Or have you played something else in the past? What’s your favorite piece to play?
Edit: thanks for everyone that has replied. This has been so heartwarming to read :)
My favorite thing about me playing an instrument are the cheers and frenetic applause of my neighbours when I stop it.
Really really inspiring.
Is it the skin flute?
Not at all - just be having a good time.
I play guitar casually since a little before COVID. Becoming more fluent with it every time I play is an amazing feeling.
Getting into a groove, putting my own spin/expressing myself with songs I like, and jamming with friends are experiences that are unmatched in enjoyment for me.
Making up my own silly songs on the fly is fun too.
Learning to play is the best thing I ever did. I had to get over the idea that it would be hard work to get good, or the idea that I’d never be as good as someone who started as a kid, or that I’d ever even be technically good, at all. Letting go of that stuff allowed me to enjoy each moment playing, and just have fun.
I’ve been playing many instruments for over 25 years. Sometimes professionally. My favorite thing to do with them is just explore the sounds they can make. Really listen to the nuance of it. A plucked or strummed string, for example has such a complex waveform. When you get to know how sound works on a physics level, it’s truly amazing.
Drums. I got a used electronic kit, a lower-end Roland model, and only play it for me. I learned the basic rhythms so I can throw some tunes on my headphones and try to play along. More meditation than anything else.
This thing is legit.
Super simple to get pleasant sounds from. Basic melodies just fall out of it. Can’t recommend highly enough.
This brings me back. I hitch-hiked across Canada with a friend who brought one of these. He was meh on the guitar but amazing on this thing, and it was easy to travel with. I learned a few tunes, too. Lots of sitting in back seats, playing for whoever picked us up.
There’s another vote for strumstick. Thanks for the memory.
I played trumpet as a child but desparately craved to learn something else as my musical tastes didn’t really match it - its hard to be interested in playing an instrument when you don’t really like the music you are learning.
Later in life I bought an emotional support bass but I never really found the time or motivation to learn anything more complex than the famous riff from The Chain.
I play ukulele because when I miss a note or get a beat wrong it just makes me laugh because it sounds so silly. I got a banjolele too and that thing is ridiculous, but when it works it sounds awesome.
Guitar mainly, but I can play any of the typical instruments associated with rock/metal.
My favourite thing about the guitar is all the expressive ways you can play a single note. There’s the spectrum of how hard you pick it along with what you use to pick - fingers or plectrum, what angle you attack the string with said pick, vibrato, bend up to the note or down from it, slide into or out of it, etc…
It’s such an expressive instrument. I love it. You can really hear someone’s personality come out in their playing. There truly are endless different ways to play a single song. It all just depends on the choices you make.
Violin for 10 years, and it was fucking hard. It starts sounding decent around year 7-8. Effectively matching the tone of the instrument to the components you buy and pieces you play is a trick too. My violin had a super dark tone, basically only sounded good with new strings (wound only, except for a steel E), which meant it was always sliding out of tune because of the tension. But on the occasions it all came together, it was extremely loud and resonant, and made Bach’s partitas sound pretty awesome.
Viola! I like its range of sound and the fact that we get our own (alto) clef makes me feel special. But you end up playing a lot of lame parts when the violins get all the melodies and solos.
Viola sounds amazing but yes, fun pieces are written for violin.
Do you know any great viola music that is on par with great violin music?
Mozart famously loved violas so he frequently gave them some love and he wrote Sinfonia concertante in E-flat major where they are the star of the show.
Beautiful piece, I can see why you love to play it, too! Must be super fun to bounce back and forth with the violinist and carry the melody.
I think one of my biggest regrets is stopping playing violin. I will pick it back up one day when I have more time, nothing else has brought me the same kind of joy, not even the other instruments I’ve learned over the years.
I play the piano but haven’t touched it in a while. But, at peak, I was playing pretty good since I did it for over 10 years. My favorite thing to do whenever I can bring myself to do it is come up with chords and melodies. I rarely write things down but the ones I do, I turn into electronic music.
I picked up a steel tongue drum out of pure serendipity and I can’t keep my hands off of it. The good quality ones that are hand tuned by an artisan and crafted from the highest quality steel will sound good no matter how you hit it. I started just bopping random notes with mallets, then tapping patterns with my hands, and whatever I do it sounds great and feels zen and beautiful. I don’t really play any songs on it, just patterns, but it’s like the audio version of a warm bubble bath.
There are mass market dinky derpy ones off of Amazon and they’re completely different instruments. If it sounds like a gong or a bell it’s a cheap one. If it sounds like the ethereal thrumming of the deep forest magic it’s a good one.
Over my lifetime I’ve learned to play like 8 or 9 musical instruments, from “can squeak out Mary Had A Little Lamb” on a harmonica to reasonable on the piano. I took band class in middle and high school and was a reasonable trumpet player, though it’s been awhile.
I’m mainly a guitar player. I’ve tended toward 6 string acoustic, finger style. I tend to like the guitar because it can hold up on its own, it can be a solo instrument in a way that a trumpet can’t. Show up to a social gathering with a trumpet, see if you’re allowed to play it, compared to showing up with a guitar.
My favorite piece to play on guitar is probably a solo guitar arrangement of Bon Jovi’s Livin’ On A Prayer. This is what I aim for with it, and I’ve got…most of it, not quite that clean.
I learned in this order: clarinet, trumpet, piano, penny whistle, kalimba, guitar, and harmonica. I don’t actually play most anymore, the joy of music to me is in performance and I was never good or passionate enough about instruments to perform with them.
My favorite always was the trumpet. I love the sound and the feel of it. It’s just got a punch and energy that I haven’t gotten from other instruments. I haven’t played since I was a teen though because it’s just too loud for me to be able to practice without bothering people.
My favorite to play is the acoustic guitar, because it’s largely unchanged for a couple hundred years.
You don’t need to plug it in, just strum or pluck. It’s incredibly versatile, highly portable, and it sounds amazing.
My favorite thing to do is playing chord melodies. Basically, I’ll find chords to a song online and then play part of the chord and the melody on top of it. It’s a quick & dirty way to arrange an instrumental version, though I do like to sing and play too.
