[Bangbang]

As a teenager I played the guitar badly....30 years on I've started to play it again.
Does anyone else play an instrument and enjoy the relaxation that I find it gives?
My OH tends to confine me to quarters outwith her range of hearing....which is understandable...
 
 

[Mammyshaz]

From 7 to 14 I played the violin.  You know how it is hitting teen age  Gave it up to peruse boys and motorsport. Achieved top grades too. ( gloat)

Had teachers and county orchestra were up in arms and many meetings with my parents about my skills ? And potential.  My parents were in the mind that if I'd had enough then it was my choice. I thanked them then. Now looking back I wish I wish I had persued it, but that's life I suppose.

Elder son, now ten, didn't want to play violin when his class were given the opportunity, so I sent a letter as I've been there and you need to want to do it. He was six at the time. Since then he has learned the clarinet and drums and loves them.

I still yearn to go back to the violin. Perhaps one day   

[Simple Simon]

I was taught piano up to grade 6 by my choirmaster but his extracurricular interests finally got him jailed some years too late.  Enough said, maybe too much.


I love music and hope for a piano for my 60th in a while, probably in one of the stables to annoy the horses more than my tone deaf OH.  Eldest showed talent with the clarinet but I couldn't make him continue could I?

[Brijjy]

I am learning the cornet with my local silver band. My 12 year old son is also learning and has just passed grade 2 with a distinction! My 10 year old daughter is learning piano and is preparing for her grade 2 exam in a couple of weeks time. My youngest son and daughter have just started to learn the trombone and the baritone with the silver band. My OH is trying to teach himself drums. He did start guitar but his carpal tunnel syndrome has stopped that temporarily.
I really wanted to learn an instrument when I was a kid but my dad was too tight to pay for lessons. That's why I'm giving all my lot the opportunity now 

[MikeM]

I have been known to wander blindly up and down the fretboard of a guitar. Mostly I play acoustic; folk and bluegrass/oldtimey kinda stuff.

[plumseverywhere]

My husband plays guitar - he is a Rory Gallagher tribute artist and so blues are his thing, I guess.
He's moved onto making his own resonator guitars and restoring neglected ones that he buys, does-up and then sells on.
I was forced into playing the piano at a young age because my Dad used to and I hate to say it but I think that made my stubborn streak come out and make me 'hate' the idea of learning when it was something I hadn't chosen     Two of my daughters are learning the flute, which they love and I think sounds beautiful! The other night, my 10 year old picked up her Dad's guitar at a gig and strummed some chords for "sunshine of your love" to an audience - that was cool 
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[jaykay]

Fiddle, viola, piano, guitar not especially well, all sizes of recorder, clarinet a bit.
Trouble is, what with a full time job and all the animals, I never have time to practise.
Mainly now I sing in a choir, cos that I can practise while I'm doing the animals or driving to work 

[little blue]

I was forced, sorry encouraged to play the clarinet as a kid - not too bad but certainally not a natural!  Always wanted to play saxaphone, so o/h bought me one before we were married.... It's soooo hard to play!!
  I can read music etc & love the drums but have no natural rhythm!

Husband is a professional music teacher & can play by ear  (me, jealous? not at all!)
He tried to teach me two-handed Piano once.... least said the better!

[FiB]

Guitars and Uke's for me - although since breaking my left hand index finger (by smashing it with the back of an axe splitting wood- coulda bin worse! ) its not sounding so good!!!    Learnt classical between 12 and 14 and am really grateful that parents found me that oportunity when I showed an interest.  I'm pretty rubbish but I enjoy it!!

[omnipeasant]

I played piano and violin as a child but my parents did not encourage me to practice, in fact quite the opposite so my early talent was not nurtured. I still love to sing, have dabbled with the guitar and would love to play the cello. But my current  pleasure is my accordian that I bought from ebay. I just love the sound of it and so does my jack russel. Might try it on the horses next.

[Small Farmer]

My father was a musician and after my brother and I had moved out the house was taken over by him, first step being the construction of a harpsichord in the drawing room.  It took nearly two years and mum never regained control of the room.


I got to Grade 7 cello but never liked it and haven't played since.  So why has it followed me around for 40 years?

[Sylvia]

Fiddle and pipes for me, my children play fiddle, flute, piano, mandolin and guitar.
Did you know that James Galway's mother used to lock him in his bedroom and make him practise, bet he thanks her for it now

[lachlanandmarcus]

I played the flute not very well, all my friends were very very musical and I got discouraged when I showed my BF her first notes on the flute and within half a term she was much better than me....:-(
Now I sing in a choir, theres only 15ish of us, and we have sung at castles and singing festivals etc. Mostly enjoying it altho I prefer the minor key choral dirges to the jazz hands type numbers...!

[NormandyMary]

I played the piano from an early age, and did all the grades to teaching diploma. However after years of not playing due to not having a piano in the house, Ive probably forgotten more than I learnt. I now have my childhood piano which came to me after my parents passed away. The trouble is, Im so very shy about playing it because I have got so bad. My husband would love to hear me play, and Im itching to get back to playing, but I wont unless he is out of the house.
I think it harps back to when I was very young, and my parents making me play for my aunts uncles and grandparents when they came to visit. I dreaded it and got very upset at having to do it as I had no confidence, even though I actually was very musical.
I also played the oboe for several years, and the violin for a very short time.(Horrible!)
I also sing, and used to sing with a fantastic choir that did concerts all over the country, even in the Purcell room in London! Funnily enough, our choirmaster is in prison now. He always was very touchy feely!!

[Ina]

I used to play the piano when I was young, and the recorder... And dabbled a bit with guitar and mandolin (my mother was very good at that). Carpal tunnel syndrome meant I had to pause more often than I would have liked to; and when I left home at 19, I had no piano to practise. In the past 12 years I've tried to revive my piano playing (bought an electric one), but it's just so frustrating when you know what it's supposed to sound like, but the fingers just won't do it - and then I always end up living in freezing cold houses, and it's impossible to play with fingers that are frozen stiff... Still dream of getting a tenor recorder one of these days. And I'd love to sing in a choir again, but preferably not a church one, and there aren't many of them around. Tried to contact one in Stonehaven, but they never replied, so I suppose it doesn't exist any more.