not far off the mainway

<

today was pretty boring. this entire weekend, really. i just wanted to sleep through all of it. and get some work done, but still. i pretty much just laid in bed and watched minecraft and resident evil vids for 90% of it... 

i want to return to talking about instruments. 

i think i've talked about them vaguely before when i first started this blog, but i've been thinking about them a lot again.

the first instrument i learned was piano, and i really did enjoy it. i tend to be really fidgety irl, so messing with keys of any sort was always soothing. my favorite song to play was satie's gymnopédie no. 1, even though i practiced on a keyboard without a sustain pedal. maybe it's a basic choice, but working with chords such as those is a really interesting process, it feels so complex but definitely not at the same time... my favorite classical piano song to currently listen to is chopin's etude op. 10 no. 3, though. it's a sweet farewell. 

as for why i stopped, over time i began to hate going to lessons and having recitals (the one thing i hated about doing music, every single time) and just wasn't as interested in it anymore, and so i stopped after three years. after quitting band, though, i'm tempted to return to it again, just for myself. i found out that tohoshinki has some official piano books of their own. a bit expensive, but what else would you expect, right? i'm really curious................. (alexandra stréliski has some as well, and i've always been interested in those. her use of both sustain and soft pedal (or perhaps sostenuto?) is pleasing to the brain, eep.)

and then there's the bass clarinet, something i will always love deeply. and before anyone asks or says it, IT IS NOT A SAXOPHONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! A SAXOPHONE IS PRIMARILY COMPOSED OF BRASS, WHILE CLARINETS ARE MADE OF WOOD AND OCCASIONALLY RUBBER OR PLASTIC. this is seriously important. of the most critical nature. promise me you will never mix up a bass clarinet and a saxophone. pinky promise.

getting into bass clarinet was sorta unexpected for me. originally i just wanted to play the "basic" clarinet since my sister did, but then my band teacher in middle school pointed out that the school had a singular bass clarinet that no one used, and so i opted for it out of curiosity................ and for the fact that bass instruments usually have easier parts. not to say that we aren't important, cuz we are, but they're definitely easier to follow along with and execute well.

i really had a lot of fun with that too, though. i prefer its sound over the "basic" clarinet, now; it's more robust, you can feel it in your bones, and it really stands out in an ensemble. you can also hear it in a lot of older shows and movies, when something suspicious or suspenseful happens.

i wanted to continue with that as well, but i had to take at least a year off from band so i wouldn't have to take zero period. i was going to return in junior year, but the band director left at the end of my year since he got a job closer to family, and. well. (but then i became a ta which was also really fun, so i guess it ultimately pans out.)

i sort of want to return to that, but it's a super expensive instrument, lolz. and that doesn't even cover sheet music or reeds, or general upkeep. 

and then the concertina. i don't even have a specific story behind this, i just like how it sounds in that one rendition of drunken sailor. or perhaps i could try an accordion, if i wanted to go big. 

and then guitar? maybe? or drums? tbh i'm just curious what they're like, since the instruments i'm familiar  with are played through keys and they... aren't. my brain has a hard time wrapping around them, lolz. but that is why i want to learn *_* somewhat. probs just for like 2 minutes.

anyway. i didn't expect myself to ramble this much about instruments, buuuut what about you guys? what instruments do you guys play, or want to? or would want to? 

sotd: absinthe party at the fly honey warehouse by minus the bear