would it be ridiculous to get one of these with zero experience with any breath based instruments
There is a bit of a knack to the coordination of fingering and breath, not impossibly difficult but one of the challenges. Also playing in a key requires learning fingering of the scales ,which is different than a keyboard in how you approach it, you know immediately on a keyboard when a note is higher or lower in pitch and by how much. It isnât as obvious on a woodwind, or even with trumpet fingering.
If you want to try, and learn, without a big money risk, iâd say, consider a recorder, or one of the inexpensive electronic instruments with recorder like fingerings.
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I got an AE-10 with zero experience, and itâs a joy to use. As for playing in certain keys, you can actually transpose the whole instrument by semitones, so you can kinda cheat that part (but learning the different fingerings will unlock a lot more of the instrument)
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Definitely not ridiculous. However as @Jukka submits, there are far cheaper entry points to wind instruments.
If you have used and enjoyed wind synths in the past but just never learned how to play well, Iâd say go for it. Itâs easy to learn. If you Google it, I believe Sax is among if not the easiest instrument to learn.
With daily practice, I would expect someone with zero experience to be able to play their favorite 3 Christmas carols quite easily in time to go caroling this season and be good enough to entertain the common listener.
I taught my wife to play Jingle Bells in 4 different keys and she learned it well enough to play without reading sheet music on day 1. Itâs easy.
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Itâs funny too, once you really learn one wind instrument, switching or doubling on another is much more approachable, and actually a good thing, you kinda learn some flexibility in playing.
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This is very true. I had an EWI for years and just didnât like the buttons so I never practiced. Now that Iâve had Aerophone and practice daily, Iâm good with EWI. A friend came over with his Solo and it was very easy to play despite the troubles I had prior with it.
The NuRAD is basically the top of the line for the touch sensitive keywork approach. These also tend to use Akai EWI style bite mechanisms.
The Roland Aerophone Pro is basically the top of the line for the button keywork approach. These tend to use Yamaha WX style bite mechanisms.
The NuRAD has no built in sounds which if you just want to use it to control external synths thatâs one approach. Most external synths do not have stuff setup for wind control out of the box.
The Aerophone Pro has sounds built in so you donât need to rely on anything external and the sounds will just work for wind control.
I wouldnât try to learn embrochure for an acoustic reed instrument on an electronic one though. There is too much subtlety there. But switching acoustic like sax to clarinet, or across the sax family is much more doable. Sax to flute is funny once you pick up the knack of mouth shape.
ADDED : Iâve never tried a double reed, does anyone think it would be ridiculous to try ?
I learned trumpet after sax and the impact embouchure had on my mouth and jaw muscles were enough that I wouldnât even try to learn another. Certainly not oboe or bassoon. Luckily, I donât have too. Aerophone does double reeds well enough lol.
If I learn another instrument it would be guitar. I wanted that to be the first but I couldnât be bothered lugging it back n forth on the train to Publix school as a kid.lol.
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OMG!!!
So I knew Aerophone has an audio interface built in but I didnât know I could use it as an audio interface, midi controller and control surface simultaneously within your DAW!
Duuuuuuuuuuuuuude 
This thing keeps getting better, and betterâand Bettererrrr!!
*So yeahâŚscrew waiting. Ordering a Pro now too.lol. New use case for those extra controls and midi port.
This is absurd. Using Logicâs drummer I can make full tracks without touching anything but Aerophone. Foot controller is bonus. Donât even really need to look at the screen.
I bet if folks start showing with these things can do in a music production environment context, Roland will raise the prices.lol
thanks for all the input friends! i think i will pick up a recorder first, thanks for the suggestion @Jukka
ill keep an aerophone on the shopping list tho, i like the idea of expanding beyond keyboards
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I got my Aerophone with next to zero experience. Well, Iâve never learned to play a full song, so to me thatâs practically zero experience.
I learned how to play âTwinkle Twinkle Little Starâ in about a day using this app with my AE-20W. More accurately, I can play the melody in free time - still working on playing smoothly and in time with the backing track. The app shows me what keys to press before blowing (aka âthe fingeringâ), then shows me the fingering for the next note, waits until I play it, and so on.
Roland - Aerophone Lesson | iOS/Android App.
I havenât found any video demos of this app, but it works like the lesson app for the older Aerophone Mini Plus
I donât have any negative feelings/self-image as a result of buying mine, fwiw.
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thanks for the insight! maybe ive been handicapping myself in this regard, but ive always had more fun learning instruments by ear. learning some straight up tunes is probably the best way to get familiar with it though. ill toot along to some stuff on a recorder and see if i gel enough
Nothing wrong with learning by ear. Iâve done it on guitar, keys, and violin.
The main reason I use the app and, well, look at it with my eyes, is to see which keys I should be holding down for each note. Memorizing which keys to hold for G, which keys for F, which keys for A, etc. can be tedious work, but I am finding that itâs starting to take less time than before to match the fingers with the note I want to hear⌠as long as the note is part of the C major scale⌠for now.
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Every octave repeats with the octave mechanisms (rollers on EWI/NuRAD, buttons on Aerophone) so you can get away with learning a single octave.
I started learning the 2nd song from the app which is âGoing Homeâ.
The fingerings the app wants me to play for the higher notes indeed use an octave button. I was not worried about this, in any case.
I could have put in more practice time if I hadnât decided to spend some time learning how to configure the bite sensor. I will have to repeat this process a bunch of times because I never practiced embouchure before. The calibration process assumes youâve already practiced embouchure and/or whatever else needs to be practiced to have an established âzero pointâ in your bite pressure. My zero point is going to be fluctuating all over the place, because well, Iâm a beginner. However, I donât expect to get everything perfect right away,
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If you want to train the bite sensor I make it 2400 cent up and down and focus on maintaining in the stable middle. Itâs difficult but you get used to it after a bit.
I normally play without the bite sensor and I switching up my active instrument for practice and bouncing between a few.
I plan to limit my bite sensor mucking about to once a week at most.
I donât want to get too far from my primary mission, which is to drill the fingering to note relationships into my brain.
Put the recharged batteries back into the AE-20W. But it wouldnât power on. 
I reopened the battery compartment to see if I put any battery backwards. Then I noticed one of the little metal pieces that include a little spring had fallen into the Aerophone case. It must have been accidentally removed when I removed the batteries for recharge.
Lesson learned. Be careful when removing the batteries.
I pulled up the Eb major scale lesson in the AE Lesson app. Fun learning to use all those keys I donât get to touch when playing only the note of the C major scale. It doesnât just make you play the scale up and down - it changes things up by making you jump a decent interval up or down too.
I was then able to play most of that âSound! Euphoniumâ melody posted earlier - everything up the fast scalar run which Iâm not ready for. This more of a testament to how good the AE Lesson app is than my talent.
You could probably look at getting it fixed with the place you got it from but itâs probably something you can reattach yourself.