What did you PLAY?

Keesha

Keesha

🐟
Location
Canada 🇨🇦
2FA8EF9F-C0B4-445C-A2EB-B6ACF365860E.jpg

I played the saxophone. I picked the saxophone since my brother played trombone, my other brother played trumpet and my dad played piano. Together we had a small jazz / stage band.

Both my brothers were in the senior band so I took up saxophone in the summer of 1974 just before grade 9 so I could join the band also which I didn’t

We all played in the school jazz band also which later turned into a professional gig after high school was over.
Every once in a while I take out my sax and play it. One note sticks and doesn’t work. It drives me crazy so I don’t play it as often as I’d like.

What instrument did you play in school if you took MUSIC as a credit?
 

We had a grand piano in our "living room" ever since my sister and I were little kids. Parents hired a prof
to teach us. Sis did well but I couldn't stand the guy and I wound up playing "by ear". I got pretty good at it
too and played "Boogie Woogie for my buddies in the Air Force. I also had a trumpet but liked the piano more.
 
On a visit to my maternal Grandparents when I was 9, my Grandfather gave me an old fiddle. I took lessons on it and played in the junior high orchestra. After five years of lessons, I convinced my Mom I wasn't going to get any better and dropped it. I don't have the physical coordination to be a decent musician. I've tried to learn to play the guitar and banjo, but the results were pretty mediocre.

Don
 

I played the Cello in the school orchestra... not very well, but hey I passed muster for school...:D

My daughter on the other hand plays several instruments very well... Bass Guitar, Drums, Bass recorder...
 
Other than one of those little black plastic flutes that they made us learn to play in music class when I was a pup in school I've never played any sort of instrument......I can recall playing 'Hot Cross Buns' over, and over and over again on that thing.

Flute.jpg
 
Never played any instrument. Made my parents so flipping mad, but I refused and just would not. I cannot even read music.

I danced instead.

As an adult, I took a few flute lessons from a friend and almost passed out.

My son played sax.
 
I took band in the 9th grade. That was the year the song "The Duke of Earl" came out. I wanted to play the Trombone when I signed up. But my mother was a single mom with an 8th grade education working as a waitress for nickel and dime tips at greasy spoons. So we were poor and when she found out how much a Trombone would cost she told me she could not afford to buy me an instrument. So I had to take what the school could provide for free. The school had four Tubas and that was instrument the kids with poor or cheap parents got. So every day the tuba players had to clean out the spit from the class before them because nobody ever cleaned it out at the end of their class like you were supposed to.

I hated it. Most of the time I just faked it. Just kept blowing into the mouthpiece and pushing those valve things up and down at random. Old man Davis, the band instructor didn't pay much attention to us Tuba players because we where way up in the back and his favorites were the French Horns and flutes and whatever up front. So I got away with faking it most of the time. But every once in a while he'd pay attention to us and scream at us for a while. Only one of us four Tuba players took it halfway serious. I still remember his name. It was Dempsey Hatcher.

I somehow managed to pass with a "C". That was the end of my music career.

 
Falcon said:
We had a grand piano in our "living room" ever since my sister and I were little kids. Parents hired a prof
to teach us. Sis did well but I couldn't stand the guy and I wound up playing "by ear". I got pretty good at it
too and played "Boogie Woogie for my buddies in the Air Force. I also had a trumpet but liked the piano more.
Click to expand...

If I could just learn to play The Boogie Woogie like my uncle could, my life would be complete
 
Keesha said:
I played the saxophone. I picked the saxophone since my brother played trombone, my other brother played trumpet and my dad played piano. Together we had a small jazz / stage band.

Both my brothers were in the senior band so I took up saxophone in the summer of 1974 just before grade 9 so I could join the band also which I didn’t

We all played in the school jazz band also which later turned into a professional gig after high school was over.
Every once in a while I take out my sax and play it. One note sticks and doesn’t work. It drives me crazy so I don’t play it as often as I’d like.

What instrument did you play in school if you took MUSIC as a credit?
Click to expand...

I never played an instrument, but the saxophone is one of my favorite instruments to listen to.

Love, love, love Kenny G. "Forever in Love" is my favorite of his.
 
Never played an instrument in school....but;

(I posted this elsewhere...forgive me.....use the scroll feature...NOW!)


‘Again’

I’ve nursed a fondness for music
Not an obsession
But it’s there
When I was around 13 I thought the guitar was a sexy, easy thing to conquer

Mom took me to a music teacher

A teacher of the guitar
Older Spanish fellow
Thick accent

Learned the keys, notes
High E to low E
And back
Over
And over

‘again’

He’d go eat dinner

Come back

‘again’

Years later (seemed) we proceeded on to ‘Little Brown Chug’
And there we stayed

‘again’

Dinner

‘again’

After the fingertips of my left hand developed calluses on their calluses I came to the conclusion we weren’t gonna move on to House of the Rising Sun right away,
or in my lifetime

But, man, could I ever knock out Little Brown Jug

A few decades later, I happened onto another guitar
Ran thru a few Brown Jug riffs, then centered on It Takes a Worried Man

Found it relaxing

After several renditions, and weeks turned into months of relaxing, singing a worried song,
one day while I was at work, the family sold my instrument to the lowest bidder

We went to dinner at the local smorgasbord that night, their treat
During dessert, they told me of their deed
I wondered how they'd come in to such extravagant funds
Heh, I was gettin’ rather weary of that song too

Anyway, other than profound lilts from the echo of the shower walls, I’ve never been given to creating a tune worthy of listening

But

I’m a good listener

(kept it to under 10 thousand words)
 
Falcon said:
We had a grand piano in our "living room" ever since my sister and I were little kids. Parents hired a prof
to teach us. Sis did well but I couldn't stand the guy and I wound up playing "by ear". I got pretty good at it
too and played "Boogie Woogie for my buddies in the Air Force. I also had a trumpet but liked the piano more.
Click to expand...
Thats very cool Falcon. You had a grand piano. That’s fabulous. We had a regular nice piano but it did have a wonderful tone to it. We all took piano lessons too for a few years and I also didn’t like the guy only to later learn to play on my own by ear also.

Chords are what I wanted most to learn because I’m a vocalist. Now I have a Rowland keyboard with a mini brain and an amplifier and microphone. It has a very lovely tone and I can play background accompaniment for my own vocals. It’s fun.

Ive got a guitar also but I didn’t learn it. The cutting of the fingernails didn’t go well with me. Meet played Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy too. Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey , Louis Armstrong, and I can’t think of that main jazz band that played “string of pearls.” Fun times.

Note... Glenn Miller. That was it. Played a lot if their stuff.
 
Grampa Don said:
On a visit to my maternal Grandparents when I was 9, my Grandfather gave me an old fiddle. I took lessons on it and played in the junior high orchestra. After five years of lessons, I convinced my Mom I wasn't going to get any better and dropped it. I don't have the physical coordination to be a decent musician. I've tried to learn to play the guitar and banjo, but the results were pretty mediocre.

Don
Click to expand...

The fiddle is a nice instrument but so is the banjo. My brother played the banjo , ukeleli and bass guitar.
Evrn if it wasn’t for you at least you can say you tried it.
 
hollydolly said:
I played the Cello in the school orchestra... not very well, but hey I passed muster for school...:D

My daughter on the other hand plays several instruments very well... Bass Guitar, Drums, Bass recorder...
Click to expand...

I remember you telling me about your daughter. She sounds mega talented. You also said she plays the tenor saxophone.,
Mine is an alto but the fingering is exactly the same.
 
IKE said:
Other than one of those little black plastic flutes that they made us learn to play in music class when I was a pup in school I've never played any sort of instrument......I can recall playing 'Hot Cross Buns' over, and over and over again on that thing.

View attachment 57872
Click to expand...
Awww! That is actually really cute. We got recorders that we learned to play in grade school as well as triangle, tambourine and morroccas. Lol . They were very fun. I loved music even as a kid in grade school.
 
RadishRose said:
Never played any instrument. Made my parents so flipping mad, but I refused and just would not. I cannot even read music.

I danced instead.

As an adult, I took a few flute lessons from a friend and almost passed out.

My son played sax.
Click to expand...

I do remember you saying you took dance lessons. Me too!
What did you take? I took ballet for 3 years and tap for 1 .
Did you like it and did you do any shows?

Flute is beautiful. I wish I learned it. Apparently the fingering is similar to the sax.
 
Trade said:
I took band in the 9th grade. That was the year the song "The Duke of Earl" came out. I wanted to play the Trombone when I signed up. But my mother was a single mom with an 8th grade education working as a waitress for nickel and dime tips at greasy spoons. So we were poor and when she found out how much a Trombone would cost she told me she could not afford to buy me an instrument. So I had to take what the school could provide for free. The school had four Tubas and that was instrument the kids with poor or cheap parents got. So every day the tuba players had to clean out the spit from the class before them because nobody ever cleaned it out at the end of their class like you were supposed to.

I hated it. Most of the time I just faked it. Just kept blowing into the mouthpiece and pushing those valve things up and down at random. Old man Davis, the band instructor didn't pay much attention to us Tuba players because we where way up in the back and his favorites were the French Horns and flutes and whatever up front. So I got away with faking it most of the time. But every once in a while he'd pay attention to us and scream at us for a while. Only one of us four Tuba players took it halfway serious. I still remember his name. It was Dempsey Hatcher.

I somehow managed to pass with a "C". That was the end of my music career.

Click to expand...

Ahhh trade. What a sad story. That got me all choked up.
How very unfortunate. If you would have gotten the instrument you wanted you would have done so much better cause your heart HAS to be into it. Im sorry you didn’t have the same opportunity I and others did. You certainly deserved it. Everybody does.

Yes I’m responding to EVERY post. Bwah haha.
 
Gary O' said:
Never played an instrument in school....but;

(I posted this elsewhere...forgive me.....use the scroll feature...NOW!)


‘Again’

I’ve nursed a fondness for music
Not an obsession
But it’s there
When I was around 13 I thought the guitar was a sexy, easy thing to conquer

Mom took me to a music teacher

A teacher of the guitar
Older Spanish fellow
Thick accent

Learned the keys, notes
High E to low E
And back
Over
And over

‘again’

He’d go eat dinner

Come back

‘again’

Years later (seemed) we proceeded on to ‘Little Brown Chug’
And there we stayed

‘again’

Dinner

‘again’

After the fingertips of my left hand developed calluses on their calluses I came to the conclusion we weren’t gonna move on to House of the Rising Sun right away,
or in my lifetime

But, man, could I ever knock out Little Brown Jug

A few decades later, I happened onto another guitar
Ran thru a few Brown Jug riffs, then centered on It Takes a Worried Man

Found it relaxing

After several renditions, and weeks turned into months of relaxing, singing a worried song,
one day while I was at work, the family sold my instrument to the lowest bidder

We went to dinner at the local smorgasbord that night, their treat
During dessert, they told me of their deed
I wondered how they'd come in to such extravagant funds
Heh, I was gettin’ rather weary of that song too

Anyway, other than profound lilts from the echo of the shower walls, I’ve never been given to creating a tune worthy of listening

But

I’m a good listener

(kept it to under 10 thousand words)
Click to expand...
Someday I’ll learn how to communicate to thou. :laugh:
 
Keesha said:
Kenny G is a fine sax player. He’s sexy.
Click to expand...

Yes, he is, but even more than that, I had his CD with that song as a first song in my CD alarm clock when I still used it to go to work. That was the same time period when my mom passed away, and to hear it even now touches me so much in sadness and also in beautiful memory. Not saying this for sympathy, but just to say how much music can move us so much.
 
I had orthodonture ("braces"), and was forbidden by the orthodontist to play any wind instrument, which he claimed would conflict with his dental work. That left me the piano, a stringed instrument such as violin, or the drums. So I became a drummer...
 
Olivia said:
Yes, he is, but even more than that, I had his CD with that song as a first song in my CD alarm clock when I still used it to go to work. That was the same time period when my mom passed away, and to hear it even now touches me so much in sadness and also in beautiful memory. Not saying this for sympathy, but just to say how much music can move us so much.
Click to expand...
Oh music has the ability to not only touch our heart strings but bend them all out of whack too.
Music definitely has the ability to hold on to memories and etch them in our minds forever and a day.
Music CAN and does move us but that’s why we love it so.

A very touching story Olivia. ((( hug )))
 

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