[sabrina]

Piano but by ear, cannot read a note. Most of my fathers family play or sing but I sound like nothing on this earth.

[RUSTYME]

I learnt to play guitar after the car smash , my fingers were all going wrong due to smashing my right hand , so thought it a good way to get my hand working .
It worked , but due to head injury and short term memory loss ,after a period of not playing , i found i had forgotten everything .
I used to be able to sing quite well , in the same range as Frankie Vallie , 7 octaves i think ?
 I could go from a very low Paul Robeson impersonation , to a bang on one of Sahra Brightman . That would freak people out !
But i garroted myself on the steering wheel in the smash , and had almost no voice after .
It did sort of come back after a year or so , but only for talking .
Can still do a reasonable Don Estelle and Windsor Davies version of wispering grass sometimes , but can't remember lyrics !
Most of the time music just mixes up in my head now , just all jumbles up into a noise , so don't listen to it much .

[goosepimple]

I'm learning to play the piano along with my kids who are about to sit grade 1.  I love it and find I can get totally lost in focus, great for doing something else for a while beside attending to my incredibly hectic life, feels like meditation.

[omnipeasant]

You have a cello small farmer!!!!

Do you want to swap it for anything I might have??

[Lesley Silvester]

I always wanted to learn the piano as a child but never had the opportunity.  Now, at the age of 61, I have been learning for the last 18 months and I love it.  Did start learning bagpipes when I lived on Arran but have no one to teach me now although I still have my chanter.  Also had a go at guitar but gave up.  I used to sing until my throat started giving me trouble after a chest infection and I lost the ability.  Three years on and it's coming back, more some days than others. Maybe one day it'll return properly.  HOpe so.

[SallyintNorth]

I always wanted to learn the piano as a child but never had the opportunity.  Now, at the age of 61, I have been learning for the last 18 months and I love it. 

OOOOHhhhhhhh!  And I thought I'd left it too late...

Never played as a child - one of only two major mistakes my parents made, IMO, disallowing musical instrument tuition because it conflicted with academic lessons; always wanted to, even bought a piano and carted it around the country for 18 years; it's now the village piano in Luxborough in Exmoor (at least, I hope it still is!) and I thought it was now waaaaayyyy too late to even think about trying to learn.

However, I maybe don't have the aptitude.  I sure can appreciate music when I hear it but, although I showed promise on the recorder as an infant (but then swapped schools to one that didn't have a teacher who promoted the recorder), I haven't ever, IMO, shown any real capability.  I own a lovely Fender F90 guitar but it's on loan to someone I have all but lost track of, I tried so hard but couldn't ever reproduce any of the picks or strums my friends seemed to find so easy. 

I love to sing but am as likely to be flat as not; BH is one of the few singers I know worse than me.  At funerals and weddings we love to belt out the hymns; BH will sing his own personal variant of the words, usually finishes every line ahead of the organ, and will catch the odd correct note in passing.  I valiantly try to give him the beat, the words and the tune, but in truth am hardly any better.  You can always find us in the congregation - the folks around us will be chewing handkerchieves, pulling hats down hard over their ears, crying and not with sorrow at the sadness of a friend's passing, shoulders, hands and hymn books shaking...

[Mel]

I play the Sax-mad about Jazz,blues & soul,some Clarinet,a little trumpet/Cornet but not much,I am quite potty regards saxophones,I have four Tenors and something silly like 18 Alto's,plus a few other instruments around.I was starting an e-commerce shop but it shall have to wait a while until things are better on the home front.

[deepinthewoods]

guitar, bodhran and soon to be ( for my shhhh 40th bday) hammer dulcimer!

[Mammyshaz]

A what Please explain.
( oh and that'll be 21-and-a-bit birthday  )

[Mel]

Hammered Dulcimer - Scott Williams

 

[Mammyshaz]

Wow, I find that really relaxing. Good luck with it. 

[Small Farmer]

You have a cello small farmer!!!!

Do you want to swap it for anything I might have? ?

It's complicated emotionally

[jaykay]

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.

What I've decided, and am doing my level best to act upon, is that this sort of embarrassment, that stops us doing what we want, is a waste of our one life.

I know what you mean and I wouldn't now perform for anyone, but as for playing in the house, my ex used to just accept I'd got rusty and was happy that I was playing and enjoying it. You'll be better than your hubby I expect and if not, then he understands. Go for it 

[FiB]

Wise words Jaykay - PLAY/WHISTLE/SING LIKE THERE'S NO ONE LISTENING EVERYONE!!!!   . We could have a TAS band!  HAs anyone heard of the really terrible orchestra?  Strangely entertaining and inspiring! http://thereallyterribleorchestra.com/pressNickalls.html

[SallyintNorth]

Which is exactly why BH and I do sing out at weddings, funerals, etc.

I found it completely liberating, after divorce, redundancy and turning 45, to decide that the only arbiter of anything I did should be me, and that if I enjoyed it then that was reason enough for doing it.   Echoes of the teachers who told me I couldn't draw / paint faded as I discovered a love of charcoal and watercolour (not together  ) - and strangely, voices from the past praising the odd thing I'd drawn or painted then re-surfaced.  Equally, I sing when and where I like, ignoring signs of embarassment (or even pain!) around me, dance if I feel like it, and don't shy away from swinging a bat or racquet at a ball if the opportunity arises.  Oh, and I took up cross country running for pleasure at 47, having always been told I ran like a goose.