Post by Walden on Aug 27, 2004 20:05:01 GMT -5
I made this thread "sticky," since it's where folks introduce themselves. I also thought I would introduce myself.
I'm Walden. My interest in instrumental music goes back to when I was three years old and my grandparents took me to visit a fiddler (he was also a fiddle maker) who let me play on a Hohner American Ace harmonica (or as we in the backwoods say, French Harp).
The harmonica stayed at my grandparents' house for years, and I would play on it when I'd visit. Eventually I took it home.
I was given another of these harmonicas when I was about nine, for my birthday, by a friend, who had also made a denim holder for it. It was this harmonica that first led me to eventuially learn to play, as it came with a paper (as Hohner harmonicas do) that showed how to play the chorus of "When the Saints Go Marching In," using tablature.
Over the next year or two, I learned a few more tunes on harmonica, using the Mel Bay Harmonica Pocketbook. Around this time I also learned to pick out melodies on the piano.
When I went into grade six, I joined the beginner band. After trying to persuade the band director to let me play harmonica, I settled for clarinet.
My first ocarina was of the Peruvian sort. My sister had spotted the animal-shaped ones while we were at the state fair, and I recognized them for ocarinas, and got one shaped sort of like a rounded pillow. It eventually broke, when it fell out of my pocket, one time.
I later got a plastic 8-hole sweet potato, and, in 1999, a ten-hole terra cotta one, from a local music store.
I wasn't much interested in English-system ocarinas for three reasons (1) the non-intuitive fingering system (2) they are often very small and thus high pitched (3) more limited range. My attitude reversed one evening when I ran into an old friend, as he had taken up playing a small English-system ocarina, and I was quite impressed by the purity of its tone.
Hence my interest in the various forms of ocarina.
I'm Walden. My interest in instrumental music goes back to when I was three years old and my grandparents took me to visit a fiddler (he was also a fiddle maker) who let me play on a Hohner American Ace harmonica (or as we in the backwoods say, French Harp).
The harmonica stayed at my grandparents' house for years, and I would play on it when I'd visit. Eventually I took it home.
I was given another of these harmonicas when I was about nine, for my birthday, by a friend, who had also made a denim holder for it. It was this harmonica that first led me to eventuially learn to play, as it came with a paper (as Hohner harmonicas do) that showed how to play the chorus of "When the Saints Go Marching In," using tablature.
Over the next year or two, I learned a few more tunes on harmonica, using the Mel Bay Harmonica Pocketbook. Around this time I also learned to pick out melodies on the piano.
When I went into grade six, I joined the beginner band. After trying to persuade the band director to let me play harmonica, I settled for clarinet.
My first ocarina was of the Peruvian sort. My sister had spotted the animal-shaped ones while we were at the state fair, and I recognized them for ocarinas, and got one shaped sort of like a rounded pillow. It eventually broke, when it fell out of my pocket, one time.
I later got a plastic 8-hole sweet potato, and, in 1999, a ten-hole terra cotta one, from a local music store.
I wasn't much interested in English-system ocarinas for three reasons (1) the non-intuitive fingering system (2) they are often very small and thus high pitched (3) more limited range. My attitude reversed one evening when I ran into an old friend, as he had taken up playing a small English-system ocarina, and I was quite impressed by the purity of its tone.
Hence my interest in the various forms of ocarina.