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Instruments other than guitar...
As mentioned, I would have loved to play guitar for the jazz band, but there was only one slot, and a couple of guys already had a lock on it.
So...I played in a handbell choir. We had one of the best HBCs in the southeast, and toured all over, in addition to playing 3-4 times a week all over Chattanooga during Christmas. We played at the annual Christmas show at the Tivoli theater in Chattanooga with the orchestra. Other highlights were playing at the White House and Naval Academy Chapel in the mid-70's. (Supposedly we were the first high school group to play in the Chapel. Beautiful, beautiful campus.)
We had an antiphonal choir. I was in the larger group, and actually was vice president of the choir my senior year. I played almost all the bells at one time or another. I started out on the high tenor bells, usually had an entire octave to work with. My last year I played 4-5 bells around middle D--one of the busiest parts to play, as occurring continuously in almost all songs (while low bass or high treble bells often weren't used much).
For the Tivoli concert, we were in box seats on opposite sides of the rather large auditorium. We had to watch the conductor carefully. There was a half second delay in hearing the choir on the other side, so you couldn't time your playing by ear, if you're alternating parts.
My sight reading and timing improved tremendously. And my understanding of musical composition.
I know we all want to play solo or be the soloist, but there is a special feeling from being in an ensemble when it all comes together and the performance is great.
Anyone else play something besides guitar BITD?
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10-29-2024 04:56 PM
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I had a cool music teacher and it was the noughties when schools actually had money so she (my music teacher) was able to buy some steel drums, on which I and others played mostly pop tunes together.
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double bass
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Alto sax & bassoon
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Alto saxophone
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Bb Clarinet, classical piano, violin (on my own)
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My Ding-a-ling
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Trumpet, for a short while.
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I studied bass in college. Upright and electric. Was in big band, combos, and orchestra. Was fun and a good foundation even though I don't play bass anymore.
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Drums first, then guitar, bass, banjo, lap steel & blues harp. I tried to teach myself organ, but it broke and I threw it away.
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Guitar, bass, some very bad drums, and some Tommy Tedesco tuned mandolin.
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Guitar and bass. I played guitar in the college jazz big band. I also was in the jazz choir.
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I studied french horn in the prep division at Juilliard, but it didn't take. It wasn't until college that I took up the piano again (stopped lessons in sixth grade) and string bass, and then banjo. I only stuck with instruments I taught myself, because I was foolish.
Last edited by Ukena; 10-30-2024 at 10:06 AM.
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Before "high school" I played violin (age 5-8) and cornet (age 8-11). I got into guitar at age 13.
I would also play pianos, organs or keyboards when I got the opportunity.
In upper secondary school I was in a mixed choir for 2.5 years.
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I never really wanted to play violin or cello, but I would have loved to have played horn. Maybe playing saxophone in the jazz band would have been a good idea.
I also tried out for glee club. Unfortunately, my voice was changing from a tenor to a baritone at the time, and I didn't fit easily into either. So I got "let go" after a couple of months. I still regret it, because glee club had a lot of fun, and a lot of my friends were in musicals. That was the way to get the girls--singing and dancing.
BTW, NONE of my kids play guitar much, except for a son who dabbles in it. My kids studied the following: oldest daughter piano and violin (briefly); oldest son piano and drums--excellent at both; younger son piano and saxophone and violin (briefly); and younger daughter cello and percussion. My older son is the only one who plays frequently now. He has a recording studio in his apartment and tends toward synth-based techno stuff.
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Cornet in school, Renaissance recorders in college, did very well with both. Then nothing for decades and now approaching retirement, I’ve steered toward guitar and piano. A new world, as I find now I’m playing more than one note at a time, and I can breathe any time I want to!
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Started with a small keyboard at 6 - which turned into me still being the pianist in a big band.
Formal music education on flugelhorn, starting at 8. Quit the instrument at 27 (which I now sometimes regret).
Early teens (14?): added guitar. Currently a living room guitar player. :-)
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Started violin at 9 or 10 and didn't really play anything else except for a bit at 2ndary school when I taught myself to play along with Stevie on a weird Chinese harmonica I'd won at a fair. Didn't keep that up and regret that a bit now because it's (or seems) so close to singing (which I absolutely can't).
Guitar is a bit of an afterlife development for me.
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Clarinet, quite seriously. Played in the college symphonic band, both Bb & Eb. Also played around with tenor sax a bit.
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In high school in the 1970s it was all guitar all of the time.
In college in the 1980s, to qualify for a high school music teacher’s license, I had to demonstrate competence on piano and a wind instrument, which for me was the alto sax.
Alongside that, during college I’d developed a serious world music fascination and tried my hands on the West African kora, the oud and the tabla drums, taking lessons on all three. The tablas never really took off for me, I was more into fingers on strings.
Did better with the kora, and was able to work up a solo set, and formed a trio on oud with a string bassist and violinist, doing arrangements of Umm Kulthum.
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In high school, I played quite a lot of keyboard percussion. My freshman year, I had been reading oboe parts on electric guitar in concert band, but my band teacher pushed me towards learning a "legitimate" band instrument, which led to plenty of experience with keyboard percussion, particularly marimba, in concert, marching, and percussion ensemble settings. (My mother is Salvadoran, and marimba is huge in Central American folkloric music; I was unknowingly picking up an important piece of my own cultural heritage.)
I did do a bit of keyboard percussion in college, but my voice became my "primary secondary," to put it one way. I've sung quite a lot of choral music in my day and currently maintain a section leader position in a church choir.
I also acquired a Cuban tres during a trip to Havana organized by my university. I still have it.
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Trombone
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Learn something everyday, but that's a weird term that really stretches the definition of what a keyboard is!
Originally Posted by chrisrubenwinters
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It's a fairly standard term - Keyboard percussion instrument - Wikipedia - although more colloquially, most people would say "mallets" (which has its own downsides as a term, in my opinion). Originally Posted by RJVB
Both "keyboard percussion" and "mallets" are thankfully less of a mouthful than saying "marimba, vibraphone, xylophone, glockenspiel, and chimes." What I mostly want to express is that I never seriously studied unpitched percussion like snare drum, etc.
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I looked it up of course and saw it was the official term - but that same WP article also suggests there isn't one in the vast majority of other languages.
Until your post I would have interpreted "keyboard percussion" as a term for piano and closest cousins (or used in a particular way). I mean ... people played marimba and the like before you could fold up its BT keyboard and put it in your pocket, no (where else did it go, right?)
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