I've been on the list awhile. Played professionally for 2 years a few too many decades ago. Used to write songs back then, too. Now play in my church band (contemporary Christian rock, some reggae). Getting back to writing songs and composing for my own enjoyment. Instruments played (in chronological order): piano, organ, guitar, bass guitar, synthesizers, harmonica, and recorder. In the past, I've been known to sort of sing (I've been told I sound just like Jimmy Buffet on "Margaritaville", and I used to be able to sing old Neil Young songs like "On The Way Home" but I can't hit that high a pitch anymore) but I have no vocal training and generally don't sing. Personal music likes: every musical genre except most modern jazz (sacrilege!) and rap. When my music collection is playing on shuffle mode, it's been known to play a performance of Pachelbel's Canon in D on original baroque instruments followed by Scottish punk music or Rasputina or Ars Nova ... I sometimes get weird looks from coworkers because of that! Learned much about Linux as a music platform on the list, enjoy the wide variety of Linux audio software available, like listening to the many songs list members produce. Currently slowly working on turning an old laptop into a Linux-based synthesizer/effects box to add to the live mix in the church band, and use for my own recordings. It's been fun! -- David gnome(a)hawaii.rr.com authenticity, honesty, community

If we're hijacking threads to say hello... then hello, I just joined this list last week. My name is J. Simon van der Walt, a composer and musician from Glasgow, currently teaching at both the RSAMD in Glasgow and Stevenson College Edinburgh. The music I write is almost entirely for live performance, but I tend to use a lot of technology with that; sometimes to generate material, sometimes as part of the live performance. For many years I've worked on the mac, using both free and commercial software. I've now come by an Advent 4211-c (Wind U100 clone), I'm interested to see what I can do with Linux. Cheers, -- J. Simon van der Walt ----- Composer <http://www.jsimonvanderwalt.com> <http://jsimonvanderwalt.blogspot.com/> <http://twitter.com/tedthetrumpet>