In high school, I got straight A's in math. My math teacher (Martin
Van de Visse) was furious when I announced that I wanted to major
in Music (like my music teacher, Robert Remais).
Well, I studied Music for two years until the Dean said something
I didn't like. (He said, "Get off my campus!")
Seriously though , I flunked out and joined the Marines. Afterwards,
I majored in Math, figuring it was something to do while I figured
out what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. Thanks to several
of my professors, I was completely turned on by Mathematics and
found my calling: Teaching Mathematics. .But I digress ...
While at music school, I "invented" a mode of music which I called
a "beer bottle band." By filling beer bottles with various levels of
water and blowing on the necks, you produce musical tones.
I arranged music so we could play popular songs with harmony
and rhythmic accompaniament.
The trick was to arrange the music so each "player" had at most
two bottles to play, and to make sure that no one had to play
two consecutive notes. You also had to select people who could
read music, who could count rests and play his/her note when
needed.
At one of our fraternity parties, we put on a short concert.
We play a lively version of "Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue".
Later we played backup for a flute solo of "Swinging
Shepherd Blues". The finale was a rich arrangement of
"September Song" with syrupy chords and a Stan Kenton
type set of final chords.
Ah, those were the days!
As the old timer said, "The older I get, the better I was."
