Your Musical Background

[reith]

My musical background is chekered. My graddad was a musician but my parents were never supportive. I had a few piano lessons when I was 7, grew very keen on (classical) music generally, had to depend on absorbiing Radio 3 in my bedroom. The lessons went on about a year. They were free or I doubt I'd have got them.
At 9, (I think??) I joined a church choir to get some musical contact, discovered I liked part-singing and my first effort at writing an anglican chant prompted the choirmaster to start teaching me 4-part harmony. I didn't need much teaching and had worked through Kitson I & II (which he gave me - very old books but they cut to the chase) in a year under his guidance.

It really took off at secondary school and six years later I sat a diploma in composition. But (partly from home circumstances) I had already decided that music would be a hobby. I knew I'd never earn a respectable keep with composing; teaching did not appeal. I was fickle with composing at that age, sometimes put it down for months at a time. As the diploma required performance audition in 3 instruments (and with the singing), I found I could get into local amateur/semi-pro activities easily. My first invitations to compose came from a jazz player who lived across the road, and the movie society of which my dad was a member. As far as the rest of schooling went I sold out more or less, intensely interested in electronics/synthesisers/audio but alas couldn't afford a decent multitrack recorder in the early days.

I did teach casually/privately and that involved a couple of students and a friend or two who gigged in Brighton and regularly played in a couple of restaurants. Trips abroad brought me in contact with musical activities. That's how it is at the moment. I think I came to the internet to keep in contact with music while I was moving around. Didn't expect to find too many composing sites and would never have time to devote to an "on-line community" as they call it.

I've been brought into contact with many genres of music, classical and pop (per the divisions you'd find in a music store) so composition has leaned on many styles though people tell me I do have a syle when writing for leisure. Caribbean music has always grabbed me to the extent I wonder if somehow it isn't spiritually embedded. Music has always been a practical and social issue so my knowledge of music history is almost nil. Music "now" is where it's at so my music collection has little before the 20th Century except a few opera DVDs/CDs.

But I have to say, music has been a most fulfilling hobby...I'm not so sure it would have been as loveable a profession!

[crimson]

Wow, you folks have such interesting musical journeys behind compared to my lame one. It's very interesting to read about everyone's backgrounds here. Keep 'em coming!

[Andy]

Originally Posted by crimson

Wow, you folks have such interesting musical journeys behind compared to my lame one. It's very interesting to read about everyone's backgrounds here. Keep 'em coming!

HAHA! as we say in the south here in the 'states'.... "it ain't where you been...it's where are you now...and where are you going!"

be of good cheer...defy the joyKILLERS and may the tide rise against the invalidators!

andy

[MidiWorld]

My first memories include piano lessons at age 5. My teacher was a nun, so I had to say a prayer before and after each lesson, and I didn't really like that. Especially not when my friends were hiding in the closet and I had to keep a straight face.
My mother had great ambitions for me, I was sent to music school, and soon I found myself playing Liszt and Bartok in front of a thousand people. I truly hated that, and did everything I could to avoid having to do it again. So I went to play soccer instead of going to music class, refused to practice and eventually my mother gave up on me becoming a concert pianist.
When I turned 15, it was time to form a rock band. Back then we didn't have portable keyboards so I started taking guitar lessons. I was pretty serious about it, practiced a lot and earned the prestigious "lead guitar" position in our band. Then I met real talent. This guy never took a guitar lesson and played circles around me. So I was demoted to playing bass. I practiced and practiced, my guitar teacher could not keep up with me, but I still wasn't as good as the "natural".
We played gigs, which involved loading everything including the band into a small Volkswagen van and traveling around the country with a driver who didn't have a concept of red lights, traffic signs or a fear of death. We were playing to crowds of people interested only in getting drunk and picking fights. We had to play covers of pop tunes of the worst kind or become the target of flying beer bottles.
It wasn't as much fun as it may sound, and I decided to quit the band and make a living as a guitar instructor. This was the time when every kid wanted to be a rock star so business was good, I made a lot more money teaching than playing. I could afford to buy a turntable and my friends record collection. This was a life-changing experience. I listened to music I had never heard before: Pink Floyd, Emerson Lake and Palmer, Jethro Tull, Van Der Graaf Generator, Weather Report and such. This was new to me, not the usual predictable pop music but the limitless freedom of exression through music. It was back to the piano for me and the joy of improvisation.
The next big thing happened when I spent a summer working in a record store. I started listening to classical music and I was hooked. This is where I got the idea: people may actually like classical music if they get a chance to listen to it. I offer a large collection of free classical music on my websites for that purpose. Most people would never walk into a record store to buy classical music, it's just not part of the culture. They come to my site and listen to a random selection of MIDI files and some of them may get hooked just like I did. When I get emails like "Dude, Bruckner rocks!" it makes me feel good.
So I started early, then turned to soccer, then back to music. I didn't become a pro in either but I learned to appreciate good music and I'm having a lot of fun with MIDI and my growing number of keyboards and synths.

[Rykua]

Wow, compared to all of you, I feel pathetic... but here's my musical background.

I started playing piano when I was about five or six. It was in the basement of our church. This one highschool girl wanted to teach piano in an effort to make more money for highschool life (as most of us as highschoolers love to have more money to go out with).

In about three or so months, I had already passed her, and she directed me to her piano teacher. My second year, in recital, I played a whole mozart sonata. I was, like, 8 or 9... I can't remember. I continued piano, although I did fall away from it after the Mozart Sonata (something I really regret now).

I got more into playing video game songs by ear, and making up the left hand as I went along... When I was 13, I went to highschool (I'm young for my age, due to the fact I skipped a grade). I joined the school Jazz Band, and became pianist for the choir.

In 10th grade, I joined the regular band... and was immediately amazed at how all the instruments fit together to make a good song. I mean, I heard recordings, but to be involved with it live... it inspired me. I started reading the band scores, and analyzing them, trying to make sense of it all. My lack of any thorough theory, though, prevented me from doing much. At the time, the most knowlege I had was chords... and how to build them.

I made my first compostion mid-year. It was a simple thing... just made by putting together what I liked from other songs, and altering it a little. At the time I had no idea about instrument ranges... I treated everything as if it could be played on piano (which made some crazy stuff), and I had no IDEA how to write percussion. It's the background song to this page. Also on that page were my other first compositions. Five in all.

You know... upon listening to some of those old songs... I actually LIKE some stuff in there. 'specially the "Final Boss" and the "Waltz". I'm actually impressed... I wish I could make something like that now. I'm too rigid-minded in my compositions... xD! I like the piano part in the cello/violin duet.



Anyway, I got something better than that freeware program. I stumbled upon Finale by accident, and I loved it. After some work, I finally got my own full version of Finale. I started composition more seriously and tried to make a full-band composition. I resulted with a composition that I don't have anymore... as much as I wish I did.

Well, two years later, a live performance of one of my compositions by the highschool band, a few compositions, and nothing much happening... we arrive to the present. A recently-turned-17 senior who's about to graduate highschool.

[Silhouette]

You feel pathetic?
Lol i don't think I've been brought up in a musical environment really, I remember when I was about 7, I really loved the disney film 'Fantasia', and my family thought I was the strangest child ever!
After that I really wanted to learn the flute, but living with a single parent, there's not much spare cash lying around, so I picked up recorder later on and got good at that, and joined loads of choirs. Teachers soon picked up on my voice and started telling my mum about it, and ever since then I've always wanted to sing. I only started lessons in year 12, and picked up flute after I got my own job in year 11, but I'm now singing my grade 8 stuff and have got grade 5 distinction in flute. I hope to get into the college I want and have an excellent career in music!

[sawscape]

I mentioned this a bit in the "Off Topic" forum about "Tell me about your Job." Even those of you who say you have a lame background at least showed some interest when you were kids. I didn't even like music that much when I was a kid, other than listening to the Beatles on a transistor radio. I never took lessons (which I would have rejected) or played in the school band or anything. Eventually, as a teenager I got Elton John's "Captain Fantastic..." album and began to see that there could be something interesting about music.
When I went to collage, I took an acoustic guitar with me to use as a study break and began noodling with that. You know, "Smoke on the Water" and all that. And, yes, I learned "Stairway to Heaven." While there I took a couple of non-major music classes and began to practice on the music department pianos. I enjoyed writing down little bits of musical ideas I got from my hacking around on the guitar and piano.
When music notation software was introduced in the '80s, I was hooked. Such software allowed my to pursue musical ideas that I couldn't perform (due to lack of background and ability).
During the '90s I got married and started a family and so I became rather quiet musically for a while. But in the last couple of years I've been dusting off some old stuff and working on some new stuff. Given that I can only steal a few minutes here and there, my output has been maddingly slow.
However, I cannot see myself ever stopping composing (as long as I can work a computer).

[bassistah]

I was given an irish whistle when I was about 2 or 3 and picked out tunes. None of my family are remotely musical but my mum loved classical music. I could read notes before I could read words and used to sit from the age of about 18 months listening to Brandenburg concertos completely transfixed.

She took me to a concert in Manchester when I was about 5- the Hallé playing Mahler 2. I remember pointing to the flutes and just knowing that that is the job I would do when I grew up.

She took me to a local teacher, but my arms were too short to reach the end of the flute so I played clarinet for a year, then moved on to flute. I just loved it and got up to grade 8 when I was about 13.

Then for various reasons, I couldnt go any further on flute due to lack of family support (read out and out sabotage!) so picked an instrument I thought would really hack them off, ie the double bass!

Got instantly moved from principle flute in the county youth orchestra to bass (deeply unimpressed at the time!) and then became addicted. I saw Gary Karr play when I was 14, and he asked me to play for him on his Amati bass (swoon!) and that was it. Played non stop in orchestras, jazz bands then went to the Royal Northern. Started playing professionally in orchestras in my 2nd year and that was it, and continued playing jazz professionally and session work. Dream job.

Then I had my daughter- the life of a transient musician and motherhood do not combine! Went into teaching and resented it like hell at first. But then started to love it. What better thing can you do than to pass on all the great teaching you´ve had to someone who wants to learn? It´s a privelige.

I´ve now moved to Andalucía where I run a little music school and play professionally in orchestras and jazz bands. It´s the right mix. It´s the best job in the world!

[drb967]

Lots of variety in backgrounds, a common comment I've noticed, however, is many did not start with a keen interest- or due to life's circumstances took a 'sabbatical' from it, only to return years later. My background involves a little of both:
From childhood my mother always sang in the church choir and my grandfather "dabbled" with writing (in the old hymnal style), as I was young I took it for granted (and often went outside to play) -much to my deteriment now, and missed out on much of my grandfather's musical ideas (the extent of his education allowed him to write out a "lead sheet" (chords and lyrics only) without any of the melodic lines) being in the 'backcountry" of the North Georgia mountains much of his music was never recorded (the expense of a recorder was to much).
My older sisters took piano lessons and there was a piano in the house which I never really took un interest in until much later.
I started playing trombone in 6th grade- never was more than an adequate player- I didn't practice except when in class, and never took private lessons. When I entered middle school I hated the band director- I stayed in the class more from defiance of him and for the camraderie (sp?) of my friends. In high school we had a new director, I can't say if it was his personality or his approach (attitude), but nonetheless he inspired me to consider pursuing a teaching degree in music, around age 15 I began to dabble at the keyboard teaching myself chords, harmonies, some melodic lines (though nothing concrete), most of the learning I did at that time was by trying to make arrangements of pop music for us (the marching band) to play at football games or basketball games (pep band). We never performed them as they truly were wretched arrangements- but I did learn how to deal with transposing instruments and how to voice parts (cough- again they were wretched arrangements- but I was learning- trial and error style).
With every intent of going to college after I graduated life gave me a major shift of gears- my girlfriend found out she was pregnant; well I did the "right" thing - we married, and I took a job in a carpet mill- I attended the local JR College and earned my Associate degree (liberal arts only they had no music program at that school).
After highschool (and while in the local college) I took a "musical vacation," I was working more than full time (getting as much overtime as possible 12-16 hr/day 6-7 d/wk) and simply did not have the time for music... add to the mix two more subsequent children and I never thought that I would ever pursue a music degree (or even a music hobby at that point).

Time passed, and two things happened around 1996 that kicked me back into gear. 1) My oldest daughter was entering 6th grade, and I knew it would take me a minimum of 6 years (parttime student) to complete a degree (and no way could I afford to pay her tuition as well as mine at the same time so the clock began ticking down for me to 'do it of forget it". 2) A nearby JR college (not the closest that I previously atttended)- became a full time college (and they had a music program)- so I took out the trombone- blew the cobwebs out of it (after 11 years), bought a cheap keyboard, and a theory work book, and determined I would "do it," and enrolled the following fall. At this point while refreshing my scant knowledge of the keyboard I began to actually write, and be able to keep it cohesive (meaning I could walk away and not totally forget where I was nor where I was going when I returned to write- maturity or simply learning how to maintain focus?) I finished a simple piano piece (Mediation for Piano), and began to write a wind ensemble piece before I returned to school- (more of personal therapy than intent for performance).
Being as I was "away" from playing so long, and never being a stellar player to begin with, I opted for the Education degree (they offered performance or education degrees only). So from 1997-2003 I worked at night and travelled to school (75 miles one way) in the day to chase down this "dream." As of now I really do not see myself in a teaching postion, nor do I see myself being a great composer; I write as an advocation, if you like the works great- if not great, I do like to hear any input that anyone wants to share, as we all strive to better ourselves, thus I do share my work.
My fellow students while in school often chided me saying that some of my work were probably to difficult to be performed by anyone that was not "at professional level" (ie the piano sonata for 4 hands) or they require 'forces' that are not locally readily availible (ie full orchestra- how many of us find difficulty in getting any ensemble to take a chance at performing a new piece?; much less one that may wreak technical havoc (much rehearsal time) or even performance edits- computers come close to playback but not 100% realible to always express written dynamics vs performer dynamics-though they are getting there.
Well I've rambled on way to much - but now you know (maybe to much) about my background.

[fiziwig]

I've enjoyed reading everyone's stories. ttw: our backgrounds are similar. I was immersed in classical music from the day I was born. My mom played the piano, not very well, but we always had records going (this was back in the 1940's when everything was on 78-RPM bakelite disks) My folks had a photo of me, barely tall enough to reach the phonograph, putting on the next record from my stack of favorites.

My dad was a manager at an electronics firm, but in addition to his day job he lead a large swing dance band that was very popular at the night clubs in southwestern Michigan in the 40's and 50's. I started piano lessons at age 7 and continued through age 17. Then I graduated, went into the Air Force, came back home and got married, had kids, picked up an MS degree in CompSci and worked as a software engineer, doing nothing musical for the next 45 years.

Now I'm retiring next month and I've decided to take up composing as a hobby. Oh, and for what it's worth, A friend of a friend who claimed to be a psychic once told me that in a past life I was a slightly obscure but successful composer and died in the 1930's. Hmmm. Not sure I'm buying that one.

--gary