Making and playing music

Hi BB'ers,

I have been playing music since I started playing piano along with the radio at the age of 4. I was forced into lessons until I went to high school and never appreciated the importance of practise and scales: I just wanted to do it straight away. Well, that worked, didn't it! So in high school I was sent to guitar lessons, which was probably more important to where I am now because, during high school, I met other guitarists and, before long, was playing bass.

That was when I was 15. I am now mumble-mumble :redface: and haven't been in a band since 2006 but, believe me, I've had some incredible experiences along the way, most good but, more recently, not that good. But meanwhile there are four guitars* and a bass-rig sitting in there not being used.

Are there any like-minded BB'ers out there with a passion for making music, playing music, or just picking a tune out on your instrument of choice?

* 1. Mum's first acoustic guitar, a Yamaha 6string, from about 1973 [ETA - she took this one back over Xmas, saying that she wanted to learn again. So the count is now 3 guitars, as below, and a bass-rig]
2. My baby, a 1973 Gibson Grabber, blond, in a road-case MrsP gave me for my 40th birthday
3. A night-burst (black into grey) Onyx acoustic electric given me by MrsP for my 24th birthday
4. My latest acquisition, which happened by accident. Put simply, it's a Fender Squire P-bass, black with white scratch-plate, 40th-anniversary model with a dead-spot. Because it's a mistaken purchase, getting it fixed is a low priority.[ETA - it's a 50th anniversary model, and there is nothing wrong with it! Now it has a nice new case and a couple of straps, thanks to MrsP over Xmas ... some people simply appreciate talent!]

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I am now mumble-mumble

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Ah dude, your age is in your signature. :rofl:

Anyway. Enough picking on people I don't know.
I'm a bit of a jack of all trades, master of none.

At the moment I am trying to teach myself piano PROPERLY, I can play chords and fiddle around til the cows come home, but am learning to play from music. Requires patience...
And humility, I played flute in highschool to quite a high level, but don't really actually like the flute too much. So I'm quite good at reading treble, but bass is quite the learning curve.

Can play chords on guitar, enough to sing along (my real talent I suppose), and have been hinting for an electric acoustic (will be handy with all my various church activities when I get better I reckon). Got a cruddy nylon string that dh has had for who knows how long. MY guitar (also a cruddy, though newer looking nylon string) is at my parents house with a broken peg.

I sing, sometimes do gigs and stuff with some friends who play jazz. And sing at church sometimes. And wherever else I'm needed.

There is a hobo deep inside me who really wants to learn the harmonica...I think it would be so fun. Imagine sitting round a campfire with someone who could ACTUALLY play harmonica. Magic.

Anyway, yes, that's me, and my music. There's heaps of people on BB who are into music, and probably much better than me (she says like it's a hard thing to achieve :p). Don't know how we missed this thread!

I love the piano (and missed this thread while I was off-line). I taught myself from age 6ish; the recorder taught me how to read music age 5-6 (well, I taught myself whilst learning the recorder, the other kids in my recorder class couldn't) but Mum wanted me to learn the violin. One year of lessons age 7-8, I dropped the violin. Not literally. Hate playing that instrument, but love hearing it.

Piano lessons were age 14-16 (when Mum realised I wasn't going to give it up) and I learnt things like proper fingering (oooh matron!), scales, keys... but gave it up when I started A-levels properly. It was always just for fun. I can play to a grade 6 standard, although because I was doing a grade on top of my GCSEs I took grade 3, just because it didn't have a written componant. I'd love to take grade 5-6 now - or higher. Maybe have to ask a piano teacher friend.

DH plays guitar. I play left-handed so, as I don't own one, I don't play any more. I don't play too well anyway.

What else? Um, can't sing. Can play the odd drum (and it has to be a pretty odd one to match me LOL).

DS is "learning" piano too (21m old!). He can play individual notes, make up his own tune and repeat it, play to a tempo (so each note is a very similar length) and can copy what I play and repeat that back to me with a decent degree of accuracy. But we're just playing around at his age still, he has fun doing this so I encourage it.

I'm just popping in to remind myself to come back and post here properly - no longer keeping rock and roll hours (or banging techno hours for that matter) and it's my bedtime.

But a quicky precis - my first instrument (not including obligatory recorder in primary school) was organ when I was 9, then trombone when I was 12, changed over to trumpet a year later, studied classical/orchestral trumpet at the VCA then decided it wasn't really my thang, bummed around in bands for a while, then studied audio engineering and worked in studios and with the occasional live band for a few years, also dj-ing and producing recorded and live electronic music in a variety of genres, both on my own and in a couple of live acts (including one with DP and another good friend of ours). That got put on hiatus when we moved interstate and had DS.

We're just in the process of getting our studio and my dj setup back and running, and hopefully will get a chance to produce bits and pieces again soon, if our 11 month old son decides to stop living the rock and roll lifestyle and goes to bed before 11:00pm. We've just given him his first guitar, which he particularly enjoys smashing up. Future rock star in the making LOL.

Oh, and I play guitar appallingly badly, plus a smattering of piano and singing. I really want to buy a french horn and join an orchestra again. DP plays guitar, bass and violin, sings children's lullabies out of tune to annoy me, is a live and studio sound engineer and beatboxes too.

(That ended up being more than a quicky, but anyhoo...)

You all sound so musical - makes me feel like a kid playing recorder!

My 1st grade music teacher actually bought me a recorder - she had spoken to my parents because of how much I loved to sing in class (in tune as well!), but my parents refused as they didn't see the point. I picked it up very quickly, and ended up learning treble and bass, and playing in the school band. Then I started playing clarinet, and my parents had to admit that I had some musical aptitude :) They let me play in the local high school band for 5 years, during which time I also learned slide trombone.

Now my DH has bought me a tenor saxophone - which was ALWAYS my dream instrument - and I am sorry to say it's not as easy as I had hoped. Frankly, I sound like crap! (My husband is wetting himself laughing at this - he says I should've said 'I suck', which of course would be the problem, as I should be blowing.....but thats for another group :) )

If we ever manage to breed, I would love to teach my kids how to play the instrument of their choice - gonna get expensive though!

I can read and write music quite well, on all 4 clefs, it was my highest graded subject in my SACE, and I have a good grounding of the theory. I dabble with a piano and I can play some clarinet. I would like more lessons but they just aren't in the budget and it is too loud to practice when I have the time. I also sing. DH on the other hand does not have a musical bone in his body.

If I had the time and the charts for chords and notes I could figure out pretty much any instrument to the point of being able to play a few songs. The hardest part of changing instruments is transposition though, which is one thing that annoys me with my clarinet, but if I want it to sound any good I have to do it

Now I know I am behind the times - when I learned, there were only two! Fill me in, please!

We had a piano when I was growing up but I never had lessons.

I always wanted to play the oboe since hearing it in Peter and the Wolf, which mum used to play on the record player a lot when we were growing up. I liked that it sounded scary.
Well, oboes are pretty expensive..

I played flute in high school, and guitar, classical guitar and bass at uni.
I used to have my music lessions in one of my computer science lecture timeslots becuase the lecturer was terrible and basically only read the course notes.

Started going out Thursday-Sunday with a GF who did a community radio show.
Met DH. DH is a drummer and also lead singer in his band.

So our house is full of music. in the study atm is

Roland V-Drum electric drumkit
Bass guitar
Laney aclass valve amp
2 steel string acoustic guitars
2 ibanez electric guitars (one mine on his - he steals mine though but its soooo heavy)
1 gretsch guitar

Hes got the regular Tama drumkit with him cos hes at band practice, and my combo bass/guitar amp has been lent out to someone.

There's also variety of percussion instruments, metallophones etc.

I still wanna learn the oboe. Maybe one day I will win tattslotto :)

I learnt recorder in primary school and flute from year 7 till year 11.

I was not that good as I didnt practise much, i was in school bands. did AMEB Exams till grade 4 then stopped, did VCE units 1 and 2.

both my brothers learnt instrument primary school right till year 12 and even did units 3 and 4 VCE 1 now a music teacher i was the un talanted one!! 1 drums and sings amazingly, teacher saxaphone and clarinet and others eg brass and woodwind

My mum kind of force me to play the guitar in grade 5 ... yep, it was in 1976 ... i remember it well as along the way i worked it out my Mum had a massive crush on my music teacher who happen to look like the Solo man from the Solo soft drink tv ads ... My Mum would behave so silly around him and OMG was i one embarrassed 11year old kid :rolleyes: ... Anyway, i wasn't a great player but i discovered Suzi Quatro that year & have been a huge fan of hers since :dance:

(Me turning ' 43 ' in 15days ... hey, but who's counting ... Me too trying for a miracle Bubba :D)

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in the study atm is

Roland V-Drum electric drumkit
Bass guitar
Laney aclass valve amp
2 steel string acoustic guitars
2 ibanez electric guitars (one mine on his - he steals mine though but its soooo heavy)
1 gretsch guitar

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I'm so jealous! I saw a huge (didn't see the brand-name) electric drum kit when buying my bass case which was only $7999 .. MrsP wasn't keen on the purchase (the kit was that much: the case now holds my Fender pBass). I'd love an electric kit - I have played a few times and was OK but would like to be more proficient

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Me turning ' 43 ' in 15days ... hey, but who's counting ...

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43 isn't that bad s4u ... I remember piano lessons (I think I wrote somewhere when and why) which I kept up until high school. They were 7am Tuesdays and I had to give up because the bus for HS came at 8. Anyhoo they were painful, which I regret not knowing what I know now - I still look at piano players and wonder what-if ...

Monty, the 4 clefs are Bass, Tenor, Alto, and Treble. Tenor and Alto have very similar symbols but one is higher than the other. The space in the clef sign is where middle C is. I am trying to find a link to show you now ;)

ETA: Scrol down a bit and it shows the contemprary clefs Here

All makes perfect sense now!

Never saw a C-clef before -- probably because I was only learning piano which, at the level at which I was playing, only used two.

So there you go! Thanks for this, ali - I am more musically enlightened, now (don't know if I could read anything in the other two clefs but at least I know what they are, now!)

And :happybirthday::confetti::birthday2: for Thursday, s4u!! I've been 43 for almost 6mo - it's no biggie!

No probs Monty ;)

Happy birthday Smiles!!!