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 ?
Full Version: What Are You Like Outside Of The Music World
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
It's a good feeling.
Yeah, I get that sometimes
It's a good feeling.
QUOTE(Oddball @ Apr 10 2006, 09:55 PM) 
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
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....
QUOTE(Yorkie @ Apr 10 2006, 09:20 PM)
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 ?
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'
QUOTE(Roger @ Apr 11 2006, 08:45 AM)
QUOTE(Yorkie @ Apr 10 2006, 09:20 PM)
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 ?
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 !
QUOTE(Roger @ Apr 11 2006, 08:45 AM)
QUOTE(Yorkie @ Apr 10 2006, 09:20 PM)
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 ?
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
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. 
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.
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.
QUOTE(Oddball @ Apr 10 2006, 08:55 PM)
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
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)
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!
QUOTE(poppys @ Apr 12 2006, 05:08 PM)
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
[/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
[/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!
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
[/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!
QUOTE(Yorkie @ Apr 10 2006, 09:20 PM)
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'!
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.
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
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
hey
I can't help thinking that the majority of musicians who have posted in this thread are really clever. Isn't there a theory that musicians (and i think mathematicians) are more intelligent than other people because they use both hemispheres of their brains?..........???
I dunno about the whole 'people outside music' thing. Alot of my friends don't study music and they love the fact that we can sing around the piano. I also have lots of non-music friends who i value very highly.
In my first years of secondary school, i think most people thought i was a geek...... but then i think they realised that musicians are the most friendly, caring and funniest people to be around, so eventually.... they all loved us! lol
jaime
I can't help thinking that the majority of musicians who have posted in this thread are really clever. Isn't there a theory that musicians (and i think mathematicians) are more intelligent than other people because they use both hemispheres of their brains?..........???
I dunno about the whole 'people outside music' thing. Alot of my friends don't study music and they love the fact that we can sing around the piano. I also have lots of non-music friends who i value very highly.
In my first years of secondary school, i think most people thought i was a geek...... but then i think they realised that musicians are the most friendly, caring and funniest people to be around, so eventually.... they all loved us! lol
jaime
He.....maths and music are my main things, thanks for the compliment! Dunno why they're linked, but they seem to be. Since one's logical and the other artistic with a bit of logic involved, I'm stumped.
Well people do say that playing an instrument makes you cleverer, but my mum has a theory that it's only really the more intelligent people who start to play an instrument and also practice enough to keep going.
QUOTE(jaime @ Apr 18 2006, 09:39 AM)
In my first years of secondary school, i think most people thought i was a geek...... but then i think they realised that musicians are the most friendly, caring and funniest people to be around, so eventually.... they all loved us! lol
Everyone seems to think that musicians are geeks to start off with I think don't they ? It's rather irratating, but then they actually realise that were totally cool and not from another planet, which is great because they also then notice how good you are and all sorts so smiles all round
QUOTE(Devil_Fiddler @ Apr 22 2006, 11:23 AM)
Well people do say that playing an instrument makes you cleverer, but my mum has a theory that it's only really the more intelligent people who start to play an instrument and also practice enough to keep going.
I know what you mean. More intelligent people are usually more determined to carry one with something so they get good results at the end
I'm not incredably smart, but im quite intelligent (predicted all A's at gcse - except a B in music). However i'm not exactl brilliant at music, and really struggle with it.
inside school people think I'm clever but if you want people to be impressed with your playing just play fast I don't know but I did this gorgeous jazz piece and people were like well done then I played this deadsimple piece-fast and people were like wow. 
anyway out of school people think I'm thick so if I say I like music and i play th epiano they give me the raised eyebrows and are shocked when they hear me- but still by the fast piece
anyway out of school people think I'm thick so if I say I like music and i play th epiano they give me the raised eyebrows and are shocked when they hear me- but still by the fast piece
I don't actually know any musical people in real life so before joining this forum, I very crassly generalised and assumed that highly musical people were scarily intelligent but perhaps lacked social skills. This is because at school, which I went to decades ago, those that were exceptional at music were intimidatingly academic but, erm, didn't really know how to relate to pupils or teachers on a social level.
Of course, now that I've joined this forum, I know that very gifted musical people are highly intelligent AND are witty, sociable and normal.
Of course, now that I've joined this forum, I know that very gifted musical people are highly intelligent AND are witty, sociable and normal.
QUOTE
Of course, now that I've joined this forum, I know that very gifted musical people are highly intelligent AND are witty, sociable and normal.
Exactly... well I'm not sure I'm normal but that's just me
QUOTE(smileygirl @ May 22 2006, 04:28 PM)
QUOTE
Of course, now that I've joined this forum, I know that very gifted musical people are highly intelligent AND are witty, sociable and normal.
Exactly... well I'm not sure I'm normal but that's just me
same here
*randomly joins in *
I find that teachers at my school tend to like it if you are musical. If you play in one of the concerts or something they're like "well done etc. etc. " the next day. Plus my latin teacher let me off all my homework last week because I had my clarinet and piano exams. hehe....
I think they like musical people because:
~ the sporty gang tend to be really naughty
~the drama peeps are rather DRAMATIC
~the people who have no hobbies are just BORING
~And, plus music people are wonderful! (not boasting or anything lol
)
I have friends who are the most un musical people you'll ever meet and they are lovely! They totally understand when I am stressed out about exams. I don't know how they do.....
I think I've just gone totally off the point here.......
* I find that teachers at my school tend to like it if you are musical. If you play in one of the concerts or something they're like "well done etc. etc. " the next day. Plus my latin teacher let me off all my homework last week because I had my clarinet and piano exams. hehe....
I think they like musical people because:
~ the sporty gang tend to be really naughty
~the drama peeps are rather DRAMATIC
~the people who have no hobbies are just BORING
~And, plus music people are wonderful! (not boasting or anything lol
) I have friends who are the most un musical people you'll ever meet and they are lovely! They totally understand when I am stressed out about exams. I don't know how they do.....
I think I've just gone totally off the point here.......
Trust me, there is no outside of the music world. All of my waking hours are spent practicing my viola
QUOTE(Duke of The Viola Farm @ May 25 2006, 10:29 PM)
Trust me, there is no outside of the music world. All of my waking hours are spent practicing my viola
My friends do get quite annoyed if I'm stressing about an exam or whatever but it's good to talk to people on here to get it out of my system!! But they put up with me because they are lovely people even though none of them are the least bit musical!!!
QUOTE(Devil_Fiddler @ May 26 2006, 02:19 PM)
QUOTE(Duke of The Viola Farm @ May 25 2006, 10:29 PM)
Trust me, there is no outside of the music world. All of my waking hours are spent practicing my viola
My friends do get quite annoyed if I'm stressing about an exam or whatever but it's good to talk to people on here to get it out of my system!! But they put up with me because they are lovely people even though none of them are the least bit musical!!!
I wish my friends were behind me with my music!! But jealousy got to them, as when I reached FRSM Standard before my friend even took his Grade 3 test, I laughed and he left me forever. I havn't seen him since.
Still, I love music more my friends.
I just have the sudden urge to say...
I luv you all, random hugs all round!!!
lol
Francesca xxx
I luv you all, random hugs all round!!!
lol
Francesca xxx
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