I’ve dabbled with multiple instruments in my life
off topic celebration of playing by ear
but I’ve been acoustically crippled with a bad ear. About 2 years ago, I started working on playing by ear and, holy shit, it totally changed the game! Before, I had to laboriously read music and look up fingerings. Now, I know what it’s supposed to sound like and I keep pushing buttons (clarinet) until I get it right because I know what it’s supposed to sound like, and now I know if I want to flat that position it’s this button, and to sharp that note, it’s this button, etc. Quite painless and not laborious–even fun!
It seems crazy to me someone would learn all the fundamentals of music and not at least be able to play rudimentarily another instrument. I mean, why not? You already understand music, you just have to figure out the instrument, which is a pretty small investment relative to musicianship, and opens up a lot more possibilities.
What have you learned from your different instruments?
Absolutely! But I think if you stay within in the same family, you’re refining the same skills more than expanding on new ones.
Have you tried mandolin? It’s just a violin with frets and doubled strings.
Yeah, equal temperment is sort of annoying. It’s nice to be able to just play the exact right note on strings. I think reed instruments are pretty good about intonation, too, but I’m not good enough to play with other people yet.
I have played the mandolin. I prefer to try to master one instrument than play loads, but piano is too useful not too know the basics. I still have a long way to go to achieve mastery of guitar…
Oh now that is tempting to look into. Thanks for the suggestion!