to individual notes. Learning to control the bellows effectively to add what emotion you can is difficult. The bellows control is what separates the good from the bad in accordion playing.

Electronic keyboards allow you to play around with sounds and timbres. However they are not good at transmitting emotion and feeling. Fun to play around with but not a replacement for a real instrument. Piano is better and if you know piano you can play synth enough to have fun with. Synths are more about being able to play with sounds than to play real music.

Wind instruments have their own style. Brass and woodwind instruments can add emotions and feeling to the music. I prefer woodwinds like the saxophone. You can bend notes to a degree, add vibrato, add a growl, and do other techniques to make the music come alive. But wind instruments can only play melody or single notes. You can't play chords or rhythm.

Stringed instruments still rule though.

Maybe learning a fretless bass or the violin or a standup bass would suit you? Other than that the piano would be good if only for the practical side of being able to play a keyboard instrument in addition to the guitar.

[ivan]

Originally Posted by Tomahawk

Play the drums. You don't need a $300 drumset to play. Just get some everday items and build your own drumset! You'll need a base drum (the biggest and deepest sounding object), a snare drum (a loud, crisp object), three toms (one hight pitched, one medium, and one deep). Then you'll need some cymbals. I'd recommend trashcan lids. Get a high hat and at least one other cymbal.
Now arrange them into a basic configuration: The base will sit on the ground at your right foot, the snare will be elevated right above your lap, the high-hat will be to the left of the snare a few inchs higher, the toms will be facing you so that the highest pitch is closest to the high-hat, the medium will be to the right of the high tom, and the low tom will be sitting on the ground face up to the base drum. As for the other cymbals, they generally are above and behind the high tom and the low tom.
Now all you need is some sticks and a book of basic beats to start you off which you can purchase at your local music store.
Once you get really good, you can do it for money to buy a real drumset! This made a set completely from white buckets! http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1385/street_drum/

I really like the idea. I'm gonna have to try that.
Thank you!

[tobbogonist]

You could Whistle

[ivan]

Originally Posted by tobbogonist

You could Whistle

I actually tried learning to whistle, but didn't get very far. Maybe I'll have to try again.

[one wheely]

Originally Posted by dudewithasock

You should try unicycling.

Time to tune your spokes and start plucking

[tomtrevor]

Originally Posted by one wheely

Time to tune your spokes and start plucking

that reminds me of Terry's 'Dueling Munis" video! its really cool! (youll know what i mean if you've seen it.

[yoopers]

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