I'm a recovering trombonist. I minored in piano, but I spent most of my practice time writing and arranging - so I never got very good at. I'm good enough to play my own parts - mostly. I hire a studio keyboardist when I need serious chops.

I majored in Music Education, then studied composition privately for seven years, so of course I can read and notate music. The only thing my teacher MADE me learn - which I fought him on - was the CORRECT method for notation and transcription by hand. (He saw the charts I was doing for sessions and was appalled, so I guess I asked for it.) Of course, the computer does it for us now...in a sense. There's so much the computer doesn't know to do. So knowing the rules still helps.

Fred Story

I´m a halfway decent guitar player, playing it for 20 years (ouch, I´m even older [[:|]] ) But that´s brutto. I paused playing guitar for seven years and then started again one year ago.
I play piano good enough to play in my own parts, as Fred. I read and write notes. Good notation skills are very important, I think. It really clears your mind. But I´m also lazy and do so much things in a mediocre way which of course I shouldn´t....

I didn't played since 1996 but earlier:
12 years violin, viola, piano
and since 1996 only my synth... but i think i'll buy my own violin again and start practice again [;)]

regards
lukpcn
www.kulmusic.com

@lukpcn said:

... but i think i'll buy my own violin again and start practice again [;)]

Man, DO IT! Nothing can beat the real thing.

@lukpcn said:

... but i think i'll buy my own violin again and start practice again [;)]

Man, DO IT! Nothing can beat the real thing.

I have to agree, there. Even though I'm a highly mediocre pianist, I love sitting at my 7" grand. Beats any MIDI acoustic piano experience hands down. It just FEELS good when that wood and felt mechanism strikes all those strings. Even if I'm just working on some ideas, I almost always put the lid on the high stick so I can feel every decibel of sound.

Fred Story

@lukpcn said:

... but i think i'll buy my own violin again and start practice again [;)]

Man, DO IT! Nothing can beat the real thing.

I have to agree, there. Even though I'm a highly mediocre pianist, I love sitting at my 7" grand. Beats any MIDI acoustic piano experience hands down. It just FEELS good when that wood and felt mechanism strikes all those strings. Even if I'm just working on some ideas, I almost always put the lid on the high stick so I can feel every decibel of sound.

Fred Story

Yeah i know what you guys think but i have no money for the real things now... i need to go for sample libraries.

maybe later

"but i think i'll buy my own violin again and start practice again"

So you pawned it? It's hanging in a little old shop somewhere, and every once in a while you stop by the window and your eyes are drawn magnetically to the violin still hanging there - your violin - and you think of the applause, the adulation, the "Bravo's" ringing in your ears - everything that might have been, everything that still COULD BE - if you only had that violin once more...

Sorry - got a little carried away there. But I have not been practicing horn for a long time and notice the same kind of thing Fred mentioned. That desire to just pick it up and play it will never go away if you live to be a hundred.

@Fred Story said:

[ I love sitting at my 7" grand. Fred Story

Fred loves sitting at his 7 inch grand!!!! Why Fred! You must be tiny! [[;)]]

@Fred Story said:

[ I love sitting at my 7" grand. Fred Story

Fred loves sitting at his 7 inch grand!!!! Why Fred! You must be tiny! [[;)]]

Yes I find that there's not much call, for a 7 inch pianist [:O]ops: [:D]

That's what I get for typing a post on my 12' Powerbook without my glasses.

Fred Story