Well, back when I was a kid, music was still taught in schools. And in my grade school, it was taken pretty seriously. Fourth grade was the year where you could pick an instrument, get some amount of instruction in school -- though most people just went straight to private teachers -- and play in the band or the orchestra. Thanks to my parents, there was always some sort of music playing in the house -- mostly recorded, though I have fond memories of my father practicing his guitar while my brother and I took our baths -- so it was only natural I'd want to give it a try.
But, they also didn't believe in doing things by halves. So, a year before then, I started taking piano lessons with a neighbor. My piano teacher was also the director of a local church choir, so when she started a childrens' choir, I joined. And then fourth grade came along, and I took up the violin.
Now, I was also a pretty typical kid. I didn't want to practice, and my mother generally had to push me into it. (The upside to that was I got really good at sight-reading on violin, 'cause that's what I'd have to do at my lesson most weeks. To this day, if I can't sight read it, I probably can't play it.) Every couple years, when I'd get frustrated and want to quit, she wouldn't let me. Well, until ... late junior high, I think ... when I got really obnoxious complaining about my violin lessons, and she said that if I wanted to quit, I could, but I had to be the one to call my teacher and say so. I think she was bluffing, but in a display of chutzpah I have never since duplicated, I did it.
Now, I didn't stop playing. Quite the opposite -- I played in the orchestra all four years of high school, the chamber orchestra two or three years of that, in the pits for several musicals, and one year in my college orchestra. And that's just violin. I joined every choir I could in high school, and started taking jazz piano lessons then, too. I pretty much did a music major in high school, had there been such a thing.
Even though I wasn't taking a lot of lessons, it was in high school where I really started to identify myself as "a musician." Now, there were much better performers than I, in every ensemble I was in, but I was always one of the strongest all-around musicians.
So, when I went to college, I did two degrees -- one in math, and one in music composition. And I eliminated from consideration any school in which I couldn't do that. I always knew that I would need to have a non-musical skill to earn a living, but I also knew that I wanted to continue to develop as a musician.
Once I finished the music degree, though, I didn't do much music for several years. Part of that was the rigors of grad school -- though I managed to relate my master's thesis to music! -- and part of it was just losing contact with my fellow musicians.
But then, I left school, got into the real world, fell into theater (still don't think I've sufficiently thanked and/or damned you for that, kightp) and back into musicals and music. My composing had fallen stagnant for a while, because I didn't have ready outlets for it, but again the theater gave me a chance to do that, writing incidental scores for three shows one season, and lately I've even been writing music for ballet classes.
Wow, that's a ramble all on its own. :-)
As for tastes, well, again, I have my parents to blame for that. Any time you have a mother who alternately blasts bagpipe music loud enough for the entire neighborhood to hear and sings "Me and Bobby McGee" as a lullaby, you're going to have diverse musical tastes. Any my dad is even more deliberately eclectic. So, while I tend to favor singer/songwriters, I like just about any style of music. No, I don't listen to much rap, or heavy metal, but even those have their moods.
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Being a musician
Date: 2003-06-12 03:01 pm (UTC)But, they also didn't believe in doing things by halves. So, a year before then, I started taking piano lessons with a neighbor. My piano teacher was also the director of a local church choir, so when she started a childrens' choir, I joined. And then fourth grade came along, and I took up the violin.
Now, I was also a pretty typical kid. I didn't want to practice, and my mother generally had to push me into it. (The upside to that was I got really good at sight-reading on violin, 'cause that's what I'd have to do at my lesson most weeks. To this day, if I can't sight read it, I probably can't play it.) Every couple years, when I'd get frustrated and want to quit, she wouldn't let me. Well, until ... late junior high, I think ... when I got really obnoxious complaining about my violin lessons, and she said that if I wanted to quit, I could, but I had to be the one to call my teacher and say so. I think she was bluffing, but in a display of chutzpah I have never since duplicated, I did it.
Now, I didn't stop playing. Quite the opposite -- I played in the orchestra all four years of high school, the chamber orchestra two or three years of that, in the pits for several musicals, and one year in my college orchestra. And that's just violin. I joined every choir I could in high school, and started taking jazz piano lessons then, too. I pretty much did a music major in high school, had there been such a thing.
Even though I wasn't taking a lot of lessons, it was in high school where I really started to identify myself as "a musician." Now, there were much better performers than I, in every ensemble I was in, but I was always one of the strongest all-around musicians.
So, when I went to college, I did two degrees -- one in math, and one in music composition. And I eliminated from consideration any school in which I couldn't do that. I always knew that I would need to have a non-musical skill to earn a living, but I also knew that I wanted to continue to develop as a musician.
Once I finished the music degree, though, I didn't do much music for several years. Part of that was the rigors of grad school -- though I managed to relate my master's thesis to music! -- and part of it was just losing contact with my fellow musicians.
But then, I left school, got into the real world, fell into theater (still don't think I've sufficiently thanked and/or damned you for that,
Wow, that's a ramble all on its own. :-)
As for tastes, well, again, I have my parents to blame for that. Any time you have a mother who alternately blasts bagpipe music loud enough for the entire neighborhood to hear and sings "Me and Bobby McGee" as a lullaby, you're going to have diverse musical tastes. Any my dad is even more deliberately eclectic. So, while I tend to favor singer/songwriters, I like just about any style of music. No, I don't listen to much rap, or heavy metal, but even those have their moods.