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Gentle Ronnie
Forum Senior Member
Joined: March 17 2005
Status: Offline
Points: 540
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Topic: So I thought about learning to play flute Posted: May 27 2005 at 15:31 |
(...or any other instument. Read on)
I always was kinda ashamed of myself, that although I listen to so much good music, I can not play a single instrument.
I thought about it for a while. Drumming is fun, but is noisy and would annoy all the neighbours, and it costs expensive too.
Guitar. A very popular choice, but it is expensive to change all the strings, not to mention that every guitarist falls under the stereotype of being a dumbass. People always make fun of guitarists, no matter how well they play.
What I am asking is what would be the best choice to learn to play an instrument that:
1) is not very expensive buying or keeping.
2) is a pleasure to learn and play.
3) is often used in rock and prog.
Flute is what I thought about, but I know nothing about it, because I slacked off at music lessons, which was a huge mistake.
Any help would be appreciated.
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Jared
Forum Senior Member
Joined: May 06 2005
Location: Hereford, UK
Status: Offline
Points: 19244
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Posted: May 27 2005 at 15:39 |
How about the recorder?!
Ok then, what about the Ulean Pipes, and you can sound like Troy Donockley (Iona), strangling a small mammal?
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Music has always been a matter of energy to me. On some nights I believe that a car with the needle on empty can run 50 more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio. Hunter S Thompson
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NetsNJFan
Prog Reviewer
Joined: April 12 2005
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 3047
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Posted: May 27 2005 at 15:49 |
what do you mean flutes not expensive!! Mine cost $1,550 (btw they are a bit hard to keep, especially nice ones, since they are silver and do tarnish)
BUT GREAT CHOICE MAN GO FOR IT, GREAT INSTRUMENT!
(if you have any flute questions PM me)
Edited by NetsNJFan
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Gentle Ronnie
Forum Senior Member
Joined: March 17 2005
Status: Offline
Points: 540
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Posted: May 27 2005 at 16:04 |
NetsNJFan wrote:
what do you mean flutes not expensive!! Mine cost $1,550 (btw they are a bit hard to keep, especially nice ones, since they are silver and do tarnish)
BUT GREAT CHOICE MAN GO FOR IT, GREAT INSTRUMENT!
(if you have any flute questions PM me)
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1,550 dollars? Damn, that scared me off completely.
*sits in the corner and cries*
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NetsNJFan
Prog Reviewer
Joined: April 12 2005
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 3047
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Posted: May 27 2005 at 16:12 |
Gentle Ronnie wrote:
NetsNJFan wrote:
what do you mean flutes not expensive!! Mine cost $1,550 (btw they are a bit hard to keep, especially nice ones, since they are silver and do tarnish)
BUT GREAT CHOICE MAN GO FOR IT, GREAT INSTRUMENT!
(if you have any flute questions PM me)
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1,550 dollars? Damn, that scared me off completely.
*sits in the corner and cries*
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sorry didn't mean to do that at all - I just don't want you to think that they are tinny cheap instruments.
but you can buy (or rent) a decent nickel flute for about $230-$250 that will sound fine.
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goose
Forum Senior Member
Joined: June 20 2004
Location: United Kingdom
Status: Offline
Points: 4097
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Posted: May 27 2005 at 16:44 |
Wind instruments are generally far cheaper than stringed ones - my 'cello's not all that good (I got it when I was 12ish) and it set me back £1,300.
Instruments to think about which are small enough to be carried around practically but have nice mellow sounds:
violin, clarinet, flute, oboe. Granted they aren't all often used in rock or prog, but I'd say that's a good thing because it means it's far easier to find ideas that haven't been used before. Plus all woodwind instruments have at least reasonably similar fingering (I'm pretty sure about this but anyone feel free to correct me).
Or you could get a keyboard and play anything
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kingofbizzare
Forum Senior Member
Joined: March 09 2005
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 520
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Posted: May 27 2005 at 23:18 |
Since, as you said, you slacked off at music lessons, I'd suggest the
trombone. There's no annoying button combinations, so all you have to
figure out is how to make the notes come out, how to go up and down
notes with the lips, and where to stick the slide (only seven
positions). I know of some good books for beginners that tell the
positions, and I think it's fairly easy to figure out the other two
(with a little practice). Since they have less bottons or other fancy
things, they are much cheaper that something like a saxaphone (and they
weigh less too). I got mine for free, so I don't know exactly how much
they cost. I find it very fun and rewarding to play, and I consider
myself fairly good with only a few years of practice. Although I'm not
sure how frequently it pops up in prog...
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NetsNJFan
Prog Reviewer
Joined: April 12 2005
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 3047
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Posted: May 27 2005 at 23:36 |
kingofbizzare wrote:
Since, as you said, you slacked off at music lessons, I'd suggest the trombone. There's no annoying button combinations, so all you have to figure out is how to make the notes come out, how to go up and down notes with the lips, and where to stick the slide (only seven positions). I know of some good books for beginners that tell the positions, and I think it's fairly easy to figure out the other two (with a little practice). Since they have less bottons or other fancy things, they are much cheaper that something like a saxaphone (and they weigh less too). I got mine for free, so I don't know exactly how much they cost. I find it very fun and rewarding to play, and I consider myself fairly good with only a few years of practice. Although I'm not sure how frequently it pops up in prog... |
...ahh but it lacks that subtle beauty of the flute
but cool stuff man i always wondered how those worked, how you knew where to slide without markers
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Sound Chaser
Forum Groupie
Joined: December 12 2004
Status: Offline
Points: 41
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Posted: June 10 2005 at 22:50 |
Flute's fun. I just stopped playing. Played for 2 and a half years with
school. Wasn't really that fun with the school but I think I'm gonna
start up again outstide of school.
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tuxon
Forum Senior Member
Joined: September 21 2004
Location: plugged-in
Status: Offline
Points: 5502
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Posted: June 10 2005 at 23:08 |
I always like the nose-flute, very much fun, but a good instument is the piano, you can have a decent electric device for under the 200 euro's which is good enough for practice and learning experience. Once you're any good at it, you can always upgrade it, or choose another instrument once you mastered the basics of playing, and reading notes etc.
I'm still trying to learn to play the piano, quite fun, and so much possibilities, just love it
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I'm always almost unlucky _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Id5ZcnjXSZaSMFMC Id5LM2q2jfqz3YxT
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HaroldTheBarrel
Forum Groupie
Joined: November 04 2004
Location: Canada
Status: Offline
Points: 81
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Posted: June 14 2005 at 22:56 |
I tried learning flute briefly... but I didn't get very far... I might start again.
As far as recorders go, Kerry Minnear used a tenor recorder pretty
frequently, and look at bass recorders. They're taller than some people
I know. I'm currently learning to play a tenor; nothing like those
little things you play in school. They can be pretty serious
instruments!
Actually, guitar is fairly inexpensive, especially when compared to
bass. The actual instrument can be just as expensive, but you don't
need nearly as much wattage, and god, when I learned the difference
between what guitar strings cost and what I was (am) paying for bass
strings... erg.
So really, what I'm trying to say is that I have no real advice. Your time has been maliciously wasted. Haha...
Hey, I was bored and picked up Swordfishtrombones today. My first Tom
Waits album. Whee. It was funny. I went to an Oliver Jones concert
today, and when I went in it was raining and when I came out it was
like a tropical paradise or something. How odd. That zany weather! Ha
ha ha! Oh yes...
Mm, Michael Jackson's been pronounced innocent? How 'bout that. It's
funny, I just hitchhiked across Canada (east to west) and apparently,
everywhere I went had been having great weather, but it started raining
as soon as I got there. As soon as I passed through the prairies they
got flooded worse than they have in decades... now I think the
prairie-folk have sent some kind of a bounty hunter after me to get
revenge for bringing the awful weather.
Taking up space... dum de dum... ba dum de dum dum, de dum ba dum de da doo...
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Listen:
Your friends have been broken. They've told us of your poison.
Now we k now.
KILL THEM!
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Biggles
Forum Senior Member
Joined: June 18 2005
Status: Offline
Points: 705
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Posted: June 18 2005 at 17:38 |
What you might want to do is get an instrument that will also allow you to branch out to other similar instruments. For example, you can go for a reed one like clarinet, and from that you can go to the many variations of saxes. If you learn guitar, it's much easier to move on to other instruments like bouzouki, mandolin, banjo, etc. If you try a brass instrument like trumpet it'll also make it much easier to play other instruments like trombone, euphonium, tuba, or French horn. I've been playing guitar for 3 years and clarinet for 5 years, and thanks to that I can now also play tenor sax and mandolin, and, on an unrelated note, harmonica.
Piano is probably the best instrument on which to learn music, because you can see all the theory stuff and all the scales laid out nicely. There's also no tough technique stuff about it; when you start on the guitar you can hardly even hold the damn thing, and when you try clarinet you're more likely to get a squeak than any recognizable sound, but on piano you can get the notes to come out nicely from the beginning and it's just a matter of developing co-ordination.
Edited by Biggles
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The crux of the biscuit is the apostrophe.
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Gluonio
Forum Senior Member
Joined: June 23 2005
Location: Greece
Status: Offline
Points: 113
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Posted: June 29 2005 at 08:10 |
Flute is an excellent choise and surely you can find a decent cheap one.But to play good will take some time.I mean you may sound a little iritating at first.I play the flute in a semi-professional level ,so i would recomend it.It just needs some patience...
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...But my dreams are for dreaming and best left that way-and my zero to your power of ten equals nothing at all...
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Hierophant
Forum Senior Member
Joined: March 11 2005
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 651
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Posted: July 03 2005 at 00:28 |
Get a set of drums... ok I may be a bit biased because I am a drummer
but you can pick up a low end kit for about 300$ (convert to
euros,pounds,rupees etc) and about another 100 on cheap cymbals and
such, and hey the drums are absolutely essential to prog (in most
cases). And alot of bands are drummerless so you shouldn't have a hard
time finding a band to play with.
You know?
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pammiwhammi
Forum Groupie
Joined: June 29 2005
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 54
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Posted: July 04 2005 at 23:32 |
I'd suggest bass. it's fairly easy to learn, yet you can pursue it to
as difficult a level as you'd care to, and if you ever did want to find
people to play with bass players are always in demand.
What do I know though, being a dumbass guitarist!
Q "how many guitar players does it take to change a lightbulb?"
A "5; 1 to screw it in and 4 to go "I could do that better!"
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"I repeat myself when under stress, I repeat myself when under stress, I repeat myself when under stress..."
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Badabec
Forum Senior Member
Joined: November 14 2005
Location: Germany
Status: Offline
Points: 1313
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Posted: November 20 2005 at 17:08 |
NetsNJFan wrote:
what do you mean flutes not expensive!! Mine cost $1,550 (btw they are a bit hard to keep, especially nice ones, since they are silver and do tarnish)
BUT GREAT CHOICE MAN GO FOR IT, GREAT INSTRUMENT!
(if you have any flute questions PM me)
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Wow that's quite expencive!
I guess there doesn't exist any instrument which is cheap in general...
By the way, I love medieval flute-passages.
Edited by Badabec
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