My Short-Lived Music Career (Part 1)

A short time ago, I realized that I haven't posted nearly enough on this blog about myself, and people in the Mac software world might not know how I ended up where I am today. I'd like to think that I had a pretty interesting history that led to my career in software, and my memory about "life before programming" is getting fuzzier by the day.

So, this is the first post in a short series about my involvement with music while I was in elementary school, high school, and the early part of my university career. To say that this was "life before programming" is actually somewhat inaccurate, because I was experimenting with software development quite a bit during this time. However, I do recall that out of the many hours I spent by the computer during this phase of my life, the majority was in front of a different kind of keyboard…

Grade 7 was the first year that students were able to try out for the band. In my school, the band was seen as a fun activity that would get you away from schoolwork, and thus it was important for kids to try and get into this exclusive club.

I was intrigued by the idea of learning a new instrument (after a few unsuccessful brushes with pianos and guitars in the past), so I attended the introductory sessions where the band teacher would allow us to try instruments we were interested in. He taught us about mouthpieces (both for brass and woodwind instruments), and how to use them.

Our band had three sections—woodwind (alto sax, baritone sax, clarinet, flute), brass (trumpet, french horn, baritone), and percussion (5pc drum kit, bass drum, xylophone). First we heard a handful of folks try (many of which failed) to play clarinets and saxophones without squeaking, and then we got to brass.

I liked the look of the baritone, and it seemed to be the choice instrument for the bigger guys in my class (boys playing the flute? not in my school.) I was competent enough to be 'in' the brass section, partially due to my prior experience with reading sheet music, and partially because it wasn't trivial to get sound out of the baritone. So, I was basically in the band at this point.

When the teacher asked who would be interested in playing the drums, we all looked around the class for volunteers. I knew my class, and I knew nobody was going to be competent on these things. I had many a fantasy as a kid of playing the drum kit, but I never had the opportunity to sit behind one before.

One girl in our class—tall, and clumsy as heck—put up her hand and got behind the kit. She basically pulled the equivalent of a toddler with spoons and a pot, smashing aimlessly around and making noise with a big dumb grin on her face. The teacher knew this wouldn't fly, and I could see the sense of defeat in his face at the thought of a band without a drummer.

After seeing her bang away aimlessly, I figured that I might as well give it a shot—at the very least I could probably learn a few drum patterns over time, and all I had to do was keep time to make it into the band (not very high standards, I know). I sat down nervously at the kit, and took the drumsticks in my hands. I've watched a few people play the drums in the past, and had an idea of what kind of 'position' I needed to be in, and what bits I could hit to make certain sounds.

I tapped a few drums to get a feel for how they sounded. Snare, floor tom, kick, hi-hat, ride cymbal—this felt neat. I took a deep breath, got into position (right arm crossed over left with the stick hovering over the hi-hat, left hand playing the snare), and went for it.

Tap-tap-tap-tap-boom-tap-snare-tap-boom-boom-snare-tap. I was playing a very simple rock beat! I couldn't believe what I was doing, and neither could my classmates. More importantly, the teacher was pleased with what I was playing. I played a few bars, hit the splash cymbal at the right times, and knew this was the right instrument for me.

There was a lot for me to learn about playing the drums. Drum rolls, practice drills, keeping steady time, etc. I worked as well as I could without a kit of my own, but not for long. I got a drum set that Christmas, and I was in love with them.

I enjoyed playing drums for the school band, and I got to attend the practice sessions for all band sections (so I had 3x the time away from class as the other band members!) During these sessions, I got to appreciate the different sections of a band, and how they interacted. I started to listen more critically to music, recognizing the different instruments and how they contribute to the overall song.

Unfortunately, I never got to play my drums nearly enough at home—it made a lot of noise, and I never thought the snare drum sounded right (it rang a lot, and never sounded like the kit at school). Being only 14 years old, dedication and self-discipline aren't exactly in peak form, so my interest waned in the presence of these molehills.

It was around this time that I wanted to try making music of my own. I had a computer, and I was intrigued by the PC music tracking scene. In the next installment of this story, I'll talk about how I transitioned to a 'one-man band' mentality and started experimenting with music composition software and audio hardware.