[Target43]

So I noticed while going through the pic thread there's at least a few other musicians around here. What all do you ppl play? What instruments do you have or are drooling for? Who influences you? Current favorite bands (for everyone.)

Go.

[UPtimist]

I play the guitar, mostly classical though a bit on the electrical side too. I wish I would learn to play flamenco. Those players are just awesome.

I'd really love to know how to play the saxophone. It's just one fine instrument. Too bad that they are so darn expensive... (Edit: Have to add cello here.)

Currently the bands or artists that sort of influence me (and my playing ) would be Santana and Ottmar Liebert. Not that I could actually much imitate them, I'm not that good. Others that I'm really into now would be Jake Shimabukuro, Miles Davis, Tom Waits, Wyclef Jean, Buena Vista Social Club and Enya. Those are the first to come to mind...

[Squinky]

Let's see, here...

I took piano lessons when I was a leetle kid, between the ages of four and twelve, but quit afterwards because it started getting too stressful and I wasn't enjoying it anymore. I did the Suzuki method, meaning that to this day, I'm awesome at playing things by ear but kind of suck at sight reading. These days, you might find me tinkering at a piano on occasion, trying to improvise something jazzy, but I suck too much to perform for anyone. Still, I do all my composing on keyboard-type things, a prime example being the music I've done for my amateur adventure games.

When I was in grade seven, I took band as an elective. Being the crazy eleven-year-old I was, I decided that I wanted to learn to play the biggest and coolest-looking instrument I possibly could - which in my humble opinion was the tuba. So that's what I ended up playing, and it turned out I was pretty damn good at it, at least according to my very influential Mr. Holland-esque band teacher at the time. I ended up liking the instrument so much that I stuck with it until grade eleven. (Alas, for my final year of high school, I got pressured to focus on my academics instead.)

Backtracking to grade ten, I thought I'd try my hand at playing a string instrument, so I took a guitar course for a year. I picked it up relatively easily, owing to my piano background, and after learning the basics in said course, went on to learn a lot more on my own. I still play guitar to this day; I own a sexy Framus acoustic archtop that's older than I am, and it just so happens to be the only instrument I have with me here in San Rafael. So, as you can imagine, it's currently the one that gets played the most often.

Sometime soon after graduating from high school, I decided to try my hand at playing the bass. I'd wanted to learn it for quite some time throughout my teenage years, but didn't get enough time and money on my hands until then. Unsurprisingly, I learned to play the bass even more quickly, owing to already knowing how to play guitar and being so used to contrabass frequencies from playing tuba for so long. During my first year of university, I started a band with some friends of mine, and got to be the bass player. (Sadly, the band dissolved due to the guitarist and singer dating, then having a narsty breakup. Damn emotional entanglements.) These days, my bass (which, I should add, is a rather lightweight green Yamaha) lives in my parents' basement. I pick at it here and there when I can.

Between the end of high school and the end of my second year of university, I dated a guy who played the French horn in several orchestras. (He kind of looked like Lee's avatar, except with lighter, frizzier hair. But you probably don't care, now do you?) Somehow, after watching him play concerts and whatnot, I got nostalgic about band and decided that I missed playing a brass instrument. Sadly, tubas are ridiculously expensive (not to mention hard to carry around) for students such as myself, so I bought a silver Boosey & Hawkes euphonium (sometimes incorrectly called a baritone horn) off of eBay. It, too, currently lives in my parents' basement, even though I really did want to take it with me to San Rafael. *sniff*

Sometime in late May or early June of this year, I bought a didgeridoo from the local farmer's market. It's great fun to play, even though I can't circular breathe. Yet.

And so ends the musical history of Squinky. As for what styles I like to play, it seems to be overwhelmingly jazz and funk (which, coincidentally, happen to be the styles I like listening to the most). I'm not all that great at either, since I'm usually too busy with my schooling/game development to practice as often as I should, but hopefully if I keep plugging at it, I'll get better. Especially once I'm back in Vancouver and actually have access to the rest of my instruments, as well as to people I can play music with regularly...

Influences include the following: for guitar/bass, Earth Wind & Fire, Chic, Jamiroquai, and Antonio Carlos Jobim; for euphonium/tuba, Howard Johnson & Gravity and Rich Matteson. Anything else I listen to is also fair game for influencing me.

[Target43]

Damn Squinky, you're very thorough Sounds like you have a lot of fun with whatever you get your hands on. I love hanging out with ppl that just start playing stuff and catch on fast. You go girl.

I saw that Bysmitty plays in a band. Who gave him the day off the forum?

[Lee in Limbo]

Okay, Squinky answered, so now I feel obliged to do likewise.

When I was around eight or nine, my brother Troy and I became the proud owners of a drum kit (for Troy, the perennial armchair drummer), a mini strat and a little Bontempi organ. We learned to play almost exactly nothing, and eventually the intruments disappeared. Too bad, really, because left to it a little bit longer, I probably would have applied myself to it and done something with it. I'm like that. Nevertheless, I've been a multi-instrumentalist from the very beginning.

From childhood up to my mid-teens, various music teachers always seemed eager to turn me into a singer. I never understood that. I was alright, I suppose, and I eventually absorbed the bit sof vocal training they were hammering into me, but I never had any kind of vocal discipline. Funny that, since I've been the lead signer of three bands since then.

When I was around 15, I discovered The Cure, Van Halen and my mom's Framus acoustic guiter, which she brought through her then-boyfriend Jimmy. Jimmy was a Beatles fan. I managed to get my hands on his The Complete Beatles songbook. More on that later. I tried learning some Van Halen, some Cure, and some Beatles. I was nothing like disciplined, so I learned almost nothing tangible.

A couple of years later, I also started taking keyboard in school, and used some of my after-school job money to buy a cheap Yamaha keyboard to practice at home. I started practicing little note melodies, and began to suspect that I really could make music of my own.

My musical tastes all this time were changing from AM pop radio to more complex compositions and arrangements, still largely pop, but I was absorbing Rush and Genesis, and was soon to make the discovery that would change everything: Yes. I had been writing song lyrics with vague note melodies to them, but they were all very derivative of my various influences, and none of them have been recorded to this day.

In college, I became a hard core progressive rock fan, and began writing new lyrics with music that I simply couldn't wrap my head around. A fair bit of that exists in lyric form only these days, as I never did figure out how to get the music written down. My music theory was learned by rote, and I've forgotten almost none of it, but it wouldn't be until a few years later that I started to really internalize the theory and use it.

After college, I burned out on art completely, and in the next couple of years began to mold myself into a singer/songwriter. Eventually my first 'real' band [Etcetera; NOT the Danish band - I didn't know about them] was formed, and I began writing and recording original music in earnest. I also started writing and playing guitar, keys and bass, as well as programming drum rhythms, almost none of which became part of the band repertoire, so I developed my first true solo outlet, which I called Philo's Thesis (my stage name; doesn't everyone go through this phase?). This later got pared down to Thesis when I dropped the stage name. Lots of demo material for both bands were recorded, and one of it ever went anywhere. In 1998, I put it all on hold; first Etcetera, and later that year, Thesis.

New material would be written and rehearsed sporadically for then next seven years, with almost no development. The other guys tried to fit into other bands, but by 2005, no one was doing anything, except the old bass player, who returned to playing bass, only now for Jesus.

In 2006, the guitar player decided he needed to make music again, and convinced the drummer (who was itching to go) and myself (not so much) to start the band up again. I told them both I'd be taking over the bass player's parts as well as my own, and after the grumbling and wheedling subsided, they realized they had their bass player. I'd been playing almost as long as our old bass player, so why not?

I'm thinking of picking up electric violin next. I'm hearing electric violin in one of the big numbers I'm working on now. I'm also thinking that I will be bringing on another utility player who can double on guitar and bass, to take some of the pressure off of Gary and I, and if I find someone I'm happy with, I'll take on another keyboard player/vocalist (preferably female, I think) as well. If the drummer doesn't work out, the guitar player and I will probably leave him behind, but as he's an old friend of ours, I find that only slightly likely.

Hoping to have at least one album recorded int he next couple of months, if not two; new Etcetera material, and then the remaining backlog of Thesis material separately. The guitar player and drummer are writing for the Etcetera album, but I'm still the principle songwriter, and figure I'll have the material ready in the next month or so, if I can just sit down and apply myself in the new home studio.

[samIamsad]

Jeez, your posts are all so.... long. I used to play the organ, trumpet, flugelhorn, alto horn and (most kids start with that kind of instrument, I think), a little flute. But these days are long since gone,.. even though it all lasted for almost half my life, since I started playing at five or six.

I want to play the bass guitar one day, though.

[Jelena]

I started playing the piano when I was seven and was hooked until I turned 22 (I think). When I was 19 I dreamt about going to The Royal College of Music in Stockholm. I wanted to apply to a 2 year (I think, I really don't remember) preparatory music school and needed a second instrument. I picked the cello. Such a wounderful sound.

During a year I practised the cello, studied my Beethovens and Chopins on the piano and whatnot and took singing lessons as well. I applied and got accepted after a whole weekend of try-outs (expr?). Then I chickend out and decided to become a teacher instead. Deep inside I knew even though I would manage these first two years I'd never be accepted at The RCM in Stockholm. The music prep school would then have been an unnecessary waste of time. I continued taking piano lessons during my years at uni though.

Lately I've been singning barbersop and competing with my chorus. Right now I'm taking a break from the chorus without having decided whether to return or not.
Time will tell.

[Trumgottist]

I'm a music teacher.

Currently I teach trumpet, trombone, french horn, tuba, clarinet and saxophone, but the bassoon is really my main instrument. I also play alto and barytone horn (I mean barytone horn - this is not the case of mistaken identity Squinky mentioned - I could play some euphonium, too, but I've never done it, so I'm not listing it), some recorder, and a little piano. I have also played some contrabassoon. Now, that's almost more cool than tuba!

Other instruments I've played on concerts include a clay horn and wooden forks. The forks was fun, but really difficult. It was a percussion quartet. I've also sung in choirs, which is something I would wish I had time to do, but unfortunately don't. I play the trombone in a brass band (the English kind) on my free time, and then I don't have time for any more groups.

Instruments I own: Two trumpets (my first instrument, and a professional model), a bassoon, an alto recorder and a clay horn (more a decoration than an instrument, but it is playable). I'm also considering buying my own clarinet mouthpiece. Then there's the kitchenware, if that counts.

What am I drooling for: A contrabassoon. I'd also like to have my own t-bone, and maybe a clarinet. It'd be fun to learn the oboe one day. I'd also like to be better on the instruments I do play. In particular the small woodwinds, which is where my weak point is today (but I'm working on it!). Cornett would also be fun...

Influences... Ooh. Lots of stuff. I like to play different kinds of music. My education is in classical, but I have also messed around in jazz and kletzmer, and bits and pieces of other things.

Current favourite bands... Not an easy question for me, but I'll list a few (and leave out a lot):
Bobby McFerrin (amazing vocalist)
The Caliban Quartet (possibly the world's best bassoon quartet - and Canadian)
Béla Fleck and the Flecktones (great fun! great music)
Øystein Baadsvik (unbelievable tubaist)
Hesperion XX (listen to their recording of Bach's Kunst der Fugue with old instruments - it's wonderful!)
Cantus (modern vocal group, and by modern I mean classical music <100 years old here)
Phil Collins (needs no presentation)
Miles Davis (shouldn't need any presentation, either)
Olso Gospel Choir (a good gospel choir that also does things that are not-quite what you normally think of as gospel music)
U2 (needs no presentation)
The Dirty Dozen Brass Band (this is not the kind of bass band I mentioned above - these ones are American - from New Orleans, I think)
Väsen (Swedish folk music group, that also play music from Ireland and the rest of the world)
Stevie Wonder (Yeah!)
Reykjavik Wind Quintet (they're good)
En Vogue (Free your mind)

I wrote a longer list originally, containing things both more odd and more mainstream. What you see above is a trimmed version.

[Target43]

My earliest influence was Elton John stuff like Croc Rock, Your Song, all that stuff really struck a chord with me. Too bad he's sucks for so many years now.

I'm a typical rocker with favorite bands including Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Rush and more recently the White Stripes. I also love techno/rave/dance an folk.

The largest inspiration for me playing guitar is easily Jimmy Page. When I saw him playing in The Song Remains The Same I remember saying, "I want to do that." So I've been playing off and on for years. Four years ago I quit altogether because I was getting severe hand cramps I missed it so bad I bought a drum set and started banging on that. At the end of 2005 a doctor figured out that I had malnutrition even tho I don't look like it or have any other signs. The culprit? a lack of potassium.

In December 2005 a long time friend from another forum posted that he had a 12string 6string double neck like Jimmy Page plays live that he wanted to sell. How could I resist?! Well, I couldn't and I bought it. I've been jamming like a madman since and have made great strides in my playing & writing.

Life is good again. If anyone wants to see my gear I'll upload a few pics to pimp.

[Squinky]

Aww... now I have the sudden urge to get together with everyone who's posted in this thread and jam.

[Jelena]

Originally Posted by Target43

Life is good again. If anyone wants to see my gear I'll upload a few pics to pimp.

Sure, pictures are always fun to see.

[rlpw]

great I'll get the lighter and be the audiance

[MoriartyL]

I play piano, and for the past year and a half I haven't played anything on it that I hadn't made up myself. Can't tell you what my inspirations are, because I listen to very little music. Don't get me wrong- I do enjoy listening to good music quite a bit; I just prefer spending my time playing games, reading comics, watching sci-fi TV, or playing music myself. I don't like anything with guitar, despise anything with electric guitar, and am disgusted by faux-romantic lyrics. I prefer no lyrics at all, and especially Postromantic or Minimalist music. And Modernist is very nice when used in moderation. My own music I'm hard-pressed to classify- it might be classified "New Age" or "Postmodern-Wannabe" or "Easy Listening" or "Bombastic Noise" or "music", I'm not sure which. Playing it for someone new always leads to some variant on the phrase "That sounds just like [composer I've never heard of in my life]!". Which composer I've never heard of (of which there are many) is referenced depends entirely on what person is addressing me- See, each person has a different idea of who I'm ripping off. I can only conclude that my music sounds like everyone else, though I've heard close to no one else. A disturbing thought.

[Target43]

Originally Posted by Jelena

Sure, pictures are always fun to see.

Here is a shot of the drumset from the back. I hadn't added the final cymbol on the far right yet because I didn't have the hardware. It's Roland V-Drum Pro. I didn't care for the elecronic cymbols so I put on the acoustic ones.


Same night, from the front.


Me and a friend jammin' a bit.



Damnit. I have to switch out computers to show good shots of the guitars. On my way.

OK, here is the Takamini acoustic/electric 12string, The double neck is an Aria Pro 2, and a little epiphone to thrash on.


And the newest addition to the family. A baby Taylor.. Sounds hugh! It's a pleasure to play.

[SCRUGAtes13]

whilst i was at university i had loadsa time to play the guitar, but now i dropped out i won't have that much time on my hands ironically enough. however, i learnt enough at uni to say that i can continue without hesitation towards the next level so pat on the back for me.

anyone know the riff on the track 'cowboys from hell' by Pantera?

i own that riff.

ps. those cats above look like they know how to rock

[lumi]

I play the piano, although on a sporadic schedule these days. I like playing classical music, particularly fast songs. It feels really good to hit notes or chords at the right moment and to make everything come together fluidly. It's almost orgasmic. (did I just say that?)

Take a listen to this if you want to hear my current favorite piano piece.

[Jelena]

Target I can't see any of your pictures.

[MoriartyL]

Originally Posted by Spider Crusoe

I play the piano, although on a sporadic schedule these days. I like playing classical music, particularly fast songs. It feels really good to hit notes or chords at the right moment and to make everything come together fluidly. It's almost orgasmic. (did I just say that?)

People who don't play music tend to think of it as a noninteractive experience, but yeah- they have no idea. The only one really appreciating the music in all its glory is the one playing. The rest of the audience is relatively bored, regardless of the quality of the music, because they can't participate themselves.

[Trumgottist]

Originally Posted by Squinky

Aww... now I have the sudden urge to get together with everyone who's posted in this thread and jam.

That's be fun. *Starts humming the Broken Drum theme from Discworld.*

[Jelena]

Originally Posted by Spider Crusoe

I play the piano, although on a sporadic schedule these days. I like playing classical music, particularly fast songs. It feels really good to hit notes or chords at the right moment and to make everything come together fluidly. It's almost orgasmic. (did I just say that?)

I too loved the way I got absorbed by the music I played. Making it happen so to say. One of the reasons I relized that I never could advance professionally in piano playing was that my right hand eventually would cramp when I played really fast parts.

Take a listen to this if you want to hear my current favorite piano piece.

It's beautiful indeed.