# Thread of Confessions



## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

Get the weight off your chest! Let's do this! Can be musical (like a guilty pleasure), or personal (weird habit, strange experience, or other personal guilty pleasure). I discourage anyone posting anything incriminating or actually offensive, since that will certainly get out of hand. "One time I stole this TV when I had a few drinks of--" no please. Not that kind of confession! 

I have a confession to make, which is both musical and personal. I've performed John Cage's 4'33" for real. 2 years ago, I performed it on my flute for a college class of about 12-15, and it really shocked them. Some got really mad. I gave it my personal touch and all, dressing up formally, making motions with my flute, drinking water in between the breaks, etc. Not smiling was the hardest part. The performance was the bidding of the professor, who told me in secret to perform it as we were talking about contemporary music. It was a pretty neat experience, and we had a long discussion about it afterwards.

It's not something I put on my resume of repertoire performed, however. I wouldn't say I'm ashamed of doing it, but I don't really talk to people about that experience... :lol:


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## Taggart (Feb 14, 2013)

There are those who will feel that a moderator urging them to "confess and tell all" is the stuff of their worst nightmares.

I claim not to have "guilty" musical pleasures because there is only good music and bad music. I love baroque and early music but find classical difficult and have some trouble with romantic music. Once we get on to the folk oriented composers, I'm happy again. None of the stuff I can't stand is "bad", just not to my taste. Then again, I love Scottish and English country dance music.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

I think I've owned up to this before, but I'll confess again to the time I put an extra da-DAH in the Marche Militaire when I was playing in the York Guildhall on the back benches of the York Senior Schools String Orchestra. A week later, I gave up the violin...

Then there was the time I borrowed my younger sister's Latin primer (I was doing A-level Latin & it had some handy revision notes in it). In an idle moment, I did pencilled alterations to a chapter called 'From Slave Boy to King'. By the time I'd finished with it, it said 'From Lavatory Boy to Kingston Town, Jamaica'. The next day, the Latin master was teaching my sister's class and picked up Margie's primer to check on something. He came across the altered title and gave my sister a very sharp look, and she felt herself blush - but didn't want to drop her Big Sister in it, as I was a respected senior student of his!


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## Klavierspieler (Jul 16, 2011)

Did I ever tell you about the bodies I keep in my basement? I added number twelve a couple weeks ago...

Oh, *not* that type of confession. :devil:


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## aleazk (Sep 30, 2011)

Klavierspieler said:


> Did I ever tell you about the bodies I keep in my basement? I added number twelve a couple weeks ago...
> 
> Oh, *not* that type of confession. :devil:


A twelve body composition, eh?. That certainly will shock the avant garde... or the judge...


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

aleazk said:


> A twelve body composition, eh?. That certainly will shock the avant garde... or the judge...


12-TONE MUSIC IS DEAD!!!!!!!


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

My confession: I went through a Christian phase even though I am an atheist.


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## WavesOfParadox (Aug 5, 2012)

Huilunsoittaja said:


> I have a confession to make, which is both musical and personal. I've performed John Cage's 4'33" for real. 2 years ago, I performed it on my flute for a college class of about 12-15, and it really shocked them. Some got really mad. I gave it my personal touch and all, dressing up formally, making motions with my flute, drinking water in between the breaks, etc. Not smiling was the hardest part. The performance was the bidding of the professor, who told me in secret to perform it as we were talking about contemporary music. It was a pretty neat experience, and we had a long discussion about it afterwards.


Respect. I thought about doing that when given an opportunity to play a solo.


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## neoshredder (Nov 7, 2011)

I confess I'm quite arrogant. And not easily willing to admit when I'm wrong.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

neoshredder said:


> I confess I'm quite arrogant. And not easily willing to admit when I'm wrong.


Are you a Scorpio?


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese (Jan 8, 2013)

I cheated in my personality test


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## kv466 (May 18, 2011)

So it's Friday night and I'm going out of the house in a Star Trek t-shirt. Yup,...a yellow one.


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## neoshredder (Nov 7, 2011)

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> Are you a Scorpio?


Yes I am. How did you know?


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

Huilunsoittaja said:


> I have a confession to make, which is both musical and personal. I've performed John Cage's 4'33" for real. 2 years ago, I performed it on my flute for a college class of about 12-15, and it really shocked them.


I don't know what's wrong with them. Personally I would never complain about such a performance because I just love the sound of the flute. :angel:


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

Klavierspieler said:


> Did I ever tell you about the bodies I keep in my basement? I added number twelve a couple weeks ago...
> ...


Are you Arsenic or Old Lace? Surely a nice lil' ol' lady (or cat?) couldn't do that? :lol:


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

Klavierspieler said:


> Did I ever tell you about the bodies I keep in my basement? I added number twelve a couple weeks ago...


Let me guess: in your pantry you have a good stock of fava beans and Chianti...


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

neoshredder said:


> I confess I'm quite arrogant. And not easily willing to admit when I'm wrong.


No you're not. C'mon, admit it.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

Huilunsoittaja said:


> Get the weight off your chest! Let's do this! Can be musical (like a guilty pleasure), or personal (weird habit, strange experience, or other personal guilty pleasure)...


Well my guiltiest pleasure is that I don't mind instant coffee. Say that to a coffee snob and its like sacrilege. But it has to be good instant coffee, not low grade stuff.

The other one is I'm jaded about many things (incl. classical music in some ways) but still enjoy them.

Also I am a frequent teller of corny jokes that tend to kind of, well, not work basically.

Fourth one is pertinent to this forum. I like a good deal of modern and contemporary classical but I can't stand most of the ideologies associated with these. So I am a Modernist turned traditionalist (conservative?) which is the worse thing on the planet vis a vis online discussions of classical. You just become persona non grata in some quarters but thats life I suppose. Music should unite people, not divide them, but maybe my belief in that is naive. So what?


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

Huilunsoittaja said:


> I have a confession to make, which is both musical and personal. I've performed John Cage's 4'33" for real. 2 years ago, I performed it on my flute for a college class of about 12-15, and it really shocked them. Some got really mad. I gave it my personal touch and all, dressing up formally, making motions with my flute, drinking water in between the breaks, etc. Not smiling was the hardest part. The performance was the bidding of the professor, who told me in secret to perform it as we were talking about contemporary music. It was a pretty neat experience, and we had a long discussion about it afterwards.
> 
> It's not something I put on my resume of repertoire performed, however. I wouldn't say I'm ashamed of doing it, but I don't really talk to people about that experience... :lol:


I once gave a performance of 4'33" on a piano backstage for a choir before a concert we were singing in, as a sort of exercise to get them calm and focused for performance and just for fun as well. It was amazing to see the choir so attentively listening to the sounds of backstage that they'd take for granted, although a funny part of the performance was halfway through the first movement when some people suddenly came into the room talking and laughing and the rest of the choir almost yelled "SHH!!! QUIET!!! He's performing 4'33"!!!" :lol:
I got a huge round of applause at the end!  people at my school are generally very enthusiastic about modern and conceptual music and music philosophy (more so the students than the teachers).


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## Bix (Aug 12, 2010)

neoshredder said:


> Yes I am. How did you know?


Because its obvious and the 'clotter' aka COAG is und genius.


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## Klavierspieler (Jul 16, 2011)

Sid James said:


> Are you Arsenic or Old Lace? Surely a nice lil' ol' lady (or cat?) couldn't do that? :lol:


I'm Martha. Couldn't do that? Why, of course we did! Poor little dears... We couldn't just let them go on as they were, so miserable and the like, now could we?


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## Klavierspieler (Jul 16, 2011)

brianvds said:


> Let me guess: in your pantry you have a good stock of fava beans and Chianti...


Actually, I think Mr. Hopkins is in the pantry right now...


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## neoshredder (Nov 7, 2011)

I confess I actually do like Modernism. It's a few on this board on this board that I don't get along with that makes me want to say bad things about it.


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## aleazk (Sep 30, 2011)

"Thread of Confessions"...

I'm innocent!.


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## cwarchc (Apr 28, 2012)

I don't really like music


I don't like reagge, oh no

I love it

"whoops wrong thread"


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## Cheyenne (Aug 6, 2012)

My confession: I fell in love with Thomas De Quincey's Confessions of An English Opium-Eater and the unfinished sequel Suspiria de Profundis.. A teacher of mine warned me not to try the drugs myself :lol:


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

I confess, I actually really like the musicals of Andrew Lloyd Webber.


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

Okay, I'll confess: I have a soft spot for Yanni. And Enya. And Libera. 

No doubt I was a New Age composer in a previous life.


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

I confess I actually like CGI special effects. We're not supposed to for some reason.


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## jani (Jun 15, 2012)

I am not the most tidy person on the planet, every were i go my room, workplace etc... when i was in school...
The order of my stuff/things can be described with two words and those are " Creative chaos", i always know were everything is but if someone who loves order would see it they went " how can you work/live like this".


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## Lunasong (Mar 15, 2011)

Huilunsoittaja said:


> It's not something I put on my resume of repertoire performed, however. I wouldn't say I'm ashamed of doing it, but I don't really talk to people about that experience... :lol:


I hope this is the real confession, because playing it is nothing to confess. It's a well-known piece!


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## Ryan (Dec 29, 2012)

I haven't wore underwear for 20 years.


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

Lunasong said:


> I hope this is the real confession, because playing it is nothing to confess. It's a well-known piece!


It's a footnote in my life that I think needs some explanation is all. I can't just say "I've done this piece" because I have to say, "I've done this piece_ for real_, no joke, I have proof, witnesses, done in formal fashion, etc." I have the formal _program _somewhere in my room. It's just a piece that's still hard to be taken seriously, because it _has _become a joke. Perhaps it's my job to tell others "Hey, you say you can do 4'33" with a vacuum cleaner, well, _actually do it, do it *well*, and don't make a joke out of it!_"


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

When I was about 10 I was caught shoplifting by the manager of the toyshop where one of my sisters was working at the time. About two years later I was rumbled again lifting some stripy socks from a menswear store - by my sister's boyfriend who just happened to be manager of the place.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

When I was in the first year of grammar school (aged 12) we had a history accuracy test for 25 points, and I didn't know one answer. We were told to check our answers and while doing so, the girl in front of me held her paper up & I saw what her answer was. I wrote it in. When we got the results, I came top of the class, ahead of this girl by half a point. If I hadn't succumbed to temptation, the results would have been reversed. I still feel guilty. Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa!


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

:lol: You guys are taking a dark, dark turn. Let's just say I warned not to say anything incriminating, I'm not responsible for anything that happens. If course, I'M not gonna do anything about it, but for your own sakes, I can't save you from other people's judgment. But no one is innocent...


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## DrKilroy (Sep 29, 2012)

My piano has not been tuned for like three years! 

Best regards, Dr


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## aleazk (Sep 30, 2011)

DrKilroy said:


> My piano has not been tuned for like three years!
> 
> Best regards, Dr


Take advantage of that by composing microtonal piano pieces!.


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

DrKilroy said:


> My piano has not been tuned for like three years!
> 
> Best regards, Dr


My family's piano has never been tuned since we first got it  And it's almost as old as me! But it's kept its intonation very well, because we always play it!


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## Bix (Aug 12, 2010)

Ingenue said:


> When I was in the first year of grammar school (aged 12) we had a history accuracy test for 25 points, and I didn't know one answer. We were told to check our answers and while doing so, the girl in front of me held her paper up & I saw what her answer was. I wrote it in. When we got the results, I came top of the class, ahead of this girl by half a point. If I hadn't succumbed to temptation, the results would have been reversed. I still feel guilty. Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa!


"Quia peccavi nimis cogitatione, ........ et opere"


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## Feathers (Feb 18, 2013)

Ingenue said:


> When I was in the first year of grammar school (aged 12) we had a history accuracy test for 25 points, and I didn't know one answer. We were told to check our answers and while doing so, the girl in front of me held her paper up & I saw what her answer was. I wrote it in. When we got the results, I came top of the class, ahead of this girl by half a point. If I hadn't succumbed to temptation, the results would have been reversed. I still feel guilty. Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa!


Almost the same thing happened to me once, except I was the girl who held her paper up. The guy behind me copied me, but I changed my answer later. I got it right and he got it wrong.  Heh heh heh. He later told me about it and I just laughed.


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## musicphotogAnimal (Jul 24, 2012)

My camera needs a professional cleaning of its sensor but I keep finding ways of putting it off. I'm sure I'll have a million dust specks on the sensor before I take it in to Nikon. 

No Canon's better jokes!


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## Klassik (Mar 14, 2017)

Huilunsoittaja said:


> I have a confession to make, which is both musical and personal. I've performed John Cage's 4'33" for real. 2 years ago, I performed it on my flute for a college class of about 12-15, and it really shocked them. Some got really mad. I gave it my personal touch and all, dressing up formally, making motions with my flute, drinking water in between the breaks, etc. Not smiling was the hardest part. The performance was the bidding of the professor, who told me in secret to perform it as we were talking about contemporary music. It was a pretty neat experience, and we had a long discussion about it afterwards.
> 
> It's not something I put on my resume of repertoire performed, however. I wouldn't say I'm ashamed of doing it, but I don't really talk to people about that experience


You performed 4'33"? :clap: That's my favorite contemporary piece! I do have a question about your interpretation of it though. I could be wrong, but it sounds like you were "air" performing your flute during the performance. Is that correct? I've never heard 4'33" performed that way, but I guess every musician has their own interpretation of things! What were you pretending to play when you "air performed" 4'33" if that was the case?

I suppose a HIP performance of 4'33" would have involved having the flute out, putting it in it's case when the first movement starts, and then taking it back out in preparation for the second movement. Repeat that for the third movement. Of course, you did perform 4'33" as a three movement piece, right?

I don't see why your 4'33" performance is such a shameful thing that has to be hidden. I think you should be proud of it! :tiphat:



Huilunsoittaja said:


> Perhaps it's my job to tell others "Hey, you say you can do 4'33" with a vacuum cleaner, well, _actually do it, do it *well*, and don't make a joke out of it!_"


Not only have I performed 4'33" (albeit not with a vacuum cleaner, I wouldn't want my performance to suck), but I was even a recording engineer for a performance of it. I had some cassettes with music on them and I ran a bulk tape eraser over them.



Ryan said:


> I haven't wore underwear for 20 years.


Ha! That's nothing. Not only have I not worn underwear in 20 years, I have not worn pants either! Since OP asked us to get weight off our chests, I've also decided not to wear a bra. Then again, I'm not sure why I would wear one in the first place. And, no, bra wearing is not a confession of mine. Who do I look like, Richard Wagner?

I'm sure you all would rather hear about some other kinds of confessions though, but I'm not really much of a confessions or guilty pleasures type of guy. I have no problem admitting to what I like. So, hmm, this is tough. Well, here's something I had a nanosecond of guilt about many years ago. I refused to attend my high school's silly little prom event. I could not support any of my school's anti-intellectual distractions. Besides, my favorite hockey team made the playoffs that year and had a game the night of prom. So, yeah, this girl I knew at the time was begging for me to take her to prom. She was a nice girl, but I told her that I could not take her since I had a hockey game to watch. You can imagine the tears and all that.

After the hockey game, I decided to crash the after-prom party the school held. I don't know why I decided to go there, but the school ended up kicking me out after I was there for about five minutes for not following their registration procedure and for refusing to stay the whole night as they required. Thus, getting kicked out was actually the desirable outcome. But, anyway, I saw the aforementioned girl, escorted only by her sister, during the five minutes I was there and she saw me. She never got close to me, but I could sense how hard she wanted to kick me in the nuts right then. Again, it's probably a good thing I got kicked out! 

Oh, and I confess to cursing out the 5 emoticon limit on TC. I also confess to making a long-winded post about 4'33" and nothing...or about nothing and nothing depending on how you want to look at it.


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## ldiat (Jan 27, 2016)

bless me father for i will confess that i like someo casino games, horse racing and betting and drinking wine. there i did it! i can  now


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