Quote Originally Posted by NorthernChaosGod View Post
How many instruments can you play? o_O
I play all of the brass instruments passably well to varying degrees, though primarily I play, and gig with, trumpet (including C, Eb/D, piccolo, flugel) and piano. I can get around on sax and clarinet, but not well enough that I'd let anyone pay me to play for a performance. I was pretty good at oboe in college, but I couldn't do a thing on it now. I'm absolutely miserable at flute. My wife is the woodwind expert and gigs on everything except bassoon. Oh... and we both play really guitar in the most lame, hack sort of way.

Oh... and I play accordion a bit. There's one in the garage my grandma gave me.

Once you can play one wind instrument well, have good idea of the mechanics and physics of it as well as a good understanding of music theory and how it works, picking up the rest is easy because you have you foundation down. Any time I need to play something remotely seriously I literally just give myself about a week to play straight through a beginner book to familiarize myself with the fingerings and getting them somewhat automatic in my mind and then I can play at a reasonable level.

Things like accordion seem crazy to someone who doesn't get music (especially all of those tiny buttons), but if you realize how they are laid out it's easy. 4ths/5ths up and down and 1st inversion, bass, major, minor, dom7, dim7 diagonally. It's amazingly well designed to be playable in any key.

I also find that learning to play one instruments helps everything else so everything I learn gives me a better perspective for other stuff I play or makes me think about certain key facets of music from a different angle. It's great


@PG
The embouchure doesn't bother me, but I'm sloppy crossing the break. That's why I like sax better. It's honestly the easiest instrument to pick up and get decent at. It overblows at the octave (instead of the 12th like a clarinet) so the fingerings are the same above and below the register key (which is why they just call it an octave key on saxes). The range is fairly small so you can learn to play in all keys very quickly and the fingering patterns are very natural feeling unlike the upper register of clarinet where stuff gets really goofy.


@Ghandi
Yeah, we've got too many wine bottles all over the house. We try to do something decorative with them, but honestly, they are starting to take over parts of the kitchen. Beautiful as they are, we're gonna have to start tossing some.