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Musical Instruments

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OldGrayBob

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I have seen posts on movies, poetry, games, and listening to music, but does anyone here play a musical instrument just for their own enjoyment?

I am a beginner to intermediate Irish Tin whistle player. I love it and it soothes the spirit, (or maybe it is the Guinness at the Irish music sessions!)

By the way, the modern Irish tin whistles were first made by Clarke in England and most are made of brass or PVC. They are an end blown flute with 6 finger holes.

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I've played piano since I was four years old, and guitar for about 2 years now, self taught on both. I also played trombone for four years in middle school and high school.

I've always played for my own enjoyment and relaxation, though when I was a kid I just found it funny and entertaining. My dad taught me to play the music from Super Mario Brothers, the first one on NES, and I remember laughing when I'd play it. I pretty much taught myself from there on, learning the other levels, and music from other games.

I'm glad my dad didn't force piano lessons on me when I was young. I played because I wanted to; if I were to have been forced to play, I think I would have taken a different attitude, and maybe even chosen not to play at all.

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I've played the trumpet since the 5th grade, or in other words, for about 10 years. I've had a lot of experiences playing the trumpet, but I'd have to say that my best experiences have all come from the various ensembles that I have performed with. In high school I was a part of just about every ensemble that we had: concert band (I was the principal trumpet for 2 of our 3 bands throughout the four years I was there), marching band, jazz band, brass ensemble, and a brass quintet.

I still play the trumpet now in college and in fact I hope to increase my amount of playing in the coming weeks. However, I'd have to say that even though I've enjoyed some playing on my own, the best experiences I've had have definitely come with these ensembles!

For example, I've received a clinic and performed with Fred Mills, one of the founding trumpet players of the world renoun brass quintet group, Canadian Brass. I've performed in Avery Fisher Hall and I've traveled to many different places performing in marching band, jazz band, and concert band competitions, winning a large number of awards.

Next year at college I'll be the head of a brass quintet group as well as the principal trumpet player for the wind ensemble there for the third year. I look forward to it!

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Played trombone since the mid 80's and still on ocassion pick it up to dust the cobwebs off. I did marching band and ensemble competition for about 10 years. I mostly played bass trombone. I learned to play a tuba and baritone but I really loved my slide. Oh, and I was forced to take piano lessons and detest pianos to this day. In my spare time I played some passable dixieland but there is not much call for that. I took a few years off from playng anything when I started my career.

About 4 years ago I fell in love with Hawaiian music and took up the ukulele. I enjoy the positive sense I get from Hawaiian music and relish the joy it brings me. It's my tiddly wink music.

So I pretty much have both sides of the musical spectrum from deep bass to stringed alto.

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I've played trombone for years, in school band, jazz band, naval cadets and marching band. I also play the keyboard (stressing keyboard, not the piano) and the occasional guitar. I only seem to pick up the guitar when I have alot of time on my hands. I like the keyboard because you can record previous tunes you made, then play along with them, use beats to play with, combine several instruments on a recording and play the main part in performance, upload midi files off the computer, etc.

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I learnt to play the Tabla when I was in school. Tabla is an Indian Classical instrument and it's totally awesome. But at that time I had to leave the classes cause the times were conflicting with my cricket practice. It was great to learn it though. My skills with it are quite rusty now, as I haven't played in quite some time.

Still yearning to learn to play the guitar, hope I get to it sometime soon.

Dinesh.

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:D All the responses so far,seem past-tense. I just started with the Irish Whislte about two years ago. I have learned much about playing and reading music but most important, I at age 57 have finally learned to really listen to music. It is a mental exercise along with other things such as objectivism that is enhancing my life. Currently, I refuse to sit back and retire. I want both physically and mentally keep as active as possible. :D:D
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Played piano when I was younger, and got pretty good. Still play sometimes, but not as much as I used to, so I'm not as good as I used to be. Mess around on the guitar a little bit, but never taken lessons or really focused on learning it, so I'm not very good at that (yet). Might start messing around on the bass soon, too. Used to play the clarinet, got pretty good at that but haven't picked it up in years. I think that's pretty much it.

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I can make an oscilloscope sing. :yarr:

That's really cute!

But, I have what I think might be a better one. Many years ago, in a secret computer installation, the computer operator, Oliver, was a fascinating character. There was a part of him that was brilliant -- we competed in using Hankel transforms to solve partial differential equations, in our heads! -- but the rest was rather strange. Most of his teeth were missing and those that remained were brown. He smelled bad and acting weirdly. Whatever it was that had affected him, it kept him from doing real research. Nevertheless, he had a top-secret clearance and he could make that computer do things no one knew it could do.

The printer at that time was a monster and it made extremely loud and obnoxious noises. Programs were fed into card readers and they could control the printer mechanism. Somehow, I never quite figured out how, Oliver created a series of card programs that turned that printer into a beautiful musical instrument! He had names for the pieces he created, and they really were a joy to listen to. I have some tapes of the "music" that Oliver made long ago, and they should still be around here somewhere. I'll try to dig them out and listen again to Oliver's symphony on an old-time printer.

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Oliver created a series of card programs that turned that printer into a beautiful musical instrument! He had names for the pieces he created, and they really were a joy to listen to. I have some tapes of the "music" that Oliver made long ago, and they should still be around here somewhere.

Wasn't it Feyneman who used to do that to impress new hires at Loas Alamos during the days they built the bomb? That is am impressive feat.

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Wasn't it Feyneman who used to do that to impress new hires at Loas Alamos during the days they built the bomb? That is am impressive feat.

I remember Feynman saying that he brought the original IBM punched-card machines to Los Alamos, but I do not recall anything about playing music on them. I know he found the drums at Los Alamos, and he said he played the frying pans (or something else silimlar), but I do not ever recall hearing or reading about music from the old punched-card machines at Los Alamos. What Oliver did was play on the printer, which was a real clunker with varying sounds.

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I remember Feynman saying that he brought the original IBM punched-card machines to Los Alamos, but I do not recall anything about playing music on them.

Aha! Thanks for clearing that. I remember seeing a reference in the Matthew Broderick movie Infinity about how Feynman used the punch cards as a lesson/test for some of the new recruits at Los Alamos. He programmed the printers with some very simple song while he was giving them a tour. He wanted to see if a)anyone observed that the machine was playing a song b)to make sure they would see new ways of thinking.

Spooky to think how many people were literally yanked out of high school to work there. Of course they were used to do some of the mathematical grunt work but still.

I remember seeing the story in one of his books. I'll have to see if I have it bookmarked.

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