Instruments You Struggle With

[Yank]

I play and teach drums, guitar and bass but for years I have struggled with violin/fiddle. I practice and work at it for periods of time, only to put it away in frustration, eventually picking it up again and having another go. Love/Hate relationship. Anyone similarly have an instrument they can't seem to make headway on.

[Yank]

I play and teach drums, guitar and bass but for years I have struggled with violin/fiddle. I practice and work at it for periods of time, only to put it away in frustration, eventually picking it up again and having another go. Love/Hate relationship. Anyone similarly have an instrument they can't seem to make headway on.

[BigRedX]

Vocals.

Apparently I had a great singing voice until it broke. These days I sound like the Red Dalek trying to carry a tune.

[Low End Bee]

Keyboards. I have sharpied the note names on mine. I just can't get to grips with it.

[Trueno]

Harmonica. I tried chromatic first, thinking I'd get to Stevie Wonder standard within a month or two. Sold that one on ebay. A few years later I bought a couple of diatonic harmonicas, thinking they have to be easier. Sold them on ebay few months later.

[Bobthedog]

Bass Guitar.

I learnt to play trumpet and violin as a kid with some success but unless it is slow stuff, my fingers do no move like they should on bass.

[markstuk]

I play keyboards to a pretty good standard, and by all accounts my bass playing is not offensive (I also played the flute to a decent standard) but I just don't "get" guitars... And I've tried....

Edited January 24, 2017 by markstuk

[Japhet]

Mandolin. Hands too big and brain too small.

[keeponehandloose]

Theramin...but it still sounds cool

[Rocker]

Gibson SGs and my Aria TA-50. I just hate the neck heaviness of these instruments. Why the hell did Gibson not fit the forward strap button in the correct place? The TA-50 is a copy of a Gibson so presumably the Gibson [335] has the same problem. To play, the SG is a nice guitar but I could not live with the neck diving towards the floor....

[upside downer]

I've always struggled on guitar with anything more complicated than rhythm playing. Soloing remains a ham-fisted catastrophe. Mandolin is another instrument of fat-fingered frustration.

[Bilbo]

Bass. It's a f***er.

[Woodinblack]

Flute - really have a problem getting any sort of note out of it.

[Kiwi]

Upright bass - never realised how much you had to fight it to get a good sound. Tried a NS Design CR5 and it was still no better. Shame really because that CR5 made a phenomenally powerful sound.

[xgsjx]

I can relate to harmonica. There's always been at least one in the household when I was growing up & try as I might, it sounded like a cat's chorus put through a harmoniser that couldn't pick up the notes.

Every other instrument I've picked up, I can soon grasp.

[KingBollock]

The one I could barely get a note out of was the clarinet. Which is a shame because they sound lovely.

When I very first picked up a violin (twenty four years and nine stone ago) it seemed that I was a natural. I could get lovely sounds with no squeaks or screeching, and found notes on it easily. I actually own a violin now but I can't play it because my fingers are too chunky.

I'd love to have a go with a cello, to see how I'd get on.

I have owned skinny string guitars for over twenty years, but I still play them like a bass player. The thing I really struggle with is chords. If it's not G, Ab, C, Db, D7, E or Em, then I'm stumped. I find banjo chords much easier.

I had a friend when I was a kid who was an incredibly talented musician from a family of professional musicians. They had a house full of instruments, including a little fife, similar to a plastic headed penny whistle but played like a flute, and they once challenged me to get a note out of it because, it turned out, none of them could. I don't know if it was a dodgy one, I didn't struggle with a proper flute when I tried many years later.

The one thing I always wanted to be able to do, from way before I took up any instruments, is to sing. I simply cannot do it. I have a naturally dull, ugly voice and I can't hold a tune to save my life. If a genie popped up and offered to swap all the "talent" I have built playing bass and other instruments over the years, for being able to sing, I'd do it in a heartbeat.

[burno70]

I've been playing the piano about 2 1/2 years now. Thought I'd pick up any instrument if I put the time in - which I have, and still do. But I still suck at it. I think it's the whole two hands behaving independently thing as opposed to two hands creating one note/chord. I'm still persevering and going for Grade 1 this year - but thought I'd be jedi on it by now.

[Woodinblack]

[quote name='Woodinblack' timestamp='1485298935' post='3223006']
Flute - really have a problem getting any sort of note out of it.
[/quote]

So I picked up the flute and thought 'wonder what there is on youtube' - turns out there were some really simple lessons, so I went through that, and now I can make a note

[RhysP]

All of them.

[Hobbayne]

5 string bass. I just cant get to grips with them.

[bassbiscuits]

Saxophone. My in-laws had one which they loaned to me - me thinking it would be another string to my bow etc.

It was impossible - there was nothing familiar about how you play it, and it was deafeningly loud which meant i hardly wanted to blow it anyway.

So it went back to them at next visit unfortunately. Top marks to anyone who can make it sing - it completely eluded me.

[fiatcoupe432]

my sitar man , i ve been playing it for 2 years now and still struggling

[alyctes]

Voice (especially as BV, but true generally). I'm so used to singing harmonies, I can't remember the line I'm supposed to song.

Not that I can play anything well.

[Kirky]

Tablas. The hand strength you need!!!

[Andyjr1515]

Like the OP, violin. I physically can't hold the beggar. I put it under my chin, pointing the right direction and at the correct angle...and my arm is usually at least 30degrees in the other direction.

Pity really...