BroKen_H
Re-member
I'd like to start a thread for all the old timers (and even the newbs) to tell about where they started and give some generals and maybe specifics on how they've evolved. So I'll start.
I started playing piano at age 4 (yeah, that's young). My brother wanted piano lessons at 6 and my parents payed for them and after 2 lessons, he decided he'd rather play guitar. So I got the lessons and never looked back. Played with the same teacher for 8 years until we left California for northern Idaho. Got involved in the Sherwood School of Music and graduated from the fundamental level at age 10. I was playing Sax in school starting in 4th grade and when we moved to Idaho in 6th (third semester), the band teacher wouldn't let me sit in with the classes, so my parents sold the sax (never understood that) and bought me Hammond (wasn't a B3
but sounded very nice.) Used to set the two at 90 degrees to play piano and organ and run the pedals. But before the end of the sixth grade I had formed a group with one kid on the bass, one on the guitar and one on the trumpet (of all things). The trumpet player got bored with what was available to our music style for trumpet and begged his dad for drums...Thus was born my first band. Played that whole summer in my parents living room in a little temp house we moved into. Then, that fall we moved into our home and had a practice space in the basement. We realized that the bass player was tone deaf, and was just playing what we showed him to play, but that worked for a while.
Then at the end of 8th grade I got a "big time" gig with some high school kids and we were practicing in an abandoned grocery store with some better equipment. Had to go out and buy a keyboard and amplifier because we were actually rehearsing for performances that were booked and I couldn't pack the piano with. The four of us packed up the Hammond and put the keyboard (a Korg something or other) and then spent about a year touring around the county playing sock hops, proms, etc. Their bass player left for college when I went into high school, and I was playing the bass lines on the Hammond's pedals while doing strings/organ/piano combos with the upper. About this time I completed the Intermediate level of Sherwood School of Music's program.
Then fate stepped in. I went to a BOC concert and Joe smashed his P on stage. The body arrived intact in my arms! Well, I took the body and electronics home, bought a P neck and put the thing together with a brass nut my dad machined out of an IH combine shear pin. Bought my Yamah B100 bass and started getting off the keys and singing. (Playing keys, bass lines with the feet and singing never was possible for me...Geddy Lee I ain't!
) My first cabinet was a home made W horn with an EV 18B and weighed about 12 tons.
Then a little more of that fate stuff went on, and when I was 15 we got a new band instructor that put together a band that played almost every weekend at local bars. That was an experience! I couldn't go in or out the front doors, couldn't even so much as drink a root beer, and in those days there wasn't bottled water, so I just had to go all night most times with nothing to drink except during breaks, when I could drop out the back door to my car (Idaho driving age was 14 then). So I was playing in a band that was earning me a hundred a week and sometimes more, playing keys in jazz band (and winning two state championships); playing bass for the jazz choir; and starting my junior year, I took over the trap for the pep band and was playing timpani for the high school orchestra. Pretty sweet for a kid from north Idaho. AND, I completed the top level of the Sherwood Shcool of Music's program and decided it was time to stop taking piano lessons.
My senior year, my brother (awesome guitarist) decided to form a band with the guitarist from my very first band and the trumpet player turned drummer. We played EVERYWHERE. And I won the John Phillips Sousa award for the best all-around musician at my high school (BIG honor, out of a graduating class of 64)
.
But then off I went to college. Got a good vocal coach at the university of Idaho. Taught me more in 6 months than I'd taught myself in 4 years to that point. Guy was amazing. But that didn't last. I realized that the instructors were rehashing what I'd learned over 14 years of piano lessons and I was simply frustrated. I dropped almost completely out of music, but kept playing my bass. Then I dropped out of college, because I felt they weren't teaching me anything. Went back home and played music with my brother and whoever we could keep together. Those are some of the sweetest memories I have. Dances, proms, sock hops. Those were the days.
At 21 I decided I needed a break and joined the Air Force. Did some weekend touring with a band called Vendetta which had three males and two females, each with a different musical taste including pop/metal/southern rock/punk and country. We performed all over Colorado/Wyoming/ South Dakota and a little in some other places. At the end of the Air Force, I emerged with a guitar player and drummer I'd met in the military and formed Eckmann Dredge, A fusion/metal band doing some interesting things with odd arrangements and covers from all over the pop/metal spectrum. Worked with them for about two years and then things were kind of staling so I went off with Illuminati (Fates Warning/Metal Church style band). As a funny side note, our rented rehearsal space was right next to a band that actually got some attention, Legion of Death.
Anyway, Illuminati got offered two recording contracts, first from Webb and then from Warner Bros, but the two guitarists turned them both down for weird reasons, so I went back to Eckmann Dredge which had found a new lead vocalist and was looking for a bass player. Since I had helped write most of their original songs, I was a shoe-in for the position . Played all over Denver area at some really nice clubs, but never achieved the notoriety that Illuminati had. Then the lead vocalist decided to get married and take an executive position in father-in-laws company....We thrashed about for a while, picked up a female lead vocalist, who ended up taking a term in the hooskow for cocaine, and there ended my professional playing career. Moved back to Idaho in 1989 and played with some country bands for a while, but never did anything where I didn't need a job.
Then in 1991 I went to a church and learned who I was supposed to be. Have been playing bass/piano/guitar/drums, singing and leading worship in church ever since. I still have a day job, and I really miss the days of practicing 4 hours a day and gigging three to five days a week. My musicianship has declined over the years, partly due to lack of time to practice, and partly due to being over 50 and starting to fight arthur and the crew.
So what's your story? I'll be listening.
I started playing piano at age 4 (yeah, that's young). My brother wanted piano lessons at 6 and my parents payed for them and after 2 lessons, he decided he'd rather play guitar. So I got the lessons and never looked back. Played with the same teacher for 8 years until we left California for northern Idaho. Got involved in the Sherwood School of Music and graduated from the fundamental level at age 10. I was playing Sax in school starting in 4th grade and when we moved to Idaho in 6th (third semester), the band teacher wouldn't let me sit in with the classes, so my parents sold the sax (never understood that) and bought me Hammond (wasn't a B3
but sounded very nice.) Used to set the two at 90 degrees to play piano and organ and run the pedals. But before the end of the sixth grade I had formed a group with one kid on the bass, one on the guitar and one on the trumpet (of all things). The trumpet player got bored with what was available to our music style for trumpet and begged his dad for drums...Thus was born my first band. Played that whole summer in my parents living room in a little temp house we moved into. Then, that fall we moved into our home and had a practice space in the basement. We realized that the bass player was tone deaf, and was just playing what we showed him to play, but that worked for a while.Then at the end of 8th grade I got a "big time" gig with some high school kids and we were practicing in an abandoned grocery store with some better equipment. Had to go out and buy a keyboard and amplifier because we were actually rehearsing for performances that were booked and I couldn't pack the piano with. The four of us packed up the Hammond and put the keyboard (a Korg something or other) and then spent about a year touring around the county playing sock hops, proms, etc. Their bass player left for college when I went into high school, and I was playing the bass lines on the Hammond's pedals while doing strings/organ/piano combos with the upper. About this time I completed the Intermediate level of Sherwood School of Music's program.
Then fate stepped in. I went to a BOC concert and Joe smashed his P on stage. The body arrived intact in my arms! Well, I took the body and electronics home, bought a P neck and put the thing together with a brass nut my dad machined out of an IH combine shear pin. Bought my Yamah B100 bass and started getting off the keys and singing. (Playing keys, bass lines with the feet and singing never was possible for me...Geddy Lee I ain't!
) My first cabinet was a home made W horn with an EV 18B and weighed about 12 tons.Then a little more of that fate stuff went on, and when I was 15 we got a new band instructor that put together a band that played almost every weekend at local bars. That was an experience! I couldn't go in or out the front doors, couldn't even so much as drink a root beer, and in those days there wasn't bottled water, so I just had to go all night most times with nothing to drink except during breaks, when I could drop out the back door to my car (Idaho driving age was 14 then). So I was playing in a band that was earning me a hundred a week and sometimes more, playing keys in jazz band (and winning two state championships); playing bass for the jazz choir; and starting my junior year, I took over the trap for the pep band and was playing timpani for the high school orchestra. Pretty sweet for a kid from north Idaho. AND, I completed the top level of the Sherwood Shcool of Music's program and decided it was time to stop taking piano lessons.
My senior year, my brother (awesome guitarist) decided to form a band with the guitarist from my very first band and the trumpet player turned drummer. We played EVERYWHERE. And I won the John Phillips Sousa award for the best all-around musician at my high school (BIG honor, out of a graduating class of 64)
.But then off I went to college. Got a good vocal coach at the university of Idaho. Taught me more in 6 months than I'd taught myself in 4 years to that point. Guy was amazing. But that didn't last. I realized that the instructors were rehashing what I'd learned over 14 years of piano lessons and I was simply frustrated. I dropped almost completely out of music, but kept playing my bass. Then I dropped out of college, because I felt they weren't teaching me anything. Went back home and played music with my brother and whoever we could keep together. Those are some of the sweetest memories I have. Dances, proms, sock hops. Those were the days.
At 21 I decided I needed a break and joined the Air Force. Did some weekend touring with a band called Vendetta which had three males and two females, each with a different musical taste including pop/metal/southern rock/punk and country. We performed all over Colorado/Wyoming/ South Dakota and a little in some other places. At the end of the Air Force, I emerged with a guitar player and drummer I'd met in the military and formed Eckmann Dredge, A fusion/metal band doing some interesting things with odd arrangements and covers from all over the pop/metal spectrum. Worked with them for about two years and then things were kind of staling so I went off with Illuminati (Fates Warning/Metal Church style band). As a funny side note, our rented rehearsal space was right next to a band that actually got some attention, Legion of Death.
Anyway, Illuminati got offered two recording contracts, first from Webb and then from Warner Bros, but the two guitarists turned them both down for weird reasons, so I went back to Eckmann Dredge which had found a new lead vocalist and was looking for a bass player. Since I had helped write most of their original songs, I was a shoe-in for the position
. Played all over Denver area at some really nice clubs, but never achieved the notoriety that Illuminati had. Then the lead vocalist decided to get married and take an executive position in father-in-laws company....We thrashed about for a while, picked up a female lead vocalist, who ended up taking a term in the hooskow for cocaine, and there ended my professional playing career. Moved back to Idaho in 1989 and played with some country bands for a while, but never did anything where I didn't need a job. Then in 1991 I went to a church and learned who I was supposed to be. Have been playing bass/piano/guitar/drums, singing and leading worship in church ever since. I still have a day job, and I really miss the days of practicing 4 hours a day and gigging three to five days a week. My musicianship has declined over the years, partly due to lack of time to practice, and partly due to being over 50 and starting to fight arthur and the crew.
So what's your story? I'll be listening.