What instrument do ye play?

[Captain Midnight]

Well, don't laugh too hard, all I can play is the Jew's harp, but I play it well!

[Quartermaster James]

I'm about halfway through building a conversion banjo. (Seems like I can build 'em better than I can pick 'em )

I do have a Deering Goodtime and a mountain banjo I plunk around with a bit. But I can't really call it playin', yet...

[Black Rinalda Kidd]

Noo, I knoo wha' a banjo be, an' thoo many's th' port I've been in, m'lad, but I've nae heard o' a conversion banjo. Wonderin', wha' tha' be?

[Quartermaster James]

Way back when, or sometime in the future depending upon your point of reckoning...let's just call it early 20th century America, there was something of a banjo craze. There are a lot of four string tenor banjos around from those days. And, as ye may well expect, they can be found in many various states and conditions.

A conversion banjo (or a banjo conversion) is what you get when you take the rim (aka: pot) from one of these and refit it with a five-string banjo neck (which is also longer than the tenor banjo neck).

[clambeard]

Yarr! I be the pyrate drummarr fer the pyrate rock band "Sunken Chest"! Drums be the most piratey off all instruments fer ye hit them with a stick.

[Capt. Hedge]

I plays a mandolin on occasion...built it meself.

Besides that, I recall when I was a lad, I thought that if I dinna go into piracy I woulda made a fair ter middlin scratch DJ...aye, th boys pokes fun at me about it too.

[Captain Ariashal]

Well, I play the piano. Taught meself in de begining. 'Tis a shame ye can't take such an instrument on the ship with'ee.

But, nonetheless, I can play a few pirate shanties on that 'ol beastie.

[Capt. Hedge]

I knowd a man what had a piano in his cabin...pipe organ leastways...famous Cap'n name o Hook.

[Black Bess]

Cap'n Hook! Ahh, now -there's- a pirate who knows what he's doing!

I be fortunate to play the piano as well.

[John_Young]

Well... I used to play guitar when I was back in middle school, learned some basic notes and such, but due to money my parents took me out of it.

Then for Father's Day I got a nice basic acoustic guitar and since then I've relearned most of my chords and notes.

Not ready to stand on streetcorners strumming fer cash, but soon... soon...

I'm already pretty good with the ballad, "Hero of Canton".

[FlintLockSarah]

Classical Guitar, Electric Guitar, Fiddle,Piano,Flute, Irish Flute. Some harp but still learning.... Ever since i was a wee little one i was musically inclined.

[Red Maria]

Yeah to another fiddle palyer! :)

[Morgan Dreadlocke]

6&12 string guitar. 6 string banjo and 12 string banjolin. Gots me a set 'o 2 drone pipes but the ol' battleaxe say it gives 'er a 'eadache.

[Hester]

The tambourine ... badly.

["Bloody" Bill Marley]

Myself, i play tha electric bass. pretty well.

ah play professionally piratey for all sorts of festivals an events.

bit of a problem tho when our prospective employers frown upon any thing not period. thats why i started thinkin abou procurin myself a cello an turn it sideways. what do yeh think? ah hate acoustic basses cause they can't project fer dung.

[CrazyCholeBlack]

The tambourine ... badly.

Come now, all ye have to do is shake it

Not to toot my own horn but I can at least play something simple, twinkle twinkle or mary had a little lamb usually, on almost any instrament you hand me. The except to that has been the trombone. I tried to teach myself that blasted thing once & managed to play 6 decient notes before giving up completely.

I've played bass for nearly 20 years, since I was just a little kid. I can play guitar a bit around the camp fire, my partners cello, piano, my mothers flute & I used to play clarinet in band back in school. I also enjoy hand drumming. I sing a bit to, although being female & an alto there isn't a lot of call for it. Plus the little swab is always yelling at me to stop. She's a terrible critic.

I just love music!

[Hester]

thats why i started thinkin abou procurin myself a cello an turn it sideways. what do yeh think? ah hate acoustic basses cause they can't project fer dung

There's a Canadian contemporary folksinger who plays cello sorta like that, her name is

Kim Barlow

One critic commented on her unique cello style:

" She’s found a new and useful role for the cello in folk music: rather than ornament her songs with atmospheric bowing, she plucks at her instrument to produce a sound that’s part bass, part rhythm guitar, and altogether compelling."  Alexander Varty, The Georgia Straight

I remember hearing her interviewed a while back on the CBC, and I think she said she found the cello at a yard sale or somethin'.

Cheers, Hester ... who could attempt to play the cello like a tambourine

[Red-Handed Jill]

Come now, all ye have to do is shake it

If it were only that easy...

Speaking as a percussionist, nothing ruins a song worse than the beat being off - it's like fingernails on a chalkboard . I've had the misfortune to try and record a demo with someone who was a bit off with the beat on her tambourine. It wasn't pretty, I'll tell ya.

[Salty]

aye well it depends....

what i'v tried to pick up be the classical guitar and teh irish tin whistle......used to sing in me younger days but still tryin jus' the same

[Cap'n Pete Straw]

Studied the violin/fiddle for years, but never became more than a beginner. My greatest growthspurt was when I worked with my daughter everyday to learn the instrument, and I was always just a little bit better than her... then I stopped practicing while insisting she continue. She is now a virtuoso and I remain a beginner. A lesson learned far too late in life.

I can play a few very (very!) simple tunes on the piano.

The only instrument I have mastered is the jaw harp. I can play it without chipping my teeth (most people cannot master that step) and can do the whole resonance volume thing.

I plan to purchase a set of bagpipes (call me a fool now!) and try to master what is considered the most difficult instrument to learn. Payback to myself for not keeping up with the violin.

[Matusalem]

I took 6 years of piano lessons, only to find my heart settled for the guitar and forgot how to play piano. Been through my share of bands. Now my new thing is the upright bass (or double bass) played in the rockabilly slap stype of early 1950's Elvis, Carl Perkins, and Gene Vincent.

[Quartermaster James]

To be the man I wish I were, I would have to have been born the half-breed love child of Billy Connolly & Dave Cahppelle.

[Quartermaster James]

Oops! Thought that last post was going into the Declare Sumthin about Yerself thread!

[CapnJake]

I'm working on learning the concertina with tips from my folk singer pal David HB Drake. I discovered that my normally shy cat LOVES the playing and rubs up against me or the concertina and sings along. "Mee-yooo!"

Sure beats when I was dog-sitting for a friend and her lovey-dovey black lab barked and bayed at the concertina!

[SilasTalbot]

I discovered that my normally shy cat LOVES the playing and rubs up against me or the concertina and sings along. "Mee-yooo!"

Ah, cats as music critics...

Many years ago when I was a music major in college, my cat used to race back and forth through the room and climb the speaker grille cloth (which she KNEW was a no-no) when I played piano pieces by the more polytonal/atonal composers. If I switched to something like Bach inventions, she would calm down.

She didn't get to come in the room when I played rock 'n roll...

I started on piano when I was 7 years old, but rock corrupted me in my teens. (That's what it's SUPPOSED to do). Played guitar and keyboards and sang in bands for many years, went back to college to finish a music degree..but now I just play for my own amusement. I just acquired an old Hammond tone-wheel organ and I'm looking forward to getting it in playing condition again.