Me, Myself and I |
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Name: Ulrich > Ulisses < Reinartz (* 1961) Main Skills: Computer - Music - Audiotechnology - Cetaceans
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My musical life started when I was 10 Years old. I was with a schoolfriend whose parents forced him to learn piano. He was not so interested in playing, but I was! I could play for hours and hours piano, just what came into my mind. That was actually a really "jazzy" start. My desire was to have a piano at home, but my father said:"You'd better first start playing Guitar, then later we'll see...." My teacher was the complete opposite to me: old, fat, astmatic and I tell you that was no fun! But I learned some basic cords like D minor, C mayor F, G, A and E minor and various fingerpicking patterns. My patience was soon gone. The guitar was put far away from me and I was more interested in playing table tennis. Apart of this I was from my early childhood on "working" with electic or electronic devices. With the age of 6 I constructed an electric alarm bell which was hidden in the kitchen. When my mother entered the room, the bell was ringing and I was really happy that it worked. The other day I found out, that, when I make a wire connection between my father old recordplayer and my little transistor radio, I could hear the record through an earphone. At the age of then I was already constructing mini transmitters to have full audio control about my little sisters room... So transistors, integrated circuits and amplifiers have never been a real secret to me, cause it came with the milk ;-)
I was getting a good table tennis player. When I was 12, I was playing an important game. Then a friend of my father came telling me that he died in an operation in the hospital. That was a hard cut in my life. I really made a big profit from my fathers knowhow in many things. He was a teacher for deaf children. As a little boy I was often with him at school so that it was easy for me to learn more about body language and the sense of hearing in general. A couple years later I made social work in that school.
When I was 15 Years old, I found the old guitar. Only one string was left. But my intention was to test a microphone that I made out of a little speaker. I installed it on the guitar body and connected it to my HiFi amplifier. And guess what I played: Deep Purples "Smoke on the Water". The bassline worked well on my one-string electric bass and my friends told me to continue with music because they liked it how I could improvise melodies without having any idea about notes. So the guitar got part of my life. Meanwhile my sister learned to play flute. She was working hard on "my bonnie is over the ocean". One day I said:"Hey, let me try this!" I played the melody just from my mind and the same happend with all the other melodies my sister was learning.
With the age of 16 I travelled through Ireland. On the boat passage to Aranmore Island I met with the musicians of "Ferdia" an irish folk group. They invited me to take part of their concert in Aranmores "Royal Concert Hall". It was a little wooden building, but the music was excellent. Unplugged, pure! Some of Ferdias members were born here on this small island. After the concert they invited me to some other things and to come to a pub where they were ought to play for fun during the night. At half past ten the doors and windows got closed and the jamsession started. It was amazing! I remember this guy Leon who played very nice flagolett tones. It really took me into music. On my way back home I bought a tin whistle and a blues harp. I decided to explore that music thing intensively....
When
I was 17 Years old, I went to a party. It was a completely new scene for me.
First we listend to Pink Floyd and later we played on our own. I tried bongos
and guitar. The others said:"Let's make a band!!" The fire was on!
My birthday 18 was near. My mother asked me:"What's your desire?"
I did want an acoustic guitar. It was a nice instrument (Aria).
In school I was only for the things I was interested in. I had the maximum notes in Physics, Biology and good ones in English and Geographics. But all the other subjects.... I left school without high degree. I preferred to travel around with my guitar. Once, it was in Cassis(France), I had an exciting night with a french girl. When I woke up in the morning, I had the blues and - the guitar was not there anymore.
We started the first band, but hey that was not the first! Now I remember that I already played drums when I was about 8 or 9 years old. The drum set was made from a "trix" construction kit. I simply made paper on metal rings and then I "painted" it with glue until it was solid enough to be played with a stick. We had guitar, bass, drums and vocals. Our most wanted song was Mungo Jerry's "In the Summertime".
So, the first real band we founded was called "Waldschrat". It's a german synonym for a strange eremit who lives in the forest. Our first live gig was at a school party. Every group member performed a selfwritten song. Mine was called: "Ich will" which means: "I want". That day I got married with the music!
......to be continued.