Not a side project, per se, but I've finally picked up the guitar again.
I've been a musician for going on 20 years, mainly piano but I like to collect the ability to noodle on instruments. When I was around 13 I broke my left forearm and it healed in a way that limits the rotation of my wrist quite a bit. This makes playing guitar rather difficult and at the time I started to consider branching out from piano there were a bunch of factors that made me give up on being able to play guitar. I was gigging as a piano player for 10-12 hours a week, while also going to school for piano and CS I started to develop tendonitis and trying to play guitar made it a lot worse, so I quit. I'm now in a place where I can take care of my arm (and I have actual healthcare) so I started back up again.
I guess HN is cool with self-promotion, so here's a jam I made with a looper pedal after about 2 weeks. I call it "More Theory Than Experience"
I've been playing the guitar for 20 years but I play as good as someone who has played for one year! I'm just not good at it. I love it, but I just never could get past some of the basic chords. It's very therapeutic though, so whatever. I'm enjoying it. :)
I tried and tried and tried to play guitar. Now I can play some chords and couple strumming patterns. My only goal was to sing some easy songs and play along. But it seems that singing along requires next level of mind bending.
So last week I ordered a drum kit (Yamaha dd75) and hope to have better luck with drumming. It’s a blast so far.
I took a rather circuitous route of playing and learning piano for 15 or so years (I'm 25 btw, I just started early) and being a massive theory nerd. I also taught myself piano until I got to college, which I think gave me unique perspective but I also know took waaay longer than it I'd just taken lessons. At the same time, I really enjoyed learning as a passion instead of a commitment. There were times I walked away but I always came back. That's just me though; if you learn better with the mild pressure of a teacher's tutting that's absolutely valid.
I've currently teaching myself as I just love exploring. I've watched some youtube videos about scales and I follow a few guitarists on youtube (samurai guitarist[0] comes to mind and Paul Davids[1] has probably been my biggest influence in my ability to play). Other than that, it's all been throwing all of my experience at it and seeing what sticks and what doesn't. Definitely record yourself once and a while to see what's working, and listen to a lot, both passively and actively, and try to spot what you like and really analyze it.
speaking of which, I've found music theory to be completely indispensable in my ability to self-study. Being able to take what I heard and internalize it, and being able to take what's in my head into my hands is absolutely essential.
You sorta motivated me to pick up guitar again... the sound of it makes me excited so gonna cont. with a course I bought on Udemy and see how far that takes me.
I'd also checkout Samurai guitarist and Paul Davids.
I've been a musician for going on 20 years, mainly piano but I like to collect the ability to noodle on instruments. When I was around 13 I broke my left forearm and it healed in a way that limits the rotation of my wrist quite a bit. This makes playing guitar rather difficult and at the time I started to consider branching out from piano there were a bunch of factors that made me give up on being able to play guitar. I was gigging as a piano player for 10-12 hours a week, while also going to school for piano and CS I started to develop tendonitis and trying to play guitar made it a lot worse, so I quit. I'm now in a place where I can take care of my arm (and I have actual healthcare) so I started back up again.
I guess HN is cool with self-promotion, so here's a jam I made with a looper pedal after about 2 weeks. I call it "More Theory Than Experience"
https://youtu.be/_beFK_j-Dk8