Practice/Multi-Instrumentalist?

[JonZ]

I have to add one caveat...

If you give your children musical instruments, they are at risk of wanting to go pro. If that is the case, make sure they have options for a day job, or marry someone who has one.

[catmandu2]

I'm not worried--I scare my kids off with jazz; they already want something more practical for careers--like vampires, zombies and ninja

[Mike Herlihy]

Phil,
I like to keep some pennywhistles in the car to entertain my wife while she is driving. I don't have very serious Celtic ornamentaion chops on whistle. I guess the whole car thing won't work for piano!...

Well, there's always the Melodica if you want to play piano in the car

[JonZ]

You know, Catmadu, you warned me about jazz when I first mentioned my kid playing bass. And danged if he didn't ask me for a pair of sunglasses last week.

[homejame]

he heee - guilty as charged. mostly mando at the moment. Took 3 out on scratch practice Friday night. played tenor banjo mostly - with some Mando ( including a nice set of hpipes at the end- English style- dotted). last night was all mando. - new territory- Banjo and Mando duo stuff. some things we were playing around with to do floor spots with maybe.Electric Bass I haven't gigged with for a couple o months. Guitar (including slide and bottleneck) gets taken care of as I don''t really play out a lot with that. My music tastes are as varied as the next guy. I really must get the fiddle out of the case for the workshops at Whitby- mostly village band stuff so fairly stead away. tonight is a residency so its all mando again. variety is ......

[LM_in_KY]

Im very new to mando and suffering the same frustrations I did when I picked up the guitar decades ago. It is just not moving along as fast as I want it to. But when I reflect rationally, my guitar playing was sort of stagnant. Playing the mando has improved my guitar playing. Playing songs I know on a new instrument gives sort of a new perspective on them. Dont know if Im verbalizing correctly, but Im trying to embrace the whole learning process and not focus on the speed in which stuff happens, but what comes out of it, instead.

Norwegian Wood n the penny flute is my next conquest

Regards,

LM in KY

[catmandu2]

Variety sure is . . . but such wide interest does create practice problems! Trad music itm and such is great--allowing us to play the same repertoire on various instruments. My problem is my interest in so many styles--which don't share much commonality. Used to be when I would try to commit to an instrument and make a decision to give something up--I would inevitably get a call the next day or week to play the thing I'd just sworn off...went round and round like that for years with guitar. These days I stay home and enjoy the luxury of learning and shedding for my own pleasure...so now i rarely pick up a guitar or banjo at all--but like you homes when I do it's usually a 12-string and a bottleneck.

I keep practiced on fiddle--the other strings can go days or weeks without chops suffering much. My woodwinds require daily practice. I've arrived at a formula: my "desert island 3"...fiddle, flute, concertina...easily transported...(but also a clarinet too, so it's really a "desert island 4" )