INSTRUMENTS IN THE FAMILY
My Dad played the clarinet in high school. Unfortunately I don’t have any pictures of him with it.
. . . and practicing on
the old mustard yellow upright at home.
My brother and I are the
only ones who continued to play the piano, however, and as he’s been taking further
piano lessons of late, he’s better at it than I am. Still, I’ve always loved to pound away on
whatever piano I happen to have at the moment.
I’ve played on a variety
of pianos over the years. First, of
course, my Grandmother’s old upright and the old mustard yellow piano. I plunked away on an old upright someone gave
us after I was married and living in a little 4-room log cabin. Believe me, I found a place for it! Later, I had a light gray studio upright with
chipped keys. And then one wonderful
Christmas Santa brought me a brand new Yamaha studio upright which I have to
this day.
My brother also played
hand bells with a group in his church.
I’ve heard a recording of their playing and they’re rather good.
My husband played the bass
drum in his high school band.
Here he is in his band uniform without the drum. Those big ol’ drums are heavy! I can attest to that because I played one! I strapped it on to lead a line of temperance ladies in a melodrama play through the audience to the stage singing “Away, away with rum, by gum“ and I could hardly wait to get backstage where I could take it off as my back was killing me!
Hubby also played drums in a small combo for a restaurant featuring dining and dancing.. He usually wore a white shirt and dark tie. But one night I hadn’t gotten round to ironing a white shirt for him. He had a dark lavender shirt I’d bought for him sometime back with a wild tie to go with it, but he’d never worn it. I told him he should wear it. “You’re the drummer. You should wear something bold.” So he did and I guess it garnered him a bit of attention because after that he began wearing bolder shirts & ties when he played. J
And he played the guitar – for a time, with a talented bluegrass group whose leader went on to play
with Bill Monroe in Nashville.
In the ‘60s I played the
guitar too, but not very well and not for very long. My youngest sister played the guitar and
for longer and a bit better than I did.
“Where have all the flowers gone?
Long time passing . . . “ ¯
My son’s choice of
instrument to play in his high school
band was the trombone. Here he was
getting in position with the band in 1985 to march in the Motherlode Round-up
parade in Sonora, CA
My cousin, George, also
played the trombone in our high school band.
My daughters played in the
high school band as well, wearing spiffy new uniforms! Youngest daughter on the left with flute, and
middle daughter on the right with alto sax.
She actually revived playing her saxophone years later with a community
band for a while.
In the summertime they
rehearsed in a bandstand in a pretty little park playing a mini concert for the
first half of their rehearsal to entertain folks coming to the park to listen
to them. Fun and a lovely way to spend a
summer evening.
I’m quite proficient on the kazoo if I do say so myself. J Here, I’m leading the official “Gascapades” Kazoo Band in 1976.
Of course there are other kinds of instruments that make the sound of music. One is called the ‘vocal chord’ and we’ll tackle that one later this month.
:->
La Nightingail
Great to see the many instruments your musical family have played. I have been a member of a Kazoo Ladies Marching Band, which of course never performed publicly (that I can remember).
ReplyDeleteWhat fun - playing in a kazoo marching band. Too bad you never played publicly in a parade or anything, though? I used to think anyone could play a kazoo, but it's not true. Some people cannot, no matter how hard they try. Same thing with making music through closed lips, or using the tongue. Apparently the mouth needs to learn how to do these things at an early age?
DeleteBravo! Your family would have put up some good competition for the family bands in my collection. Sadly the old ways of making music together have diminished since in modern times most people just listen to recordings. But I'm convinced that the fun of playing a musical instrument, along with the satisfaction of learning to play it well, will always keep music alive for the world. And for this past Xmas my son gave me a shiny new instrument that he thought I'd enjoy. A kazoo! Much easier to carry than a horn!
ReplyDeleteKazoo's are fun! But I was surprised to learn not everyone can play one. And there are techniques to playing it. Some really talented folks on the kazoo can make all different sorts of sounds with them. I'm sure you'll have fun with yours because I know you will see it as a challenge. :) The official "Gascapades" Kazoo Band played "Dueling Kazoos" for one of the shows. The hardest part to playing it was to keep from laughing. Once the giggles started the performance headed downhill quickly, but the audience was laughing too so I guess it could be seen as a 'sort-of' success. :))
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