Musical Journey

Lately I have been thinking a lot about music and talking a lot about music, reading about it, and definitely listening to a lot of music. I had started one blog post a while ago, but it was just getting too long and rambling too much. I had at one point thought I could divide it in two, but new heads kept sprouting up. I’m going to try and do a series of short posts, and see how it goes.

First of all, let me give you my qualifications. I took piano for a few years (6th through 10th grade, I think), and was okay at it but not gifted. I probably should have started earlier, and gotten those practice habits ingrained sooner. I learned shortly after graduating from high school that no matter how much I practiced I could not accompany people singing in any but the most rudimentary manner.

In 9th grade some friends and I started a band, sort of. Instead of doing the logical thing and having me play keyboard, I was going to be on guitar and vocals. I did not know at this time about all of the vocalists who have to give up guitar because doing the two simultaneously is too hard. It did not really matter, because I have no aptitude for guitar, and if you took Beginning Guitar at Five Oaks in 1987, you know it. (And at one point you probably tuned my guitar for me, because I never got the hang of that.) I peaked at picking out Ode to Joy. I know I have no credibility, because I never even tried Smoke on the Water.

Just before 11th grade I bought a drum kit, and was too self-conscious about how noisy they were. I did have some aptitude, but obviously the wrong personality. The other drummers I know are proud when a noise complaint gets called in. What I should have been doing was practicing on cushions, but I did not know about that option until later.

During this time I wrote music on a regular basis, but I always had to keep the tunes in my head because the ear issue that keeps me from being able to tune my guitar also keeps me from being able to figure out which notes on the keyboard match the ones in my head. I did record (portable tape recorder in the bathroom) a couple of songs I wrote in French for extra credit. Otherwise, I guess I’m just lucky to have a pretty good memory. This is actually the part that I would most want to fix, though getting back into piano would probably make sense.

So basically, I do not have any credentials. This is important, because I am unlikely to write anything that cannot be understood by a novice.

What I do have is a lot of passion for the subject. I am constantly amazed by how much I love rock, and other types of music, how much it means to me, and also how much I want to know about it.

I have written before that I know I am not a tech geek because even though there are some things that I can fix, I just get irritated by them, and the real geeks I know get excited when something needs troubleshooting.

I might be a music geek. For example, the other day I was listening to “Desolation Row” by My Chemical Romance. There was a segment in there that reminded me a little bit of a segment in “We’re Not Gonna Take It” by Twisted Sister, so I had to listen to that, but also it is reminiscent of Hendrix’s Star-Spangled Banner, so I had to listen to both of those, and then I wonder if the notes that reminded me of Twisted Sister came from the Geldof “Desolation Row”, and then since I was listening to 80’s rock and I brought up some Quiet Riot and Slade and I live for stuff like that. There are some Cars keyboard bits that really remind me of Iggy Pop, which is cool because Rik Ocasek’s son Christopher did a cover of Pop’s “Real Wild Child”. These things are probably silly, and I could be hearing things, but I love that.

However, I realize there is also a lot that I don’t know about music, and some of what I have been thinking about now relates to educating myself more about music, which has not been a totally happy experience, but I’ll explain that tomorrow. For now, just put another dime in the jukebox.