I sing. I took voice lessons for many years, and was "president" of my high school choir for two consecutive years. I love jazz and adult contemporary. I sang two songs at the Green Mill Lounge in Chicago: "Come Fly with Me" and "Summer Wind." I can also play guitar; I took lessons when I was a teenager. I also taught myself the electric bass, including the slap-and-pop technique. And, I taught myself the piano, which I love but don't play as much as I would like.
Ask HN: How many of you play music?
51–60 of 83 posts
Re: Ask HN: How many of you play music?
#52I play the computer, using my own programs to make-create music. Playing a standard instrument bores me(too much repetition).
Re: Ask HN: How many of you play music?
#53Acoustic guitar, mostly gypsy-jazz style (Django Reinhardt) and a lot of fingerstyle. I play with some gypsy-jazz bands in Chicago and post YouTube videos here: http://youtube.com/adrianholovaty -- more than 12,000 subscribers! :-)
Co-creator of Django here, everyone. "Mad props" to you, Mr. Holovaty, for Django. Oh, and your guitar playing is great.
Re: Ask HN: How many of you play music?
#54Piano (classical/jazz). A little djembe too.
Re: Ask HN: How many of you play music?
#55Have a solo band: http://werenotthecoolkids.com
Kind of pop/noise/experimental; to put it another way: a noise band playing pretty melodies.
Re: Ask HN: How many of you play music?
#56I play on harmonica, blues mostly
Re: Ask HN: How many of you play music?
#57I play drums, trumpet, accordion, guitar, bass, keyboard, banjo, and whatever else I get my hands on.
Putting together a complex song with audio software -- wiring together effects and virtual instruments and tweaking MIDI programs and settings -- feels remarkably similar to working through a medium-sized software project.
Re: Ask HN: How many of you play music?
#58Acoustic guitar, mostly gypsy-jazz style (Django Reinhardt) and a lot of fingerstyle. I play with some gypsy-jazz bands in Chicago and post YouTube videos here: http://youtube.com/adrianholovaty -- more than 12,000 subscribers! :-)
I've been playing guitar for quite some time now. How did you go about learning gypsy-jazz? Do you recommend learning "simpler" forms of jazz first? I could use a challenge.
Re: Ask HN: How many of you play music?
#59I'm a drummer and I'm saving up for this bad boy: http://www.yamaha.com/drums/drumproductdetail.html?CNTID=568... Oh, and I would rather stab myself with a fork than play punk.
"Oh, and I would rather stab myself with a fork than play punk." good for you, but music should be emotive and a 20-minute Neil Pert drum solo is hardly emotive. If you equate technical mastery of an (needlessly expensive) instrument as the sole determining factor of musical enjoyment, I feel sorry for you. I cannot see the appeal of some technical wizard like Yngwie Malsteen. It's really, boring music at its core. I…
I agree, but this is a harder problem than it sounds. What's satisfying to the musician and what's satisfying to the listener are often different. Many musicians are interested in things that are hard or unusual to play. But most great music is simple or at least has an emotionally accessible, simple core. To have both an intellectual/technical engagement with the instrument and an emotional engagement with the listener is not always easy. The intellectual side is seductive, especially for the hacker type of musician.
The greatness of punk rock was that it swept aside (or more precisely pissed all over) bombastic competence in favor of immediate vitality, which is much closer to what music is all about. But something like that inevitably becomes a formula and then you have the worst of both worlds: stupid and boring.
Re: Ask HN: How many of you play music?
#60Jazz Bass - http://duoroyale.com