Ha! Well the mouth can be an musical instrument! I definetly use that a lot! I guess I'm asking musicians that are producers , arrangers and such but anybody is welcome to answer!
 

i do my thing on the microkorg and the mpd24..but i dont know about playing notes and stuff..i just cop with some chords and try to create sumthin with it and search for nice dope combinations..but i adore everybody who improvises at a piano or rhodes..just the fact that u can simply play and foll around with all the damn chords and notes lik u want!! that makes me jealous..

so i guess..real keys to play is what i would love to learn..
 

Oh man! I share ur feeling with the keys! That was the 1st thing i tried playing! I'm just now learning how to read music a lil. I play off ear and it takes time to nail it! but yeah rhodes!!! That is a great instrument!!
 

Hello.


I started with playing recorder.. as usual for kids round here ;)
then i took some lessons for keyboard in general and piano. started when i was 9 years old.

after a few years i was bored.. i started listening to punk and so on. so i started to play bass.

i'm in love with electric bass ever since.
later on as i came back to hiphop, soul, jazz and so on i also started
to play drums, guitar, percussion.. every instrument opens up new horizons of expression.

later, because of my new computer and stuff i finally was able to buy, i also came back to keys..
so, you could say that i play computer too :P
'm not able to finish a track because i'm just experimenting with different sounds and effects.

but i'll try to regai my bass skills.


do you use the ASR-10 a lot? i like its sound because it has a special tone.
somewhat old, analog & sometimes nasty

that^s all my shares for the day :P
 

ha, i was just thinkin bout that this morning....piano and drums would open up a lot for me i always feel,
hows the jj?!
 

well, i'm a musician first and foremost but i have been making beats on and off for about 8 years i think.

instruments i play:
saxophone (very well, i would say.
been playing for 18 years)
drums (ok i guess. always been interested in drums. if i was 10 again i would stick to my first choice.
the drums!)
keys (below average.
i can figure out stuff pretty fast but i havent really practiced tho)
bass and guitar (a few notes.
lol)
i would like to learn bass more.


love what you do jj! keep it up! peace
-marcelo
 

Everything except Brass/Reeds, although I just got an old trumpet, learning that thing would get me evicted for sure! It's good you brought this up, I would love to see/hear more producers getting involved with this side of things. I know that you can put your personal touch by (the infinate ways of) flipping samples, but the direct connection to the soul that comes from live instruments is an awakening, divine experience that'll take you higher than the best of trees. On the topic of theory, I grew up learning classical/spanish guitar, had no problem sight reading or notating, but, this is something I gradually let go of, as I feel that music has no rules whatsoever (big up Ornette Coleman), although self discipline is advised (enter Sun Ra). Though theory can provide a solid understanding of various palates of colour, if it governs your entire musical approach, it can also strip the music of it's soul, reducing it to a purely mechanical movement.

But anyways, even if you got no real access to instruments, you'd be surprised at what you can get from a microphone and found objects, (the kitchen cupboards got all kinds of hidden sounds!), just sprinkle some amongst your samples.


(plug time!!!) I just posted a track I built from purely live instrumentation - 'KUNDALINI'

I just picked up another bass guitar yesterday, after I sold my old one a few years ago to pay the rent.

Pawn shops, markets, and auctions can turn up some real jewels, I'm constantly on the prowl in these kinda spots!

Admitadely, keys are something I'd like to get up on some theory (not too much tho lol!) just to make it easier to move around on.
Percussion gotta be my favourite thing to play right now tho, but give me a Rhodes and I'll quickly change my mind on that one!
 

Someone should do guitar covers of classic hip hop beats, RZA'S Daytona 500, oR Pete Rock's "T.R.O.Y.
", That's what I've been thinking lol
 

well, i'm a musician first and foremost but i have been making beats on and off for about 8 years.

instruments i play:
saxophone (very well, been playing for 18 years)
drums (ok i guess. always been interested in drums. if i was 10 again i would have stuck to my first choice.
the drums!)
keys (below average.
never really practiced but i can figure out things pretty fast)
i would like to learn bass.


i love what you do jj.
keep it up! peace!
-marcelo
 

my main instrument these days is my bank card...i bust edge-of-the-countertop basslines/beats with it while i wait for my interac-to-interact. i started with guitar, then moved to bass, then to drums, then mpc200000. i should have started with drums cuz that's my shit. these days i rarely 'play' anything, but i do have a bass around that i pluck alot lately. guitars though, i can't stand 'em. probly because i'm stuck in a language i can't unlearn, which is basically cheesy rock licks. hey jj, you should peep a dude named stephen wilkinson...he records under the name 'bibio' for mush (http://www. mushrecords. com/release/143). you may not feel his overall oeuvre, but he has a real original, true, honest gesture style of playing and music. he also made some amazing soul beats for awhile under the name duckular, but sadly he took his myspace down and i'm not sure if his stuff will ever see the light, which would be a shame because he had mpc skillllllz.


to sum up...i see anything as playable. i'm a big fan of what comes out of people that have no formal training in any particular instrument, but just pick something up and create according to the laws of their own inner funk, untainted by anything other than their own inner influences and mind. that shit always seems a million times more honest and amazing to me. music is such an intangible thing and so mysterious how it just 'happens'. which..is why it's the greatest art.

 

Hmmm

Well i'm most confident in piano since i was jazz trained in it.


Guitar (i would never play in public though)
Drums
Vibraphone.


I don't shit all you really have to do is feel it ya know?
I mean you don't have to be classically trained to ply guitar, bass drums whatever, It's all bout the mind behind the instrument.
I mean you could be the best piano player in the world, but if you ain't got flavor
well then you might not be that good.



Big ups to ya JJ.


rd
 

piano and voice
 

It's good to see you folks trying to make effort in expanding ur creative minds. You don't have to be a perfect player of any instrument if you ask me. Everyone has their own touch. I'm not the best @ any instrument.
I just play and learn as I go. If you really think about it. It is feeling insecure that makes us not play really. PLus the time it takes to really learn an instrument. Trust me. I have many and rarely pic them up until lately.
Such a waste of time not pushing myself. I would probably be a beast by now on the trumpet!

Anyway, I asked this queation just to know where people are at with this modern music thing. We can't let go of the live aspect of things. Maybe we all will be a band one day! lol! U never know how Jah will steer us.

Keep on testing your abilities! There might be something behind that door u never known u had all this time. ;-)
 

J.
J,

I must listen to your stuff everyday, and i'm continuously blown away by it. Now i read here that you play most of your own instruments...man.

On 'Beat journey' (absolutely, got to be one of the best instrumental down-tempo hip-hop albums of all time) i always thought i was just listening to mainly sampled records layered over the top of one another...how wrong i was.

Jneiro every respect to you my friend, you are one talented musician. Can't wait for the next beat journey.


I play the keys, turntable (still learning), sampler, drums.

I learned the piano at the age of 8 til i was like 12 or somethin...realised i absolutely sucked at reading notes and now i just play whatever i hear in my head.


Peace man

-R.

 

I need to learn more "instruments" but I got...
Mouth Harp
Phase Shift Harmonica/Kazoo
NES Emulator
Voice w/ hella weak directional mic.

MPC 2500
Turntables
Djembe
Wires

I take random instruments and wire them through cool edit, then i effect them until they are unrecognizable. I send them to the MPC from the computer and back and forth until I get a unique sound, layer effects until it's rediculous. Also, it's fun to take wires and link them funny to get feedback, then effect that feedback and send it through filters...then send it to fruity loops... open up piano roll and you've just made a homemade synth!
Harmonica has been most sucessful, pull down highs and raise up lows/add phase shift and you got a crazy bass.

 

only one
my heart
 

Cute Shania
 

Hm, lets see. At the age of 8 i learned to play flute but i drop it.

At 10 i learned Mandolin later how to play guitar.(ok, i learned the basic's lol).

But i lost everything about that thing NOTES.


But what love is the DRUM but thats a hard thing to learn.
You know, left hand-right hand-left foot-right foot :((
Thats to much, maybe my interest will come back to learn drums.

My favorite instrument right now is my MPC2000XL,Trigger Finger and my iMac :)
 

mainly drums. but some years ago i bought a rhodes and a guitar and started to learn how to play that.


but since im still not so versed with the keys, i'd say drums and the mpc.

 

I'm a drummer 1st and foremost. I can play keys a bit and i figure knowing drums (rhythm) and piano (harmony, melody) is the key to producing coz you got the range of music covered. Programming drums can be cool but for me, there isn't the living breathing life force that you get from playing drums live. But then, i'm not a very good producer.

 

Have been studyin guitar for about 12 years, toured and did the metal thing for a bit. Piano is my backup, copped a slick Fantom X7.


I'd give it all up to be a phenomenal drummer, too bad that aint happenin. I hope to get some tables but then I'd just be kidding myself, heh.

 

My main thing is the percussions especially the congas. Slowly but surely learning the MPC, want to master sounding like an actual drummer on it. Taught myself to play the acoustic guitar at a point but had to leave it with one of my partners do to no room while moving(sucks). An instrument I would love to play is the actual piano esp since I have long skinny ass fingers; I think the piano is beautiful esp when played with all out emotion.

 

Guitar was my first love when I was a teenager - don't play enough now, but i shake the rust pretty quick... still own an acoustic, miss my electric noise jams - exactly like you said about it's sonic abilities, with the guitar you can blend melody with otherworldly sound... i seriously miss that... I hold my own with a bass, fun ass instrument! Dope to play in jams... Drums - I try but I'm pretty lame - what i hear in my head is too complicated for the clumsiness of my limbs lol!!! Keys - i play by ear, and is currently the instrument I enjoy the most... I got Absynth 4 and the minimonsta moog emulator... hours and hours of fun!!!! MPC 2500- weapon of choice for the beats and sample choppin!!! Software - Reason 3 & Cubase 4... I'll bounce between em both depending on what i'm lookin for... i used to rap alot too but i'm pretty WACK lol!! I can sing a bit, but now that I don't drink i've also discovered that i'm pretty shy!!!
 

I've played guitar since 93, just picked up the keyboard and have to say that if there was one instrument that could literally do everything it would be the keyboard. Drums, synth, basslines, layers, samples, guitar, whatever can be layed down on the keyboard. It's the ultimate instrument. Guitar rocks too, but i've played so long that I only really get amazed when I hear someone like wes montgomery or joe pass play jazz craziness. Those 11ths and 13th chords are hard as shit to keep switchin up.

 

i dont play any instruments to be honest, i just started making beats 2 months ago and i just coped a cheap korg nano key for 50$ and find nice sounds from the refills in Reason. Its hard for me to remember what i played if i create a nice lil melody, soo what i did was i got a marker and i wrote out the alphabet on the keys, so i look at the letters when i make a tune and write them down so i can always go back and do it.
But i will be taking piano lessons starting next month so i cant wait!
 

same as u, learned music backwards from sampling... had a guitar 1st though @ 14, started experimenting with different fx pedals & recording techniques using my trusty dual tape deck.
figured out how to multi-track record with 2 tape decks! a few years later started fkng w drum machines, 4tracks, sequencing software/daws/etc... learned music theory via software, got bored,
started lusting after any and all hardware I could get my hands on, rhodes, moogs, guitars, bass, drums (from making beats I figured out how to play the drums) what have you, got into modular synthesizers via jonny greenwood & geoff barrows, shit is ill... completely self taught, what don't i play... I can krush any instrument or piece of gear u put in front of me. <3