Instrumental Indecision Crisis
 

I've been through a couple of instruments, and I can't seem to find my niche.

Age 11, got an acoustic guitar. Dreamed of being Johnny Cash. Found out I can't rightly work the frets.
Age 15, got an electric. Figured, hey, maybe I can play this easier. Was wrong.
At 17, tried keyboards briefly, again not having nimble fingers is a hindrance.
18, I got my first bass. I fell in love, played it all the time.
Lately, I've fallen out of love with bass. I hoped that getting a new one would change anything, but I'm sure it won't now.
While at Guitar Center last night, I listened to all the guys trying out different istruments and I felt, well, inadequate. Discouraged, even.

I wasn't discouraged by their skill, moreso by the fact that they found their instrument, and I hadn't.
Practice makes perfect, I understand this, but I can't practice something that I can't fall in love with.
It's a matter of interest over talent.

I know I have some kind of music in my soul, but I just can't find it.

Currently, I have a harmonica, which I'll say I'm playing fairly well, but my heart just isn't in it, nor is my interest.

I'm posting this to all of you, looking for suggestions or even like stories.
Above everything else, I'm at a loss for what direction to head.

Care to lend a hand or drop some knowledge?

I think the flute is a fine and underrated instrument. ;)

You can even get them quite cheap, either second hand or - there are some made cheap in countries like China.

Sounds to me like your problem is practice, not instrument. Nobodies fingers can do anything on guitar when they first start to play. Hell, I think most people I know agree I'm a good guitar player. Certainly a couple of people have mentioned I'm the best they know, but when I picked it up I was tone deaf and I had to use my right hand to literally FORCE my fingers into chord shapes. The fluidity and so on only came with extensive practice. Now I'm going on 10 years strong. I didn't begin to make anything remotely musical until I'd played at LEAST 4 months, playing most days.

^True, any instrument requires practice. Even those little eggs with sand in them. Some level of patience and sticking-with-it is obviously required and before you reach some level of skill, it might not be all you thought it was cracked up to be.

:)

I realise I'll need practice, but I can't do it if I'm not happy with it.

Also, I thought about flute earlier, but I'm not sure it's for me. I'll give it a try at some point, I just can't see myself playing.

I was thinking of looking into a fiddle or violin, but I realise they go back to my poor dexterity.

Drums are a lot of fun, even from the start, but unless you're rich and have a lot of space and live someplace people will put up with it .. it may not be the most practical thing to pick up.

Practice, practice, practice.

End of story.

I've been playing guitar for years now. And the reason I'm not good is cause I don't practice.

I've already said I get the practice part.

And again, why practice on something you don't love?
I'm in it for more than looking cool.

That's why I posted all this, in hopes my horizons would be broadened to new instruments.

Ukulele... a good one will cost you 50 bones and if you're already familar with the guitar it's pretty easy to pick up. I'd recommend the Lanikai LU-21.

Have you ever tried the clarinet? Cheap, easy to learn, and it lends itself well to different styles of music.

The use of the flute in genres like rock is underrated. I guess because the instrument was not intended to play that type of music!

I sold my first flute to a beginner student for $100, which is a steal considering it was evaluated at $400. I kept it in good condition.

They are relatively cheap. That depends on one's definition of "cheap." My first flute, a beginner's flute, was $600 Canadian. I wouldn't have a clue about how many Euros that is :) The flute that I have now cost $2500. It's an intermediate level flute! I've seen the real professional ones go up to $16,000...

JETHRO TULL.


Anyway - Tyrant, we're giving you a hard time on the practice thing because its something we've all seen before, as musicians, and we know that a lot of young musicians will pick it up, and they'll make an effort, and try, but they'll only do it for a month or two. Or they'll do it for a long time, but they'll never get anywhere because they only practice maybe once a week, and it becomes something they don't like doing purely because they arent any good at it. The thought process goes from 'lets try this' and more towards 'I've been doing this for ages why aren't I good?'

And lets not forget multiinstrumentalists. The fact is, in my opinion, nobody has an instrument that is 'their instrument', its all a matter of the willingness to do what it takes to learn properly. Even a guitarist who practices regularly for a whole year will sound comparitively awful next to someone who has done it for 3, and that IS discouraging to some people, and it leads to one of two things. Either dropping the instrument, or in some cases, developing a level of scorn towards those people who are technically more skilled. (IE, Punks reaction to glam excess and technical musicianship) For me, it was a drive to get that good, and keep going after that.

I got me a bran new flute which was 1100 NOKs which is about ~190 USD :) I got it from a guy who imported instruments from China. He even drove to the biological institute and delivered it in person! It's probably not the best flute out there, but it was new and I'm happy with it - great for practice!

Stuff like that is usually very expensive in Norway and I was expecting to pay a lot more for a new instrument. I was quite surprised at the price and I'm sure you could get it even cheaper in America where there's more competition in the market.

I also had the choice of buying second hand flutes, but most of the ones I found were a bit nobby with gold details and so on so they were usually a bit more expensive, but still not bad. 100 dollars for a 400 dollar flute sounds like the student got a bargain :)

I would also suggest the drums, since you seemed to like the bass more than the rest of the instruments you tried, I would try sticking to percussion.

Apparently practice isn't his problem.

Just his ability to stay with one instrument.

So many people mention this idea of "finding your instrument." The idea that you will try many instruments, and finally you'll pick up one particular one that just clicks with you and you have 'found' the instrument that you are apparently meant to play forever.

I don't think it works like this. I have dabbled in many instruments but I don't think I have one particular 'one' that suits me. Usually the ones that I am better at are the ones that I tend to practice more!

Sometimes I also find that if I hit a plateau in my learning I often get the same dejected feeling you seem to have... I feel that I am not very good and feel unmotivated to play or learn more. The key to getting that enthusiasm back is to just keep practicing and trying until you master a new technique for example and feel that buzz again.

That would actually be interesting...

I may look into the flute, but I don't know if I can see myself dropping 300-600 on an instrument I'm unsure of.

I can understand this, maybe I just romanticized the idea of a "soul Instrument"..but even so, I feel a certain degree of disgust when I pick up my guitar. I'm just extremely unwilling to even practice on it.
Maybe I should stick with the harmonica, at the very least, I enjoy playing and practicing it.

I may look into them in the future, but as of right now, space and money are quite limited.

Pretty much the nail on the head here. I don't mind putting the time in to practice, I just really haven't found a comfort zone outside the harmonica.

multi-quote win.

You guys have really helped so far, thanks so much.

this a hundred time over.

go with what you like, not with what you feel you need to do. playing music is about expression, if you don't enjoy a particular instrument anymore then don't play it. it's not like the knowledge you've gained from playing it in the past is erased if you don't play it in the future.

besides, if you want to play in a band eventually you'll have WAY more options as a multi-instrumentalists that someone who can't do anything besides play guitar (like the other dozen potential band members)

That's how I am, as well. My main instrument is the one I spent the most time with.

...you haven't tried singing yet? if you believe music's in your souls, what better way to express it with your own voice? and i suggest trying other art forms too, you might be surprised.

My experience with choosing instruments was a little different than Lateralus's, so I will share it, TyrantSong.

When I was 8 I heard a friend playing violin and I loved the sound and so asked my parents for lessons, which I had (Suzuki Method...great!) all though high school. I have continued to play the violin for many years after graduation! I always liked the violin more than the clarinet, which I learned to play through public schools. I also had university lessons on clarinet during high school, so I took it seriously and practiced clarinet as much as violin...actually more than the violin. However, I loved the violin whereas I just *liked* the clarinet, one reason being that, well, I just never really liked the sound of the clarinet as much. Plus, you stick something in your mouth. It feels a little invasive to me. And I don't like old stinky, wet saliva-soaked reeds. Yech.

In retrospect I wish during high school I would have played the flute because I loved the way the flute sounded, but some adult in 5th grade said my lips "weren't suited to the flute" when we got to try out and pick our future band instrument. I have a flute now to belatedly fulfill that unfulfilled flute dream of childhood! (Great instrument, Burning Down and Toretorden!)

Today my main instrument (which I've played 33 years...eegads!) is the violin, yet I must admit that after all these years it seems kind of "ho-hum" to me. It is like an old friend. I love the smell of it. It is a very personal instrument. I enjoy playing...the feeling of the vibrations. I don't feel excited to play it, though, and somehow I'm not inspired to practice it much...I do what I need to play orchestral music, but don't spend time with it beyond that.

Then, I tried acoustic guitar and decided to get an electric guitar earlier this year (an instrument I had *never* thought of playing during most of my life)...and for me this instrument felt, suddenly, *very right.* I like the electric guitar partly because as an instrument with strings it feels familiar since I'm so used to the violin. Partly I like the electric guitar because it seems so versatile. There are probably also deeper psychological reasons.

So, if you find yourself repelled from some instrument, for whatever reason, as others like Mr. Dave said I recommend avoiding that instrument. I have very different feelings about the instruments I play; each brings out different feelings in me. For me playing different instruments is kind of like speaking different languages. I grew up speaking English and learned German as a second language, and, oddly, feel more "me" when speaking German (though I'm out of practice now and have forgotten a lot, sigh). I feel German words capture the essence of the meaning of objects and actions more than English words do. Similarly, to me the electric guitar feels more immediate and emotional than the violin, which in turn gives me a stronger "vibe" than the clarinet.

I think it is great you are trying so many instruments so that you can become decently able to make the music you want with many of them. You'll probably just have to discover through trial and error whether you are someone for whom (like me) one instrument will "click," or someone who can (like Lateralus describes) feel equally glad playing and practicing a variety of different instruments with the preferred one being the one that is practiced most.

The first instrument I ever tried learning was the piano, and I have enjoyed it very much since. I guess it just "stuck with me". Recently I have been picking up guitar which, if anything, I seem to connect to even more than the piano. But I don't believe I could have achieved this love of instruments without the teachers I had and have. If you find yourself enjoying an instrument but struggling to get it playing right, I would definitely seek out a teacher. Be careful though, I've been lucky but others I know have gotten teachers that don't know anything.

I think that most of the people on this thread would agree that they never really found an instrument that 'clicked' (with the exception of vegangelica). i agree; playing music IS about expression, but how can you do that if you drop the instrument at the sight of obstacles? if you stay determined, you'll realized that the fun of music comes out of being good.

you might argue that the "right" instrument for you will give you the motivation to practice, but that's not true. Studies show (you can search this up if you'd like) that even professionals dislike practicing just as much as beginners...but professionals succeed because they have the will to do it. And if they're good, then they have the motivation to continue because, like i mentioned, the fun comes out of being good.

for example, I took private piano lessons for eight years...i hated it. even to this day, i experience a slight dread for tuesdays because that's when i used to have piano lessons. finally, i quit lessons....YET, i play and love piano more than ever! I play to relax, to have fun, to express myself. i love it!

i also play the flute and vibraphone. i dabbled in trumpet but stopped not because i didn't love it but because it would ruin my embouchure for flute. even so, none of these instruments 'clicked for me'. i love all of them, but i enjoy the most the ones that i'm better at.

My advice to you is to think it over for a bit. research. then...pick an instrument. just pick it, dedicate, and PROMISE to yourself not to get discouraged. dabble a little in some other instruments, but realize that for any instrument, the initial thrill of learning them will eventually wear off, and you will be left only to your own WILL to learn. not only will you become great at an instrument...but you'll also be teaching yourself a great life skill: dedication.

:) i hope this helped!

Listen to this^^. I was once like you(orig poster) I started playing guitar at 14 and then gave up because it was too hard.I started again in May of this year(now im 25)and actually tried and practiced this time.Till now I learned about 43 chords all the notes on the fret and I love playing now,its an addiction. I just learned 13 major scales too.Just dont give up,be patient.

The guitar > all.

Bass and drums are okay, but to really appreciate them, you need to play them with people in a band.

A guitar, it's fun to practice.

Banging away at drums on your own would get tedious, many drummers I know say they don't practice when they're alone, they have to have someone there, jamming with them.

Where as with a guitar, you can just play it, and play your favourite riffs after you've learnt them, I picked up a guitar a while ago and liked the idea of it but never got into it, then one day I just thought I want to play guitar, and now I do and it feels right, I've fallen in love with the guitar.

So you're saying that you can't appreciate a drummer or bassist without hearing them with someone else? That's horribly ignorant.

^ Agreed... if you think that drums and bass need the guitar to make them sound good then you've obviously never heard a good drummer or bassist.

But if you listen to ANY drummer, you can tell that if they were better, whatever they were playing would be pretty sick.

And bass is just amazing on it's own. xD

Chili Dawg
 

A good example of instrumental production is on the recording Chili Dawg by David Grisham, the playing of the instruments is super and very professional. Find and listen to music by this artist at: songlist.net Chili Dawg is at; Chili Dawg by David Grisman:pssst:

I didn't read everything in this thread, but maybe you should try bassoon. It really sounds great, kind of medieval sound. Or sax, wonderful instrument.

In response to the original topic:
In my experience, I had to learn to love the bass. When I was a kid, there would be times where I really didn't want to play the bass. I wanted to play drums. I guess you could describe it like a relationship you might have with another person. It doesn't have to be love/hate, but there are ups and downs. But 15 years down the road, I'm happy now for the time I was forced to put in when I was younger. Dedication is a cornerstone to the foundation of any musician's ability. Sometimes you might not want to play, and it helps to have someone or some inspiration around to help keep you interested.