Posted by Jim Andrada on January 27, 2002 at 02:40:37:
In Reply to: Re: How did you get your start? posted by js on January 27, 2002 at 00:15:22:
Well, for some reason my parents decided that I should play piano, so at age 7 or so I started lessons. Surprise - I really liked it and would up studying quite a few years. I guess I was always sort of a weird kid - more interested in reading and studying math etc than in baseball etc - partly because I had horrible eyesight even as a kid and partly because I really liked to read.
I was also a "victim" of the 1940's style pre-ecumenical parochial school system. One day I was yanked out of 4th grade class by Sister Mary DeSade and told that I was now in the school band. And I could report to the music teacher who would "help me" choose my instrument. About the only thing I could make a noise on was a Baritone horn so voila I was a "Baritonist".
This lasted until 5th grade, when Sister Mary John (actually a really nice person and excellent music teacher in spite of the generally " Gestapo-ish" educational environment) noticed that I was 6 inches and 30 pounds bigger than any other kid in class and issued an "executive order" naming me a tuba player. And I loved it.
You should have seen my mother's face when I literally dragged the horn home (no school buses in those good old days) - I think she was in a state of shock even before she heard it.
And I kept at it through high school and college (where the "highlight" of my career in the infamous Harvard (Drinking) Band was playing a solo of sorts on the BBBb monster tuba) and for another ten years or so after college in a couple of local Boston-area bands. Then got busy traveling, living in Japan, etc and didn't play for 25 years until picking up Euphonium two years ago and Tuba early last year. Oh, and I really don't play piano any more because while I was living in Japan I married a lovely "young-ish" lady who had been a real concert pianist so I figured I don't need to make a fool of myself on piano any more - this lets me concentrate on making a fool of myself on Euph and Tuba.