4 ms·
Ask HN: How many of you play music?
I think that most of people have the common passion - music.
Many people just listen and enjoy. But I would like to know, how many of hackers actually play the music and which music style?
- Gibbon 17y agoI play keyboards, guitar and just started learning the drums. Plus I'm typing this from my studio full of equipment. Synths, samplers, drum machines etc, mostly used for house and breaks tracks. Also played the trombone in school until I was kicked out for improvising all the time.
- badger7 17y agoGuitar, Bass, electro-tinkerings and the odd bit of (bad) singing. From metal to Folky-acoustic, via rock.
- Gertm 17y agoI play guitar in a band. Mostly pop/blues/soul/rock, and a tiny bit of jazz.
- jasongullickson 17y agoThese days the instrument I play most is acoustic guitar, primarily out of convenience. In the past (and when time allows) I've made almost anything into an instrument, and recorded styles that range from classical to noise. For me the music I make has more to do with the context in which it is made than a purposeful selection of style, instruments and genre.
- joshsharp 17y agoThis has been asked before: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=428776 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=428776 and my comment from that thread: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=428969 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=428969
- Retric 17y agoThanks for the link I found: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=429043 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=429043 to be an interesting take. I have zero intrest in Music and don't link CS with Math. While I was well above average in math, relative to the average person, I am a far better programmer and consider it a compleatly seperate toppic. PS: My college DiffEQ teacher got annoyed when I said I had little intrest in getting a masters in Math. I wonder how many programmers have the talent, but lack the intrest.
- menloparkbum 17y agoThe Knuth comment was very interesting. I majored in Math and everyone in the math department played some sort of instrument, even if it was the stereotypical "nerdy kid forced to play the violin". Since I left school and been in industry I'd say maybe 1 in 50 I meet play an instrument. However, probably 4/5 of programmers I meet are bicyclists, or at least at own an overpriced bike.
- Maciek416 17y agoI don't play but I compose quite a bit (mostly random electronic styles) for my own personal listening.
- tamas 17y agoI've been an amateur composer for a decade, and picked up guitar recently. On a side note, coding VSI instruments and then utilizing them in my music can be really gratifying. (And sometimes annoying too, when after dozens of man-hours it still sounds like aliased hell.)
- antirez 17y agoI play guitar and bongos for fun with my friends.
- mullr 17y agoElectric guitar at the moment. Blues, jazz lately.
- cousin_it 17y agoI'm an amateur with no formal training; play fingerstyle guitar, sing and beatbox. Love jamming in the street.
- spooneybarger 17y agoguitar. punk rock. krylls.com. there, i got the url in. sweet.
- abyssknight 17y agoI'm a percussionist with a miniscule amount of guitar knowledge. :) As far as style, I've played everything from big band music and hymns through scream-o. I prefer not to lock into a style of anything.
- wfarr 17y agoSingle reeds and a bit of piano and percussion. Classically trained, but I do a lot of jazz too.
- ilivewithian 17y agoI'm learning the piano at the moment, I'm learning classical music.
- seertaak 17y agoI play guitar, sing, and compose for the Signals. (http://www.myspace.com/thesignalsuk http://www.myspace.com/thesignalsuk)
- bart 17y agoDo you think that bands like Signals would like to auction their unique things (guitar, signed tshirt, special call ... like NIN drummer) to get some revenue?
- access_denied 17y agoThe standard is to do that to rise some funds for charity. I don't think you can change that into a business, becuase a band who would change from charity to profit would come of too greedy and self-important. You won't be able to sell that to the cool-kids.
- bart 17y agoI think that you ha ve a good point of view. But I think that it is normal for bands to sell their own stuff on the concerts, etc. http://mashable.com/2009/02/20/josh-freese-album-promotion http://mashable.com/2009/02/20/josh-freese-album-promotion took it step further and he is selling package for USD 75K. Do you see it too greedy? I think that fans are ok with it, but there is a problem, that similar package can be bought just by few guys.
- flashgordon 17y agoplay carnatic violin and sing (south indian classical)... used to hate it in school.. what an idiot!!!
- thebryce 17y agoGuitar, bass guitar, double bass, and most low brass. Progressive rock, blues, and jazz, baby.
- sidmitra 17y agoI play my desk, the hand rest on the chair... i even play with my laptop keyboard when i'm on a role coding. And i'm proud of it too :-)
- evilneanderthal 17y agodrummer, gothenburg-style metal
- ssharp 17y agodrums, guitar, piano/keyboards in that order. i write melodic alt rock songs and produce hip hop as well.
- TallGuyShort 17y agoI play piano, and I kind of have my own style. I can read music, but I generally take a melody, syncopate it, and add my own harmonies and nuances as I play it, by ear. Lately I've been taking guitar tabs, transferring them to the piano, and then tinkering with those.
- sofal 17y agoI'm a drummer and I'm saving up for this bad boy: http://www.yamaha.com/drums/drumproductdetail.html?CNTID=568160 http://www.yamaha.com/drums/drumproductdetail.html?CNTID=568... Oh, and I would rather stab myself with a fork than play punk.
- TrevorJ 17y agoSome would argue that fork-stabbing and listening to punk have roughly the same psychological effects, so you might not be far off there :) I don't play drums but that's a nice looking set, love the colors.
- vitaminj 17y agoI've got a maple custom absolute and I think it's pretty sweet, but that PHX looks sick... how new is that?
- turkishrevenge 17y ago"Oh, and I would rather stab myself with a fork than play punk." good for you, but music should be emotive and a 20-minute Neil Pert drum solo is hardly emotive. If you equate technical mastery of an (needlessly expensive) instrument as the sole determining factor of musical enjoyment, I feel sorry for you. I cannot see the appeal of some technical wizard like Yngwie Malsteen. It's really, boring music at its core. Instrumental competence does not mean good song writing.
- delano 17y agoTechnical wizardry may be boring to you but a lot of people really enjoy it. I agree that instrumental competence does not mean good song writing but the high of music is where those two skills intersect. There is nothing boring about a Buddy Rich drum solo.
- gruseom 17y agoI agree, but this is a harder problem than it sounds. What's satisfying to the musician and what's satisfying to the listener are often different. Many musicians are interested in things that are hard or unusual to play. But most great music is simple or at least has an emotionally accessible, simple core. To have both an intellectual/technical engagement with the instrument and an emotional engagement with the listener is not always easy. The intellectual side is seductive, especially for the hacker type of musician. The greatness of punk rock was that it swept aside (or more precisely pissed all over) bombastic competence in favor of immediate vitality, which is much closer to what music is all about. But something like that inevitably becomes a formula and then you have the worst of both worlds: stupid and boring.
- tjr 17y agoI play piano/B3 organ and bass guitar, mostly jazz/gospel.
- TrevorJ 17y agoI play the guitar and from time-to-time I lay down some random midi tracks and generally just mess around with various sequencer software.
- GavinB 17y agoNot in a band presently, but do some recording for fun. Sample: http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/379399/So%20Far%20Beyond.mp3 http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/379399/So%20Far%20Beyond.mp3
- john_marsch 17y agoI try to play a guitar, but rarely have I the time lately trying to find the time to learn scheme and tcl/tk at the same time during some occasional readings of tao/zen/scifi literature. I try to keep myself busy, it wears off the time :)
- zkz 17y agoI tried and I'm horrible. I'd really like to be a good musician but I spend my time programming and reading and drawing and writing and not doing music, so I'm not good at that (also I'm naturally awful). I'm a good programmer, but very bad at music.
- d3vvnull 17y agoVocals, guitar, and keyboards. I semi-frequently record tracks in GarageBand. I ping-pong between rock and trip hop.
- noahlt 17y agoClassically trained violinist, though my forte is in improvisation (classical, rock, and jazz).
- gamache 17y agoI play primarily drums, though often I putz around on whatever gut-harp is within arm's reach. When I was playing in a band, we were a two-piece grind/death band; we were also another two-piece doing instrumental rock. I also play in a roughly annual Halloween Misfits cover band with some other rock dudes from the area. (Confidential to sofal: if punk is easy to play, you're playing too slow. :) Gear: I have a Mapex Saturn 3pc (24x22 kick, 15x15 mounted tom, 18x16 floor tom) with a 14x7 Ludwig Black Beauty snare. More of less is more. :D Also, whatever cymbals I haven't killed yet -- right now it's Sabian crashes and hats, 24" Paiste ride, 18" Wuhan china.
- surgesg 17y agoI consider myself a composer first, but I code my own laptop instruments and have experimented with networked performance as well. http://www.uwm.edu/~gssurges/ http://www.uwm.edu/~gssurges/
- colomon 17y agoI play bassoon in orchestra and piano on my own (though I'm very rusty at the latter). My main musical outlet these days is traditional dance music, primarily from Ireland (with a strong focus on South Sligo) and Newfoundland. I play whistle reasonably well and I'm working on learning wooden flute and one-row button accordion. I write tunes in this style as well.
- stcredzero 17y agoI've played Irish Traditional music on the tinwhistle for over 20 years. I've taught it in schools that are part of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann and qualified to compete in the All-Ireland. (And never stood a chance. I'm agog at how much musical talent there is in Ireland.)
- bwanab 17y agoTenor and Soprano Sax, Electric and Acoustic Guitar, Flute, plus lots of synths, sampling, electronic production. Style is mostly rock in a broad interpretation of the meaning of the word. This is a before work in the morning, after kids go to sleep at night activity, though. If I could just give up on that sleeping part in between....
- adw 17y agoGuitar, bass, keys/electronics (laptop, Tenori-On), and I sort of sing a bit. Used to play violin.
- ewiethoff 17y agoI sing in a couple opera companies in New York City.
- tricky 17y agoI play guitar. I'm always in a band or two. Mostly synth-rock bands. Lately, I've been trying to put together a cuddlecore-twee-grindcore thing with a lot of moog. We'll see how that goes.
- dc2k08 17y agopiano/keyboards - have my eyes on one of these: http://www.clavia.se/main.asp?tm=Products&clpm=Nord_Stage_EX&clnsm=Information http://www.clavia.se/main.asp?tm=Products&clpm=Nord_Stag... by the way, 4 part series on music theory that's worth a watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnbOWi6f_IM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnbOWi6f_IM
- danielzarick 17y agoI am not a hacker by any means, but I do have a band. If you want to check us out I would love to hear your thoughts: www.myspace.com/augustmoonis or you can download our whole EP for free here: http://www.ifyoumakeit.com/album/august-moon/strategy-truck/ http://www.ifyoumakeit.com/album/august-moon/strategy-truck/ Unfortunately we never play shows (tonight is the first in 6 months) since I have moved off to Chicago from Louisville, KY where we originate. But it is always fun when we get a chance.
- maggie 17y agoOrgan, piano, bassoon; used to play the first two at weddings/funerals/receptions and substitute-play at various churches. I'm not so good at the bassoon. My favorite is chamber music, but I haven't even had time for jam sessions the past year or so...
- adrianh 17y agoAcoustic guitar, mostly gypsy-jazz style (Django Reinhardt) and a lot of fingerstyle. I play with some gypsy-jazz bands in Chicago and post YouTube videos here: http://youtube.com/adrianholovaty http://youtube.com/adrianholovaty -- more than 12,000 subscribers! :-)
- eguanlao 17y agoCo-creator of Django here, everyone. "Mad props" to you, Mr. Holovaty, for Django. Oh, and your guitar playing is great.
- jherdman 17y agoI've been playing guitar for quite some time now. How did you go about learning gypsy-jazz? Do you recommend learning "simpler" forms of jazz first? I could use a challenge.
- spencerfry 17y agoDoes Rock Band count? I'm Expert on guitar and bass. ;) More seriously, I do sing some and I took a few years of African drums.
- eguanlao 17y agoI sing. I took voice lessons for many years, and was "president" of my high school choir for two consecutive years. I love jazz and adult contemporary. I sang two songs at the Green Mill Lounge in Chicago: "Come Fly with Me" and "Summer Wind." I can also play guitar; I took lessons when I was a teenager. I also taught myself the electric bass, including the slap-and-pop technique. And, I taught myself the piano, which I love but don't play as much as I would like.
- xcombinator 17y agoI play the computer, using my own programs to make-create music. Playing a standard instrument bores me(too much repetition).
- gintas 17y agoPiano (classical/jazz). A little djembe too.
- maryrosecook 17y agoHave a solo band: http://werenotthecoolkids.com http://werenotthecoolkids.com Kind of pop/noise/experimental; to put it another way: a noise band playing pretty melodies.
- neuromanta 17y agoI play on harmonica, blues mostly
- pie 17y agoI play drums, trumpet, accordion, guitar, bass, keyboard, banjo, and whatever else I get my hands on. Putting together a complex song with audio software -- wiring together effects and virtual instruments and tweaking MIDI programs and settings -- feels remarkably similar to working through a medium-sized software project.
- mildavw 17y agoJazz Bass - http://duoroyale.com http://duoroyale.com
- vollmond 17y agoClassical violin, as well as acoustic and rock guitar.
- dkasper 17y agoTrumpet player, played lead in jazz and principal in orchestra when i was in college. Also done some random shows with local rock bands looking for a horn player and church cantatas at the holidays.
- ntoll 17y agoI'm a classically trained musician (Royal College of Music) and played professionally for a couple of years before getting into software development. My brother is also a musician turned developer and this seems to be a common career path among former college friends. I play all sorts of music (not just classical) and will listen to most things. A life without music is truly empty.
- Oompa 17y agoI played Violin for 5 years, but quit two years ago. I just don't have the time to practice anymore, going to GATech.
- TheSOB88 17y agoI am an ex-trombone, bass singer, and arranger of the Gamer Symphony Orchestra, an 80-person student orchestra at UMD College Park that plays exclusively video game music. Check us out here: http://umd.gamersymphony.org/ http://umd.gamersymphony.org/ We've done a wide range of songs. Stuff from Mother 3, Zelda, Kirby, Halo, Tetris, the works. We've got recordings on the site. Our last concert attracted 1100 people. I'm very proud to be a part of it.
- j2d2 17y agoI currently play guitar in a rock band called Shipyards (www.myspace.com/shipyards). We're based in NYC. I used to play in a band called First Aid Kit (before the swedes used the name) and before we broke up we had the amazing experience of spending a month opening for Finch (punk rock from California) playing to between 300 and 1000 kids. I've played guitar since I was 12 and start with Metallica and Nirvana. I also play drums.
- paul9290 17y agoPiano, guitar and sing the songs I write. I had the urge to start learning to play when I started hearing songs in my head Id never heard before.
- haseman 17y agoIn our software office of 14, 4 do not play a musical instrument
- tamersalama 17y agoPiano. Classical. Used To.
- s-phi-nl 17y agoI have studied classical violin for almost 11 years, and am in an orchestra. I also like to sing (some mix between songs from musicals, hymns, and classical music, in about that order).
- mitechka 17y agoAcoustic guitar, recorder, ukulele, djembe. I have a small collection of folk instruments and try to learn to play each one of them at least a little bit, so I can play (or at least produce semi-musical sounds from) things like duduk and rababah :)
- robbiecanuck 17y agoI played trombone through college (jazz band). Now I play bass and sing in a rock/blues band that gigs once or twice per month. I also hack around on guitar.
- phugoid 17y agoGuitar, electric and acoustic. I'm very much out of practice these days - my two year old son is the priority. He already has musical taste - he comes over and mutes my strings whenever I play! I love playing some of those old Celtic tunes I grew up listening to in Cape Breton, meant for violin but nice on guitar as well.
- pshc 17y agoViolin, saxophone, learning the bass. Mostly jazzy style, but all-around.
- grnknight 17y agoAcoustic guitar - mostly folk and alternative rock. And typically it's just for myself or my family. :)
- flooha 17y agoI play guitar and drums. I did the band thing 15 years ago and had some local success with a band called Uncle Knucklefunk. Our high point was opening up for Ace Frehley (who had no desire to even say hi to us by the way, which was devastating for our other guitar player whose idol was Ace.) Now I play drums more than guitar, just because I enjoy it more. I have two boys who are both amazing on drums. The funny part is that I didn't teach them much. They learned by playing Rock Band and they're both better than me now.
- ken 17y agoI'm in the middle of a taiko apprenticeship.
- humbledrone 17y agoI play music in many different styles; from electronica to folk. When I recently bought a banjo, my girlfriend forced me to count how many musical instruments I had. I lost track around 14... The only problem is that with my time divided between them I never have a chance to get very good at any of them.
- newy 17y agoTangential question - can any of you recommend the best way of going about learning how to play the piano. Is the only way a tutor? I've picked up playing guitar for following tabs and YouTube videos, but don't seem to be having the same luck with piano.
- nickfox 17y agoHard rock with red left-handed stratocaster... Crank it up, baybee!! :o)
- runningskull 17y agoI play 5-string banjo, 3-finger style. It grabbed hold of me and now it just sucks up my time. But it's worth it. I'm getting pretty good, so who cares about doing actual work. :D