learning a completely different instrument

Has anyone here gone from playing a wind or brass instrument to a string one, percussion, or piano?


I've gone from clarinet and bass clarinet to bass guitar, and then piano, and never got the hang of the string or piano thing. The way I have learned to play, the feeling of the music comes from inside me, and out through my breath into the instrument. Anything else seems very unnatural and mechanical to me.

I really would like to continue improving my piano skills, and maybe pick up guitar, but I don't know if I'll ever really be able to get into anything besides wind instruments! So if you've done something like that, and have suceeded, give me a bit of advice if you have it. Thanks a bunch!

~Nova

 

Phil Lesh was a trumpet player, and a week before his first show with the Dead, he learned bass.

A couple of my friends are going from trumpet/trombone to bass, don't think it makes too much of a difference, though the wind instrument might help with the rhythm required to play bass. Depends on the instrument.

 

i use to play trumpet but now im over on strings, i just kinda get strings i dont know what it is

 

I played trombone in school (cool, right?). Now I've taked up acoustic guitar but my fingers aren't very strong.

 

if you folks care for a longer post:

For 19 years I played drums and only drums (for a living, no less) in a series of fairly successful local bands. I watched with envy anyone who could make music on any instrument whether that be guitar, keys, brass or whatever. I loved playing drums, but only made the beat... not the MUSIC. Well, after all those years of playing everything from mellow folk and country to the most powerful speed-metal and anything in between, I finally found myself being told by a doctor that I would have to give up the drums because I had basically worn my wrists out. That was in 1996. Well, you might be able to take the musician away from the music, but you can't take the music out of the musician! Several years passed with no artistic release and it was driving me nuts so I decided to try a different instrument...something I had never touched with any serious intent before-keyboards. I've always been fascinated with keyboard instruments-synthesizers specifically, but any keyboard to me is a cool instrument. About 18 months ago, I bought 2 used digital synthesizers and a small mixer board and sat down to these beasts and tried for the first time to actually play the music I can hear in my head. And you know what? With time and a great deal of patience, I find that I am becoming a halfway decent keyboardist...nowhere near the technical ability of Keith Emerson or Rick Wakeman, but with a few tricks the digital keyboards offer people like me as well as a working knowledge of multitrack recording, I can indeed make music!

Now to the "shameless self-promoting" part of this post:
I have gotten confident enough in at least a few of these original (instrumental) compositions to publish them on a podcast site. I share them with you not with a "hey! Listen to how GREAT I am!!" attitude, but with an honest attempt at getting feedback. As any of you who play an instrument know, especially those of you who create your own music as opposed to playing another's, it gets very difficult to be completely objective about it because you are too close to the work. So here's the link to the podcast page. There are 6 compositions in widely varied styles. Any feedback good or bad is more than welcome.

http://ablethevoice.podomatic.com/


PS: I play entirely by ear. I know no musical rules. I honestly cannot even tell you what key any of these pieces are played in!

 

its difficult going from a wind instrument to a string/percussion instrument because there is a greater independence of the hands required for piano and guitar for example. at least this is how i found it. i was used to having my hands working together on the wind instruments, but with piano and guitar the hands have to be able to work together and separately.i don't know if its any help or not, but i try to really understand the demands of each instrument individually. i understand what you mean about a greater intimacy because you blow into wind instruments, but its a similar thing with, say, the piano, but its in your touch not your breathe. also, when you move around wind and brass families you have to change you embrochure depending on the instrument, and playing the flute is incredibly different from playing the clarinet, so already you are able to adapt to the demands of individual instruments. i would just take each instrument as itself, but to help yourself out see similarities with your other instruments, and on the major plus side, at least you can breathe when you play guitar and piano, gives the old diaphragm a rest lol.
it does come with practice and thinking, 'so what exactly does this instrument need from me, and what do i need from it?' there is a settling in period. don't be too tough on yourself, give yourself some time to adapt and get used to the different physical demands of the instruments you are learning.
sorry if this isn't much help, just my two cents and how i found it.
good luck!!!

 

I went from alto sax to piano, to elec. bass guitar then to 6-string. It's difficult at first, but you get the hang of it, just like anything else.

 

i used to just goof around on the piano, quick tunes and such. Then i moved on to the guitar. I teach myself, so i am not really that good, but i have fun so its cool. But i just ordered an Erhu, a Chinese violin and i am looking foward to learning to play that.

 

I have. I went from a cheap electric organ to a 12 string guitar.

I learned to read sheet music that way.

 

and in steps the music teacher....

I would say... pick ONE instrument, or more to the point, let one instrument pick you. You sound like an inherent wind player. Through that one instrument that calls to you, learn the workings of music - then any other instrument will be understood through your grounded first instrument.

For instance... I've been a guitar player, saxophonist, trombonist, floutist, clarinetist, bassist, etc.... but all of them, I understand through the perspective of my first instrument, the piano.

If your a wind player... be a wind player at the piano... if that's not too vague...

 

i've been attempting to learn flute, for the last year and some odd months ive been playing instruments that you can learn by ear (guitar, harmonica, bongos, harp, piano, etc), but flute isj ust like wow, man. obviously..
i'll get it eventually

 

i can play guitar and drums

 

I think hardest part of playing any instrument is the mental part. Once you've learned how to think music. Going from one instrument to another, weather string or wind or etc, is pretty easy. It is just a matter of learning the physical movements to match what your thinking. I play multiple instruments like electric bass, percussions/drums, guitar, and didj.

 

i am a percussion and string instrument person (violin, guitar, bass) but i have recently decided that i am going to make the move to tenor saxophone and after that i'm going to try piano.

so far tenor sax is going great, because i already know how to read and transpose music, the hardest part is just getting wind instrument techniques because i've been a percussionist and string player all of my life.

i'd imagine that a move from a wind instrument to a string or percussion instrument is much harder, because from what i know, percussion and strings have much more technique needed to play them properly than winds

 

ok, playing drums is making music. I think that you mean you were jealous because drums/percussion are not melodic instruments, and personally, being a really good drummer is truly harder than playing guitar keys and brass, because when you are in a band, they depend on you and if you are not there and solid, then they aren't. I'm in a jazz band and whenever i play drums, i lead the band. The drummer is the leader of the band and everything else is there to sound pretty. The drummer is the heartbeat and without the drummer, there is no heartbeat and the band is dead.

so when you say i ONLY made the beat, that's no small feat. Making a beat and keeping it solid is much harder than creating a melody

 

dito to that

 

I don't know if I read that right but from where I stand, everyone contributes to a band. You wouldn't be a band otherwise. You'd be solo .

It's like what a few people are saying. Find what you feel is most comfortable. You may not be your best at EVERY instrument. For instance, I played the Clarinet for a year and a half and found that it's just not my style, so I just didn't put any soul into it. It wasnt' until after that, when I found that i'm best with my hands. I've been playing the guitar for a little over 3 years now and i'm just starting to pick up the mandolin.

That sounded better in my head.