I know this has nothing to do with anything, but I just had to share it with someone. I'm so proud of myself. I've started playing the piano again after a layoff of over 50 years. I bought a Yamaha grand (used) over the weekend and is was just delivered today. It's surprising to me how much I remember. My arthritic left thumb won't let me do a walking boogie bass anymore but other than that it's almost like I never stopped playing......except I can't remember a lot of the songs.

I started playing when I was 11. My teacher was a piano-bar player named  Howard who could barely read music. But he was the best good-to-listen-to piano player I've, to this day, ever heard. I never learned to read much music. I was taught off of lead sheets. Howard always told me that you don't play by reading the music. You play by feeling the music. He said that if you played the same song the same way twice in a row you're doing it wrong. After all, you didn't feel exactly the same way both times. Truer words were never spoken.

I played in a rock band in the late '50's. Over a three year period (1958-1960) we played almost 200 gigs. We even recorded a couple of records. Neither of the records sold very well but, what the heck, how many guys can say they cut a couple of rock 'n roll 45's in the 1950's?

Life is good.................Doug

Edited June 17, 20205 yr by W2DR
kant spel

""I'm just a singer in a rock and roll band"

As a music teacher, I am pleased to read such a thing, even if it is on a flightsim site....

Fantastic, Doug. Well Done. You are never too old to pick up where you left off. I was the same with the guitar. Stopped playing when 17, due to other things in life, and did not pick it up again till late 60s.

Well, heck! I just ordered myself an Epiphone Les Paul guitar and amp, after NOT having played guitar in over 50 years. I played in a band in high school, did a gig or two and then tossed it in favor of my career in the auto world. Some weeks ago my wife, out of the blue, ordered a fiddle and has begun learning that, so I pulled out my old acoustic and went at it. It's been hard on the finger tips and hands but I'm having lots of fun and cant wait for the goods to arrive. Meanwhile I found my fingers doing some of the same tunes I played back in the good ol' 60's, when so many timeless music pieces were composed.

I'm smiling at your post, as guitars are all I've been talking about lately...flight simming might become my number two hobby. 😀

Good luck!

Greg      

Well done Doug, Rick and Greg!

I started an online course on learning to play the bodhrán (a traditional Irish goatskin handheld drum) early on during the lockdown. I’ve now been exiled to the conservatory and I think a divorce may be looming!!

Bill

Wow, that's really great to hear. Being an occasional piano/synth dabbler myself, I try to keep reasonably competent at it although I'm better on other instruments, mostly guitar as anyone who watches my Chock's Hangar videos will know.

It is surprising how much you can retain and what you'll probably find, since I know I did, is that if you can remember the first few notes of something, it's a bit like remembering a phone number, when can recall the first two or three numbers, you kind of rattle the rest off as you brain pulls it out of some archive you didn't even know you had. I found that with Scott Joplin's classic, The Entertainer; after a really long lay off from playing piano, I sat at the thing and struggled to remember the first few intro bars, but once I did recall them, I was able to fire the rest of entire song off 'on autopilot' as it were.

Being able to play an instrument is like having a really good friend which stays with you for life, so if anyone is reading this and they've never given it a shot, I would encourage them to do so. Yeah it makes your fingers ache a bit when you first try it and it is initially a bit frustrating, but once you get past that, it gives you an entirely new appreciation for tunes.

On the subject of which, here a really fantastic video on youtube from someone who really appreciates music, in which he breaks down what makes one of the best songs of all time (and one of my favourites too) as good as it is and looks into the great piano playing, guitar, bass, vocals, drums and world music influences of it. This is a really interesting watch, well worth spending the time to do so. If you've never played an instrument before, this video will make you want to learn one:

 

I love music but I can't carry a note in a bucket. The only instrument I can play is the radio. Envey folks with talent.

I'm a guitarist and drummer. I've played with some really great blues artists over the years. Keeps me off the streets.😄

7 minutes ago, scianoir said:

Well done Doug, Rick and Greg!

I started an online course on learning to play the bodhrán (a traditional Irish goatskin handheld drum) early on during the lockdown. I’ve now been exiled to the conservatory and I think a divorce may be looming!!

Bill

Thanks, Bill. Having lived in Dublin, before I joined the RAF late 60s, my pals there taught me to have a liking for all things Irish, from Guinesses to ceilidh to bodran, as they took me to fleadh cheoil all over Ireland, and now RTE is my favourite radio station.

A guy goes into a shop and he says: 'I want a Fender Stratocaster, a WEM Copycat tape delay, and a Fender Twin amp.'

The guy in the shop says: 'What for? You're a drummer, aren't you?'

The guy gets indignant and says, 'NO, I'm a guitarist! I want the Strat, the echo and the amp!'

The shop guy goes: 'Come on, admit it, you're a drummer aren't you?'

The guy finally relents and says: 'Yeah, alright, I'm a drummer. How did you know?'

The shop guy goes: 'Because this is a chip shop.'

 

Edited June 17, 20205 yr by Chock

9 minutes ago, PATCO LCH said:

I love music but I can't carry a note in a bucket. The only instrument I can play is the radio. Envey folks with talent.

Yeah, but you will have talents elsewhere that we will envy. All five fingers are not the same.

1 minute ago, Chock said:

A guy goes into a music shop and he says: 'I want a Fender Stratocaster, a WEM Copycat tape delay, and a Fender Twin amp.'

The guy in the shop says: 'What for? You're a drummer, aren't you?'

The guy gets indignant and says, 'NO, I'm a guitarist! I want the Strat, the echo and the amp!'

The shop guy goes: 'Come on, admit it, you're a drummer aren't you?'

The guy finally relents and says: 'Yeah, alright, I'm a drummer. How did you know?'

The shop guy goes: 'Because this is a chip shop.'

 

Not only a good guitarist but an Eric Morecambe to boot🤣

One of the first things I did some thirty years ago was to buy a used Conn "Artiste" organ that was on it's last electronic legs. I then proceeded to "MIDI-fi" it with a Pentium computer and a pair of SoundBlaster sound cards. I installed Hauptwork* Digital Pipe Organ software to drive it via the original organ's 300 watt per channel amp and 18" speakers.

Saying it is "loud" is like calling Lake Michigan wet, but it is a joy to play. Since the accident that caused me to abandon my plans to become a concert organist, I've spend the better part of forty+ years learning to cope with having the middle, ring and little fingers of my dominant right hand's partially 'frozen joints."

While I'll never play as well as I once did, I'm pleased to have regained enough skill to give an occasional concert at local venues. Well, at least before the darn Covid-19 crisis put the brakes of that!

I have to give credit to an episode of "MASH" that gave me the inspiration to make this attempt. Having just the week before the accident receiving an letter from Julliard offering a full scholarship, I was seriously depressed and quite honestly close to suicide. One evening I was watching "MASH" and it happened to be the episode where Dr. Winchester was working with an injured Army Private who'd lost his right arm during a battle. As it turned out, he was already a concert pianist when he was drafted. He was seriously depressed and contemplating suicide. Boy did that strike close to home!

Charles wrote to his sister Honoria and had her send him some sheet music that had been composed specifically for the left hand, such as Maurice Ravel's Piano Concerto for the Left Hand. Over a few weeks, the young man managed to regain his confidence and of course by the end of the episode he'd had his dream re-ignited. After thinking about this I realized that at least I still had one good hand and two feet! So I began training my left hand to take over as the dominant hand, and used my thumb and forefinger as best as I could.

Sorry for waffling on so much, but I am thrilled to learn you are taking up the piano again Doug! Best of luck to you my friend.

* https://www.hauptwerk.com/

The bit of the room which you can't see on my youtube videos, which is right next to my flight simulator PC. The interesting thing about the lower of the two keyboards, which is a Yamaha YPT-230, is that I specifically bought that one because of its ability to emulate the piano sound on Peter Gabriel's In Your Eyes tune, which is the subject of that video I linked to. i.e. a grand piano sound with a slight bit of echo and chorus on it. I love guitars, but that Gabriel piano sound is to die for.

Edited June 17, 20205 yr by Chock