Split:Music and Water Mix Well

Sceptic said:

Rwidman the name of the “german restaurant” just off the waterfront in Sanford is Hollerbach's Willow Tree Cafe. I’ve been there 2 or 3 times during our two St. Johns cruises.

They have a website.

I’m also about 45 mins. by car, but have never had the urge to drive over.

Sorry for the hijack.

Mike

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I could have found the name, I was just a little too lazy to do so.

BTW: As a musician, I was very impressed with the two piece band, especially considering that one of them did most of the singing and the other played all the instruments.

rwidman said:

BTW: As a musician....

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What kind of music?

rwidman said:

I could have found the name, I was just a little too lazy to do so.

BTW: As a musician, I was very impressed with the two piece band, especially considering that one of them did most of the singing and the other played all the instruments.

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Were they Chinese flight school students in the band?

Marin said:

What kind of music?

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They played German music and wore the appropriate outfits.

Me, I started out playing 50's rock and roll (It wasn't called 50's rock and roll back then, just rock and roll. )

Later, I switched to playing country music. Actual country music, not what's being passed off today as country music.

I played full time for several years, then weekends up until a year or so ago.

beachbum29 said:

Were they Chinese flight school students in the band?

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Nope, older white German looking guys.

Ron, I was a professional musician also. I toured the US in bands for many years, played concerts and festivals in FL, on the strip in Las Vegas, Crater festival and clubs in Hawaii and The Whiskey A Go Go here in LA.

I play bass, what do you play?

rwidman said:

They played German music and wore the appropriate outfits.

Me, I started out playing 50's rock and roll (It wasn't called 50's rock and roll back then, just rock and roll. )

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Sorry, I meant you. What instrument did you play or were you vocals or both?

I'm interested in that a big part of my job is producing music for our videos that warrant an original score. While I would not consider myself as a musician by any means (I've messed around with the dobro since the mid-70s and more recently started playing an electric guitar, but just for my own entertainment), the music aspect of my job is the most enjoyable to me.

We work with an amazing composer/arranger in the Seattle area who is also a professional performer (bass and classical guitar). And the videographer I work the closest with is a rock bass player who's recently returned to it after several decades of not playing at all. In addition to his day job at Boeing he now plays with two local bands.

As a result of a recent Boeing production I am directing and editing, I and my wife have recently entered the new world (for us) of commercial music producing with a young local violinist who is most likely destined for greatness in some way or another. We have two CD projects in the works with her and the aforementioned composer/arranger.

I don't know that there is any connection between music and boating (there is between boating and flying), but I've found it interesting how many boaters we know who have music performing in some way as part of their past or present lives.

I've been teaching Middle School Instrumental Music for 34 years. Play out locally now and then, mostly legit. Clarinet major minor in percussion.

Rob

Datenight said:

I've been teaching Middle School Instrumental Music for 34 years. Play out locally now and then, mostly legit. Clarinet major minor in percussion.

Rob

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Rob,
My kids used to bring their clarinets to the boat when we go out boating for the weekend just so they don't skip practicing. I'm sure you can appreciate that. They're high schoolers now and are proficient players. Too bad they don't bring their instruments to the boat anymore as the music they make now is music.

Here's my son's performance last Saturday
Homage to Bud Shank - YouTube

Mahal,

That was fantastic! Is the soloist your son? Great sound. I would love to hear the rest of the concert. The band has a very good sense of sound and balance.

Precticing on the boat paid off. I would be willing to bet other boaters liked it too.

Several years ago my Middle School Jazz group was asked to play in a summer series. Since school was out we had to rehearse at my house several times. By the end of the first rehearsal (on the back porch) the nieghbors were bringing lawn chairs and setting up in the back yard. They were not bad for the age group but nothing like your son's band.

Congratulations,

Rob

Rob,

Thanks for the compliment and yes my son is the soloist. He is also the first alto in the Southern California High school All Star Jazz band.

We have a very strong middle school band here. Last week, they entered in a high school intermediate category and got third place beating some high school bands. It was in middle school that my son and daughter developed into musicians. They had a teacher that they loved and was a good motivator. They stop by the middle school every now and then to visit their old music teacher and help with the kids.

Talk about thread creep but what a cool topic, should we split it off?

Yeah, you could split it off if you like. Be interesting to hear what other Forum members might have to say on the subject.

Mahal--- Very impressive performance. Thanks for putting it up.

Yes please split the thread.

Thanks for the compliment Marin.

Mahal--- Does your son still play clarinet or has he switched over to the sax completely now?

Marin said:

Mahal--- Does your son still play clarinet or has he switched over to the sax completely now?

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He has switched to sax and flute. He played the clarinet in middle school symphonic band. Although last year he had a paid gig playing the clarinet along side professional musicians for a community theater musical.

Is it easy to go back and forth? (Obviously I know zip about woodwind instruments.)

Like you, I know nothing about woodwinds or music, just a fan. My son says it's not easy for him to play the clarinet after not playing it for a while. He has to practice long and hard to get back to it. Plus the clarinet is not an easy instrument to get good at like the sax. That's according to both my kids.

I pretend to play country and bluegrass guitar my sons however are quite good at a variety of instruments and genres. Between the 3 boys all play the guitar, 2 play fiddle and mandolin, and 1 plays clarinet.

My guitar playing is poor at best but it served as a springboard for our children to explore the musical arts and for that I am grateful.

Wow-come home from a long day at work (Tax Season!) and find this very cool thread. While I am not any kind of a musician, there moust be some musical in my genes. My son is a Jr. Hi band director in North Carolina and an alto sax jazz musician. He also writes shows for marching bands. He started the program in a new school 3 years ago and has already received statewide recognition for his program. My daughter, here in Seattle (she is adopted form China so no genes there!), plays flute, regular and baritone, and piccolo at Eckstein Middle, one of the best middle school programs going and will move on to the jazz program at Roosevelt High here. Roosevelt is one of the best High School programs in the country-won or placed in the Top 5 in the nationwide Ellington Competition at Lincoln Center for about 8 years running.

I am a just music lover. Just a quick story on the power of music. My son is totally unathletic-growing up in a rural area where athletics are king, he had real self-esteem and academic issues early in school. In 6th grade, a music teacher got him interested in the sax and he just blossomed. Won several state soloist awards in high school, and was recognized for it at school. I have always thought that that one teacher turned my son's life around. As my son tells me-"Music is Power"!

I got interested in the dobro while living in Hawaii. My primary inspiration was a musician named Mike Auldridge who played dobro with a fairly famous bluegrass group in the DC area called The Seldom Scene. He was pretty much the top dobro player in the country at that time, playing on albums by Linda Ronstadt, Emmylou Harris and many more. Today the top dobro player is considered to be Jerry Douglas.

I played my 8 and 12 string dobros a lot in Hawaii but drifted out of it when I moved to Seattle. About twenty years ago I acquired a mint condition 1962 Fender Stratocaster from a co-worker but have not gotten around to messing with it until this year. We'll see what happens..... I bought a neat little device that lets me play through headphones to a CD that can be set to repeat the same passage continuously so one can learn it or improvise with it. And since it's headphones only I can take it on the boat and not drive my wife nuts by playing the same thing over and over.

Otherwise my involvement with music has been in the production side. But to be able to play an instrument effortlessly (at least so it seems to an audience) would be a wonderful thing.

I learnt brass in my teens and played in a brass band. Initially on flugel horn, then cornet. When I left the band I bought a trumpet. However, when my eldest son got interested in music, and we organised lessons, he was so gifted he kept outpacing his teachers, and I felt rather inferior, as he left me way behind, and as work intruded more and more I sort of let it drop. I then taught myself keyboard, but again let it drop. I regret not keeping my music up, so I'm thinking of dusting the horn off, and firing up the keyboard. You guys have inspired me.
That son is now making his living as a screen composer in London, incidentally.

I wanted to be a rock-n-roll guitar player, but when I saw some of my friend's abilities at guitar, I knew I would a) never be that good b) didn't want to work at it as long and hard as it would have taken to BE that good. I was working at a music store at the time and decided to take control of the pro audio department. I took to it like a duck to water and became an accomplished audio tech/engineer.

Mahal, that was a beautiful performance. When at the boat in Ft. Pierce, I try not to miss the Tuesday night jazz jambs. Last week they had their 17 piece orchestra. Jazz & Blues Society

I like the sound of this thread. In all of our boat travels I always bring my guitar and mandolin so I can practice. I have yet to run into others and play music with them. Like others here, I played and toured and then teaching Middle School Science took over my life. Now that I retired I have a new guitar, picked up a carved German stand up Bass and have more time for my mandolin too. I do not picture the Bass going on our cruises, but definitely the other two will. Two years ago at Princess Louisa Inlet there was a rainbow over the dock and I played Somewhere over The Rainbow on the dock. It felt like church.

Music on the water, pretty hard to beat.

rwidman said:

Later, I switched to playing country music. Actual country music, not what's being passed off today as country music.

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Thank you! A bunch of drugstore cowboys posing as country as far as I'm concerned. Give me that old timey stuff any day. Whenever I rent a car I get the SiriusXM package so I can listen to "Outlaw Country".

Moonstruck, Thanks. That is a great organization there. I wouldn't miss it either, if I were near them.

THD, what a wonderful story about your son. Has your daughter auditioned for Roosevelt yet? That must be a very tough H.S. jazz band to make. I wish her good luck. We hear that name announced as winners at the Reno jazz fest all the time. If you haven't yet, watch the documentary "Chops" as I think it featured Roosevelt's jazz band.

I co-wrote a record we recorded last year and it's in the final stages of mixing and production. When we get the final cut we'll push for a tour opening for major acts. I hope this happens as we spent a lot of time studio wise and the band is made up of exceptional musicians. Coming from LA the connections are easier for us but the problem is getting to them. They are bombarded daily with many people from good, bad and plain ole ugly.

Our music is rock and it's instrumental. The guitarist has sold some of his previous music to ESPN, Discovery and VH1 channels as well as movies. That isn't the area we are looking for because there isn't any money for the musician in TV and movies. Playing live concerts gets the exposure and CD sales help spread it and make up a small amount of income.

Today selling music CD's is almost gone. People buy single songs or steal them and share them with friends.

While CDs are not as popular as they used to be they still have their uses. The one we are producing for this amazing 16-year old violinist will help her in all sorts of ways as she continues to build her career. But it will be on iTunes as well.

That's true. Online sales of digital and actual CD's will be around a while I think. Even vinyl is coming back.

I have friends selling on CD Baby and it isn't like the old days. Tower Records on Sunset Strip closed years ago. I lived a block from it. They had concerts in the parking lot at times when a new CD was offered. That always jammed the area with people and they would sell tens of thousands of their CD's a day.

Good Luck with that CD and congrats to the 16 yr old. That's a great resume bulder. What genre music is it?