Any musicians out there?

[#1]

Although I decided not to pursue a career in music, I began studying music when I was 6 and play a number of instruments. My dad was a professional musician so it sort of runs in the family (technically he's my stepdad). I started out with woodwinds, decided in my 30s I wanted to be cool so learned some guitar, banjo, mandolin, and violin. I now seriously study violin. My teacher said I'm decent. Considering what I know of music and musicians decent is a compliment.

My favorite thing about the violin is experimenting with the sound and how much finding the note on the string feels like a discovery. I found an adult "beginner" string ensemble with an instructor to play with weekly and it's very relaxing and fun.

Anyone else play an instrument?

[#2]

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Amanda L wrote:
Although I decided not to pursue a career in music, I began studying music when I was 6 and play a number of instruments. My dad was a professional musician so it sort of runs in the family (technically he's my stepdad). I started out with woodwinds, decided in my 30s I wanted to be cool so learned some guitar, banjo, mandolin, and violin. I now seriously study violin. My teacher said I'm decent. Considering what I know of music and musicians decent is a compliment.

My favorite thing about the violin is experimenting with the sound and how much finding the note on the string feels like a discovery. I found an adult "beginner" string ensemble with an instructor to play with weekly and it's very relaxing and fun.

Anyone else play an instrument?

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My friend from back home learned guitar on his own using apps. He played a song for me and he was pretty good! I mean, he slow but he played it well.

I had two goals that I still can't decide for this year: improve Spanish OR learn guitar. I kinda wanted to learn piano too but that is a huge investment and I ain't got room for a large arse piano in my house.

I played Clarinet (groan tomboy) in middle school but I don't remember ANYTHING about how to read music.

[#3]

You are obviously a brilliant, disciplined person. I vote for learning how to play guitar.  Then find a local nightspot that has "open mike" and displaying the reason most people wish they were both brilliant and disciplined.  All the tools are there Jennifer.

[#4]

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Jennifer M wrote:

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Amanda L wrote:
Although I decided not to pursue a career in music, I began studying music when I was 6 and play a number of instruments. My dad was a professional musician so it sort of runs in the family (technically he's my stepdad). I started out with woodwinds, decided in my 30s I wanted to be cool so learned some guitar, banjo, mandolin, and violin. I now seriously study violin. My teacher said I'm decent. Considering what I know of music and musicians decent is a compliment.

My favorite thing about the violin is experimenting with the sound and how much finding the note on the string feels like a discovery. I found an adult "beginner" string ensemble with an instructor to play with weekly and it's very relaxing and fun.

Anyone else play an instrument?

---

My friend from back home learned guitar on his own using apps. He played a song for me and he was pretty good! I mean, he slow but he played it well.

I had two goals that I still can't decide for this year: improve Spanish OR learn guitar. I kinda wanted to learn piano too but that is a huge investment and I ain't got room for a large arse piano in my house.

I played Clarinet (groan tomboy) in middle school but I don't remember ANYTHING about how to read music.

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I am late to this party as I have been to all the parties lately but if you decide on piano you can just get a keyboard that has a full set of keys, you don't need an actual piano.  My son is learning and he is going through a lesson program called simply music and it seems like it is working way better than the other lessons he tried.

It is something he wanted to do on his own.  Still doesn't want to practice though.

[#5]

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Mark F wrote:

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Jennifer M wrote:

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Amanda L wrote:
Although I decided not to pursue a career in music, I began studying music when I was 6 and play a number of instruments. My dad was a professional musician so it sort of runs in the family (technically he's my stepdad). I started out with woodwinds, decided in my 30s I wanted to be cool so learned some guitar, banjo, mandolin, and violin. I now seriously study violin. My teacher said I'm decent. Considering what I know of music and musicians decent is a compliment.

My favorite thing about the violin is experimenting with the sound and how much finding the note on the string feels like a discovery. I found an adult "beginner" string ensemble with an instructor to play with weekly and it's very relaxing and fun.

Anyone else play an instrument?

---

My friend from back home learned guitar on his own using apps. He played a song for me and he was pretty good! I mean, he slow but he played it well.

I had two goals that I still can't decide for this year: improve Spanish OR learn guitar. I kinda wanted to learn piano too but that is a huge investment and I ain't got room for a large arse piano in my house.

I played Clarinet (groan tomboy) in middle school but I don't remember ANYTHING about how to read music.

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I am late to this party as I have been to all the parties lately but if you decide on piano you can just get a keyboard that has a full set of keys, you don't need an actual piano.  My son is learning and he is going through a lesson program called simply music and it seems like it is working way better than the other lessons he tried.

It is something he wanted to do on his own.  Still doesn't want to practice though.

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oooh that's true. I don't know why I didn't think about that. I'm gonna need another room in my house for all this stuff I want to learn. 😄

[#6]

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Jennifer M wrote:

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Mark F wrote:

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I am late to this party as I have been to all the parties lately but if you decide on piano you can just get a keyboard that has a full set of keys, you don't need an actual piano.  My son is learning and he is going through a lesson program called simply music and it seems like it is working way better than the other lessons he tried.

It is something he wanted to do on his own.  Still doesn't want to practice though.

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oooh that's true. I don't know why I didn't think about that. I'm gonna need another room in my house for all this stuff I want to learn. 😄

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me too 😄

[#7]

i teach piano, acoustic guitar and ukulele. Many years experience and have a bachelors degree in music/piano major. I would love to teach  you online

[#8]

I studied music after leaving school. I used to play violin (in another era) and I loved it, particularly when I was good enough to play in my local orchestra. Then my life took a different direction, although I still play piano a bit. 

[#9]

I was a specially admitted student to a college-level music school when I was a young teenager but haven't touched a piano in many, many years.  I felt very pressured, especially after losing my father, and I had to make a decision very young in life if I wanted to pursue it professionally.

I did a lot of choir stuff in high school and did some church singing as an adult.  I really loved to sing.

[#10]

I used to play the piano. Hated it. I had to earn my riding lessons by taking piano lessons...

When I messed up the solo at the annual school concert my mother stormed out telling the headmaster she could have bought a Porsche with the money wasted on my piano lessons.

The headmaster told her that would have been a better investment lol.

I also used to sing choir. There is a proper record out there (vinyl) with me singing Carmina Burana.

The forced piano lessons for 10 years put me off playing any instruments. I would have loved to play the saxophone but at that point mother actually did buy a Porsche and I had my horses, so no time anyway, and that was that.

[#11]

My family forced me to take piano lessons for six months.  I remember Claire de Lune (sp?).  I refused to play at the first recital.  Told my parents to stuff it (in parable, the words of a seven-year-old, somewhat terrified by control-oriented by misguidedly-loving parents.

I remember the words my father said to me, that guaranteed I would one day perform and play in stellar venues that I chose. Not them. I chose.  "Son, if you stop taking piano lessons now, you will never again".

It was the first time the back straightening, I opposed my parents and decided to, by parable, shove that prognostication down their proverbial speaking throats.  First, it was simple songs from Chicago. Then Billy Joel, then Blood Sweat and Tears.  Then Pure Prarie League, then more, and more.  Each, self-taught.

As it turns out, and probably not by conscious decision, my father said the one thing to me, that guaranteed I would play on stage.  The songs I love.  In the venues that bring pleasure to me.  To the people I want to pleasure to their core.  A wise father.

In an odd way.  It became a habit with me.  Even though I was obviously a gifted writer in grade school and high school, my parents forbid me to study liberal arts in college.  Instead, it was business school or engineering school.  But I bided my time, had my career in the IT industry.  Then, when I had done what I was apparently supposed to do.  I put down the hat of what others asked me to wear.

Self-taught in writing.  Six hours of college English.  It is my special pleasure, my Upwork writing career indicates it might have just been fine to let the young man go the University of Texas and study English, not Texas A&M and study engineering. I have one more nail to drive into that coffin of parental control that apparently, did not exactly work out.  Piano, done, surmounted, I play for me, but I play for the pleasure of others.

**edited for Community Guidelines**

They had their shot, they tried hard to control me, they sought to control my destiny and all they accomplished was steel my will to be the human I was meant to be.

They came to one of my piano spots while on vacation to Key West. I bought them drinks.   Then it was over. Now I just have to get them to buy one of my Novels.

lol. Parents. So loving, so misguided.  How many of the great potential musicians of us did they block?

[#12]

Such the new-age person.  Speaks multiple languages to the level she can translate.  Lives in a city that sports some of the most beautiful beaches in Italy.  An icon of success and financial productivity on Upwork. DNA or good parenting, hard work, dedication, or good luck.

I can never tell the difference.  It doesn't really matter.  The outcomes speak all need be said. You speak loudly and clearly. Bravo.

Good night.

[#13]

I studied piano until the 4th year and choral singing.
My teacher said that I was quite good, but it was a burden to go out of class, eat running and go to piano class. And , after school homework, to play for a while at home.
The piano we had was from an old cafe my grandfather had.
Actually, it was a pianola (those pianos that play alone with a perforated score) reconverted into piano.
Many of the keys did not sound, or sounded like "TOC, TOC" and I was a bit out of tune (no money to fix and tune). I don't know how we got to pass with a note both my sister and I the courses we did.
And at home, every time we played something, we hummed the notes with their corresponding "TOC, TOC"

[#14]

I took piano lessons, off and on, from age 4-16. In our house, practicing music got you excused from doing dishes and other household chores. I enjoyed it but have two sisters who are musical prodigies (which I definitely am not), so it was hard to take myself seriously in that department.

Now, I have the console piano we all learned on. It's horribly out of tune and I am horribly out of shape. One of these days, though...

[#15]

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Phyllis G wrote:

I took piano lessons, off and on, from age 4-16. In our house, practicing music got you excused from doing dishes and other household chores. I enjoyed it but have two sisters who are musical prodigies (which I definitely am not), so it was hard to take myself seriously in that department.

Now, I have the console piano we all learned on. It's horribly out of tune and I am horribly out of shape. One of these days, though...

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I left at the beginning of the institute.
I didn't have enough willpower.
Besides, I was not getting rid of any housework or the farm.

That would have been an incentive 

[#16 · Accepted solution]

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Phyllis G wrote:

 In our house, practicing music got you excused from doing dishes and other household chores.

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The lengths parents will go to...

I was only allowed to go to the stables after homework and piano practice was done. That appeared to be a huge waste of time to me, but mother's business was on the ground floor and she'd check up on me frequently via a voice intercom. So in the end I practiced piano once a week or so, recorded it, and played it back while doing my homework, hence halving the time before I could get to the horses.

It actually worked very well for years, until the one time mother heard the piano and the toilet flushing at the same time.

Game over.

[#17]

Violin is awesome. I tried it a few times but it's seriously hard; just don't have the time to get good at it. I've learnt the piano, guitar, and I'm now learning drums. Into singing too. I've done bars and pubs, but honestly, Upwork pays better. After I'm financially stable enough to not need to work, music will definitely be one of my major careers.

[#18]

I have no intention of making a career out of it. Unfortunately, I have had the luck of having a few of my hobbies turn into "real jobs" and the became not fun real fast. So while I am a serious musician, I play for myself and only myself. 

[#19]

I'm giving your question and follow-up inquiries a broad interpretation,

At age ten I began playing piano. At age twelve I began singing in a church choir. At age fifteen I began teaching piano, at age sixteen I began playing organ. I played trumpet from age eight to ten. Then it exploded. I was a voice major in college, played piano in the jazz ensemble, bass drum in the marching band, melodic percussion in the performance band, alto clarinet in the orchestra, baritone horn in the town marching band, sang second bass in a church choir, baritone in the college chorus, second tenor in the college choir, and first tenor in another church choir.

Then I started doing session music, playing with solo artists in recording studios, whatever instruments were needed. Added upright bass and viola, alto sax, Wagnerian tuba, joined  Rennaissance group in Europe and played recorder and crumhorn, toured as a backup singer with one of the Ames brothers, started composing and arranging, eventually got married and had to walk away from music because it wouldn'rt pay the bills. Sang occasionally in small opera houses in Europe, piano or organ for church services, dircted church choirs, nothig intense. An anesthesiologist destroyed my vocal chords saving my life following a cardiac arrest, I can't be upset about it considering the alternatives. Went back to composition and arranging for a while.

Never larned the guitar.

[#20]

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Bill H wrote:

I'm giving your question and follow-up inquiries a broad interpretation,

At age ten I began playing piano. At age twelve I began singing in a church choir. At age fifteen I began teaching piano, at age sixteen I began playing organ. I played trumpet from age eight to ten. Then it exploded. I was a voice major in college, played piano in the jazz ensemble, bass drum in the marching band, melodic percussion in the performance band, alto clarinet in the orchestra, baritone horn in the town marching band, sang second bass in a church choir, baritone in the college chorus, second tenor in the college choir, and first tenor in another church choir.

Then I started doing session music, playing with solo artists in recording studios, whatever instruments were needed. Added upright bass and viola, alto sax, Wagnerian tuba, joined  Rennaissance group in Europe and played recorder and crumhorn, toured as a backup singer with one of the Ames brothers, started composing and arranging, eventually got married and had to walk away from music because it wouldn'rt pay the bills. Sang occasionally in small opera houses in Europe, piano or organ for church services, dircted church choirs, nothig intense. An anesthesiologist destroyed my vocal chords saving my life following a cardiac arrest, I can't be upset about it considering the alternatives. Went back to composition and arranging for a while.

Never larned the guitar.

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Bill, my post was absolutely intended as a broad question and conversation starter. 

I think you, and I would have a lot in common. While my initial musical study was formal, all the way through undergrad, I have regularly picked up new instruments like others pick up new languages, with ease and familiarity. It's a little bit of a challenge sometimes as my violin teacher sees the natural talent and my formal musical training, but then gets ahead of herself and forgets a lesson that we should spend some time on. 

I think all this calls for an Upwork jam session! 

[#21]

Yes.  I am self-taught in piano and have played semi-professionally.  Semi-professional means I get to play in stellar venues and make about enough to afford a couple serious rounds of drinks.

This is from Key West's "Gardens Hotel".  The night was memorable: Christmas Eve.  The piano danced with beautiful music, the visitors to Key West glowed in appreciation, and time stopped for a moment.

Then I became a writer again.  Pens can dance with beautiful music too, as it turns out.

[#22]

This is my sweetheart piano at Key West's "Square One" restauarnt.  In this gig, I played on Friday and Saturday nights.  Simple deal.  Dinner before piano at a 4-star restaurant.  The playing for 2-1/2 hours at one of the islands treasured "locals" restauarant =s the place tourists search hard to find.

So fit and tan back in those days - now a decade to seven years ago.  Had to relocate to Nashville which is Music City but in any place that is not a resort island 150 miles out into the ocean, the local musicians blow me off the charts.  I just listen now.  But, I had my time, I had my years, and I had my sweetheart pianos.  I wonder if I will ever get to do it again.

[#23]

LOL. My tan has faded.  It is way too cold in Nashville and the sun hides for four months.

[#24]

I played the piano and cornet. But singing was my passion. Looking back I wish I been more involved with my cornet. It really is a good little instrument. I just wanted to say I am a little new to the community here, but I love how many professional artists there are in one place. Thanks for sharing and keep up with the violin!! 

[#25]

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Holly M wrote:

I played the piano and cornet. But singing was my passion. Looking back I wish I been more involved with my cornet. It really is a good little instrument. I just wanted to say I am a little new to the community here, but I love how many professional artists there are in one place. Thanks for sharing and keep up with the violin!! 

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Welcome, Holly! 

Speaking of cornet and brass instruments, I also marched Drum & Bugle Corps as part of the colorguard. I was in a world class corps in college, but our brass and percussion were mostly high school students, first year corps members and not as developed, while our colorguard members had all been performing for many years and highly experienced. It was an interesting combination, but we loved those kids, and they were fun to perform with.