Instrument players - come and chat!

[NeverEverAnythingEver]

I thought we could have a thread to chat about playing! I play the piano (not as badly as I fear but not as well as I hope) and have recently tried my hand at chamber music. Would love to hear what other people are doing.

CoteDAzur Here's a picture of the instruments they used in Rameau's Dardanus.

Alexandra - have you ever played Philip Harvey's Puerto Rican Suite in your clarinet groups? We play it in clarinet choir and it's fantastic. So much of what we have to play is arrangements, but this was composed for the instrument and works really well. Recommended!

Cooroo Just listened to some of the pieces in the Puerto Rican suite. I like them!

Sorry to but in on the thread, but I'm wondering if any of you sax players can help me (maybe Alexandra - and respect to you for playing soprano Tenor here and used to play baritone in the past when I had access to County instruments, trying to figure out if I can conceivably justify the cost of buying my own.)

I've recently joined a band again after an awful lot of years - last time I played regularly was before dd was born - and she's now 15.

But, I need to get my own mike, and I have not the least bit of a clue what I should be looking for. I've always played in bands where someone else deals with the technical stuff . . . Anyone know anything? We're always massively short of time at rehearsals as everyone's hopping between work and childcare, and I don't know any of the other band members to get together with and grill question. Hoping not to spend too much money especially as I really, really need to buy a new case as mine is held together with gaffer tape and optimism.

Welcome, Sadik!

That's a really good start Alexandra, thank-you. I'm looking at stand/handheld rather than clip-on I think after talking to the trumpet player.

And thank you for the welcome Cote :) My progress on the 50 books thread has slowed dramatically due to spending a lot of my spare time practicing!

Mine too, Sadik. I'm practicing at least 3 hours per day, often 3 or more especially on the weekend. DH & DC have taken to watching stuff with headphones on

OK, that's a lot more than me! April is not a good time for a market grower to take up a new hobby I also think dd would leave home if I practiced that much.

I don't know how I got like this When I was learning the piano as a child, nobody could make me practice for love or money.

Was the same when I was learning piano & flute as a child - my parents were forever hassling me to practice.
Then I took up tenor & baritone sax as a teenager and they complained because I practiced so much . . . never happy, parents

(to be fair, we lived in a modern house with very thin walls, and just to add to the general experience it used to set the dog off howling)

sadik We live in a small house with thin walls too and between us we have 5 instruments and one of us is adamant that he wants to start trumpet lessons and one of us is adamant that we don't want our neighbours to kill us...

But we are very civilised. After 7.30pm you can only hear thumping when we switch the piano to silent mode.

Friends, you will no doubt be at least as thrilled as DH to hear that I bought my 2nd piano yesterday, the aforementioned gorgeous old SEILER In about a week, I will be able to hammer away at the piano wherever we go, with no rest for the bleeding ears of DH & DC

Second-hand and on credit over five years, before I look like a spoiled rich princess

Sadik, your post made me LOL in bed this morning, waking DH up

Fortunately right now my neighbours are renovating their house, so I think we're probably evens on the noise front! Good thing since sax doesn't really do silent mode . . .

And congratulations on your new piano Cote.

< Repeats to self: 'I do not need a baritone sax, I do not need a baritone sax' >

Neighbourly relations are over-rated, I find

Cote
I am so impressed by your piano purchase - and a tiny bit jealous!

Kids fed, kitchen clean, had coffee, now it's time for some Gavotte practice with headphones until my new piano arrives

Aww, cuteness attack

I'm happy to report that I can now murder play the last two Doubles of Gavotte & 6Ds. Very slowly and with lots of mistakes, but it's happening!

Alex what a lovely photo! We have ducks and ducklings crossing the road very occasionally - I assume they wander off from the local nature reserve but it's odd to see them on a London street! I'm with you on the chestnut pollen - my eyes have been itchy all week!

Hello - I just found this thread - can I join ? I did grade 8 clarinet 25 years ago, sung a bit and played a bit of piano and tenor sax. This year I decided to learn the violin as my dd had taken it up and then I could help her a bit more in theory. But goodness me it's sooo hard !!! I really want to give up as it's too hard, really frustrating and I never get time to practice ( or want to as it's too tricky !) But can't as that would set a really bad example to my dd !! Inspire me please adult learners !!!!