Musicians choice
I have always had a passion for music ever since my dad took me to his music recording studio when I was 5 or 6 years old. Already then I knew I wanted to become a professional musician like my dad was aiming to become. This was way back when music recording software hadn’t even been dreamed about, his studio shining with large analog metal gadgets. He had his own studio and band and was himself a singer songwriter. To be honest, he never became a professional musician, other than perhaps selling (or giving away, who knows) 10-20 copies of his bands album to family and friends. Shortly after the album was made he had a break through in unrelated business and never played music again. No platinum or gold, no musicians choice awards, he left music all together.
Professional musician
As kids often do, especially sons, I wandered down the same path as my father and dreamed of becoming a professional singer, no I will be honest, I wanted to become the biggest superstar of all. It started with me playing the guitar and my hero was Slash of Guns and Roses. Man, I remember getting Marshall Amplifiers for my birthday and shortly after a boss guitar pedal. That really made my day, and for a couple of years I lived in a fantasy world where my room was Wembley stadium and I had a 60.000 large crowd outside my window. Still no sign of music recording software, I used a tape recorder to record music (I should use quotations on “record music” as it sounded awful). Lets just be grateful Youtube.com wasn’t invented back than, because I would definitely not have won any musicians choice awards for my guitar skills. More likely I would become a Youtube sensation, for all the wrong reasons, because I sucked to be honest!
Music high school
Later I was accepted to one of the music high schools where I live, after an audition where I stopped playing the song mid-way because I didn’t know the rest. The song was highway to heaven, a pretty easy song to play on the guitar. Give me half an hour to practice now and I would be able to play it, and I haven’t played the guitar since then…it’s that easy. In other words, I didn’t only suck, I was a sucker guitar player, and with no marshall amplifiers or boss guitar pedals to hide behind, you could hear my lack of technique at the first tone. Luckily, or perhaps unfortunately, I probably had the best grades of all the other kids applying, and was accepted solely because of that. My quest to become a professional musician had begun.
What a shock I got when I heard the other guys at the school play the guitar. It is amazing how 15-16 year olds can be several levels better than the best guitar players in the world, or at least those that the guys on the street THINK are the best guitar players. I was embarrassed to say the least over having to play for them. After all, I couldn’t play a single song all on my own. Pretty soon I came to the realization that I would never become a professional musician by playing the guitar. Little did I know that I was on a path to become a singer songwriter instead.
Professional singer instead????
At just about the same time I was asked by one of my class mates if I could come over to his house and sing a song for his band. I had never sung a note in my life, that is, without hating it more than anything in the world. I was supposed to become a guitar player superstar like Slash of Guns and Roses, a professional musician that won MTV music and musicians choice awards. Singing was out of the question. Imagining myself in a music recording studio as a singer just made me nauseas.
Singing in a band
Long story short, I ended up going over to my friend’s house and sing for his band, and guess what…it was pretty cool! The week after we did it again, and I was bit by the bug, I was now going to become a professional musician again, but this time as a singer songwriter. I rushed to the head office at my music high school and asked to change instrument to vocals. Strangely, they accepted without question. I see now why that was so, as they probably thought I was the least talented guitar player ever. At that point of time music recording software had slowly surfaced, and I might have some digital music recordings from back then. Who knows, perhaps it’s not too late to become a Youtube sensation.
My first music recording software encounter
Back to the subject at hand, or back to my music recording ramblings. Things went A LOT better after I started singing. Somehow it fitted me better, as I have never been especially good at physically technical tasks. Singing was in comparison to guitar playing pretty easy, and I soon received my first “musicians choice award” from my fellow classmates. At this music high school there were three age-divided classes and one big-band that had the best on each instrument picked to play with them on merit alone. I was picked to sing for the band, and this was quite some accomplishment for me back then. Now I was the leader of a group of the best musicians at the school, musicians I was embarrassed to play guitar for a year earlier. Wow, how things changed.
This lead to me joining a band out of school and for the first time going to a music recording studio with the latest music recording software and recording three songs. My first encounter with a studio since my dad brought me to his, 13 years earlier. But that’s history, and now I am sitting here rambling in front of my computer. It’s getting late, so I will have to continue this story some other time.
See yah next time!
Stay tuned for more music recording software articles, as I am going to have a closer look at the options out there shortly. I wrote a post on free music recording software a while a go, you might want to check that out before you go buying anything expensive. I will also be looking at Marshall amplifiers and Boss guitar pedals to see if they are still at the top where they were when I was a kid.
To all the musicians, or ex-musicians like me, out there that hasn’t received a real musicians choice award, I bid you good night until next time! Later…
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Tagged With music high school, Musicians choice, professional musician, Recording software
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