What instruments do you play - play at....

[cajonezzz]

There seem to be an inordinate amount of drummers I have run across that have migrated to engineering /production....
Curious as to the stats here at Gear Slutz.....what do you guys play....wish you played.

I make the lion-share of my living as a drummer/percussionist and hope for the production side of my life to take over the gigs...(sick of the road gigs...wanna start a family) but In my eyes, a "producer" (when i use this term I think Quicy , trevor etc.) should have a really solid handle on at least some instrument (besides drums) not a virtuoso, but be able to communicate, in real musical terms his or her intent. this is an area I feel deficient in....I HEAR the changes/harmony in my head and can hunt and peck them out on a piano/keyboard, but a solid command of the musical vocabulary would be really helpful. i'm a "bang the chords out " guitar player but half the time I'm just moving the shapes around and happening on the occasional cool changes.
I'd be the first to agree that the term Producer can be interpreted pretty broadly these days, but as far as being able to communicate, on a musical level besides "I think you got a better one in you, or " try something different" .....where are you folks at?
Strengths? Weaknesses?

Play - GTR

Wished I could play (in order)

Keyboards
Drums
Saw (with violin bow)
Banjo

[sonic dogg]

...I am, in our live shows, the primary guitarist...i double on banjo and bass.....in the studio i play guitar....i wasa bassist for 20 years before i ever played the guitar so i still get to record on the bass.....i play keys...mostly synth stuff aka big string stacks and arrangement things....i play the musical saw....i play drums...simple stuff...banjo...uke.......i wish i could play the sax even though i can play the clarinet and the tuba i would like to play sax......and the pedal steel............actually ...around here , we try to obtain as many instruments as we can..cause if they lay around long enough someones gonna pick em up and learn a song or two on em.......

[Don]

Guitarist primarily
I started as a Bassplayer{still can play if needed}
I hack on Piano/keys
I wish I could play drums!
One thing that I enjoy is punching up lyrics...

[5down1up]

ive started with drums , accordeon , guitar .

i spend a lot of time with the guitar practicing . takes at least 10 more years to do what i want to . i can hear pretty good , i can read pretty bad . practicing and coming up with musical ideas works pretty good , improvising is my weak point .
right know i am travelling through the real book , that eats all my spare time ( so i should start not to sleep ... hrhrhr ) .

rhodes , trumpet and bass ... for the motown sound , i could die for that . sure i can hit some chords on a rhodes or the bass , but yall know what i mean .

you can play or you can PLAY

the communication with other musicians works pretty good .

if someone in here knows something bout orchestral scoring , i am more than interrested in that ... let us know .

thx

[5down1up]

i call 2 vintage hohner melodicas my own

[Drumsound]

I started life as a percussionist, and still think of it as my instrument(s). If I needed to make a living as a player it would be with percussion. My biggest strengths in percussion are drum-set and hand drums. I'm a good "toys" player as well. My mallet chops have gone to complete shit. I still have a vibraphone, but it gets played more by people who come by the house more than by me.

I can also play guitar, bass and keys. I think this is very helpful. If there's a problem within a song I can grab a guitar off the wall and quickly learn the problem section and come up with a direction to go.

I think the reason that drummer/percussionists make good engineers and producers is because we have to react to and compliment all the other instruments. When I'm playing I usually know everybody's part in my head and I pick and choose what I play along with and what I play against. I am the same way behind the console.

[AgonizingpaiN]

I play the guitar. I'm also the vocalist in my band.

I wish I could play the drums.

[Jay Kahrs]

I started with bass and then moved to guitar but I still play bass from time to time. Most recently it was for a band where the bass player quit right before tracking and nobody else wanted to play it. I've also played a few guitar solos on peoples recordings. I'm also a decent (so I've been told) hack rock drummer. I can play a little bit of piano when forced to. Don't ask me to sing though, I can sing off-note hamony's all day. I'm that third guy who sounds a bit like Tarzan...
:eek:

[5down1up]

2 drumsound :

i never³ met a drummer who could remember a 4 minute song without rehearsing for years .

" well , i need to write the kicks down " grggt

but i am impressed that a lot of you are playing instruments .

over here , people who just love doing music are hard to find .

either they cant play and are funny , or they can play and are screwed up ... or they want to produce a hit from the first note you are playing .

any sessions you guys played i can listen to ???

[Tim L]

First love is guitar... more acoustic these days than electric (I go through phases). I also dabble a bit on bass, mostly for songwriting demos (I even built one). The piano gets tickled once in a while, also the bodhrain. I've recently picked up the recorder, zither (got absolutely no clue on this thing but it's fun), and I play a mean triangle and shaker . I would love to be able to play the violin some day!

[Dave Martin]

I've been a bassist for a long, long time - primarily electric, though I do the occasional upright gig. I'm starting to think, though, that I either need to play more or quit calling myself a musician...

[jeronimo]

Drums!!!

[chrisso]

Drums againyuktyy

Don't know why so many drummers are on this forum.
We're probably all half deaf.
Drummers are also labelled the stupid, lazy and inept ones in the band. See the various drum tuning threads on gearslutz and recpit.
I also play keyboards which is a bonus when understanding chords and melody etc.
Wish I could play guitar.....looks like fun.
The only good drummers I know who've gone into production are Chris Hughes and Steve Jordan.

[joeq]

add another drummer- rock jazz blues country Latin Irish- you name it, I'm there

to save money on soundtracks and jingles I also play guitar, bass and keys in the studio, where I can punch my mistakes, but for live performances I stick to the sticks

Am I a musician first or a studio guy first? When it comes time to check that box on the free subscription form that says 'only one' or 'primary' I never know what to do.

So are there more gearslut drummers than other instruments? Maybe it's because guitarists and keyboardists can buy a lot of electronic GEAR to go with their instruments, and drummers just have stuff made of wood and brass.

[cram]

Eeeeeee! Surrounded by drummers! rollz

Passable @:

Guitar, Bass, Vocals.

I fumble embarrassingly @:

Stick, Keys, Drums.

Absolute Expert @:

Butt Trumpet, Fallopian Tuba.
:) yuktyy

[jajjguy]

Mainly cello, which i've studied since before i could read&write, and on which i've played all kinds of music. I also played guitar pretty seriously for a while, and i still play it on my own stuff, but i don't advertise myself as a guitarist. Same with bass. I'll do a backing vocal if asked, and i do sing on my own stuff, but i wouldn't say i'm any good.

When i was more of a guitarist, my quest for the perfect tone was mainly about amps and axes. But as a cellist it's all about the acoustic tone, and i can't afford to have more than one ax (they're expensive), so it becomes more about room and mic, etc.

Since someone asked, I know a little about orchestral scoring, but only from playing in orchestras -- i've never written for such a large group.

[studjo]

Guitar player here! I read and write fluently music (more or less ). But recently I'm practicing my bass playing. I like it very much (I'm a really bad fretless player but I love it).
I know how to hit a drum set but not good enough for serious recording - the same with keys (thank Good for sequencers).

Where have all the guitarplayers gone?
Cheeers Jo

[7rojo7]

It all started on drums, piano lessons, then there were alot of drummers and it wasn't fun anymore. So I moved to Bass, which no one else seemed to want to play. In school I still played the xylophone and attended electronic music class.
When I went to college I did the audition for guitar and passed. I studied guitar, bass and vocals. Learned the ranges and capabilities of all orchestral instruments. Finished. Fell in love with british rock and soul fusion and started a cover band on that basis. Bought a fostex R8 and some shit ass cheap board, a DX7, a juno 106 and a simmons SDS6 & SDS7 and got interested in recording and renting my equipment and skills.
Later developments included avante garde jazz punk pop fusion and a proper education in audio recording tehniques. I left a secure job in the duplication business and searched for a job as an assistant, which I finally found and have been recording ever since. I've also been composing, recording and directing for theater dance and television, looking to move on, etc...

[bassmac]

Bass • Guitar • Drums • Keys • Vocals

Getting them to all sound good together is why I hang here.

PS: My main bass is still my blue P-Bass I bought new 1975. :eek:

[chrisso]

Originally posted by bassmac
Bass • Guitar • Drums • Keys • Vocals
Getting them to all sound good together is why I hang here.

You must have the arms and legs of an Octopus

[Knox]

Guitar. I hardly ever play anymore.
It sucks I have some great old vintage guitars, I pull them out and get pissed off that I let it get to this.

Here is an old J200 acoustic I have had forever.

[malice]

Bass gtr : rather well

Gtr, hand perc : fair

Keys, dms and stick perc : with a lot of editing :)

and not everything at the same time, I'm not an octopus

malice

[Knox]

Originally posted by malice

Keys, dms and stick perc : with a lot of editing :)
malice

That's not fair . . I play a lot of things . . "with a lot of editing". :)

[mandiil]

Started out with drum and piano lessons at young age, went over to play guitar and bass when i was about 14.
Nodays i consider myself equal skilled bass and guitarplayer and can manage playing keyboard and drums as well to make my point out in a studio to real drummers/keyboardist.

/M

[Knox]

Originally posted by Kent
Knox, I may have to kill you for that J200:) How does it sound recorded? I've got a gorgeous Takamine but it tends to sound a bit bass-heavy; fingered or picked.

It sounds unbelievable! It really does. I never was a finger picking guy per se, though I did 'some', many years ago . . more a strummer on acoustic, and that is probably what it is best at. That's the only acoustic I have . . . it's the only one I ever needed or wanted for that matter. Have had other acoustics . . . but they couldn't hold their own next to it. I honestly have never heard one that sounded better then that one in particular. I'm a lucky guy to have it. Glad you appreciate it. I certainly do.

I have a few special (to me anyway) guitars like that (though not quite THAT special). I have an old as shit Les Paul Junior that sounds incredible (Leslie West). An old orange Gretsch 6120 that kicks ass. Some others. I need to play more. Just don't have the time.

[malice]

Originally posted by Knox
That's not fair . . I play a lot of things . . "with a lot of editing". :)

I love to cheat

[Midlandmorgan]

Another guitarist here... most of my live calls are for telecaster stuff...most studio calls (my own and for hire dates) are for acoustics... 1st instrument and still favorite is electric bass...

Wishing I could play pedal steel and fiddle...I tried both at one time or another, and the resulting cacaphony sounded like someone picking up a cat with a pair of hot vise grips...but I can still wish...

[Dave Martin]

I think that some folkks are stretching the difinition of 'play' to include everything that they've actually put on tape (or hard disk). I mean, I've put various and sundry keyboard parts, guitar parts, percussion parts, autoharp, harmonica, and even mando, dobro, and banjo parts on recordings, but I consider myself a bassist. I don't play all those other things, even though I've made noise with them in the studio. And I will say that in the last 10 years, my voice has only been part of a finished track 3 times. And one of those was later removed. Some things are better left unheard...


How about asking it this way - what instruments to you feel comfortable charging at least union scale to play, knowing that you're skills are worth that price? Or what instruments would you feel good about playing in a room full of knowledgable musicians?

[chrisso]

Originally posted by Dave Martin

How about asking it this way - what instruments to you feel comfortable charging at least union scale to play, knowing that you're skills are worth that price? Or what instruments would you feel good about playing in a room full of knowledgable musicians?

Oh come on!
That counts out even my main instrumenttut
Especially the bit about a room full of knowledgeable musicians.........nightmare