Your First Instrument

[QuickHitCurepon]

What was your first instrument, at what age and did you play well?

 

[Sunni Man]

Small transistor radio......age 8 .......

 

[eflatminor]

Guitar, since before I could remember. Played well before my teens but didn't develop my own voice on the instrument (my sound, good or bad, but undeniably mine) until my mid 20s.

These days I play a double cello just as well, but my first was guitar.

 

[Moonglow]

Not a damn one....

 

[QuickHitCurepon]

Small transistor radio......age 8 .......

I got my first transistor radio with green stamps. My first instrument when I was 4 years old though was a drum. I played it for about 3 months and gave it up for piano lessons. We had an antique piano my mom sold not long after the lessons ended. We needed the money. Welfare, you know.

 

[QuickHitCurepon]

Guitar, since before I could remember. Played well before my teens but didn't develop my own voice on the instrument (my sound, good or bad, but undeniably mine) until my mid 20s.

These days I play a double cello just as well, but my first was guitar.

A classical guitar?

My first good friend, Matt, after leaving the Air Force lived at Spanish House right off of Highway 101 and Bayshore Freeway at the University Avenue exit in East Palo Alto.

That was when I first started digging classical music, because I visited once when they had a solo recital. I don't remember which instrument was featured.

 

[eflatminor]

Guitar, since before I could remember. Played well before my teens but didn't develop my own voice on the instrument (my sound, good or bad, but undeniably mine) until my mid 20s.

These days I play a double cello just as well, but my first was guitar.

A classical guitar?

My first good friend, Matt, after leaving the Air Force lived at Spanish House right off of Highway 101 and Bayshore Freeway at the University Avenue exit in East Palo Alto.

That was when I first started digging classical music, because I visited once when they had a solo recital. I don't remember which instrument was featured.

Yes, started with a classical guitar. Still have it!

More into experimental jazz these days, but I still love a rich melody.

 

[Mr Natural]

Trumpet right after seeing Louis Armstrong on The Ed Sullivan Show.

Shortly after that, I picked up guitar after seeing The Beatles also on The Ed Sullivan Show.

Been hacking away on both ever since.

 

[Al Azar]

Piano, when very young, but likely only because my older sister was taking lessons. All I remember from that is how to read music.

Then clarinet, but not by choice. I decided that I wanted to learn to play the saxophone, but the band teacher at school (4th grade) said I would have to learn to play woodwinds "properly" and start with the clarinet. Once I was good enough, I could play the saxophone as well if I wanted.

I took clarinet lessons and got pretty good, according to some. There was talk of getting me on the Lawrence Welk show. I was in the bands and orchestras through junior high and high school, performing at the Hollywood Bowl a couple of times with the school's dance band.

Then it stopped. While I was in the service I sold my instruments and never gave it much thought after that.

Now that I'm retired I thought of getting back to the piano, but for now it's just a thought, as I'm too busy with other things. Once I slow down I might give it a whirl.

 

[Billy_Kinetta]

Keyboards.

 

[waltky]

Granny got possum some bongo drums...

... now he's growin' a goatee...

... an' lookin' like a beatnik possum.

 

[Pogo]

Guitar, since before I could remember. Played well before my teens but didn't develop my own voice on the instrument (my sound, good or bad, but undeniably mine) until my mid 20s.

These days I play a double cello just as well, but my first was guitar.

That's odd -- from your handle I woulda guessed horn.

 

[eflatminor]

Guitar, since before I could remember. Played well before my teens but didn't develop my own voice on the instrument (my sound, good or bad, but undeniably mine) until my mid 20s.

These days I play a double cello just as well, but my first was guitar.

That's odd -- from your handle I woulda guessed horn.

As teenagers playing rock, we tuned down a half step...for a heavier sound. Em chord (THE rock chord) becomes E flat minor. Guess it stuck.

 

[Pogo]

What was your first instrument, at what age and did you play well?

Piano, starting at age 5 or so. Learned the scales in that linear fashion, which seems natural, no pun intended, but the fingering of woodwinds remains an enigma. I like to see patterns.

Took up guitar age 15. Patterns weren't readily forthcoming until I got into open tunings. Picked up banjo a few years later and the versatility of that instrument fed back new ways of looking at the guitar. After that, went on to several others, pretty much anything with strings including hammered dulcimer, bowed psaltery, mando, violin and bouzouki.

 

[MarathonMike]

Piano when I was about 5 or 6. My Mother taught me and I played pretty well. As a teenager I taught myself to play songs I liked on the radio by ear. Years later as an adult I found a great teacher who was a jazz pianist. He taught me chord based improvisation rather than straight note reading.

 

[Pogo]

Guitar, since before I could remember. Played well before my teens but didn't develop my own voice on the instrument (my sound, good or bad, but undeniably mine) until my mid 20s.

These days I play a double cello just as well, but my first was guitar.

That's odd -- from your handle I woulda guessed horn.

As teenagers playing rock, we tuned down a half step...for a heavier sound. Em chord (THE rock chord) becomes E flat minor. Guess it stuck.

Yeah well you won't make any friends among violinists.

Our jug band was doing a Beatles album once and we were meticulous about doing them in the original keys, voice ranges be damned. We were doing the White Album (our version called the Shite Album) and one tune (Piggies) is originally in A flat. So I brought a viola deliberately tuned down half a step, just for that one song. Whelp, when the tune came up the guitar player/leader forgot he had to capo up and played it in E, so we all had to adjust. The viola never got used.

 

[JOSweetHeart]

The piano is the only instrument that I have ever taken any lessons for and I was ten when I first got started. I took lessons for about four years. I was okay. Can I still play? A little.

God bless you always!!!

Holly (age 34 now)

 

[Borillar]

I learned piano when I was 5 from my mom. I picked up guitar when I was 11. Viola at 12. Trumpet at 15. Never got very good at any of them. Can still play a little piano and remember a few guitar chords.

 

[Mad Scientist]

Ovation acoustic around age fifteen or so. This model which I still have. Didn't get beyond basic chords until I was almost 30.



Bought an Epiphone Les Paul like this about 5 years ago but I now I have Neuropathy in my hands so its like I have to learn all over again!