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Your Biggest Mistake As An Musician


TheSnowStorm
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What were some of the biggest mistake as you made your progress as a musician. What one, single thing you did that made you say "Wow, I really just made a fool of myself" or "I can't believe I calling myself an 'musician'".

My Mistakes

*NEVER going to any of the St. Louis Public School Music Contest. My peers told me over the years that I had the skills to earn a good score, but I believed that I couldn't. Now if you earn an 1- or higher (Perfect), you could earn a schloarship for college.

*Giving up on the piano- I'm just now re-learning how to play the piano after taking two years off because I had a bad teacher. I should had pratice and look for a better teacher. I should had never discourage myself because of one bad experince wiht a drunkard teacher.

*Not taking any private lessons as a young child. Compare to the kids who had private violin lessons (I had the free, St. Louis Pubic School lessons, which ain't that bad!) I sound like a pile of shit. At 18 goign on 19, I'm now thinking about getting private lessons.

*Doubting myself- 'Nuff said.

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My biggest mistake was not backing up my old projects on a flash drive or a external drive. I had a bunch of old songs that I'd love to go back and work on, or at least listen to, but I lost most of them because of a computer crash.

Hey that just happened to me!!! Hooray for the "it'll never happen to me" mentality.

As for being on topic, I'd have to say not getting serious in music sooner. There are a lot of people younger than me that I wish I was a lot better than just because I'm older.

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I regret not taking piano lessons at an earlier age, but then again It's probably a good thing. Had I taken piano lessons, I would have gotten bored with it (as I did with every interest I had as a toddler) and I wouldn't be as enthusiastic or determined as I am today.

So maybe it was a good thing that I discovered it later in life...

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Quitting the Clarinet like a scrub when I was actually pretty decent at it. I went to a middle school which competed at this big event at Hershey Park, and we won the competition there hands down. There were five bands at the school, and I was lucky enough to be in the top one, and probably stood to go into one of the top two bands at the local high school once I got there. Problem was, we moved and my freshman year was at a different high school. They only had two bands there, and the admin said I could only go into the lower (basically beginner) one if I was a Freshman. Being like, 14, jaded, and arrogant, I decided not to join, stopped practicing, and just... fell apart as a player.

Turns out I learned in my senior year that placement in the bands was the perogative of the Music Department and not the Administration. Not only that, but the Advanced Band was hurting for Clarinet players the whole time I was there. Go figure.

That's the biggest thing I regret as musician; and unfortunately now that I'm now 23, I don't remember how to play the damn thing and I don't have my instrument anymore anyway.

Though, that said, I would love to learn how to play the piano someday.

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oh jeez... where to begin? I guess chronologically:

-not practicing enough before college: I thought i was such hot shit that I didn't need to practice. Well, if I had been practicing well all through school, I would've not only avoided getting tendonitis (which I have AGAIN now), but I may have been able to sidestep joining my first teacher's studio and going straight to my current teacher's studio. That being said:

-joining my first teacher's studio. I had no idea what I was getting myself into, but turns out my first teacher would leave me miserable with music and without any significant improvements. He's fired now.

-Not taking better care of my body. I wish I had exercised more all my life, and I wish that I got my hands slowly used to practicing a lot (this coincides with my first regret). I have two forms of tendonitis right now in both arms (extensor and flexor), and it's put me out of playing commission basically all year. My improvements this year have been limited because of it, and it's VERY frustrating.

I'm sure there are more, but I try not to live with too many regrets ;)

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not going with piano as my principal instrument eventhough i was accepted by the piano professor. would've be harder than clarinet, but would've been much more worth it, being that i'm a composer. also, never practicing my instrument prior to college....now i suck and suck at practicing

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Qutting the piano. This is a usual.

Not joining up with the OCR boards sooner.

I dunno. I've never had many opportunities to do a ton of music in my schools. Of course, I could have gone to different schools, but I like to think I made the right choice on the school front.

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Stopping piano. Not playing in an orchestra now because I can't afford the time nor credits. Buying an A clarinet...well...I don't really regret it. But it only got a couple years of use compared to the many on my Bb...and it was more expensive since I didn't fuck around. Silver plated keys and everything...

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