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Kimi
Forum Admin
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Feb 28 2007, 1:13am
Post #1 of 65
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The TORn orchestra.
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How many people here play a musical instrument? What one, and how did you come to pick that one?
I'll start:
I had a childhood dream of learning to play the piano. It had to stay as a dream for many years, as my family did not have the resources to make it come true. But just under three years ago, I became a "mature" student and started learning.
I love it! It's one of the most rewarding things I've ever done. I have no real talent, but sheer hard work has let me make some modest progress. There's something about making music that speaks to the soul in a special way.
I'm also enjoying studying music theory, which comes a good deal more easily to me than playing does.
  
Promises to Keep: a novel set in 19th Century New Zealand.
The Passing of Mistress Rose
Do we find happiness so often that we should turn it off the box when it happens to sit there?
- A Room With a View
(This post was edited by Kimi on Feb 28 2007, 1:43am)
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CAhobbit
Rohan
Feb 28 2007, 1:35am
Post #2 of 65
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does your entire post have the 'cross out' thing going for it??
Anyhow, to answer the question.
Yes I can play two insturments (though it's been a few years). But if I really buckled down and started to practice I could be at the same level I was years ago.
-Piano - took 11 years of lessons. Though I was never anywhere close to a concert pianist I could still play pretty well.
-Flute - because of years of piano lessons I was able to pick up the flute rather quickly though I only played for 2 years.
I really miss playing the piano though. I really, REALLY need to start doing simple exercises again and then start taking lessons again. I miss it so.
Do not meddle in the affairs of hobbits for we can bite your kneecaps off!
CAhobbit's flickr page
CAhobbit's myspace
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Kimi
Forum Admin
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Feb 28 2007, 1:43am
Post #3 of 65
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Thanks for pointing out the strike-through in my post. I have no idea how that happened.
Promises to Keep: a novel set in 19th Century New Zealand.
The Passing of Mistress Rose
Do we find happiness so often that we should turn it off the box when it happens to sit there?
- A Room With a View
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GaladrielTX
Tol Eressea
Feb 28 2007, 1:46am
Post #4 of 65
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I played flute up through college.
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My parents only let me have one extracurricular activity in elementary school, and I was in Brownies and Girl Scouts through fourth grade. Then they couldn't find a leader for our troop so I had to quit Girl Scouts. I decided I wanted to play an instrument instead. I chose flute because my parents said I had to pick a small instrument because they weren't going to carry it around for me. So it was either flute, clarinet, or oboe. When the band teacher was demonstrating the instruments to prospective students he played lots of trills on the flute, and I thought it sounded pretty.
I played in a community band for awhile after college, but I got frustrated because the level of musicianship wasn't what I was used to. Sadly, I've rarely picked it up since.
I went to see flutist James Galway in concert with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra this weekend. It kind of makes me want to pull Beauty out of her case again.
~~~~~~~~
I used to be GaladrielTX, but I lost TX in a poker game.
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Lossefalme
Gondor
Feb 28 2007, 1:51am
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I was a vocal and percussion/music education major as an undergrad, so I play a lot of instruments (although not all of them particularly well). I started on flute in fifth grade (that's about 10 years old) if you don't count singing or recorder. I then learned trumpet and euphonium because we didn't have anyone to play euphonium in our school band. I found percussion in college and took to it like a duck to water. It became my major. My favorite percussion instruments to play are timpani and marimba, but I don't get many opportunities to play either anymore. They aren't exactly common...
Anyway, that's probably more than you wanted to know. I'm glad that you're enjoying your piano lessons. Theory is quite interesting, isn't it? It will make you a better musician if you take the time to understand music theory. Good luck and keep us posted (ack-pardon the pun!).
(Formerly Lossefalme3, just in case you're wondering)*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Aragorn threw back his cloak. The elven-sheath glittered as he grasped it, and the bright blade of Andúril shone like a sudden flame as he swept it out. 'Elendil!' he cried. 'I am Aragorn son of Arathorn, and am called Elessar, the Elfstone, Dúnadan, the heir of Isildur Elendil's son of Gondor. Here is the Sword that was Broken and is forged again! Will you aid me or thwart me? Choose swiftly!' TTT, Book III, Chapter 2
And Éomer answered: 'Since the day when you rose before me out of the green grass of the downs I have loved you, and that love shall not fail.' RotK, Book VI, Chapter 5
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GaladrielTX
Tol Eressea
Feb 28 2007, 1:52am
Post #6 of 65
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Not you, the coincidence. I played flute for many years. Then I tried piano in college because the flute can only play melody, not chords, and the more advanced theory classes were murder when I couldn't play my work on flute because of the harmonies. Plus, I'd always been interested in learning to play the piano. I got frustrated with it, though, because I was used to being good on flute, and here I was having to start from the beginning on piano. I also wasn't used to reading more than one note at a time and playing them independently. I gave up after a semester or two.
~~~~~~~~
I used to be GaladrielTX, but I lost TX in a poker game.
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CAhobbit
Rohan
Feb 28 2007, 1:56am
Post #7 of 65
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but that does make a lot of sense. I was never a great flute player (I just got buy really). It took me a while to get breathing just right while playing the flute (that really was the one thing I disliked about playing for a time).
Do not meddle in the affairs of hobbits for we can bite your kneecaps off!
CAhobbit's flickr page
CAhobbit's myspace
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Lossefalme
Gondor
Feb 28 2007, 1:56am
Post #8 of 65
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We had to minor in piano as vocal majors and it was murder. There was so much going on all over the place. I was pretty decent, but it was a bit discouraging to be a pretty good musician and get so bogged down. At least reading music wasn't an issue. It was a big eye-opener, though, I can tell you! (Btw, I never really did get the pedals down!  )
(Formerly Lossefalme3, just in case you're wondering)*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Aragorn threw back his cloak. The elven-sheath glittered as he grasped it, and the bright blade of Andúril shone like a sudden flame as he swept it out. 'Elendil!' he cried. 'I am Aragorn son of Arathorn, and am called Elessar, the Elfstone, Dúnadan, the heir of Isildur Elendil's son of Gondor. Here is the Sword that was Broken and is forged again! Will you aid me or thwart me? Choose swiftly!' TTT, Book III, Chapter 2
And Éomer answered: 'Since the day when you rose before me out of the green grass of the downs I have loved you, and that love shall not fail.' RotK, Book VI, Chapter 5
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Hobbitmomma
Bree
Feb 28 2007, 2:43am
Post #9 of 65
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I wanted to perform since I can remember. My dad finally let me take an instrument in 4th grade, clarinet. I started singing shortly after, then started piano in 9th grade. I was a voice major in college and an opera major in graduate school. Singing is my life! I dropped clarinet sometime ago, but still play piano. (Not well!) Good for you for taking piano lessons! It's never too late to learn something new!
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GaladrielTX
Tol Eressea
Feb 28 2007, 2:49am
Post #10 of 65
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I remember at the beginning getting lightheaded. Fortunately, it goes away over time. Or maybe you just turn into an airhead which would explain a lot.
~~~~~~~~
I used to be GaladrielTX, but I lost TX in a poker game.
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GaladrielTX
Tol Eressea
Feb 28 2007, 2:59am
Post #11 of 65
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Oops, I also took voice lessons.
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Just a couple of semesters. And I sang in choirs in elementary school and church.
~~~~~~~~
I used to be GaladrielTX, but I lost TX in a poker game.
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Joelle
Bree
Feb 28 2007, 2:59am
Post #12 of 65
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I learned the acoustic guitar. I haven't picked it up in at least a year, and I have no natural talent, but I love it whenever I play it, or made some small progress.
"In the end the shadow is only a small and passing thing; there is light and high beauty forever beyond its reach"- J.R.R Tolkien
TheLonelyIsle.net
My pseudofiction novel
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Annael
Elvenhome
Feb 28 2007, 3:02am
Post #13 of 65
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Three years of lessons.
And a gazillion years of choir, and four years (so far) of serious voice lessons.
Dorothy was a fool she could have stayed in Oz
She traded all that color for black and white
- Judy Collins
NARF and member of Deplorable Cultus since 1967
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Radhruin
Rohan
Feb 28 2007, 3:26am
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Piano is my first love. Cello is my new mistress.
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I've played piano since I was six, and have loved every minute of it. One of the highlights of my life was winning a youth audition when I was 16 and playing a Mozart concerto with the Symphony here. Another highlight was accompanying a friend for her voice audition to get into a private University music program, several years ago. She has gone on to be incredibly successful, and is world premiering a musical piece in China in May. I'm proud that she asked me to help her back in her "early" days!! Voi Che Sapete will always remind me of her.
Now I am focusing on the cello, which is the instrument that has intrigued me ever since I was very small. I decided to tackle learning a new instrument several years ago, and the cello was a "no brainer". I love it. The tone of the instrument tugs at me every time I play, and certainly every time I hear it played. Listen to Elgar's Cello Concerto in E Minor for example. I, along with two friends formed a string trio last February and have already played for more than 25 weddings and special events. One of the best decisions I ever made!
Thanks for starting this thread. It's fascinating to hear everyone's musical backgrounds. It seems like everyone has a background, whether they continued with music or not.
"Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth."
~Oscar Wilde
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Morrowdim
Rivendell
Feb 28 2007, 3:29am
Post #15 of 65
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It has been several years, but
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I played viola and violin once upon a time.
When I was in the 6th grade, I was offered the chance to learn to play a stringed instrument. My mother made me sign up for violin. Before the first class, the teacher came to me (well, all of us) and said that everyone had signed up for violin, would any of us be interested in learning something different? I don't even remember what her arguements were. I just remember that I thought "hey, neat idea!" Looking back, it is totally like me because I was always looking for a way to be the oddball in every group.
Often, my teacher wouldn't have viola music for the parts she wanted me to play so she taught me how to play a viola while reading treble clef violin music. When I got to junior high, my new teacher took that a step farther and gave me 3rd violin parts. In high school, that continued and I was sometimes shuffled into second violin (and once even made to practice with the first violins). By my senior year they just handed me a violin.
I didn't own my own instrument for many, many years and only recently got a new viola. I still don't have a good violin. I play from time to time but don't practice regularly. Still, it feels good to pick it up and fiddle around.
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Radhruin
Rohan
Feb 28 2007, 3:37am
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A viola joke. No?
What's the difference between a violin and a viola? 1. The viola burns longer. 2. The viola holds more beer. 3. You can tune the violin.
No worries, and I hope no offense is taken Morrowdim. If you play the viola, you must know the plethora of jokes pertaining to the instrument. And I actually love the tone of the viola, when played well. Quite beautiful actually.
"Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth."
~Oscar Wilde
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Altaira
Superuser
Feb 28 2007, 4:13am
Post #17 of 65
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Both in past lives. But, I still have my guitar and my drum sticks and like to get them out every once in a while. I love to sing, so most of my guitar playing is strumming, strictly for the purpose of singing along.
The drum sticks are from my brief stint in a drum and bugle corps. I loved it, but broke my ankle shortly before our first performance and that was that. 
Anyone else here heard of a kalimba? They were semi-popular when I was *cough* younger *cough* and I got one for my birthday:
I've long forgotten any songs I used to know, but I can still make some nice chords. It's generally just nice to listen to and fun to play!
Koru: Maori symbol representing a fern frond as it opens. The koru reaches towards the light, striving for perfection, encouraging new, positive beginnings.
"All we have to decide is what to do with the boards that are given to us"
"I take a moment to fervently hope that the camaradarie and just plain old fun I found at TORn will never end" -- LOTR_nutcase
TORn Calendar
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Aerin
Grey Havens
Feb 28 2007, 5:11am
Post #18 of 65
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when I was a child, I really, really wanted piano lessons. But my parents didn't have a piano and couldn't afford one, so they convinced me that the flute would be more fun, because I could play in bands and orchestras. Which was fun. But once I decided to major in music and finally started piano lessons my senior year in high school, I was just too far behind. After one semester in college, I changed my major to biology, entirely because my piano skills were just not sufficient.
Theory is so much fun! Ironically, when I dropped my music major, everyone assumed it was because I couldn't hack theory, when in fact, I was the top theory student in the freshman class at my college. (I completed the two-hour final exam for first-semester theory in under an hour, was the first person to leave the exam room, and got 98% on the exam.) But I couldn't play my theory exercises at any reasonable tempo, and the night before my first composition was due, I was running around the music building practice rooms, trying to find someone who could play it for me, so I could hear how it sounded before I turned it in. I finally had to face the fact that in order to be a musicologist (which is what figured out I really wanted to be), I would have had to quit school and study piano full time until I had some usable skill level. I couldn't afford to do that, anyway, so there was really no decision to make.
I did eventually buy an old second-hand piano about 20 years ago and tried to start practicing again on my own, but I have no natural facility, and I just couldn't put in enough time to make real progress, on top of everything else I was already committed to doing. So I gave the piano away to a starving graduate student.
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Aerin
Grey Havens
Feb 28 2007, 5:15am
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I don't know if you could tell from the audience, but he's really remarkable hobbity! He's very short, and at the post-concert reception I attended, he was wearing a vest, and headed straight for the food. Very good humored. I was eating chocoloate-covered strawberries, and he came up behind me and said, "You must not be on a diet!"
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Aerin
Grey Havens
Feb 28 2007, 5:18am
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I know *exactly^ what you mean! See my post at the bottom of this thread! (Not the James Galway one.)
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N.E. Brigand
Half-elven
Feb 28 2007, 6:31am
Post #22 of 65
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Tuba, recorder, krumhorn, rackett, bassoon, cornetto, clarinet.
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In approximate level of ability from mediocre to poor.
My dad, an amateur musician (mostly strings), enlisted the family into a Renaissance band when we were children; we played outdoor fairs, library Christmas concerts, and the like. (My stepmom made costumes, which for me included tights and a ruff collar.) There I was passable on the recorder, krumhorn and rackett, and not good on the cornetto.
I was also in school bands from elementary school through college, starting on clarinet, switching to bassoon for high school concert band, and tuba/sousaphone for marching band, continuing the last in college. Since then, I'd play tuba once or twice a year for Tubachristmas, and just recently I joined a community band.
I can also whistle, to a degree.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 Tolkien Illustrated! Jan. 29-May 20: Visit the Reading Room to discuss art by John Howe, Alan Lee, Ted Nasmith and others, including Tolkien himself.
Feb. 26-Mar. 4: Fan Artistry.
(This post was edited by N.E. Brigand on Feb 28 2007, 6:32am)
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Aerin
Grey Havens
Feb 28 2007, 6:42am
Post #23 of 65
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Cool!
I used to play a lot of recorder, as well. I played in a chamber group that did concerts and reception, church, and wedding gigs, playing stuff from the Middle Ages to the Baroque. I had a very nice alto recorder, but finally sold it, since it had gone unplayed for over 20 years. Hopefully, it has a good home now.
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Kimi
Forum Admin
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Feb 28 2007, 8:59am
Post #24 of 65
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98% is what I got in my most recent theory exam, too :-) I also finished it early.
It's nice to encounter someone else who actually finds music theory fun.
Promises to Keep: a novel set in 19th Century New Zealand.
The Passing of Mistress Rose
Do we find happiness so often that we should turn it off the box when it happens to sit there?
- A Room With a View
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Draupne
Forum Admin
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Feb 28 2007, 9:24am
Post #25 of 65
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French horn, piano, recorder, lur
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Tried some bone-flutes and goat and cow-horns on Wednesday, not really suited for an orchestra but funny. Want to buy one but they're a bit expensieve compared to the number of tones you can get from them and overblowing a goats-horn it more for people playing piccolo trumpets than hornists :-)
Started with French horn 'cause I never really liked trumpet and baryton plus my teacher played horn.
In case you want to set up a Jew's harp symphony I have several Western ones in differenct tunings plus a Chinese bamboo one. You can borrow them all if you want, there's no way I can get anything sensible out of them. I could tell you some really interesting stuff about how the distance between the lamella and the beams affect the sound.
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