Back to the real world

[InstrEd]

4 hours ago, kennywtelejazz said:

my first time listening to him and I think he sounds pretty good ..Whew his playing  seems pretty intense .

He needs Dave's Grand Piano to play on cause he was shaking that little Digital Piano  to the Max

[bitflipper]

5 hours ago, kennywtelejazz said:

...the only way I could keep up with him is if I drank a whole pot of coffee...

I have an old VHS tape of me playing this piano, c. 1980. Fingers literally a blur, so frickin' fast! Zero finesse, zero originality, zero emotion. But very, very fast. I know a few folks still stuck in that mode. Mostly guitar players.

My bandmates haven't noticed yet, but my secret weapon at gigs is Iced Starbucks Mochas. Without them I run the risk of forgetting what song we're playing, during my solo.

[craigb]

"What is that weird ball-like object???"

    ~ Some Flatard probably.

?

(Yes, I now want one!)

[craigb]

2 hours ago, Tim Smith said:

Whew. I was beginning to worry there for a minute. That house looked way too neat for a musician.

Well, I'm surprised no one has mentioned that his lamp shade is off-kilter... ?

[Bapu]

13 minutes ago, craigb said:

Well, I'm surprised no one has mentioned that his lamp shade is off-kilter... ?

It's the room that's off kilter. The lampshade is fine.

[bitflipper]

Now that you mention it, the whole room is indeed off plumb. However, I'm pretty sure it was the photographer that was listing, because the piano's got wheels and would have ended up in the kitchen.

 

[57Gregy]

I love a piano. Growing up, whenever we would visit the grandparents, I got to play my mom's Hamilton piano. She had lessons on it in the 1940s.

When I was working in Dallas, TX, one of my apartment complex accounts had a baby grand in their lobby. Whenever I arrived there and they were at lunch or on the property, I would play it. I began to ensure that I got there at lunch so I could play it.
The customer noticed and asked me how it was; I mentioned that it needed tuning and the next time I went there, he had a tuner in there working on it. Pretty cool.

My roommate has a Baldwin Acrosonic (the exact model my bass player had when we all shared a house in Goleta, CA in the early 1980s). I used to play it all the time when she worked, but she's retired now and never goes anywhere, so I can't play it. I'm pretty sure she doesn't want to hear me banging on it and warbling unintelligible lyrics while she's trying to watch Diners, Drive-ins and Dives ?

My mom's piano:

 

[Bapu]

The ex and I had a KAWAI 6' Baby Grand.

Now The Lovely Lady and I have a small upright but not in the studio and it never got tuned when we moved here 12 years ago and it's very rarely played and certainly not by me.

[RobertWS]

On 2/24/2022 at 10:26 AM, Tim Smith said:

Whew. I was beginning to worry there for a minute. That house looked way too neat for a musician.

I'm sure an updated photo would have shoes, clothes on the floor, empty beer cans and pizza boxes strewn about, possibly a tipped over bong....and of course a stranger passed out on that lovely sofa.

[craigb]

9 hours ago, RobertWS said:

I'm sure an updated photo would have shoes, clothes on the floor, empty beer cans and pizza boxes strewn about, possibly a tipped over bong....and of course a stranger passed out on that lovely sofa.

So do you consider every bass player a stranger? ?

(Probably not a bad idea! ?)

[bitflipper]

20 hours ago, 57Gregy said:

I love a piano. Growing up, whenever we would visit the grandparents, I got to play my mom's Hamilton piano. She had lessons on it in the 1940s.

When I was working in Dallas, TX, one of my apartment complex accounts had a baby grand in their lobby. Whenever I arrived there and they were at lunch or on the property, I would play it. I began to ensure that I got there at lunch so I could play it.
The customer noticed and asked me how it was; I mentioned that it needed tuning and the next time I went there, he had a tuner in there working on it. Pretty cool.

My roommate has a Baldwin Acrosonic (the exact model my bass player had when we all shared a house in Goleta, CA in the early 1980s). I used to play it all the time when she worked, but she's retired now and never goes anywhere, so I can't play it. I'm pretty sure she doesn't want to hear me banging on it and warbling unintelligible lyrics while she's trying to watch Diners, Drive-ins and Dives ?

My mom's piano:

 

Wow. That looks exactly like my grandmother's piano. I used to love the tone it produced. 

My grandparents were Dust Bowl refugees in the 30's. Before moving out West to homestead in Montana, they sold or gave away everything they owned, which wasn't much . Everything but that piano. Grandma wouldn't part with it. They travelled on a flatcar, as they couldn't even afford a seat on the train. I wouldn't be surprised if they had jam sessions on that flatbed to pass the time.

They did well in Montana, becoming successful cattle ranchers before eventually moving to the Idaho panhandle shortly before I met them. Grandpa played guitar and mandolin. His band played Saturday nights at the Grange hall, a lively event that carried on until daybreak. It's part of the reason I wanted to join a band in my teens. Well, that and to impress girls.

[craigb]

10 minutes ago, bitflipper said:

Wow. That looks exactly like my grandmother's piano. I used to love the tone it produced. 

*Wonders if Gregy and Dave might be long-lost cousins...* ?

?

[InstrEd]

1 hour ago, bitflipper said:

Well, that and to impress girls.

Did that work?  Usually it was the guitar players that got the girls

[Bapu]

3 minutes ago, InstrEd said:

Did that work?  Usually it was the guitar players that got the girls

I always thought it was the (male) singers... what do I know I'm a bass player, all we get is the drummers couch and girlfriend.

[paulo]

4 hours ago, bitflipper said:

Well, that and to impress girls.

In my case I only got into the band because my girlfriend put my name forward, so that was a possibility that honestly never occurred to me until the first ever gig when I was mobbed afterwards by quite a few  young ladies, which I promise you is absolutely true....

Unfortunately, they were all about 14, so it didn't really count....

It never happened again. 

Edited February 26, 2022 by paulo

[bitflipper]

When I was 15 my band played our first out-of-town gig. It was only 30 miles away but felt like the start of a world tour.

After the gig, a group of hot girls - we're talking cheerleader-grade hot girls - brought a bottle of whiskey and hung out with us. Me, the nerd who actually liked Algebra class and could type 80 words a minute, being approached by girls who wouldn't have given me the time of day at my high school. I decided right then that a) this was the life for me and b) whiskey tastes like diesel oil. 

[RobertWS]

11 minutes ago, bitflipper said:

b) whiskey tastes like diesel oil. 

Not the really, really good stuff....so I've been told.

[Byron Dickens]

I'm just wondering how you know what diesel oil tastes like.

[bitflipper]

13 minutes ago, bdickens said:

I'm just wondering how you know what diesel oil tastes like.

There are some things we just don't talk about. Like Moroccan smuggling techniques.

[kennywtelejazz]

5 hours ago, bitflipper said:

There are some things we just don't talk about. Like Moroccan smuggling techniques.

Dave ! you certainly got my full attention with that tidbit .

I googled Moroccan smuggling techniques. Now I feel cheated and teased by my thorough lack of knowledge of how things really work in the world .

Kenny