"Ahh, Music, a magic beyond all we do here!"

[mothwing]

So, who plays a musical instrument, and which?
I'm curious.

I am curious because I love musicians music and always envy musicians for their proficiency. My own career as a maker of music with any instrument is pretty short and filled with unrequited love.

When I was six, my mother thought it was a good idea to have me learn the recorder. I hated it. I was not alone with the teacher, there are other children there, I liked that, but I hated the lessons. I was bad. The teacher always had me play our homework assignment in front of everyone as a punishment because I couldn't keep up with the others. She was a fiend in human shape, another musician who had never made it and now got by by giving lessons to young children. I stopped going to those lessons fairly soon. I didn't even like the sound of the recorder, and the knowledge that I could go on to nicer instruments once I'd mastered that dreaded thing was not really a great consolation for me, either.

I always wanted to wake up and be able to play the Cello. It's my favourite instrument, but I fear that it's far too difficult to learn for me now. Or the piano. That might even be fun learning. I've always envied people who were able to play it, like angie_21_237 and, of course, Crocky.
I half-heartedly tried learning the tin whistle, with great sheet music with drawings of the whistle under each note so I could directly play according to the little drawings, but that was a very short-lived experiment. I never really managed to get proper notes out of the thing whenever I tried overblowing.

Currently, I'm thinking of learning how to play the trombone. Not easy either, but I really like the sound of that instrument, and it's possible fairly quickly to join a little amateur ensemble and play together with others, that's more fun than practising on my own, which I never keep up for long, I know myself. And I'm still looking for a choir, one that meets at a half-way decent time at a place that's half-way close by. The ones I found are either meeting on Thursday, when I have a seminar, or are just too far away. I somehow don't want to make an hour trip to get to my choir.

Comments

[aixa.livejournal.com]

Well, I had piano lessons as a kid, but quit after only 2 years. I took a piano class in college and really enjoyed it. I can play a little still, but I'll never be great at it. Don't have a piano in the house, so it's tough to practice.

Everyone in my school had to learn the recorder. I was always good at it. Didn't really play it much past elementary school though.

I'm a singer. Singing just always came naturally. I've done musicals of course, but also choirs and sung with bands and stuff. Unfortunately, the steroids I was on for my asthma screwed up my range a few years ago. I doubt I'll ever be a true 1st soprano again, but I'm learning to deal with being a mezzo. I don't sing in public as much now as I used to, but if I'm home alone, you can bet I'll be singing through every song I can think of.

My dad's a musican, primarily playing clarniet and saxophone, but he can pretty much pick up anything and play. I think he probably would have disowned us kids if we didn't play something, so my sister's a pianist and singer, and my brother's a drummer.

[mariebernadette.livejournal.com]

My dad started us all on piano at 2 or 3. He pretty much said he'd disown us if we didn't have music somewhere in our lives so I know what you mean! I do wish I could sing better, though. That's an instrument you can take anywhere.

[aixa.livejournal.com]

2 or 3! That's early! We started at 6. Of course, it wouldn't surprise me at all if my sister started my niece on the piano at 3, she's already got her in soccer. Somehow, I always knew my sister would end up a soccer mom.

[mothwing.livejournal.com]

Whoa. Two or three. That is early. Weren't the keys too big for you wee fingers back then?

[mariebernadette.livejournal.com]

Oh, I think music lessons were the "put thyself in a corner" punishment for my parents. I don't think it's too young. I remember trying to reach my fingers as wide as they could go and doing games with the metronome. I had a great instructor.

[mothwing.livejournal.com]

Hee! That actually sounds like a fun punishment.

[mothwing.livejournal.com]

Holy shite, didn't they know that the medicine would screw up your voice like that? That's horrible! I hope you like being a Mezzo, at least. I'd love to be one, they're awesome.

I knew you were from a musical family. Very envy-inspiring, my parents play half an instrument between them and couldn't care less.

[aixa.livejournal.com]

I actually had no idea it could screw with my voice. I remember noticing suble changes in my range, notes that were no trouble before we suddenly difficult. It wasn't a huge thing, just really tiny things. I was doing some asthma research on the internet one day and discovered that a side effect of the particular steroid I was on was changes in the vocal chords, but most people probably don't even notice it. Singers however, would notice a change. If I went to lessons again and really worked at it, I could probably get my range back, but at this point it's not worth doing. I don't sing professionally anymore, I don't even do the church choir because I just don't have enough time. It's just a minor annoyance now.

[mothwing.livejournal.com]

Ah, good to hear that!

[mariebernadette.livejournal.com]

I took piano for a while and played clarinet in two community youth orchestras. For band, I switched around every year - tenor saxophone and percussion. In marching band I played mellophone. I haven't played any of those for over a year, though, because I just don't have the time. I still tinker with guitar, though.

Practicing a brass instrument in an apartment shakes the walls! That should be fun. You can also torture any pets you have by emptying your spit valve on them.

It is never too late to learn the cello or piano. Everyone has to start somewhere. Electric keyboards are good for apartments (getting the idea that I've gotten in trouble for this before?) because you can plug in your earphones and there's software out there you can hook up to your computer if you're trying to compose.

[mothwing.livejournal.com]

Whoa. That's a lot of instruments.

The wall-shaking is what I like about it, although I don't really enjoy the flatulent cow sounds I got out of the poor trombone the first time around. As for the spit valve, I think I have to take home Crocky's trombone just to try that out on my kitty. He'll love that.

Yep, the headphones are part of the reason why my fantasies about learning to play the piano strike me as more realistic as my Cello daydreams. They're far more practical, cheaper, and there are more piano teachers around than Cello teachers.

[mariebernadette.livejournal.com]

Usually if you can pick up a woodwind, a brass and a percussion instrument, it gets easy to adapt to others within the same groups. Before you learn transposing to different keys, it's kind of neat to learn how to read in different clefs.

I'm a tinkerer of many, master of kind of sort of not a whole lot. But it's fun. I'm in your camp where I enjoy ensembles much more than solos. I'm alright at auditions but solo judging turns me into a downright wreck.

[mothwing.livejournal.com]

Gah! Auditions. The thought alone makes me crawl back right to where I came from. I never felt proficient enough to join anything that required an audition. I think I'll stick with a small church choir until I've learned how to sight-read properly.

[moonystone.livejournal.com]

I started learning the recorder at six, too. As far as I remember, I did like it, except the concerts we had to give. It was some huge local music school. I learned to play the xylophone there as well.
Playing the recorder went on through the first six years of school, though I did quit that music school. In fifth grade I started learning to play saxophone and joined the choir. My school was very keen on music, so we all could learn instruments there for free.

When they canceled our course and put me into the orchestra as fifth saxophone, I quit. For some years, I practised at home with a friend's saxophone, but had to quit altogether when he restarted his lessons and subsequently needed the instrument back.
Since then, I haven't played anything and stopped singing, too, and don't really feel like doing so again. Though I still love listening to saxophones.

I started practising more for art back then, and that's what I would like to revive nowadays, my drawing and painting. I've never been great, but letting it slide during my studying did nothing to improve it, naturally.

[mothwing.livejournal.com]

Xylophone! Our music teacher always made me play that in practical music lessons, and that was fun, because as soon as I had written the names of the notes underneath the sheet music I could play fairly quickly as the names are on the xylophone as well.

Ah, arts. I miss my arts lessons. I used to love drawing, although I was never that good at it. Arts classes were fun.

[moonystone.livejournal.com]

Yes, xylophone was easy and fun, but I hate the sound now. Too tinny.

Yes *reminisces* arts classes were great. I really should do something again... maybe I'll start doing fan art. I did some sketches, but I'm never content enough to post them.

[mothwing.livejournal.com]

That's understandable. I only ever played the wooden xylophone, not the metallophone. I used to have a small one of those at home, but I never liked the sound much, either.

I wish that sort of thing was offered as a kind of club at the university. You know, for wannabe artists who come and show off their projects, people who draw, paint, take photos, sew, whatever.
I'd organise something like that myself, but where to get a room? When to meet?

[moonystone.livejournal.com]

Ah, that sounds way better. When we moved, I found my old metallophone and played a bit for fun ^^

Sounds nice. I sometimes do that kind of thing in the LJ community amateur_artists, but I haven't posted there in agesn as I haven't done anything artsy lately. It's interesting, there, as the level of proficiency fluctuates wildly.

[luckyoldsun.livejournal.com]

I started with piano lessons as a kid and that really served me well when I joined my high school's band & took a theory class.

I'm a brass guy. When I started out in elementary school I didn't really enjoy the trumpet for the month or so that I played it, so my teacher switched me to this beautiful euphonium and I played that for my remaining 8 years (except for one year when I went to a tiny school that had no large brass on hand, so I had to switch back to trumpet for the year). Also, later on, my high school developed a shortage of tubists, so I split time between my beloved euphonium and the tuba, rattling the windows of my parents' house most every evening.

I've always wanted to try the F-horn and trombone, and fully intend to purchase a brass instrument eventually -- when I can actually afford it. Maybe sometime in my 30's.

Glad to hear that you're thinking of taking up one yourself! :o)

[mothwing.livejournal.com]

The tuba!! Tubas are awesome. That must be a fun instrument to play, as well, although it looks hard. Same with the Euphonium, isn't that horribly difficult?

Yeah, all my friends are musical, and I'm not, I've been jealous for a long time. :P I used to be in a choir, but then that particular choir more or less stopped being what it was when the choir master changed and I couldn't find another. I kept regretting that I'm not able to play an instrument, and Crocky's got me interested in brass instruments. It really seems to be a lot of fun, playing in such a little brass ensemble like the one she's conducting - of course I'd need one for beginners, her guys are really amazing for people who only do that kind of thing in their spare time.

I can't purchase anything, either, I was actually thinking about borrowing one of Crocky's instruments to try things out initially. She's got her trombone which she probably won't lend me, understandably (although she did let me play once, which was fun), but she's also got a trumpet at home, not to mention a wee Alto trombone (hah! As though I'd be able to get a single note out of that one...), maybe I can get her to lend me an instrument she doesn't really need at the moment. That'd be practical as I am not sure how long I'll last, and instruments are so darn expensive. So maybe it's not going to be the trombone, but the trumpet, if I'm lucky.

Ah, "when I'm thirty" plans. I was thinking about taking up Cello lessons when I'm thirty, if I have a job that allows it. It's somehow depressing to think that those plans used to be "when I'm grown up" plans back when I was a teenager, ten years ago.

[mariebernadette.livejournal.com]

I tried to play tuba once. That's an instrument that shakes you all the way down to your toes!

[lordhellebore]

I have my clarinet back, finally, after seve years without one! And I can still play ^^ (Okay, I need to practice loads, but it had to be expected.)

[mothwing.livejournal.com]

Yeeees, I remember reading about that! Amazingly pretty-looking instruments. It looks pretty when they're played, the dark wood and the shiny keys.

Are you planning on having Hannah learn to play an instrument? (If you do and it's the recorder, brave, brave woman. I don't think I could face hearing anyone practice the recorder ever again. -_-)

[lordhellebore]

Um, well she wants to have a recorder for Christmas, so...we'll at leats have one. Maybe she'll even learn to really play it in a few years. (Ad I'd love for her to learn an instrument.)

[mothwing.livejournal.com]

She wants one? Whoa. It'd have never occurred to me at that age.
I guess the sooner she starts, the sooner she'll be past the squeaky stages. :) I never really left those.

You could even play together! *fawns over happy family image in head*

[lordhellebore]

She saw those and was enamoured.

Play together? *lol*

She will blow air ito it, squeak, and decide that she's "too small" to learn how to do it right. I know her!

[mothwing.livejournal.com]

And a matching icon! Pretty.

[lordhellebore]

Yes! The only downside is that it shows the wrong keys - it's the Boehm system, but my clarinet has the German system. But it was the prettiest clarinet icon I could find, so...

[mothwing.livejournal.com]

Hm, that's unfortunate. Still pretty!

[rizardofoz.livejournal.com]

I took piano lessons from around when I was 8 until 14. Not much doing any more.

Also, in high school, since the percussion section had way too many people and I could read notes in bass clef, the instructor gave me a euphonium to try. I managed that for three years, and it wasn't half bad. I prefer making music without having to give off too much air, though!

[mothwing.livejournal.com]

Another Euphonium! That's interesting, I never realised it was so popular, I never met anyone who played it before, actually. Much envy about being able to play the piano.

[maryh10000.livejournal.com]

I play piano, which means if I practice I can play not-too-hard pieces well enough that you wouldn't mind listening to it. Begged my parents for piano lessons when I was about 10 or 11, then came home from school one day to here my dad playing on a second-hand piano downstairs.

I also sang in school, though not once I got to university. Never sang for a band or group -- occassionally sang for church choir. I sing to myself around the house, and am also one of those annoying people who will sometimes sing or hum at work.

Have been kind of interested in participating in one of the many amateur groups that put on musicals here. There seem to be quite a few decent singing roles for middle-aged / older women about: Mrs Potts in Beauty and the Beast, Golda in Fiddler on the Roof; Mother Superior in Sound of Music. Not sure if I'm good enough, but it might be fun to try.

[mothwing.livejournal.com]

Whoa, that's a great surprise! It's funny, somehow I actually pictured you to be a piano player when I wrote this.

That groups sound really interesting! You should definitely think about it, it sounds like a lot of fun. I wish we'd have something over here. Not that I'd be anywhere near good enough to participate in any of them, but I love singing songs from musicals. It's not much fun to listen, though. I'd better find myself that small church choir.