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Multi Talented....


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I started out on guitar 40 years ago. I've dabbled with flute, bodhran (is that a musical instrument :P ) mandolin, fiddle and now the English concertina. I would call the fiddle my main instrument. The Ec playing is not going very well atm because the fiddle is a jealous mistress and demands a lot of attention to keep the standard up.

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Banjo and concertina. Does it count that I own a piano, bass fiddle, a low d whistle and a bodhran (which is safely hung on the wall)? Thought not.

 

I don't know if Stuart Estell still checks in with us from time to time. Multi-talented instrumentalist extrodinare who a created and perfected playing techniques for the electric fence post ;) .

Edited by Mark Evans
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Like Martyn, I took up guitar 40 years ago. Was given a fiddle when I was 18 and played that for Morris dancing for many years. Started playing melodeon in 1980 and continued until May this year when it got part-exchanged for an Anglo concertina!

 

Sum total of instruments now owned: 1 acoustic guitar, 1 electric, 1 bass, a concertina, a fiddle, and a bodhran (which is of course a musical instrument but not necessarily when I play it). I've also got a tin whistle or two somewhere but prefer not to talk about it... ;)

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I started out in elementary school with clarinet and didn't move beyond that until college when I got into the American folk music scene and took up banjo, then guitar and fiddle (which I gave up after 6 years as being too difficult). Somewhere in there I also started playing piano (and restoring player pianos) and squeezeboxes (and started restoring them). I quickly focused on button accordions and then concertinas.

 

After 20 years of playing the "mixed bag" of instruments I discovered that I wasn't going to get better than mediocre on any of them so limited myself to just two: the piano and concertina which I've now played exclusively for about 18 years... though I'd really like to take on the Array Mbira.

 

-- Rich --

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I'd really like to take on the Array Mbira.

 

I love the sound those "Thumb Pianos" make. A few years back, Micheal O'Suilleabhain presented a TV series about Irish music called "River of Sound". At the end of the last programme, an ensemble of musicians played a piece of epic proportions, employing a combination of Irish Trad, jazz and African instruments and sounds. I'm pretty certain that one of the African musicians was playing a Mbira.

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I started out on banjo 40 years ago then switched to guitar. About five years ago I tried to learn the fiddle and quickly realized that to get good enough to be happy with the results would be more work than I had time for at my age so.....I took up the english concertina. I will be forever grateful to Wim Wakker for making available a good quality beginner instrument for $300. I am quite sure I would never have learned the concertina without the Jackie.

 

Oh, I also have a bodhran hanging on the wall....

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bodhran
bodhran (which is safely hung on the wall)?
a bodhran (which is of course a musical instrument but not necessarily when I play it)
Oh, I also have a bodhran hanging on the wall....

I'm starting to notice a theme here....maybe I need to buy a bodhran (don't know what one is)to hang on the wall? ;)

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I've played a violin since I was 6, so fiddle is now probably my main instrument, though EC currently gets more playing time. I also have and either have played or still play: a 10 course lute, a theorbo, mandolin, octave mandolin, viola d'amore, dulcimer, tabor pipe, doumbek, kit fiddle, and a Crane duet.

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I'm starting to notice a theme here....maybe I need to buy a bodhran (don't know what one is)to hang on the wall?

 

I was in the pub when I realised I had left my bodhran on the back seat of my unlocked car. I dashed out but it was too late, there were already three other bodhrans thrown in on top of mine :rolleyes: :P

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I play flute, fife, whistle, the rauschpfeife, and bouzouki, and only took up EC about four years ago.

 

There are loads of theories about how people choose which instrument or instruments they play, and I'd love to know why I'm such a musical flibbertigibbet when others happily devote their whole playing lives to just one instrument ...

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I've got a recorder (they made me play it at Infants school), Keyboard (they made me play it in senior school), Bass Guitar (got told not everyone can play lead guitar...but found it soooo boring to play and the strings hurt my fingers), penny whistle (wanted something cheap to play but it brought on my asthma so I gave up).

And now I have an anglo concertina...

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I keep reading in various thread people mentioning other musical instruments...so how many other than the concertina can you play and what are they?

 

Talented lot you all are. :)

 

Talent? What's that?

 

I played guitar and hammered dulcimer in dance bands for years but have mostly given them up -- guitar because of tendon problems, hammered dulcimer because i discovered playing is much more fun than

tuning, which is mostly what you do with a HD. Also play a bit of harmonica. Recently borrowed a melodeon to see if that might be next on my list -- but quickly discovered I didn't like it (where are all the nice chords?).

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Would spoons count? If the bodhran is an instrument then certainly spoons, and bones, ought to count as well. Would spoons be one or two instruments?

 

I don't believe in talent - at least with regard to musical ability. Is it something like genetic predisposition? I think it's all about desire and discipline.

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I'm starting to notice a theme here....maybe I need to buy a bodhran (don't know what one is)to hang on the wall? ;)

 

That's not the only theme, either - "I started out 40 years ago" seems to be another. What was it about 1968?

 

A Bodhran (pronounced something like "bow-rawn") is a frame drum used (at least since Sean O'Riada popularised it in the 1950s) in Irish traditional music.

 

It's one of those instruments that musicians playing melody instruments love to hate as it's so often played badly. Hence the huge number of bodhran jokes (Martyn's already mentioned one). Other favourites being "The best way to play a bodhran is with a knife" or the one about the chap who walks into an Irish session carrying a suspicious-looking bag. When challenged as to its contents, he replies, "Its 5lb of Semtex and a stack of detonators - want to make something of it?". To which the relieved musicians reply, "Thank God, we were afraid it might be a bodhran".

 

To be fair, a lot of the bodhran jokes are generic and you can just insert the name of whatever instrument you don't happen to like (banjos and hurdy-gurdies being the usual substitutes). ;)

 

p.s. *Good* bodhran players are a delight to listen to - like this guy: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=0WC1r-yDvLQ

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Would spoons count? If the bodhran is an instrument then certainly spoons, and bones, ought to count as well. Would spoons be one or two instruments?

 

I don't believe in talent - at least with regard to musical ability. Is it something like genetic predisposition? I think it's all about desire and discipline.

 

Well said David!

 

I too hate that expression.

 

It makes me mad when I hear punters say oh so & so is so naturally talented.

It's as if the musician is given no credit for all the hard work they put into becoming a good player!

I used to hear that kind off thing often, when we had a multi-All Ireland Champion playing in our local session.

This musician was so modest too that it made them squirm too.

 

What those eejits don't see is the hours & days & weeks & years of pure dedication that goes into the development of anyone who achieves great things.

 

I also know from watching our son, who is now a wonderful Jazz musician.

Folks just don't see how for years, he would practice for AT LEAST six hours every day.

 

As for me, I know I'm much better at the instruments I play more often.

It's a pretty simple equation, really.

 

Which reminds me of just how sad all those poor souls are, who we seem to see on TV every day now, trying to just become famous! :wacko:

 

To be well known for doing something worthwhile is one thing, but to want to be famous, just to be famous ........... now that is SAD!

Did someone mention Big Brother? The only people sadder than those fools on Big Brother are, yes, you guessed it - the people who watch the show! :huh: :wacko: :blink: :rolleyes:

 

Cheers

Dick

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