Just Pixels

We've all heard "you are what you eat." That's vanilla.

But the idea of "you are what you play" is a curious one. And I mean musical instruments.

I was chatting with M-Dawg yesterday who's up in Cleveland, training to be a professional trumpet tooter. I asked what the other students were like at CIM. I got the same old answer.

It's common knowledge among bandees that each instrument group carries unique personalities.

see:
trumpets: competitive and arrogant
trombones: goofy and laid back
french horns: anal and bossy
tubas: off-the-wall and funny

and the list continues...

And you get pretty good at guessing what people play just by spending time with them. It's a fun game to play. My high school band teacher was a master at guessing who played what. He was correct probably 90 percent of the time.

I can usually bat about .500 myself. It's the woodwinders that get tricky. Flute? Clarinet? Oboe? AH, right, English Horn. That was my next guess...
But yeah, my powers are limited mostly to brassers.

So, it's an interesting thing. And for me, I seem to fit the trombone player bill straight up.

So. Perplexing. Is it the instrumentalists who choose the instruments? The opposite?

In any case, I think instrument selection should be highly monitored by parentals. Do you really want little Timmy to be like Frederick the french horn player? Joe the tuba blaster? Maximus the trumpeter? Friends, these are important familial concerns.

"Sure, honey, pick whatever you want," I'll reassure my own fine children one day.

"Just make sure that whatever you bring home is made of metal, has no pads and in no way produces a sound by rubbing some strings together."

"OH. Okay. Sure. Love you dad. Great talk. You're the best."

"Mmh-huh. Love you too dear. See you after school."

(Cue curtain. Fade to black)

So, if we are what we eat, then you just have to make sure you're feeding your kids the right propaganda I think. They say it's the subtle manipulation that is most effective.

I say that's just sound psychology.

NOTE: I'm not really that anti-woodwind/string instrument. i've just been programmed to criticize those genera.