cyclingmatters

To those who were following my cycling and fitness training you may feel a little confused about seeing a blog about music making.  Sorry for that. But I am not really doing much regarding the cycling at the moment, and the fitness training is just bumbling along in the background whereas my music making is becoming much more dominant in my life.

I have always been surrounded by music since I was a small child.  My father played the piano and was quite good at it.  His favourite music for playing was written by Chopin.  He also played the violin in his younger days but I only ever heard him play a couple of times.   In his later years his style changed from classical to the more popular music of the 1960’s and 70’s, when he started playing the piano in pubs and clubs – when they used to have piano’s.   He moved onto playing the organ in the pubs and and developed his own particular style of playing which seemed to be very popular but was not for me.   He always had a piano though, and it is his ‘retirement’ piano that I have in my house that I play almost every day.

Mum used to listen to a lot of music on the radio.  Her taste was also for classical/serious music in the earlier days but then she found radio one and her musical taste changed.  She embraced modern music with her heart leaving the serious music behind her.  She did have piano lessons when she was living with her parents but I never remember her playing the piano at any time.

Both mum and dad passed away some years ago now.  There are lots of stories I coould write hear about their musical influence on me but I’ll leave that for now.

My eldest brother played the piano.  His style was, and still is, jazz.  As a teenager, after leaving school, he used to go fruit picking in Kent  during the summer.  With the money he earned be bought himself a trombone which he learned to play very quickly and got involved with playing with his friends in a small jazz band.  The following summer, again, from the fruits of a season in Kent, he bought me a trumpet.   Richard was highly influential in my music development.

My next brother, he also learned to play trumpet and later in his teen years would also buy himself a clarinet.  And as with the rest of us, he played the piano.

My third brother played the piano but didn’t get too proficient at it, not well enough to be able to play with others.  But I do remember that we would fight over getting to the piano first when we were going home from school.  It would come to literal blows as we were both desperate to be ‘on the piano.

After me came my eldest younger brother (no.5). He didn’t really get to play the piano, I suppose there wasn’t a slot he could ‘get on it’ with all the older brothers ‘fighting’ for time on it.  He did learn to play the guitar but purely for his own entertainment.

My next brother, number 6, he learned to play the cornet as a teenager, but that gave way to the guitar as he approached his 20’s.  He is now very proficient at the guitar and enjoys playing in clubs. He also sings when he plays – I cannot sing.  His style is folk, or traditional music.

I’ll end this blog now, but will continue my formulative years of music making in the next blog.