What My Guitar Wants to Say: Your Instrument and What It Says About You

Do you love playing drums,guitars, trumpets or pianos? Then you probably havean extroverted personality. Players of other brassand percussion instruments share the same qualities as well.
   
Musical Temperament

The correlation between musical instruments (that you choseyourself and not chosen by someone else) and personality traits has often beenobserved by music teachers. Noisy children who would burst into stores arelikely to look at drum kits, electric guitars or trumpets. 

The assumption is if you are takingdrums, brass or electric guitar lessons, you are likely to be confident ofyourself and don't mind to be the center of everyone's attention, as thoseinstruments are in the limelight, which an extroverted personality is likely tobe comfortable in. 

In 1996, Dr. Anthony Kemp published The Musical Temperament:Psychology and Personality of Musicians. His research noted that certainmusicians have personalities mirroring the demands of learning the instrument,a validation of decades of observations by music teachers.

If you play a string, wind or brassinstrument, you are likely an agreeable person, because these instruments playin ensembles and orchestras. You have to blend in with the rest of the players.You may also be impatient; woodwind and brass instruments create instant,melodic results, and don't require the level of grit one has to summon whenlearning a cello, for example. 

While playing solo, those learning to playkeyboard instruments may appear to be introverted and solitary types, butevidence examined by Dr. Kemp says otherwise. These players can be distinctlyextroverted, with their group dependency and warm-heartedness temperamentallyseparating them from other types of musicians.

Pianists also tend to be agreeable and lovecollaborating, because while a piano can be a lead instrument, its also socialas part of the orchestra.

Learning piano lessons takes years of discipline, so its notsurprising that players of this instrument tend to be conscientious andhardworking.

Unless playing in a string quartet, violins are not really in thespotlight, so people who love to play violins tend to be content, even takejoy, in being heard over being seen. They are also incredibly persevering andlaser-focused whether learning violin online or at home. Brass or woodwindinstruments produce harmonious results without a long wait. Violins don'texactly produce pleasant sounds right away. 

Based on observations by Dr. Kemp, string (with the exception of guitar) andwoodwind players appear to be introverted. These instruments can be learnedsolo, and even performed solo. So while a bit impatient, woodwind players canbe shy.

A Macho Instrument? Instrumentshave personalities themselves, and we often perceive them as fitting to onegender and not the other.

Music students tend to think of woodwind andstring instruments as effeminate, whereas drums and brass instruments arethought of as macho. With their loud and booming, and in the case of Frenchhorn and tuba, huge presence, its hard to think otherwise.

Personality traits of musicians that aremirrored in the instrument they play often relates to the demands of learningthat instrument. This is why pianists and violinists are often perceived as themost persevering of musicians because of the gradual progress they make overthe years.

Cellists tend to be thought of as incredibly focused because mastery of theinstrument only comes after years of deliberate and undivided best practice.Some musical instruments, like the brass, are defined by quick progress in asocial environment, which is why their players are deemed outgoing and wantfast results.