http://www.livejournal.com/users/arthwollipot/56000.html

OK, here be the autobiography of music in my life. It took me over an hour to write this, so I hope you appreciate it :).

If I had a soul, I would say that music is in my soul. Since I don't, the way I'd prefer to express this is that I was playing music through a period while my brain and therefore my personality was developing, so music was a part of that development. By the time I stopped developing, the music was there. It is still there, and will be there for the rest of my life, regardless of whether I actively play or not.

Well before I remember how old I was, my dad bought an organ and paid for lessons for my brother and I (thanks, Mr Cranfield!). So the keyboard is really my first instrument, but because it was an organ and not a piano, my left hand never acquired the development that I would have liked in retrospect. I stumble severely when I try to do stride.

In 4th grade (Holt Primary School) I started to play the trombone in the school band. At this level it was purely brass - trumpets, trombs, tenor horns, euphoniums and tuba. And percussion. I understood that there were other primary schools that used woodwinds - flutes, clarinets, bassoons, etc. I chose the trombone because I wanted to know how the slide worked.

4th, 5th and 6th grade I played the trombone.

When I went to high school at Ginninderra High, I of course joined the band as a trombone player. This meant that I missed out on Thursday afternoon activities in favour of band, but I didn't regret this, except occasionally at the end. With Ginninderra I toured the country. It was a "concert band", in other words consisting of brass, woodwinds and percussion. We did a lot of stuff, including a tour of the North Island of New Zealand when I was in Year 7 and a tour of Tasmania when I was in Year 10. Also a number of trips to Sydney, one to Bathurst for an eisteddfod, and one to Griffith, Leeton and Nerrandera, which is the furthest inland I've ever gone. I much preferred Sydney. By Year 10 I was 1st Trombone. I still have my trombone, and the ancient mutes in an extremely battered gladstone bag (lined with a newspaper dated 1940 or so) that a friend of my father gave me. The tromb is still in good condition. The mutes I'm not so sure.

The school also had a jazz band, which was pretty much a Glenn Miller/Duke Ellington style big band - a row of saxes, a row of trombs and a row of trumpets, with percussion, piano and bass. We did some really good stuff for a couple of years. We had a great director, and the arrangements were very tight. We did a few hot funk-style numbers and that was awesome when it worked. When it didn't, it was a load of rubbish! :)

When I left Ginnninderra and went to Year 11 and 12 at Copland College I studied at the School of Music. I did the Preparatory Jazz course. I also did a little music through the College. I studied Electronic Music for the two years and I spent a lot of time in the Library reading about both ancient and modern music. At one time I went to a concert with my mum, and they played a Mozart symphony and a 20th-century plinky-plunky piece. I appreciated the plinky-plunky more than the Mozart, because of one or two books I'd read from the Library.

Anyway, Copland College is where I learned to play the flute. At around the same time I taught myself basic guitar. Never been terribly good at it. I played bass in a jam session once.

At the School of Music I learned Perfect Pitch. I can now tell a Middle C from an E flat. Don't let anyone tell you that perfect pitch can't be learned. Sometime around here I also developed a very good sense of rhythm. I have drummed on rare occasions.

It was through the school bands and especially the School of Music that I met Richard Booth, who was a really cool dude, but also happened to be a born-again Christian. See the Gullibility of Believers thread on CreationTalk for my story about him and his family.

Don't get me wrong - the whole family consisted of terribly talented musicians. Richard's brother Chris was a particularly gifted trumpet player. Richard himself started off with saxophone but also played piano and bass. The youngest brother Nick (they also had an even younger sister) played trombone and drums. Mostly drums. We had a hot little combo for a while there. You should have heard our rendition of In The Mood when we managed to get a six-piece combo (trumpet, sax and tromb with piano bass and drums). We also did Peter Gunn awesomely, and a number of Charlie Parker bebop numbers... it was really great.

We used to busk in Civic regularly, on Saturday mornings. I remember one time just before Christmas when we had a five-piece, and at the end of it we each had netted $60 or so. Each. That was cool. The best I ever played was the morning after we had all gone to see Galapagos Duck at the Southern Cross Club. That was way cool. But that expression wasn't in common usage at that time (about 1988 I think).

In the end, when I entered the workforce I started to get less and less time to play. But the damage was done, so to speak. Not only do I have the memories, but I also have the music. Over the years I have dabbled with drawing that out again, but in general my other interests have crowded it out.

I do not regret anything. I do feel sad occasionally when I think about it, like now, but music is still a part of me, and I appreciate music to a level that I suspect non-musicians have no idea of. One day, when I get time, I may go back to exploring this part of my psyche.

But not today.