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Writer's Block: Musically inclined
Nov. 8th, 2011 08:37 pm[Error: unknown template qotd]
Come on. You know I was a band nerd.
I play clarinet. I've been playing it since the 8th grade, when I had to switch instruments due to a diagnosis of vertigo. (I have inner ear issues. I'm not sure if the near blackouts I suffer occasionally are from this, low blood pressure, or a combination of both, but it's pretty irritating.) Before that, I played flute for two years. Yeah, I had to stop playing flute because mustering up the air to play it made me even dizzier than I already was. (Did you know that playing the flute takes more air than playing the tuba? There's your useless fact of the day.) Anyway, I played clarinet for the rest of middle and high school, and I've played it off and on since, though not near as much as I used to. I used to be pretty good at it, getting to where I could play a three-octave scale and using size 4 reeds. I even made first chair of honor band my senior year of high school, which meant that I was the best of the clarinet players in our district (and had to awkwardly tune the rest of the honor band before our performance, super). I even tried out for the orchestra when I went to college and they were prepared to offer me a scholarship, but being clumsy and having no experience marching, I had no interest in doing marching band, which was a prerequisite for the scholarship. Oh wells.
Actually, for many years, I was the clarinetist in our school band. Our school was so small (and band was never all that popular) that I was either the only person or one of two people who played clarinet. Then again, I graduated with a class of 13, some of whom I had known since pre-school, so what do you expect, really?
As I've mentioned, I've also played piano. I took piano lessons for a few years as a young child; I picked it up again in high school; but I still don't know it very well because I stopped practicing a long time ago. I do know a few songs by heart, though, including one by Mozart, and I used to drive my second teacher crazy in other ways too. She used to try to teach me by playing the song for me so I would know what it was supposed to sound like. She stopped doing that when she realized I wasn't really looking at the music when I was playing and was focusing on my fingers instead.
I can read music, but I come by the annoying talent of playing by ear naturally, though I'm not nearly as good at it as my father. My dad was a musical prodigy as a kid, and he plays piano by ear. We're not talking simple melodies but Beethoven and other grandiose pieces. He also has perfect pitch, which he passed on to my brother but not to me. Rats. (As an aside, it was also ridiculous as a kid to hear my dad and brother constantly being uncomfortable during performances because someone was inevitably out of tune. They can't help it, but man...) However, several of my band teachers used to tune the rest of the band to me because I was nearly always in tune. One of them claimed I was better than a machine at one point. Also, I once owned a clarinet that everyone else had trouble tuning but I always played in tune. Actually, I'm still not quite sure how to tune my instrument because of that. Haha.
Other instruments I have dabbled with are ukelele, recorder, and bass guitar. I don't really count the first two as instruments I've played, though, because we had to learn them in school. As for bass guitar, I tried to teach it to myself a couple of years ago because I've always been really interested in it (yeah, yeah, shut up), but I lost interest/didn't have time to be serious about it/got lazy/other crap came up. (Well, it helped that my ex loaned me the bass guitar, and the first time we broke up, I had him take the guitar with him. Musicians. What can I say?)
Funny. This has been on my mind a fair amount. I've been meaning to get back into playing because I have a really nice instrument (made of exotic wood even!) but not a lot of time. I really don't want to lose the skill even though I'm out of practice and it's fairly useless in the grand scheme of things. That's never stopped me before, though. Perhaps after this deadline (which has been moved to Thursday, gag!) has passed, I'll be able to get back into it and annoy the hell out of my neighbors. I'm sure I don't do that already with how much I sing in the shower. And while vacuuming? Ha.
Well, there's more than you ever wanted to know about my musical history. That was fun.
Come on. You know I was a band nerd.
I play clarinet. I've been playing it since the 8th grade, when I had to switch instruments due to a diagnosis of vertigo. (I have inner ear issues. I'm not sure if the near blackouts I suffer occasionally are from this, low blood pressure, or a combination of both, but it's pretty irritating.) Before that, I played flute for two years. Yeah, I had to stop playing flute because mustering up the air to play it made me even dizzier than I already was. (Did you know that playing the flute takes more air than playing the tuba? There's your useless fact of the day.) Anyway, I played clarinet for the rest of middle and high school, and I've played it off and on since, though not near as much as I used to. I used to be pretty good at it, getting to where I could play a three-octave scale and using size 4 reeds. I even made first chair of honor band my senior year of high school, which meant that I was the best of the clarinet players in our district (and had to awkwardly tune the rest of the honor band before our performance, super). I even tried out for the orchestra when I went to college and they were prepared to offer me a scholarship, but being clumsy and having no experience marching, I had no interest in doing marching band, which was a prerequisite for the scholarship. Oh wells.
Actually, for many years, I was the clarinetist in our school band. Our school was so small (and band was never all that popular) that I was either the only person or one of two people who played clarinet. Then again, I graduated with a class of 13, some of whom I had known since pre-school, so what do you expect, really?
As I've mentioned, I've also played piano. I took piano lessons for a few years as a young child; I picked it up again in high school; but I still don't know it very well because I stopped practicing a long time ago. I do know a few songs by heart, though, including one by Mozart, and I used to drive my second teacher crazy in other ways too. She used to try to teach me by playing the song for me so I would know what it was supposed to sound like. She stopped doing that when she realized I wasn't really looking at the music when I was playing and was focusing on my fingers instead.
I can read music, but I come by the annoying talent of playing by ear naturally, though I'm not nearly as good at it as my father. My dad was a musical prodigy as a kid, and he plays piano by ear. We're not talking simple melodies but Beethoven and other grandiose pieces. He also has perfect pitch, which he passed on to my brother but not to me. Rats. (As an aside, it was also ridiculous as a kid to hear my dad and brother constantly being uncomfortable during performances because someone was inevitably out of tune. They can't help it, but man...) However, several of my band teachers used to tune the rest of the band to me because I was nearly always in tune. One of them claimed I was better than a machine at one point. Also, I once owned a clarinet that everyone else had trouble tuning but I always played in tune. Actually, I'm still not quite sure how to tune my instrument because of that. Haha.
Other instruments I have dabbled with are ukelele, recorder, and bass guitar. I don't really count the first two as instruments I've played, though, because we had to learn them in school. As for bass guitar, I tried to teach it to myself a couple of years ago because I've always been really interested in it (yeah, yeah, shut up), but I lost interest/didn't have time to be serious about it/got lazy/other crap came up. (Well, it helped that my ex loaned me the bass guitar, and the first time we broke up, I had him take the guitar with him. Musicians. What can I say?)
Funny. This has been on my mind a fair amount. I've been meaning to get back into playing because I have a really nice instrument (made of exotic wood even!) but not a lot of time. I really don't want to lose the skill even though I'm out of practice and it's fairly useless in the grand scheme of things. That's never stopped me before, though. Perhaps after this deadline (which has been moved to Thursday, gag!) has passed, I'll be able to get back into it and annoy the hell out of my neighbors. I'm sure I don't do that already with how much I sing in the shower. And while vacuuming? Ha.
Well, there's more than you ever wanted to know about my musical history. That was fun.
