Mandolin is a fun instrument, a buddy now moved away used to stop over and jam with his.
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Iāve been making an effort to learn keyboards more properly over the past nine months or so. Iāve always played around with them because they were the mechanism to generate sounds I wanted but I always found them intimidating. Iāve played many other instruments for decades, various strings, percussion, and home made electronic stuff mostly. I learned two instruments by āclassical methodā (upright bass and guitar) and gained a love of theory in the process. This has really helped with keyboard playing. Something I didnāt expect to give me a leg up (but I think is doing so) is having spent years playing death metal guitar. All of the two handed tapping applies almost directly both in physical coordination and mentally for hand independence. I wouldnāt say Iām very good yet but I donāt feel like Iām pretending to play like I did for so many years.
Iāve started the Shakuhachi. It has been sitting on my altar for a few years, but I ended up finding a teacher and learning it finally. Thatās her:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDVIRY-4UmI
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A while ago I dug out my practice chanter for bagpipes. Trying to remember the fingerings. A bunch of years back my buddy lent me his pipes. One of the most amazing, crazy and loud instruments I ever played. Once you fire up all those drones, all hell breaks lose!
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woz
46
Good analogy, but I disagree with your conclusion 
Advanced music theory is about as beneficial and electrical engineering.
I learned all that jazz ** theory and threw it out the window. I started becoming one with my instrument after years of emulating the greats.
Maybe theory was a necessary stepping stone. Gave me a framework and made me feel confident. And it helped develop my ear. But itās an afterthought now.
Like Picasso said; learn the rules like a pro so you can break them like an artist.
Noodling around on guitar taught me the āwhatā, but until I began overlaying it with basic theory I didnāt really grasp the āwhyā, āwhenā or āhowā.
At a certain point, it helps you ābecome oneā with your instrument like you said, but without some foundational theory it was all guesswork until I stumbled across something that sounded cool or shamelessly ripped off licks from the greats.
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Mandolin is the newest instrument I started to play, upon receiving an Eastwood MRG electric mandolin on sale. Initially I had a problem with the high E strings breaking whenever I tried to tune them up to E. Eastwood support was responsive and sent me a refund for the cost of all the strings that I broke. I had my neighborhood music shop take a look at the nut, bridge, and tuning posts. They found that .009 guitar E strings were a better solution than the slightly heavier gauge strings that shipped with the mandolin. This instrument has to use guitar strings because of the magnetic pickup.
Most of my learning is through Andy Woodās bluegrass mandolin course on TrueFire. He teaches the traditional way - just learn a bunch of tunes and play along. He advised getting mandolin picks to facilitate picking on those doubled-up strings, so I got a pack of those .
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anokah
49
I totally agree. Itās not necessary to make music, but I wouldnāt have stumbled upon secondary dominants, triadic structures, quintuplets and all the other interesting aspects of music by noodling on the guitar.
But sometimes I miss the naive noodling, itās hard to get back to it with all that mental baggage. There`s no such thing as a free musical lunch I guess.
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I definitely didnāt intend to make a thread about the importance of music theory. Itās more intended to be a picking up a new instrument is fun thread, so I hope anyone on the fence about trying something new goes for it! Electronic instruments are awesome, but traditional instruments can be mind expanding and super rewarding. I wish I hadnāt limited myself for so long. Iām definitely hoping to remedy that. In fact, I went to a shop to discuss private lessons with a teacher to make sure I can get good habits from the beginning. Iām super excited about it.
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Those pipes always get me right in the heart. Beautiful instrument.
I havenāt learned any new instruments outside of electronic one, which are all new to me for the last two years.
But hereās a nice video of Snarky Puppyās Michael League on his new album, and about learning new instruments:) (just bumped into this video after reading this thread:)
Howās the bass going?
I just started jazz flute lessons and theyāre great! Iāve taken guitar lessons online before but itās so much better having a teacher in person. It turns out there is a school run by Yamaha/Yamano Gakki right down the street from my place and the best part about that is that I can rent their studio space to practice (like $3), and with the pandemic still going strong here, itās nice to have somewhere to go in the evening, lol.
Iām tempted to even sign up for a group percussion ensemble class. Getting together to beat on drums with people once a week sounds very therapeutic and proper rhythm training couldnāt hurt.
If Iām not careful in a couple of years Iāll be taking trumpet and upright bass lessons as well. Haha.
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JamesM
55
Is blowing saliva everywhere a good idea? Double Bass may be the safe option presently. Unless you play like that freak from Midori.
andā¦ did attempt the silent Viola last year, but it turns out that theyāre actually quite loud. Returned it 
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Haha. Yeah, itās all pretty good. Private lesson, plastic shield between me and the teacher and distanced. Rooms are all cleaned properly Japanese style. Feels really safe.
The practice rooms are all private as well and cleaned and disinfected between use.
I think flute involves a bit less spittle than other instruments as well, or so Iāve heard. No valve to empty or anything. Although thereās a bit in there after playing for an hour.
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Kuro
57
Bass learning going well: Iāve been playing 45 minutes every days for a month now, focusing mostly on good practice / safe posture / clean & precise hand techniques. The best part of my sessions is spent repeating exercices with increased tempo and complexity as I go alongā¦ Not the funniest part, but the few basslines Iāve learnt as a reward went in smooth sail. And Iām in for the long run, Iām not rushing. All in all, extremely satisfying and an awesome remedy to my depressed mind.
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Oh man, Iām with you on that. In the past, I wanted to hurry up and get to the good stuff, but right now Iām just enjoying the process. Itās almost like meditation. Also, by taking it slow, I can think about things like dynamics, which is something I never paid enough attention to in my guitar playing.
As you said, itās a great relief with the state of the world (and my mind) these days.
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Kuro
59
I find that it has indeed a lot in common with meditation: body awareness, good posture, avoiding tension to play faster, good respiration, being focused only on what youāre doing right nowā¦
All in all, my day always fells brighter after a little bass session.
Having a teacher must be super great, tho !
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I had a $30 store credit that was about to expire so I picked up this old school Pocket Operator. Iām actually having a blast with it so far.
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mncrmo
61
My new instrument was de Digitakt and i think itās been the best way to invest my time.
I was kind of frustrated cause iām a bass player and with pandemic and all itās almost impossible to find people for a project or band. Specially because i didnāt study music and itās even more difficult to find people here (Chile) if youāre not inti that circle.
Being able to ādo everythingā and use the Digitakt to make music opened up a whole new world to me, so iām very glad that i take the risk.
Also iām taking more bass lessons so iām playing walkinā bass now and aplying that to my Digitakt + Bass compositions.
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