Anyone play?

Regenerative Culture Music, Art & Creativity
#1

Since we have this board here and the only mention of music so far seems to be listing song lyrics, I was wondering how many of you play any instruments or otherwise perform musically. I’ll start with my bragging:

I’ve been playing bass guitar for ten years now, took lessons in jazz bass for a couple years, and played for a few years in a punk/alternative band that had limited local following. I also sang back-up, and have slowly been honing my singing ability, which has involved having to accept that my voice can’t venture far from low octaves. I think I can sing well enough to do lead now, but perhaps only if I stick to punk. I’m looking to get a band together right now, with a friend who also plays bass.

Through practice and one Anthro/Music class, I’ve gained some skill with large hand drums like congas and djembes. I’d say in that regard I’m better than most people who think they can drum but can’t (such as so many people in the neopagan community I’ve run across), but by no means am I talented.

#2

vocally, i couldn’t carry a tune to save my life, but i tinker around w/ harmonica & pennywhistle.

#3

I enjoy playing anything and everything I can get my hands on. Usually consists of guitar, also trying to teach myself some more penny whistle and (hopefully fiddle). But seriously almost anything, tho not so much brass I suppose…

#4

I took piano lessons for over 10 years and then harpsichord (which I adore) throughout college. Not very Wild. :wink:

But having that experience means that I’m comfortable enough with picking up any old musical instrument and trying to get something out of it without feeling too much discouragement.

#5

i play a little guitar, and love to sing, but i won’t claim to be good at either :wink:

#6

I also took piano for about 10 years and cello for 8 or so years. I’m abysmal at both. I never had the patience or interest to practice much, and I injured my shoulder at some point, so quit both. I nearly took up the Lute as a teenager… I did take some BS music theory class once that was all lies about the history of music in a ridiculous white male perspective, even by civ standards.

I have also written hip-hop, drum&bass, (dark) ambient, breakcore and techy stuff for the past 12 years, and worked the turntables for about 14 years. Very civ, at least in execution, but not in attitude. :slight_smile: I’ll miss that stuff when civ goes, but rhythm in general will probably be stronger once it does. I’ll be knockin beats to the worms and critters in my grave. :slight_smile:

all my tracks are on my site, if yall are into that sort of thing. no money or anything. http://endlessthought.net/konscia

If anyone else has music recorded, hook us up! More music the merrier :slight_smile:

#7

Hey!

Eh, I write music. Have been doing so for about 3 years now. You can find a piano piece in my blog (see signature). Beware, music’s clangy and inaccessible. :stuck_out_tongue:

#8

I play appalachian style banjo (clawhammer, 2-finger, and three finger old time styles). I also sing and play the guitar. i mostly play just old time and country music. write music as well.

#9

I wanna make music with peeps!

#10

I played guitar for a while. I stopped because I felt too stupid to understand music and to translate it to the instrument. I also feel very anxious when I do something like that around people, to the point where I can’t honestly play something I’m very unsure of if anyone is around. Over the last two years though I’ve begun to long more and more for music of my own, and for all the ugliness for which the instrument has been used, there are always things to bring me back to it, like sometimes classical interpretations, or lately again the music of Roy Harper. So I will start it again, or a similar instrument. I have no choice. I want nothing more in life than to be a musician–even more than I long to travel and never to stop.

I’ve listened to a bit of central Asian music and I love some of those instruments, like the Tanbur, the simple 3-stringed Kyrgyz lute, and an Uighur instrument with sympathetic strings, much like a cross between a Hardinger and a Sitar (which is a child of it). I also like the Oud and some Arabic music in general–it’s some of the most enthralling that I’ve listened to. Then there’s the guqin which I would love to know, although that seems impossible with the utter loss of the instrument experienced in this last century. Also it is like the cello in that I would likely never become proficient in it at this point, so given the chance in anything further than guitar, the first ones I mentioned are what I would go to.

Lately all I do is sing, although I don’t have much opportunity to do so. I like my voice and I think it’s improving, although I have a rather disappointing range (I can only do things like late Johnny Cash, Leonard Cohen, and Phil Ochs, if that gives an indication). Again although I know little of music, I’ve found myself almost unconsciously improvising more often lately, which much excites me.

#11

Odineeus: The Fantasia Precipitato pieces sound great. I don’t find it inaccessible at all, and the clangy nature really brings an expression to the piece that I don’t feel would sound right purely pianissimo. Your fingers brisk the keys with great subtlety but without mistaking your purpose, so you can pull off an avant garde piece well without it sounding pretentious.

Lonnie: Clawhammer. My favorite! :slight_smile: If I ever picked up a stringed instrument again, I think it would be the banjo. How rough is that on the left shoulder?

Any more recordings from anyone?

#12

Been playing guitar seriously for almost 10 years, bass for 5, singing forever, but only seriously when I started playing in bands. I regularly play whistles, recorders, and flutes. I’m learning bagpipes, which sucks without a teacher. I play didge as well, but can’t do the circular breathing thing yet. Some Djembe, lyre, piano, and other little trinkets as well. Anything with frets I can usually figure out pretty quick.
I do some synth/programming stuff too, but it always makes me feel kinda conflicted.

Collaborating on a ambient/doom/black metal project right now, but I want to do other things as well, especially with live musicians…internet collab is a little “un-spontaneous” for me, but it’s all I can really do here.

#13

I play penny whistle, bodhran and mandolin. just got a violin today, and hope to get a cello soon. I am wanting to learn bag pipes as well but want to find somebody to learn from for cheap before I drop the money on em.

#14

Dang we need to Jam yo!
I’ve got a guitar, penny whistle, and violin at the moment, I can mostly just play the guitar, I need to practice the other two a lot more.

#15

Get a practice chanter (usually pretty cheap) and try this site:

http://www.teachyourselfbagpipes.co.uk/index%20english.htm

It’s what I’m doing right now. A teacher would be far superior, but you can at least get started. Once you get pretty good, then get a full set of pipes.

#16

as a former turntablist i can sympathize. however much i loved it though, i could never reconcile my music with my luddite tendencies. as i began looking into it i realized that breakbeats were just poor substitutions for the tribal drums i craved. plus i couldn’t see myself playing in the woods hooked up to solar panels. so i sold all my equipment and records and blew the dust off my granddad’s banjo. i’ve never regretted it.

and i’d like to add that it’s great to learn to play an instrument you can actually make!

for anyone interested i recommend:

foxfire 3 (great section on mountain banjos)
singing garbage and hardware zine
making gourd musical instruments by summit and widess

“as if the heart beat wasn’t enough, they got us using drum machines now,
the hums of the machines tryin to make our drums humdrum” - Saul Williams

#17

I don’t have much to contribute right now, but I love this talk about rewilding music. More, please!

#18
breakbeats were just poor substitutions for the tribal drums i craved. plus i couldn't see myself playing in the woods hooked up to solar panels.

Most definitely. Adding to that, ambient is a substitute of crickets and wind and other night music, which, you can’t hear anymore beyond the cars, planes and other violence. I have been playing the djembe I got for my girlfriend although I have no idea what I’m doing. I do miss my tables (the floors and electric here wouldn’t cut it) but I can live without them…

#19

I played the dj for quite a few years long ago and far away,mainly ambient.Then I got real tired of the whole scene that revolved around that and sold my gear and vinyl.Then about a year ago I bought another sound system and decks.I look at the gear now and wonder if I will ever do this again.I have played didgeridoo for several years and I still love that instrument.

#20

Most definitely. Adding to that, ambient is a substitute of crickets and wind and other night music, which, you can’t hear anymore beyond the cars, planes and other violence. I have been playing the djembe I got for my girlfriend although I have no idea what I’m doing. I do miss my tables (the floors and electric here wouldn’t cut it) but I can live without them…[/quote]

You guys are onto something, methinks. You listen to different types of music with different parts of your brain, and the same goes for sounds in your environment. Maybe music sounds so good sometimes because it’s stimulating parts of your brain that otherwise don’t get any attention.