I play the fife, which is really my primary instrument, and I like to think I’m pretty good at it. I played it before starting on the whistle, which is the opposite of the usual approach. I also play drum, in the ancient rudimental style. I’m also a startlingly adequate singer.
I wouldn’t advertise myself as an Irish flute player, but I have one and I give it a go a couple of times a week when I’m alone in the house.
I took piano lessons as a kid, but only learned to read music. In the high school orchestra I played timpani. I’ve spent an embarassing amount of time fooling around with guitars and basses and have made very little progress at either.
piano(still my primary instrument)started at 7 yrs old
clarinet (rarely for many years)school and college
oboe(again rarely)same as above(actually in high school I would play odd and various instruments during class, trombone, tuba, tympani, french horn etc. The director said as long as I could play what I needed for performances on either oboe or clarinet I could play whatever I wanted in class, so that was fun! Never could get a sound out of any flute though)
guitar (my Dad taught me as a kid)
mandolin(love this, no bluegrass, old time only, learned as a kid from the old folks at local music makin’s )
great highland bagpipes (began at about 35)
whistles(same as GHB)
organ (church organist, began at 45
scottish tenor drum (flourishing mainly, began at 45)
bodhran(began at 47)
shuttlepipes(began at 46)
Music is one of the main forces in my life- it keeps me sane? Playing music is one of the great joys of life.
If I could afford them I’d tackel the uilleann pipes, and several more pipe type instruments. Oh, well, I do love my whistles though, they are among my favorites.
Oh, boy. I started on recorder around age 10. I don’t recall who gave it to me. Played Boehm system flute starting in 6th grade. Was only a mediocre flutist at best. Picked up bassoon and sax in eighth grade, which is when I started playing jazz. Started on oboe in college, and was the only recorder student actually taking lessons. Played oboe and sax in the Navy Band at Pearl Harbor from 1991-1994. Started whistle in 2001 but lost interest quickly, I (foolishly) thought it to be inferior to recorder for chromatic stuff. Started fifing in Sept 2001, and went mad for it. Picked up whistle (again) shortly thereafter, and was struck by the similarities to the fife. Began listening more seriously to Irish music, then was inspired to play Irish flute.
Currently I only play whistle, fife and flute. I feel like they are the instruments I have been waiting my whole life to play! I picked up my recorder the other day, and realized I don’t remember how to play it. I used to be crazy for it. I’m out of practice on all my other instruments.
Whistle is SO much nicer to carry around with you. In high school, I went to countless out of town competitions carrying a bassoon and a bari sax!
I wisht I’d read all the posts in this thread before posting. Another fifer comes out of the woodwork, jim mc! There’s another one here too, I can’t recall who… I like Civil War era (duh). We have some awesome ancient style drummers in our corps. What do you like to play, jim mc?
And Janice and Bretton, I was a bari sax superfreak too! I love that bari grrrowl. Never owned one, cos it’s so huge. In high school, I was the smallest sax player playing the biggest sax. I had this big honkin’ open bore mouthpiece to balance out the six altos and four tenors (all the saxes wanted to play in the jazz ensemble)! I have an alto but haven’t touched it in years.
Hmmm. Whistle, I guess. Learning fiddle. Was learning box, but a lack of an instrument has cut that short. (Dare I admit it?) Bodhran, fairly well. I’ve taken shots at a lot of instruments but haven’t really ever put much effort into most of them…I can mess around on simple system flute, and know enough to find my way around a highland pipes chanter. All well, some day I’ll master all of the above…
Whistle, Violin/Fiddle, Alto Sax, Tenor Sax, Barry Sax, Flute, Fife, Viola, Piano, Guitar, Trumpet, & I also know a little about Bassoon and Clarinet. Sometimes I sing too, but we won’t get into that…
Hey MF9! I play both CW and RW music, along with all the stuff in between and even some modern compositions. Also IRtrad, of course. I especially like the Irish influenced hillbilly type American folk music. I play with the Civil War Troopers, who many consider to have the finest drum line in the fife and drum community. Nick Attanasio is our drum instructor, and plays in the line as well. Our fife line, while less experienced, is quickly building a reputation for itself. Bill Hart (of Americlique) is our fife instructor.
I drummed for nearly 30 years, and played the fife only casually. Then a blown rotator cuff forced me to cut back on the drumming and I started getting serious about my fife playing. That was a couple of years ago, and I’m really pleased with the progress I’ve made. I don’t know if I’ll go back to drumming with the corps. No sense in lugging one of those heavy ancient style drums around in the heat if you don’t have to!
Lets see, besides the tin whistle I have been picking up the Irish FLute along with it for about 6 months now. I have played saxophone for over 10 years, I have played piano for about 12 years, guitar for about 8 years, french horn for 7, mellophone for about 3 years, and bass guitar for about 9 years. I’ve played all of these in some form of a band.
My major instrument was alto Sax (I have two!), but I’ve also played clarinet and flute(have one of each) in pit orchestras, and I used to play piano when I was a kid.
I just recently started with the whistle, I’m finding the whole wind instrument thing difficult. Although thats mainly because I am super-addicted to playing the banjo, especially recently.
I do clawhammer banjo mostly, but recently I’ve been working into some old-time fingerpicking styles like Charlie Poole’s. I can play one song slowly Scruggs style and I’d like to learn more of that. But whistle is a fun diversion and I think it has helped train my ear a bit.
concert flute (haven’t played in a few years)
alto, tenor, baritone saxophone (been a while for these too)
recorder (haven’t really played this since i got my first whistle)
guitar
bass guitar
marching snare
basic drum set
handbells in elementary school
2-3 months of violin lessons (one day i’ll learn to play the cello)
i can play really really basic piano stuff (one day i’ll learn more)
to do list (of sorts):
strings, brass, piano, clarinet, oboe, pipes, mallet percussion (i guess the hammered dulcimer would be in this category too? hehe), and basically anything else i can get my hands on
Playing music is one of the great joys of life.
