Hey everybody, I wanted to start a thread here to really get people involved and posting. It seems like we have a fair amount of musicians here but not everybody is involved. Not only that but we should help each other in various ways. Like a tight musical family here. We are to a certain degree but... one good way is to really get to know each other. If you can relate, you should participate!(sorry, that's CORNY!) hehe Find out what things we have in common musically (besides Prince) hehe So, here it is... What got you into doing MUSIC? What age? What did you start out playing? Who inspired you? What was your first song like? Please feel free to share any thoughts like that. I promise I will try to tell a short version of my story later! hehe :+) Take care everybody

Here's the events that got me into music around age 13-14:

- My father's old band getting back together for a couple of reunion gigs. My father took me to the guitar stores ( he needed new gear), the rehearsals and the gigs and I thought it was all so cool!

- Watching the Purple Rain movie for about twenty times.

- Seeing Bowie's Ziggy Stardust farewell concert on tv with Mick Ronson on it.

- Going to a Bowie concert with my parents. I remember thinking: Ok, I can't be like Bowie but the guys next to him with the guitars, I could be like that! (Needless to say, 17 years later I still can't play rhythm like Carlos Alomar)

Growing up with hippie parents is what got me into music.

Listening to Led Zeppelin 4 or Black Sabbath at age 4 maybe too.

My first memory was at about 3 years old listening to Santana on 10 from my dad's reel to reel (which he still has).

The other thing that really cemented things was playing in orchestra and band in third grade.

That feeling of playing with other people is like nothing else on earth. It's like the junk, I just can't get enough.

These are cool. How did you all get started though? I will give you a short version for now and fill in details on a later post! hehe Umm... I was very much into Hendrix when I was 15 so I wanted a strat really badly. My dad bought me one and a generic Peavey Rage amp. I sat in my room listening to Jimi, Otis Redding, Pfunk and that type of stuff. I was heavy into funk at that time. Since my dad grew up in the 60's he was a Beatles freaks and that was what got me to be one too. hehe

We own a DJ business and my dad started it before I was even born. We've always had a great MUSIC selection, I have been listening to all types of music since I have been on this planet. I remember when I was very small looking for records in my dads milk crates when we would do gigs! hehe Some of my earliest memories have to do with music and my dads DJ equipment. hehe Anyway, that's the begining.. I'll continue this later. I have been jumping around here a lot in this story. Take care everybody! :+)
[This message was edited Fri Nov 21 13:09:43 PST 2003 by Bootsinox]

Slave2daGroove said:

This is how I got started in loving music.

First guitar was at 16.

I started off with a pink Princess turntable; looked like a wee suitcase, but open the lid on that pretty lil baby and it was pandora’s box. My tiny room was inundated with 45’s. I at first loved the Beatles..but in later years abandoned them for the Rolling Stones. Then, mid 60's, late one night, under the covers in my bed, my blue Sonic transistor picked up a stray wave from across the lake. Detroit! And the Funk was born within me.

Well I grew up spinnin wax and slipped a real disc in the 80’s ...after punkin out in the 70’s (now that was a revolution and we could use another). Anyway...playing gigs round town in the late 70's.

Someone request a quick story?

So my first dj gig’s in a part bar/part diner. I cart my own wax and thumb thru theirs. One night Sony & Cher come in and Sonny comes up and compliments me on my tunes. Thank U very much. Thru the course of the evening someone comes over and requests ‘Tie A Yellow Ribbon’. I smile and tell them I don’t have it; dayum if I’m gonna put that sheit on my turntable. Oh yeah, it’s there in the other dj’s cart, but it ain't my game. Boss comes out and says “play it”. I say “No”. He says “play it or walk...and if U walk...don’t even try to take out any records”. Well sheit, those milk crates were mine. So I know what’s about to go down and I walk to Sonny's table (hell if I know why) and ask if anyone could assist me in taking some records to the front door (without the manager seeing). Someone stood up and said, lemme help. Short version is... we made a run for it and I never saw the place again. Irony of it is, over the years I kep running into Sonny and Cher...and it was only 3 weeks ago that I worked Cher’s Halloween gig.

From DJ I went to radio...from radio to wrecka company. From wrecka company to agency. From agency to my own company.

I live, eat, breath, play, sing, sell Music. Music is my life. And Vina, I made my decision...rather be blind than deft.

Red said:

Nice story. It's nice to see somebody who had to "pay dues" before they made it. There are too many people who got things off of who they know and not talent. hehe I'm happy for you. I went a similiar route. I started DJing with my dad, started playing when I was 15, started writing music at 15. I bought and learned more instruments along the way. Then I went to school for recording engineering and music related studies when I was 18. Afer all that fun stuff I worked for a couple of labels in L.A. and now I own my recording studio but it's mainly for my own use. hehe I still do the DJ thing once in awhile too.

I'm sure meeting Sonny and Cher was great too. The coolest people I've met so far were Sam Moore (Sam and Dave) and Billy Preston. I met both of them at a friends rehearsal studio. That was great, they are very funny and very cool. I was tempted to ask Mr. Preston about The Beatles and Mr. Moore about Otis Redding but I couldn't. I just sat there listening to them talk and go over songs. Sam Moore can still REALLY SING and Billy Preston tore up the keys. :+) Anyway, I'm opening a new chapter in music now...just waiting to see what comes of it. :+) Sapere aude everybody!

Red said:

Amen! Great story, Red.




What got you into doing MUSIC?

When I was little I used to sing all the time and make up songs. I always envied my friends who had pianos and piano lessons. When I was about 14 I became freinds with Annie. She was totally into Duran Duran and wanted to be a drummer. This was after they had "broken up" in 85. I read some interviews and began to realize the Nick and Simon were very creative, intelligent people. I really admired their attitudes about success, creativity and independence. They had a lot of creative control over their music and everything else.

Anyway, my piano urge naturally became a synth urge. I started to write poetry and lyrics. We would sit around and just come up with song titles and band names. She moved away after a few years.

In 10th grade I got in to a performing arts school and took advantage of their music classes. Music Theory, AP Harmony, Electronic Music Lab, Class Voice... I even was a student aide for my music teacher during band so I could have more time in the Electronic Music Lab. He didn't need any help teaching band!

My first instrumental piece was written in the Electronic Music Lab on an Apple IIe using some really ancient sequencing software on a 5 inch floppy disk. I had come up with the melody in the AP harmony class. I presented the song along with some slides of photographs for my Senior Recital performance. Hey, back in 1990 that was multimedia! I would really have liked to incorporate lighting as well. I called it "Internal Innuendo" because each photograph was of an entrance of some kind, or the beginning of a pathway to another place. That was fun. I have the "performance" on video.


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[This message was edited Fri Nov 21 21:14:36 PST 2003 by VinaBlue]

Cool Vina, I remember some of the good ol' Mac programs. hehe I love running a mac with Pro Tools on it though. hehe What kinda keyboard(s) do you have now? I am happy with my new Motif 8. I still might get a Korg or Kurzweil(Spell check please) in the future (have to save up especially for the Kurz!) Oh as far as lighting goes too, my cousin just got a job doing lighting and sound. I will swing by and check it out next week. He said that the lighting isn't that hard to run. Of course, he doesn't have a ton of lights either. hehe They are using a 24 channel Mackie board for the live sound stuff. k... I'll save the geeky equipment details. hehe Take care! :+)

Bootsinox said:

I have a Korg N364 and a Roland digital piano.

I love lighting. Nothing like groovy lighting design to add atmosphere to a concert. I ran the light board for Gypsy in high school. That was fun.

I kinda don't like to say this, but I kinda do. The OLD Michael Jackson, when he did "Thriller", "Off The Wall", and the Jackson's "Triumph" tour was what got me really into funk and dance. Originally, funk and disco artists of the late 70's got me liking music when I was just a toddler. I was about 6 years old when I started really listening to music and having tapes of my own, and at that time I started to play piano by ear.


Peace,
JD

Lotta dj's up in hea

Internal Innuendo - V - sounds like the makings for a new song, based on your projection of pathways. I like that.

Boots - what can't you do on a Mac huh? Brilliant toy.

I always love listening to music but I didn't have the desire to play until I discovered the melody for Sheila E's "The Glamorous Life"

I was listening to music in the womb, because my mom was a church organist and pianist.

The first music I remember hearing (outside the womb, of course ) was gospel--like James Cleveland and Shirley Caesar and Mahalia Jackson (this was in the mid-60's). Then I started hearing Motown (well, how could you not, living in Detroit?). . .Stevie Wonder's "Uptight" being the first Motown song I remember.

My mom started me with piano lessons at the age of 5, but I quit when a lady came to our third grade classroom and said she was going to start a string instrument class. Started violin at the age of eight (still play at the age of 41!).

I picked up flute at age 10 because I thought it would help me in my youthful quest to marry Michael Jackson (Barry Gordy actually lived down the street and I thought if I learned flute and knocked on his door, he'd hire me ) Still play flute, too.

I have always been and still am into all kinds of music. Currently, I'm trying to get more into *playing* jazz, blues and funk. Learning to improvise and rely on chord structure/symbols has been quite a challenge, coming from a classical background. I've been studying seriously for about a year and a half, and am now at the "sitting in with groups" stage. I also do a LOT of reading about the lives of musicians (currently reading Ashley Kahn's "A Love Supreme: The Story of John Coltrane's Signature Album").

And that's ME!

We have some very nice threads going here. :+) Interesting all of the different ways we all got started. I couldn't imagine when I started that in a few years I'd have recording equipment and a little after that a studio. When I first started, I just really wanted to play guitar because of Jimi Hendrix. Very soon after Otis Redding, The Beatles, various funk groups and R&B acts got me interested in writing my own material. About a year later I started to be inspired by Prince as I found out more about him.

BTW, I started playing drums when I was 11. Around that time I gave trumpet a shot too. hehe I've always seemed to have some type of keyboard around too growing up. :+) Technically keyboard was probably my first "instrument" since I learned basic music theory in school around age 7. (Funny how all of these thoughts just came as i was typing this) hehe I have never thought about that really before, how MUSIC has always been there in my life other than the DJ business. K... take care everybody

Chicks! Sad but true.

Well, my cousins and I used 2 pretend to be the Jacksons and the Osmond Brothers (don't hate). We used 2 have backyard talent shows like the Little Rascals. I remember seeing a guy on tv playing a sax when I was in the third grade and said 2 my mom "hey,that's what I want 2 do".In my school we had 2 wait untill the sixth grade 2 get in the band so I had 2 wait. When the time came for me to go to the music store wecould only afford to get a trumpet.So I had 2 settle for that and ended up playing all the way through 2 college graduation as a music ed grad. In high school (the eighth grade) some friends and I started our first band called Brass Explosion.You can see by the name the funk was alive. Anyway 2 make a long story short, music was and is my first love. It has been the best friend 2 me. It has allowed me a music/academic college scholarship. It put me in places to perform for presidents and governors and so on. Music has allowed me the opportunity to travel abroad and is still an ever present force in my life. Currently I am trying to revive a contemporary gospel group that has done quite well over the years.Music is a great gift from God.