Personal Evolutions with Music
Posted by: mikeeschman on 15 October 2009
When I was 13, I got a job and bought a stereo. I flunked Latin that year, but the band director came to me and said I could substitute music over the Summer. He told me I would be a trumpet player, so I got a horn.
I fell in love with trumpet that summer. Clifford Brown and Miles Davis fueled my interest. Then we went to hear the symphony, and the 1st trumpet player played "The Carnival of Venice". I worked my way through the Arban's Characteristic Studies with a metronome, then learned The Carnival.
Back then, I read Stereo Review to see what classical music to buy. That's how I come to have George's Dream.
Over the decades I have educated myself a good bit more in music, have a large collection, and have developed a split personality.
I have popular music from every decade since that first stereo, and I still listen to it regularly. It brings those feelings back. That is worth something, in and of itself.
But the new stuff is 99% classical. This is because of my addiction to music. Not the lyrics, just the notes. In popular music 3 or 4 different musical events might catch your attention over the span of a minute. Stravinsky will hit you with 6 or 7, all at once. I like hearing that :-)
How about you?
I fell in love with trumpet that summer. Clifford Brown and Miles Davis fueled my interest. Then we went to hear the symphony, and the 1st trumpet player played "The Carnival of Venice". I worked my way through the Arban's Characteristic Studies with a metronome, then learned The Carnival.
Back then, I read Stereo Review to see what classical music to buy. That's how I come to have George's Dream.
Over the decades I have educated myself a good bit more in music, have a large collection, and have developed a split personality.
I have popular music from every decade since that first stereo, and I still listen to it regularly. It brings those feelings back. That is worth something, in and of itself.
But the new stuff is 99% classical. This is because of my addiction to music. Not the lyrics, just the notes. In popular music 3 or 4 different musical events might catch your attention over the span of a minute. Stravinsky will hit you with 6 or 7, all at once. I like hearing that :-)
How about you?
You're a cheeky lad Mike and you may be surprised (given our wildly differing take on what music is) that my early path was similar to yours.
Rooted from a very young age in a classical education on guitar and few other bits and bobs. Always liked it, but loved science, particularly the environment more, and knew that music was a love, but not my main love.
Jazz is my dads life and we spent many hours playing and listening together. I loved the music, never really enjoyed the playing.
In my teenage years I discovered punk and the music of rebellion. For me it was about discovering the world for myself and realising that the values of my parents (as much as I loved them) were of no worth to me. I played in various bands of differing genres...again, never really enjoyed it that much...but found that I loved music more than I ever imagined. I saw, and still see music as medium capable of pulling down arcane rules in society from a poorer past age.
I've spent the rest of my life treating music like I treat the world and cultures, I want to experience as much and as many of them as possible. I love a year or so long crusade on a given genre (lately it's been reggae)...this voyage of discovery has brought me happiness that is hard to explain to folks who don't listen to music much. Even now I consider it a magical voyage...that can take me into the heart of strange cultures or to the human condition. Once on a theme, I will read every book available, listen to every cd I can find and watch every dvd - to some obsessive, but it's a passion. I don't care what folk care about, as long as they care about something.
This is where our difference lie Mike. It's an appreciation of music in a different context. I wish you a very happy journey. But your path is not for me. I want to know about music from Indonesia, Nepal, the ghetto's of black and hispanic America, England in the middle ages and yes at times I want to expand my musical theory. But I want it all...and I want the voyage to last a lifetime. I want it to inform and educate me, tell me a story. For thousands of years, music has been used to carry stories, this is the most amazing thing...and I love music which carry's with it a tale, a take or angle. More than anything, this is why I love music of the common people, the gypsy, the poor and downtrodden...and I find music of the privaleged less interesting.
If I pass one thing onto my new daughter (aside from my looks
) it's the value of the arts in life. And let her find a path of her own.
Music to me, is a window to the world on a human scale...I may never go to Patagonia, but, should I choose, I can learn their stories accompanied by music which adds the critical emotion to the tale. What a marvelous thing.
Rooted from a very young age in a classical education on guitar and few other bits and bobs. Always liked it, but loved science, particularly the environment more, and knew that music was a love, but not my main love.
Jazz is my dads life and we spent many hours playing and listening together. I loved the music, never really enjoyed the playing.
In my teenage years I discovered punk and the music of rebellion. For me it was about discovering the world for myself and realising that the values of my parents (as much as I loved them) were of no worth to me. I played in various bands of differing genres...again, never really enjoyed it that much...but found that I loved music more than I ever imagined. I saw, and still see music as medium capable of pulling down arcane rules in society from a poorer past age.
I've spent the rest of my life treating music like I treat the world and cultures, I want to experience as much and as many of them as possible. I love a year or so long crusade on a given genre (lately it's been reggae)...this voyage of discovery has brought me happiness that is hard to explain to folks who don't listen to music much. Even now I consider it a magical voyage...that can take me into the heart of strange cultures or to the human condition. Once on a theme, I will read every book available, listen to every cd I can find and watch every dvd - to some obsessive, but it's a passion. I don't care what folk care about, as long as they care about something.
This is where our difference lie Mike. It's an appreciation of music in a different context. I wish you a very happy journey. But your path is not for me. I want to know about music from Indonesia, Nepal, the ghetto's of black and hispanic America, England in the middle ages and yes at times I want to expand my musical theory. But I want it all...and I want the voyage to last a lifetime. I want it to inform and educate me, tell me a story. For thousands of years, music has been used to carry stories, this is the most amazing thing...and I love music which carry's with it a tale, a take or angle. More than anything, this is why I love music of the common people, the gypsy, the poor and downtrodden...and I find music of the privaleged less interesting.
If I pass one thing onto my new daughter (aside from my looks
) it's the value of the arts in life. And let her find a path of her own.Music to me, is a window to the world on a human scale...I may never go to Patagonia, but, should I choose, I can learn their stories accompanied by music which adds the critical emotion to the tale. What a marvelous thing.