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The56Kid

2K Club - QQ Super Nova
Joined
Apr 4, 2017
Messages
2,024
Location
Erie, PA - USA
We know all QQers are music lovers, but I wonder how many of them are musicians themselves? As per my avatar, I play guitar. I took up the guitar as a high school senior in 1975 and have been trying to learn how to play since.

I just finished strumming my acoustic guitar for 30 minutes and the peace and tranquility it brought to my mind is immeasurable - especially given the crisis we are all facing. Whether I’m a good player or not is irrelevant. I can’t fathom not being able to play and will do so until the day I die.

So fellow QQ musicians - what instrument(s) do you play and how has being a musician impacted your life?
 
Same here! I can’t imagine life without music and/or playing the guitar, singing and writing songs. For a reason that can’t be rationally explained (I think) I have always thought of music as one of the most important things in life. Writing songs about things that matter to me (see www.jancoduijs.com if you’re curious) has always felt meaningful. QQ is one of the places I go most often by the way, even though I rarely post. Thanks for everything!
 
Same here! I can’t imagine life without music and/or playing the guitar, singing and writing songs. For a reason that can’t be rationally explained (I think) I have always thought of music as one of the most important things in life. Writing songs about things that matter to me (see www.jancoduijs.com if you’re curious) has always felt meaningful. QQ is one of the places I go most often by the way, even though I rarely post. Thanks for everything!
Totally agree regards music being one of the most important things in life. I think you could literally take anything away from and I would survive. Except for music.
 
Yes, I play instruments too but only as a hobby now. My father was a professional reed player so I grew up in house full of music and instruments. I started on reeds, clarinet and bass clarinet, then learned trumpet for marching band. My Jr. year in HS i played trumpet in jazz band and reeds in the full band. Sr year, I repaired the school’s baritone sax and played that in jazz band. My Jr year (1975 was a good year!), my younger sister started taking guitar lessons. I got a guitar and she would play the chords, and I’d play the melodies. Ended up loving the guitar and staying with it. Two years later I majored on classical guitar which got me into music theory and keyboards.
I moved to Athens GA in 1980, got into a rock/pop cover band and dropped out of school to play. Eventually went back to school for Electronics and went on to repair audio/video equipment. I kept playing and added electronic keyboard, drums, sequencers, etc thru the late 80s. Played in a few more bands on both guitar and bass up through the 2000s.
Then in 2009, after a few years break of not playing in a band, I asked my best friend, that I’ve known since 78, if he’d like to learn drums and start playing? He was a vocal major in college and had always seemed to have a knack for the drums. I had an idea that we could put together an all electric setup that we could mix down to headphones without amps or PAs. We could play as loud and as late as we wanted without bothering my wife or neighbors! My kids had all moved out by then, so we took over one of their bedrooms and made it into a band room. After a while my youngest brother in-law joined in on bass and vocals too. We would party and play every Friday night. It was great fun and the highlight of our week!
Unfortunately, my buddy was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer last December. He was able to still play until this damned virus came around and he’s been quarantined at home ever since. Horrible timing... Well hopefully things will calm down enough that he will feel safe enough to leave his house and come over and jam again soon. Oh, he’s also been into surround music since the Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon SACD was released.
 
Guitar player here. (Or... I used to be anyway! Been just sitting behind the mixing board the last few years now.)
Everything revolves around music for me. Pieces of music were each a magical world for as long as I can remember. (Or something like that.)

Heh, the pun works too! Sound in motion got my attention early on. When I first heard of surround... Wait, you can move around the whole room and not just wiggle back and forth?!?! :D
 
Took my first guitar lessons when I was about twelve years old -- A Silvertone f-hole archtop strung with Black Diamond steel strings (ouch!) For the next few years didn't do much with the guitar other than strum simple chords as an accompaniment to my pitiful ~1 octave range vocals, mostly folk songs as done by The Kingston Trio, Peter Paul & Mary, The Brothers Four, Bob Dylan, etc.

Got more serious about playing when I was nineteen. A fellow I worked with had a Bachelor's in music performance on guitar and gave me free lessons in return for driving him to work (my profound thanks to Robert Anthony Teal, wherever you are today.) I continued taking private lessons off and on over the years, concentrating on classical (mainly from the Aaron Shearer books and later Noad's method.) Also took a couple classes in music theory at a local college.

I now play on a gorgeous hand-made Woodley White classical built in the Hauser style. Bought it in 1999 and will likely never part with it. I'm strictly an amateur "couch-player" but have derived immeasurable enjoyment from making music over the last few decades. It's been one of the great pleasures of my life.
 
Guitar, Piano, some reed instruments that I haven't played in years, and very basic drums. However, all of my skills are getting diminished. Esp acoustic guitar as those stretches are not as easy as they used to be. Electric is easier for me now, but I rarely grab the Les Paul anymore. Shame, really.
 
Piano and Bass player here....But realize quickly what a piss poor musician I am when I hear the real musicians play.....And they make it look so damn easy too!!....I really appreciate the musicianship of a lot of players in the old days before computers and even multitrack punching in came in to the picture....When you couldn't go back and fix stuff, you had to actually learn how to play and sing it! What a concept!!......Oh well...showing my age again :)
 
Piano player here. I loved music from an early age, but didn't feel the urge to play until I heard Elton John. Then I asked my parents for piano lessons. I only stuck with the lessons for a year, but it gave me the basics. I then continued on my own. Music had pretty much always been a solitary pursuit, but then about eight years ago a friend twisted my arm and got me to join a band. I've been in bands ever since and have been loving it. Nothing quite like the experience of being a part of a unit when everything just clicks and falls into place. I am really happy with my current band, Strange Alliance. We gig all around Connecticut. Here's a poor quality video of us doing some Zeppelin:

 
I had musicians in the family, and I took Orff and piano lessons early on, but really became interested in the guitar when La Bamba came out. Sleep Walk from Santo and Johnny, and the film editing of the playground plane crash scene had a really serious impact on me. Video editor and musician because of that first moment:
Also just because, here is Jeff Beck playing it. My goodness.
 
I still perform ( or at least used to before the pandemic!) - solo, duo, an acoustic band, and a classic rock band. I play guitar, keyboards, mandolin, and harmonica. Usually perform around 90 times a year. Have lost a bunch of gigs that last several months (and most likely in the near future!) Like many of us - if I can't play music out I can perform at home, record, and listen to surround music!!
 
I play guitar, didgeridoo, and write songs. I sing them, but only because I can't get anyone else to do it for me.

Started in grade school on clarinet. I was 1st chair in an elementary school band, but I didn't like practicing. Still don't. So the band director said "why don't you just quit then" so I said "I quit."

Took up guitar again at age 17, but it was not until college at age 20 that I got serious.

Picked up didgeridoo when a friend's sister in California showed me one and played it - the SOUND! Also, in the mid 1990s I picked up overtone singing.

Music is the single unifying thread of my time on the planet. I can find some music connection in everything that is important to me, and the trajectory of my career in video production (not music videos, mind you) can be traced directly to musical connections. Same with my spouse. And most if not all of my best friends (yes, you Privateuniverse).

Here is a sad song that features me and Privateuniverse:

 
I play guitar, didgeridoo, and write songs. I sing them, but only because I can't get anyone else to do it for me.

Started in grade school on clarinet. I was 1st chair in an elementary school band, but I didn't like practicing. Still don't. So the band director said "why don't you just quit then" so I said "I quit."

Took up guitar again at age 17, but it was not until college at age 20 that I got serious.

Picked up didgeridoo when a friend's sister in California showed me one and played it - the SOUND! Also, in the mid 1990s I picked up overtone singing.

Music is the single unifying thread of my time on the planet. I can find some music connection in everything that is important to me, and the trajectory of my career in video production (not music videos, mind you) can be traced directly to musical connections. Same with my spouse. And most if not all of my best friends (yes, you Privateuniverse).

Here is a sad song that features me and Privateuniverse:


Sweet - Interesting headstock on that guitar... and don't forget your Penalty Track folks! :)
 
Hmm, started with the brass in Jr high, trumpet, tuba, French horn, flugelhorn and slide trombone, they came very easy to me, would rotate in whatever chair was needed, bought a 74' Fender Rhodes 88 mark 4 electric piano off my friend's brother in high school and never looked back, self taught keyboards, had one of the first Arps till it croaked, had a Dukey stick till it croaked, almost got my hands on a Hammond B3 complete with a working Leslie cabinet till the shithead sold it out from under me, played in a jazz rock fusion band for a bunch of years till adulthood took over. Played a little drums, electric guitar, and bass but not for real, still have my Rhodes though and give it a good workout now and then.
 
I was in bands as a bass player all through high school and college. I switched to guitar years after that. I haven't kept up as much as I would like and have promised myself that I would start practicing again to get my chops back. We'll see ... I also can play a bit of drums and keyboards but would never claim to be a 'player' on either.
 
I don't perform, but I do write music and make CDs from computer scores. All of them are in RM.
 
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