h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hehehehe. I'm a drummer.Thought I'd tell you about one of the best musical moments of my life so far...It involves pipes.
My friend, Colin Blakey, was asked to compose a "piece" for the Edinburgh Mela a few years back.The line up included a Northern Ireland Pipe Band, A Pakistani Pipe Band, A Brass section and over 30 drummers not including the piping snares.It was AMAZING.Very well constructed....very moving....We used 4/4, 6/8 and 9/8 (I think) By the end, we were all Blubbing.I love pipes...ahhhhhh!

Do you wear earplugs?

My child is a first year trombonist and she's already having hearing problems.

I was very foolish not to wear earplugs from the beginning(playing for 8 years).I DO have tinnitus now which leads to other problems.We all invested in good quality earplugs from a company in England.They will help prevent further damage but only if used correctly.

I have tinnitus from various jobs...but I tend to avoid live performances of most kinds...the PA weasels seem to think and equalizer is a nail driver.

To be honest, I wear earplugs on the underground too.Clubs also.I look like a bit of a tw*t but I don't want to end up an old lady that says"EEEEhhhh?" all the time.

Good for you. I have had jobs where I had to wear both plugs and ear phones. Very loud factories. We had a 'gospel' band at the church one time that was so loud I couln't even walk in the auditorium. They hurt my ears with the doors closed and me backed off!
I have to wear plugs when I use my printer.
It's one of those old hotshoe continuous ribbon things. Shreaks!

Sounds like you learned a lesson too late.Did the factories always provide you with adequate protection?You could probably get compensation if they didnae.How old is your kid whose learning Trombone?Do you play anything?R I P Spike....sniff...sniff

Different Jones. Spike Jones, of whom I have a 4 CD boxed set at my elbow, has been dead for a awhile. Chuck was a cartoonist.

Oh, no, I was wearing ear protection from the early eighties on...
As a teen I mowed lawns without it and I went to clubs for awhile..
But I learned about plugs from the Army and when I was shooting on a regular basis.
I began to have tinnitus when I was working in a Guitar Amplifier factory and the owner kept tuning to a harmonic with the amp at ten and then subtracting until he got the level he wanted. For years, a certain harmonic set my teeth to grinding.

I own a couple of guitars and some cheap keyboards. I know just enough about playing them that people pay me not to.

Ouch!Amp factory!I hate feedback(well...no-one likes it).It always gives me such a fright!.Its a sure way to put me in a bad mood for the rest of the evening......SQUEAKKKKKK!AAAARGHH!
I also TRY and play guitar.Everything I play sounds the same and I strum in a very B O R I N G way.I frustrate myself.

The secret is the strings. Change them often and do not use the same gauge every time. Go from heavy to medium and back again. Use a variety of picks until you find one you like.
And sit and fiddle with it while you rare watching the tube or playing with the computer. Get some Buddy Holly and listen to the way he and the drummer interact...The first two Stones records and some of the early X have a good drummer, guitarist thing going.
Of course, there is always Blue Oyster Cult...

myself i play the ukelele... the frets are smaller than guitar, you can stash it in a backpack, and people say, "you play what?"

Skill, grace, poise...the ukelele, the instrument of the gentleman, the cultured lady...its desultry tones wafting away from the campfire sing-a-long to mingle with the seals on the offshore rocks and remind them of palmier days before they were reincarnated in this marvelous form, days when they sat in college dorm rooms studying for their physics finals with a pillow tied around their ears because the guys down the hall were forming a ukelele quartet and they needed the practice. The bass uke, the baritone uke, the tenor uke, and the toy uke, all strumming along in stuttering unison 'The Maine Stein Song' while they tried to match the arrangement of Rudy Vallee and his Collegians spinning, spinnning, spinnning against the drag of the gramophone needle in the corner...

exactly.

Soo, what do you play on the ukelele?

goodness...not much. i bought a 'learn to play' book so i could learn some chords, which i sort of did. i never did learn any uke classics (not even 'aloha oe'), and goodness knows i can't play anything by ear.

go to the mp3 site and look up a band called 'papel molido' and witness my fabulous shame.

most especially on the song 'timmy'.

Ach! So you actually got recorded?
Sorry, having problems with my Windrows media delayer right now. It keeps messing up my registry!

'recorded'...yeah... no, we mixed our songs on a 4-track, distributed some tapes, and a friend posted it to mp3. it makes me so happy to hear the music... we were so bad, but had so much fun. i think i have improved. ha!

so tell me about your kid's trombone. do you ever jam together? i always wanted to play saxophone in the school band (but not enough to actually join up).

No. She's not far enough along to improvise, she's louder than I usually play, and all I do is improvise.
I don't thing I've played a regular song for twenty years. I tried to learn 'Hotel California' once, but I liked what I did to it too much to learn to play it properly.