What Are You Like Outside Of The Music World, Ideas/suggestions/experiences Options

[Yorkie]

I'm sure all of you have experienced this one time or other.
People outside the music world or don't know me personally automatically think im "as thick as 2 short planks",don't believe im a musician or play one finger at a time etc until i have to prove to them what im like.I usually give them a massive shock to their system.At work the other day my boss heard a disk of my work and his eyes popped out when i told him it was my own work ! The same thing happened at school 20 years ago ( now 37 !) The teacher turned round and said " oh, well -if you're grade 5 you can play this !".I'd never seen the music before and played it inch-perfect and the teachers expression made it very satisfying.
Has anyone else experienced this ? and how do you get around it ?

[Oddball]

So you mean when people just assume because you're a person that can't do this or that, say maths, or write in good English, that you'd be bad at music too, and once you prove them wrong they are shocked?

Yeah, I get that sometimes (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) It's a good feeling.

[Jen W]

So you mean when people just assume because you're a person that can't do this or that, say maths, or write in good English, that you'd be bad at music too, and once you prove them wrong they are shocked?

Yeah, I get that (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) It's a good feeling.

Hehe - I'm afraid it's the other way around with me! I mean, when I say I can play the piano, they expect me to be an amateur performer or something, not a struggling student - this doesn't make me feel inclined to play anything to anyone as I can imagine mutterings of "oh, is that all??".....even members of my own family, who know the history of my music making, expect me to produce pieces of a high standard, whereas all I can do is fumble around and mumble apologetically for my lack of skill.....oh well.... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/unsure.gif)

[Roger]

I'm sure all of you have experienced this one time or other.
People outside the music world or don't know me personally automatically think im "as thick as 2 short planks",don't believe im a musician or play one finger at a time etc until i have to prove to them what im like.I usually give them a massive shock to their system.At work the other day my boss heard a disk of my work and his eyes popped out when i told him it was my own work ! The same thing happened at school 20 years ago ( now 37 !) The teacher turned round and said " oh, well -if you're grade 5 you can play this !".I'd never seen the music before and played it inch-perfect and the teachers expression made it very satisfying.
Has anyone else experienced this ? and how do you get around it ?

I don't wish to be unkind but perhaps you should brush up, a little, on your English grammar and spelling.

If you speak the way you've written your post then maybe that just could be why people think you're as 'thick as two short planks'

[Yorkie]

I'm sure all of you have experienced this one time or other.
People outside the music world or don't know me personally automatically think im "as thick as 2 short planks",don't believe im a musician or play one finger at a time etc until i have to prove to them what im like.I usually give them a massive shock to their system.At work the other day my boss heard a disk of my work and his eyes popped out when i told him it was my own work ! The same thing happened at school 20 years ago ( now 37 !) The teacher turned round and said " oh, well -if you're grade 5 you can play this !".I'd never seen the music before and played it inch-perfect and the teachers expression made it very satisfying.
Has anyone else experienced this ? and how do you get around it ?

I don't wish to be unkind but perhaps you should brush up, a little, on your English grammar and spelling.

If you speak the way you've written your post then maybe that just could be why people think you're as 'thick as two short planks'

well i know that-it had been a long day !

[Saxophonist]

I'm sure all of you have experienced this one time or other.
People outside the music world or don't know me personally automatically think im "as thick as 2 short planks",don't believe im a musician or play one finger at a time etc until i have to prove to them what im like.I usually give them a massive shock to their system.At work the other day my boss heard a disk of my work and his eyes popped out when i told him it was my own work ! The same thing happened at school 20 years ago ( now 37 !) The teacher turned round and said " oh, well -if you're grade 5 you can play this !".I'd never seen the music before and played it inch-perfect and the teachers expression made it very satisfying.
Has anyone else experienced this ? and how do you get around it ?

I don't wish to be unkind but perhaps you should brush up, a little, on your English grammar and spelling.

If you speak the way you've written your post then maybe that just could be why people think you're as 'thick as two short planks'

Thats a bit harsh dont you think

[melody_maker]

I hate it when people who don't know me but know i can play the piano assume that that's all I do, that I just study it all the time and am totally obsessed. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/mad.gif)

[bohemian]

People assume I am one of two people:
Either a musical genius who plays violin day and night, and should really be famous by now. They tend not to have heard me play.
Or a failed musician who puts way too much time into something a bit pointless considering how it will never be a talent for me.
No-one ever sees me as just some weirdo kid with too much free time, choosing to fill it with music.

[jonscott14]

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)

So you mean when people just assume because you're a person that can't do this or that, say maths, or write in good English, that you'd be bad at music too, and once you prove them wrong they are shocked?

Yeah, I get that sometimes (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) It's a good feeling.

Me too, but then the people who say that are easily impressed, just play something in a fast tempo - always gets them! - no need to play anything that requiers music skill and subtlety (they are too thick for that) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[poppys]

I can remember at school we had a new music teacher and we were playing fur elise and back then i was about grade 4 and i started talking.(She didn't know i could play the piano)Well,for a punishment she told me that i had to play what i had done in front of the class thinking that i would play about 1 bar so i played the whole thing perfectly with the extension bit from memory and she didn't know what to say then!

[organist_katy]

I can remember at school we had a new music teacher and we were playing fur elise and back then i was about grade 4 and i started talking.(She didn't know i could play the piano)Well,for a punishment she told me that i had to play what i had done in front of the class thinking that i would play about 1 bar so i played the whole thing perfectly with the extension bit from memory and she didn't know what to say then!

Haha, I used to go round 'teaching' all my friends in middle school, while the music teacher coped with the rest of the class - we were rather a handful.... He would set us a piece to learn and I would play it through once and then go up and down the row helping out (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[deviless]

[/quote]
Haha, I used to go round 'teaching' all my friends in middle school, while the music teacher coped with the rest of the class - we were rather a handful.... He would set us a piece to learn and I would play it through once and then go up and down the row helping out (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)
[/quote]

I do that now! We get really really easy peices, like "oh When The Saints", and I just sight read them and them go round with a board marker writing the notes on the keys of the keyboard and teaching the rest of the pupils, while my useless teacher (may sound harsh but its true) trys to help people but just confuses them, and i ahve to sort out the mess she gets them into!

[Kate]

I'm sure all of you have experienced this one time or other.
People outside the music world or don't know me personally automatically think im "as thick as 2 short planks",don't believe im a musician or play one finger at a time etc until i have to prove to them what im like.I usually give them a massive shock to their system.At work the other day my boss heard a disk of my work and his eyes popped out when i told him it was my own work ! The same thing happened at school 20 years ago ( now 37 !) The teacher turned round and said " oh, well -if you're grade 5 you can play this !".I'd never seen the music before and played it inch-perfect and the teachers expression made it very satisfying.
Has anyone else experienced this ? and how do you get around it ?

My friend's boyfriend lives away from where we live and therefore has only ever met me in a social context. When he heard my GCSE results in summer(they were quite high) he was like "Kate? got that in her GCSEs? really? She doesn't seem the type!" It was quite a compliment really as I spent a lot of my time in Year 8, 9, and 10 (not year 11 - they regretted not working by then!) being labelled a 'swot'! That was from the people that only ever saw me in school - it is possible to work hard without being a recluse or being 'boring'!

[Devil_Fiddler]

Haha I get it that I'm in top set for everything and am known as a "bof" but also I'm quite quiet and keep myself to myself, so when in a music lesson or a concert when I get up and play everyone's like "Her? That quite little bof? She can play like that?" which is such a good feeling.

[xEmZx06]

I do really well at school, in top set for al subjects blah de blah. I'm am ok musician, but not the best, if you know what I mean. Intelligence and general knowledge doesn't affect musical talent.

There's one of my friends (that also plays the trumpet), who tries really hard, but isn't so good academically, but she's a good trumpet player. She's managed to get to grade 4 after starting the trumpet four years ago, and having to borrow a school trumpet, plus her family don't encourage her to play. She'll have to give up after her GCSEs in a month or so because she won't have an instrument which is a shame.

Sorry for babbling on abit there he he