Music and YOU!

[imoldernu]

Not your favorite singer
Not your favorite YouTube
No specifics

Just YOU...
and how music has influenced your life:

 

[harley]

I was a troubled kid, but then I got caught. I was forced to watch violent images for long periods of time, while under the effect of a nausea-inducing drug and with specula used hold my eyes open . This made me experience severe nausea when experiencing or even thinking about violence, thus creating an aversion to violent behavior. I also developed a severe aversion to Beethovens Ninth Symphony, which had been one of my favorite pieces of classical music, due to its use as a background score for the films during my treatment.

Music had a large influence on my life.

 

[MichaelB]

Alex, is that you?

 

[steelyman]

I have formal training on piano, drums, and woodwinds (in that order). Stringed (guitar-like) instruments are self-taught.

If you have kids or grandkids who want to get into playing, piano is a very good base as you're not wrestling with fingerings or things like that. You also learn full chords and voicings.

Edit to add: music has kept me and my longest-term friends together. We just play. If you suck, that's OK. The point is to try.

 

[robnplunder]

I am probably not the only one on this. Music gave me an escape from a miserable life when growing up.

 

[MRG]

Well my musical talents stopped at the kazoo. Never had any interest in playing. Wish I'd been able to spend more time with one uncle as he was very talanted. Later in life he was talking about serving in WWII. Family legend said he was injured in the head. No, he hurt his back and was assigned to entertainment. He had the privilege of playing with many of the big names of that time. He talked about how great those years were. After the war he got to audition with some of these folks, but never made it big. But he did play, country clubs, weddings, etc. into his 90s.

For me music was an escape from boredom, probably acting out. That crazy rock, drove DF nuts, making it all the better to a rebel. I still love music today, but it's sad when Deep Purple is elevator music.
MRG

 

[scrabbler1]

When I was around 5 years old, my parents realized I had perfect pitch. They sent me to some piano lessons around that time. A few years later, I was sent to some other piano lessons. The one thing from those second set of lessons which stuck with me over the years was a set of musical theory lessons the piano teacher taught me. They have come in handy when I needed to transpose some songs into another key, mostly on the guitar, another instrument I took up in my youth after my hands were big enough and outgrew the ukelele.

I never joined the band or orchestra when I was in grammar school but when I was in college I began playing the piano more, just as a hobby. The main type of songs I played at the time were Scott Joplin ragtime, like those in the movie, "The Sting," a movie which greatly shaped my musical interests since it came out 40 years ago. I did not always have access to a piano when I was in my 20s but when I moved to my current place in 1989 (I was nearly 26) I was able to acquire a spinet piano left behind in the deal.

In those last 24 years, I have played the piano in spurts from time to time but I have not played it in the last 10 years. Same for the guitar which I used to play a lot of Billy Joel songs (and some of his on the piano) and Simon & Garfunkel songs.

My prefect pitch may have slipped a little bit over the years, though. When I was my brother's place for Thanksgiving, I had trouble playing his electric keyboard because the sound from the note did not match how my ear heard it, making it confusing to play. Fortunately, his keyboard had a dial to adjust all the notes so I was not confused but it was awkward to keep that dial in place.

I rarel listen to music any more, only on the car radio when I am driving which is not often. And that is Top-40 stuff, much of which I don't care for as much as I did in the 1980s and 1990s. So music's influence over my life has waned quite a bit in the last 25+ years.

 

[imoldernu]

The subject came to mind, as I found myself humming JaDa... a song we sang at YMCA camp, with my ukelele playing fellow counselors. back in the early '50's.

We grew up with music... A piano in our 9'X10' dining room, against the wall... mom played and tried to teach me, but gave up... At grandma Miller's house, with aunts and uncles and cousins... in all about 30... crammed into the "parlor" around the player piano, where cousin Margie and I pumped the pedals, and we ALL sang Harbor Lights, and When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again... in the 1940s.
Uncle Jerry was a tail gunner in a B24, and died over Poland when his plane was shot down. Jerry played the violin, and my grandmother decided that someone had to carry on the musical heritage, so little Bobby, won the violin, and in 5th grade began lessons in Mrs Sherman's after school... free music class. For two years... right through 6th grade, I carried that damned thing to school... defying the bullying of the day. Got up to the 6th position. Dad finally relented, and I gave the violin to my little brother, who dropped and broke it... A solution I had never thought of.
After grammar school... to High School... not good enough for the chorus, and they didn't need aviolinist in the band... It was a small marching band... The School was Pawtucket West... (there was also a Pawtucket East which was twice the size)... At the highschool football games, the band always played at halftime. Yes... a small band... 5 players... enough to make a "W"...
But it was in highschool that this musician flourished... Western singing was beginning to take over the country... before Nashville was in Tennessee. We listened to WWVA, Wheeling West Virgina...on a radio "skip" at night and bought the words to the songs at the dugstore for $.10.
Too costly for a guitar, so we all bought ukeleles and "made believe". Learned every song, from every country western singer who ever sang... hundreds of songs... knew every word, and ... ahem... still remember them today. Swam for the Boys club, and we won the National Championhip in 1953 and 1954. Six of our swimmers played the uke, and we serenaded the audience, and made the NYT... Couldn't do that today.

College was more of the same... but added playing the recorder, the tin whistle, harmonica, and guitar. Got good enough in singing to join the chorus, but bored after 1 year... and knew I'd never make the Meddiebempsters... so became a troubador.. mainly at parties, and usually best after 11 PM.

Also in College, took Music Appreciation, as a hoped for "gut course"... to offset Calculus and Biology... OMG... didn't realize that the music labs were 4 hours long, with headphones, listening to and parsing classical music... If you've done that, you'll understand. But yeah... definitely a wonderful lead in to listening to, loving and subconsciously analyzing the classics.

After college, did the usual... bought 45's, then LP's then 8 tracks, then cassettes... Mostly popular music of the 60's, and 70's. Stopped everything in the 80's... right after disco... so am totally ignorant of the in-between '85 and '13...
So in the early 90's when Napster was semi legal, managed to download about 3000 of my favorites that I still have and play regularly. Haven't P2P'd in 15 years...
Now... still play ukelele, harmonica, electronic piano, and jam with some buddies in our retirement community, and play with them in the "talent" shows. No violin.

I guess music has followed DW and I throughout our lives, and helped over the rough spots...
"Music hath charms to soothe the savage breast, To soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak" ~ William Congreve

 

[F4mandolin]

Little bit of piano when I was young (forced on me)....never practiced much. Cornet and French Horn in high school. Then nothing for 12 years or so until I taught myself to play violin. Went back to college for a year and they stuck me in the orchestra (where I promptly hurt my back playing too much). Never could play very much after that. Another 5 years or so go by and I switch to the mandolin since it is the same tuning as the violin. In retirement I was going to practice at least an hour a day......jeez I am lazy. In spurts with too many do nothing periods. Kind of want to trade my good mandolin in (I also have a 5 string electric) for Weber Octave mandolin and another less expensive mandolin. Probably still have a little bit of money left over. Now I just have to get off my butt and start practicing more/regularly. It's not like I don't have the time. I LIKE sitting around reading and being worthless. I don't listen to music much at all anymore.

 

[braumeister]

I am able to play the radio fairly well, and am learning iTunes.

 

[martyp]

No one in my family had any musical background. No musical instruments in the house. Only Andy Williams on the tube stereo. I gave the clarinet a try in 9th grade. After a couple of weeks I told myself if I get one more squeak out of that thing I would put it down forever. I was true to my word.

Didn't really pay attention to even rock music til after 9th grade. I had to paint the front of the house that summer and so I listened to the radio a lot. By 12th grade I developed an appreciation for classical music on my own or maybe under the influence of my senior year girlfriend. Classical was the only thing I could listen to while studying in college. I went to my fair share of concerts and music clubs in my 20's but that tapered off over the years. We bought a lot of classical and world music CD's over the years and listened at home occasionally.

Then the iPod and iTunes for the PC appeared. I transferred all my CD's to digital format and restocked my music collection from the iTunes store. I sort of went crazy for music. I developed a pretty wide range of tastes in musical styles. Contemporary Country entered my vocabulary.

My wife and I started salsa dancing about 15 yrs ago. I'm not sure why the music resonates with me. I have no latino cultural background experience. In any case I have a huge collection of salsa music and I'm fairly knowledgeable in that area. Listen to salsa about half the time.

Oh yes . . . I bought a radio for the car that plays my entire iPod collection. Most of my music listening is done in the car. Music became a bigger part of my life in the later part of my life.

 

[REWahoo]

Family musical history:

Dad - played the piano a bit and was a member of a gospel quartet on and off for more than 50 years.
Oldest brother - high school band.
Middle brother - high school and college band, music major and HS band director.
Sister - high school band, still playing the piano at her church at age 78
Me - zero musical ability. Apparently born without a music gene.
DD#1 and #2 - inherited my music talents
DGS#1 - high school band, received a "1" rating at the state level as a freshman (saxophone).
DGD#1 - piano. Wrote her own arrangement for the piece she played at a recent piano recital.
DGS#2 - middle school band, first chair (trumpet).

(Yes, I'm bragging about my grandkids. Get over it. )

 

[steelyman]

(Yes, I'm bragging about my grandkids. Get over it. )

Brag away. Arranging is impressive! Most people don't know "where that music comes from".

 

[Nodak]

Music has always been important to me; some of my earliest memories are of my parents playing their favorite records from the 30s and 40s. I still have all of their 78 rpm records but no turntable to play them on. Almost all of them are available on you tube though. My own collection runs to about 600 albums and about 400 CDs. I like all kinds of music with the possible exception of the older country western tunes from the 50s.

I even took accordian lessons for a couple of years but I didn't particularly like the instrument so when my instructor moved to Alaska I stopped with that. IT was an accordian that one of my Uncles brought back after WWII so it was not something we had to buy.

 

[marko]

For a lot of boomers music was a huge part of their lives; probably more than any previous generation. The protest songs of the 60's helped shape the views of a lot of us I think.

For me, the lyrics of a lot of songs from the 60's and 70's gave me an insight into a wider world...then of course, came MTV which, I think, again opened a lot of people eyes into other worlds. I once commented that with MTV videos, a lot of people saw more of the UK and Europe than they ever would otherwise.

 

[HFWR]

"Music is the best." - Frank Zappa

I play guitar and bass, mostly self-taught and by ear, though I have a rudimentary understanding of music theory, chord construction, scales, etc. Have dabbled with violin, and can chord around on keys. Have a home/hobby studio in BR2, and have written and recorded a few tunes.

 

[Tailgate]

... +1 on the ukulele... played guitar 40 years ago, but not well... picked up a uke 1 1/2 years ago and have been having a blast ever since. 4 fingers, 4 strings.. duh! YouTube is full of younger and older folks playing all kinds of music on the uke..yes, even some Frank Zappa.

 

[steelyman]

The ukulele is great. Arlo Guthrie redid a song I love called "Ukulele Lady" that's easy to find on Google. As a bonus, great retro images are returned.

If you like Ukulele Lady, Ukulele Lady like you.

 

[Tailgate]

How To Know If You Can Be A Blues Singer

a little OT, but funny and there's some truth to this.... just arrived in my IN box today.... enjoy

 

[Tailgate]

moved to different thread...didnt quite fit OP's original question..

 

[ls99]

My earliest training in music was somehow getting accepted into music school in 1956, and ended there and then with a big thud of fat guy hitting the pavement after being thrown off the second story balcony.

Thereafter it was through the radio listning to Italian, German, Russian, Hungarian of course, French and some popular stuff from England via short wave radio. The fidelity really sucked, but still it was a wonderful exposure.

Later in my mid teens, we had to be out by 10 PM, and yes we could drink wine or anything else we could pay for, going to restaurants with friends and listening to lots of Gypsy music. Magical stuff that is. "Primas" lead violinst of a three piece group, one is always the Base fiddle player, somtimes a drummer, somtimes a large item callled a Cimbalom aka, zither, but mauch larger and played with what looks like large Q tips.


A good lead violinist can look you in the eye, and can make cry or laugh with a tune. The rest of the group can and does modulate the tune to great effect.

Other places had piano players. Even today I am partial to piano music, piano jazz etc. I have gotten really tired of Guitar music of most any sort, save jazz, or Classicals or along the lines of Segovia, or Szabo, sad since there is not a piano bar within 60 miles. I have not heard a gypsy band live in more than 40 years.

As for playing, I can make terrible noises on any instrument. My singing is even worse.

 

[seraphim]

Started playing the guitar and singing in third grade. Never learned to sight read, though I studied a bit of music theory. Mostly play just for myself. Performed in musicals n high school, Used to sing my son to sleep every night for a long time. He toured with the Cincinnati Boychoir and performed with some professional opera companies until his voice changed, then took private lessons and featured with a nationally competing show choir, and finally went to study vocal performance in college, and has toured internationally. Now he's acting professionally; some singing. He has an awesome voice.

Wonder how his life might have been different had I not sung him to sleep?