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#43008 - 04/17/02 11:36 AM
Hi - Just registered Wow!
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Member
Registered: 04/15/02
Posts: 554
Loc: Prospect Heights IL USA
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Fellow music lovers,
For the past 2 plus years I have been taking advantage of all the wonderful information, music, styles, tips etc. on the various forums. The other day I decided to emerge from my shell and join with all you guys and gals from all over the world. So I signed up and here I am. I see from some of the comments on this site you would like to know who you are talking to so here are some of the dull, uninteresting facts -
The name is Doug Dean from a little city in northern Illinois USA. Prospect Heights to be exact. At 75 years old it’s a wonder I’m still here after raising 6 kids and sending them to school. How did I find the money to clothe and feed them? By chasing lawn mowers and digging holes in the ground and filling them with trees. A hi-teck name - Landscape Contractor. After 57 years of doing this I’m still doing this. Kind of dumb, eh? Maybe not! My sons run the business and my wife and I run the office. I do the computer work and drawing and Ruth takes care of the rest. I can use the computer and get on the net and when I get enough of that I slide over to my KN6500 and off I go into another world. The house and office are attached. Cool? I slide out of bed and I’m at work.
About music and me? Learned tenor sax by playing in school band. No lessons other than school band. My dad got into World War 2 and got transferred to Jacksonville navel station in Florida. Next to the navy base was a little nite club. Sneaking into the club and talking to the band I found out their tenor player was being drafted. I told them not to worry, I could fill that job with no problem. (The gall of teenagers). They said, of course you double on clarinet. Sure I said. Next day I went to the local pawn shop and haggled for one. Came home and for 12-14 hours a day learned the thing. Drove my folks nuts. After about two weeks the tenor man left for service and they gave me the tenor charts. Went home and practiced them. Again drove the folks nuts. Played in that 7 piece band until I finished high school and I went into the navy for the duration.
Started my business in ‘46. After a few years some of the business guys around town found out that we at one time played some type of instrument. We then decided to meet in one of the guys garage and try to jam a bit and see what would happen. Just to relax. Well one thing led to another and we decided to buy some charts for the six of us. One evening during the summer we were having a good time jamming it up when a neighbor from down the street came over and asked if we would like to play for his daughters wedding. From that time on we played a couple times a month for all kinds of local functions. Never really a good band but had the people fooled. None of us business guys needed the money so we put it into a kitty and would buy music, stands, tuxes and take our wives out. Nice way to relax, have fun and at no cost to us. After we started getting old some of the group died, I lost my teeth and others had problems. We disbanded. One day after about 10 years I stumbled into a music store to see what was going on. The salesman was demonstrating this KN1000 to some old gal so I watched. After she left I asked the guy where the band was coming from. Was it a tape in the keyboard or what. I couldn’t believe how good it sounded. Just like playing with a band. He explained it was a computer chip and all of it was in the board itself. He showed me how it all worked. I was so intrigued by it all that after 1 hour he had my $2300.00 and I had his keyboard under my arm. He said I already could read the single melody line and all I had to do was go home learn which black and white keys matched the notes, learn a few chords and I was on my way. Wow! Playing with a band again by myself. Grrreeeeeat!!! After ten years and many, many hours of learning the keyboard, here is me. If anyone would like to hear the rest of the story let me know and I will e-mail you the files I made for my kids this past holiday season.
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Grampa Doug
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Grampa Doug
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#43017 - 04/19/02 10:33 AM
Re: Hi - Just registered Wow!
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Member
Registered: 04/15/02
Posts: 554
Loc: Prospect Heights IL USA
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Thanks BEBOP,
My soul is warmed. My self-esteem is restored. I just showed my wife your post. See, I said, my ideas are not as bad as you think. (Ruth is not at all bashful when it comes to evaluating my keyboard playing). Ruth, my wife, likes to read in the evening. Me, her husband, likes to play his KN. Play his KN through his amp and nice big bold speakers. I told her I spent a lot of her money to buy these things, so it seems a shame not to use them aggressively. She retorted, I also bought you a very nice heavy duty set of earphones. A light bulb started to shine in my mind. Eureka, I said. I got it!! Remembering when they trimmed our front tree, the chain saw guy had a pair of earphones on so it blocked the saw noise. What a good idea! I got the heavy duty earphones out, cut off the wires and put the phones on the wife. As usual my ideas didn't seem to please her. I guess she finally resolved herself to the fact that that was the best she could do with me. Everything seems to be tolerable for the past year. I got another good tip for you guys. When Ruth and I converse with each other I take my glasses off. That way the old gal has no apparent wrinkles and looks almost like the day I married her. Much more pleasant and has a tendency to keep the marriage together.
Well fellow musicians and appreciators of good loud music, I said all this to say thanks BEBOP for liking my interpretations.
Grandpa Doug
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Grampa Doug
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