Any Multi-instrumentalists Here?

[badbluesplayer]

I forgot - I sat in with a Zydeco band on the Rubboard.

 

One of these -

[rct]

Trust me bro... If your doing things on your own it takes a good bit of time to get a live drum-track down correctly too. I speak from lots of past experience. At least its sometimes that way for me, rarely it gel's right off the bat and take's just a few hours to get a basic, drum's-guitar-singing-bass thing together but most of the time I'll listen back and say to myself... I can improve this drum track and re-do the other stuff so the whole thing will sound much better. I've not done much of this type of thing lately but I did a bunch of it back in the 1980's and 1990's.

 

In my life one of the very few things I've hated is the time spent in the studio while the drums were getting recorded. Hate Hate Hate it. From hitting each drum 17000 times to re-hitting them 4000 times to taking it 18 times because they bled into the air conditioner this time to the cymbal mic wasn't on. Hate Hate Hate it.

 

I also didn't like it very much at all. I don't mind spending days programming a decent drum track because it sure beats the alternative.

 

rct

[rct]

 

@ rct

 

have we gotten to hear your stuff? I don't remember hearing your stuff. (off to look in walkdawalk)

 

No, I don't think there is anyone in these forums that has anything from me. When this record is done, whenever that will be, I'll be doing completely electronic distribution, so it'll be up in iTunes.

 

rct

[kidblast]

I could probably convince people that I am a piano player ..

 

if anyone is interested in taking a listen..

 

This was a line out recording to my Zoom Handy recorder directly off my Yamaha PF500

 

(I love the piano sounds on this... they are really good.)

 

[Cougar]

Synth is my main instrument. Started messing around on piano very young. Had some lessons, but I mainly play by ear. I'll sit in with a group now and then, play me some BLUES, but I mostly do home multitrack recording.

 

I guess I've played guitar for quite a while. Acoustic until this last year, when I've GASed three beautiful electrics. Gotta lay down some tracks with these things!

 

I play some harp. Blues harp, that is. Also 5-string banjo. Dulcimer. Somebody had a sitar once. I could play it. How do you define music? It's all just rhythm and notes.

[Notes_Norton]

I play:

1. Saxophone (soprano, alto, mainly tenor, bari, and bass)
   
2. Flute
   
3. Wind Synthesizer
   
4. Guitar
   
5. Bass
   
6. Drums
   
7. Keyboard synth
   
8. Vocals
   
9. Computers (I make my own backing tracks and also aftermarket styles for Band-in-a-Box and Microsoft Songsmith
   

 

I could do a pop music gig on any of these instruments except the drums - as I don't have a kit anymore and surely don't have the stamina without going into training ;)

 

Learning the second instrument is easier than the first, because you bring all the knowledge you accumulated while learning and improving your first instrument. Each additional instrument gets even easier.

 

My primary instrument is sax. I found that learning other instruments improved my sax playing.

 

I also found that learning other instruments helped me understand the finer points of their roles in a band, which helped me become a better player in a band setting.

 

Learning other instruments helped me become a better music arranger, and that helps my style writing for BiaB and MS Songsmith. It also helps me create my own backing tracks for my duo http://www.s-cats.com

 

Being able to double has also helped me get work. During the psychedelic era, when saxophonists were not in demand, I gigged on bass. Earlier than that, when on the road, we backed up Freddie Boom Boom Cannon and because I was blessed with a good set of ears, I was showing our bass player the lines to play. He could have done it, but I was way quicker at it. So Freddie says, "You play bass. I love the sax but bass is more important." So I played Bass for Freddie Boom Boom Cannon for a while.

 

Is it better to master one instrument? That's a difficult one to answer. I would suppose it would depend on the individual person. For me I get more joy out of playing different instruments. Life is short - joy is good. So when I put on the guitar players proverbial hat, I have to think like a guitarist and that's fun. When I put on the bass player's hat, I have to think like a bass player and that's fun. When I pick up the wind synth and emulate other instruments, I have to think like each instrument that I'm emulating - and that's fun. And when I pick up the sax I'm back home again and one with the instrument.

 

I've been playing sax since I was in school. I was awarded first sax in the all state band each time I was eligible. It usually goes to an alto player, and I got it on tenor. Right now I'm good enough on sax to play in any pop band, as good as any famous pop sax player you hear, and better than a lot of others. But put me next to one of the great sax-only jazz players, like the late Michael Brecker, or Ken Peplowski, or Richie Cole, or the late Stan Getz, Stanley Turrentine, or Paul Desmond and forget it. I'll show my limitations. Would I have ever been a Stan Getz or Stanley Turrentine equal if I had dedicated myself to sax only? There is no way to tell. And even if I did, there is no guarantee I would be as famous. I've seen some incredibly talented musicians playing local gigs that will never get the break.

 

But I didn't play one instrument, instead got to enjoy many, and when I get to where I feel one with the guitar, I'll pick up something else.

 

For other personalities, dedicating a life to one instrument might be more rewarding.

[Cougar]

I just got a synth and, though it looks like a piano/organ (which I play better than guitar)...JESUS was I in for a major shock! I'm basically starting from scratch on a machine that I do not understand and I am doing homework without even touching the damn thing.

 

LOL. I've had a number of them, starting with a Sequential Circuits Prophet V. I think it took me about a year to start feeling comfortable getting around on the knobs and sliders in realtime. I've now got a

I feel like if I knew everything this baby can do, I could RULE THE WORLD.

[milod]

Vango...

 

In a sense I'd go further than your comment that electric and acoustic guitar are different instruments.

 

Frankly I tend to go along with Segovia in considering the guitar a potential orchestra of instruments. That's not only in tone, but also in playing concepts.

 

I think that's one reason why I've sometimes referred to what my head tries to do on both AE and electric - play piano with some guitar instrumental capabilities added.

 

It's also why I "think" B3 when I have my Leslie emulator running.

 

Each of us has, I think and as Bob Norton suggested, a different mind when it comes to music. We're wired differently and our circuits are strongly affected - and perhaps rewired - by material we've heard throughout our lives. Some of us seem to have far more circuitry for music and those are the talents we tend to recognize whether it's our schtick or not.

 

I tend to like to listen to music by Joe Pass, Leo Kottke and Chet (and other fingerpickers) because that sorta solo material is what's always been my thing as well, simply with only a small fraction of the additional "wiring" that makes them great players.

 

The thing is, I'm increasingly convinced, a duality: Can we play what offers our primary and secondary abilities to others (money or just fun) whether it's particularly our schtick or not (Bob playing bass), and can we play something yet more specifically what we are?

 

I think on those two concepts we're spending our lives. It's true too of other skills, but perhaps most obvious in music.

 

m

[vangoghsear]

Vango...

 

In a sense I'd go further than your comment that electric and acoustic guitar are different instruments.

 

Frankly I tend to go along with Segovia in considering the guitar a potential orchestra of instruments. That's not only in tone, but also in playing concepts.

 

I would agree with this ^ .

 

I've been told that my electric guitar sounded like an organ (they couldn't identify the organ like sounding instrument in one of my recordings. I made the sound with an electric guitar with humbuckers with the tone knob set to cut treble on the neck pickup and played through a bass amp.)

 

I just listened to a recording of Loreena McKennitt in concert and her guitarist was using a highly overdriven strat probably set in the 4th or 2nd switch position to mellow out the tone. He was trading licks against a guy playing amplified violin. The similarity of the two tones was striking to me and very cool.

[zigzag]

I play a rhythm guitar and a lead guitar... sometimes both at the same time.

[Searcy]

I am a bass player. Have been for 30 years. Any time you see me with anything else I'm faking it.

[milod]

Last night I was "shooting" a talented teen rock band that sounded horrid because they refused to back off the guitar volume enough to hear the vocals.

 

You could see the kids singing and not hear a #@$%@ thing. It was, IMHO, a real waste of material they'd worked so hard to compose and then play quite competently.

 

But the guitars... You had heavily fuzzed rhythm guitar and heavily fuzzed lead guitar and... even with the common heavy fuzz, it's two different concepts and skills. But each piece had the same ... texture.

 

I wondered how much better they'd sound with balancing their PA and at least one of the guitar guys backing off the fuzz.

 

I talked to the "dad," a longtime band musician, who provided the PA. He said he suggested getting them to balance their sound but was basically ignored as they kept turning up the guitar amp volume buttons.

 

Just a thought when it comes to ego vs. performance quality regardless...

 

Yes, when I played rock in an "early age 20s" band, it was as loud as we could go while letting the audience hear the vocals as much as possible given the relatively primitive PA stuff we had to work with. And different guitar textures were important too.

 

So... I almost wonder about maturity of musical skills taking a major role when it comes to "what instrument are you playing."

 

m

[zigzag]

Kids...

[brc]

Myself, guitar about 57 years, bass, banjo, little stand up bass, some country style fiddle, self taught piano. Always wanted to play the drums, but just never got started.

Not what you would call a expert player on the latter of the instruments, but could pretty much hold my own.

I have a lot of respect for people that can play many instruments and be good at each one.

[STEVIL]

Only a couple of other instruments, but here is mine:

 

Guitar.

Drums.

Bass.

Harmonica/Harp.

 

Harmonica/Harp I've only recently started playing, and I bought a how to book, and plodded on from there - but it's enjoyable fun, and it drives my dogs crazy .

[retrosurfer1959]

Norton had a very good point about being able to play multiple instruments making it easier to get work, there have been more times then I probably want to know about where it was the fact that I can play a wide variety of instruments that got me into the studio on a job rather than my skill on guitar. I even had a producer tell me once that there was a lot of good guitar player out there but flexibility and being able to be used in different way's is what got studio musicians hired. Ive played some strange stuff over the years I once played a Jaw Harp which I hadn't even seen sine i was little in elementary school music when they still did that. i also did a pretty long drum solo on a Hang Drum when they wanted a tubular bell type of sound. That was a very cool instrument and I'd like to own one someday but there still pretty hard to come by and expensive.

 

I have heard others say they feel the electric and acoustic guitar are different instrument and while I understand the concept behind the statement I can't really agree mostly because the notes and chords are still the same irregardless of your different playing style. This line get's even blurrier when your playing a resonator or lap steel but I still figure it's a guitar.

[69tele]

play several instruments and I think it gives you insight into what the other instrument parts should sound like in a song also useful for recording...

 

mine are

 

guitar elec/acoustic/nylon

bass fretted and fretless

ukulele (tenor)

mandolin

piano/keyboards

and basic percussion/drums

[STEVIL]

Damn - forgot Ukulele!

[darling67]

My main instrument is guitar, but I also play bass (as many here probably do), and I can hold down a steady beat on drums—nothing too flashy. I have played the mandolin, but I'd not consider myself a "mandolin player".

 

Piano/keyboards I can "play" also. However, when I record them, I typically record "sections" at a time and string them together.

[Cougar]

Norton had a very good point about being able to play multiple instruments making it easier to get work....

 

True that. My old bandmate and guitarist was asked by McCartney if he could also play bass. Well, sure. Got him the superbowl gig and quite a few others with the former Beatle after that.

[rct]

True that. My old bandmate and guitarist was asked by McCartney if he could also play bass. Well, sure. Got him the superbowl gig and quite a few others with the former Beatle after that.

 

Brian?

 

rct

[vangoghsear]

I have heard others say they feel the electric and acoustic guitar are different instrument and while I understand the concept behind the statement I can't really agree mostly because the notes and chords are still the same irregardless of your different playing style. This line get's even blurrier when your playing a resonator or lap steel but I still figure it's a guitar.

I have a Micheal Kelly hybrid Special that really blurs the line as well. Oddly, that's where I can really see the difference in style is so important to the character of the instrument. If I set it on full acoustic tone and play jazz lead like lines the resonance falls off too quickly making bends less useful, yet arpeggios really sing. I can still perform the bends, it's got great action and neck for doing bends, but they just work better in Humbucker or blended modes.

 

I have a friend who prefers acoustic to electric guitar because he finds acoustic music more mellow. I disagree because I find you can set an electric guitar to give smooth sustained tones like when playing smooth jazz leads you can't do with an acoustic without having some increased degree of attack and decay. Not that there's anything wrong with that, it's just different.

[Izzy]

LOL. I've had a number of them, starting with a Sequential Circuits Prophet V. I think it took me about a year to start feeling comfortable getting around on the knobs and sliders in realtime. I've now got a

I feel like if I knew everything this baby can do, I could RULE THE WORLD.

 

Thanks for posting this. It took you a year to get comfortable...well now I feel less idiotic starting with the scratch sound and saying, "I'm gonna make a violinish sound" and getting NOTHING like a violin after tweeking for what seems like hours but is actually like, one multiplied by frustration rate. I have a Nord Lead 2x which is a VA, not the REAL (analog) deal, so I know I can get pre-sets, I know there is stuff on-board, but it feels like cheating not to know your basics to mold the sound to what you like.

 

It's like taking your guitar to the luthier to get it tuned each time.

 

I wonder how long it took these guys to feel like they were decent at their secondary and tertiary instruments. I mean, was it a year, as it was with Cougar, or was it days? Did you "abandon the main instrument for a time" or did you share time and keep up with both?

[flyingarmadillo]

In addition to guitar:

bass - not great but I can get by,

drums - but haven't in about 20 years because my knees and ankles are too torn up to be effective on the bass or hi-hat,

ukelele,

autoharp/chromaharp,

harmonica,

keyboards - rudimentary but I can get by,

sax - picked one up a couple months ago after not playing for 40 years or so. Still pretty rusty.

Also, I've tried bones, but haven't picked that one up yet.

[Cougar]

Brian?

 

Right - Brian Ray.