just started to notice recently how many girls on this site are musicians or play instruments. i study music at college and play in a lot of bands (as a male) and it's got me thinking if half my friends also share my "hobby"? not that i would bring it up in the pub after college but it's a thought. maybe theres some link between musicians and tranny's, transgendered, T-girls whatever your preference is.
jenny xxx

It's an interesting thought. I suppose you could do a survey, but I think you'd get a few strange looks if you attempted it! I don't really see the link myself, I think it's more to do with love of music and a desire to play an instrument more than anything else. I got my first guitar for my 11th birthday and I still enjoy playing.

yeh fair point! i got my first guitar for my 10th birthday but didn't properly start playing it till i was 13 (learning blink-182 songs dosn't teach you much) . i guess everyone loves music and the desire to learn instruments is stronger in some people rather than others.
jenny xxx

haha that is a brilliant idea i must say.......not sure if the fellas would agree so it may pop up in a drunken conversation in the next few weeks now lol. i have played at bootleggers and the brewery a few times and i am in kendal quite a lot as my girlfriend lives there. i will be sure to try and get to one of your gigs some time.
jenny xxx

we were called Elements Ablaze, weve split up now as the drummer went off to uni. we do our college gigs there aswell. probs won't be able to make it but i will do my best as i work weekends
jenny xxx

There are many things in common between the people here.
Most of my TG/TS friends are either Musical or/and Artistic. I play Button Accordion, Fiddle, Bodhran, Harp, Uilleann Pipes, Pan Pipes, Erhu, Piano, and Organ.
A disproportional number of these friends are Left-Handed, and Attention Deficit as well.
Many of these traits are more common in Males than Females and may be either a "left-over" from our "mixed-up" gender situation - or possibly - a source of our direction in life.
There is definitely a common thread between being "Right-Brained" and TS/TG. Much research has been done on the differences in hemispheric linkage of males and females. Surely there is place on the "bell curve" for us.
Doanna

OK...I'm left handed, ADD, a musician of sorts as I play guitar (upside down and left handed), harmonica, and some percussion...there is a sensitive side, also a creative side as well...I think one reason for many of the T community migrating toward music is that it is an excellent outlet for energy that is universally accepted by all, plus it is something that can be learned, practiced, or played alone. And how many girls have felt alone at times? When I get "blue", I pick up my guitar and will play until I run out of energy or the blues. You might fimd the same amount of interest in drawing/painting and writing/reading.
Traci

I'd be really interested to see how many of the girls here are musicians, artists, writers, poets, etc.

Let's hear it for or from the Lefties - who just happen to be artist -that's visual and performance arts.
I've played harmonica since "forever" and I've been a visual artist since about age 3 years.
I guess or rather suspect there may be linkage there!
hugs
Gracie

Luv ya Gracie!!!!
Traci xxx

I'm left handed, but I play the guitar right handed. My first guitar was strung for a right hander and all the chord diagrams were for right handers as well.
I still don't think there's any connection between being CD/ TG (or left handed) and being "artistic". I think everyone has the potential to some extent to create something, be it music, painting, writing, or whatever.

HI All,

Interesting notion. I know that to become a good musician, it takes practice - Just like good baseball players, soccer, etc. I can remember at an early age of 7, choosing to practice piano/sax/vocals and forgoing spending time in organized sports. I suspect I was subconsciously biasing my interests and efforts into creative endeavors (which I love) and away from male dominated activities. However, I did like to play in neighborhood unorganized sports.

I play keyboards, Sax (+ most woodwinds), Guitar and limited vocals and love blues and jazz.

Additionally, on the creative front, I write short stories and have done Cable Television production for 18 yrs.


Just don't ask me to try and draw anything.

Hugz,

MichelleLynn

Well, I'm not a musician (though I dabble with piano, guitar, harmonica, tin whistle) but I am left handed, and I paint watercolors and pastels, draw, and recently took up sumi-e (Oriental brush painting.) I have also been active in theater (amateur admittedly) for many years. (I love to sing, but no one has ever said I COULD sing, but that's another story. Oh, and I write for a living.

Emily

Hi, this is something I have thought about often, I too am a musician and have spoken to many other gurls from many sites and there really are a lot us out there. I'm sure there is a link with this stuff, maybe we're just not afraid of expressing ourselves I dunno but there is definately something.

Helene xx

you both say that you are not musicians but yet you both play a few instruments, to me that says that you are musicians.
jenny xxx

Still think the link between music (or the arts) comes from the solitude that practicing/playing can provide us when the world at times seemed so difficult. Was soooo much easier to sit down a play alone than to face the harsh realities of Us vs. Them...
Traci

Traci:

There is something that resonates in what you write. I sometimes find I am most sublimely happy while home alone bang-y away poorly at some piece for piano that calls to me. Variations of Amazing Grace for some reason are among my favorite. Beethoven and Bach are beyond my skills but something I try over and over again. Blues are a passion. I even enjoy sitting down and playing scales.

I have much the same feeling sitting for hours with a sketchbook and pencil or charcoal or pen and ink or trying to phrase the perfect haiku or tanka or sonnet. I love to be lost in those moments that can turn into hours.

Sadly (or maybe fortunately) this is the only place on the planet I can share these feelings. Anonymity helps, but so does a sense of sisterhood.

Emily

Hi everybody!

It's great that here is so many music an art lovers in this forumI am a composer/musician and I've been doing also visual arts but music has been always the main thing in my life. If somebody likes to know more about what I am doing, please visit at my sites: www.myspace.com/astashare
www.mikseri.net/astashare


Cheers,
Asta

If there is a link between transgender and musical ability then I am the exception to that rule! - lol I can't play anything and it has been suggested that I should only move my lips when singing.

Jeri

I've always been envious of anyone who can sing in tune.
It's not fair!

i can sing in tune thats the easy bit, i can evan sing harmonies. its just that i have a very broad cumbrian accent! check out a band called "The lancashire hotpots" it's like that just about 20 miles up the M6, more northern lol
jenny xxx

haha you obviously haven't heard many northerners speak from britain lol
jenny xxx

jenny
I don't believe people telling me they don't have an accent. Poo!
I grew up in NYC and left there 60 years ago and people still say "I knew you weren't from here - you have an accent."
eh!
hugs
Gracie

Jenny,
Ceart gu leòr! ...LOL

....Of course we can't forget the "Welsh Miners" with their beautiful singing voices ......just don't try to understand what they are saying...LOL

I play guitar, sing, harmonica, draw and paint, but I'm right handed...although some things like table tennis, golf and swinging a baseball bat, I do left handed. I don't consider myself ambidexterous though, because I can't write left handed - although I think I'm a lefty that was trained to be a righty when a child.

If anyone in SoCal wants to play some music...let me know.

Jennifer

I've been playing music my whole life, and one of the things that made TW even better for me was/is the many musicians who are members. I play guitar, banjo, dobro, bass, mandolin, steel guitar, anything with strings on it as far as that goes. I dabble in piano, and I'm a fair drummer. I have been in an indie folk group for about three years, but it may be coming to an end soon, sadly. I've been gigging regularly with 3 or 4 other bands of late, everything from alternative country to punk rock, and I've been working on an eclectic solo effort hoping to incorporate as many styles into it as possible, though my inclination is most often in the indie/folk realm

I think it is to do with creativity in general. I play the guitar, badly - but with persistence - and I have painted all my life, with greater success. You have to be open minded to be TG so I suppose the door is already open to the arts, which can only be a good thing, especially when you are starting to learn how to apply make up properly, and you definitely need a sense of humour !!!

all I really know is that, when I am completely alone, or feel that way, nothing lifts my spirits like that first sound of a plucked string. I can pour my soul out into the music and suddenly, life is better. in any normal social situation, I am the wall flower, timid, quiet, introverted, awkward. but stand me in front of a microphone with my guitar, and a room full of complete strangers, and I have no problems sharing toni's most intimate secrets. go figure.

Hi Jenny,
I think people who take up an instrument usually have a sensitive side, most trans girls have a sensitive side, perhaps the two worlds often collide.
In my former life I did a few gigs in fancy dress - schoolgirls, pantomime dames at Christmas, that sort of thing. If you ever get the chance to persuade your band to do that you will soon see who is enjoying it a bit too much, or being overtly macho to “prove” that it’s only a bit of a laugh…
There’s no doubt the rest of my band loved it, but probably me the most.
Of course, I will never have to do a gig in drab again, and I have a great excuse for an old girl like me to dress as a popstar or a rock chick and wear skirts that are far too short for my mum’s approval. Love it when she tut-tuts!
Let me know if you’re ever playing anywhere near Kendal, and feel free to come see my band sometime and say hello. Gig guide at www.themustardcutters.com
xx

Oh yes Jenny, wait until they're drunk before you suggest it!
Which band have you played in at Bootleggers? We're back there on the 28th of this month (early evening start on a Sunday).
xx

(Since we're both trans musicians I don't think we're going too much off topic here...)
So what bands can I see you in now? Anytime you can make it to a gig of ours you are most welcome, it would be lovely to meet you.
xx

Hi Jenny,

I played at playing guitar, took accordion lessons (along with tap dancing - my parents thought a tap dancing accordionist would be "popular"), and tried learning the recorder. Even played in a proto-punk/country band for a short time. I quit before our first gig because they sounded better without me. For whatever reason they wanted me to stay, have no idea why...
Gave up on the guitar when my apartment was burglarized and my Gibson Blue Ridge was stolen.

I always was interested in art and I think I was pretty good at it. Did some commercial illustrations and a lot of work for fanzines when I was young. Once Marvel Comics asked me to submit samples, but I never did. Had a steady computer programming job and I was on the west coast.

Probably none of this matters since I'm (oh, shame) right handed.

Best,
Melody

Hi Jeri,

Being told to lip synch isn't so bad. It's when they tell you to stand behind the pillar and lip synch that hurts...

Best,
Melody

Hi Jenny,

Of course I've never heard you, but I've found that heavy accents are often much easier to understand when the person is singing than when speaking. Not a linguist so I don't know why. As a Californian I have no accent...lol.

Best,
Melody

I am so jealous.

I can copy a tune on a Stylophone. Just.
But when I try singing, I'm cussed.
My painting's like Lowry;
Won't win me a dowry,
And my dancing just kicks up the dust!

In a bucket I carry a tune,
My flowers don't come up in June,
The pottery's a loss
And my writing is dross
With a skill I'd be over the moon!

Oh yes – I'm right-handed and have no other excuses either!

Hi Sue,

Maybe so, but you are a poet and I bet you know it!

Best,
Melody