So I thought about learning to play flute

How about the recorder?!

Ok then, what about the Ulean Pipes, and you can sound like Troy Donockley (Iona), strangling a small mammal?

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)

1,550 dollars? Damn, that scared me off completely.

*sits in the corner and cries*

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

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

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

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.