Okay, would you rather learn one instrument REALLY well, like FRSM standard, or would you rather have say a grade 8 in one instrument and a grade 5 in another. Let's say by the time you are 30. Where would you want to be?

hmmm i dunno. it depends what i wanted to do. as i want to be a generally rounded musician i'd go for two instruments. i think it's important, especially in academic music, to have reasonable skills on the piano, but also to know how other instruments work and to be able to understand how they are played.

but if you've got your heart set on studying at music college, or being a top-class soloist, or whatever, i'd say you should concentrate on one.

Hmmmm. I'm not sure because it would be nice to be at such a great standard, then again knowing me I might get bored just playing the one.

One instrument - you can make more money as a virtuoso musician!~

~Wobby~

I prefer playing two, as I can spilt up practise time and I learn lots of different types of music.

Two definitely. I don't have an intention to study/perform music professionally - I do music because it's a hobby for me; something I enjoy. FRSM would be great obviously, but I'd be happy with reasonablly good standards in two instruments. As long as I am still able to enjoy playing the instrument(s) when I am older, that's fine with me!

One...seeing as I play one anyway, though am not that good at it...I dunno what playing two is like, i imagine it to be doubke the stress.

On second thoughts, that is the downside of playing 2 or more instruments- having to take more exams...

I think that I would probably get bored only ever playing one instrument, but instead of grade 8 and grade 5, I'd prefer Dip/LRSM/grade 3-4! I'd like to be reasonably excellent at *something*!!

Well I already play two, so I'd absolutely LOVE to be a female Joe Alessi! Or Christian Lindberg.

I really enjoy having two instruments - it's nice to be able to have the choice which to practise, and it also means that when my brace hurts i can practise piano, and when my eczema goes haywire/younger bro is watching the tv, i can practise flute
i also think it's great to have different teachers - for example, what my flute teacher, piano teacher and class teachers have taught me often influences more than just the instrument/work they are teaching me - i take stuff from my instrumental teachers into the classroom, stuff from the classroom to my instrumental lessons, stuff from piano to flute and stuff from flute to piano and whatever other combinations there might be! because there are so many different areas and opinions, i love it having the expertise of two pianists, a woodwind teacher, a brass player and two string players all there if i need it

I play absolutely loads of instruments and I'm sure my overall standard on each instrument is lower than it should be because I play so many others. Having said that, I definitely prefer playing lots to varying standards than just one or two to high standards.

Matt

ONE!!!!

Every time, I would pick just the one.

Well I quite like playing 3 And I'm doing 3 Grade 8s in the next 2 years so I suppose that's quite good really But I imagine playing one might get a bit boring after a while

I'm actually quite happy with the one. I'd rather dedicate all of my effort to that. I would like to play something more ensemble friendly (i.e. orchestral) but I'd like to get to at least diploma standard (i.e. having passed one) on my first instrument first. Then maybe I'll take something else up as well (the oboe perhaps) to get to enjoy the benefits of beginner-ness again . I like to feel that I can dedicate myself fully to one thing rather than half doing two things. This probably sounds really strange (or like a priest ) but nothing has ever had the same 'calling' to me that piano does .

MAJOR EDIT



That is PRECISELY why then I've been there done that got the t-shirt (god it's a nice one )

What??? Very confused by this post.

Exactly how is AP "on low standards"? Have you heard her play? She plays piano really beautifully, with great technical control as well as musicality and a lovely touch.

Oh....my....god....ARGH!!!!

I QUOTED THE WRONG PERSON!!!!!!

I was supposed to be quoting bassmadmatt! I'm so sorry AP!

OK, I'll call off the hitman .

My thoughts exactly!

Just read this, thankfully I was distracted by doing something else until it was sorted .

Got me a good giggle though, and a nice compliment .

*laughs*

"Call off the dogs!"

Chris, for future reference (and to save your skin...) by far the easiest way of quoting a particular post is to click on the reply button in the bottom RH corner of the post. I could be wrong but it strikes me you may have used the "quote" function? Which is quite weird and doesn't always work properly, or at least, doesn't always work the way I expect it to....

If I'm wrong/you know that already, sorry: just thought it was worth pointing out