Moinmoin,
I'll throw my few cents in, as the (hi)stories of other people interested me, so maybe mine does for other people.
Born in '58, I was a little bit awake when the Beatles and Stones got airplay in Germany. Radio and even TV seemed to have a lot of time and even were wishing to experiment. You could see some bands with real hits as well as some strange cats like the Monks. And every piece of music was played until its end, no fade out of "Whole lotta Love" when the interesting things start to happen!
Glorious times...
I got the chance to learn cello age 11 and took it. Unfortunately my teachers were very ambitious as players and went to bigger cities in order to make their own carreer. After three years with three teachers I gave up in order to concentrate on swimmig and modern pentathlon. There also must have been something like school, but that seemed somewhat en passant.
Being 16, I saw - again in German TV - a band playing unbelieveble stuff, the first Mahavishnu Orchestra. This changed things. Forever. I wanted exactly that. Fortunately late 70s offered the chance to have pubs and clubs, where this kind of music was played. You could find me there.
I fell in love with the Rhodes-sound, went working at the buildings during several school holidays until I could afford one. I did not have any musical preparation for playing it and unfortunately the musicians I listened to were (and are) of f***ing high musicality and virtuosity. So I switched between euphoria and frustration for a long time.
Nevertheless I managed to play in a band heavily influenced by 70s Jazz-Rock, our first gig was November 17th, 1976 and a big success in our small town.
I tried to compensate for my technical imperfection (<- caution: heavy understatement!) with practicing, practicing, and practicing, and finally reached a state I could live with. Hearing and playing this kind of music with "strange" harmonies and "odd" time signatures lead me to theory, what made me able to talk to and learn from professional musicians.
After school and what we in Germany used to call "Zivildienst" (army was a must for boys then; this was the alternative, doing social work after Your conscience was testesd by people working for the ministry of defence...) I went to study electrical engineering, but never stopped to make music. I always was interested in technical stuff, it still helps me a lot to know what e.g. resonance means not only in music, but in general.
The single aspects of synthesizing a sound from several building blocks have physical backgrounds forming musical results. This at least has always been my approach and maybe separates me from many other keyboard, even synthesizer palyers. I never was satisfied with playing the keys only or with factory sounds: "knobs" were of the same or even more importance for me. It helped to have a simple, monophonic synthesizer, in my case the Transcendent 2000, designed by Tim Orr of EMS fame. It was available as kit, so I could afford it, even built it myself and of course modified it later.
Playing Rhodes and my trusted Transcendent 2000 in a band with a very bad bass player, listening to Bands like Brand X and Herbie Hancock's Headhunters (Percy Jones and Paul Jackson are still my favourite bassists on fretless/fretted electric bass), I started an existence as a good, often gigging amateur / sometimes payed for bass player, that still lasts. Keyboards were there for theory and occasional playing, just for myself, not in public. I took double bass lessons for three years, which still helps me a lot, although I only once played it in public.
Getting older, my self-confidence (as musician as well as human being) grew and enabled me to open my ears and mind for nearly any kind of music. Although not skilled even as a listener for classical music, I tried it and do like especially Bach and Mahler
(OK, both not "Wiener Klassik", but baroque resp. late romatics, but You know, what I mean). Although playing it for 30+ years, I started electric bass lessons 3 years ago and will continue to do so. I recently started to play Capuzzi's and some of Dragonetti's concerts on electric bass (with and without frets).
My return to keyboards is described in the thread entitled "What Lead You to DSI Synths, and Where Did You Come From?". Today I am happy to play organ, piano, and synthesizer with good pros: visit
http://www.final-virus.de/. Unfortunately no new stuff there, but close to come. We play more than we are online
Peter BTW is my bass teacher.
As stated in the other thread I am not that interested in fast keyboard playing but in sounds and athmosphere. Of course I do provide harmonic background in general and at special occasions (bass shines so much with carefully selected pads behind it), but I really like the approach of Bugge Wesseltoft's new concept of jazz: "walking onstage with nothing else but an electric groove". My solos use to be sound and rhythm more than fast lines.
My profession is still that of an engineer, I am quite successful and happy with it, but playing with pros starts drawing me to another direction. Exciting times ahead...
Martin (obbviously a lucky guy, thanks to life in general an music in special)
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