Are you a musician?
Last week, I was asked Are you a musician?
Now, I do not think of myself as a musician, and I do not make
my living as a musician, so my initial answer was "No". The
rest of the answer is:
I'm not much of a performer, but I was in the band in Jr High
and High School — trumpet, baritone horn, trombone — and
forgot most of it ("You just put your lips together, and blow,"
as Lauren Bacall once said.) Taught myself (via TV lessons)
six or eight pieces on classical guitar in high school, and I
can still play some of them. Learned a few fragments of Bach
and Mozart pieces on piano. Picked up some facility with
(baroque-type) recorders at some point. But mostly, I sing,
mostly to myself, mostly in my car. I was in a madrigal
group at Sun for five or six years, singing tenor or bass
as the needs arose. Still don't sight-read vocal music very well.
I'm also fascinated by the mathematical aspects of music
theory — Pythagorean commas, harmonics on guitar strings,
just intonation, well-tempered scales, multiples of two
raised to to the one-twelfth power, and all that stuff.
(I sent
a music theory message to the folk_music mailing list,
with a few related links.
This one is a good intro.)
So, maybe the right answer woulda been "yes and no".
But there are some real musicians (and audio research folks)
where I work. There is always a lot of overlap between people
who like to create software and people who like to make music.
In all the jobs I've had, none have had a higher percentage of
musicians than my current position.
8:55:51 AM
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