My Music Profile WARNING: contains boring information about me

[Baniboy 3]

Replying to this post which is on another thread plus a little more pointless information I'll post here and NOT EARN MYCENTS FOR IT:

That last sentence sounds quite interesting to me.
At the risk of going off-topic:

Do you play any particular style?
I am always interested in talking to a fellow musician, I am a professional musician who has worked all over Western Europe.
I was classically trained (in my day you had no choice), with the organ as main instrument, but then I started playing popular music and got an interest in jazz too.

After playing on my own (as an organist) for years, I then started putting my groups together, I used to have a Dixieland group (I played piano in that, and when we did street parades I played trombone or bass tuba) and I also had my jazz trio (piano, bass, drums) and jazz quartet (trio with addition of sax, trumpet or vocals).

In the last 12 years or so, I have not performed that much, as I have been doing more work in music education (teaching privately, teaching in secondary schools and colleges).

I must say I sometimes miss going on the road, but none of us get any younger.

I would love it, though, if I could find something like doing a cocktail lounge job in a hotel (some cool, easy-listening stuff), or get a Dixieland Band up and running again.
That is why I am organising auditions now, and if I find suitable people, I might well get started again.

Another ambition I have, though, is one in education: since I have taught at almost all levels, I would very much like to end up lecturing at university, but you have to be very lucky to work your way in there, it is often a case of "It is not what you know, but WHO you know".

But, anyway, let me know what kind of music you play, what you are interested in, and what you want to achieve with music.
We might have some interesting talks about that. Who knows what it might lead to, and, we might be able to post some interesting topics on here.

First let me say that I started playing drums for stupid reasons. Music seemed like a cool thing to start at the time. I guess I was trying to build an identity or something similar, I was 14.
I'm interested in playing all sorts of things, but I have to say I'm kind of stuck with the learning at the moment. School is taking up a lot of my time. The band I play in plays a lot of different styles. We mostly played rock, until I took drum lessons from a new teacher who was a really good jazz drummer. The teacher wasn't like the teachers I had had before. It seems that usually they teach kids something that is easy to make sound good, so the student has an illusion of being able to play. They don't emphasize on technique enough. But this teacher was different, every lesson he just rambled, rambled, and rambled... about technique. He made me change my grip and made me see drumplay in a new way. I guess someone else younger/less patient might have become pretty bored and stopped taking lessons. And so he got me interested in technique. I started to listen to old jazz of Buddy Rich and Jazz fusion of Dave Weckl and others.

So I slowly lost my interest in heavy metal, rock and other styles of music. Mostly due to bad drumming and too much repetition. Listening to someone play the same rockbeat all over again. The songs have ~3 melodies, the same melodies are repeated over and over again but with different lyrics... BORING. I don't want to hear the same crap all over again. Who the hell wa - never mind. So I moved to jazz. Drumming is more versatile in jazz (obviously depends on the music tho). The thing is, I can't listen to old-school jazz when I'm doing something else. You have to concentrate and listen. I use smooth jazz, jazz fusion and more mainstream music (not rock or rap, though) to be my "background music". This happened in 2009-2010. After summer I quit taking lessons, and I'm trying to continue on my own.

At the age of 15-16, I started the playing piano. I took some lessons from this guy, but he was only teaching one style, and nothing international. Another idiot that didn't teach technique, great. I got pissed, quit taking lessons. From time to time I blow the dust off my electric piano, switch it on and start playing the songs I know. I search for notes on the internet and try to learn them as well. Can't concentrate on technique tho. I know... not very impressive, but I don't have much time nowadays.

Back to drumming, my band plays a sort of progressive rock and jazz fusion spiced with my funk-like beats. I'm nowadays getting more and more interested in grooves, swing has been on the pause for while, I do practice it but I don't practice anything new. Lately my technique has been getting worse because of my busy schedule and now I'm trying to recover my old speed and precision. I listen to music that doesn't have any lyrics.

My take on playing drums is technique based. It doesn't matter how creative you are if you can't make the sounds inside your head become real sound. I try to come up with different combinations to train my coordination around the drumset and be able to control my limbs separately while I keep the pulse stable.

Recently when I tried singing (in school's first music course, which we have to take), I found out that I can sing low and high, but the middle is missing. When I try to sing in the middle all that comes out is air. Funny, ha? ...

To answer to the earlier post more directly:
It's nice to see you're a bit interested in jazz too. And also that you are a professional in the music field. I'm pretty young myself and have no experiences in such things, so it interests me. I don't think I'll ever be able to make it that far though. I have a lot of interests, and my time is divided between them not allowing me to specialize in one thing. But you know what, I like it this way. At some point I have to give up on some things, but I'm not going to do that now. So you can call me a hobbyist that plays music because he likes it
I hadn't hear about Dixieland bands before, so I googled it and it seems interesting. So the piano and drums form the rhythm and it's 4/4? Are there any bands you recommend if I want to get to know this style?
And do you have any tips for a hobbyist piano player?

[mrdee 1]

OK, about Dixieland:mostly 4/4 (although they might play the od 3/4 number), the rhythm section is usually formed by piano, banjo, bass and drums (obviously, in street parades, count the piano out ).Enough examples: Louis Armstrong, Kenny Ball, Chris Barber, Acker Bilk, Dutch Swing College Band,Kid Ory and millions more.And, yes, I have enough tips for the hobbyist piano player, but the first one is: DO NOT NEGLECT TECHNIQUE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!And, I shall have a look through my library, and recommend some good works for you, even scan a bit of stuff and send it to you, and I shall also be giving you some hints and tips on a regular basis.Always great talking to you.

[Baniboy 3]

I had heard of Louis Armstrong before, but I'm unfamiliar with the other ones you mentioned.Regarding technique (I already know how to hold my hands and stuff), I wouldn't normally neglect it. I do practice it when I play, but I don't play so often, which makes practicing technique kind of useless without constant repetition. And I forget very quickly. I only had to leave practicing on drums for 2 weeks and my technique had suffered a major damage.Great talking to you too.