Does having my AA degree in music count? I started with piano when I was 5.

Junior high I took up flute but didn't have lessons other than what I learned & practiced daily on my own....was first flute in orchestra by the time I graduated junior high. Got to conduct that orchestra for my junior high graduation too.

Spent high school doing marching band in fall & concert band in spring & joined a community youth orchestra for awhile.

Decided to start as a music major in junior college. It was interesting learning all types of music theory from the different periods & writing music that was performed in several original composition workshops. Did many flute solo performances & was involved in many chamber groups with my flute....some really challenging performances.

I ended up buying a professional sterling silver (not plated) flute just before graduation that I really enjoyed playing.

When I tramsferred to the 4 year university competition was way out there on flute. Some really outstanding players. I took a few lessons from a flute player in the Los Angeles Philharmonic but she was obnoxious. Then I found a really sweet flute professional to take lessons from who had actually taken lessons from Jean Pierre Rampaul & she got him to come to our university & do a workshop. Lol.....I practiced 8 hours a day seriously trying to get better. I got better but not good enough to compete in the real performing world & earn enough money to live on.

That was when I decided to keep music as a hobby & get a REAL career that would pay my bills (went into computer science as a junior)

I totally enjoyed my music performing at the level I was capable of. Found a local flute choir to perform with out in Calif. In a break off group from that we did some professional performing at the local performming arts center & weddings.

I did some choral conducting at my church as kind of a fill in.

I brought my flute with me when I moved & was going to be performing that Christmas but my truck was broken into on my drive back to Ca that fall & the one bag that had all my receipts in it & my flute in the bottom was stolen. I never got it back. A sweet friend got a student flute fir me to play but the pads were shot & honestly it was like someone riding a plow horse when used to riding a grand prix dressage horse.

Oral surgery has made it too difficult to even bother trying flute again. I play at my keyboard & I have been the sit in organist at the previous church I went to when our organist was on vacation & also led the singing in that tiny church.

Now I just play at my keyboard once in awhile. Yep.....I miss performing with my flute & the challenge of preparing for the performance....but I have had to come tp terms with that having been a different chapter in my life.

Several of my friends have amazing baby grand piano's that I have spent time practicing on when farm sitting for them.

I was actually shocked when I transferred to the 4 year college as a junior. One of the music major requirements was passing a piano proficiency test. I passed but definitely not well enough to be a keyboard major either.