Post #3889044

2026-07-17 16:07 UTC

Main is guitar. Fiddle, its less effort to play notes quickly, but the technique is tricky. At first its like whack-a-mole: if I think about my bow, my left hand goes out of pitch. Think about the left hand, the bow gets wonky. It takes a long time to get things to be more automatic so you can concentrate on the tune, or more advanced techniques like vibrato. Also, the fiddle is really loud and its right there next to your ear. I use an earplug.

Replies (1)

@ToastedRavioli@midwest.social 2026-07-17 19:08

As someone who started as a drummer, but moved to guitar as a primary instrument (and can also play piano, or most anything given enough time) this is it. 99% of musical ability boils down to muscle memory IMO. Or at least 99% of improving at playing an instrument is based in improving muscle memory. Muscle memory is absolutely critical to your sense of timing and delivery of dynamics. After playing guitar for like 15 years, it was very easy to learn to play a charango or a ronroco. In the musical/theoretical sense a ronroco is very different from a guitar in that its a reentrant tuned instrument instead of linear. But at the same time if you have the muscle memory from playing a guitar you already have most of the tools you need to play a ronroco. I could more easily write music for someone else to play on a wind instrument than I could actually play one. Having the theoretical understanding of where it should fit in music or what would sound good means nothing in terms of actually playing it. I cant get used to how a wind/brass instrument feels on my lips. The fingering is a bitch. All of that muscle memory is muscle memory I dont have. Could I develop it given enough time? Sure, but I doubt I ever will.

Open ##3892868