Reply To: ❄️❄️❄️ Happy Holidays From Peter / LinkedMusicians ❄️❄️❄️

[peter]

I might pop in from time to time, but it’s time to commit myself to my family. Unless something significant appears in my inbox, I won’t be posting more deals. Whatever you celebrate, I wish you the best and hope you spend some quality time with people who love you, whether they’re family by blood, or family by choice. I want to again thank everyone here for every moment of kindness. For every moment of helpfulness. For every moment of sharing a little about yourself, For every moment of sharing your love and passion for music.

Did anyone else here grow up playing holiday music this time of year?

Music was an important part of my life since my earliest memories. I started piano lessons from my music teacher mother at age 3, and by the time I was 4, my three siblings, who all passed on early, decided to start a band and as my sisters were talented and experienced keyboardists and I was the youngest kid — and showed natural abilities with the drums — they decided that I would be the drummer in the band. I really had no choice in the matter! We recall our playing Christmas music at events this time of year. This morning, I was telling my wife and kids about this one gig we had at a nursing home when I was around 5 years old. We were dragging in our equipment to a nursing home to perform Christmas music. As I dragged in a snare drum, a cymbal and bag with percussion instruments and my brushes, the manager of the nursing home said sternly, “Where do you think you’re going with that?!” I told her that I played drums in the band. She told me, “No drums!” She explained that drums were too noisy for the elderly patients. I explained that I would use brushes, which are quiet. She sternly repeated, “No drums!” However, she did let me bring in bongos, a tambourine, and shakers.

For some reason, I always remember that pre-show experience, as meaningless as it was. It wasn’t traumatizing or anything in the least. I was annoyed that she refused to understand that brushes don’t make a lot of noise. It was just a little silly. But I had fun with the bongos and percussion. My parents divorced when I was young. My father was of 100 percent Italian lineage, so when we’d celebrate Christmas, everyone would ask me to play the organ — which I was trained on with a different teacher than my mother. I’d play American Christmas standards and the Italian song, Santa Lucia — which I always believe should give me some Italian cred.

So the point of this story is that playing music was a big part of my and my siblings’ childhoods. I also played concerts with the school band as a percussionist. Primarily on the snare drum, but I once got to fill in on glockenspiel, and found that I enjoyed that more, but the spot never opened up permanently. So, if you’ve heard a lof of glockenspiel in my songs I’ve recorded and shared, it was played on the keys, but I own a glockenspiel. My own kids always either played in school band, and in my daughter’s case, she stopped playing in the band, and moved over to the choir, and it turns out, she is the first very talented singer in my family that I’m aware of. (My mother, siblings and I were all musicians, none of us were very good singers, as anyone who has heard the music I’ve shared already knows!)

I’d love to hear stories from any of our members who grew up performing holiday music with their family or for their family as a kid. FTR, this thread is not public; it’s members only, so we’re the only ones seeing these posts. I like to keep the personal stories within our community.

LinkedMusicians Founder. Your friend who keeps the beat.

Check out my music. 

4