Musicians check in here. If you play, tell us about it!

[jimbodaddy74]

So how many here are gigging?

I miss gigging... well, I don't miss hauling equipment in and out, or going to work the next day after a weeknight gig, and a number of other issues (but I'll stop there lol)... but I do miss seeing people enjoying the music I am helping make happen. *sigh* those were the days

My band hosts a jam session every other week at a local bar currently. We just booked a private party and we get the occasional bar gig just about monthly.

Guitars: 2001 Gibson SG Special and a heavily frankensteined 1985 Fernandes LE-1 strat clone.
Amp: TubeWorks Mosvalve RT2100 with two Celestion Vintage 30's.
My effects setup is just an old Digitech RP300A. Not the best, but it gets the job done.

 

[bassnut]

My band hosts a jam session every other week at a local bar currently. We just booked a private party and we get the occasional bar gig just about monthly.

Guitars: 2001 Gibson SG Special and a heavily frankensteined 1985 Fernandes LE-1 strat clone.
Amp: TubeWorks Mosvalve RT2100 with two Celestion Vintage 30's.
My effects setup is just an old Digitech RP300A. Not the best, but it gets the job done.

Bless you for hosting the jam session, Jimbo.
Those are so important. Musicians always need a place to go to make music with other musicians. Sometimes we get disconnected for different life reasons.
Back in the late 80s after three years of a disastrous marriage (my first of two) when I hardly played at all, I left. I got wind of a blues jam, grabbed my bass out of the closet and went. When my turn came to get up and play, I had been so long removed from playing that I wasn't entirely convinced that I could. I only new it intellectually. It was an odd feeling of disconnectedness.
Somebody called out the tune and the key and the groove and counted it off and my fingers just went to work doing the thing they knew from years of training and experience to do. It was almost as if I was an observer for a few moments. I almost cried right there from gratitude.
So... I thank you again, Jimbo.

 

[mojofilter]

I mentioned a few pages back that I have a boatload of vintage keyboard sounds to play with. I never realized until I got the sound of a real electric piano how much I liked that sound on records from the '70s and '80s, nor how much of it I absorbed but never used. It has been great to spend the last five years learning to play songs that I would never have attempted on an acoustic piano (real or simulated) because there isn't one on the record.

I can call up the reed piano sound for "The Logical Song" or the Fender Rhodes on "I'm Not In Love" or Art Garfunkel's version of "I Only Have Eyes For You." I've been learning Don Grolnick's fills on "Secret O' Life" by James Taylor this evening, and they are often not what you'd expect them to be. I like players who come up with complex chord voicings and progressions. Gino Vannelli has a song whose verses are in B but the choruses are in B flat ("Living Inside Myself"). I learned to play it because it intrigues me so much, but I haven't the first idea how he knew that was going to work, or whether it was his brother and arranger Joe, who is amazing (he isn't credited as a composer on the song).

 

[DaveP]

Enjoyed Dixie Tabernacle a lot! It's good to see that those guys are still picking.

KattMamma said:

So how many here are gigging?

I miss gigging... well, I don't miss hauling equipment in and out, or going to work the next day after a weeknight gig, and a number of other issues (but I'll stop there lol)... but I do miss seeing people enjoying the music I am helping make happen. *sigh* those were the days

I've been out of the gigging for many years, but never stopped picking. I played in a Top 40 band for many years. For the last 9 years I've been lead guitar in the praise band at church. We practice on Thursday nights, rehearse at 8am on Sunday morning, and play from 9am til 10am (with a break for the sermon) in a contemporary service for about 250 people. It's a great gig with some talented guys and girls in the band. We and the audience both like rocking contemporary christian tunes.

When we first started the praise band, we worked up a list of top 40 tunes from the 70s and 80s (when music was, well rocking) and played several gigs at parties, did some benefit performances for charity organizations, and one wedding reception. It seemed too much like work for a bunch of old guys, so we stopped once we got that out of our system! Now, the Thursday practice and Sunday service is just enough for all of us to be happy and stay in the groove with our playing.

I played weekends from about 1965 until 1985. Spot gigs here and there in the 90s kept me satisfied. I got tired of loading in and loading out and staying up until 3am or 4am and having an intense day job at the same time. Gigging is a job for young guys (or old guys with roadies). We never had roadies.

 

[Hypnophone]

Hey! Any drummers here? Huh?
I have been at it since 1976. I have played it all, seen it all, and done not quite it all.

Somebody has to keep you geetar-boys in line.

Hi, I am Hypno.

 

[Hypnophone]

Perty okay (if by okay, you mean badass) three-piece:

 

[Hypnophone]

Guitar-boys... pfft

Here's some geetar for ya:

 

[Pipeous]

Here's one for the bass players (and drummers lol) with some Canadian flair

 

[Cullin Kin]

Never knew this thread existed!!! Links in my sig. Looking forward to chat with some other vaper musicians!

 

[bassnut]

Anybody seen that movie 'Whiplash' yet?

 

[Cullin Kin]

Anybody seen that movie 'Whiplash' yet?

Yes. It. Is. Awesome.

 

[bassnut]

Yes. It. Is. Awesome.

Thoughts? I just now saw it. Just finished. I have some thoughts but maybe they're half-baked. I identified a lot.
I had a similar but no so intense of an experience and after a time I embraced it as positive.
I need to process this for a minute.... It took me a lot longer to process and appreciate that experience. I wouldn't trade it.

 

[Cullin Kin]

Thoughts? I just now saw it. Just finished. I have some thoughts but maybe they're half-baked. I identified a lot.
I had a similar but no so intense experience.
I need to process this for a minute....

I think most musicians do have similar experiences. That's why it resonated so well with the music and hollywood community (see what I did there?). My experience is in classical piano. I remember times in the piano studio being drilled on theory and technique for hours, playing to the point where my fingers couldn't move. Recital preparations were a nightmare. Tears were shed, but looking back, I wouldn't be the musician and music composer I am today without it. Non-musicians found it unrealistic, like my mother's boyfriend, but it is all too real.

It was well-acted, and Mr. Teller really learned how to play for that movie, which makes it even better.

What did you think?

 

[bassnut]

Well, Cullin, I can't quite match your experience and talent but I do understand the tears and in my case, humiliation.
I guess we both know that. Humiliation is part of that growth process.
The line in the movie "Hey, you did a good job' = death. One needs to get a cymbal tossed at their head.....
I survived and I'm better for it. I'll tell my simple story later.

 

[Cullin Kin]

Well, Cullin, I can't quite match your experience and talent but I do understand the tears and in my case, humiliation.
I guess we both know that. Humiliation is part of that growth process.
The line in the movie "Hey, you did a good job' = death. One needs to get a cymbal tossed at their head.....
I survived and I'm better for it. I'll tell my simple story later.

Yes, humiliation. It's a big part of it. "There are no two words in the English language more harmful than good job." Gave me shivers. I'd love to hear your story.

For now, I'm going to bed. I'll check back in the morning.

 

[DaveP]

I think most musicians do have similar experiences. That's why it resonated so well with the music and hollywood community (see what I did there?). My experience is in classical piano. I remember times in the piano studio being drilled on theory and technique for hours, playing to the point where my fingers couldn't move. Recital preparations were a nightmare. Tears were shed, but looking back, I wouldn't be the musician and music composer I am today without it. Non-musicians found it unrealistic, like my mother's boyfriend, but it is all too real.

It was well-acted, and Mr. Teller really learned how to play for that movie, which makes it even better.

What did you think?

There's music we play for fun and creativity and there's music assigned by our teachers to give us insight into the way others play and develop certain skills. We all need to learn scales and modes and apply them to our playing. It's really the best way to develop the skills needed to break out of the pattern box and solo creatively.

 

[bassnut]

There's music we play for fun and creativity and there's music assigned by our teachers to give us insight into the way others play and develop certain skills. We all need to learn scales and modes and apply them to our playing. It's really the best way to develop the skills needed to break out of the pattern box and solo creatively.

I highly recommend seeing the film.

 

[chopsy]

I'm mostly a bassist, been playing for 16 or so years.
My main two babies are a 1946 Kay M1 upright and my Rickenbacker 4003 (although the Ric needs a good setup and rarely sees daylight now that upright is part of the picture)
My musical taste is all over the place, I'm a huge metalhead (specifically love grindcore and doom/sludge) but I spend most of my time listening to old time fiddle tunes, bluegrass and blues since those are the genres I gig in.

Although mainly a bassist I am an aspiring fiddler (that .... is hard but incredibly rewarding), play fairly competent rack harmonica and love to drum for the fun of it (although I have never played that role in a band.) Also I noodle on mandolin... mostly picked that up for intonation reasons because it's almost like a fiddle with training wheels

My main band is a newgrass/Americana group which is 5 members strong on a good day but lately it seems we are growing apart (most members have young kids, two of them under a year old, so I understand). We still have occasional gigs but after getting shut down a few too many times I am getting out of the bass/backup singer role and working on starting a round peaks style fiddle/banjo duo with an amazing clawhammer player who is a friend of mine. Can't wait to see where that goes! Turns out singing lead is actually pretty fun!

 

[Hypnophone]

See? This is a guitar thread...

 

[Hypnophone]