Just wondering how many of you guys go between photography shoots and music gigs or just keep practicing for the fun of it! I'm playing piano at a piano bar on thursday and my friend is singing. I feel like the two are along the same lines of artistry, so i wouldn't be suprised if a lot of you guys play as well. I'm piano and guitar, and someday violin.

I've played guitar since I was 13 or so, but I hardly consider myself a musician, since I've never taken lessons and never practiced hard enough to be any good (in fact, I picked up my les paul today and was quite rusty). But prior to taking up photography as a side profession, I was spending a lot of time trying to write and record songs on my PC. I can only obsess over one thing at a time it seems lol One goal I have is to jam with a full band at some point, which is something I've never done.

Funny you should ask. I just got a Mandolin for Christmas from my hubby.

I was a principal French Hornist studying music performance until I ruptured my eardrum and put my horn away. It's been about 11 years since I"ve played. I picked it up a little bit about 2 years ago and got so unbelievably frustrated because I just couldn't play like I used to (I knew I wouldn't be able to, but when something's so much a part of your life, it's incredibly hard to go back to the beginning). So I put it back away. Maybe one day I'll pick it back up.

Hey that's a good question! I've played sax for...longer than I can figure. The most fun was in college when we played in small jazz groups around town. Hmmm...is there an OSP Tour in the making? lol

I've played piano since I was 8, but I took up guitar when I turned 16 and have loved it ever since. I just wish I were better at it!

andrew - that is my story - piano since 8, guitar since 16. funny

I knew there'd be a lot of you guys!
<3 kristy

Music was my life.... I grew up studying every brass instrument and went on to play in college. My primary instrument was the euphonium however. I also marched thtwo years in Drum Corps. 93 SCV and 94 BD as a baritone player. I miss those days badly!! Now I'm a drummer in my worship group at my church.

well, I've been in a handful of midwest bands, including a 7-piece Irish band (a piss-porr rip off of The Pogues) and now I book bands, design cd art & posters for bands, and have my own full time graphic design and photo business as well as a photo/recording studio and half a dozen instruments.

One of these days I will learn to focus and do one thing well instead of 20 things shitty.

Really fun thread! Fletch! Sax? Have we talked about that? I play some soprano sax, but specialty was in clarinet... Started a performance minor in college but dropped it cause they were focusing on classical and that wasn't what I wanted to do ultimately...

He played the saxophone for me at our wedding
He's so cool

I blew a trumpet for about 12 years straight.
Took two years of piano when I was a younger, and still continue to play whenever I'm not busy...LOL!
Almost did a sax solo for high school graduation, but the music teacher talked me into doing it on the trumpet.
Ahhh... I played trumpet in church a couple weeks back, for the first time in four years! Yikes!

What an interesting thought!

Music was an especially huge part of my life when I was younger. I played violin from age 8-18, tried to keep it up in college but I got really sick my first semester and the orchestra elective had to go!

I miss it a lot, and now that I have a kid I wish I still had my violin. I'd play just to expose him to that. I still get chills whenever I hear live music, and I'm so glad that I had the chance to learn to play and to appreciate music as a kid. It really helped form who I am.

I've rocked the drums since the long hair highschool days. I had my drum kit setup in the livingroom in my house as a bachelor till my girlfriend (now wife) made me move them into the garage along with the guitar, just so we could have a normal living room! Go figure huh....

I havent played either one for almost two years now...

LOL...I want Graycen to learn the drums, but Joy thinks she'd be better suited for the piano or violin.

I played in rock bands for many years....primarily playing synths, but also backup vocals, some main vocals, acoustic and rhythm guitar. It was an absolute BLAST...and what I refer to as my life B.C. (before children) ....I was the quintessential "rock chick" for my late teens and entire twenties. Lots of late nights, smokey bars and regularly marinating myself with scotch whiskey! ha ha ha ha .....ahhhh....those were the days!!!!

These days I still play a solo acoustig gig occasionally, and really enjoy it. Like others have said, photography is now an all consuming passion, and I really don't have much spare time for the music scene any more. The last gig I played I got talking to a girl who wants me to photograph her wedding AND play at her reception. I said maybe....I'd think about it. I did however draw the line at singing at her ceremony. I told her either the camera would muffle my singing, or the singing would blur the photographs! LOL

There will always be an element of the old 'rock' days in me I think.......

Annie

Yes! Just had band practice tonight! I play drums and sing in an all-girl band Sister Grace. We play for our church and other venues. I also play piano (since around age 7). I took violin in college, but it hurt my fingers... See Sister Grace's blog for some pics!

Music is everything! Who else plays something??

Carole

Played the piano since I was 6 and mainly classical music. Haven't played much past 4 - 6 years. Should really start practising again, I was fairly good at it. I loved to play the 'Sabre Dance' for the longest time!

Played the guitar between 14 - 19. I suck at it, but love my guitar...lol

Played the trumpet from the 4th grade to the 12th grade, played french horn 10th grade to the 12th grade as well. Started rockin' on the guitar when I was 14, so 36 years later I still whip out some Led Zep or something heavy for my growing teenagers! One of ours is becoming quite the percussionist playing heavy metal on his set as well as marimba, but the next door neighbor keeps calling the poice on him (spoil sport).

Clarinet all through high school and college. Did the marching band thing in a big way, was president of the band fraternity, your basic band geek for sure.

My son now plays clarinet and expects me to help him -- HA HA. Gee, why didn't somebody tell me that once you stop playing for 10 years, it's REALLY hard to pick it back up.

So, I started piano lessons last year and then my cat attacked me because he's got some hang up about really horrible renditions of "When the Saints Go Marching In."

So I sort of gave that up, got tired of being jumped on by a screechy cat.

But my cat can't get to me at church so I sing in my church choir, am assistant director of three children's choirs and will be playing a bell duet on Sunday. (Yikes.) Oh, I also wrote a really nice song once but can't figure out how to get it published. Kinda frustrating.

I can often be found poking around eBay looking at silver open hole Geminhardt flutes. Of course, if I ever bought one, then I'd have to find time to take lessons and there just aren't enough hours in the day.

Understanding the nuances of music brings life to my photography.

i've played classical piano & violin since i was 6. i have an ARCT degree in Piano Performance, and registered to take my Master's degree in Piano. taking me a while to get the master's though because of wedding photography!

i'm also able to play the cello, drums, guitar and synth and sing alto. hmm come to think of it, i may be more of a musician than a photog...

I play the violin... but not in public.

Dude, the recorder rocks - i remember playing some creepy halloween tunes with it
<3kristy

I play the radio.















OK, seriously, I used to play trumpet in high school and college. Got the JP Sousa award in HS, which I thought was pretty cool at the time. Haven't really touched it in, oh, 17 years. Still have it, though.

You should play it. I played mine (well, a new one we got for one of our middleschoolers a couple of years ago - mine has totally locked up valves) for the first time in over 30 years. I hadnt forgotten the fingerings, but boy did my lips hurt afterwards

I own a couple of acoustic guitars. They actually sound better sitting in their cases as opposed to when I touch them. Every two to three years I go through this addictive cycle of gearing up with a cheap ebay guitar and amp only to sell it within the next year. My ebay photo skills are the only thing getting better.

I had a couple of years of violin back in middle school. The only song in my repertoir is one called Happy Ho-down. I'm pretty proud of it.

J

wow! i'm so impressed with the musical abilities of this group...i for one, have NONE! well - i took piano for many years but was a disappointment to every teacher i had...for good reason!

however - the other half of our business - my husband - sings, writes and plays guitar...if you go to our web site and click on "About" you can hear a song matt wrote for me

I am a singer. if you go to my website www.johnarcara.com and click contact, thats me and my old band FUZZ THE WORLD... ask Mike Juliano he's on this blog
I was in a band with a good friend of his as well. A glam punk 80s hair band... looked like stryper skid row mother love bone all that trashy guitar pretty hair stuff.

also sang jazz in a wedding band for a couple of years after I cut my hair off!
but being a photographer still makes me the center of attention and being a dad has made me feel like a rock star

Oh!! I played that too! I totally rocked at it...HAHAHA!! well not really...

I play piano and bass guitar...(I was in training to be in Barlowgirl but they got so famous all of a sudden...!! )

I play guitar. I was in a pseudo-punk cover band in high school. We rawked.

My main gig is producing and engineering records. Also play guitar a bunch in the studio.

What attracts me to recording music is the same thing that attracts me to photography: the challenge of making something emotional, creative, and beautiful fit into some kind of "technical box", so to speak.

Drums, bass, and guitar. In that order...

Word.

I've played piano for over 20 years. I'm not playing professionally right now, but I've played for churches on and off for most of the last 15 years.

I sing too, but I don't think too many people want to hear me do that unless I'm in a choir.

wow, a talented group here.

I performed either vocals, piano or guitar at many weddings long before I ever photographed one! I don't do music at weddings anymore... photos are fun, wedding music was torturous imo.

I still have people find me on my photo website and asking me to play guitar for their wedding.

I can play the saxaphone, flute and clarinet (they have all the same keys). I can play the piano with my right hand only (my left never does what I want it to) and I love to sing.

I sing and am learning guitar. I looovvvee music and have lots of musician friends, which is why I shoot so many concerts and music stuff!!

I graduated from Syracuse University with a degree in photography and promptly moved west with a band that had been established in the area. Upon arriving in San Fran, I took on live sound and then started my own recording studio. It is in Emeryville, CA and I unfortuately don't get down there to record that much these days, but I love it! I recorded records/CD's for about 10 years. When I got married, had kids and moved back to the woods, I picked up my photography pretty seriously again, to keep me busy......
not that many bands in Pollock Pines.....

I always have thought that music and photography are one in the same, one just works visually to emote and the other aurally-

i've been playing the violin since i was 4 years old.

I played the trumpet in grade/high school. I bought a guitar last year with the intention of learning it, but so far I've been to busy/not made the time.

I wouldn't consider myself a musician. But I do play the drums.

Kenneth + Elaine

Katie and I were both music composition majors in college. (she's much better than me). She plays piano, I play guitar, bass, a little bit of piano, and can sing.

I was planning on trying the singer songwriter route and then my Sr. year I met DJ and he convinced me to be a photographer instead. A VERY good thing! I'd be broke and probably homeless otherwise!

Nowadays about the only thing I play is iTunes.

I played Clarinet in high school... I took a lot of flack being one of two guys with a whole lot of girls... but no one realized my master plan that being one of two guys sitting between a bunch of women wasn't really all that bad!!

I also hack away on guitar... haven't played in a while but something I'd like to get back into.

I played classical guitar in high school. I have not really touched my 12 string in a long time. I need to practice again as my kids want to hear me play it.

Mike bragged about our 15 year old and his drums and marimba but left out the 12 year old's violin surprising all the kids are musically talented. His children played french horn and trumpet and the youngest of the group is interested in piano or guitar when she is not interested in the camera or scrapbooking stuff!

cello, sax, and self-taught classical guitar...which is why I'm not very good. Since finding my passion for photography, I haven't had time for playing any kind of musical instrument other than the radio!

Played trumpet in Junior/High School, College and a little in the Air Force. Haven't touched it in years though. Learning the dijiridoo for the fun of it.

i play a mean air guitar...played banjo some in high school...and can find my way around the guitar with basic chords.

but i'm telling you...throw on some classic rock, and i'll make the air dance.

i used to play air guitar, but i had to give it up, my strap broke at a gig in seattle. tuner slammed into my eye ball. but the eye patch works for blues venues so i picked up air harmonica and the rest is history...hummmmm

Well, if I had actually used my college degree.. I'd be a music teacher or an opera singer. ;-) I still sing quite a bit, but no longer professionally.

Good thread! I played piano for 9 years, clarinet and bass clarinet. I was actually in the Goin' Band at Texas Tech University (although I flagged rather than playing an instrument).

Why, my music gig never stops!! Just ask my employees! I sing all day long, especially at work. Yay iTunes!! ...I should invest in ear phones for my girls.

Heehee.