Musical Instrument Search

[Lipp]

Righto, a question for you music enthusiasts out there.

Basically I'm hoping to learn one, well, pretty much any as I haven't done that previously. I do have a few aims though.

1. Portable. Small to medium size, usually the smaller the better, it's something that I'd hope to be able to easily carry around and practice when the mood hits.

2. Inexpensive. Massive tuition fees leaves me on a thin budget, so yeah.

But apart from that, well, I haven't really any strong preference as to what category of instruments to go for. Things I've looked at so far because of previous experiences were Jews Harp (tried it out in Sweden) and Mbira (thumb piano, family picked up a bunch when living in Zambia), not easy to find though.

[lovesjoyajm]

This might sound terribly obvious, but what about guitar? It's incredibly versatile, you can find teachers anywhere (or learn from YouTube, seriously) and it's not too big...you can carry it on your back. Unless you were talking about legitimately small. Like harmonica. They're annoying though.

Or are you looking for something less generic? (Don't get me wrong, I think guitar's awesome, I'm trying to buy myself one right now.)

Edit: Oh, I guess that really is bigger than what you're going for...

[IndiReloaded]

This might sound terribly obvious, but what about guitar? It's incredibly versatile, you can find teachers anywhere (or learn from YouTube, seriously) and it's not too big...you can carry it on your back.

This is what I would suggest also. Plus, you can usually find them for sale used in the ads. And it will encourage you to learn to read music.

[Charlie Boy II]

how about a ukulele

this guy will blow your mind


[ame="http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=puSkP3uym5k"]YouTube - Ukulele weeps by Jake Shimabukuro[/ame]

[IndiReloaded]

I've seen this vid^ before, he's awesome.

[lovesjoyajm]

ho. ly. crap. ^^

[boobaa]

I want tabla drums.

But why guitar? Why not lauto or mandolin? Mandolin is smaller also.

Anyway, is this only for digging chicks?

[lovesjoyajm]

I just bought a guitar on Ebay for €6,50! I can't imagine it's any good, but in my budget And it's missing a string, so I'll have to go buy one once I find out if they're steel or nylon (and once the stores are open, dumb German laws). Yay!

[vashti]

That ukulele player is amazing.

If you want small and portable, I would suggest you consider a violin or a wind instrument like flute or saxophone. In any case, buy used from a pawn shop.

[lovesjoyajm]

A violin isn't actually THAT much more portable than a guitar, just a bit smaller... and it takes a lot more patience to get a reasonably good sound from a violin than from any of the other instruments mentioned. (I've played violin since I was 7.) It's not so frustrating when you're a tiny kid scratching away but if you're an adult who wants to play music, I wouldn't recommend starting it unless you're REALLY patient and motivated!

[vashti]

True, they are much harder to learn (guitar basics are pretty easy), but I think they are more portable. I guess it's a matter of what one considers "small". I've had both, too. The violin could be tucked into the closet, but not the guitar.

[doppelgaenger]

Violin is fun to play!

So is the ukulele and the mandolin.

Lipp, probably the most convenient instrument for you right now, is probably going to by a stringed instrument with nylon strings. The smaller you go, actually, the harder it is to play, in my opinion.

I stopped playing guitar as much as I used to, but still, out of all the guitars I have, the one I've played most in my 7 years of playing is my acoustic nylon string - the strings last a long time, I bought it for $120, and it's still in mint condition (after 4 years) They stay in tune fairly nicely, they sound absolutely beautiful, even the cheapest of them.

And guitar is not easy to learn - don't let people tell you that. If you want to learn by notes, guitar is very difficult because the notes are all over the fretboard. The nice thing though is that every fret is a half step. And you also have 3 spots where you can produce harmonics (you don't get that kind of thing with every instrument) A person I taught guitar actually gave up because he couldn't do bar chords. It really takes some time and practice to master. I think piano is actually much easier.

[Mish]

A guitar is fun to play and not that hard to learn (once you get around using tablatures which are easy to read) so you don't need to spend money on tuition fees. It's portable if going for acoustic. Never underestimate how much fun you can have with them at parties. Even acoustics are laud enough.

[Lipp]

Mmm yeah, girlfriend's been suggesting me to try out a guitar as well, maybe since she's currently learning the mandolin, so a guitar sounds like a good call. Unfortunately being a guy comes with fairly big hands, so while I enjoy plucking alot (had a brief session of doing just that for a part of Enrique Iglesias' "Would you dance?" which was great fun) I think that doing that on a ukulele or similar instrument would be a hassle.

But yeah, a guitar could be it. Thanks for the input, I'll probably run about and look into sub-groups to a guitar to find something enticing.

[ame="http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=klWluYoa0_8"]YouTube - Enrique Iglesias Hero[/ame]

[Lipp]

Oh, and guess it was a bit unclear, I meant tuition fees as for my other studies here, which leaves a small amount for me to spend on leisure and hobbies. Not music lessons.