I understand it. I spent four years of high school in the varsity choir. Best years of my life they were. Probably one of loudest baritones in my section.

Good times. Who else has sang in a choir?

Ah, okay, I know what triads are, luckily! :D So ya could have 'D, F#, A, D', or 'A, C#, E, A' for the arpeggios, right? So 3, 2, 4... Thanks Elineyyy! :D

And yup, Remnant, I sing in my school's regular choir and chamber choir (eleven of us singing three-five parts). 'Tis fun. We're currently doing 'The Lion Sleeps Tonight'... xD

*raises hand*

I was in choir from 7th grade through my years at college, and I really miss it now. Warbling at the car radio by myself is nothing at all like making multi-layered music cooperatively.

*hand shoots up, rocket-style*

I am in an amateur choir. We—all parents save for myself—take pretty much nothing seriously and have a helluva time every time we go to practice.

Also we're gonna perform Vivaldi's Gloria.


I SEE NO REASON WHY THIS ATTITUDE AND THIS AMBITION SHOULD NOT BE COMPLETELY COMPATIBLE :D

Edit:

Amen. I love how it feels when everyone's voices just mesh together in one beautiful harmony.

Exactly! And I don't think I have to mention this, but you go up and then down. Just because you mentioned that you haven't taken any lessons and...yeah. If that came across as condenscending or mean, I am so sorry. D:

And, uh. Well, I was in a choir from grade 4 to grade 7. It was a school choir, aaaaaaaaand it pretty much sucked. Because my school had next to no musical talent aside from me. *cough*

ALTHOUGH. At the Wizard of Oz auditions, the director got us all to sing harmonically. IT WAS AMAZING. 'Cause there was over 60 people there. :3

Heh, no, that's fine; it's nice of you to make certain I know an' all. :P As it happens, I did know, but I ain't gonna hunt you down with a chainsaw because I have an axe! :P So yup, thank ye, and may ye be a wonderful tree! xD

OOH OOH OOH I was in choir for six years (2nd grade to the end of 8th)! It was a children's choir outside of school and I was told I was really good. I also started a tradition at my middle school for singing solo with the jazz band they have there (I'm the band's CD and everything, lol), and they've had a girl sing with them ever since . I took private lessons too, for three years. It was quite awesome.

And then I moved to a different state in the US and left it all behind in favor of studying science. Now I'm applying to graduate schools, where I'm either going to study cancer or the immune system.

Strange how things change, isn't it?

Yes, it is.
I wanted to Study music in college, but ended up as a welder...
Life certainly likes to throw the curve ball at you when you least expect it.

I was trying to get a Vocalist part in a band, but they kept telling me some B.S. reason that I wasn't "heavy" or "Metal" enough to get it.

I like the Metal genre and all, but the way that band was going, it was just going to be another sub-par Death Metal band and I didn't want any part of it. I don't do the screaming or the growling at all. It just tears up your vocal cords and it sounds like cats being stuffed in a blender while they were hacking up hair balls. I finally got tired of it and told them " bling-bling YOU " and left.

I sing and that's want I wanted to do.

/musician's rant

Anyone else play the ocarina? Yes, it is that thing from Zelda

I have an ocarina, but don't know how to play it

My brother does and YES he learned to play several of the OoT tunes on it. I even have a recording of him doing so on a hilltop at sunset. Yes really.

My friend Becca plays the ocarina. S'a cute little thing (the ocarina, that is ;P), but it's only got one octave.

I mainly play the English pendants that have an octave and a half if you do some pretty neat things with your mouth and fingering (oh my god, I swear it's just my mind that makes that dirty).

I do have a few others. I don't own an OoT style one though yet.

Yeah my brother had to trawl the internet to find one that was pale blue and looked like the OoT one, and even then it has a thick ridge around the outside that throws the look off a bit.

The most accurate ones with the best noise were Spencers. Spencers are now about $300+ thus I stick with my $15 English Pendants, which make the same noises XD Plus the soprano ones are small enough to wear as necklaces. I only have this picture to show how small it is: it's a 1/3 scale doll holding it

SO GUESS WHO JUST WASTED SPENT ANOTHER HOUR OF HER LIFE PLAYING SCALES. >.>

I mean, yeah, they're important for my stupid exam, but do I have to spend the WHOLE LESSON playing them? It's tedious and boring.

And then my teacher noticed my depressed stature and asked me if I really DID want to continue my grade 8 stuff, and I SO BADLY wanted to say "no, screw it, give me something ELSE as long as it's not THIS" but I didn't. I said "eh." Because of my mom. She'll pull the whole "I'm disappointed" card, tell my whole family that I'm a quitter, and then rag on me about all the opportunities I lost. Bleh.

So then my teacher said "well, I'm gonna give you a week to think about it", even though I'm probably going to continue, just to avoid my mom's wrath and "disappointment".

But CHEESUS CHRIST, I'm unhappy with my music career right now. Most of my time practicing is spent doing scales and apreggios and all those other technique things that I don't give a rat's fart about. I barely have time to play any music I like. >.>

</RANT>

Believe it or not, I had no idea an Ocarina was a real instrument before this moment.

When is your exam? Has it been booked yet? There's no point in playing if you hate it, why not explain to your parents/teacher that this is killing your soul and ask for a change of scenery for a little while, instead of talking of quitting or stopping completely etc. etc.. Play GAME MUSIC OH GOD DO IT. Or Vanessa Carlton songs. Those are my go-tos.

Take a break and just learn some things for pleasure, things you know and enjoy. You're still young so there's plenty of time to get your grade 8 but there's no point getting it if you never want to play for its own sake, because then as soon as you stop getting lessons you'll have no reason/motivation to carry on with it.

Your parents may want to 'encourage' (push) you but surely if you just say that you still want to play you'd just like to take a break from all the intense stuff for a little bit, or lighten up the load a bit, they can hardly BEAT you for it.

I THINK YOU SHOULD LEARN GRADE 8 OCARINA INSTEAD. ;P I've known *of* them for years, cuz I have an 'ocarina' voice on my keyboard, but, until recently, I pictured an instrument similar to a lute (did I mention that the voices on my keyboard sound NOTHING like the instruments they're meant to be? Well. :P The 'harp' sounds like a frickin' xylophone.). I also used to think it was pronounced 'oh-shah-rina'. :P

Edit: 1000 Miles! <3 My friend plays it and we all sing along... :D

The exam is in June, I do believe. And if I don't do it then, it's in August. And if I don't do it THEN, it's in December. Along with my theory exam.

I have to learn 6 pieces, and I've pretty much got them all down (I've been studying them since September), but it's ridiculous how many scales I have to do.

So I've put the songs on the shelf and play them MAYBE once a week to refresh my memory.

The thing is, I wouldn't mind it if, since I don't need to practice my songs, I could play another piece instead of doing technique straight for 60 minutes. I explained this to my teacher, but she's kind of an air head (she spends about 5-10 minutes throughout the lesson looking for stuff that's right under her nose) and I think she's forgotten. :/ I mean, ONE PIECE, PLEASE. I think it would stop me from feeling so darn emo at the end of every lesson if I had something I liked to work on. And it would make me look forward to lessons a little more.

I've tried explaining to my mom that if I don't like the music, I won't have any inspiration to play it, and if I DO play it, I will not enjoy it. That's just how my brain works. And every single time I've tried to tell her that, she goes off on a tangent about university and music history and how I can't take it if I don't have my level 8 (I wasn't even planning on taking music history, by the way). I think she's missing the point completely. Perhaps I should try to tell her a little more firmly.

I think it would help you guys to understand my little (emo) mood better to know that music is pretty much all that I'm good at. And spending most of my time doing technique is like torture. Dx

On a lighter note, I'm playing with my school band at a groundbreaking ceremony for a new super-school tomorrow.

(Sorry if I seem whiny right now. I just need to vent. And think of a solution to this. xD)



Now that you mention it, I vaguely remember having an 'ocarina' voice on my old keyboard. I just never thought that an ocarina was real.

It's all right, Eline. Music can be a tough thing to do because especially if it is the main thing in your life there's a lot of competition, hours of work you have to put in, and it can be unstable and unreliable too. I can't say 'oh yeah I know EXACTLY how you feel' obviously, but I can see where you're coming from.

Why don't you pick something you want to do and start looking at it yourself, then when you go to your lesson take it with you and ask your teacher for 'help' for a little bit of the lesson with it. There's no way a decent teacher would turn down you asking for help with something and that way you can pick up something to play for pleasure /and/ get some time out in your lessons.

Although I warn you if you learn to play the heart asks pleasure first by Michael Nyman (Soundtrack to 'The Piano') I'll have to come to your house and rape you. I LOVE that song and I REALLY want to hear it being played live. You can't re-create the sound of live instruments.