# Are/Were You A Classical Music Student/Teacher/Professional Musician?



## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

I was wondering how many members have/had training in classical music such that they are/were music students, music teachers and or professional classical musicians?

I have also included an option whereby one never really had any music training but love classical music as a lover of such art music. And I expect that would be many, many members too.

It would be nice to know us all this way, which is why we are here - for our love of classical art music.


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## ptr (Jan 22, 2013)

Got loads of theoretical and practical musical education but I don't teach or use it professionally at the moment due to medical reasons so I don't fit in any category given.. 

/ptr


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## Schubussy (Nov 2, 2012)

I know what a time signature is but that's about it.


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## arpeggio (Oct 4, 2012)

None of the above. I have had musical training but I am not a student, teacher or professional musician.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

I was a student, and as far as classical training, I spent a summer learning classical technique for the saxophone. Back at the time, the classical saxophone literature was pretty boring compared to jazz, but I gave it my best shot, even soloing before the West End Symphony.


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## Ramako (Apr 28, 2012)

It seems there is a missing category for those who have had training but are no longer students...

Anyway, I am definitely a music student and even feel like it right at the moment 
Recovering from having drunk too much last night; just finished having my lunch accompanied by Brahms ; )


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## EricABQ (Jul 10, 2012)

I'm so uneducated about music theory that if someone here were to put together a quiz of 50 multiple choice questions of basic music theory and every member here took that quiz, I can assure you that I would come in last place.


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## Sonata (Aug 7, 2010)

amateur musician/playing for pleasure would be another good category


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## jani (Jun 15, 2012)

Sonata said:


> amateur musician/playing for pleasure would be another good category


And aspiring music legends of the future!


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## Crudblud (Dec 29, 2011)

I had three guitar lessons and two piano lessons and they were awful, never trained with professionals again, yet I now play several instruments and write music.


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## Taggart (Feb 14, 2013)

EricABQ said:


> I'm so uneducated about music theory that if someone here were to put together a quiz of 50 multiple choice questions of basic music theory and every member here took that quiz, I can assure you that I would come in last place.


Not only that, you have a poor grasp of statistics  Either that or you would be trying to get them wrong.

If everybody took the quiz and a number had a poor grasp of musical theory and answered at random then their marks would be normally distributed about a (lowish) mean, but some lucky souls would get high marks and some would get much lower marks.

That's the beauty of multiple guess questions.


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## Krummhorn (Feb 18, 2007)

Professional Classical Church Organist/Recitalist for over 50 years. 

I have held my current church position since 1982 ... some of the pipes for that organ are in my avatar to the left. 

Kh ♫


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## OboeKnight (Jan 25, 2013)

Classical student training to become a professional oboist. I've only had a year and half of formal private lessons because I started oboe mid-way through high school. I've completed my college auditions and will soon be studying performance at a university.


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

I have remained *musically pure* by avoiding all music training.

ut:


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## mmsbls (Mar 6, 2011)

I personally am not a musician. I had several years of piano lessons when I was young but nothing since then. I do have 2 professional classical musicians in my immediate family - my wife and my daughter, who is also a current student, and my wife's brother is a professional classical musician.


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## OboeKnight (Jan 25, 2013)

mmsbls said:


> I personally am not a musician. I had several years of piano lessons when I was young but nothing since then. I do have 2 professional classical musicians in my immediate family - my wife and my daughter, who is also a current student, and my wife's brother is a professional classical musician.


That's great! What are their instruments?


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## mmsbls (Mar 6, 2011)

OboeKnight said:


> That's great! What are their instruments?


Wife - violin
Daughter - cello
Wife's brother -piano


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

mmsbls said:


> Wife - violin
> Daughter - cello
> Wife's brother -piano


Haydn's piano trios!


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

Ramako said:


> It seems there is a missing category for those who have had training but are no longer students...
> 
> Anyway, I am definitely a music student and even feel like it right at the moment
> Recovering from having drunk too much last night; just finished having my lunch accompanied by Brahms ; )





arpeggio said:


> None of the above. I have had musical training but I am not a student, teacher or professional musician.


I wrote: "*were*/are you a music student" to allow for the possibility that one might have been a student before.


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

jani said:


> And aspiring music legends of the future!


Was that perspiring ?


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

Student 

blank text


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## aleazk (Sep 30, 2011)

I studied piano and music theory.


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## presto (Jun 17, 2011)

I got into classical music purely by hearing a piece of Mozart on the radio as a kid.
No training when I was young, but I've since learned to play the Treble Recorder at a more advanced age.


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## Lunasong (Mar 15, 2011)

I had piano and music theory lessons when I was young, and a little bit of guitar and clarinet. Everything else is self-taught. One can learn a lot if one pays attention.
I have always found a way to be actively involved in creating and performing music.


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

I am student (sophomore BM in flute performance), but I would say I'm also technically a professional. I've been paid on several occasions by my university to play, twice for college Commencement ceremonies, and numerous other times with something called Lab Orchestra, an ensemble used for grad conductors to have coaching sessions. I've also done other gigs that were _worth _getting paid for, but I wasn't since it was either just a great privilege, a gift performance, or voluntary work. I'll eventually start private teaching and doing more gigs, if I can get the connections starting next year, or as soon as possible.


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## Lunasong (Mar 15, 2011)

If you're going to use the criterium that you've been paid to perform, EVERYONE in my family, including me, is a professional musician!


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## OboeKnight (Jan 25, 2013)

Lunasong said:


> If you're going to use the criterium that you've been paid to perform, EVERYONE in my family, including me, is a professional musician!


Then so am I! I am paid pretty good money to play for the seasonal musicals at a local church.


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## Head_case (Feb 5, 2010)

Lunasong said:


> If you're going to use the criterium that you've been paid to perform, EVERYONE in my family, including me, is a professional musician!


...well....my family tell me that if I continue to play the way that I do, then they will have to pay me to shut up. I guess that makes me a professional too then? 

A professional annoyance :lol:


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## Head_case (Feb 5, 2010)

Huilunsoittaja said:


> I am student (sophomore BM in flute performance), but I would say I'm also technically a professional. I've been paid on several occasions by my university to play, twice for college Commencement ceremonies, and numerous other times with something called Lab Orchestra, an ensemble used for grad conductors to have coaching sessions. I've also done other gigs that were _worth _getting paid for, but I wasn't since it was either just a great privilege, a gift performance, or voluntary work. I'll eventually start private teaching and doing more gigs, if I can get the connections starting next year, or as soon as possible.


My goodness....you're of a standard to start making your own recordings and interpretations then.

Go moderator babe go! :lol:


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## Head_case (Feb 5, 2010)

moody said:


> Was that perspiring ?


Ewww. I really don't like sweaty musicians or concerts. The B.O. is really overpowering. This is one reason why I couldn't play with Vanessa Mae (not that perhaps, she would want to stoop to play Three Blind Mice; Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and other virtuoso classics with someone trying to work out which end of the flute sounds better) or anyone else who wears sleeveless tops whilst playing.

I recommend this one for those who have never used one:










it's available as a six pack for those who really try hard and perspire muchness enough to knock others unconsciousness or leave them floored and breathless.

Female performers who are short of inspiration for perspiration control might check out this product: it's not particularly catchy since it does smell like mum's, but it's way better than mum's mum, which is more or less, duckweed mixed with lily of the valley and other parma violet and licquorice allsorts in a strangely lavender effervescence enough to choke the staccato out of any flute performer.










You heard it here first. No sweat


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## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

A grade 2 or 3 class on music scales was my first hands-on exposure. That must've been when my parents heard I was studying music, therefore I should learn to play an instrument like mom (piano) and dad (saxophone).

Soon after, a cornet ('The *cornet* was invented by adding valves to the post horn in 1814') was deemed to be the instrument I would learn to play.

One-hour lessons once a week for two months was like going to the dentist eight times. And every one of those days was hot 'n sunny.

Thankfully, my first concert was a flop. It was then agreed that, "Perhaps the boy isn't musically-inclined." Rejoice! Praise be to the heavens! I could play baseball instead.


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## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

Careful with some of those roll-ons...that cause a helluva rash. :devil:


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Professional musician often includes the dual occupation of teacher.


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

PetrB said:


> Professional musician often includes the dual occupation of teacher.


The poll lets you to select more than one.


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## Lunasong (Mar 15, 2011)

ArtMusic said:


> The poll lets you to select more than one.


No choice for Amateur Musician. A lot of people play their instruments as an avocation, not a vocation.


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## Novelette (Dec 12, 2012)

A student forever:

Violin -- 14 years
Piano -- 13 years
Music Theory -- 19 years

I used to play the French Horn when I was 7, which is also when I began studying music theory with a private teacher. I stopped taking formal theory lessons 10 years ago but I have studied it intensively since then, on my own time.

I happily expect to be studying these instruments and theory for the rest of my life.


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## jurianbai (Nov 23, 2008)

Able to play pop/rock/metal instrument used in a band. Occasionally performed and a scheduled church player. I don't remember if I ever making money from performing music although I think the way to achieved that everyday...lol. Playing guitar and keyboard.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

In the order of what is a 'natural' progression, I was
1.) Student ~ age six through to my early twenties, then...

2.) professional, which included both Teacher and performer.

[I will not discuss that wasted time from birth until five / six years of age, pleading the fifth, and that I was just a kid....]


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## Zabirilog (Mar 10, 2013)

Trying to be a pianist  At least I've played Revolutionary and the first Transcendental.


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## Ravndal (Jun 8, 2012)

Novelette said:


> A student forever:
> 
> Violin -- 14 years
> Piano -- 13 years
> ...


Amazing.

Violin, piano, theory - but not composition?


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## MichaelSolo (Mar 12, 2013)

I was a violin student for more years than I'd like to remember, then I was (briefly) a professional musician in an orchestra.

I have moved to a different occupation altogether many years ago, still playing and teaching violin here and there every so often..


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## Novelette (Dec 12, 2012)

Ravndal said:


> Amazing.
> 
> Violin, piano, theory - but not composition?


I never took formal composition lessons, although the theory instruction has been tremendous help in that regard. I'm good enough with counterpoint and functional harmony, and I have composed a decent amount to improve my grasp of theory, but I'm never very satisfied with my own compositions. At this point, I compose only to master the old forms--or at least, to attempt to master the old forms.  Being an obsessive person helps.


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## Guest (Mar 21, 2013)

As a primary school teacher, I had to 'teach' 'music'. I also earned Initial Grade Piano as a mature student.

Which box should I tick?


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## Ravndal (Jun 8, 2012)

Novelette said:


> I never took formal composition lessons, although the theory instruction has been tremendous help in that regard. I'm good enough with counterpoint and functional harmony, and I have composed a decent amount to improve my grasp of theory, but I'm never very satisfied with my own compositions. At this point, I compose only to master the old forms--or at least, to attempt to master the old forms.  Being an obsessive person helps.


Obsessive, attempting to master the old forms, never satisfied with own compositions. The recipe for a great and innovative composer, i believe  id love to hear some of it one time


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## Novelette (Dec 12, 2012)

Ravndal said:


> Obsessive, attempting to master the old forms, never satisfied with own compositions. The recipe for a great and innovative composer, i believe  id love to hear some of it one time


Great and innovative composer? Oh heavens no, more like an obsessive and easily frustrated goof. 

Actually, I composed this overture, which I called "Bedlam Overture" when I was 14. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing: I scored it for Violin I and Violin II, Cello, Contrabass, Oboe, French Horn, and Piano.

I just put down whatever sounded good on a note-by-note basis, without regard to functional harmony or intelligible chords [the piano part is especially impossible with huge, superhuman stretches in both hands]. It was programmatic in a crude sense, and wildly shifted in modes and textures, with periodic cadenzas for the piano [one particularly making a parody on the child-favorite of rolling F#, G#, A#, C#, C# and back down again]. Looking at it today, it's a nightmare. But honestly, it's my favorite work ever. Sometimes the grotesque harmonies emerged suddenly into fairly beautiful moments.

Another time, at the same age, I was writing a piano fantasy with orchestra, and I took verbatim sections from the second movement of Beethoven's violin concerto. Early composer plagiarism! But it was good practice trying to create a continuity with the stolen section. =D


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## HarpsichordConcerto (Jan 1, 2010)

Me - Imperial Kapellmeister (I judge all the works and approve whether it gets performed or not).


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## Guest (Mar 26, 2013)

I'm a bog standard pianist - collapsed under the weight of Beethovens sonatas early in 8th Grade and gave up. 7th Grade Theory. I was in my early 40's at the time, having started piano at 35 years old. Have a Master of Arts (Musicology) degree, specializing in baroque music - Purcell and his collaboration with John Dryden. This was a joint supervision with the Music Department. Now I want to do a Master of Film Arts by Research. Cheers!


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