I play the piano and drums.
I started taking piano lessons at age 7 or so, and played for one and a half year before I quit out of boredom. I wasn't really that good then, I had a very shallow understanding of music.
At age 13 or so I started taking drum lessons. Again, after a year or year and a half I got quite bored with it, but this time I stuck through and kept taking lessons. I never practised though, and it definitely showed. But I still kept playing for 6 years. Ironically, after 6 years I was actually getting into it again. I had found Muse (favourite band) and was quite impressed. I didn't actually start practising again, but I started to enjoy playing the instrument a lot more when I did actually play it. I say ironically because after 6 years I moved out from my parents and off to college, meaning I couldn't bring my drumset. Instead I brought my old keyboard which I've started playing on.
I've been playing on that with a passion though. When I think back over the potential wasted during my 6 years of drumming I almost get angry. I could be very, very good at the drums, but instead I'm barely mediocre. I'm not letting that happen with the piano, so I make sure to play every day and to aim high. I moved out roughly 6 months ago, so I've been playing the piano/keyboards for 6 more months.
For both the piano and drums I'd consider myself able but not good. For a person who has never played the instruments themselves, I'm probably impressively good at both. But to myself (and, I suspect, everyone else who can actually play these instruments) I'm little more than a rookie.
I'm better at drums than piano, but the one thing I really need with the drums is practise and routine. If I had spent the last 6 months practising on an actual drum set instead of on my keyboards, I'd be really, really good, I think. I bought a small practise-pad that I can practise stroke figures and stroke technique on, but I really don't use it as much as I should.
Some examples of what I (try to) play. I like playing solo-piano pieces by Isaac Shepard, and even though I'm really not good enough to actually play them, I try anyways. I can play all of
All Smiles, the first two-thirds of
Countdown and like a quarter (the fun part) of
Sprinkle to rain. This is dashed with a variety of christmas songs, Muse piano figures and other small stuff.
For drums I recently decided to learn the
Rosanna Shuffle. Even though I don't have a drum set to play on I play it on my practise-pad. I'm not quite there yet, but I'm making pretty good progress.