In some discussions it could be useful to know how much one actually knows about music theory, different instruments etc, how much playing experience one has (in any style),how long one has been playing music etc.
So I think it might be interesting to know what kind of musical education and experience people have here, any education, any experience that could be interesting to know for the boardmembers.
Cheers
Hey, great idea ?
How’z about you ? 
OK, well here goes:
In addition to the whistle, I play recorder (yeah, I know) and, well, voice. I’ve sung in various choirs and chorales for most of my life. I also teach music appreciation and chorus at my daughter’s elementary school.
I read music well, and have studied a little piano (not a lot). I’d say my grasp of basic music theory is pretty good, for an amateur, but I have no formal training in it.
Redwolf
Well, I started learning Piano when I was 5 years old, but I soon quit because I was bored with it. When I got older, I took up the Alto Saxophone, and I’ve been playing that for around 6 years (all through Jr. High and most of High School). During that time, I got really into classical music, and eventually took Piano up again, which led to my Violin and Classical Guitar, ect. (I’m basically classically trained)
However, when I began to have problems with my hands from Piano, I returned to Saxophone, and around that time, I discovered Irish Step Dancing. When I injured my foot during a maneuver, I decided to take up an Irish instrument, b/c I couldn’t stand not doing anything related to Dance. That led to the Whistle, and I’ve been playing it ever since. (I’ve been playing the whistle for about 2 years)
I’ve done several gigs, and am asked to play in various places, and it seems that the more I play, the more I get asked to perform. I find it very fun, and am quite glad that I switched from Classical to Celtic. There’s something about the Celtic music that hits me in a way that the Classical music never did.
I took piano lessons as a child and a few months of guitar lessons as a teenager, but in both cases I was never able to get the hang of one’s hands doing something while not looking at them both at the same time. Too many fingers in use, I suspect. I took up recorder in third grade and tootled with it for the next fifteen years (much more portable than a piano, and I rambled even then). I have had no music theory training but tomorrow is my first class in it, and I had to buy $100 in textbooks for it today. Joy.
Anyway - currently learn by ear and play by instinct, but am actively working on the reading and theory.
Edit - Oh yeah. I’ve been playing whistle for a little over a year and would look into joining a group in Seattle next year if the opportunity arose.
Edit again (I think I’m still car lagged) - Just a few days ago I got a bodhran and am learning that. It’s a little harder because I am right handed but I am learning to play left handed; my right wrist just won’t take the abuse. It’s interesting though!
[ This Message was edited by: avanutria on 2002-12-02 17:15 ]
Nut sighting!
Well elementary school had their annual christmas pageant where they made the kids sing really annoying songs (I was always off key, usually on purpose).
In middle school I played a clarinet badly in the band. I learned to read music, although I’ve forgotten a lot of the particulars (time signatures and junk confuse me these days).
High school was nothing (I couldn’t march and play at the same time so I quit. Yes, I suck.)
that’s about it.
Nothing, none, nada, zip.
As a matter of fact, I am so musically inept that when I was in a choir as a child, I was so horrible that they asked me to just fake it and not actually sing. I guess they didn’t have the heart to kick me out, though I’m not certain that their solution was much better.
All the Best, Tom
On 2002-12-02 15:50, TomB wrote:
Nothing, none, nada, zip.As a matter of fact, I am so musically inept that when I was in a choir as a child, I was so horrible that they asked me to just fake it and not actually sing. I guess they didn’t have the heart to kick me out, though I’m not certain that their solution was much better.
All the Best, Tom
That’s really a shame. Most kids can learn to sing, if the choral director is willing to put some time into teaching them. Even the idea of going up and down with everybody else is often foreign to kids at first. Very few people have a natural grasp of choral singing.
We spend a lot of time in our little chorus on ear training and timing, and NO kid is ever told to fake it (or, heaven forbid, asked to leave). I’d rather have them sing from their hearts and learn to enjoy singing…unless they’re truly tone deaf (and, to be honest, that’s relatively rare), the rest will come with time. And if they ARE tone deaf, well…the Psalm says “make a joyful noise”…it doesn’t specify a tuneful one!
Redwolf
Redwolf: It wasn’t the best thing to happen, but oh well…
It’s good to know more about the players behind the names… Well here goes…
Started formal piano lessons at age 6. Quit at age 13 since it bored me.(The right teacher makes all the difference.) Started formal lessons on guitar at 15 and took off from there. During high school I practiced about 4hrs a day and would practice 8 hrs the next day if I missed a practice session. Totally obsessive I know!
Graduated from Berklee College of Music in 97 with an emphasis in guitar. Learned a ton while I was there about theory -both jazz and classical… I use a more contemporary/jazz/berklee/ style of theory in my conceptual/musical thinking. Ear training was great for me as well.. I’d practice my ear training 2hrs a day! I had to - to avoid failing! It’s helped me a ton in learning trad music.
Moved to Nashville to start my music career… There I wrote, performed, recorded & taught private guitar lessons…
When bigger named artists started to ask me to go on the road I realized that it just wasn’t for me. I’m married and the though of being away most of the time just seems bass ackward… Also, leaving the steady income from my 18 students would stink too!
About a year and a half ago I moved to Greeley Colorado and have taken the position of Music & Arts director at St. Patrick. I’ve learned a bunch in the process and still love to teach those who really want to learn… I don’t think I have the gift of teaching the young ones! Unless they’re totally motivated! Too many pep talks!
Oh, almost forgot…I started getting heavy into trad when I moved to Colorado. It was my friend and mentor Shannon Heaton of Siucra (siucra.net) who got me into the madness! Now that I’ve got the itch… I can’t stop itchin!
Oh, BTW… I play Piano, Guitar, Voice, Whistle & Bodhran…
Peace,
In a nutshell…
I took organ lessons from 1st grade to 8th grade. In the midst of that started up band in 5th grade playing clarinet to my freshmen year of highschool.
Gave those two up took up guitar for a year as a teen. Found out dating was more fun than practicing…
Then as an adult… took up mountain dulcimer, then got serious on the guitar. Discovered the pennywhistle… was thankful for those years in band.
Rediscovered the keys…
Found myself employed as the church music director…
Never did the choir thing as a child, however loved to sing… So leading a choir is a whole new experience for me…
Still learning… and will never stop learning new things. Music education is fun.. 
Well, off to practice.
Laura
Ok, here I go…
I’ve always been a musical person, even as a child I was always putting on shows for my parents, and singing and danceing. At about age 10 I started taking piano lessions, but could not learn to read standard musical notation. What I would end up doing was to watch my teacher play a song, and play it myself from sight and memory. After a while my parents could’nt afford the lessons anymore, so they stoped. I found out later that the reason I could’nt read sheet music is because I have a learning disability. About 3 years ago I was kind of introduced to the pennywhistle, but did’nt try it seriously for awhile. I set it aside and taught myself guitar (chords, my brain Isn’t wired to play the scales well), and then a couple of months ago I rediscovered my whistle. I have been working hard on it, and can play quite a few songs now, and I’m working on a few jigs at the moment. Playing by ear on the whistle seems to come very naturally to me, and once I got the fundimentals down, (like playing with the pads of the fingers, and not the tips, that was causing me alot of trouble), I did alot better. I think my brain is wired (for lack of a better term) for playing the whistle better.
Well, thats my story, part of it anyway. 
My ‘formal’ music education started in my old whistle teacher’s livingroom, lessons once a week, or my friend and I practicing our latest tune, he in the kitchen making dinner or putting on the tea. Then, he’d stick his head out the kitchen door and grab a whistle, ‘almost, but more like this’ and play the tune, and it was so great we’d just listen for every note and then just have to shake our heads for how long it would be until we could bring the tune out like that. I never had any other formal music training, basically because I had no interest before that. But since Irish trad is what brought me to music all together, I guess that reminded me of what ‘formal’ education maybe looks like for ITM, even if it is in Los Angeles. And it was a great education. lol
On 2002-12-02 13:47, Zubivka wrote:
Hey, great idea ?How’z about you ? >
Very short :
Started leanring music, playing a flugelhorn when I was 6 (30 years ago), started musicschool at 8, studying trumpet and solfège. At the age of 12 started musical history and theory of harmony. At 13 started playing the trombone. Finished music school at 19. Then started music college (conservatoire)where I got my masterdegree.
In 1991 joined the Belgian Radio Orchestra, left it in 1993 for The Femish Opera orchestra. Meanwhile I’ve been writing, arranging and conducting music, also learned the piano, some percussion, bass guitar and of course whistles and a little uilleann pipes. Aside of all of this I heard a recording of Liam O’Flynn years ago and that’s how I got interested and after a while addicted to Irish music, so I started buying and learning whistles and uilleann pipes. Also bought a cheap bodhran which I’m also able to play a little.
Interesting idea–I’m thinking of putting an abbreviated version in my “profile.”
1960s–Started in elementary school on “Tonettes” or “Song Flutes.” I was handed down my great-uncle (?) Omar’s piccolo, with a cracked wood mouthpiece and pre-Boehm fingering system. (The matching flute was sadly long lost.) That started me down the long road to flute playing.
In the 5th grade (age 9 or 10), still in the 1960s, I got my first flute, a Bundy. I still have it. Branched off into piccolo a little later (it was easier to march with) and did the high school marching band and concert band from then on. No, I wasn’t precocious; the school was so small that even sixth-graders were booted up into the high school band.
Played the flute with the concert band through college, but did not take formal courses.
Developed an interest in folk music, and later in contra dancing and the live music played at them.
Whistle playing is a fairly new pursuit to me, and I have a mental hurdle to overcome to get onto whistles of other keys than D (D having basically the same fingerings for the same notes as the concert flute I’ve played for 40 years). I have arthritis-damaged fingers so I don’t seem to be able to make the reach on Irish flutes. Whistle, though, presents no problems and much pleasure.
I’ve organized a contra dance band workshop every summer for the past 5 years (with plans for another one next August), led by local musician instructors. One of my great satisfactions is in creating the tune book used for the workshop, and I learn more about music notation and arranging every time I do it.
I occasionally organize other music workshops (never as an instructor), figuring that if I want to attend a particular kind of workshop, one way to achieve that goal is to arrange it myself.
M
On 2002-12-03 13:39, mvhplank wrote:
1960s–Started in elementary school on “Tonettes” or “Song Flutes.”
Tonettes! I wonder how many people started on one of those. I may have started piano lessons before tonettes. I can’t really remember. At any rate tonettes were the high point of the 4th grade. That and dusting erasers. I never really learned how to play the piano but I did learn how to read music. I went though other stuff too-clarinet and saxophone ending up in music school for one miserable semester. The first time I heard a banjo as an adult I thought that was the real stuff. A friend dragged me to a Pete Seeger concert. When I looked at the ad for the concert in a store window I said “What the heck is a 5-string banjo and who would want to play one anyway”. By the end of the concert I was singing my head off but my friend just sullenly sat there refusing to sing even under the guidance of the charismatic Seeger. Anyway, I was sold and eventually ended up with one. The whistle came much later.
Steve
On 2002-12-03 13:55, SteveK wrote:
On 2002-12-03 13:39, mvhplank wrote:
1960s–Started in elementary school on “Tonettes” or “Song Flutes.”
Tonettes! I wonder how many people started on one of those. [snip]
Steve
I can still taste that sharp plastic flavor they had when new.
I had a fit of nostalgia a few months ago and bought one on eBay, just like the one I had in 2nd grade.
M
Are those the same things as “Flutophones” or however you spell it? 'Cause that’s what I was started on when I began to play in a band and that’s what the teacher called them.
On 2002-12-03 14:02, 2nd Wind wrote:
Are those the same things as “Flutophones” or however you spell it? 'Cause that’s what I was started on when I began to play in a band and that’s what the teacher called them.
I’m not sure… My Tonette was of black plastic, sort of bullet-shaped, or maybe ocarina-shaped, and fingered more like a recorder (more finger holes) than a whistle. It had no hole on the end, just a little blunt knob. The Song Flutes were more whistle-shaped, with maybe a very little bell on the bottom, which had an open end like a whistle.
I just did a Google image search for Tonette and the one picture that came up had a bell, so the style has evolved in the last 40 years (go figure!).
Hope that helps,
M