List your other instruments!

General
#1

So far there’s a few of us on here who can play a lot more than just a shamisen, i have played a shamisen before but wouldn’t call myself a shamisen player… but as for the instruments listed below, i practise very regularly and with great obsession and addiction. I would also like to hear other peoples music too, so post your lists and links please!

Steel and bamboo flute
Shakuhachi (built that myself)
native american flute
guitar (acoustics and electrics)
piano
violin
sitar
dilruba - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esraj
dombra - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dombura
oud
djembe (built that myself)
Bodhran
Electric Drumkit (can play acoustic but do not own one)

i also compose in ableton (beats and backing tracks) for my various musical projects

I’ve linked to the wiki’s on the instruments that aren’t super well known so you all get an idea.

and my band site is http://soundcloud.com/jekks we play regularly in Queensland where i live and hopefully with our album coming out soon elsewhere too!

please talk of your musical projects and instruments!

#2

I own two electrical guitars, one acoustic, a piano/keyboard and a harmonica. I’ve also started practicing tuvan throat singing a bit.

#3

jade dizi flute
recorder
minyou shamisen
(used to have a piano)
(used to play tenor saxophone and contrabass sax)
Bluegrass banjo
Long neck banjo
Tungna (or Tungana)
sr_550 resonator guitar

#4

Listened to some of your songs Travis, sounds good! Are you using recorded samples for the vocals or is your group doing that too?

#5

I started out with an Acoustic Guitar for a couple years and was never good with it.
I then got an Electric Guitar for my birthday, and also was never good with it.
Then I met Kevin Kmetz and started playing Shamisen. I wasn’t good with it either, but he kept teaching me and I really pushed on and kept improving.
Most recently I’ve got an accordion, and even though I’m no wizard on it, I have always loved the sound of them and really enjoy playing it.

#6

Well I have studied cello long time ago (performed in cello recitals when I was in high school) and took piano lessons and theory. In college I studied Sitar for about a year but I never owned one of my own, just rented the schools Sitars to practice.
In recent years I got a hold of a pipa and studied for a while from pipa Shen Shen who lived in half moon bay at the time (very close to Santa Cruz). She also joined the Monsters of Shamisen shows in the bay area when Masahiro Nitta was touring with us.
When I moved from SC to Japan I continued taking pipa lessons from Jian Ting, a pretty well known Pipa artist from China.

Oh I guess I should mention guitar too. But I have tried for years to disassociate myself from guitar out of fear that I would become
Labelled as a guitarist who started playing Shamisen. For some reason I used to be very sensitive about presenting myself as a Shamisen player only. Recently I have started to play guitar again with a different attitude. I am trying to think of myself as a musician rather than just a Shamisen player these days. But my guitar chops have rusted quite a bit since my main focus for so many years has been Shamisen.

#7

Quotes Listened to some of your songs Travis, sounds good! Are you using recorded samples for the vocals or is your group doing that too?

Hey mate, no samples… the only thing that is pre-written are the beats and the santoor samples, both of which i play anyway, beats with the electric kit midi’d into ableton and santoor with my midi keyboard, so it’s all played and original :slight_smile: Thanks man

#8

oh, and that’s me singing man!

#9

Awesome :slight_smile: When I wrote it I figured it would be pretty hard giving a good impression if playing live and having the vocals as samples. I’ll give it another go at work today.

#10

good stuff! as for my instruments it was expensive and cool keyboards with formal instruction and occasional gigs up to age 19 or so and then I picked up the guitar of my sister and selftaughtly got into guitar playing some . . . on acoustic and electric I currently only have an acoustic I pick up sometimes . . .

only sometimes cause I am focused on getting good at playing 3 stringed instruments of which I created 3 so far and I hope at some point in the future there is going to be a combination of a truly nice instrument I have built myself and the skills to play it nicely too . . .

other than that I do not rule out getting a sanshin or preferably a shamisen for my shami style 3 strings playing sometime once the cash for that is around too . . .

a little shakuhachi or other flute playing sounds also interesting to me - right I played saxophone too for a year when I was still keyboard playing but didn’t fall in love with it but some simple flute could be nice I guess I sort of got to favoring simple things and “pure” expression by simple means as for music both for playing and a large part of current listening so . . . and drums would be cool too only tried out hitting them a bit so this then rounds up I think all instruments I ever had or would like to play . . .

#11

Oh, you are all so talented!
I just play the flute except for the shamisen. I hope to be able to put the shakuhachi to my repertoire when I come home from my visit to S.C California in September.
Will ask my friends to teach me some piano to, always wanted to play that.

#12

It has been amazing to hear you all play a lot of different musical instruments! Such and such finally come to a conclusion or still continuing story of Shamisen.
Mine is only piano and classical guitar, but I have not played the guitar for six month and then started to play Tsugaru Shamisen.And not piano for decades.
One interesting thing is Australian aboriginal didgeridoo which I finally got in Merborn some years ago. I visited Australia many times and each time missed the chance to buy one.
I still do not play didgeridoo but it is really ancient and attract
my forefather musician’s blood!

#13

Ha the didgeridoo is an awesome instrument , i always had mine with me when i was a teenager .
About my instruments , i don’t have a shamisen and it makes me sick :smiley: the others are , two stratocaster , 1 SG and one steinberger , a jazz bass , a custom seagull dreadnought an a Crafter triple O , a didgeridoo , a kalimba , my grand grand father’s napolitan mandolin , an old farfisa organ and my dog sings sometimes when i talk to him :smiley:

But i don’t really play music anymore , i’ve played guitars for almost 20 years but now i don’t find this fun anymore so i stopped 2 years ago .

#14

Wow u played for 20 years and then stopped! Sorry to pry but why did you stop?

#15

P.s I like how u added your dog as an instrument :slight_smile: lol

#16

well it’s simple , i started to play guitar because i’ve been impressed by some guitar players i’ve seen and met when i was kid , i really loved to play guitar but when i got to play as a pro , which was my dream , i did it for 4 to 5 years and i felt it was not the thing to do for me but i really forced myself to continue because i thought i was good at nothing else , and i forced myself way too much so i ended up to be disgusted by playing guitar, but i really love music and i still want to play music but on other instruments , i do it as a hobby now sometimes i play for two or five minutes and put back the guitar in the case.

#17

oh i play the didj too! hahaha and i have an mbira, although i’m not entirely awesome at it, but i can use it to accompany vocals. I build my own didjs out of bamboo now, it has a really nice sound for a while but then eventually starts to die out, but i have a bamboo forest on my farm so it’s free and easy to built one.

Shakuhachi is an interesting instrument, i found it extremely difficult to get the embochure (right spelling? ) correct, but once i overcame that it was awesome.

back to the didj though, love it… awesome, i don’t play heaps anymore because we have a really amazing didj palyer in the band but we sometimes have a little battle onstage when the situation suits… it’s awesome fun!

So there’s a few instruments on here… might have to start a collaborations thread to see who’s keen on some intercontinental recordings :slight_smile:

#18

My first instrument was piano. I played by ear for the first four years, then was finally allowed lessons and had fifteen more years of formal training in playing, theory, etc… Got all the way thru to teaching level, but quit before taking the exams. I rarely play anymore, maybe one a year or so. Also played harpsichord a bit during the piano years. Had about five years of formal singing (choirs, triple trios, etc.) during my school years. I still sing these days (but it’s Japanese/hougaku stuff now). Had five years’ formal training on [silver] flute a long time ago, but I’m sure I don’t have the breath control for even five consecutive notes by now… :slight_smile: Also had a few months of classical guitar training one summer at a fine arts school.

I gave up music completely for quite a while, then found koto (or I should perhaps say koto found me!). I’ve now been playing it for half my life (can’t believe that when I read it back…). Koto led me belatedly to jiuta shamisen, and I’m a certified/licensed teacher of both those instruments.

Some years back, I discovered a couple of Tsugaru players in my own city and studied Tsugaru sporadically for about four years. Haven’t had much time for Tsugaru in quite some time now, but Kyle’s “tantalizing” mentions of a Bachido gig in Hokkaido (and the general camaraderie here on Bachido) has finally caused me to pull out my instrument again and start playing it as time permits. (Gotta be ready for 2014!! :-D)

#19

Hmmm…
I played the trumpet in Junior High School
Learned Guitar with some of my High School friends
My sister played the drums, so I would make noise on her set.
My dad played the ukulele, so I strummed a few chords on that,
But guitar always was my favorite.
I have
3 guitars (still learning)
1 Shamisen (just starting)
1 banjo (just starting)
1 Ukulele (needs fixed)
I would like to learn
Mandolin
Violin (something played with a bow, options still open)
Shakuhachi (looks and sounds cool)

#20

first off, i love playing music. and i most definitely love collecting, playing and learning new instruments from all over.

with regards to the shamisen, i just bought a beginner shamisen thats on its way in the mail now :smiley: i cant wait to start playing it!
i play various other instruments as well such as…

acoustic and electric drums (which i am definitely most experienced with)
electric bass guitar
acoustic guitar
ukulele
keyboard (sowwy i dont have a piano)

i would love to own and play other instruments too, such as shakuhachi, dizi, pipa, sitar, taiko, koto, and mandolin. but unfortunately money is tight and hopefully sometime in the future i can add to my collection. well cheers from SD :smiley:

© 2020 Kyle Abbott