As much as I love the flute/whistle, it still has its ups and downs when playing. Lets say something happens to my teeth, lips, or just get out of breath easily. It is always good to know two different instruments. It is also good for learning tunes, especially the tunes to play every key in. So I need help finding another good instrument to learn. Those are the four main ones that I would like to learn.
The violin also seems like the most musically versatile. By this I mean that it is used in many different styles of music compared to say, a traditionally tuned fife.
It has a nice dynamic range, can play just intonation and equal temperament with little adjustment, is easy to mute for practice, it is tunable, and finding people to work on it for repairs is not difficult.
No, experience with them personally (really not my cup of tea) but if you like the things and how they sound I would think they would be a lovely instrument (Not that other instruments aren’t great and have their own unique voices).
You can’t play the thing fast unless you are some kind of genius, so it slows the whole approach and you learn to breathe. Fiddle is next best thing, I suppose.
Stay away from fiddle unless you have access to a good teacher. It is a really challenging instrument. I tried to learn fiddle for years and ended up switching to uilleann pipes, which turned out to be easier for me. Granted, I was lucky enough to get lessons from a good local piper, but I think the fiddle is the hardest instrument out there.
My vote is for an instrument that just doesn’t seem to get quite the respect it’s due. An instrument that holds the distinction of being the absolute first instrument ever played by a human being; the voicebox.
It also holds the distinction of being the absolute most portable instrument. Plays in any key, and with training you should be able to get three-plus full octaves out of it.
well if youre worried about something happening to your lips/ lungs/teeth;
(a.k.a. the tootblart /bleep family)
Then you’ll have to look into strings ( a.k.a the scratchscrape/ plink family).
I suggest double bass. There arent nearly enough bass players, if you miss a note no one will really know, you’ll never have to take a solo (and if you do, everyone will go out for a smoke anyway) & youll always get a seat on the bus.
Now Im not saying take up bass guitar…, but th eupright bass: it’s got a certain mystique guitars dont have.
Thanks Izzy, now I have that on my mind. It’s a better than the one it replaces that has been haunting me for the last three days, I’ve even been humming it at work- Les Toreadors from Carmen. It’s on our summer concert and I can get the other tunes from Carmen, but that one is driving me crazy. My tongue is just too slow. I just finished practicing it for the ??time and I still can’t get it fast enough. I’ve tried to learn double tonguing but that’s not going well. Grrrrr
Yeah, that cool cat tune is much better, think I’ll listen again.. humming "is you is…
I’d like to recommend mandolin. There are some really nice Asian imported ones that play well and are pretty inexpensive. The frets make perfect placement of the fingers less of an issue than on fiddle. Playing scales is pretty intuitive. Unlike the fiddle, there’s no bowing involved, which would otherwise add a whole extra layer of complexity. The fingering is the same as fiddle, so if you ever get the urge to learn fiddle, you’ll be one step ahead of the game. The mandolin and whistle play in roughly the same range, so everything you already know on whistle will be easily played on mandolin. At any given session, I play about half and half whistle and mandolin. Wonderful instrument.
But I’m incredibly biased on that one…
I just finished practicing it for the ??time and I still can’t get it fast enough. I’ve tried to learn double tonguing but that’s not going well. Grrrrr