Who here is a musician?

edited March 2007 in Everything Else
I get the impression from reading the blog comments and forum discussions that there might be quite a few musicians in the JoCo Legions (which, to me, speaks rather highly of his music ).

Personally, I'm a singer/choral conductor who got burned out on teaching music in public schools and became an accountant to pay the bills. I got my BA in music at UCLA. I'm still singing at a church gig and conducting a community children's chorus. I would love to sing full-time, but I'm not a songwriter. I don't have the voice for a professional opera career, and the jingle/studio singing scene appears to be very cliquish and hard to break into.

OK - enough venting. I was just curious about the other musicians who might be out there, what your thing is, what sorts of projects you're working on etc. I'd also be interested in hearing stories of folks who have managed to develop a fulfilling career in music, or how some folks balance music-making with other aspects of their lives.

Thanks.

Comments

  • I was a choral singer for twelve years, and would continue to be if I could find a community choir to join in my area.
  • I play the bass guitar and the electric guitar. However, I don't play either of them as much as I would like to do so.
  • edited March 2007
    Er, I'm a senior in high school and a hardcore band geek, but I don't plan to do anything with music professionally, though I *do* want to keep playing in college and recreationally and such. I play the flute and alto saxophone, and used to play the piano (and wish I still did). I made alternate for all state band on flute last year and on sax this year which is the most frustrating thing in the world, if I'd just auditioned *slightly* better, I could've made all state, at least ONE of the two years. Also, I got a fourteen on my flute solo at state this year - half a point off from a gold. The first silver I ever got, which was disheartening, seeing as how it was my last Solo and Ensemble contest ever. But the judge definitely took points off for the same thing from about a million different categories. Whatever.

    Also, I enjoy writing song lyrics, although they're far too frequently crap. I think the coolest thing in the world would be to write a musical someday. Like that's ever gonna happen.
  • Singer here. Was very serious about my music in HS, was planning on going to college for vocal performance until I failed Music Theory II, realized that I was going to have to do way too much theory when composing wasn't something I was interested in, and decided to go into computers instead.

    I've sang with a madrigals group since HS for like 3 to 6 months, but haven't done anything else. I really need to get back into it.
  • I started playing the drums when I was in 5th grade because I thought they were really cool (because my brother had a band). In 6th grade I started playing saxophone because I had a crush on a girl who said she was going to play sax. I kept with the sax through 12th grade but dropped it when I went to college. I used to sing in my church choir as a child, but around the time I got into metal I ruined my voice with growls and screams, so I can't do the whole chorus thing anymore. Some people still say I can sing, but I have a very limited range.

    These days I play acoustic guitar for fun and finger exercise, and electric guitar in a very loud 'stoner metal / noise rock' band.
  • edited March 2007
    I'm an amateur musician with what might be considered a lifetime of experience, though it wasn't as intensive as all that. I've just been continually involved in music in some way for most of my life.

    Personally, I treat it as a hobby, but an essential one. I used to be learning instruments, specifically piano and trombone, but I fell out of piano and lost interest in band, favoring choir. In college I considered majoring in music, but when I realized I wouldn't have time for ANY other pursuits if I did, I quickly decided I wasn't insane enough (and that's saying something ;) ).

    These days I have spent my time looking for the opportunity to join or create a singing group that fits my musical tastes. I've gone through a large number of community and school choirs that haven't quite fit. I expect I'll eventually get back into piano, since piano and guitar are the most useful instruments, and I already have a 6-year head start on piano (though I am out of practice...)
  • I'm a music composition major at the Oberlin Conservatory of music, and also a pinao player for whoever needs me, and a vocalist(though currently I've got no piano gigs, and only am in one chorus(Oberlin's Collegium Musicum).

    Currently I'm big into musical theater, but in writing respectable musical theater music, as opposed to the Rent-esque music that is often ascribed to the field. My big thing is using elements of polytonality in music that's still accessible enough to survive in the theater world.
  • edited March 2007
    Radien almost stole my story entirely, hehe. I played piano as a kid and trombone in Jr. I sing and can most certainly not play guitar unless you count Guitar Heroes.

    I got more into Alto sax though after that, I rented one last month and had a blast playing it again, mediocre at best :D

    I used to do video editing work and that involves a lot of work using music with scenes, making sure it fits with the overall look. That was almost always my fave part. I am just now trying to get started up again doing some projects, hopefully they'll turn out good :)
  • So, uh...

    Anyone up for starting an intercontinental Jonathan Coulton cover band? ;)
  • Dibs on Vocals! hehe
  • /me claims dibs on backup vocals

    (JoCo seems to be a tenor or baritone... and his songs are often in a bad key for an alto like me. That and I love singing harmony.)
  • Other dibs on backup vocals. There can be more than one backup vocalist!
  • If you ever need a flautist and/or saxophonist...

    Speaking of not being a musician, I foolishly signed up to write a piece for piano as a project for my novels class illustrating the theme of "power vs. powerlessness" found in the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest in spite of the fact that I've never actually written any music of any value whatsoever except practice exercises and such for my music theory class last year which was pretty much a joke anyway because nobody in there knew anything. So yeah, it's due tomorrow. Whatever. It's fun playing with Finale NotePad.
  • c4bl3fl4m3: There's no such thing as too much music theory. ;-) UCLA required 8 hours of theory/musicianship and 8 hours of music history a week for two years. I was an immense theory geek in college and coninue to be so. Don't even get me started on solfeggio...

    Khavall: I auditoned for Oberlin many moons ago. Obviously, they said no, which is how I ended up at UCLA.

    Iirish Lion: Ain't nothin' wrong with Guitar Hero! I'm an avid player, although I can't play beyond medium. :-)

    Bry: I'm totally down with the JoCo cover band. I think to be fair, we should rotate the vocals so that we all get a chance. :-) I love me some harmony, but I can also sing all but the lowest of his songs at pitch. I can growl out Famous Blue Raincoat at pitch first thing in the morning before I'm warmed up - which I think hits the low G, two below middle C. Not bad for a soprano who has been known to sing a high E on occasion, huh?

    Shruti: Good luck sticking with music after high school. It's the rare breed that can keep it up as a hobby without actually studying it in college. And your composition will probably get a good grade whether or not it's great, simply because it will be the most original and creative endeavor that the teacher will see. Having been a teacher, I can tell you that we go ga-ga over that stuff. :-)

    So nobody here is making money with music, huh? As an accountant (auditor, really), about 1/3 of my income still comes from music. I'm still struggling with how to balance all of my interests. As of a couple of years ago, I started cutting out all music activities that didn't pay just because I was running myself ragged. I wish I could pay the bills as a musician, but it's more of a risk to go that route than I'm apparently willing to take. (Go JoCo!)
  • muckalarkuary: Check out this directory of choirs. http://www.choralnet.org/choirs/index.phtml
  • I used to be OK at campfire-level guitar but I am horribly out of practice.
  • Thanks for the directory of choirs, Colleenky. Unfortunately, there's nothing anywhere near me... but now I know where to look when I move!
  • muckalarkuary: You can also check here for audition notices (or sign up for email notification). http://www.choralnet.org/classifieds/showAds.phtml?cat=27&lang=en
  • edited March 2007
    "c4bl3fl4m3 claims dibs on backup vocals"

    Deal - singing harmony is one of the most fun things to do in the world, specially if you can get the spine tingling :D

    Colleenky: I beat GH2 on Hard, got halfway through expert - Freebird is so damn lonnnnggg!
  • edited April 2007
    Actually Colleenky, even in my least musical of Jobs, I'm a working copyist, so 100% of my income comes from music, mostly as an accompanist and using other skills I use as a composer.

    Though interestingly enough, even though I've had the most success in terms of reviews and comments and recognition as a Composer, I've made a total of $0 as of yet from composition. Crazy world. I'm really kind of hoping that'll change eventually.


    Oh right, and dibs on keys.
  • edited April 2007
    Yep... I play guitar and write songs. In fact, wrote a funny little ditty called "Ballad of an Internet Romance", inspired by JoCo's general style (and my former experiences with internet dating).

    www.myspace.com/meyersjen
  • Khavall: For whom are you a copyist? Individual composers or a music publisher?
  • I'm a copyist for the Fred Waring Archive at Penn State University. Currently they're still supporting the "Finale Project", which basically consists of me slowly wading through a massive score archive and putting them all into the Finale music notation program, so that we have electronic copies, that can then be easily printed off for anyone who wants to borrow a score, without any risk to the irreplacable Waring scores. It's not the most exciting job in the world, but I spend all my day around music, basically playing piano and then tweaking the score, and I get a lot of creative leeway, since a lot of the scores are mangled to the point where I have to make a call as to what the composer was actually thinking.

    On another note, this myspace music thing is excellent! I am so behind the times on this shit.

    http://www.myspace.com/caleplute
  • edited April 2007
    Wait. Khavall, you're at Oberlin? You should totally teach a JoCoExCo. Just saying.

    (Offtopic, I know, but this doesn't really merit its own thread.)
  • Holy crap a JoCoExCo would be the shit.


    I must get clearance to do this. Especially since JoCo is how I learned guitar. It'll be like, an alternate teaching method.
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