Members Texas Noise Factory Posted December 28, 2012 Members Share Posted December 28, 2012 No. I switched from art to music when I was in college. I bought a Moog Prodigy and a Gibson bass and haven't looked back since. The only formal training I have was piano for a year or so when I was about 12. I've just always loved music, and watched my brother drum since he was about 12 or so. I just followed him up through the local musical scene in Houston.I still own my first Gibson bass. I will never sell it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members humancertainty Posted December 28, 2012 Members Share Posted December 28, 2012 I played bass in the high school jazz band my senior year. I wanted to play guitar but no one showed up to play bass. I'm glad it worked out that way. It was a lot of fun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members hooya Posted December 28, 2012 Members Share Posted December 28, 2012 Played recorder a bit in grade school. That doesn't really count.Started clarinet in 5th grade.Started learning guitar in about 6th gradeSwitched from clarinet to bassoon in 8th grade.And that pretty much brings you up to speed.I mean, there was college degrees and stuff in there too, but whatever. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ToonHollow Posted December 28, 2012 Members Share Posted December 28, 2012 Played snare drum 5th and 6th grade but stopped to focus on school work. I picked up the guitar in high school and took every possible music class from music history, theory, even piano lab (which was sweet btw). Still kinda a drummer at heart. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jw10 Posted December 28, 2012 Members Share Posted December 28, 2012 Never got really interested because I knew more music theory than the band director by the time I was thirteen... What can I say public school is public school.Although I did join jazz band on gtar for two hours because the drummer and bass player were pretty good. After realizing that the horn section was an atrocity and being told that I needed to turn down a bazillion times (and I'm a sonically sensible guy) I quit.Anyhow sorry to rain on your parade Phil, guess it wasn't for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members The Lou-Dog Posted December 28, 2012 Members Share Posted December 28, 2012 My school had a really great music program, with a really high percentage of kids participating in it. I played guitar in the Jazz Big Band and the Contemporary Jazz Ensemble and it was a lot of fun! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members christianatl Posted December 28, 2012 Members Share Posted December 28, 2012 I've never taken a lesson in my life, which explains why I suck so bad. I was just possessed by the guitar by about 13, and I would literally run home from the bus stop to play my {censored}ty Kramer every day after school. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members christianatl Posted December 28, 2012 Members Share Posted December 28, 2012 Originally Posted by goaway I think one thing being in an ensemble taught me is that it is really important and that i'm beginning to realize not everyone else is aware of is that tuning is important. not just being in tune with yourself but with everyone else's instrument as well. it became a force of habit to listen to the person to my left to make sure i was in tune with him. so many people i've dealt with in bands don't think like that and have no idea how bad it makes the group sound. Rock solid advice. I feel like listening is THE most important thing. Bands I've seen live that sound like one big instrument (Fugazi and The Jesus Lizard immediately come to mind) instead of several things happening simultaneously are my favorites, and I end up learning a ton from the interplay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members TravvyBear Posted December 28, 2012 Members Share Posted December 28, 2012 I joined band in High School because of a girl... They put me on bass guitar. I didn't learn to read music that year. Next year I was in concert band, jazz band, marching band and indoor percussion. I loved it, was hooked.I played electric bass, upright bass, guitar and some drums. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members The Lou-Dog Posted December 28, 2012 Members Share Posted December 28, 2012 Originally Posted by Phil O'Keefe You sir, are a stud. I always felt sorry for the double reed players. Them's tough to play! One of my best mates is a Bassoon player, has played with some of the big symphony orchestras. Only very few people know his really name, everybody is told that it's Bassoon! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members The Lou-Dog Posted December 28, 2012 Members Share Posted December 28, 2012 Originally Posted by Phil O'Keefe You sir, are a stud. I always felt sorry for the double reed players. Them's tough to play! One of my best mates is a Bassoon player, has played with some of the big symphony orchestras. Only very few people know his really name, everybody is told that it's Bassoon! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members delayed delay Posted December 28, 2012 Members Share Posted December 28, 2012 Played alto sax from 5th grade all through high school. Liked playing jazz band and various ensembles, and even had the awesome opportunity to play sax in my high school production of Grease. But I couldn't really stand any of my band directors in high school; all very negative and really stubborn... Weren't very good teachers of music either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members delayed delay Posted December 28, 2012 Members Share Posted December 28, 2012 Played alto sax from 5th grade all through high school. Liked playing jazz band and various ensembles, and even had the awesome opportunity to play sax in my high school production of Grease. But I couldn't really stand any of my band directors in high school; all very negative and really stubborn... Weren't very good teachers of music either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members macadood Posted December 28, 2012 Members Share Posted December 28, 2012 in high school I played oboe in the symphonic band and in the full orchestra. we even played a show at Carnegie, and also at Disney World. And outside the Summer Palace in Vienna. was good times. no joke our high school music/band program was ranked #1 in the US and won a grammy award of some sort in 2005/6 i believe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members macadood Posted December 28, 2012 Members Share Posted December 28, 2012 in high school I played oboe in the symphonic band and in the full orchestra. we even played a show at Carnegie, and also at Disney World. And outside the Summer Palace in Vienna. was good times. no joke our high school music/band program was ranked #1 in the US and won a grammy award of some sort in 2005/6 i believe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members dkerwood Posted December 28, 2012 Members Share Posted December 28, 2012 Began my great love affair with music elementary school. Loved music class- I'm sure it didn't hurt that my music teacher loved me, too. Anyway, saw my aunt's husband playing the drums in a band once, probably in fourth grade, and when he offered to give me lessons before I started band in fifth, I was all for it. He ended up giving me one lesson in the summer- I picked it up so quickly that he didn't know what to teach for the second lesson. :-)Fifth grade I sat first chair percussion out of about five drummers. By sixth grade, that dropped to two. Seventh grade I moved to middle school, and there were maybe eight of us. Two guys had been taking expensive private lessons since fifth grade (or maybe earlier) and one girl had played piano for years, so that dropped me as fourth chair. Too much of a gap for me to progress much further. Anyway, we had a jazz band in middle school, and since they only took two drummers, I knew that wouldn't work for me (although I did audition both years), I decided to pick up the guitar. My dad played a little- mostly country/folk/Christmas music. Loved it. Played in eighth grade jazz band on guitar.Freshman year they took three guys on drumset for jazz band, so I snuck in on drums... but the other two guys (who ended up being the two All-State Honor Jazz Band drummers every year they were eligible) got to play all the fun tunes. I only remember playing two ballads. After freshman year, we moved from a school with about 200 kids in the HS band program to a school with about 30 in the HS band. Couple of solid drummers, though, so I switched back to guitar for jazz band sophomore year. Junior year, we suffered a real tragedy and the freshman who was supposed to play bass in jazz band and to accompany our show choir died of heat exhaustion during football practice. It was really rough, but when everything ironed out, I had to play bass. I knew nothing about bass other than vaguely being aware that the bottom note of my power chords corresponded to the first two strings of the bass. I used to fake my way through using the chord symbols instead of the notes, until one day my band director got fed up and told me to go into the other room and not come back until I could play the notes. The practice fascinated me, so for the rest of the year I made a concerted effort to learn to read the real music.Senior year, I continued percussion in band (as I had all the way through) and switched back to guitar for jazz. This made the second year of being enrolled in four music classes (band, jazz band, choir, and show choir- freshman and sophomore year the "extra" groups were before or after school). Our band director left to finish his Masters, and a young, pretty, naive, and totally clueless woman took over. She was a first year teacher and honestly didn't teach me anything worthwhile, but she did allow me to arrange Santana's "Smooth" for jazz band, which was my first foray into arranging, which is now one of my biggest passions.My first year of college I opted to specialize as a voice major at a private Christian school, and although I still got to play guitar for some school groups, my main focus was voice. After that year, I left, clueless, and enrolled in community college. Wanted to sing, but missed the scholarship audition day, so I auditioned for the band and got a scholarship. Played drums, guitar, and picked back up the bass there. Took my first really serious lessons on drums and bass, and by the time I was set for a direction in my life, I decided to do music education, with electric bass as my major instrument (I knew I wasn't a versatile enough percussionist to major in that, at the time I didn't really care for the jazz I'd have to study if I majored in guitar, and I figured a good bassist could always get paying gigs). So for the rest of college, I practically lived on the bass... and I did get some pretty sweet pro gigs.And now I teach band and choir. And arrange quite a bit of material for my groups. And still play as much and as often as I can manage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members dkerwood Posted December 28, 2012 Members Share Posted December 28, 2012 Began my great love affair with music elementary school. Loved music class- I'm sure it didn't hurt that my music teacher loved me, too. Anyway, saw my aunt's husband playing the drums in a band once, probably in fourth grade, and when he offered to give me lessons before I started band in fifth, I was all for it. He ended up giving me one lesson in the summer- I picked it up so quickly that he didn't know what to teach for the second lesson. :-)Fifth grade I sat first chair percussion out of about five drummers. By sixth grade, that dropped to two. Seventh grade I moved to middle school, and there were maybe eight of us. Two guys had been taking expensive private lessons since fifth grade (or maybe earlier) and one girl had played piano for years, so that dropped me as fourth chair. Too much of a gap for me to progress much further. Anyway, we had a jazz band in middle school, and since they only took two drummers, I knew that wouldn't work for me (although I did audition both years), I decided to pick up the guitar. My dad played a little- mostly country/folk/Christmas music. Loved it. Played in eighth grade jazz band on guitar.Freshman year they took three guys on drumset for jazz band, so I snuck in on drums... but the other two guys (who ended up being the two All-State Honor Jazz Band drummers every year they were eligible) got to play all the fun tunes. I only remember playing two ballads. After freshman year, we moved from a school with about 200 kids in the HS band program to a school with about 30 in the HS band. Couple of solid drummers, though, so I switched back to guitar for jazz band sophomore year. Junior year, we suffered a real tragedy and the freshman who was supposed to play bass in jazz band and to accompany our show choir died of heat exhaustion during football practice. It was really rough, but when everything ironed out, I had to play bass. I knew nothing about bass other than vaguely being aware that the bottom note of my power chords corresponded to the first two strings of the bass. I used to fake my way through using the chord symbols instead of the notes, until one day my band director got fed up and told me to go into the other room and not come back until I could play the notes. The practice fascinated me, so for the rest of the year I made a concerted effort to learn to read the real music.Senior year, I continued percussion in band (as I had all the way through) and switched back to guitar for jazz. This made the second year of being enrolled in four music classes (band, jazz band, choir, and show choir- freshman and sophomore year the "extra" groups were before or after school). Our band director left to finish his Masters, and a young, pretty, naive, and totally clueless woman took over. She was a first year teacher and honestly didn't teach me anything worthwhile, but she did allow me to arrange Santana's "Smooth" for jazz band, which was my first foray into arranging, which is now one of my biggest passions.My first year of college I opted to specialize as a voice major at a private Christian school, and although I still got to play guitar for some school groups, my main focus was voice. After that year, I left, clueless, and enrolled in community college. Wanted to sing, but missed the scholarship audition day, so I auditioned for the band and got a scholarship. Played drums, guitar, and picked back up the bass there. Took my first really serious lessons on drums and bass, and by the time I was set for a direction in my life, I decided to do music education, with electric bass as my major instrument (I knew I wasn't a versatile enough percussionist to major in that, at the time I didn't really care for the jazz I'd have to study if I majored in guitar, and I figured a good bassist could always get paying gigs). So for the rest of college, I practically lived on the bass... and I did get some pretty sweet pro gigs.And now I teach band and choir. And arrange quite a bit of material for my groups. And still play as much and as often as I can manage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members 4nd3h Posted December 28, 2012 Members Share Posted December 28, 2012 Originally Posted by dkerwood And now I teach band and choir. And arrange quite a bit of material for my groups. And still play as much and as often as I can manage. A really fun read, man. Thanks for posting. also maca wat. i didn't know you played oboe. i hate the tone of every oboist i've played with but i know that a good oboe can be absolutely beautiful. I was too lazy to pick up the instrument myself, though, but i think the bassoon skills (lol i sucked hard at bassoon) could have been transferrable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members 4nd3h Posted December 28, 2012 Members Share Posted December 28, 2012 Originally Posted by dkerwood And now I teach band and choir. And arrange quite a bit of material for my groups. And still play as much and as often as I can manage. A really fun read, man. Thanks for posting. also maca wat. i didn't know you played oboe. i hate the tone of every oboist i've played with but i know that a good oboe can be absolutely beautiful. I was too lazy to pick up the instrument myself, though, but i think the bassoon skills (lol i sucked hard at bassoon) could have been transferrable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted December 28, 2012 Author Share Posted December 28, 2012 Originally Posted by jw10 Never got really interested because I knew more music theory than the band director by the time I was thirteen... What can I say public school is public school. Although I did join jazz band on gtar for two hours because the drummer and bass player were pretty good. After realizing that the horn section was an atrocity and being told that I needed to turn down a bazillion times (and I'm a sonically sensible guy) I quit. Anyhow sorry to rain on your parade Phil, guess it wasn't for me. I can understand your frustration. I have watched (and played under) a couple of less than wonderful directors, and it's not any fun, but I was actually pretty lucky in that regard. My first three directors were really cool, and all were solid players. One was a drummer, another a bassist, and one a trombone player. The first was pretty darned young, had long hair, and exposed us to all sorts of cool music. The fourth guy was very strict, but incredibly good, and ran the largest band I've ever played in, and one of the most successful programs in the state. It wasn't until I had already been playing for a few years before I ran into one who was trying to phone it in. By then, I was playing in rock bands and recording stuff, so it made less of a difference to me than it would of had I just been starting out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted December 28, 2012 Author Share Posted December 28, 2012 Originally Posted by jw10 Never got really interested because I knew more music theory than the band director by the time I was thirteen... What can I say public school is public school. Although I did join jazz band on gtar for two hours because the drummer and bass player were pretty good. After realizing that the horn section was an atrocity and being told that I needed to turn down a bazillion times (and I'm a sonically sensible guy) I quit. Anyhow sorry to rain on your parade Phil, guess it wasn't for me. I can understand your frustration. I have watched (and played under) a couple of less than wonderful directors, and it's not any fun, but I was actually pretty lucky in that regard. My first three directors were really cool, and all were solid players. One was a drummer, another a bassist, and one a trombone player. The first was pretty darned young, had long hair, and exposed us to all sorts of cool music. The fourth guy was very strict, but incredibly good, and ran the largest band I've ever played in, and one of the most successful programs in the state. It wasn't until I had already been playing for a few years before I ran into one who was trying to phone it in. By then, I was playing in rock bands and recording stuff, so it made less of a difference to me than it would of had I just been starting out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Folky_Grunge Posted December 28, 2012 Members Share Posted December 28, 2012 I played trombone in elementary school band and switched to tuba in junior high. Quit after that because my district's ridiculous graduation standards (it was strange, because it was a crappy district anyway, and the reqs were changed for the class right after mine because almost no one could meet them) made it really hard to do band and take all the required classes. I didn't think it was worth it to continue because I was never really into band anyway; I loved music, but hated how the classes were structed, and I always had problems with band teachers getting pissy that I didn't practice enough for them - I played something you can't really take home with you, and I was pretty good anyway. I always wanted to play the violin (still want to, actually), but the schools I went to had really crappy orchestra problems, and I couldn't join because of other commitments; for example, at my junior high, it was at the same time as all the advanced classes I was put in. It was annoying. I did like playing the tuba, though, actually more than the trombone. I got all the boring parts, but it's a cool instrument, and I miss it sometimes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Folky_Grunge Posted December 28, 2012 Members Share Posted December 28, 2012 I played trombone in elementary school band and switched to tuba in junior high. Quit after that because my district's ridiculous graduation standards (it was strange, because it was a crappy district anyway, and the reqs were changed for the class right after mine because almost no one could meet them) made it really hard to do band and take all the required classes. I didn't think it was worth it to continue because I was never really into band anyway; I loved music, but hated how the classes were structed, and I always had problems with band teachers getting pissy that I didn't practice enough for them - I played something you can't really take home with you, and I was pretty good anyway. I always wanted to play the violin (still want to, actually), but the schools I went to had really crappy orchestra problems, and I couldn't join because of other commitments; for example, at my junior high, it was at the same time as all the advanced classes I was put in. It was annoying. I did like playing the tuba, though, actually more than the trombone. I got all the boring parts, but it's a cool instrument, and I miss it sometimes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Folky_Grunge Posted December 28, 2012 Members Share Posted December 28, 2012 I played trombone in elementary school band (for 1 year) and switched to tuba in junior high (for 3 years). Quit for high school because my district's ridiculous graduation standards (it was strange, because it was a crappy district anyway, and the reqs were changed for the class right after mine because almost no one could meet them) made it really hard to do band and take all the required classes. I didn't think it was worth it to continue because I was never really into band anyway; I loved music, but hated how the classes were structed, and I always had problems with band teachers getting pissy that I didn't practice enough for them - I played something you can't really take home with you, and I was pretty good anyway. I always wanted to play the violin (still want to, actually), but the schools I went to had really crappy orchestra problems, and I couldn't join because of other commitments; for example, at my junior high, it was at the same time as all the advanced classes I was put in. It was annoying. I did like playing the tuba, though, I got all the boring parts, but it's a cool instrument, and I miss it sometimes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Folky_Grunge Posted December 28, 2012 Members Share Posted December 28, 2012 I played trombone in elementary school band (for 1 year) and switched to tuba in junior high (for 3 years). Quit for high school because my district's ridiculous graduation standards (it was strange, because it was a crappy district anyway, and the reqs were changed for the class right after mine because almost no one could meet them) made it really hard to do band and take all the required classes. I didn't think it was worth it to continue because I was never really into band anyway; I loved music, but hated how the classes were structed, and I always had problems with band teachers getting pissy that I didn't practice enough for them - I played something you can't really take home with you, and I was pretty good anyway. I always wanted to play the violin (still want to, actually), but the schools I went to had really crappy orchestra problems, and I couldn't join because of other commitments; for example, at my junior high, it was at the same time as all the advanced classes I was put in. It was annoying. I did like playing the tuba, though, I got all the boring parts, but it's a cool instrument, and I miss it sometimes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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