When you play an instrument...

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I get frustrated more often than I feel elated. It's usually when I'm improvising and I just can't summon the creativity. I notice the same patterns and tendencies where there should be spontaneity and originality. On these days I cling to my musical routines too stringently.

I do have days every so often when things are clicking and the music just flows. I am free to explore the keyboard. Every phrase is well crafted and I surprise myself. The feeling I get probably compares to what you described. It is possibly the closest to happiness I can hope to get.

I've been playing the guitar since I was 11 (now 45...). I would play all the time if I could because it feels so good. When I was younger I did and discovered that other people, while watching the tele, didn't really appreciate my enthusiasm. I also get that same elation while writing music - finding a progression that ties everything together or leads the music to another quite unexpected place.

Reading and writing music has always been my vice. I learn better by ear than I do by sight. I think I'm like... Dyslexic musically. :\

I can write decently if I'm given time though.

I learned to read music at a young age, but I'm very slow, both writing and reading. I've found it easier to write my own shorthand or using a multi-track recorder - just laying things down. Many great musicians are unable to read music. I love that with writing music there is no time constraint.

I'm pretty much gonna be relying on my ears and avoiding it as much as possible. I like hitting the roots and improvising from there any how.

Though I'm going to have to be fluent in all three clefs if I want to master the Viola, Bass Guitar and Tin Whistle. (Trying to be a multi-instrumentalist, y'see.) I'm sure I'll get it eventually. I can read and write in the bass clef decently.

Another thing I've been feeling when I've been playing instruments lately is that I am literally communicating with them. It's like my hands transfer my thoughts to the instrument and it answers back in sound. This is even with instruments I've never played before. I played the piano for the first time today. It was as if I was saying, "Hey, play this for me" and it did.

Could be 'cause my hands are already quite dextrous from playing bass, but I thought it was cool.

I actually developed a bit of a new scale pattern on my guitar a couple of days ago, basically it's like a pentatonic scale but all chopped up, sounds pretty good too! I'm going to start using it some more and see where it takes me.

Do record it if you can, I'd love to hear that!

Really?

Also I'm a bit of a Caveman when it comes to technology, so I don't really know how to upload it if I did record anything. I'd like to though.

(Basically this pattern came about through having to work around a broken string.)

Yeah, really, I love hearing new things.

I'm a cave man myself. I'm only just learning about how a PA system works. D:

I'm not joking.... what's a PA system?

(The idiot has landed....)

The thing that has mostly replaced amplifiers. D:

What are the benifits of a PA system over an amplifier?

A PA is a public adress amplifier. It is primarily used for vocals, acoustic guitars,etc. It is a very clean sound and not generaly used for electric guitar. ( even when "clean" you usually want a little distortion on an electric guitar).

I play bass through it whenever I use it. I like it because of the bass boosting option on most systems. So I can hear myself over the drummer and brass.

I remember last year while still in high school, even when depression was at it's downright worst (including suicidal ideation, just to show the extremity), I always looked forward to one thing: Jazz band music practice. It was so freaking early in the morning, had to wake up at 5:30. Yet, just showing up there was an amazing feeling. Depression? What depression? It just vanished in that 45-minute time period called "practice", surrounded by all the other musicians in the room, despite being so early (I probably looked half-asleep as did the others), it was pretty much... euphoric being there. Freakin' music flowing everywhere.

Then... leaving the room after practice to go to school to start the day, was like coming down from a euphoric drug. Awful crap. But anything with music, yeah, would be like that. On Sundays I would play in the church youth group band and it was pretty similar.

Played guitar in the jazz band, bass in the church youth group band. I always had mediocre equipment, so it's not quite worth asking what I used.

One difference, though, last year, I didn't know enough to improvise well. Now I'm in another ensemble with more foreign pop music, but I have more opportunities to improvise and it just comes naturally, now. After practicing sight-reading, playing by ear, and music theory of keys, scales, and chords, and all that stuff, I might say I know my stuff. Although no one's perfect, lol.