It literally works in either context so let’s say the period is optional reading. It may change the tone for the better to exempt it even.
I had a grade school teacher explain that gravity on the earth was due to its rotation. I must have been about 8. I carried around that ridiculous bit of education thinking it was a fact for way too long. Thanks Teach!
1 Like
It took a bit to overcome the idea that MIDI was nothing more than cheesy sounding song files played on an 8-bit sound card synthesizer. That’s how it was popularized to the masses. I used to run into people all the time who later transitioned into being musicians who still couldn’t shake what they thought MIDI was (and who refused to look at it more closely, even though half their gear had ports for it)
4 Likes
Life!
1 Like
I remember trying to play guitar along to The Cure’s Friday I’m in Love and being super frustrated. Then I learned that the entire recording had been sped up a bit making the pitch slightly higher.
This is such a resonant example–me too.
And further, trying to play along to stuff like Indonesian gamelan or Middle Eastern music–or even trying to play bent notes from blues guitar or harmonica, but on piano–in all of these cases, the problem being that even if one reference pitch could be matched, the overall tuning structure doesn’t align with 12-note equal temperament, so some/most notes fall “between the cracks” of the piano notes.
Thankfully, soon enough I learned that different tuning systems and “microtonality” exist, and that realization set the course for many musical explorations since I was very young.
1 Like
When I was a kid I thought “message in a bottle” by the police was “lesson in lobotomy”.
3 Likes
For a long time I wouldn’t understand why guitar has other knobs than main volume. They made the sound so uninteresting, dull and lifeless.
2 Likes
I thought it was massage in a brothel
5 Likes
I thought it was “canary in a coma”.
No, I didn’t, I just like doggerel too much for my own good.
1 Like
Me in my forties still: ‘A year has passed since I broke my nose…’ (instead of wrote my note)
4 Likes
That artists and singers enjoying chart successes and seemingly having it all, weren’t necessarily financially set for life.
1 Like
The grand majority aren’t, nor anywhere close.
1 Like
As a kiddo, I thought that on electric guitars the tremolo arm was used to play the strings instead of the pick or was used as a palm rest.
1 Like
That James in “Laid” sang, “Dressed me up in women’s clothes, messed around with Jalen Rose.”
Yeaaaaah…….I’m gonna keep singin it that way. Good on me.
I bought my very first synth in the early 1980s because I was fascinated by those mystical pad sounds at the time (Jarre, Eloy, Pink Floyd etc.). As it turned out later, these were the typical sounds of string machines, enriched with phasers. Unfortunately, I didn’t know that at the time.
What did I do? I bought the crappiest monosynth of all time (Jen SX-1000) and wondered why I couldn’t create these pads with such a device 
I almost lost interest in synthesizers. Fortunately, a friendly dealer took the Jen in trade for a brand new Casio CZ-101.
3 Likes
When I first decided to dip a baby toe into electronic instruments, and I didn’t have a lot of money, the Monotrons had just come out. They seemed like a good option, but which of the three was the right one?
I decided on the Duo. Selectable scale for easier playability? Two oscillators so I can harmonies? Sounds great!
In practice, I found the ribbon keyboard too hard to play even with scales, and tuning anything other than fifths or octaves with those tiny knobs to be a PITA. Now that I have other gear, processing through the filter is nice, but had I gotten an OG or a Delay, I would have also gotten a free LFO or a cool noisy delay on top of that. Oh well
1 Like
I have a distinct memory of playing air guitar with low chugging riffs played really high on the ‘neck’ and screaming solos played way down low. I was older than I’d care to admit. Air physics be damned, it felt like rock n roll.
2 Likes
When I was younger, I didn’t understand that when someone asks, “how are you?” or “how have you been?” they don’t really want to hear how you’re actually doing, most people expect you to say “good thanks, and you?” even if that isn’t true.
4 Likes