There’s the whistle, or maybe I should say the dozen or so whistles, and of course the guitar, and the mountain dulcimer, not to mention the willowflute and the promise of a really good ocarina. And my bamboo flute rubbed its head on my knee the other day and pleaded “Play me, play me!”.
And at work I got spontaneously co-opted into the Secret Santa and was awarded a unilateral harmonica (I was not required to respond). This was actually pretty good, as it meant I could play tunes at the Works Christmas meal when the conversation flagged (often).
The harmonica was made in the UK by a company which has successfully managed to conceal its identity. Like all Diatonic Harmonicas it has instructions for playing “When the Saints go Marching in”. One day they may include another tune. Almost my favourite thing about this anonymous harmonica is the note in the instructions which reads: “Not for public performance”. What!? It really does!
My ex-Boss asked me if I had any harmonicas at home. I answered politely “several”.
There’s my two Lee Oskars, two Hohners (one of them a one-inch job) and an off-key Chinese Swan with a slide.
And there’s my mother’s old fiddle in the corner which I will learn to play one day. (Well, maybe not.) And the Chanter pipe.
I can’t take it any more. I want to play them all! (And I’m only allowed to play the Guitar and Dulcimer in the house.)
Between my wife and I, we have a flute, piano, guitar, tenor banjo, three tin whisltes, a bodhran and a D harmonica…OK, I should be honest and fess up that all but the piano and guitar are mine.
I divested myself of many instruments a few years back - a classical guitar, mandolin, 7 other flutes (4 that I made myself - bamboo and PVC), 2 fifes, 10 whistles, an ocarina, mini 8 button accordion and about 3 harmonicas. I was feeling guilty that I had so many nice instruments simply not being played.
Of the instruments I still have hanging around, only the flute and one whistle get significant playing time, the banjo gets played monthly…the rest sure look pretty.
We have, lessee -
2 diatonic bass mountain dulcimer
1 chromatic bass MD
1 low Em bass MD
1 low G bass MD
1 baritone MD
3 student MD (these are loaner instruments)
1 student chromatic MD
1 chromatic MD
1 resonator MD
6 regular MD
1 travel MD total: 19 MD
1 hammered dulcimer
1 guitar
1 banjo
1 mandolin
1 balalika
1 piano (mine that my parents’ bought 2nd hand in 1963)
1 extremely cheap cello
2 bodhran (1 tunable)
3 D whistles
several other assorted whistles
quite a few recorders, down to a baritone
a rub board
quite a few keys of harmonicas
1 ocean drum
numerous “shaky shiny” things
a couple of nose flutes
It’s not the number of instruments. I’m well aware that many if not all chiffers have more instruments than I do.
It’s not getting the time to play them. To practice or even learn them properly. That’s what I’m unhappy about.
Okay, I practice guitar and whistle, but if I spend time with the willowflute that means I don’t get time on the dulcimer, and getting the harmonica just reminded me of things I had forgotten, and now want to play.
And my bamboo flute is looking at me (one of my bamboo flutes).
And I really ought to do some work, that they pay me for…
That’s stuff off the top of my head. My wife and I have largely differing tastes in terms of acquisition, but we’re both music nuts, so there’s no pushing back on instrument acquisition. The Portuguese guitarra was an impulse purchase on a trip to Dusty Strings in Seattle. Probably a big mistake, but when you buy an esoteric thing like a guitarra, there really isn’t much of a second-hand market for it. Something to do in retirement as we’ve been saying.
1 piano
1 electronic keyboard (a new one is coming for Christmas)
1 12 string acoustic guitar
1 6 string electric guitar with amp
1 violin
1 silver flute
1 hall crystal flute
1 homemade pvc flute
4 good whistles (in 2 different keys)
a few cheap metal and bamboo whistles (less than 10)
a low D bamboo whistle
1 chromatic harmonica
1 long tremelo harmonica (i never counted the holes)
4 good diatonic harmonicas in 4 different keys
a few cheapie harmonicas stashed all over the place.
1 good recorder
3 cheap flourescent recorders that my dad keeps finding for me.
1 jaw’s harp
1 nose flute
1 maraca
1 stainless steel wastebaket that has only been used as a punch bowl, drum, and gong.
a water trumpet and a water flute that are leaving the house tomorrow morning to be given to children.
and a Christmas present that was recently given to me that is for me and I am only going to show my wife Christmas morning. i’ll tell you all later.
I get your drift. Yeah, it is hard when you have a bunch of instruments and want to play them all but there’s just so much time in the evening/night. I end up playing piano more than anything, partially because I have to map out what I’ll be doing on organ on Sunday morning at church. And yeah, I sometimes wonder if I shortchange skill on a particular one by trying to play too many.
But the oboe fund is growing and I will get one. to add to the collection.
Piano
Scottish Tenor Drum
Bodhran
Mandolin
Guitar(out on loan to a friend since I rarely attempt to play the thing)
two Bb clarinets
a bunch of whistles
Great Highland Bagpipes
Shuttlepipes
1 1920’s Oboe
1 1920’s English Horn
1 double Holton French Horn, custom
1 1920’s metal Bb clarinet
1 1920s Bb Conn Trumpet
1 1860’s Cloos Fife
2 metal fifes
1 plastic fife
1 D tin whistle
2 Yamaha plastic Sop recorders
1 wood moeck Sop Rec.
2 aulous Alto rec’s
1 Moeck Tenor rec
2 Hohner chromonicas
2 1920’s Hohner harmonicas
1 Gibson short scale EB bass
1 1926 Heberlein Violin
Yamaha PS-1 kybd
2 Magnus chord organs
1 sitar
1 Pakistan-made celtic harp
3 GHB’s (Scots made)
2 practice chanters
Full Uilleann pipes
2 25’ Zampogne
1 Ciaramella
1 Bb Biniou kozh
1 Pakistani made bombarde
1 Gibson Fireside pipes (for sale $600, US only)
1 16 pouce Bechonnet
1 kaba Gaida
1 set Pakistani-made Uilleann pipe
6 sets pakistani-made bagpipes (imitations of Spanish, N African, German, French + Medieval pipes)
1 Brien Boru chanter
6 GHB chanters (Scots made) (approx 16 bagpipes)
2 US Army surplus bugles
1 army surplus field drum
Marching Bass drum
1 Baritone Ukelele
1 Tambourine
1 1960’s Schoenhut toy piano
Bunches of kid instruments
Relatives have our piano, & Ive divested all the guitars, mandolins, etc.
Im sure Im forgetting some,
Honestly, as has been said, its impossible to play them all. I only keep about 4 in ‘audience-ready’ practice. Most see the light of day maybe once a year.
Let me see if I can do this from memory (I’m at work).
1 Upright grand piano
1 Casio (?) keyboard (old, but pretty nice - got some good sounds)
4 6-string acoustic guitars
2 12-string acoustic guitars
1 electric bass
1 3/4-size violin
1 child-sized rope-tension field drum (snare)
1 child-sized rope-tension bass drum (soon to be converted to a snare)
countless rattly-shaky-noisy-world-music-type percussion things
1 bodhran
1 octagonal native american elk skin drum (handmade by a friend as a wedding gift)
1 set of bongos
1 concert snare drum (arriving soon for Christmas. Shh! don’t tell my son!)
2 bamboo folk-flutes (They’re both ‘almost’ in G)
1 keyless modern Irish flute (OK, it’s not Irish, it’s American. But it speaks Irish)
1 Low D Tipple flute
1 High Bb Tipple flute (prototype!)
1 8-key antique German no-name simple-system flute
1 6-key antique simple-system piccolo
1 6-key Oesch Basel-style piccolo (On loan)
1 modern Boehm flute
2 alto saxophones
1 Clarinet
1 Xaphoon
1 Nose whistle (I love this thing, since I can’t do that loud two-finger-in-the mouth whistle)
4 harmonicas (2 in C, 2 in G)
6(?) Whistles (D, Eb, Bb)
10+ Fifes - 150-year-old wooden ones, Early 20th cent. Cloos, Nickel (Heavy!) to Modern 1- and 2-piece (Peeler, Healy, McDonaugh)
I never realized how many instruments we really had until I made this list.
My wife and I have been talking for years about having a room in our house really be dedicated to music instead of the piles of instruments scattered about. Maybe that’s my New Year’s resolution …
Great thread! I feel a whole lot better about my IAD now! To fyffer’s point, that is in fact exactly what I’m doing now. The kids are grown (and playing music) now, so the top floor of the house is being renovated from a junky teenage hangout room into a clean, well-equipped music room/amateur recording studio.
We’ve got broadband and a repurposed computer up there. I’ve bought a bunch of second hand equipment, mostly on my local Craigslist, and am now herding all of the scattered instruments into one place. My wife’s happy, the sons are happy, I’m happy. Life is good!
I won’t list them all, but I really wanted to learn the mountain dulcimer, so I got a strumstick which is very much like a mountain dulcimer except the strings are reversed and you can hold it like a guitar and it’s really cute. I spent many gleeful hours learning to play a few tunes on it. But then my flute playing suffered. I realized if I want to be a good flute player I have to focus on it to the exclusion of the dulcimer. I had to choose, and the flute won.
I still want to learn a few chords on my strumstick (forget about learning tunes, just learn some chords) so that maybe I can put some light backing on my recordings of myself on the flute. But that that means I have to learn how to do backing and I have no clue how to do that. I have the utmost respect for backers because what they do is magic.
And someday I really want to learn to play the mandolin. I just have a sense that I could do well with it. However, the flute…the flute…the evil beast. The taskmaster. Evil mean old flute taking over my life.
3 acoustic guitars (2 steel, 1 nylon) - I play those all the time at work. I’m a public school elementary general music teacher. A surprisingly un-musical profession.
5 electric guitars - haven’t played them in years, though I often think about it.
1 fretless bass - love it, but never get to play it.
1 digital drum set - see above.
1 digital keyboard - i play it some, not a lot.
this list is kind of depressing -
1 trumpet - that was my first instrument, haven’t played it in more than twenty years, but I still have it.
1 mandolin - I don’t have much time for it, but it’s fun when I get a minute here and there.
2 harmonicas - I gave up on those years ago. I never could figure them out.
10 whistles - I play those fairly regularly - every few days. But not nearly as much as I’d like.
1 keyless flute - this one’s new, and judging by how I sound so far, I can’t get too much practice time.
Should I suddenly become wealthy, of course, I’ll quit my job and have all the time in the world to play. Well, after the house repairs are caught up. And the yard work, and working on the car, and the truck, and …
folks, you do have time to learn the harmonica. i followed the on-line free lessons and in one hour had a basic understanding of the instrument and could play songs. my nephew is learning disabled and has actually received a diagnosis of mental retardation, though i doubt that but it took him a whole day to figure out the harmonica but he was home alone at the time. when we get to see each other, we play duets of christmas carols.
i have microsoft word documents of christmas carols in harmonica tab and also in letter notation in the key of C. pm me if you’d like a copy.
It really does!
to add to the collection.
