OT - Musically minded

gtvlusso

Just for fun:

Who on here plays a musical instrument? Perhaps professionally, semi-pro, in a band or just a home jingle maker.....

gtvlusso

And, no jokes about playing the "pink oboe" or "invisible banjo"......

bobs bikes

well.... im a drummer but also play piano and guitar. cant sing for toffee though!

gert_lush

I play acoustic guitar to myself in my room and sing badly, but it keeps me happy (possibly not my housemates tho)

lost_in_thought

Used to teach Clarinet and Saxomophone... then realised nobody pays any attention to a teenaged teacher. Have done some low-end session stuff and a fair few musicals etc for money, and still get occasional income playing with big bands/orchestras. Very, very occasional.

I also play the oboe (insert joke here), but only learned it for a-level music, then dropped it. I couldn't handle the jokes. :P

I wish I'd learned the piano, and still plan to learn the harp when I retire.

deptfordmarmoset

I was a professional double bass player for about 15 years, until I discovered I had incredibly high blood pressure (due to a dodgy kidney relaying ''send more blood'' messages to the heart). The fact that my brain or heart were about explode like an over-inflated tyre wasn't the problem though, it was the medication that stopped me working. (And, ok, I'll admit it - I may have been a little heavy on the après-gig drinks....)

My return to cycling was a part of the return to health and helped me to stop having to take the really debilitating medication. Work in progress...slowly does it...

(backing vocals professionally, odd usually non-paying gigs on guitar, classical piano - strictly amateur).

downfader

Non-pro here. Have played guitar, keys, drums, bass, violin, percussion.. stylophone... modular synth.. :oops: Quite a bit.

Stuff here:
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default ... dID=622768
(Japan has violin, Organis has modular synthesis, The Room.. has piano)

Guitar stuff here:
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default ... dID=568695

More of an experimenter than anything. Used to play like a mixture of Clapton, Vai and Satriani on the axe with ease. Fingers are too wrecked from my job these days to still do so. Plus it was 7 hours of guitar training, dont miss that!

stratcat

Qualified with a degree from music college as a brass player (tuba). Now a guitar teacher for the county music service. Loads of playing, recording and teaching experience from concert hall (played all the big ones in this country with brass bands) to pub rock band type gigs.
I've a couple of projects on the go at the moment, but nothing 'big deal'

LazyBoycp

French Horn. Haven't played for a couple of years, but have just been asked to play at a friend's wedding next year so will need to start again. Spent more of my time playing (paid/unpaid gigs) than actually studying while at uni...

Played at places like the Albert Hall, Berlin Konzerthaus, Konzertgebauw in Amsterdam with NYOS (National Youth Orch of Scotland). Those were the days. *reminisces wistfully* Sometimes wish I'd gone professional, though if I'm honest I don't think I'd have made it.

Paul E

I played clarinet at school and was in the orchestra, never kept it up after I left though

davis

I have trouble breathing in time.

prawny

Drums for me, was in bands for years, some minor label interest but never went anywhere.

Really miss it now though, I need to get another band together but all my old band mates have moved away and I've been out of the scene for a while now.

gtvlusso

Interesting - allot of "classical" instruments and training.

Mrs Gtvlusso was the first flautist (?) with her uni orchestra and with another orchestra - interestingly, she has no concept of improvisation at all. No music in front of her and no music comes out of her!

As for me: Guitar and bass for 20 odd years - my only claim to fame being that I auditioned and was offered a tour with "Blue", I turned it down....did not confomr to my rebellious mind.

Amazing how we differ as I don't read music at all - everything I do is listened to and emulated or improvised on the spot. Yet, Mrs Gtv cannot get this at all.....

Roastie

Another wannabe (would be) muso here. Had the recorder beaten into me at school, tried piano/keyboards and sucked. Not too bad at guitar, but not too good either. Battled with playing drums, but pretty effective at programming the drum machine.

Had a band at uni, but sadly never an offer for a recording contract (though did get an offer to play at a local pub).

stage_fright

Mrs Gtvlusso was the first flautist (?) with her uni orchestra and with another orchestra - interestingly, she has no concept of improvisation at all. No music in front of her and no music comes out of her!

Mrs Fright plays Oboe and Cor Anglais for an orchestra and is the same - no improvisation at all. She receently played in the orchestra for a local show and was saying how good the youngsters in the band - who are apparently now 'taught' how to improvise - were at just making stuff up. Seems they swapped instruments and were hamming up to some Jason Mraz (spelling?) song.

cee

I play the guitar....

have earned a fair few quidlly dids busking when i was a student and played both solo and band gigs here and abroad.

lost_in_thought

Well, for any classical musician with decent understanding of theory, improvisation's really very simple.

You should know what key a piece is in, and/or what the chords under your solo are, and you're away. Most sheet music has chord changes indicated where improvisation is required.

Having no concept of improvisation sounds a bit bizarre to me, but then I've done a fair amount of big band and jazz stuff as well as the classical thang. It's a matter of practice, as I say above the theory is simple.

UndercoverElephant

Have played guitar and bass in several (not very good) bands, mainly when I was younger. The most bizarre of which was probably a mainly-Indian U2 covers band, with me on guitar, a mate on tubla drums and a girl he knew warbling out a Hindi-translated version of "With or without you". How we never made it big, I'll never know.

Rada_Rada

I studied and played jazz professionally until I had to make more money. I still practice loads, jam and do the occasional gig..... just not as much as I used to.

I love the idea of the Indian U2 band, do you have any recordings?

Here's a little video of me practicing a tune a while back.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZfRlM5ONOs

stage_fright

Well, for any classical musician with decent understanding of theory, improvisation's really very simple.

You should know what key a piece is in, and/or what the chords under your solo are, and you're away. Most sheet music has chord changes indicated where improvisation is required.

In defence of Mrs Fright - who has a degree in classical music - she was talking about pure improvisation, no sheet music etc involved, just building over someone else's playing. Seems the classical training of the time never touched on improvisation as a technique, despite going large on music composition etc..

Asking around, a professional classical oboeist we know on the London circuit has just admitted he can't improvise either!

iain_j

I've strummed chords on an acoustic guitar for a few years now, but I'm too slow forming the chords one after another to make a decent tune out of it. I just haven't got the dexterity.

stratcat

Stage Fright wrote:

Well, for any classical musician with decent understanding of theory, improvisation's really very simple.

You should know what key a piece is in, and/or what the chords under your solo are, and you're away. Most sheet music has chord changes indicated where improvisation is required.

In defence of Mrs Fright - who has a degree in classical music - she was talking about pure improvisation, no sheet music etc involved, just building over someone else's playing. Seems the classical training of the time never touched on improvisation as a technique, despite going large on music composition etc..

Asking around, a professional classical oboeist we know on the London circuit has just admitted he can't improvise either!

I have exprienced both sides of the coin. As a classical musician you are 'taught' to interpret the dots and not to think too much about the compositional aspect. I know many pro classical musicians who can't impro at all. As a guitarist I was taught to improvise (basically compose on the fly) following a chord chart, adhering to rules of harmony (or not!) is no problem at all. It is all a matter of your approach to the music.
Whats really strange is I can't impro on my brass instrument and my sight reading is no where near as good on my guitar - all down to practice you see!

whyamihere

I'm the worst guitarist on the face of the planet.

lost_in_thought

stratcat wrote:

Stage Fright wrote:

Well, for any classical musician with decent understanding of theory, improvisation's really very simple.

You should know what key a piece is in, and/or what the chords under your solo are, and you're away. Most sheet music has chord changes indicated where improvisation is required.

In defence of Mrs Fright - who has a degree in classical music - she was talking about pure improvisation, no sheet music etc involved, just building over someone else's playing. Seems the classical training of the time never touched on improvisation as a technique, despite going large on music composition etc..

Asking around, a professional classical oboeist we know on the London circuit has just admitted he can't improvise either!

I have exprienced both sides of the coin. As a classical musician you are 'taught' to interpret the dots and not to think too much about the compositional aspect. I know many pro classical musicians who can't impro at all. As a guitarist I was taught to improvise (basically compose on the fly) following a chord chart, adhering to rules of harmony (or not!) is no problem at all. It is all a matter of your approach to the music.
Whats really strange is I can't impro on my brass instrument and my sight reading is no where near as good on my guitar - all down to practice you see!

Totally, all down to a) practice and b) confidence. If you have a sound understanding of cadences and music theory, you can rescue your improv from even the most awful of clangers.

A lot of classical musos don't ever try. I think they'd find they'd be good at it if they did...

greg66_tri_v2.0

I have zero musical ability. Well, that's not quite true. When I was six I mastered three notes on the recorder. That was the apogee of my musical attainment.

I've never, ever, ever been able to work out how someone can come up with a tune that isn't the same as a tune they've already heard. I certainly never have been able to. It would be easier for me to to think in n-dimensional space.

Can't sing either. I make cats look nervous when I sing.

Uncle Bernie Love

UndercoverElephant wrote:

Have played guitar and bass in several (not very good) bands, mainly when I was younger. The most bizarre of which was probably a mainly-Indian U2 covers band, with me on guitar, a mate on tubla drums and a girl he knew warbling out a Hindi-translated version of "With or without you". How we never made it big, I'll never know.

That I would love to hear.

UndercoverElephant

Uncle Bernie Love wrote:

UndercoverElephant wrote:

Have played guitar and bass in several (not very good) bands, mainly when I was younger. The most bizarre of which was probably a mainly-Indian U2 covers band, with me on guitar, a mate on tubla drums and a girl he knew warbling out a Hindi-translated version of "With or without you". How we never made it big, I'll never know.

That I would love to hear.

I'm really gutted I don't have any recordings. Not my normal stuff; I'm more blues guitar, but you look back and wonder.

bradford

I'm a wiz at playing the spoons. 8)

plonk

I played the Double Bass in orchetras til my late teens, when i switched to the guitar and bass. Then i had some sort of crisis when i hit 30 and started playing the banjo.

www.raggedstringband.co.uk

^
^
I'm the one on the bottom left with the hat. There's us doing a bluegrass version of 'Walk like an egyptian' on Youtube for anyone who's that way inclined!

mirrorkill

Guitar, bass, drums.

Not all at once.

http://www.mirrorkill.co.uk

Uncle Bernie Love

mirrorkill wrote:

Guitar, bass, drums.

Not all at once.

http://www.mirrorkill.co.uk

Tony Bucking Flair...very good.

My particular brand of musical agitprop is here www.myspace.com/realstevewhite