My Music Life

[Guest aielen]

Well if you want to know about my music life, here it goes:

I started reading books and playing piano when I was 3, and I wrote my first song when I was 6. It was about bunnies, cats and children. I taught my siblings to sing it and dance to it while I accompanied them on the piano. (Over the years, they've been members of my song-and-dance troupe, my gym team, and sometimes my band.)

I spent most of my formative years in Singapore. When I was 10, I got to go on a trip to Australia for three weeks of musical theatre training, to sing and act on a stage it was an amazing privilege, and it gave me a hunger for music, for artistic expression, for performing, for a professional music career.

Afterwards, I started believing I could skip school, travel places, sing and dance my heart out, and actually get paid for it. I wrote two musicals when I was 12 (with 3 other friends) and 13; we staged one. It was a riot, and I still think it was pretty genius; we took a lot of blithe risks because we lacked the self-consciousness that adults and adolescents tend to have...

Then I wound up singing and dancing on another musical theatre stage for three months. Simultaneously, I was pretending my sister was the next Britney Spears by writing pop songs for her to sing (which she couldn't sing - so I'd end up singing them and pretending my voice was hers) and filming music videos of her dancing around in tank tops. She still remembers it vividly, and sort of unhappily...

Then angst caught up with me, and I met messy people that messed me up as well. I started being alone, I wrote a lot, did things I wish I hadn't, travelled more, and became utterly obsessed with the piano. Sometimes I'd sleep next to it; it was my religion. Eventually, it wound up being a pretty self-destructive religion. I was a singer-songwriter getting swallowed up by the singing-songwriting.

Somewhere along the way, people started piecing me back together again... it's an ongoing process. I guess it'll always be a bit of both to me.

[guitar_a_goo_goo_ga]

i would not dare call myself a musician because i have not performed professionally in front of anyone (that is, for money) and that i am self taught. I love my guitars, i love playing them (i hate recording) but i also love sharing my music with others. I THINK i rock, i like listening to my own music and i even have a few fans around the world (thanks to the internet)

yet, it is hard not to get lost in ourselves being the creative types that we are which also makes to hard to be humble about the whole process until someone flat out comes out and says, "man, that REALLY SUCKS"

[Guest aielen]

I am a musician to my family and friends.

[Repaid1]

i would not dare call myself a musician because i have not performed professionally in front of anyone (that is, for money) and that i am self taught.

I don't think being paid makes you a Musician. If you can play a instrument fairly well, I consider you a musician. To have the ability to even play a instrument makes you a aspiring musician in my book. I am self taught in percussion. I started playing drums when I was 8 (Drum and Baton corps) (Met my Highschool girlfriend and first wife outta that gig), I also took keyboard lessons for 3 years before and during that time. Eehhh..back then only girls played piano, or Keyboards in bands were just coming into view with synth's. I was afforded the opportunity to chose any instrument (Well Grandma though I was going for a Korg synth) Well when the time came after my final recital for me to be awarded my "Prize". I floored everyone by asking for a Drum Kit. As this was one of my passions as well, they yielded. Trust me there wasn't a lot of people in my area at 12 years old that had a drum set and could play it fairly well. We pieced together a school band and practiced where we could..quite a few visits by the police telling us..."It's not the quality but the quantity!!" (I always loved that!)

So anyway, I've been playing for what 35+ years, never had a lesson, taught myself how to read music (Percussion), played in the TBDBITL (Google), and since the service, have played in two "Paid bands". You never really get paid per say BTW, The amount of money to haul your stuff to and fro, drinks for the night and your ladies, you ended up owing the place when it was all said and done. So yeah if you can play and somebody else can't...that makes you a musician, and Guitar, if you have played for others you sir are indeed a Musician.

Whether you got a beer and a "good job", or even "that was cool Dude". Payment is payment, unfortunately it seems a lot of "Musicians" have forgot their roots....the reason they play as it were....I still hate Metallica for basically starting the whole money grubbing thing. Keep my $50 for the night...if I can't have a standing ovation and a roar from the crowd after a Drum Solo, 15 girls asking me out, and enough free beers so I'd never make it through my next set......Well then I lost the reason I'm playing too! Play on people, we are the music makers!!!

[Guest aielen]

Believe what you all want to believe

[guitar_a_goo_goo_ga]

Believe what you all want to believe

NO! tell me what to do, what to think, where to go and what to buy. tv has taught me to be submissive and my government likes me that way.

[Honu]

Rock on all!

I'm a self-taught guitarist on the side, but I love my day job because it's what allows me to buy those cool guitars! I play out, as a volunteer, at my church and get more than enough thanks to stroke my ego. Music is one of my hobbies and I appreciate those that are more talented.

Hey, piano, drums, guitar...how about a diapered band?

- just consider what the groupies might be like...

[guitar_a_goo_goo_ga]

This is my music http://www.soundclick.com/justmyself

[Guest amandalu]

Ah another fellow musician