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Get off my LAWN! "Grumpy Old Farts"
- Thread starter B-string
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Then there was the trumpet player that was truly an awesome player but pull the sheet music away and the awesome stopped. Couldn't do it. Really interesting.I'm a former trumpet and Baritone horn player too, I was never good at sight reading though, I think the stuff in the school band was too easy and I memorized it after a time or two through and when I took private lessons at the band leader's urging I was too embarrassed to tell the teacher I wasn't good at it. I don't think he realized it until I was put in front of the band with a sheet of music which I of course never practised or maybe even looked at and completely flubbed it, now THAT was embarrassing.I liked that bari horn better anyway, always liked bass, I played the tuba parts on the horn and loved the thing. Started playing guitar and bass around the same time.
We had one of those in H.S. Could read anything, incredible range. No natural feel.
Also one in the Navy who was described by the Chief as "doesn't read enuff to hurt his playing".
I wish I had kept up with them, I started playing sax for a while too, now that was an expressive instrument, loved the thing, it was my girlfriend's at the time though and when we broke up there went the sax, mostly alto.
I don't remember H.S.
Haha! I remember what little bit of it I went to. My algebra teacher put me in the chair next to the door so "you won't have so far to walk to the office when I throw you out"
I switched my main instrument from trumpet to bass because bass afforded me far more freedom. I did 10 years of private trumpet lessons - all classical stuff. Heavy reading, technique, and playing ONLY what was on the page. With bass, I could put more of myself into the music and not play note for note. I was finally able to enjoy the music I played because it became my music - not a composer's music.
Similar here.
Trumpet
Baritone
Guitar
Bass guitar
Upright bass
Stayed with the bass guitar.
Piano-7 to ~16; clarinet/bass clarinet/tenor and bari sax-~13-23; electric[only]bass-22-current; keys(again)-25-28(?); picked up flute somewhere in there. Woodwinds faded away as I developed dental issues. However, I still have 2 clarinets, 1 bass clarinet, 1 alto sax, 1 C melody sax, 1 tenor sax, and 1 bari sax, 2 flutes, 1 German Army fife, 4 basses, too many amps, and 1 ocarina.
I started out in grade school brass band. Hopped through a few instruments but none of the horns grabbed my attention. I had a music teacher who later I discovered didn't have any talent and was a frustrated musician. He used to pick on me in music class so I quit. Then I learned rhythm guitar (inspired by the Beatles). Then learned CCR, Herman's Hermits, etc and joined a cute boys band that played for Junior High dances. Moved to Sitka from Wrangell and met some questionable types that hired me to play bass. I bought a Harmony hollow body for $50 (on installments) and never looked back. I played upright bass at UW in Joe Brazil's Jazz Stage Band in the early 70's. That was a blast.
Joined the Army and was sent to West Germany because my mom told me to--"you gotta quit that music-- you're not doing good in school!" I was discovered by a USO promoter in one of the enlisted men's rec rooms playing bass and spent the rest of my duty traveling Europe on a Mercedes Benz bus for the USO. Was quite an unbelievable time.
In the 2000's a friend of mine who I grew up with moved to Sitka and we formed the most popular band in town playing rock and country. Even did a Vegas style dinner show for the animal clubs who served dinners. He died in a fire in 2009. Now I occasionally do single acts with my Telecaster lefty and sometimes play the retirement homes, but not since Covid. When things get better I'll be back to playing in retirement homes and hospitals. I miss that. Yep, gotta love the golden years!
Joined the Army and was sent to West Germany because my mom told me to--"you gotta quit that music-- you're not doing good in school!" I was discovered by a USO promoter in one of the enlisted men's rec rooms playing bass and spent the rest of my duty traveling Europe on a Mercedes Benz bus for the USO. Was quite an unbelievable time.
In the 2000's a friend of mine who I grew up with moved to Sitka and we formed the most popular band in town playing rock and country. Even did a Vegas style dinner show for the animal clubs who served dinners. He died in a fire in 2009. Now I occasionally do single acts with my Telecaster lefty and sometimes play the retirement homes, but not since Covid. When things get better I'll be back to playing in retirement homes and hospitals. I miss that. Yep, gotta love the golden years!
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Then there are natural players where everything comes easy. Jasmine Star is 17 years old.
D
I should have added..
If you've never tried beer from a vending machine...don't.
Amen. It only took once for me to learn never to do that again.
- Oct 22, 2015
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- I am an affiliate for Ari Cap.
Not quite the same when I was stationed in West Germany. The Germans were licensed to make a local version Pabst Blue Ribbon in the can. The beer was sold in vending machines in the barracks! A can of pop and beer were the same price--35 cents! The soldiers went through the beer so quickly it was never an issue of stale beer. Didn't sit in the can long enough!
Yeah, wouldn't think so. My experience was in a military barracks.This is not true of street beer vending machines in Europe.
ETA: In Georgia, USA, not Germany.
- Oct 22, 2015
- 21,171
- 257,166
- Disclosures
- I am an affiliate for Ari Cap.
No military service here. Been around a lot of military, always former brass. There's a newspaper that American servicemen are definitely familiar with that was an account of ours long ago. Seems to me ... trying to remember why I was there and all I really recall is what the project manager said at unbelievable o'clock when we found help.
Piano
Clarinet
Saxophone
[messing around period, various instruments, including a cello]
bass
Have never picked up a guitar with any serious intent. I put more intent into the kalimba.
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