"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

[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.