I've always found better musicians here!

Robert O'Brien

"You can read all the textbooks and listen to all the records, but you have to play with musicians that are better than you."

~ Stan Getz

JStar

Music

A somewhat tangent response...



How many people here are musicians? I've always wondered what else we have in common besides HVAC.

Robert O'Brien

Analogy

It's an analogy if you want to get better associate with those who are! And in this business,that would be here!

Gordy

Oh so true

This is like having Mozart , Beethoven, Stevie Ray Vaughan, BB King etc all as tutors

Jean-David Beyer

How many people here are musicians?

I consider myself a musician, but I am not (at least not yet) of professional ability. My favorite instrument is a toy piano. Here is a picture of mine. As far as working with someone better than I am, I would like to work with a friend of mine who is the best in the world, but I cannot presume to do this until I am considerably better than I am now. She is also an extremely good performer on an adult piano. Here is something she plays:



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMXVlJoHUSw



Anyone have a kid who can do as well? Margaret is the first woman to get a Ph.D. in piano performance from Juilliard. She has played toy piano in Carnegie Hall and in Lincoln Center.



Another friend of mine wrote and played this for toy piano and kitchen bowls..



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfZ_djY9_f8

JStar

Music

Understood. Just asking a question that the quote reminded me of...

Jamie Hall

The quote is well taken

and quite appropriate -- and one has to remember that Stan Getz was a pretty superior musician himself!



For what it's worth, I do consider myself a musician -- even earned a living at it for a while (and yes, I have had an oddly chequered career...).  Piano and classical organ.  For a little while (remember the 60s?) a singer/songwriter type...

icesailor

Pyramids:

I've

always said that learning is like a pyramid. There's a lot available at the bottom. But, the higher up you get, the harder it is to find the pearls. Or, "Pearls of Wisdom".

Much of what I know or figured out came to me in the form of a question or a discussion and the words were coming out of my mouth. And you never know where an answer will come from.

You can know anything you want. Just not everything you want.

As far as music, I can't play an instrument. But I have a very large and eclectic collection of music and I go to a lot of live concerts. Acoustic being my favorite.

Alan (California Radiant) Forbes

Music!

I've always loved music, but never had an affinity for learning to play.  Living in Berkeley, ethnic music is all over and  I quickly picked up on Indian music and the tabla.  Esoteric here, ubiquitous in Muslim and Hindu countries; I studied and played for 10 years.  More than anything, it taught me how to appreciate music.



A maestro:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgEzIEN2gSg&NR=1

Steamhead

Tuba!

here we are after playing a Christmas Eve service. The trombonist and violinist are from the congregation, everyone else is from the band I play in. The Lovely Naoko took the picture.

Paul Fredricks_3

yep

This is my band. We're playing the OESP convention in May:

www.sonicbids.com/waybackmachine

Robert O'Brien

Wayback Machine

Looking forward to it! Monday night?

Paul Pollets

This beats a pipe wrench

Been playing for over 45 years...rarely play out but have met such neat people over the years who play old-time or bluegrass. The instrument is a 1926 arch-top Gibson Mastertone with ball bearing tone ring. I've had it for over 40 years and it is a part of me. No banjo jokes, please.

Paul Fredricks_3

yep

Monday night 5- 20

chapchap70

Never seen 2 out of 7 Tubas

I've never seen two tubas in a seven piece ensemble before.



I play trumpet to accompany our Sunday morning church service for hymns. 

Slimpickins

another picker

I've been pickin' bluegrass music since the early 70's. Was in a pretty good band back in the day called Blue Fungus, we will grow on you, as we used to say at gigs. I don't play out that often because there's so many great players along the Front Range of Colorado that actually practice. Paul, I will spare the banjo jokes but there's gotta be a joke waiting to happen involving a pipe wrench and a banjo.

Paul Pollets

That joke

would depend on knowing the difference between the two. From what I've learned, the pipe wrench has fewer strings.

Steamhead

We didn't know

if we'd have a trombone or not, so Ben came along to add some more low brass. They've asked us back for Easter, this time we'll have a French horn as well, but just me on tuba. We do these pretty much with whoever happens to be available.



Our band has about 85 musicians, and last fall we had five tubas. Here we are at the winter concert- the brass was spread thru the hall for this piece. This spring we have six tubas, which is some serious firepower!

bill_105

mystery solved

Frank, from your first picture up top I was wondering about who plays lead in a 7 member band that has 2 tubas:) I guess about 78 sit ins helps out:) 

I always like John Barbas music stuff. One was that Little Feat was not in the R&R hall of fame but ABBA was. Finally something he didn't have to explain to me;)

Paul Fredricks_3

well

You can't tighten a pipe wrench with a banjo, but you might be able to tighten a banjo fitting with a pipe wrench.

Steamhead

Actually

the first pic was all we had for that performance. Again, whoever could be there. 

D107

Music

It doesn't surprise me that many HVAC people are musicians as well. I'd guess that both disciplines require good left-right brain integration. Interesting to find a fellow Indian music enthusiast. I went to a travel college and studied music and language in Japan and India.(studied sitar and vocal, mostly North Indian.) I sometimes still incorporate Indian music into my act. I can just imagine one day the debut of  "The Heating Help Orchestra featuring the Delta T's."



http://www.davidgoldman.com

Jean-David Beyer

Betcha never saw a musical instrument like this one.

My friend, Claire Chase, an excellent flute player, recently got a new contra-bass flute. This is not a Photoshop trick, but the real thing:



https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/66827_10151329787210737_739584345_n.jpg



She has called this her new "dance partner." It is taller than she is.



https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/547570_10151336934010264_1429189769_n.jpg



Here is a video where she plays a regular flute.



https://vimeo.com/40415175

Paul Fredricks_3

wind!

That thing must take a lot of lung power. I'd think an air compressor might be a good idea.

Love the Ian Anderson pose!

Boiler Talk

How to better use a banjo

Remove the neck of the banjo and set it beneath the feet of a single-pipe steam radiator to gain the proper pitch required for a better performance.  It might take more than one banjo lesson, but being in tune is most important for a satisfying experience. 

I play guitar and trombone and tried ukulele and key board.