Musical instruments

I learned piano from 6-18 and then resumed back when I was 22 to do my grade 8 exam. I also learned guitar for 9 months and violin for 3 years. Was in the choir for three years too. Wishing to return to singing and guitar soon.

Hi, OP! I wonder how you are doing now. Did you manage to learn to play the violin well?
I am only a beginner here and don’t even have my instrument. Currently, I am looking for a good violin to buy, and I am confused, to be honest. There are so many brands, and I can see so little difference between them, so I am afraid to buy something in not qualitative. Do you know some violin brands to avoid? I’ve heard that some of the Cecilio violins are not worth the money. But what else?
And what brands would you suggest trying? Which one did you pick for yourself when you were a beginner too? Thanks

I play, Guitar, Drums, Bass, Piano, Mandolin, Ukulele, Banjo, Bongos, Harmonica, melodic, 

Music is the best, 

It's a great way to communicate and express you're feelings,  

How are you doing now, OP? Did you make good progress in this area?

Got a good toy from ebay - a Technics synth from the early 80s - always wanted one - I lusted at them in window of the the local music shop back in the day, but couldn't afford one - they were £400 - so I had a cheapo Casio instead.

This thing is a classic analogue polysynth that looks like an old Roland Jupiter and has a string sound just like many more famous synths of the day.

Classic cheese so happy dance.

Has any violinist used the Stentor II? My choice of violin.  

Also, as you know I have only just started, but have read that your choice of bow can improve your playing ability. 

Has anyone used a carbon fibre bow?

Also has anyone ever used an electric violin? Do you plug it into a guitar amp etc.

Any pointers on any aspect of playing would be great. 

Thanks.

I like music, it's my soul mate and keeps me from getting low. No matter what, a song always makes me smile.

My main instrument I play is my violin but I can also play the guitar, piano and organ. I play my violin a lot and take part in our village concerts, my next one is on Christmas Eve. I wear earplugs as well, the sounds can be really uncomfortable.

Good luck with learning to play the violin. It's a hard instrument to play but worth the hard work, I love mine and right now I'm currently trying to master playing My Heart Will Go On.

I'm sorry to hear about your tinnitus. My mum has that as well.

I would like to play piano again but have loud, intrusive tinnitus now. I wondered if anyone has any advice. Can't imagine what, but I thought I'd ask.

I love everything about music. I find it relaxing, inspiring and I love both listening to it and making it!

I can't play any instruments sadly, I've tried the guitar and keyboard but my brain gets really stumped and so far I haven't been able to improve.

But singing is a big passion of mine. I sing nearly every day and to my knowledge, I have a good voice, I don't make people cringe or cry so that's a good start ;) My dad said I when I was a baby I used to rock in my crib to Shakin Stevens so I like to think I was into music even then.

I did used to do church choirs, my deep voice always sounded strange I thought but others liked it. I sang next to a pretty girl I used to like, sadly I stopped going because of my anxiety. I'd love to go again though maybe one day. We used to do choirs on Christmas Eve as well which was so much fun.

My ultimate goal would be to become a proper singer one day =) but for the time being I'm just happy singing and practicing and hopefully getting better.

The Sledge looks interesting - like an old Prophet 5 - although with 3 osc per voice and only 24 osc, you run out of polyphony quickly. (The JD had 4 per voice and 24 osc so only 6-voice poly - like an old Juno)

Yeah - I've not got the mind for creation at the moment. I'll keep the Atari but some of the synths will move on.

I had a go on one of these not long ago. It was pretty nice. It has a classic oscillator in essence, like a Mini Moog, but you can go bonkers if you want. It's not vintage but I liked what I saw. My friend had it doing all sorts.

https://www.thomann.de/gb/studiologic_sledge_b_stock.htm?offid=1&affid=195&utm_source=musicradar&utm_medium=psm

It does come in black too!

Plastic said:

I recently boiught an old Atari and some old kit to try to rejuvinate my creativity but it's not happening. Maybe I've outgrown it.

I remember you saying before about the Atari. I think I commented on my love of Cubase on the ST. It was pretty much perfect for midi sequencing. Quirky at times, but great. You might just be having a dry period, I haven't touched anything musically for a while. I just haven't got the mind for it at the moment. I'll get back to it soon though.

I'm torn - JD800s are now 20 years older than when I had one and, looking at the adverts, they haven't aged well - lots of wear & tear and they suffer from dodgy keyboards. also, I found that you could spend forever tweeking each sound so you never got anything done. I produced more with simpler kit.

I recently boiught an old Atari and some old kit to try to rejuvinate my creativity but it's not happening. Maybe I've outgrown it.

In my yoof I was heavily into things like Dire Straits and I love the electric guitar and it's versatility.

I have a nice Fender Stratocaster Plus in lipstick red that I picked up second hand from a guy near Farnham who was massively into Hank Marvin.  He'd bought one of the Fender Custom Shop Hank Marvin Signature Stratocasters and decided to get rid of the Strat+ because he wasn't using anymore - it wasn't "Hank" enough :-).  I also have a small Vox VT series amp. 

I find I can get a little way into playing but then struggle to maintain the consistent practice that I would need to progress.  In some respects I think the neck on the Strat+ is a bit too big for me, so I've wondered about starting with something smaller, a mandolin or banjo maybe, that might be more within my initial hand-size range, until I built up the dexterity and strength in my hands a bit.  The problem with those being acoustic is that they're load so not really beginner practice friendly to our neighbours!  The great thing about the electric guitar is that it's perfectly loud enough for practice without the amp but you have the facilities of the amp for when you want them.  I made the mistake ages ago of buying a steel string acoustic thinking that might be better for non-amp practice, but boy are they loud! 

The other instrument that I really like is the pedal steel guitar, but I understand with all the levers and pedals they're really hard to play!  I wonder though if using a steel would get around my right hand size/dexterity issues.

The best thing about software is that you aren't running 5 or 6 machines at once, and that you can completely save your work with a click. When I had hardware I'd stay awake for very, very, long periods, just on account of everything being on. If I'd switch it off things might fail on one machine, or lots of other variables.

Yeah, the JD800 does have that sort of analogue thing about it. Lots and lots of sliders! A far cry from the DX7! The A Station was a nice digital synth with an analogue feel. I liked the way that it could do the stuff the Bass Station could do, but it could go into digital stuff. The Bass Station is one I'd like again. Analogue but it had all the sounds I needed bass wise. I've got an emulator of the A Station, it's very good. I loved the feel of the Bass Station though.

If you've got that itch for the JD800, and the cash to spare, it might be good to scratch that itch!

When I was at school I used to play the Trombone in a jazz band always found it difficult to fit in but enjoyed my time in the band fast forward many years I play the guitar but only In my own company jammed with a few people about 6 years ago but struggled with the social aspect.

Accessing patches is the thing that drives me most mad - in the old days where you might have 32 to juggle in your head, I could manage - just one of my current ones has over 1300 so I cannot find the ones I want and I'll probably never hear some of them.

Synth Bass #1 to Synth Bass #436 Yeah, I'm lost - can't remember what I want.

The Roland JD800 was good because you could use all the sliders to create what you want like and old analogue synth and then swap channel and use the sliders on the next sound so it was like having six analogues in one keyboard - very accessible. I should have kept that one.

Plastic said:

Yeah - the infinite world of half-finished work. And when you go back to try to finish them you just can't get into the old groove. They stay unfinished for ever.

I WILL finish them all.......well maybe, it's a depressing thought!

Trogluddite said:

If I don't finish them in a single session, they'll just get left when some other new bonkers idea occurs to me the next day.

Hahaha, it's terrible! I will have everything half done, then think that I hear something in that track, that I can apply to something I abandoned weeks ago. I'll spend a few hours over on another track, then go over to the first one, and because I've got the vibe from the other track in my head totally rearrange that! The beauty of software is that you can at least have multiple save points! Still, you don't get the time back!

Trogluddite said:

Even just inventing ridiculous, punning patch names for my new sounds can keep me entertained longer than it really ought to!

I've got loads of odd patch names! I usually give them a name for the colour or image in my mind. Screechy rust claw, fat linctus, blind heroin jazz, bogus offical, dulux, chest punch, modern sleaze bass, I could go on, but I think you get it! I know what the sounds are straight away though! Even some preset patches on synths are hilarious.

Lolololol, I never find a place for vocal type sounds. Most just end up as something turned way down on the mixer to create an atmosphere. I think the best thing I ever did with a vocal sound was on a proprietry software synth, but put through a filter which more or less made it a screech. PsychoRhodes is a patch I like.