College Students! discussion

Couldn't decide if I should put this in the Life thread or the music, movies, etc.

Anyway. Anyone play an instrument? Or sing?

I've been taking guitar lessons for a couple of months. I love it, but I am really struggling to learn how to read music. Before I started lessons I only knew the basics like "Every good boy does fine". That sort of thing. I've been in my university's choir for more than three years, but I learned all the songs by ear.

I am a music education major. I play the oboe as my primary instrument, but I can also play English horn, clarinet, bass clarinet, and saxophone. I should also be learning Baroque oboe this semester, which should be fun, but really hard. I guess we'll see how that goes.
Learning to read music was hard for me for a long time too. I didn't really learn it until I joined band class and started playing clarinet. The way we learned to play the instrument taught us to read music at the same time, which was nice. If you've only been working at it for a few months I'd say that it's pretty normal to be having trouble with it. Have you mentioned it to your lessons teacher? They will probably know how to help, though honestly the best thing for it is just time and practice.
If I ever have to sing something, I learn it by ear too. We have classes that teach us how to sight-sing using solfedge syllables, but I'm really terrible at it, so it doesn't help too much.
I've always wanted to learn the guitar. I tried to learn once, but I couldn't really figure it out. I also have ridiculously tiny hands, so I had a lot of trouble reaching the chords. I'm hoping to learn it someday though. My boyfriend is a guitar master, so I'm going to get him to teach me whenever we get around to it. It looks like it must be so much fun to play.

I'm a singer, though I don't do any professional things. I'm in my church choir and have sung a solo in the past, and I also sing in an Armenian group, where I met my boyfriend. I used to do more with singing, but time constraints keep me from being more involved.

I thought I remembered that you were a music major, Emily. I'm impressed with how many different instruments you can play.

Yes, I did talk to my teacher about reading music. I told him flat out that it was kicking my butt, lol. He's really working with me to help me learn it. I know how to read it, but I just can't get it to translate fast enough to get it to my fingers.

I'm really enjoying learning how to play though, you should try learning the guitar again!

Tahleen- Sounds like fun! What solo?

I play(ed) tenor sax primarily, but I also play bari and alto sax, clarinet, and I pretend to play piano (but I'm terrible at it). I also attempt to sing, but I'm not amazing at that, either.

The whole getting the music I read to my fingers in time was a big reason I went from clarinet to tenor sax. Clarinets play lots of notes for basically everything. Tenor saxes get to play along with the tubas a lot. Bari sax was lots of fun, though, and I miss it the most.

Kimberly, I wouldn't go so far as to say "fun" haha. You probably don't know the song, it's an Armenian sharagan, that is to say holy song. It's the solo during the Requiem.

Aww, thanks. Secretly, it's really easy for woodwind players to learn multiple woodwind instruments. They're all based on the same principles.
That same problem happened to me forever when I was first learning. In fact, I was learning bassoon recently, and I knew all the notes and what the fingerings were, I just couldn't translate from page to instrument quickly enough to keep up. It drove me crazy.
I really should learn to play guitar. All of my friends play, and they have so much fun jamming and singing stuff together.

Caity wrote: "Bari sax was lots of fun, though, and I miss it the most. "

Bari sax is so much fun! I absolutely loved it. I played various saxophones in my school's jazz band (it's hard to play jazz oboe), and it was one of my favorite things to play. Sadly they needed me on lead alto too much for me to get to play bari in the ensemble very often, but my best friend was the bari player, so he would let me jam on it after rehearsal. It was awesome.

I'm just excited to learn how to play the guitar because so many of my relatives do. I have three cousins and an uncle that all play. Every time the family gets together they all play. I can't wait until I'm good enough to play with them! When I signed up for lessons they were all so proud and excited for me. (I'm the youngest of the cousins) It meant a lot to me. :)

That's what I've heard about the woodwinds, and strings as well. That if you can play one, you can mostly likely play the others. My Great-Grandpa (Papa) could play any stringed instrument, and played in a band until he was 92.

Tahleen- No I can't say I know very much about Armenian songs.

I used to take piano lessons and was fairly decent but that about 10 years ago. I've forgotten mostly everything except a few simple songs.

I was in chorus in elementary and high school. I stopped my senior year because something happened to whenever I sang my eyes would water profusely.....that and I'm not really that good of a singer. :)

I too want to take guitar lessons. I've started to look into things, but haven't taken much initiative other than that.

Anna, I love the tinwhistle! Wish I had the time/drive to teach myself.

I'm a singer! I've done worldwide broadcasts for my church (with a group of singers) and I've also recorded 4 CDs with them. :) Singing is my entire life!