I had a similar trajectory with music - found I was really good at violin around 11/12. Knew by the age of 18 that I wasn’t going to make a career of it.
I started on the accordion (STOP LAUGHING!) at 4 (yes, 4). I moved to the organ for complicated reasons at age 8 or 9 (I forget which). I returned to the accordion (I SAID STOP LAUGHING DAMMIT!) when I moved to Germany at age 12. I picked up the saxophone at age 14 (which started my lifelong love of woodwinds; I own and play an embarrassing number of these now).
Haha well the only advanced music class in school in my youth was jazz and I actually was stubborn enough to transcribe and write my own parts for violin in order to participate. Could probably teach you a bit about jazz while you teach me breath techniques ;)
There must be some quartets with woodwinds and strings combined, right? It’s been so long since I’ve been a practicing musician haha
Oh, right! I was talking a musical quartet! Ha ha! Not some kind of different take on four people in a completely different kind of chamber! Music! Clearly!
My issue at the time was improvisation. My musical exposure was … epically bad. I was brought up in a household filled with James Last, Nana Mouskouri, Heino, and other such elevator music. My closest exposure to anything modern was a single ABBA album (Arrival) and the soundtrack to the movie version of Jesus Christ Superstar.
Actual rock music? Actual music with genuine emotion? Literally was me being exposed first to The Police (Ghost in the Machine) and then Black Sabbath (Mob Rules). And as a result I just didn’t have the exposure to pentatonic scales, blues scales, and then that “feel” for what works when riffing off a key in those scales.
So my sax solos sounded so lame it hurt. I had technique but I lacked the ability to express.
Now I’m quite a bit better, but of course I’m also just someone who plays for her own fun; largely a meditative thing for me these days.
As for chamber music (MUSIC, yes! Not that other stuff that may have slipped into your mind through my clumsy innuendowording!), yeah, there’s lots of pieces for flute and strings and that kind of thing. I want to say Mozart had quite a few, but I’m too lazy to go through my massive collection of his stuff to find it all. 😳
OK, I just dug through it. He’s got some wonderful chamber pieces. The Flute Quartet in G (K.285a) is lovely. The Clarinet Quintet in A (‘Stadler’, K.581) is better, but … I don’t know if I could handle four.
I had a similar trajectory with music - found I was really good at violin around 11/12. Knew by the age of 18 that I wasn’t going to make a career of it.
That world can be so competitive!
What instrument(s) did you play??
I started on the accordion (STOP LAUGHING!) at 4 (yes, 4). I moved to the organ for complicated reasons at age 8 or 9 (I forget which). I returned to the accordion (I SAID STOP LAUGHING DAMMIT!) when I moved to Germany at age 12. I picked up the saxophone at age 14 (which started my lifelong love of woodwinds; I own and play an embarrassing number of these now).
Accordion! What a fun and funky choice! I bet they’re a hoot to play hahah
That’s really cool you still play woodwinds now. I played in a symphony for a while and the woodwind players were always the most fun!
We’re also the best in bed. VERY good embouchure control, breath control, lip control, tongue control, …
Ooo lala! When you put it that way, maybe I should be hanging out around jazz clubs more…
Well, it was specifically jazz that convinced me I couldn’t make a go of music as a profession.
But if you want to join the chamber quartet sometime, we can, I’m certain, find interesting things to do with bows and breath control.
(Wait a sec. Am i thinking the wrong chamber here?)
Haha well the only advanced music class in school in my youth was jazz and I actually was stubborn enough to transcribe and write my own parts for violin in order to participate. Could probably teach you a bit about jazz while you teach me breath techniques ;)
There must be some quartets with woodwinds and strings combined, right? It’s been so long since I’ve been a practicing musician haha
Oh, right! I was talking a musical quartet! Ha ha! Not some kind of different take on four people in a completely different kind of chamber! Music! Clearly!
My issue at the time was improvisation. My musical exposure was … epically bad. I was brought up in a household filled with James Last, Nana Mouskouri, Heino, and other such elevator music. My closest exposure to anything modern was a single ABBA album (Arrival) and the soundtrack to the movie version of Jesus Christ Superstar.
Actual rock music? Actual music with genuine emotion? Literally was me being exposed first to The Police (Ghost in the Machine) and then Black Sabbath (Mob Rules). And as a result I just didn’t have the exposure to pentatonic scales, blues scales, and then that “feel” for what works when riffing off a key in those scales.
So my sax solos sounded so lame it hurt. I had technique but I lacked the ability to express.
Now I’m quite a bit better, but of course I’m also just someone who plays for her own fun; largely a meditative thing for me these days.
As for chamber music (MUSIC, yes! Not that other stuff that may have slipped into your mind through my clumsy
innuendowording!), yeah, there’s lots of pieces for flute and strings and that kind of thing. I want to say Mozart had quite a few, but I’m too lazy to go through my massive collection of his stuff to find it all. 😳OK, I just dug through it. He’s got some wonderful chamber pieces. The Flute Quartet in G (K.285a) is lovely. The Clarinet Quintet in A (‘Stadler’, K.581) is better, but … I don’t know if I could handle four.