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beriukay comments on Off-topic Thread - Less Wrong
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I recall people occasionally talking about music, and I was wondering how many of you play instruments, what instrument(s), and what the spread of competence levels is.
As for me, most of my experience is with piano followed by guitar, and I consider myself somewhere on the low end of intermediate with them both.
I sing and play guitar and guitarish instruments fairly well. (There was a while when I made more than half of my meager income teaching and playing bass guitar). I can also play a bit on other instruments. Examples: lead voice and electric guitar; cittern and composition; organ. (Not counting this sentence, I'm resisting the urge to point out the flaws in these!)
I've had an intensive experience in music in my late teens - early 20's, culminating in recording an album with friends where I did most of the sound engineering (the whole project took about a year and a half, excluding the years that before when we were writing the songs as a band), and a few albums after that. After briefly considering a career in sound engineering and/or production, I dropped everything and came to the UK to continue my studies in computing. The only music I've done since is to practice singing alone with a guitar and get to the level where I could feel comfortable playing at an open mic night. I've been dreaming about writing rationality-themed songs recently, but I never could write lyrics...
I play recorder at what I'm guessing is a fairly skilled amateur level.
I took piano lessons until I went off to college. I have continued to play for my own enjoyment and relaxation often enough (once a week or so). It's helped that every place I ever rented from just happened to have an in-tune piano.
Some of us write music.
That was actually going to be a follow-up question, as I assumed that those who write music also play it.
Not a correct assumption in general!
(A note for those who inhabit or frequent institutions of learning: when you find out that someone is a student or faculty member in the music department, do not ask them what instrument they play. Instead, ask them what their area is. If they say "performance", then ask them what instrument they play -- or whether they're a vocalist.)
Thanks for the correction.
I've been meaning to ask you about that, if there's anything you'd care to say publicly. What kind of music do you write? (Sorry, I know composers hate that question.) Is that how you make your living?
Answered by PM.
I would say I am a low-professional-level pianist: I have many years of training and graduate degrees, and am capable of making a living at it and have done so in the past. But I never had the degree of aptitude or ability for obsessive focus such that I could have been a major professional performer (recordings, international concert schedule, teaching job at a top music school), so I turned more toward music scholarship, which suits me as a career very well. I still do play some in various personal/professional settings.
Did you by chance ever happen to see this particular Pandora's-box-of-a-subthread?
I have taken piano and flute lessons in the past, and was in choirs in school. I pick up my flute very occasionally, and fool around on pianos that I encounter, but am no longer serious about making music, nor very good at it.
I keep trying to make music. My musicianly dexterity is around the level of "would have difficulty playing a police siren." I have 400kg of vinyl records.