Ask HN: Musicians?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=428776

by lincolnq • 18 years ago

20 65 18 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

What instrument(s) do you play, and what's your level of involvement?

The Jargon File's entry on music (http://catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/M/music.html) suggests that music is a "common extracurricular" among hackers. Is this still true?

lincolnq• 18 years ago

I have played violin since I was very young, and more recently viola. I've been interested recently in electric violin/viola, but I haven't gotten to try them yet.

graywh• 18 years ago

Playing an instrument has a good correlation with higher intelligence. And it's no secret that hackers are some of the smartest.

cperciva2• 18 years ago

I play violin; I'm currently the concertmaster in the best non-professional orchestra in Vancouver.

cheez802• 18 years ago

drumset since middle school, orchestral percussion since about then too, and mallet percussion (and drumline stuff) since high school. wait, that sounds a bit misleading, since i don't do the orchestral, mallet, or drumline stuff anymore.

i also played piano since like 6. stopped when i hit high school.

cheez802• 18 years ago

oh yeah, also made this whilst in hs with a friend.

http://www.ocremix.org/remix/OCR00828/

so i guess i dabbled in electronic music for a bit too :)

brianto2010• 18 years ago

I can play both violin and Bb clarinet; I started both in elementary school. However, I only play violin now in high school.

From your link: "music: n. A common extracurricular interest of hackers..."

This definition is not just limited to just playing an instrument, though. It also talks about music appreciation and genres of music.

To strictly follow that definition, try asking if we are significantly involved with music in some way.

LogicHoleFlaw• 18 years ago

I played woodwind instruments all through middle and high school. I started on the clarinet, then the alto and tenor saxophones, and the bassoon as well. I was quite proficient and seriously considered majoring in bassoon performance in college but I decided to pursue CS instead. Unfortunately I haven't played seriously since I graduated high school and I miss it dearly. I really should find a used Tenor somewhere and pick it up again.

rms• 18 years ago

I played various combinations of drums through high school. Right now I'm taking a tabla class.

GavinB• 18 years ago

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1phz4-G1tc

I wrote the music and played the guitar and bass.

iloveyouocean• 18 years ago

I play the Dumbek. Mostly middle-eastern style.

timothyandrew2• 18 years ago

I play bass. Used to play the piano.

dag2• 18 years ago

Same, but played trumpet in between (I find that bassists have often played trumpet in the past).

timothyandrew2• 18 years ago

Well, it's always easier to learn a second instrument if you have a firm grasp on basic music theory. I hated playing the piano, but in retrospect, it's really helped me pick up the bass faster/better.

curiousgeorge• 18 years ago

piano.

defunkt• 18 years ago

I've played guitar for a while. I try to practice at least three times a week for 1 - 4 hours each sitting.

DTrejo• 18 years ago

I used to play clarinet in middle school and elementary.

I racked up ~5 years before quitting.

I also have a Bb r13 clarinet for sale.

shutter• 18 years ago

Piano, mostly. Actually, I'm graduating this year with a decree in both CS and music.

joshsharp• 18 years ago

I've played guitar for years, not bad but I'll never be great. Just a bit of a hobby, something manual to pick up and play with when I'm not coding.

kaens• 18 years ago

I actively play guitar, bass, and drums. Have been playing guitar all my life.

I can play piano and violin.

I like playing around with sequencers, I have some very quickly made tracks up at http://last.fm/music/kaens , probably some stuff with more time put into it up in a few weeks.

Erf• 18 years ago

I compose electronic music. Attempted to learn to play keyboard at a late age, but progressed unsatisfyingly slowly.

I would agree that a disproportionate number of programmers I know are musically inclined.

krepsj• 18 years ago

I play harmonica. Not at very good level but good enough to be able to jam with my friends guitar.

Zsolt• 18 years ago

Right there with you. I picked it up only a few months ago so I'm an amateur at best.

I always keep my harmonica within the reach of my hands, so whenever I'm tired of coding I lean back and play a little.

paul7986• 18 years ago

Piano & guitar - hobby songwriter

zkarcher• 18 years ago

Electronic music producer, here.

The unofficial rule is: if you're a Flash programmer, you also create electronic music.

dmpayton• 18 years ago

I've always wanted to play the guitar, and bought an electric (LP-style) when I turned 18. Tried teaching myself to play, but life happened. Sadly, it's bow collecting dust by my bedside.

When I'm not working 50 hours a week with several side projects on top of my responsibilities as a husband and father, I'd like to pick it back up.

brianr• 18 years ago

Piano, guitar, bass, clarinet, viola. Haven't played the last three much in the last few years though.

axod• 18 years ago

I mess around on the piano, which I bought this last year. Love it to death, it's great to just play when you need a break. (BTW I cannot recommend the Yamaha GT2 enough).

I'm absolutely terrible at reading music, but I can play anything by ear, I wonder if that's usual for hacker types.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=y6UPJJqwc1k

Flemlord3• 18 years ago

> I can play anything by ear, I wonder if that's usual for hacker types.

I think it has more to do with how you learned the instrument. Most classically trained pianists I know couldn't sound out a Doors tune to save their life. On the other hand, once I started playing in bands, just about everybody I met could listen to a song and have it figured out within an hour.

I (a hacker type) was better than most classically trained types at sounding out music, but still had difficulties compared to most people in the band circuit. I usually couldn't really nail a part unless I found the music in a magazine somewhere. (this was pre-Internet, today this wouldn't be an issue)

xiaoma• 18 years ago

I have very little training myself, but my grandmother is a "classically trained type". She was a cellist at Oberlin Conservatory and has perfect pitch. I can send her into another room while I hit six keys on a piano and she can name all the notes. I can kick a metal garbage can and she can say what notes the resulting sound are closest to. While I was studying piano for a short time myself, I tested her abilities pretty thoroughly. Writing out (or just playing) a pop song is trivial for someone like that.

From what she's said to me, those skills weren't that exceptional. Many good strings players have perfect pitch, and even those who don't or those who play other instruments have excellent relative pitch. I don't see how a classically trained pianist would have problems with a Doors tune, especially considering how few chord progressions pop songs use.

asdf333• 18 years ago

played violin since age 2.

played in various national and all-state hs orchestras.

stopped playing in college though and haven't played since

liangzan• 18 years ago

I play the classical guitar as a hobby(other than programming). Still learning now. Now I'm performing for free at old folk's homes during festivals. That's much more meaningful than playing it alone in my room.

chops• 18 years ago

I play Piano and Clarinet. While it's been about 8 years, I used to write orchestral and new age MIDI music for a few years (http://gumm.8k.com)

mattdennewitz• 18 years ago

my band (2-piece called coltrane motion) just played a sold-out show w/ mucca pazza (look them up right this second) at the empty bottle (chicago) last night. blown out hip-hop beats under farfisa, ms-10, and guitar noise. fun stuff.

ynd• 18 years ago

I play the guitar. But I wouldn't call myself a musician just yet.

Love music though.

sctb• 18 years ago

I play the guitar (electric, acoustic) and the electric bass. Before working as a programmer I taught fretted strings professionally.

statictype• 18 years ago

I play the Veena on and off.

I find it's a good release valve from spending too much time in front of the screen.

antiform• 18 years ago

My pet theory is that playing a musical instrument is less common a hobby among programmers now than it was a generation ago, because now programming tends to be associated with "Computer Science" as its own discipline, rather than a subdiscipline of math.

Near the end of this interview [http://tex.loria.fr/historique/interviews/knuth-clb1993.html], Don Knuth says that one way CS graduate students have changed since the 70s is that they are less interested in music:

"What changes have you seen in the students coming into the computer science program over the years?"

"Knuth: There is a very profound change that I can't account for. In the 70s, the majority of our students were very interested in music. The first thing we'd ask them when they came in was 'What instrument do you play?' We had lots of chamber groups and so on. Now almost none of the students are interested in music. I don't know if it's because a different kind of people are enrolling in computer science, or because it's true of all today's students, or what. If you ask computer science students now what their hobby is, the chances are most of them will say 'Bicycling'. I recently had one who played a harmonica, but there were almost no musicians in the group."

shiro• 18 years ago

> the chances are most of them will say 'Bicycling'

Interesting. I play piano ( http://www.youtube.com/user/anohana ), but back in college I also loved traveling by bicycle (carrying a tent, camping).

Looking around my colleagues, I have a guitar player, another piano player, a bass player, a drummer,... but I'd say players are not majority.

cperciva2• 18 years ago

I'd say you have that backwards. Mathematicians and Computer Scientists have always been interested in music; but Programmers haven't. These days if you look around a computer science department -- at least, if you look at the students -- you'll be looking mostly at programmers, not at computer scientists.

When I was in Oxford, I saw a mix of "people interested in computer science" and "people interested in programming" -- and as far as I could tell, every one of the CS people was interested in music, while not even one of the programmers was.

daydream• 18 years ago

Played bass guitar for 8 years, and also have done a ton of audio recording and engineering - recording bands live and in the studio, wore a bunch of different hats on film and video projects, and did audio for some high-profile art installations.

It's not my day job, but music is my main serious hobby outside of work, and particularly with the music recording I've recorded literally in the 100's of bands over the last decade or so.

h34t• 18 years ago

I hadn't played a musical instrument in 10 years, but last month I picked up a keyboard and began teaching myself piano. I really enjoy it.

geuis• 18 years ago

Trombone and baritone

maryrosecook• 18 years ago

I've had a solo band for a few years (http://werenotthecoolkids.com/music/index.php). I've been in several bands with friends. I play the guitar, drums and sing. Being a polymath is really important to me.

nickd• 18 years ago

I started playing banjo 8 months ago. It's pretty much been my only hobby since then. Though, I think the upstairs neighbors may have moved out as a result. I still haven't found a way to practice that's fruitful, and yet isn't way to loud for everyone else. Mutes just aren't fun.

elbicho• 18 years ago

I play guitar, compose and do recording engineering

This is my profile in a nice collaborative site.

http://www.kompoz.com/compose-collaborate/userName-elbicho/p...

tonetheman• 18 years ago

i play guitar

thomasfl• 18 years ago

I am the lead singer in a Kiss tribute band. Everybody with low self esteem should try singing in a metal band.

We don't use guitars, but have good tuba and violin players. I also play keyboard: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7DgpSddLiU

foulmouthboy• 18 years ago

14 years of piano lessons. Also clarinet and saxaphone and I'll mess around with just about everything else.

When I told my piano teacher that I was going to school for engineering and got into the pre-med program (as opposed to music), she was in total shock and her immediate response was, "wait... are you smart?"

msg• 18 years ago

I play and record myself on acoustic-electric plugged into a multi-effects pedal, plugged into the computer, and I sing.

I suck at everything.

artlogic• 18 years ago

I actively play guitar and electric bass - I fool around on banjo, mandolin, and drums. I'm also currently learning to play cello. I find that playing/writing music often times gets me through a tough coding problem more quickly than thinking about it directly. I'm also likely one of those people who Knuth mentioned as I have pretty serious interests in the mathematics behind computation.

nx• 18 years ago

I play the piano, as a hobby. One or two hours a day. I go to classes and I've been playing for five or six years. I have also composed some electronic music and remixed popular tracks but I stopped doing that because of lack of time.

MoeDrippins• 18 years ago

I'm not sure I'm considered a musician, yet, but I'm learning bass guitar. I practice daily, though not as much as I'd like.

ntoll• 18 years ago

Regarding music and hacking. Personally, music theory and the compositional techniques I learned as a student "feel" very similar to hacking: writing an examination fugue in the style of J.S.Bach involves complex thinking and problem solving within a (semi) formal system with an additional (and essential) appreciation of conciseness, grace, style and aesthetic.

Also, hacking music is fun! When I was learning to program I wrote a little app to solve species counterpoint problems with a genetic algorithm. Although not always up to "human" results (especially fifth species counterpoint) the "solutions" were always fun to listen to. ;-)

As for me: I'm a tuba player - a graduate of the Royal College of Music with an academic (rather than performance based) undergraduate music degree. I also play organ and piano. I still play regularly and was recently a soloist with a local orchestra in a performance of the Vaughan William's concerto. Life without music would be unbearable... :-/

Flemlord3• 18 years ago

You just brought back a pleasant memory. Back in my C64 days I wrote a program that created Bach inventions. One of my few early hacker accomplishments that impressed my non-techie parents.

For anybody who doesn't know what that is, here's Bach's most famous:

http://video.aol.com/video-detail/js-bach-invention-13-rendi...

(Originally written for the harpsichord I believe.)

NoBSWebDesign• 18 years ago

I'm the lead guitar for Ann Arbor-based rock band, Moment of Inertia (we all happen to be engineers... computer, electrical, mechanical, and aerospace between the 4 of us).

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=8umukDN_PVE

We've been a band for 5 years now, and this is definitely my top activity right after running our startup and right before autocrossing (oh, and my girlfriend fits somewhere in there too).

pkeane• 18 years ago

Fingerstyle guitar. http://peterkeane.com

tricky• 18 years ago

Guitar. taught lessons to get thru h.s. and college (Best job ever for a punk kid who happens to be punctual.) Went on the road for a few years with a band (Best job ever for a beginning hacker (lots of time in the van with a laptop.)) After that I got a "real programming job" and built copies of vintage gear as a hobby. Now i'm in a working cover band and in a few experimental things.

baddox2• 18 years ago

Took piano lessons until 8th grade, in 9th grade picked up guitar on my own, learned to play by ear, I'm pretty decent albeit a casual player. I don't play in bands much, just jam around with friends, and I know I don't have the chops to be a professional. Music is a great thing to geek out with, you can really be a music gearhead just like with computer equipment. I'm especially interested in digital audio workstation (DAW) technology, it's a perfect blend of computer science and music.

baddox2• 18 years ago

http://www.tshaddox.com/?cat=10 Some compositions of mine (mp3 downloads). A modest piano composition of mine: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPS1DDVenrk

Flemlord3• 18 years ago

Piano. Classically trained, but after I dropped out of college (for unrelated reasons), I spent a couple years playing in cover bands, church organ, piano bars. Sadly, after getting into computers, I haven't touched it for 15 years.

dag2• 18 years ago

I play in the church band every other week, that week involves 3 hours of practice and a 5/6 song set. I highly recommend this as this setting includes other people who require you to participate, and encourage you to play well.

Almost everyone in our band has a bachelor's degree, some have grad school, and there are a couple PhDs and an MBA. Some of the musicians are amazing.

drewcrawford• 18 years ago

I've played keyboards for about 11 years. This summer, I was in a Dream Theater cover band.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfmhWH7BVA4

runningskull• 18 years ago

I play the banjo, and can't seem to stop playing the banjo. It's like a drug.

nickfox• 18 years ago

I've been playing guitar and singing for a good number of years. I'm working on my second music video. It's the song Patience by Guns n' Roses. My first music video was Across the Universe by the Beatles. I don't have very good "stage presence" in my first video but the one I'm working on now will be much better. Here's my first video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7zro5VpUf0&feature=chann...

nose• 18 years ago

I am re-learning the piano.

Ask HN: Musicians?

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