Nice. Yeah, I played alto as a kid until maybe…eleven or twelve?
My middle nephew (I guess he’d be around age nine or ten or something) has really caught the music bug, and so apparently I was tapped to demonstrate my old student-model alto at a recent family gathering.
I gave great details to my sister via text on various stuff, and apparently the instrument is somewhere around among my parents’ things.
I had to not-so-gracefully skip that family get together, mostly because I just didn’t want to go, but also, WTH? Some thirty-five year old Rico 2 1/2 reeds that may or may not be in the case? I’m not going to sit there wetting these ancient reeds for a million hours.
Suppose I could play a middle ‘C’ (Eb), but, naw. That was too long ago.
I wasn’t hip enough as a child to know about Hank Crawford (alto+baritone) or Jackie or Cannonball or anybody: that would have really changed my approach.
Oh yeah, that is a cake on your post, I guess. Well happy birthday, motherbuster! Gosh darn right!
I started on simple percussion instruments in primary school. I played sax until my mum took it away. BTW, I’m still pouting 23 years later. A few years ago I took up electric guitar. I’m still a beginner. Covid interrupted my lessons. It’s not easy to play at home. So I haven’t played in over a year. Right now my back is too damaged to even lift it. Even if Covid ended tomorrow, I still wouldn’t be able to go play. My happiest memory playing was having my mum hear for the first time. I played Christmas Time Is Here. She couldn’t believe that I had just learned it.
I’m still cranky about our local school district 50 years on. When they came around to offer music lessons to gradeschoolers so they’d be band-ready when they got to high school, I eagerly asked for saxophone lessons. Their answer was, “We have enough sax players, you’re going to play trumpet.”
No, I bloody well was not going to. I don’t think I finished the first year of lessons, and I’m pretty confident if they’d given me the instrument I wanted, I’d’ve stuck with it. It wasn’t for lack of musical ability considering I taught myself bass, guitar, theremin and keys.
To this day I can’t figure out why they did that. It’s like handing a baseball bat to a kid that wants to learn golf.
My school screwed me too. Too many sax players, so they shoved a clarinet in my hand and said “same thing, we’ll switch you over later”. They never did, so I showed them by making first chair in 3 months and then quit. Still have the clarinet, sitting in my living room.
Wasn’t even really my school as such – it was the school district. I just will never fathom how someone who’s supposed to be an educator could just blow off a kid showing an actual interest.
I might have been convinced to go clarinet if they’d come at it right. But the way they did it genuinely made me wonder why they even bothered asking what I wanted in the first place: it was like “insert kid A in slot B and don’t bother checking for a fit”.
Hello! While I would never put it in the ‘occupation’ box I feel like I’ve been involved in making music for long enough to pass. Mostly at the unmarketable end of the Rock spectrum, mostly as a bass player although I can pitch in on anything that is plucked or struck with varying degrees of effectiveness. Any instrument you need to blow into though is pure voodoo magic to me. No idea how you do that.
We’ve got our first gig in a couple of weeks. Haven’t played out since December 2019 which is a long lay off. Looking forward to getting back in front of an audience again. And by ‘audience’ I mean 3 or 4 indulgent friends and 15 mildly disinterested strangers.
Sounds like … every gig I’ve done for years. I understand though, I’m starting to get the “live” itch as well. Enjoy the gig, wish you and your sonic mates the best!
I am not affiliated with the creator of this project. I’m sharing it here because we have musicians who appreciate humor and have supported the efforts of creative folks through Kickstarter before. I am a backer of this project though, so I would personally enjoy seeing it funded. Otherwise, I hope you view it and get a chuckle. I will delete this post if anyone deems it spammy.
This thing speaks to my soul and brings me joy. It is just absolutely silly for the sake of being silly. It doesn’t pretend to be useful.
Behold, the Fart Pedal!
Nope, nope, and nope. It just plays digital farts, with a wet/dry option.
The creator is actually pretty interesting in his attitude and motivation. If you have the patience to watch a TED talk:
Me and my Evil Twin just fartin’ around. Him on drums, me on bass. I know, the recording quality is not stellar, and there are some really awkward passages, but what the heck. I use a Zoom effects pedal, the bass is a Jazz clone, but a darned good one if you ask me.
