Comments

a little mandolin, a little piano, and a LOT of viola... i swear, like half of my wedding/quartet gigs lately are on viola. I like to say anything with strings, but I have a few to go. I also play a little Appalachian dulcimer, triangle (which is a distinctive instrument in Cajun music), and very little Cajun accordion and English concertina. ;) Sue I play a little viola, mainly for my teaching, and own a mandolin which I have had some fun picking away at now and then. :) Hopefully soon I'll be able to add piano to that list. (I'd better be able to anyway, or I'm doomed as a music major, ha!) I only play violin. I started on piano as a child, but I don't play it anymore. Thanks for keeping the great surveys coming, Laurie! I'm not surprised that piano and viola are the most common other instruments, based on the former's versatility/popularity and the latter's similarity to the violin. I'm pleased to see that Laurie has abided by the Geneva Convention and avoided the Accordian as it is clearly a cruel and inhumane punishment. ;)

Neil

How come the Organ is not on this list??? It is far more interesting than the piano. Of course, I may be biased because I play this instrument. So, totally, I play the violin, the organ, and the piano. I can play the guitar a little, and even the accordian. hehe... I wonder who the tuba is ;)... but I wonder who else plays the baritone (euphonium)... You forgot Ukulele, but I'm Piano, Drums and Viola, as well as the Uke. I've had a go at the Bassoon, but not a big go. I can also play Bass Guitar, and I sing Sax and Violins. Sax is Violins. Oh no! Sorry about forgetting the organ and ukelele and accordion! You forgot human voice, the free instrument we have. And what about Erhu? I play both but can't vote:-( What on earth is a Balafon? Okay, the human voice is the free instrument that SOME of us can use in a musically pleasing way...

I'll take my violin over my vocal chords any day of the week, though!

Hey, everyone was going nutty over the African Balafon in the other thread, so of course I had to include it. I just started mandolin two months ago. It is a sweet little instrument. I'm playing Bach Cello Suite #1 Prelude (transcribed for violin) on it right now. It is very easy to learn if you're a violinist since the fingerings are exactly the same and it is tuned GDAE exactly like a violin. Scale length on a standard mandolin is 14", but I just recently got a violin scale length 13" from Mike Dulak of Big Muddy Mandolins.

He's a fiddler for 30 years and is now taking Suzuki lessons. He proudly told me he's on book 4, learning Vivaldi concerto in A. He appreciates the violin and is the only maker who makes a mandolin with violin scaled fingerboard.

Lots of fun and a natural for violinists to switch over. I can do my Bach Sonata #1 Fugue better on the mandolin than my violin right now (strumming the chords is often easier than hitting it exactly with the bow).

Organ. In a monastery, violin adds festivity on special occasions, but organ is bread and butter.

Also recorder.

Well where's the Melodeon (Diatonic button Accordian) tick box. I've played that for over 30 years in the Bursledon Village Band www.bursledonvillageband.co.uk.

I love the fiddle but I'll never be as good on that as I am on the squeezebox. I have to be greatful for it because it was playing that, that introduced me to my wife (the fiddle player) and we've been playing together ever since.

Not Classical I'm afraid but then we can't all play classical music, some of us didn't start young enough :-)

Best wishes to all. Dave

mountain dulcimer (DAD tuning). Autoharp?! Does playing A Banjo and a Fiddle count?
When my children were young I learnt some piano in order to accompany them. Now two of them outplay me on the piano, so play mostly violin, nowadays. These polls are great. Some time we should have the same options but with the question "What instruments besides the violin would you most LIKE to play but can't yet?" Harpsichord, Recorder, Viola
FS Harpsichord, Recorder, Viola
FS Clarinet, oboe, and recorder. But I abandoned all but violin when I "grew up." I'm also a professional singer. Voice is an instrurment too...the FIRST one! If you'd had "None" as a category, you could have also found out how many people just play the violin. Perhaps you didn't want to know that, but all of us violin-only types will be non-voters now. Still interesting. Hmmm... yes, "none" would be good option for the stats. Also, another vote here for er-hu, and for voice! Violin, viola, er-hu, voice, hand percussion (which I prefer to distinguish from drum kit). :-) To Neil:

To at least give the accordian a chance, I propose that you watch the DVD "Music from the Inside Out". It's behind the scenes of the Philadelphia Orchestra and it follows members as they pursue other activities.

The orchestra goes on a European tour and in an airport while they wait for a flight they seem to all drift towards some music they hear. In a hallway is a busker playing Vivaldi's Four Seasons on accordian. It's a moving scene as the orchestra members stand quietly and listen respectfully at the fantastic job the guy does. You'll hear an accordian played as you've never heard before.

Domra! Finally, something else I can play! :) It's nice to see that in graduating from trying to play the violin to trying to play the viola, I'm not alone!

The crazy thing is that I have an unusually small 4th finger, which gives me problems on the violin, let alone the viola!

I play ten as of right now but want to add a penny whistle to my repitoire. fun fun fun!

Flute,lap dulcimer, ocarina, soprano and alto recorder.

The ocarina. I don't play anything *well* apart from the violin (and sometimes viola), but I had a wonderful time in junior high studying harp, piano and occasionally flute. Also the mandolin, but that was like cheating since the fingerings were just like the violin.
Playing the harp was lovely, but unfortunately I didn't have the patience to stay with it. Impractical instrument to lug around (not to mention the callouses on all 10 fingers), but so beautiful. I played piano and clarinet when I was in grade school - Piano for about 5 years and clarinet for about 3. My mother tried to teach me both, and I was decent on both, but I wanted to concentrate on violin and I don't think having my mother be my teacher was the best situation... for either of us ;)