What's your preferred instrument?

If anyone plays or uses an instrument, what is your favourite?

This includes vocal.

And why this instrument?

Violin, I played it for many years and really enjoy the way it sounds.

Piano.

It's the only one I've started to learn so far.

It was always my first choice. I've always loved the sound and the elegance of it. It's so versatile and can do very well solo.

Maybe someday voice, guitar, harmonica. Voice is a huge stretch when you have social anxiety and self-esteem issues. Harmonica would just be for extremely portable fun.

I play a Fender Strat. Poorly. I usually use it to release some stress, channel my inner Jerry Garcia, or piss off my neighbors.

My preferred musical instrument is the Viola. Many years ago I commissioned Marcello Villa to make me an Amati, though it is difficult to put my beloved Martin acoustic in 2nd place.

Mine is harmonica. For me it's the easiest to self-teach, and my kitty absolutely loves it when I play.

I don't have one. I used to play guitar a little, and I like the sound, but I gave it up. I love to listen to music though. All kinds.

piano, although I also play the clarinet

I played both the violin (classical) and alto saxophone (jazz and concert) growing up. Hated the violin. It is a shame though I was not aware of fiddle playing. Had I been introduced to that all those years ago I'd probably had enough fun with it to be still playing today.

As for other instruments.... I really like classical and finger picking guitar. As I told my son growing up, "Learn to play the guitar... chicks dig guys who play guitar." Sigh, that wasn't enough motivation.

I don't play any instrament, but I like the violin.

would love to learn to play it some point

when I was a kid, I had piano and drum lessons

wished I'd taken the piano lessons a bit more seriously, but their we go

Flute. I majored in it for my AA degree in the early 70's but decided to change majors to a more career oriented major as a junior. I stuck with my flute playing in chamber groups & some solo work until 2007.

The piano. It's the one I know how to play. But my favorite is the guitar. Sadly I don't know how to play it.

Harp. I have a 40 string celtic floor harp, that has an amazing sound. I mostly play celtic or Latin American music. It's a hard instrument to learn to play well, but I enjoy it. I'm taking lessons at the Royal Conservatory of Music, here in Toronto.

As a kid / teenager I played piano a lot and fairly well. I played regularly in my church and accompanied a choir, that sang at various senior citizens' homes. I was pretty serious about it, taking lessons through the National Conservatory of Music, in Quebec. But I had to stop playing when my Dad remarried, and sold the piano, as there wasn't room for it, in his new wife's place and we were moving in with her.

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Most preferred: Singing! I'm *terrible* (though I did take lessons, briefly, awhile ago - always wanted to get back to it) - but seriously, it is SO MUCH FUN.

Second most preferred: Piano! I'm still taking lessons here, and love the sound and the amount of cool stuff you can do. Plus, my piano teacher is one of my most favorite people in the world, and has helped more with "emotional regulation" than any therapist I've ever seen in my life (at a fraction of the cost). Yay, piano!

For listening... I really love violins and cellos and anything in that family. So achingly beautiful!

You too, huh?

When you find a good match, it really does wonders.

I also suspect that our life's ups and downs really come through in our struggles to learn and perform every week. It's a form of personal growth. They often provide encouragement and advice. Add to that the emotional nature of music, and discussions around the expression of a piece ....

I saw one piano teacher online laughingly admit she felt like she was the local therapist. I think it might be fairly common.

I don't dump my stuff on my teacher, but we get along great and she's not obtuse; I'm sure she knows.

And, yes, much cheaper.

CepheidVariable - Yup!

My teacher is super perceptive and one of the few people in my life who just "gets me". I'm so grateful for that. And he's good at reflecting back to me what I'm doing/feeling, which I've never really had a therapist do well - it's weird and helpful. He'll notice things about my approach to music/practice/life and tell me what he notices, and it's usually something helpful that I hadn't thought about.

He's also really non-judgemental, again, so much more than any therapist I've seen! It's been great for me to practice saying "no" (as in, "No, I really don't like that song and don't want to play it - what else can we work on?" ha!)

And I've learned that playing music that matches my mood can be really helpful! You'd think that playing depressing music while you're depressed would make you more depressed, but sometimes it actually makes me less depressed - maybe because of the congruence? Or the ability to express what you're feeling? It's neat!

That's funny about the teacher that jokes about being the local therapist, my teacher has said that too!

Drums I guess. Often I'll watch folks doing drum covers on Youtube and sit there glued...happy as hell. I'll watch anyone doing instrument covers but watching drummers is my favourite. I wish I had an aptitude for the sport but I don't. Prob a good thing!

For me my voice, "singing" and the flute. Both bring me endless peace and harmony!