Having looked for and been given lots of good help in the choosing of a mandolin with regards to tonewoods used,and how I was pointed in the direction of so many lovely instruments I was reminded of how addictive instruments can be. How beautiful some are and the lengths to which we sometimes go to get them.
A friend told me of a conversation that took place between him and another concertina player, who was giving the him a lesson. Went like this. Pupil just sitting down for class-
" a mate of mine is selling a Bb flat Jeffries"
Teacher -"nice is it". Pupil "yeah"
Time passes in lesson.
Teacher- "did you play it" Pupil - "yeah". Teacher "nice is it" (again)
End of class, pupil and teacher in hallway as pupil prepares to leave.
Teacher " is it really nice" Pupil " yeah, lovely " Teacher " I couldn't tell_( his wife's name).
And that sums it up. Little seed sown, teacher mulling over it during lesson. Mental arithmetic, bank account being examined in head. Excuses being prepared.Final hurdle-wife. Solution- buy it and deal with grief later.
Another friend bought yet another set of pipes and there followed an almost surreal conversation as to how he could "smuggle" a set of pipes in to the house !! A sort of " do you not think she will notice another set of pipes? Like they're not exactly small. You can't hide them in the back of the wardrobe. When will you bring them in, when she's asleep? When will you play them?" And a 20/20 hindsight examination of where the head was when the first sign of madness took place- the placing of a deposit. And the usual *What possessed me* type of question
**how he could "smuggle" a set of pipes in to the house**
Now that sounds vaguely familiar, I just by passed the husbeast & got a new fiddle but at the back of my mind is taking up the pipes again without him going nuts at the cost of having my dads set pampered and re-bagged.
"Mental arithmetic, bank account being examined in head. Excuses being prepared.Final hurdle-wife. Solution- buy it and deal with grief later."
It's like you can see inside my head. Spooky.
Ha ha yeah I'm always at it. We are building at the moment and I should be spending all my money on the house but I'm still activly seeking a new bow, guitar and a new mandolin.... I'm sick..... I need help
Well, I'll tell ya, over the years it's always the instruments I passed on buying that I've regretted. Never have I regretted buying one.
Heck, if, later, you find that an instrument doesn't fit your needs you can always sell it, often at a profit.
I play pipes, and nearly always they increase in value the longer you own them. Not like an automobile that depreciates at an alarming rate over the course of ownership.
I've also deeply regretted selling instruments I've owned.
"Oh, if I still had the "X" I used to have", I think from time to time.
I could kick myself, the great instruments I've passed on buying, or sold.
Sigh! ~ What bank account? I can but look on and sigh, and take pleasure in the acquisition of others... Sigh! It's new beginnings, and the rush folks get off of a new instrument is an intoxication that spreads like some smiles and hiccups... If I had the fortunes of Bill Gates I'd spend them in part repeating that opportunity for others, especially where such acquisition is rarist ~ I would include supporting the local musicians in passing on their craft too...
I love that story CP, well I remember a few times when my wife has asked, stumbling cross something in a corner, "Where did that case come from?"
"Uh, well, I've always had that!" I'm surprised she didn't take notice when the thing within was without being abused... I guess the music distracted her, or the noise...
Observe it all. Use it all. Keep your eyes and ears open and learn from everything you can. Remember that it’s just as important to discover what doesn’t work for you as what does.
And you’re beginning this long, wonderful, terrible, agonizing and ecstatic, draining and fulfilling process. Now your learning has just begun.
And may the elusive gods of inspiration at least occasionally reach down and touch you.
Lovely thread. I too recognise the guilt of "how can I justify this...and I so badly want to buy it" or even, "I wonder how much I could get for two of my children?". Only kidding. Reminds me of that bit in Family Guy where the father is driving home with his son, and he's saying "Now you're going to have to get ready to be the man of the house, because when your mum finds out what I've just done, she's going to kill me".
I'm sure it afflicts all hobbies / passions. When I was about 20 and used to read the hi-fi mags, there was this great letter from someone who bought an expensive cartridge / stylus. He describes how he brought it home and presented it in its little velvet jewel-box to his wife as "something special I've bought" and how she opened it, paused for a second, and then threw it across the room.
yeh that's me too Mr piano I'm "allowed" as long as i get creative and don't touch the house n family stuff which is fair enough.
Ive got one running this afto
No but seriously if you want it bad enough you manage to put some by here n there,after the kids are sorted the bills,the family holiday, xbox live, internet,cars etc and other so called FEKIN essentials .
Oh CP, do I not recognise that feeling or what? It's like a hole inside your chest, almost an ache. For me the guilt that Mark Harmer describes, maybe, perhaps is the result of a Catholic upbringing - trouble is I don't feel particularly virtuous having resisted! (love the anecdote). Ach, financial poverty is a terrible thing. Hope it comes home for you J.D.
Nice, is it? I spent my last $300 in the whole world, and went without regular food for ten days in 1973 for the little beat-up Martin guitar I play (and love) to this day. Rationalization rules. No regrets.
Furthermore, after I handed over all my worldly cash, my friend says "Now the story can be told.." It turns out that he was working in a cowboy hat factory in Calgary a decade earlier, and there were two old geezers, one who had aguitar and the other who had a son who wanted to learn guitar. The debate was whether the price would be five dollars or a case of beer.
One day my friend asked what kind of guitar it was. "I dunno... a Marlin or Marvin or something like that" "Tell ya what" says me mate "I"ll give you five dollars AND a case of beer". For a 1954 Martin 0-18. Which he'd just sold to me for my last $300 in the world. Nice, though. And NO regrets.
Ach, financial poverty is a terrible thing."
Mind that is over egging the pudding a tad in my case heh,we do ok compared to most round our neck of the woods but i know what you mean.
I use a "distributed instrument" strategy for fiddles. Say you own eight fiddles -- OK, say 12 -- a bunch of beaters and maybe three or four really good ones. You don't want to sell the beaters because
1) you can't get back what you paid for them, and
2) they come in handy for traveling, outdoor gigs in the rain, and lending to students.
So you've got 12 fiddle cases to worry about. Never, never put them all in the same place at the same time. Make sure they're scattered around the house, closets, different rooms, etc., so at any given moment only two or three can be seen together.
Do you have difficulty in remembering where you have 'em hid? Do you have craving's for 'just one more'? One is too many and two is not enough?
LOL, love it .
I tried that, John, but I couldn't get past the "instru..."without sneezing.
Yes, I lose track of them from time to time, and even forget one or two. Then when I find 'em again I'm real happy -- but never satisfied, if you know what I mean
I understand exactly - I' m as bad as Jimbu - fiddles in 3 different rooms and one on loan - not to mention the mandolin, guitars, flutes, clarinet, oboe, keyboard, whistles, saxes...... But there are three musicians and a sound engineer in this house - I really feel sorry for my neighbours sometimes!!
I get given most of my instruments as I can never afford my own..... poor studentness is horrible..... both my flutes, two of my whistles, my bodhran and both my guitars were given to me by family or friends! But I'm saving up for a fiddle so I will have the satisfaction of buying an instrument soon!
Well, I suppose I'm the odd man out--I don't tend to want more instruments--at least not when I'm in a good space, musically. There have certainly been fits of lust (and fits of purchasing) at various stages, but ultimately, my one flute (and one guitar) are completely satisfying to me and sufficient. All the various other instruments I've had over the years I've sold, and without regret. At least for me, the instrument lust kicks in when I reach a musical plateau and imagine new toys are the answer. However, the limitations are invariably mine, not the instrument's.
I am reading along, chuckling, and then I begin to count up the instruments tucked away in my own small house. Three fiddles (and a new one planned next month), a viola, three bohdrons, three guitars, two whistles, part of a tuba...
'This will do till I can afford something better" seems to be the mantra.
Instruments and all they bring
Instruments and all they bring
Having looked for and been given lots of good help in the choosing of a mandolin with regards to tonewoods used,and how I was pointed in the direction of so many lovely instruments I was reminded of how addictive instruments can be. How beautiful some are and the lengths to which we sometimes go to get them.
A friend told me of a conversation that took place between him and another concertina player, who was giving the him a lesson. Went like this. Pupil just sitting down for class-
" a mate of mine is selling a Bb flat Jeffries"
Teacher -"nice is it". Pupil "yeah"
Time passes in lesson.
Teacher- "did you play it" Pupil - "yeah". Teacher "nice is it" (again)
End of class, pupil and teacher in hallway as pupil prepares to leave.
Teacher " is it really nice" Pupil " yeah, lovely " Teacher " I couldn't tell_( his wife's name).
And that sums it up. Little seed sown, teacher mulling over it during lesson. Mental arithmetic, bank account being examined in head. Excuses being prepared.Final hurdle-wife. Solution- buy it and deal with grief later.
Another friend bought yet another set of pipes and there followed an almost surreal conversation as to how he could "smuggle" a set of pipes in to the house !! A sort of " do you not think she will notice another set of pipes? Like they're not exactly small. You can't hide them in the back of the wardrobe. When will you bring them in, when she's asleep? When will you play them?" And a 20/20 hindsight examination of where the head was when the first sign of madness took place- the placing of a deposit. And the usual *What possessed me* type of question
# Posted on July 19th 2008 by concertinaplayer
Re: Instruments and all they bring
**how he could "smuggle" a set of pipes in to the house**
Now that sounds vaguely familiar, I just by passed the husbeast & got a new fiddle but at the back of my mind is taking up the pipes again without him going nuts at the cost of having my dads set pampered and re-bagged.
Like the rest of us women, I shalt find a way !
# Posted on July 19th 2008 by Wabbit
Re: Instruments and all they bring
"Mental arithmetic, bank account being examined in head. Excuses being prepared.Final hurdle-wife. Solution- buy it and deal with grief later."
It's like you can see inside my head. Spooky.
# Posted on July 19th 2008 by Bren
Re: Instruments and all they bring
Ha ha yeah I'm always at it. We are building at the moment and I should be spending all my money on the house but I'm still activly seeking a new bow, guitar and a new mandolin.... I'm sick..... I need help
# Posted on July 19th 2008 by session savage
Re: Instruments and all they bring
Well, I'll tell ya, over the years it's always the instruments I passed on buying that I've regretted. Never have I regretted buying one.
Heck, if, later, you find that an instrument doesn't fit your needs you can always sell it, often at a profit.
I play pipes, and nearly always they increase in value the longer you own them. Not like an automobile that depreciates at an alarming rate over the course of ownership.
I've also deeply regretted selling instruments I've owned.
"Oh, if I still had the "X" I used to have", I think from time to time.
I could kick myself, the great instruments I've passed on buying, or sold.
# Posted on July 19th 2008 by Richard D Cook
Re: Instruments and all they bring
Sigh! ~ What bank account? I can but look on and sigh, and take pleasure in the acquisition of others... Sigh!
It's new beginnings, and the rush folks get off of a new instrument is an intoxication that spreads like some smiles and hiccups... If I had the fortunes of Bill Gates I'd spend them in part repeating that opportunity for others, especially where such acquisition is rarist ~ I would include supporting the local musicians in passing on their craft too...
I love that story CP, well I remember a few times when my wife has asked, stumbling cross something in a corner, "Where did that case come from?"
"Uh, well, I've always had that!" I'm surprised she didn't take notice when the thing within was without being abused... I guess the music distracted her, or the noise...
# Posted on July 19th 2008 by ceolachan
We do have a kind of agreement ~ anything 'new' requires I sell something 'old'...
# Posted on July 19th 2008 by ceolachan
Re: Instruments and all they bring
Observe it all. Use it all. Keep your eyes and ears open and learn from everything you can. Remember that it’s just as important to discover what doesn’t work for you as what does.
And you’re beginning this long, wonderful, terrible, agonizing and ecstatic, draining and fulfilling process. Now your learning has just begun.
And may the elusive gods of inspiration at least occasionally reach down and touch you.
Good life, and good luck.
# Posted on July 19th 2008 by Bodhi
Re: Instruments and all they bring
Guilty as charged.
(flutes instead of concertinas)
# Posted on July 19th 2008 by InSearchofCraic
Re: Instruments and all they bring
With two kids in college, I won't be buying any new instruments for a long, long time.
# Posted on July 19th 2008 by Greg the Piano Tuner
Re: Instruments and all they bring
Lovely thread. I too recognise the guilt of "how can I justify this...and I so badly want to buy it" or even, "I wonder how much I could get for two of my children?". Only kidding. Reminds me of that bit in Family Guy where the father is driving home with his son, and he's saying "Now you're going to have to get ready to be the man of the house, because when your mum finds out what I've just done, she's going to kill me".
I'm sure it afflicts all hobbies / passions. When I was about 20 and used to read the hi-fi mags, there was this great letter from someone who bought an expensive cartridge / stylus. He describes how he brought it home and presented it in its little velvet jewel-box to his wife as "something special I've bought" and how she opened it, paused for a second, and then threw it across the room.
# Posted on July 19th 2008 by Mark Harmer
Re: Instruments and all they bring
yeh that's me too Mr piano I'm "allowed" as long as i get creative and don't touch the house n family stuff which is fair enough.
.
Ive got one running this afto
No but seriously if you want it bad enough you manage to put some by here n there,after the kids are sorted the bills,the family holiday, xbox live, internet,cars etc and other so called FEKIN essentials
# Posted on July 19th 2008 by J.D
Re: Instruments and all they bring
Oh CP, do I not recognise that feeling or what? It's like a hole inside your chest, almost an ache. For me the guilt that Mark Harmer describes, maybe, perhaps is the result of a Catholic upbringing - trouble is I don't feel particularly virtuous having resisted! (love the anecdote). Ach, financial poverty is a terrible thing. Hope it comes home for you J.D.
# Posted on July 19th 2008 by john knoss
Re: Instruments and all they bring
Nice, is it? I spent my last $300 in the whole world, and went without regular food for ten days in 1973 for the little beat-up Martin guitar I play (and love) to this day. Rationalization rules. No regrets.
# Posted on July 19th 2008 by drone
Re: Instruments and all they bring
Furthermore, after I handed over all my worldly cash, my friend says "Now the story can be told.." It turns out that he was working in a cowboy hat factory in Calgary a decade earlier, and there were two old geezers, one who had aguitar and the other who had a son who wanted to learn guitar. The debate was whether the price would be five dollars or a case of beer.
One day my friend asked what kind of guitar it was. "I dunno... a Marlin or Marvin or something like that" "Tell ya what" says me mate "I"ll give you five dollars AND a case of beer". For a 1954 Martin 0-18. Which he'd just sold to me for my last $300 in the world. Nice, though. And NO regrets.
# Posted on July 19th 2008 by drone
Re: Instruments and all they bring
Ach, financial poverty is a terrible thing."
Mind that is over egging the pudding a tad in my case heh,we do ok compared to most round our neck of the woods but i know what you mean.
# Posted on July 19th 2008 by J.D
Re: Instruments and all they bring
I use a "distributed instrument" strategy for fiddles. Say you own eight fiddles -- OK, say 12 -- a bunch of beaters and maybe three or four really good ones. You don't want to sell the beaters because
1) you can't get back what you paid for them, and
2) they come in handy for traveling, outdoor gigs in the rain, and lending to students.
So you've got 12 fiddle cases to worry about. Never, never put them all in the same place at the same time. Make sure they're scattered around the house, closets, different rooms, etc., so at any given moment only two or three can be seen together.
Jim
# Posted on July 19th 2008 by Jmbu
Re: Instruments and all they bring
Now then Jim, repeat after me,
My name is ..... and I'm an instrumentaholic.
Do you have difficulty in remembering where you have 'em hid? Do you have craving's for 'just one more'? One is too many and two is not enough?
LOL, love it .
# Posted on July 20th 2008 by john knoss
Re: Instruments and all they bring
I tried that, John, but I couldn't get past the "instru..."without sneezing.
Yes, I lose track of them from time to time, and even forget one or two. Then when I find 'em again I'm real happy -- but never satisfied, if you know what I mean
# Posted on July 20th 2008 by Jmbu
Re: Instruments and all they bring
I understand exactly - I' m as bad as Jimbu - fiddles in 3 different rooms and one on loan - not to mention the mandolin, guitars, flutes, clarinet, oboe, keyboard, whistles, saxes...... But there are three musicians and a sound engineer in this house - I really feel sorry for my neighbours sometimes!!
# Posted on July 20th 2008 by Tarrantella
Re: Instruments and all they bring
I get given most of my instruments as I can never afford my own..... poor studentness is horrible..... both my flutes, two of my whistles, my bodhran and both my guitars were given to me by family or friends! But I'm saving up for a fiddle so I will have the satisfaction of buying an instrument soon!
# Posted on July 20th 2008 by An Kammneves
Re: Instruments and all they bring
Well, I suppose I'm the odd man out--I don't tend to want more instruments--at least not when I'm in a good space, musically. There have certainly been fits of lust (and fits of purchasing) at various stages, but ultimately, my one flute (and one guitar) are completely satisfying to me and sufficient. All the various other instruments I've had over the years I've sold, and without regret. At least for me, the instrument lust kicks in when I reach a musical plateau and imagine new toys are the answer. However, the limitations are invariably mine, not the instrument's.
# Posted on July 21st 2008 by Tintin
Oh no
I am reading along, chuckling, and then I begin to count up the instruments tucked away in my own small house. Three fiddles (and a new one planned next month), a viola, three bohdrons, three guitars, two whistles, part of a tuba...
'This will do till I can afford something better" seems to be the mantra.
# Posted on July 22nd 2008 by tracywag
Forgot the mandolin, bass drum, flute, piano, keyboard, tamborines and a few dozen kazoos. No wonder I have no storage.
# Posted on July 22nd 2008 by tracywag