i can play:
Guitar
Bowed guitar
Bass
Keyboard/piano
Drums
Percussion
Electronics
Ukulele
Violin (i'm not very good but i'm learning)
Glockenspiel
Melodica
Xylophone
Auto-harp (only play chords)

and i want to learn Saxophone, Trumpet, Banjo, Celtic Harp, Cello, Lap Steel, and Kalimba

i play bass clarinet, and regular clarinet.
My summer project is to teach myself the alto saxophone, so far ive picked up a few tunes!
I've got an electric guitar but it hasnt quite stuck yet!

What do you people consider playing an instrument? Knowing 3 chords or having much experience and theory under your belt.

Just playing really...you dont need the theory or much experiance to be able to play an instrument...if you can play with just a few notes [or just play without knowing the notes, like me and the sax!] then you can play. Thats what i believe anyway...and who's to judge..if you enjoy it then go for it!

in my view being able to 'play' an instrument requires both a balance of technical ability and artistic sensibilities.

to simply own the instrument and have the ability to create sound from it is NOT the same as playing the instrument - since absolutely anyone can do this regardless of talent or ability. also adding an effect is not the same as a different instrument (see: idiots who credit themselves as playing 'fuzz bass').

i own a junk clarinet and if i fixed it up (which last time i checked would cost double what i paid for it in the first place), i could technically play it to create random atmospheric sounds for a recording. but i'd never say i could play the clarinet unless i knew i had the ability to hold a tune with that instrument as well as technical knowledge of the function of its parts.

at the same time if all you know is the theoretical knowledge of how the notes correlate into scales, and how the scales fit into modes, and how modes meld into keys, and blah, blah blah, blah, blah blah blah.

ultimately - you need to know the rules before you can break the rules; and you're not going to learn the rules unless you learn the basics of traditional methods; and you're not going to truly grasp traditional methods enough to truly create your own style if you haven't developed more than the most basic rudimentary techniques on the instrument.

Thats definitely a good way of looking at it. Thats why I have a a hard time seeing someone say I have a list like this :
"Guitar
Bowed guitar
Bass
Keyboard/piano
Drums
Percussion
Electronics
Ukulele
Violin (i'm not very good but i'm learning)
Glockenspiel
Melodica
Xylophone
Auto-harp (only play chords)"

Not that one person could not learn all those but your spreading yourself so thin I doubt any deeper understanding could come from them all.

actually it was only hard learning a few the others have the same basics

like for example knowing guitar helps with learning any other stringed instrument like the bass, ukulele or the violin

another example learning the keyboard helps with midi mapping, glockenspiel, melodica, or anyother keyed instrument i can play basics on pretty much any instrument except brass and woodwind (melodica is an exception to this) and a deeper understanding well that's determined by the individual not by someone who lives hundreds of miles away and barely knows me. what i believe is if you can improvise "well" on an instrument you can play it and use it in songs. i can improvise on the guitar i know every note, ukulele is easy to improvise as well but i just have to remind myself the tuning is in different relatives, the keyboard is very easy to improvise in fact most of my songs started out as simple improvisations.

oh and don't say i don't have a connection to my instruments i do i've actually fallen asleep playing guitar (luckily i wasn't on top of it)

oh and i'd like to add one more instrument to my want to play list drum machines i've only programmed drums through software like FL Studio and GarageBand but since i'm starting to delve into the performance area i've music i'm deicding to use my laptop less

I play guitar, but I'm a frustrated piano player. Just didn't have the money as a teenager to buy one, and now I'm in need of an extra room for all the guitars I own!

Been playing acoustic guitar for about a year, and electric for three months. I'm not particularly good, but I make leaps of progress every couple of months. Still struggling with barre chords, though.

yes and no.

i don't really want to crap on stone birds for his list but i definitely agree with you for the most part.

i'm kind of torn at listing different techniques as a new instrument. i own both a violin bow and an ebow, but i don't say i play bowed guitar, it's just a technique i use randomly and ends up under the greater umbrella of being a guitarist without limits.

on the other hand if bowing was my predominant method of choice by a large margin then i'd list it - like Ben Harper and his slide.

also, listing every variation on an instrumental possibility makes it look like you're compensating for something. like when June of '44 listed 'bathtub, stair railing, cupboards, kitchen table, sink, pipes' and other furniture as instruments on one of their albums because they used field recordings of themselves beating on random crap in an old house to use in one of their tracks. it wasn't a horrible track either, but it left a bad taste in my mouth, as all it served was their ego and its attempts at making them seem more special than all the other 'generic' musicians who stuck to just using actual traditional instruments.