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Do you play a musical instrument?

post #1 of 44
10/18/09 at 10:53am
Thread Starter 
How many musicians do we have here? I'm hyped right now about the trumpet my mom found at a garage sale and is sending me--a King 600 (not one of their top ones, but it is a King . . .) made in the '70's, in mint condition. I can hardly wait :roll:

I've played violin, French horn and trumpet, but it's been some years. I'm also really good at playing my Polk Audio/Onkyo sound system. That takes a lot of talent. How about the rest of you?
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post #2 of 44
10/18/09 at 11:58am
I play a lot if instruments. Mostly drums, guitar, piano, and bass, but if you'd like I can give you the full list. Drums were my first instrument. Started playing when I was seven.
Bork Bork Bork!
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post #3 of 44
10/18/09 at 4:22pm
Thread Starter 
Cool, Bryan :thumb:
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post #4 of 44
10/18/09 at 5:20pm
I'm a professional violinist.
In a nutshell
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post #5 of 44
10/18/09 at 6:59pm
Thread Starter 
That's really great! I played violin for 9 years (4th-12th grade). I ended up pretty good at it. Not pro-level, of course. Years later I figured out why I had a hard time with some of the fingering and the vibrato--I just cannot keep my left elbow under the violin without a lot of effort. I don't bend that way.
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post #6 of 44
10/18/09 at 11:54pm
violin is one thing i dont play that ive always wanted to learn. i just cant figure out how to not make it squeak
Bork Bork Bork!
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post #7 of 44
10/19/09 at 12:30am
National instrument of Scotland :lol:
Although, to be honest, I haven't played for quite a few years - but I still have my pipes, just in case I ever get the urge to let rip!
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post #8 of 44
10/19/09 at 5:02am
While I played several instruments as a child (piano, flute, saxophone, guitar) I wasn't really good at any of them. Turns out, I've got a "right hand, left hand" problem (i.e., I can't do two different things with each hand). Took up singing at 40 and fell in love with the opera. Nothing like Puccini to put you in the mood for great italian food :)
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post #9 of 44
10/19/09 at 9:59am
I play bass and guitar. Right now I'm playing with Nik Entertainment in the wedding and party bands as you can see by the signature.

My latest musical venture!
http://myspace.com/nikandtheniceguys
 
Also
http://www.myspace.com/popshowband "I'm at the age when food has taken the place of sex in my life. In fact I've just had a mirror put over my kitchen table." Rodney Dangerfield RIP
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post #10 of 44
10/19/09 at 4:41pm
I play acoustic guitar. Taught 2 sons and 1 brother to play. 1 son n 1 bro are way better now than i'll ever be. Im so proud (for proud, read jealous)
"If we're not supposed to eat animals, why are they made of meat?" Jo Brand
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post #11 of 44
10/20/09 at 5:49am
I played trombone in jr. high but didn't go very far. I started 3 years later than everyone else in the band so in the push to be ready for marching and concert seasons, I didn't actually learn to read the music. Not easy when it's time for a sight reading competition!

I dabbled with piano and keyboard. I took a couple of formal piano lessons in elementary school but the teacher wasn't dependable and after 2 lessons in 2 months, my parents pulled me out of the program. From the bit I tried to teach myself, I think I may have the same problem in using both hands at the same time to do different things as singer4660.
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post #12 of 44
10/20/09 at 8:12am
I grew up in a house full of musicians, my Dad played in the Miami Symphony Orchestra in the 60's, my mother was a piano teacher, my brother was a studio drummer and drum tech, my aunt plays guitar and was a concert classical guitarist. I tried like the devil to learn piano, guitar and violin but being ambidextrious I always had a problem with the L/R seperation and they wanted to do what the other did. Very frustrating since I have a better ear for music and tone than most of them. In my free time when I was younger I used to help out a local home and car audio shop with tuning the stereo installations.
Taste: The sensation derived from food, as interpreted thru the tongue to brain sensory system.
Flavor: The overall impression combining taste, odor, mouthfeel and trigeminal perception.
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post #13 of 44
10/20/09 at 9:30am
I hear too much complaining about hand dexterity and independence. I only hear these excuses from students who don't want to put in the work required to learn an instrument past a certain level. What, you think pro musicians are just born with the ability to make each hand do something different than the other? Not a chance. Sorry, just calling 'em like I see 'em.
In a nutshell
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post #14 of 44
10/20/09 at 9:42am
I started piano at 4, mostly classical. But only play 3 classics anymore and that is rare (Warsaw Concerto, Moonlight Sonata, Claire d'Lune).

But since my '40's, I acquired a 1935 National Duolian resonphonic guitar and learned slide blues. Since then I've played at several venues, although only got paid once! Also have a custom Martin dreadnought, modeled after a 1935 Martin, and a couple of National replicas (Style 0, Style W tri-cone).

Don't play them as much as I used to either, as I got arthritis in the fingers, and since chopping up my back cement porch about a month ago, my carpal tunnel as returned with a vengeance!

doc
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post #15 of 44
10/20/09 at 9:49am
Thread Starter 
Heyyy, you got Satch as a friend, how cool :thumb:
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post #16 of 44
10/20/09 at 9:54am
While I would agree that professionals work really hard to get where they are, a certain amount of inate talent is required to be successful. This is true of any art from cooking to theater to music. Personally, I wasn't using the "right hand left hand" thing as an excuse, simply a realization that my brain doesn't work that way and this would make it very hard for me to ever be really good on an instrument that requires that specific ability. I took 9 years of piano lessons, practiced every day, and never got to be more than mediocre. I took 2 years of voice lessons and was hired professionally by the local regional opera. Big surprise, my inate talent is in my voice not my hands. What's interesting about the story (IMHO) is that it took so long for me to figure it out.
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post #17 of 44
10/20/09 at 10:31am
I wasn't trying to be accusatory, sorry if it came across like that. What I'm trying to stress is the opposite of what you'e saying... I don't believe that inate talent is as useful as you may think. I teach plenty of students that have little talent but put in a great effort and get to be very good. I also have students that have more talent in their pinky than all my other students combined but they're lazy as all heck and never amount to anything. Talent can be a motivation but it won't carry you to high ranks alone.

I started learning violin when I was 14. Most great violinist start learning right around the same time they start walking so I was a beginner amongst advanced students. By the end of high school a lot of those students dropped out of conservatory where as me... I was ready for more. I had a certain amount of talent but not nearly as much as other musicians i was and still am surrounded by. It was hard beyond hard and I spent hours locked up in a practice room (still do, that never ends).
In a nutshell
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post #18 of 44
10/20/09 at 12:44pm
Interesting about talent vs. hard work.

After playing slide delta blues for about 1 year, I played for a real honest-to-goodness real bluesman. When I got done, he exclaimed, "Well, sxxt man, I've been playin' blues for 55 years and I can't even play like that!".

And he promptly got up and walked off, and didn't speak to me again during the 3-day blues festival!

doc
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post #19 of 44
10/20/09 at 1:12pm
I play a little guitar and keyboard, but mainly produce records and have some credits.
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post #20 of 44
10/20/09 at 6:41pm
Like most kids from my generation, I suffered thru piano lessons. From there organ followed. Then came trumpet and coronet, mellowphone, sousaphone, and tuba. I've never been able to play any stringed instruments very well. Mary Had A Little Lamb is about the only song I can play on violin but it sounds like I'm playing the lamb instead of a violin. My big desire now is learning to play French horn.
If Wile E. Coyote had enough money to buy all that ACME stuff, why didn't he just buy dinner?
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post #21 of 44
10/20/09 at 7:00pm
I lived in a home with a professional(my father), a teacher(my mother), a concert guitar player(my aunt) and a YOUNGER brother who could play just about any string instrument or a piano without any lessons. I practiced constantly but never could get past my lack of ability and the confusion happening within my hands. I just wasnt born to play. I realize the work you have to put in and would never take it away from anyone but its not very fair of you to "call em like you see em" when you werent there.
Taste: The sensation derived from food, as interpreted thru the tongue to brain sensory system.
Flavor: The overall impression combining taste, odor, mouthfeel and trigeminal perception.
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post #22 of 44
10/20/09 at 8:31pm
Nope.

No one in my Dad's family every played anything, no one except one Aunt in Mom's family (12 kids) played either. Needless to say no one in my family can either. My Mom could sing, quite well, sang in the Parish choir for about 20 years.

Grades 1-7 there were no musical instruments--other than cymbols or triangles to accompany "Choral singing" but that was about it. Only 1 (one) teacher knew how to play piano....

Grade 8 was a nightmare--highschool and the expectations that I could at lest play some kind of scales or know what those funny litle squiggly black thigs were. Lets just say I bombed....

Can't/won't even sing in the shower.......,
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post #23 of 44
10/21/09 at 3:40am
I play guitar a little, used to be okay but haven't picked it up in a long time. My brother is the real musician in the family: guitar, bass, drums, keyboards and accordion. He was lead guitarist in a band recording on Capitol in the late 80s. Played opening gigs for REM, The Dream Syndicate, Green on Red, Steve Earle, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Camper Van Beethoven, The Meat Puppets and The Replacements. I have bad hearing now from going to his shows, though.
Anulos qui animum ostendunt omnes gestemus!
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post #24 of 44
10/21/09 at 5:13am
Sure it's fair, we've all had our set backs. It must be frustrating to be part of a musical family and not measure up but I had the opposite experience. My parents don't even play the radio and were against musical training... I wasn't allowed to practice when they were in the house so I had to get up extra early to go to school and get practice time. I had to come up with all sorts of tricks to continue music and I got through it, mediocre talent and all. I may not have been where you were but trust me, I was in the trenches. And the "excuses" I was refering to was from my students who find a million reasons not to put in work, it wasn't about you directly although your post conjured up the same "I don't have what it takes" logic I hear from kids who need a nudge.
In a nutshell
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post #25 of 44
10/21/09 at 5:46am
No, it isn't fair. Some people have a natural gift with music and others don't. Saying that someone needs a nudge would be like me saying sure, you can sing in the same range as Caruso, Domingo, Carreras, or Pavarotti if you just practice enough...and you're a bass. It isn't going to happen no matter how hard you try. My brother took piano lessons from the same teacher as me. My sisters also took lessons from the same man. My brother was never able to play very well at all even when he put in twice the time practicing compared to the rest of us. I have one sister that blows us all away on the piano. I'll never be able to play as she does but she isn't able to play a trumpet like I do either. As nice as it would be to be able to compose like Beethoven, Schubert, or Glinka it isn't going to happen no matter how hard I try.
Rather than put someone down for not having a skill a person thinks they should have, encouragement to do the best that person is able to do will accomplish a great deal more over discouragement.
If Wile E. Coyote had enough money to buy all that ACME stuff, why didn't he just buy dinner?
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post #26 of 44
10/21/09 at 6:57am
What would you suggest I do as a music teacher? Tell them they can't overcome their limitations? Tell them they can't become a great violinist like Itzhak Perlman? There are a lot of "can't dos" and closed doors in the world of the arts, but they should never come from a teacher.

"Saying that someone needs a nudge would be like me saying sure, you can sing in the same range as Caruso, Domingo, Carreras, or Pavarotti if you just practice enough...and you're a bass." Not sure this makes sense, why would someone try to encourage a singer to be a tenor if they're a bass? This is most definitely not what I meant by a nudge.

All I know is that my job as a musician and teacher is to make music to the best of my ability. I look up to Jascha Heifetz and strive to be like him, but I'm never going to be like him... I can only be the best version of myself. It's my job as a teacher to get my students to think past their limitations, that's what teachers do. If your child was taking lessons with me you better believe I would try to get them to do the best work they were capable of. You would never hear me tell you "I'm sorry, your child has no talent and no capacity to learn this instrument." It'd be one thing for someone to say this to themselves, and a complete other thing for a teacher to say this to a student, agreed?
In a nutshell
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post #27 of 44
10/21/09 at 9:14am
Thread Starter 
People pick different things to put a lot of effort into, and there's nothing wrong with that either. I'm not going to try to be the world's best everything.

For me, music is fulfilling and fun, even though I'm not highly accomplished. I'm happy with that.
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post #28 of 44
10/21/09 at 9:51am
We're from the same 'hood'....:mullet: Actually so is Steve Vai. We were born in the same hospital only a few months apart. And that my friend is where the similarity ends! :cry:
My latest musical venture!
http://myspace.com/nikandtheniceguys
 
Also
http://www.myspace.com/popshowband "I'm at the age when food has taken the place of sex in my life. In fact I've just had a mirror put over my kitchen table." Rodney Dangerfield RIP
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post #29 of 44
10/22/09 at 2:06am
chrose, i couldnt help but notice, but im as much of a gear nerd onstage as i am in the kitchen. what model p-bass is that. i see the p pickup in mid and the jazz pickup in bridge, so im thinking a special, but, when did they come with gold pickguards?
Bork Bork Bork!
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post #30 of 44
10/22/09 at 6:11am
I don't think Perlman is all that great, prefering the likes of Oistrakh, Menuhin, or even Nesbitt but that's another opinion. The rest of the quote above does make sense based on the way you have posted on this subject, or at least the way it comes across to me.

Maybe it's the words and your phrasing that is causing me to misunderstand you. To me, you go from sounding like you're all for pushing people to overcome limitations then backpeddle on it. I'm all for people pushing themselves beyond limitations and have always encouraged my kids and grandchildren as well as people who work for me to do this. All I'm saying is that talent and natural ability as well as practice go way beyond any amount of time spent practicing by someone without the talent. Yes, some people waste the gifts they have for whatever reasons but no matter how hard someone may practice, no matter how many nudges they get, they'll never sound like anything other than a frog when they sing. Not that that's bad, I enjoyed the Bud Wise Er Frogs. :)
If Wile E. Coyote had enough money to buy all that ACME stuff, why didn't he just buy dinner?
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