Is there a correlation between favored classes and favored musical instruments?

[Pyra]

This is an inquiry to Playgrounders at large: Is there a link between the types of musical instruments you play, if any, and the types of classes you tend to play in RPGs, D&D, and so on? I've seen in high school and college marching band that there is a noticeable personality 'type' to each section. I'm not the only one; the jokes on the subject are all over the internet - the "Tales from Band Camp" web-comic for example. I would bet there's a similar link in what classes people like to play, but I don't know enough gamers to guess how it breaks out.

So, I am inviting people to reply with if they play an instrument(s) and if so, which one(s), and if they tend to gravitate to a specific class, or specific archetype, (fighter, cleric, wizard, rogue), through omnivorously playing anything. I'll edit this post periodically to tally the results, and we'll see what happens.

I play the piano, tuba and flute, though the latter was only a few years.
I almost always play a mage or wizard, no matter whether it's a computer game or tabletop. I've experimented with other classes sometimes, but even then, they're generally a blaster variant.

The friend I was talking with in the conversation that spawned this idea does not play an instrument, but likes the guitar, and tends to play monks, rogues or sorcerers.

My husband plays the piano, and switches between paladin and wizard, but tends to play casters more often.

So, what do you like to play


Edit: First pass results after 15 replies. Explanation of methodology below.
----------------Melee/fighter---Ranged/Blaster---Support/Healing---Skills/Misc
Strings---------------4----------------9----------------9--------------9
Woodwind------------5----------------5----------------2--------------2
Brass----------------4-----------------3----------------0--------------1
Percussion-----------0-----------------0----------------0--------------4
Piano/Keyboard-------2----------------6----------------1--------------1

Edit 2: Second pass after 35 replies, added Singing.
----------------Melee/fighter--Ranged/Blaster--Support/Healing--Skills/Misc
Strings---------------13------------14---------------12-----------14
Woodwind-------------6-------------5----------------3------------2
Brass-----------------6--------------4----------------7-----------5
Percussion------------0--------------0----------------0------------2
Piano/Keyboard-------3-------------12----------------5------------5
Singing---------------9--------------5----------------2-----------10

[Erock]

I play bass guitar and prefer martial classes.

[Morithias]

I am going to completely destroy your math.

I play guitar. My favorite classes are the Master (read:Merchant), and the Healer.

[TheThan]

I play the harmonica, I like warrior types and bards.

[huttj509]

Clarinet, flute, viola, voice.

I like casters.

[QuintonBeck]

I play guitar very poorly and I can't deny I love monks, clerics, and rogues. I especially like a monk/rogue combo (yes, I love me some Unarmed Swordsage)

[TuggyNE]

I play violin and some viola and prefer builds that can keep enemies at a distance, usually psions, rangers, or wizards.

[erikun]

I'm not much of a musical person. I do have an old clarinet, although I wouldn't say that I play it anymore than any other instrument. I'd probably pick the clarinet to play if I needed to, although for more sentimental reasons than anything else.

The glass harp is neat, though.

I prefer to play Clerics, Paladins, and various "holy knight" characters.

[Slipperychicken]

Bear in mind that the people who respond here are steeped in optimization culture.

I play cello (12 years, still practicing and playing in orchestra), and often find myself playing classes which can heal (otherwise, the game doesn't have anyone else to do it ). Usually classes like Cleric or Crusader (which heal via spells or class features) or Summoner (which can do it via UMD'd wands). I also enjoy laying down the pain in combat.

Before I got into healers, I did enjoy playing a Wizard and a Factotum until I got bored of curbstomping everything.

[Dimers]

Voice and percussion; broadly-skilled characters.

[hymer]

I play the recorder and used to sing in a choir. My favoured classes are fairly beefy and magical - clerics, druids and arcane gishes.

Edit: Victor Borge used to tell us about his father's old viola, and how his father played in a big orcestra, and how the difference between the violin and the viola is that the viola burns longer.
Anyway, I hope you'll look through the answers and see how your theory is doing and let us all know.

[Stasgard]

Relevant to my interests, leaving my lurk for this one.

Primarily I play Bass, although I play a fair bit of acoustic guitar. My preference in any game is to play a Buffer/Healer/Support role.

[Slipperychicken]

Edit: Victor Borge used to tell us about his father's old viola, and how his father played in a big orcestra, and how the difference between the violin and the viola is that the viola burns longer.

Ah yes, the viola's defining feature

And while we're on the viola jokes: Why do violists stand for long periods outside people's houses? Because they can't find the key and don't know when to come in.

[Temotei]

I play guitar poorly and trombone. I like casters and martial adepts.

[Xefas]

I haven't played in years, but I did play the trombone all throughout middle and high school. I like big stompy tanky smashy dudes (and whacking other brass players in the back of the head with an errant slide from time to time).

[Gavran]

I "play" (rock) guitar and (classical) piano. I play any kind of character.

[Pyra]

Okay, tallied results to this point. Doing a very coarse grouping until more data is acquired. Split classes into the rough archetypes of Melee, Caster/Ranged, Support/Healing, and Skills/Misc, and the instruments into Strings, Woodwind, Percussion, Brass, and Piano/keyboard. Every response gets 4 points, split out if more than one category of instrument or classes are played. Edited the resulting chart into the top post too.

----------------Melee/fighter---Ranged/Blaster---Support/Healing---Skills/Misc
Strings---------------4----------------9----------------9--------------9
Woodwind------------5----------------5----------------2--------------2
Brass----------------4-----------------3----------------0--------------1
Percussion-----------0-----------------0----------------0--------------4
Piano/Keyboard-------2----------------6----------------1--------------1

[Ravens_cry]

Where does Karaoke fit into this spectrum?
I like noble warriors of good and uncanny little weirdos that defy the norms.

[Subaru Kujo]

Strings and I usually play skill monkeys.

[NichG]

Piano, and I'm a sucker for versatility-based characters - that often means casters (e.g. illusions, teleportation, summoning, divination), but I don't tend to favor blasting. So I guess you could call that Skills or Support?

[Subaru Kujo]

Piano, and I'm a sucker for versatility-based characters - that often means casters (e.g. illusions, teleportation, summoning, divination), but I don't tend to favor blasting. So I guess you could call that Skills or Support?

I'd call that support, to be quite honest. Skills I'd think would be stuff like opening locks, disabling traps, that sort of thing.

[Lorsa]

First a bit of nit-picking... isn't piano actually a string instrument?

In any case, I play the piano, some guitar (although worse than my brother), could play some basic electric bass too and I have played some basic percussions although it was a while ago... and even longer since I played wooden flute but I could probably get into it in a month if I had to. I also sing in a choir.

As for what sort of classes I play it varies a lot. I have made clerics and barbarians and rogues and arcane spellcasters and rangers and... well I like variation.

But if we have to narrow it down, my best intrsument is the piano and my favorite class is sorcerer.

[hymer]

First a bit of nit-picking... isn't piano actually a string instrument?

A wise man once said:

I have a song here which, I realize, should be accompanied on a folk instrument, in which category the piano does not, alas, qualify. So imagine, if you will, that I am playing an 88-string guitar!

But I think it's fair to categorize it either way. Certainly the playing of a piano and the violin bear sufficiently little resemblance, which bears it out insofar as this bit of research is concerned.

[Mastikator]

I've played some guitar in school (though it was a long long time ago) and I prefer warrior types.

[TuggyNE]

First a bit of nit-picking... isn't piano actually a string instrument?

Pianos do use strings, but they aren't "string instruments", per se. (In particular, string instruments can all be played with fingering and in pizzicato, and even with considerable similarities in basic technique, but a piano cannot be played with either.)

[Forrestfire]

I don't play an instrument, but I do sing, if that qualifies me for this.

I generally play gish types or hybrid caster/role classes. I like being able to do a little of both.

[Krazzman]

My wife used to play flute (forced in elementary school) and the accordion.
She likes to play Barbarians and druids and Archers (most likely ranger).

I tried my luck with an e-guitar but due to time constraints never really learned it. I prefer gishing, martial and easy-bake(spontaneous or fixed/small list[I have analysis paralysis most of the times with my cleric]) casters. (Dislike prepared casting but I am really fond of druid and cleric).

[M0rdain]

I don't play an instrument (but i used to sing) and i prefer cleric/paladin

[Lorsa]

Pianos do use strings, but they aren't "string instruments", per se. (In particular, string instruments can all be played with fingering and in pizzicato, and even with considerable similarities in basic technique, but a piano cannot be played with either.)

I guess what bothers me is when people assume that organ and piano is basically the same instrument and if you can play one you can play the other just beucase the keyboard is similar. While the keyboard is the same, the way they produce sound is vastly different and this has a much larger impact on the instrument than what some people realize.

So I guess it all depends how you like to categorize your instruments. There are some ackordions that uses a keyboard similar to that of a piano but that doesn't make them the same type of instrument.

But yes, I know that pianos usually don't count among string instruments. I do believe it should though! How it produce sound is more important to me than how they are played.

[Telonius]

Piano. I gravitate to charismatic characters generally (social Rogue, Warlock, Bard).

My wife is a trained vocalist (majored in voice, in undergrad), with a heavy emphasis on music theory. She's playing for the first time as an Artificer.

EDIT: Also, you might want to include people who don't play musical instruments at all. Including the control would help figure out any general biases.