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!
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 
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
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 .
Wow u played for 20 years and then stopped! Sorry to pry but why did you stop?
P.s I like how u added your dog as an instrument 
lol
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.
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
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… 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)
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)
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 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
Well,i like to focus in only one instrument,But i already played mandolin,flute,and ocarina,now i’m focusing on sanshin. About koto…Well my sanshin teacher plays ryukyu sō which is koto’s father
Clarinet
Electric Guitar
Nagauta Shamisen(still learning)
Chinese Erhu(still learning very hard to pay)
Not really that great at playing, but I try. Like I told Kyle I’m better at fixing shamisen than playing.
I can play the Erhu, I am in a band with a tibetan monk and a chinese multi-instrumentalist (extremely talented PHD in Ethnomusicology) and his main instrument in the Erhu and I used it to record some of the backing tracks on my recordings. I’m not terribly fantastic but i can read both Erhu notation and western notation for it and play enough to get by, maybe i’ll get one of those next, not really sure on ym next purchase, a store in the next town from me has a Saraswati Veena that i simply go all googley at everytime i see it… i may NEED to purchase that hahaha
I LOVE Vina! I support this decision entirely!
Ah, I love erhu. But, other than one semester of community college cello, I have very little experience with anything bowed.
On to the list:
6 guitars (my first love), 2 of them accoustic
3 electric basses (my main instrument and I’m a badass at it! [wink.nudge])
1 upright bass (I’m so-so)
2 nagauta shamisens
3 Turkish baglamas, one of which is a hybrid with a tanbur body. (Hey, there it is in the picture to the left!) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanbur
and…
1 daf (persian frame drum)
On order:
1 setar (a four-stringed Persian lute)
1 Tsugaru shamisen purchased from this very site!
Others:
Trombone back in middle school. I’d seriously like to get my lips on one of them again.
I’ve composed songs on piano but can’t play worth a tinker.
I have played drums but don’t consider myself a drummer by any stretch. Gotta practice for that honor.
PS. Wow, I just found a site where you can hear my bass and background vocals all over three tracks by The Average Johnsons. (Always loved that name!) Give a listen if you get that bored.
http://www.cdreviewsbyyou.com/feature.php?reviewID=29&styleID=14
Quotes I LOVE Vina! I support this decision entirely!
well i need to fix my car first and save for some other things, could happen though, It’s tax return time so hopefully that will fund it’s purchase!
Okay, here’s my list of instruments:
1 Tsugaru shamisen (no surprise, i guess)
3 different Okinawa sanshin, including a kankara sanshin
1 sanba, kinda Okinawan percussion instrument http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanba
1 Japanese taiko drum
Moreover, my wife owns one acustic and one electric violin, one cello, guitar and a Turkish kemençe from the Black Sea region (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kemenche).
Finally, there is a Great Scottish Bagpipe (rather used as a decoration for my Single Malt collection and a Ukulele, now our little son’s preferred instrument ^^)
Btw, erhu music is just great, hope to get one one day, too…
Let’s see…
Viola - from 5th grade until 12th (so about 8 years)
Juita Shamisen - just starting out!
I am a big fan of flutes too, and have a bamboo flute I got at the Kansas City Renaissance Festival. It’s a transverse flute though, I can almost get a sound out of it.
I’m also a big fan of the koto, and it’s lucky my teacher also teaches it so I might take it up in the future after I give proper attention to the Shamisen.
Erhu is a beautiful instrument, not sure if i’ll ever play it but it would be hard to pass up the opportunity if it came to me!
I also woulden’t mind getting back into the ol’ Viola again one of these days, but sadly my Viola is still back in the US and due to complicated family issues I don’t see it getting mailed across anytime soon. (insert sad face)
…my wife owns…a Turkish kemençe from the Black Sea region >
That’s so cool! I’ve had the pleasure of playing baglama with a very good kemenche player. I got my start in Persian/Anatolian music from him and his band. I loves me some good kemenche!
I regularly practice classical piano, nagauta shamisen and tsuzumi (or kotsuzumi)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsuzumi
(can’t get the link to work like everyone else did, sorry!)
In our drum group, I also do a bit on the otsuzumi, shimedaiko (the three drums are borrowed from Noh music, but we do mostly Kabuki related music) and various other traditional percussion instruments. I am often assigned to do the large gong and the orugoru. (pic of orgoru)
I have a wood shakuhachi, a traditional Japanese side-blown bamboo flute and a large bamboo flute from Hawaii. Speaking of Hawaii, I also like to do Hawaiian songs on the ukulele.
Wow! 
Impressive lists!!!
These days, I mostly only play shamisen and mandolin, but at my disposal, I have:
Guitar
Banjo
Fiddle
Bass
Latte art
Er-hu
Igil
Doshpuluur
Guzheng (never play it though… no time!)
Shakuhachi
Ukulele
Vocal styles:
Throat singing
Countertenor
Growls/screams (if you call it musical)
I’ve always wanted to try a K’ni. Looks simple enough to make though.
