I picked up a guitar a while back this year (thanks in large part to a generous sibling and internet friend who provided a good chunk of the money). I've really seriously started studying after my first in person lesson last week. The various books and videos I looked at were nice, but nothing beats a knowledgeable person right in front of you. I'm still at the, "Wow! Chords are awesome! And awkward. And make my fingers complain." stage but I'm determined I won't be stuck here long.
Anyone else here play an instrument?
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Will the transhumanist future have catgirls? Does Japan still exist? Well, there is your answer.
I used to play keyboards (trained on a Hammond organ), a legacy brass instrument we had around the house that my dad called a "baritone" but was a variety of
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euphonium]euphonium, and the recorder. I am decades out of practice with all three, though.
The sad thing is my father's side of the family is
incredibly musical -- witness my
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artie_Schroeck]uncle and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linda_November]aunt. But I'm adopted, and got none of that talent. My musical ability was entirely due to dint of effort and rote and vanished when I stopped practicing, unlike every genetic Schroeck, who gain and keep musical abilities with an appalling casualness.
-- Bob
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Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
In school, I played trumpet and french horn. Outside of school, I sang with a barbershop chorus.
I used to play the clarinet, sax, and I took a year of piano in high school. Haven't really practiced with any of them since I graduated tho (~15 years).
school trumpet and cymbals, french horn one season, sing Kareoke competitively now
was i the only one who thought gods help us when they saw the thread title
was given piano lessons back round grade school, and did the flute for a year in Jr High.
But the instrument I play most is my voice.
Oh, and my poor sainted mother has been a church organist / director of music for 40+ years. Guess who she turns to first when she needs vocals for something?
Hear that thunder rolling till it seems to split the sky?
That's every ship in Grayson's Navy taking up the cry-
NO QUARTER!!!
-- "No Quarter", by
Echo's Children
Had piano lessons for years when I was in single-digits age, have forgotten pretty much all of it.
Picked up the guitar for the heck of it and enjoy it, but I don't do more than folkie chording. My brother actually went to Eastman School of Music (and U of Rochester as well) with a double-major in bio and classical guitar.
These days I have a very nice Alhambra acoustic, an ancient Takamini for practice and banging around, a cute little Martin Backpacker, and an electric ukelele.
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make
anything explode.
Used to play percussion, back when I thought I had talent.
Nowadays, slightly-shaky hands means the only keyboard I can handle is the one between user and PC....
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
Trombone in the later years of elementary school; piano lessons at about the same time. Nothing since then. That was forty-five years ago, so I can't even read musical notation anymore.
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Big Brother is watching you. And damn, you are so bloody BORING.