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- #2
DaveC426913
Gold Member
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I have one of those. (a cheap one). I decided I was going to once and for all see if I had inherited any of my family's musical talent.
Fiddle was my choice (because I'm into Indie/Folk/Americana music). I chose an electric fiddle so I could practice without driving the whole house crazy and being self-conscious about how bad I was.
Got a tiny amp and headphones to go with it. Took lessons for two or three years.
TL;DR: The answer is no; I have zero musical eptitude.
Fiddle was my choice (because I'm into Indie/Folk/Americana music). I chose an electric fiddle so I could practice without driving the whole house crazy and being self-conscious about how bad I was.
Got a tiny amp and headphones to go with it. Took lessons for two or three years.
TL;DR: The answer is no; I have zero musical eptitude.
- #3
Hornbein
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Violin is one of the hardest instruments. Guitar is maybe the easiest (excepting simple things like recorders). I think this explains the popularity of the latter. But electric guitarists may go to great lengths to get the instrument to sound a lot like a violin. Go into a guitar store and there is an endless variety of "distortion units" that have that purpose. Sustain! Spinal Tap was dead on about that. Eguitarists have superstitions about sustain.
This is a problem because chislers would go to a store, try out the units to find one they liked, then order it online. So IFAIK stores in the USA no longer provide that service. Instead you have to order the units online then send them back if you don't like them. I seem to recall I read an interview with this violinist in which she said she had to go through that a dozen times. I think stores should charge a fee like $20 to try out the units, refundable if you buy from them.
Natural "acoustic" guitar, you can learn to strum a few chords and make a good backup for singing. Unlike violin or saxophone or electric guitar, it's easy to get a good tone out of it.
As far as rock violin my fave is Emilie Autumn. Here's a tune she recorded for a horror movie. That phrase that begins at 2:08 grips me every single time. It never gets old.
Playing the violin like that is so demanding that Emilie gave it up a few years back. Better things to do.
This is a problem because chislers would go to a store, try out the units to find one they liked, then order it online. So IFAIK stores in the USA no longer provide that service. Instead you have to order the units online then send them back if you don't like them. I seem to recall I read an interview with this violinist in which she said she had to go through that a dozen times. I think stores should charge a fee like $20 to try out the units, refundable if you buy from them.
Natural "acoustic" guitar, you can learn to strum a few chords and make a good backup for singing. Unlike violin or saxophone or electric guitar, it's easy to get a good tone out of it.
As far as rock violin my fave is Emilie Autumn. Here's a tune she recorded for a horror movie. That phrase that begins at 2:08 grips me every single time. It never gets old.
Playing the violin like that is so demanding that Emilie gave it up a few years back. Better things to do.
- #4
OmCheeto
Gold Member
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Sorry to laugh, but the first instrument I learned was the violin, around the age of 9. I took all available classes in our public school system for the next 5 years.Hornbein said:
Trying to play the guitar, for me, is basically impossible.
Whose idea was it to put all those lumps on the neck?
ps. It might have been that background that got me interested in Jean Luc Ponty, way back when.
per wiki; "Jean-Luc Ponty (born 29 September 1942) is a French jazz and jazz fusion violinist and composer. He is considered a pioneer of jazz-rock, particularly for his use of the electric violin starting in the 1970s."