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]

I wanted to learn an instrument but being the forth of five kids means

a) you do not get to do something your brothers didn't do

b) little money (I always hated wearing my older brothers clothes)

I ended up with free recorder lessons in primary school which I quit after 4 weeks because I hated the other girls in my class. I started again in forth grade after the sommer holidays and after the Easter break was told to join the group that had started the year before and I dropped out of. That was the end of my recorder lessons. Around that time I had my first crush and begged my parent to allow me to learn the cornet. You can guess the answer.

Then mid-November my parent came with a surprise and told me I will start learning my instrument after all. A windband orchester in the next village is looking for new members and pays for the greater part of the fees. In return I had to take care of our rabbits. Next friday, after the Simpsons, I went to the music school exited to learn the cornet and came home with a clarinet. My parents got it wrong. So I learned the "wrong" instrument and spend the next 6 years taking care of our rabbit breeding. The houry rate was the worst imaginable. I worked about 45h each month (1h daily for the feeding and cleaning the stables every weekend) and my parents paid €10 monthly for my clarinet lessons.

When I was 19 I was set to become a professional musician but experienced an acute hearing loss due to poor blood circulation in my ears. That was the end of my professional career and it also prevented me from playing any instrument for some 2 years because all I heard after ~10 minutes was just a sound muddle. A friend then asked me if I want to play sax in a big band. I never tried the sax before but fell in love with it and my hearing as well. I played sax for ~20 years and then decided I want to try clarinet again. I had moved to a different part of Germany and noone knew that I had played clarinet before. One word got arround that I could play I was hired almost every weekend to support other windband orchesters in the area and made more money in one afternoon then I could have ever dreamed of with cleaning stables.

When I moved to Norway the first thing I did was join a local orchester. I played until I took a maternaty leave. Once I got back to playing it took three weeks until I manage to part with some of the tip of my right finger tip in the grinder. I still cannot play the clarinet (probably never will again) and they already have too many people playing sax (tenor and alto) but there is this black soprano I fell in love with at first sight a few years ago...

[#3]

Here's another poem I like very much.

Unlearning the Piano by Alexa Selph

After all these years, it turns out to be

like anything else: making love,

baking bread, holding a newborn baby.

The mind is a voyeur.

Shut it out. There's no getting it right,

only the music, the shape of the phrase,

the secret bound up in the silence

of the rest, the forward motion

as you travel from the relative minor

to the tonic key, moving beyond

metaphor to the thing itself----

my body turning in time to yours,

the dough rising to the warmth,

the baby opening her mouth to be fed.

[#4]

You all are putting me to shame! I need to go practice!