One of this first things I’d like to write about before exploring other topics is telling visitors a bit about myself. This will hopefully provide some context to my other writing, as well as help establish a foundation for this blog to build on.
I’m currently a full time stay at home father raising a three year old boy. He’s got a ton of energy and lots of opinions on what is acceptable and not acceptable. Generally the acceptable things include ice cream and playing outside. The days can be long and challenging, but I’m managing to the best of my ability. I’m not sure how I could ever do it without my wife though.
I’ve explored many of my interests in this time at home, for enjoyment or for potential employment later in life, including computer coding, computer graphics, writing, ceramics, and song writing. I thought about if one of these could potentially lead to a dedicated hobby, which could give my free time a more structured and meaningful feeling. I also like playing video games and watching movies, but that’s probably not the best thing to spend all of one’s free time on.
My current interest and the hobby I’ve been spending the most time on is activities related to music, such as lyric and music writing and learning about current music creation technology. I’ve done several music activities in my life, but previously I’ve never thought about doing it in any kind of professional or semi-professional capacity. I started by playing stand up bass in third grade orchestra. Throughout grade school I continued to play bass, sang in choir, and participated in a couple musicals. During college I had less free time and motivation to explore any musical pursuits. I also attended a highly populated university, so there was much more competition and more hurdles to joining any musical groups. My high school programs were quite good as far as performing music, but did not provide a strong music theory background. Even in high school, I didn’t see much future in playing music professionally. Not that I had the dedication and drive to go that far anyway. I also never had the chance to play in any smaller music groups or a band in high school.
In the last few years I started playing some new instruments when I’ve had time. I taught myself how to play piano, which previously was something I thought was too difficult for me to be good at. I’m currently an intermediate level player at best, but I’ve definitely made some solid progress over the last few years. It has certainly helped me to understand some elements of music theory and composition much better. I enjoyed playing string bass (I still play my bass once in awhile), but there’s something magical about being able to play a whole piece of music on the piano that one can’t experience on other instruments. There’s that feeling of being able to physically feel the sound surrounding you in the room that’s unique to the piano.
I’ve also been playing guitar off and on for several years now. I can play a fairly competent backup or rhythm guitar with some practice, but I never felt like guitar was “my thing”. I love the sound of the electric guitar, and I think it’s a fundamental part of many modern musical genres, so I’m glad I know the basics of how to play one. Maybe I’ll do some backup guitar work some day (or backup of the backup), but I don’t have any desire to be the lead guitarist of a band. One day I’d like to take lessons in piano or guitar to help refine my technique, which caught almost certainly use some refinement since I’m self taught.
That’s probably enough for now, and I have some other things to get back to. Next post I’d like to go over how I developed my current interest in writing music and where I might like to take it. Thanks for reading and have a great day!
