Hush6---keyboards---I was fascinated by vintage synthesizers when I was growing up. I got hooked on them in 1973 when my family took me to Walt Disney World. One night we watched the Electrical Water Pageant and it had this amazing synthesized music accompanying it. Mom and Dad bought the souveneir record and it said on the back, "played on an electric Moog synthesizer." "Moog?" That was a funny name---but so cool I thought. I would listen to the record over and over again and pretend I was playing this instrument that I had no idea what it looked like.
As a child, I began getting records with synthesized music on it. By that time, I had begun playing the electronic organ---similar instrument that fascinated me beyond imagination. That is where I learned music. It wasn't so much the music, but the design, shape, overall look, the gadgetry, etc. that fascinated me. I got extreme pleasure by just looking at brochures of these instruments. I got the same thrill out of being taken to a store that sold organs as I did going to the amusement park.
In high school, I got my first real synthesizer---a Casio CZ-101. But my fascination still lie in those old analog synths of the early days (1970's). So, when I got into college, I began collecting vintage analog synths. I also bought some newer digital ones too as I had begun experimenting with multi-track recording. By the time I got married in 1989, I had 30 some synthesizers and electronic keyboards set up in a small studio in my parents' house.
Then, after all the malfunctions that old synths can give you, I gravitated toward another instrument I had heard, but was not too familiar with---the dulcimer. How refreshing---no electric hookups, no amps, very nice to set up and play---accoustic music was great too. When I saw a hammered dulcimer for the first time on an album by Trapezoid (out of West Virginia) I became entranced. I immediately got a kit to build one---my wife's uncle put it together. There were strings running everywhere on that thing---over and under each other---really strange. But, I was fascinated, and I almost immediately began playing songs on it. I used the hammered dulcimer in a country gospel group I had joined. I also played mountain dulcimers and harmonica on my own.
Today, my synth collection sits in my parents' basement awaiting the day that I will once again fire up the oscillators and make an unusual music. But for now, I am still actively playing the dulcimers, and I have launched a music ministry with them. The hammered dulcimer I currently use is a larger one than the one I first got---I sold some old synths to in order to buy it. And I use various other dulcimers of the mountain dulcimer type.
Gee...sorry...I am getting carried away here. Talk to me anytime about keyboards Hush6. I love them. Do you wish to be added to the list of positiveness?---It sounds like you do have a gift in music.
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"My journey has just begun."
19 Oct 2009, 10:34 pm
