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What instrument should I play?
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I've been playing guitar since I was 7, and I am now 18. If you are worried about your fingers, start out with lower guage strings. Acoustic strings are generally tougher on you than electric strings. It was never a problem for me. Just take it slow and don't expect to be playing like SRV after 3 days ( he played on .13 guage strings, aka insane for an electric blues player.) He also used bass frets.
People think guitar is easy to learn, because it is easy to make your fingers play some sort of resemblence to "Smells like Teen Spirit" in a short amount of time. However, your rhythm will more likely be sub par. Rhythm is not stressed enough in guitar playing. People want to be able to solo like Jimi way to early and never develop rhythm skills. Becoming a good rhythm player before becoming a good soloist will make you an incredible lead guitar player once you focus on it.
I personally wished I learned how to play the saxophone as well as guitar, because I love jazz almost as much as rock n roll. I was always jealous of the solos the sax players would whip out at our jazz band concerts. Being a guitar player, you are almost expected to play rock, and without focus, most guitar players never learn or get into jazz. My solos in concerts would always be way to bluesy. I vote that you learn how to play rhytm guitar really well, which shouldn't be that hard if you really wanna play acoustic well. Later learn how to solo on an electric guitar and pick up that sax, coltrane.
Never really done Pop rock guitar. But as a flamenco player, if you aren't on par with the rythim you really are terrible. I watch alot of videos of random people playing pieces. Majority of them you can sense in their hand motion that they are inexperienced. They may play the piece just fine, but the stiffness of their hands gives it away.
anyways, just wanted to support your comment about rythm being important.
I played sax for years in Jr. High and High School. And I've been playing guitar since I was 12. Believe me, sax is easier. However, I quit playing the sax my junior year (despite being offered a scholarship for my sax abilities) because it's so gay. Have been playing guitar ever since. Much cooler.
If your dream is to be in a late-80's pop cover band (seems that actors-turned-singers had lots of sax in their songs: Patrick Swayze, Don Johnson, Bruce Willis), then by all means, play sax.
If your dream is to be in a late-80's pop cover band (seems that actors-turned-singers had lots of sax in their songs: Patrick Swayze, Don Johnson, Bruce Willis), then by all means, play sax.
L
Lola
I think knowing how to play guitar would be most versitle and useful.
There is not one girl out there that would not love to be serenaded with a guitar 😀
Do guitar!
There is not one girl out there that would not love to be serenaded with a guitar 😀
Do guitar!
CraKaJaX
Lifer
I've been playing drums for ~12 years and just started guitar last Christmas. I can say that to play drums you need a big space and your surroundings must be able to tolerate it. Obviously you can't play drums in an apartment building or in the bedroom of a house. I think that drums is easier to start out with, except more expensive. To play guitar you need to toughen your fingers, and when you start playing you can only play for so long until your fingers can't handle it anymore. Drums you can play however long you want. The upside of a guitar is that you can play whenever and wherever you want, being midnight in an apartment building. Acoustic can be pretty loud if you are really playing, but it's fun to practice on and toughen your fingers on. With an electric you can plug headphones into an amp and play as loud as you want with no one complaining. Anyway, as for the poll... most fun for me is drums. Most cool sounding is guitar... with some pedals and a sweet amp of course 😀
slugg
Diamond Member
I'll say this about drums.
First off, it's the one instrument that EVERYONE likes. If you ever meet someone that doesn't like drums, there is most likely something wrong with them.
Now in terms of how easy it is to learn... It's very easy to fool the average person into thinking you're good on drums. Past that, it's pretty hard to get good at drums - definitely one of the harder instruments to master. To impress another drummer, you've got to really practice, know your stuff, and excell in technique and quality of sound. Others will argue that drums are easier because you don't need to know notes/pitches. It's true that you don't need to know notes/pitches, but there's an entirely separate spectrum of music theory when it comes to non-pitched percussion. While you don't have to worry about that stuff, you DO need to worry about permutations, technique, stick heights, stick placement, a whole lot more I'm not mentioning, and most of all TIMING. Any other instrument gets away with a bad sense of time, but as a drummer, you have to be PERFECT (if you want to be good, anyways). Perfect time is harder to develop than perfect pitch.
Another reason why people think that drumming is easy to start out with is because they neglect the CORRECT way to play. 99% of the beginner drummers I see are self taught, playing with poor technique, sound, and time. The average joe can't tell the difference between good and bad technique, good and bad sound, and most people have a pretty loose sense of time. When someone asks me what instrument they should play, I look at their sense of time. If its good, I say drums. If its bad, I say lead guitar or vocals 😉. Anyways, it IS NOT easy to play with correct technique, get a good sound, and play with good time. Even the simplest of beats can be very complicated when considering technique, sound, and tempo. Most people just throw those out the window and say its easy.
And as for the people who say that you dont need to know how to read music... Those are the same people who fail auditions, sound like garbage on their instrument, and look really dumb in front of real musicians. Nomatter what you play, even drums, learn your music theory! It pays off BIG TIME! There's extra stuff for drums, such as rudiments, stick movements, grips, and the music is written differently. If you show a guittarrist a snare solo, he won't know how to read it. I promise 😛
There's also different spectrums of drumming. There's drum set for a rock band, drum set for a jazz band, drum set for marching bands (not too common), marching drums, auxiliary percussion, and mallets (if you want to count that). Out of all the commonly known instruments, drums definitely take the most self discipline to learn and play correctly.
Drums are very expensive... but at least I just gave you $.02 🙂
First off, it's the one instrument that EVERYONE likes. If you ever meet someone that doesn't like drums, there is most likely something wrong with them.
Now in terms of how easy it is to learn... It's very easy to fool the average person into thinking you're good on drums. Past that, it's pretty hard to get good at drums - definitely one of the harder instruments to master. To impress another drummer, you've got to really practice, know your stuff, and excell in technique and quality of sound. Others will argue that drums are easier because you don't need to know notes/pitches. It's true that you don't need to know notes/pitches, but there's an entirely separate spectrum of music theory when it comes to non-pitched percussion. While you don't have to worry about that stuff, you DO need to worry about permutations, technique, stick heights, stick placement, a whole lot more I'm not mentioning, and most of all TIMING. Any other instrument gets away with a bad sense of time, but as a drummer, you have to be PERFECT (if you want to be good, anyways). Perfect time is harder to develop than perfect pitch.
Another reason why people think that drumming is easy to start out with is because they neglect the CORRECT way to play. 99% of the beginner drummers I see are self taught, playing with poor technique, sound, and time. The average joe can't tell the difference between good and bad technique, good and bad sound, and most people have a pretty loose sense of time. When someone asks me what instrument they should play, I look at their sense of time. If its good, I say drums. If its bad, I say lead guitar or vocals 😉. Anyways, it IS NOT easy to play with correct technique, get a good sound, and play with good time. Even the simplest of beats can be very complicated when considering technique, sound, and tempo. Most people just throw those out the window and say its easy.
And as for the people who say that you dont need to know how to read music... Those are the same people who fail auditions, sound like garbage on their instrument, and look really dumb in front of real musicians. Nomatter what you play, even drums, learn your music theory! It pays off BIG TIME! There's extra stuff for drums, such as rudiments, stick movements, grips, and the music is written differently. If you show a guittarrist a snare solo, he won't know how to read it. I promise 😛
There's also different spectrums of drumming. There's drum set for a rock band, drum set for a jazz band, drum set for marching bands (not too common), marching drums, auxiliary percussion, and mallets (if you want to count that). Out of all the commonly known instruments, drums definitely take the most self discipline to learn and play correctly.
Drums are very expensive... but at least I just gave you $.02 🙂
rbV5
Lifer
I'd go with a guitar with your bad ankle and all, and priors with the Sax. The guitar is portable, and you can practice in silence. There are tremendous amount of resources for guitar on the net, and you'll be strumming to tunes you know in short order.
Callouses on the fingertips may help with your typing overall, but may impair it until they are well formed...practice will take care of them pretty quick if you are consistant with your playing.
That said, I have guitars, a couple of drum sets and 2 alto sax's at home and only play the guitar presently (I've played for nearly 4 decades now) I'd like to tackle the drums and sax someday......
Callouses on the fingertips may help with your typing overall, but may impair it until they are well formed...practice will take care of them pretty quick if you are consistant with your playing.
That said, I have guitars, a couple of drum sets and 2 alto sax's at home and only play the guitar presently (I've played for nearly 4 decades now) I'd like to tackle the drums and sax someday......
theprodigalrebel
Lifer
How about the piano? No love for Elton John or Stevie Wonder? I am just average but it is nice to impress the ladies (or the gf) at a bar or a dull party.
That is, until the long-haired dude with the guitar shows up :|
That is, until the long-haired dude with the guitar shows up :|
CptObvious
Platinum Member
I went with the guitar in high school, but if I was doing it over I would have gone with the drums.
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