Did anyone actually enjoy learning how to play this? I know I didn't. Still can't read music

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Appropriate-Food1757@reddit

I mean I could play hot cross buns. So there’s that.

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Confident-Sound-4358@reddit

Yes. My best friend and I learned all the songs from Pocahontas and played them for our music class. That's all I remember but it was a great memory

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TheMachoMustache@reddit

Uh no. And I enjoyed my kids learning it less.

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BrattyTwilis@reddit

I took an advanced recorder course my 5th grade year and they let me play the tenor recorder, which is a larger version of the regular soprano recorders they give most students.

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I loved it. I loved it so much that I have so many of them in different sizes. My favorite is the tenor because it's large and low (not shrill) and has the same fingering. My 2nd favorite is the bass because it's even lower and looks like a medieval saxophone the way it's bent in the neck. They can be beautiful instruments

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Cornemuse_Berrichon@reddit

I have everything except the bass.... and until disability robbed me of the ability to use my hands properly, I played all of them very well and oftentimes in public performance.

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zenithsabyss@reddit

I'm sorry that you had to give it up, but I'm so glad I'm not the only one who loves them

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media-and-stuff@reddit

I was about to comment “I loved it. Ended up playing the saxophone in jr high music class after”.

I mostly picked the saxophone because of Lisa Simpson and sweet jazz music. But the recorder may have been my gateway instrument drug. lol

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zenithsabyss@reddit

That's fantastic! I love the sound of the saxophone!

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EnvironmentalPack451@reddit

I have a full set too! In college, we had a class where we played Renaissance music. The recorders were a big part of it, along with "sackbuts", which are different sizes of trombones.

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zenithsabyss@reddit

That sounds amazing! I would have loved that!!

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crackedtooth163@reddit

RECORDER FOREVER

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pixelpheasant@reddit

I did.

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they_call_me_Mongous@reddit

The guy soloing Freebird obviously enjoyed it, hahaha.

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honestadamsdiscount@reddit

Such a dumb choice for mass teaching thru the USA. 3 blind mice I can still play

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macroeconprod@reddit

It sucked until I figured out how to play the brown noise.

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ScreenTricky4257@reddit

The opening of Stairway to Heaven is played on a recorder. It can sound mellifluent when played well.

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MNxpat33@reddit

Matt Mulholland does a good job with one.

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BarleyBo@reddit

In my opinion that sounds shitty.

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BlanketpartyBoy256@reddit

I can taste rubbing alcohol. Mint flavored.

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Deedeelite@reddit

I loved it. My mom bought me one every year. I thought it was cool, at least in elementary school.

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Spring-Available@reddit

We learned Swan Lake and I went on to play the clarinet.

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UmaTheremin@reddit

I did! That video where the dude performed “My Heart Will Go On” illustrated just how bad it can sound though. Props to my parents for allowing me to practice.

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Flux_My_Capacitor@reddit

How many parents cringed when they had to go to a recorder recital? 😂

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Old_Man_Benny@reddit

This one time at band camp....

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jstnpotthoff@reddit

I can still play Momma's Little Baby Loves Shortnin' Bread at 40yo

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fromthedarqwaves@reddit

I never learned the recorder. I started clarinet in 6th grade though. I still have it.

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AwkwardFactor84@reddit

My girlfriend back then played a mean skin flute

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HotChair6580@reddit

Nobody likes the tone deaf whistle.

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hdorsettcase@reddit

I taught myself to play the theme to Jurassic Park and Link's Awakening by ear. My music teacher said no, stop doing that and practice the lesson. I blame her for why I'm not musically inclined.

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stand_up_eight_@reddit

Loved it. Played in competitions, won prizes. And I still have my original recorder. When I was switched to a “proper” instrument, the clarinet, I lost all joy and interest. The recorder gets a bad wrap, including my brother saying that’s no “plastic wind” section in an orchestra. But I enjoyed it and I think it’s just snobbery and silliness to cast shame on an instrument.

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DebiMoonfae@reddit

I memorized hot cross buns but just where to put my fingers, not the notes .

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Electrical-Pie-8192@reddit

Same

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homerj681@reddit

I only learned what an actual "hot cross bun" was like two years ago. It was all just nonsense to my tiny brain.

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audiosf@reddit

Honestly after you learn the song you don't really read it. Sheet music is like dance moves for your fingers. You have to practice the moves enough that by the end youve for them memorized.

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wuh613@reddit

Only the Star Wars theme song.

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johnvalley86@reddit

I literally just played my kids recorder last night LOL. I'm a percussionist but wood wind instruments would have been my second calling. There's so much breath control involved and each one has its own unique voice and challenges to learn. Fascinating instruments

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Mobile-Boss-8566@reddit

Hot cross buns and three blind mice are the same song!

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Dunnersstunner@reddit

Children awkwardly playing the recorder for a few weeks is not fun. But there are some beautiful pieces performed by expert musicians that can be a joy to the ears.

It's the gap between beginners and expertise that is hard to overcome.

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Material-Imagination@reddit

I re-learned it as an adult and I love it!

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mrsringo@reddit

Mine was handed down from my brother, bright red and the mouthpiece looked like a gerbil chewed it up. We had a recorder recital and I sneezed while playing it and every parent jumped and cringed it was so loud and high pitched.

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Prossdog@reddit

Didn’t Jean Luc Picard learn to play something like that in his other life?

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javaper@reddit

I can still play Hot Cross Buns.

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TheCptnCrash@reddit

I now have an off beat badly tuned rendition of Ode to Joy and Hot Cross Buns stuck in my head…. Thanks…

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Seabass_Says@reddit

Lol just remembered a weird story. I tried cleaning it out one night and got a piece of paper towel stuck in it, was scared to tell anyone, for whatever reason. Fast forward to music class and we are practicing and my hardcore music teacher was like “someone is off!” And broke us up into little groups to see who was off. So when it was our turn for my little group to play a note to prove who is off, I pretended to blow into the recorder so that my paper towel accident wasnt exposed. Why so much fear as a young man?

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Ztunyknum@reddit

Mostly I was annoyed.

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Munchkin531@reddit

My 9yo won a recorder at a Halloween event last weekend. I'm scared he will actually want to play it.

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DontYuckMyYum@reddit

i sucked at playing it as a kid. bought one a few years ago to try and learn to play. I still suck at it.

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DerbGentler@reddit

I took "lessons" on it from 7-year-old-ish to maybe 10 or 11.
It was a nice experience.
But I would not and could not play anything on this instrument ever again.

I once heard a nice saying: "The curse of the recorder is – that it is cheap."
(At least the plastic ones for beginners.)
But they are very hard to learn.
And many children have been driven away from music because of this experience.

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spderweb@reddit

They're still teaching it in schools around grade 5 or 6.

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Wire_Hall_Medic@reddit

This dude appears to have: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrRRTiwoGx8

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VixxenFoxx@reddit

I loved it, and transitioned into Violin and Choir.

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ElectricSnowBunny@reddit

that simple instrument awoke a lifelong love of playing instruments and creating music.

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melanthius@reddit

30 years later and I’ve still never even seen a single hot cross bun IRL

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At_the_Roundhouse@reddit

Same here! Though it also solidified pretty quickly that I’m not meant for wind instruments lol. Gimme some strings or piano keys.

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ElectricSnowBunny@reddit

I just started the piano about a year and a half ago! I suck of course, but it is SO FUN. Just playing scales and working on technique is way more enjoyable than anything I've played.

I played brass and guitar growing up, continued guitar and then got into sampling and blending. Piano I was intimidated to start because I know exactly what it takes to be good, and it's a major commitment. Now im a bit less manic about it and can settle for a guy that can play a little bit in his 50s.

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Late-External3249@reddit

Haha. I had the exact opposite experience. My parents made mendo school band for a few years. I have not a single musical bone in my body. Never had any desire to try to play music ever again. I can spend hours tinkering or woodworking as a creative outlet.

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AgingSeaWolf@reddit

Music teacher's torture device. I really hated it.

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Skore_Smogon@reddit

Loved it. Learning that and how to read music set me up for a life of loving music in all it's forms, playing other instruments. I'm pretty good on the piano and guitar and I can get a tune out of anything you put in my hand.

It all started with one of these little dudes.

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pipipupucaca@reddit

Yes

One of the “triumphs” of my middle school career was playing an extra challenging recorder duet with the band director in front of my entire 6th grade class

I personally dislike that kind of nerdery and cringe in retrospect but I definitely nailed it

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Professional_Tone_62@reddit

We learned to play on the flutophone, a pre-recorder instrument.

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Klaus-Heisler@reddit

Yup, thoroughly enjoyed it

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zaxxon4ever@reddit

The most God-awful sounds...ugh

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jasonmoyer@reddit

Yeah. Performing music is always fun.

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LordTonka@reddit

Thanks to the recorder, I can now play hot crossed buns on any instrument.

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Spider-1205@reddit

I loved it😅

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unbalancedcentrifuge@reddit

I was awful...but I like that they made us do it. How do kids know if they like or are good at something if they dont get to try it. I was a very poor kid, and I was excited that my parents bought a recorder for me.

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Bubbly_Positive_339@reddit

321 321 33333333 2222222 321

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jgguthri@reddit

I hated the recorder and refused to play it. My music teacher said he was going to fail me for not learning the song so I went to his piano, sat down and asked what he wanted to hear. I sat there at his piano and played all the songs we were supposed to learn on the recorder. I still got an A in music. At 43, I play guitar, piano and drums.

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Desperate-Boot-1395@reddit

Yeah man, I learned the whole Lion King songbook.

Tbh I was kind of a music nerd though. Bought a flute relatively recently, it’s way harder. I’m terrible.

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chocochocochococat@reddit

I did learn to play the old ditty: “there’s a place in France, where the naked ladies dance…” on the recorder. Hahaha memory unlocked.

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Fluffy-Opinion871@reddit

Hot cross buns. Toot toot squawk.

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kereso83@reddit

I had to do this one in grade 3 or 4 (don't remember which exactly). Never cared for it.

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hiddenhighways@reddit

They made us do some weird shit in grade school.

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anomalocaris_texmex@reddit

I think my parents still wake up from nightmares of my time in "Recorder Club" in a cold sweat.

Guess what I'm buying my niece for Christmas this year? I can't think of a better way to torment my sister over her holiday break than a four year old learning the recorder.

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peloquindmidian@reddit

My own kid was in high school before I learned that there are actually decent versions of this instrument that don't sound like Mechagodzilla fucking a whale in the blowhole.

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quintk@reddit

Yeah it’s a real instrument, not just a toy.

It’s a skill thing. It’s an easy instrument to get a sound, especially for a wind instrument. But the breath control takes practice. It can be a beautiful instrument (though I prefer the lower pitched versions ).

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Ok-Training3941@reddit

It’s about exposure to music and how to play an instrument. It is not about the instrument.

I guess you’re not a musician. That’s ok.

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rosymindedfuzzz@reddit

I can still play twinkle twinkle on it!

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StrawBerryWasHere@reddit

My friend is a music teacher and has a bunch she uses with kids (they cheap)

She brought a bunch to Burning Man a couple of years ago and taught us all how to play “My Heart Will Go On” - surprisingly not hard to knock out on a recorder

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panic_sandwich@reddit

I loved it, but I was only in it for the belts. Not sure if other schools did this, but every time you’d learn a song you’d get a different colored string tied around the end of the recorder like karate belts. I wish I could find mine; I distinctly remember that I wasn’t a black belt but I did have a couple of beads which were probably like “green belt third degree” or something.

I never actually learned to read music though; I just learned to play by ear well enough to feel my way through each song. And it worked! Upgraded those recorder skills to clarinet and coasted my way through 3 years of band, and I’m still musically illiterate to this day XD

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BaconPancakes_77@reddit

My 8-year-old liked the recorder unit in music so much that he asked me to buy him one, and he plays it all the time. He's never expressed interest in playing a musical instrument before, I'm thrilled!

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AmanitaMikescaria@reddit

I learned to play All Alone

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pantheroux@reddit

I loved it. I still remember some of the songs. I was traumatized, though, in fifth grade when we went to sing Christmas carols at the mall. A few kids were chosen to play recorder while the rest sang. I was not chosen. I went home and cried, and wrote vitriol about the teacher and my classmates who were chosen in my diary (I actually loved that teacher, just felt betrayed). Fast forward to right before mall day, one of the chosen kids backed out, so the teacher asked me to bring my recorder. Unfortunately when I wasn’t chosen, I completely stopped practicing any of the Christmas carols, and managed to forget them, probably trying to push the rejection from my mind. I played at the mall, but I could hear myself being a bit behind the rest of the group with a few off (squeaky) notes. It was devastating because I knew that I had done a much better job of playing those songs just a few days before.

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ahawk99@reddit

I remember the song (I think 🤔) GAB BAG waltz. I think that’s the only one that stuck, but definitely can relate to not being able to read music.

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hmmqzaz@reddit

I never used a good one, so, no.

I still don’t quiteee get why there’s always that double hole pattern in things like this - can’t you just do a diatonic seven hole, or even eight hole, and be done with it for easier playing?

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JimParsnip@reddit

My daughter is doing "recorder karate" where they get colored rankings for mastery. Seems to be motivating her. She spends every Tuesday recess practicing by choice.

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Ok-Butterfly-5458@reddit

Despised it

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Groovy-Davey@reddit

Hot Cross Buns, baby!

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Zenith-9@reddit

Never learned but as a kid I found it as a useful tool to annoy people lol.

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CreativeFedora@reddit

But did you ever play the brown note?

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jessek@reddit

It was an instrument that made unpleasant noises so of course I loved it

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sixfourtykilo@reddit

The funny thing about learning an instrument in Michigan is that if you're near the university you WILL learn the UofM fight song and it is basically just a hot cross buns, in a different order

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mrtoddw@reddit

I still own one and play about 5 different instruments. They’re kind of fun.

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IamRick_Deckard@reddit

I learned to play Tom Dooley. It was awesome.

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Federal_Secretary350@reddit

I’m just saying: you can play Sure Shot by Beastie Boys on one of these things. Worth all four years of playing Hot Cross Buns.

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brasticstack@reddit

Don't need to sight-read to play Hot Cross Buns!

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Underfyre@reddit

I don't remember ever having to do anything with this instrument. I see jokes about it all the time, and I'm just left wondering what everyone is talking about.

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Japaneseoppailover@reddit

I can play the brown noise.

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fubo@reddit

I would have liked it more but I got chided too often for tootling around experimentally during music class. Getting 20 kids to play in unison couldn't have been fun for Miss Whateverhernamewas either.

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mrspelunx@reddit

Check out Michala Petri.

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sophisticatedcorndog@reddit

I loooved it because it was how I learned how to read music and later became a musician. The recorder is the gateway drug for young musicians.

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Nzaid@reddit

Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge, Face.

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lilbunnygal@reddit

Three blind mice

That is all.

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shutterslappens@reddit

You mean, hot crossed buns? Three blind mice is pretty difficult.

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lilbunnygal@reddit

Three blind mice. Three blind mice. See how they run.

I never learned beyond those 10 toots 🤣

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KarlyPie@reddit

I did! I loved learning the recorder. After that I learned to play the flute and bunch of other instruments in band class.

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Kookiecitrus55555@reddit

Loved my crazzzy ass jazz version of Hit Cross Buns

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British_Rover@reddit

I loved music and have played a few different instruments.

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ChalkDstTorture@reddit

My fingers were too small to cover the holes when I got mine, so that stopped me from progressing on it. Guitar and piano worked much better for me

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Moxie_Stardust@reddit

I did not. I did learn to read music, though. Then I forgot how. Then I learned again when I had guitar lessons in high school. Then I forgot again--I mean, I can read it, just painfully slowly. I could probably sight-read again if I had a reason to study. But it's not particularly useful for the kind of music I play.

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lavasca@reddit

Yes but I was also playing guitar and piano. I was bummed I didn’t get picked for performance.

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Atillion@reddit

I did. I can still play songs from 5th grade memory. I've moved onto other instruments, but when my fifth graders came home with them, I would blow their minds :D

Here's The Office theme I was ironically goofing around with a while back

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