"Gaspard de Gueidan playing the musette" (Gaspard de Gueidan en joueur de musette), painting by Hyacinthe Rigaud, 1738, Musée Granet, Aix-en-Provence (Bouches-du-Rhône), France.

Technical author by day, musician by night? something like that ... at any rate, a native English speaker now living and working in Belgium.

I've been playing the recorder since I was five, and along the way I have (voluntarily or otherwise) tried lessons in piano, violin, oboe and Flemish bagpipes. But then in 1997 I saw and heard my first musette de cour, and that was it! I ordered one on the spot. Four years later, the instrument was ready; a few months after that, an acquaintance mentioned he happened to know of a tutor.

Now, for the first time with any instrument, I'm practising eagerly and even diligently. Also, to give the instrument its due, trying to contribute my first wiki article.