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Am I odd for not wanting to gig?

#41
For me playing gigs is the crux of the matter- there's no way I or the people I play with would have improved as much or be as tight if we didn't gig. For me gigging is as important as personal practice to continue to improve. Of course YMMV and you have to do what feels right to you. Maybe if you fell into a new group of players, or you guys came up with some great new songs that might change your perspective?
 
#43
" Each man had only one genuine vocation, to find the way to himself " ( Hermann Hess )

As long as you are happy with that arrangement, you're fine. I would go nuts, however. Although I've managed to go long stretches of time just hitting open jams.
 
#46
Muaguana said:
No one says only people who want to make a living playing music should learn how to play instruments.
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Thank goodness - if that were the case, I'd be so screwed.

Everybody's got their own thing that they do, especially with music it seems like everyone's a little different in what they like and what they like to play. My Dad's band sits at a newly established bar-type place here in the 'Boro every Fri and Sat, but he also spends a lot of time on an older Zoom recording station at home. He tells me "the band" is for "getting his yaya's out" and for giving him a genuine excuse to go to a bar every weekend, and the recording station is for original music.

Best of both worlds, maybe.
 
#47
Kawai-chang said:
"I wouldn't consider myself a musician unless I got "out there" and played for an audience."

Wouldn't performer be more apropos here?
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ggunn said:
IMO the only reasons to build a body of musical work is to play gigs or record.
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Well it's like the question - if a tree falls in the woods and nobody is there to hear it...? :eyebrow:

If nobody hears your work - if you have no audience - what is the point of it?

Music is something that only exists momentarily and only really exists in the ears(minds) of those who hear it.

As far as I am concerned - my music does not exist except at the point where an audience perceives it.

So my point is that I do not see myself as a musician unless somebody hears my music.
 
#48
hrodbert696 said:
My band hasn't been out gigging yet, so I don't know if I'm going to end up agreeing with the OP. But I will say that I first picked up the bass about a year ago just for the fun of it... after a couple of months I started to feel it was lame and boring just to hang around my living room playing to myself, I should get some people to play with, found some over CL and it was "just to jam and we'll see how things go." Now it's "when are we going to start gigging?" and I'm getting impatient with the seemingly endless delays. I guess the point is that at each stage, I feel this drive to the next step, and it seems like the final step is to play for an audience.
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It never ends. I have the same personality, as soon as you play your first gig you'll start thinking about that next level. Don't get me wrong, i'm not a "i'm going to be famous" kind of goalsetter. Progression just seems like the natural thing to do.

The thing to do is to book a gig 8 weeks out. That should light a fire under everyone.
 
#49
I've been gigging since 1967, when I stop enjoying it I will stop doing it.

This nearly happened 5 years ago. Couldn't get 2 of the band motivated. The guitarist and I were suggesting songs, making up CDs, printing out chord sheets, trying to organise rehearsals, learning the new stuff, getting gigs. The other 2 just ignored all our suggestions and reluctantly turned up for gigs. We kicked out the keys player for another reason and got in another guitarist, a friend of the drummer. Big mistake now it was guitarist and I against drummer and new guitard.

Guitarist and I had another little project going, a blues band with a drummer friend of his and a mediocre harp player with an over inflated ego.

To cut it short we broke up the first band and kicked out the harp player from the blues band, then learned about 40 new songs in no time. We had to as we still had gigs booked from the first band.

This new 3 piece is a complete breath of fresh air, no arguments or egos. If anyone suggests a song we will have a go at it. Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't but we are now up to about 100 songs on our setlist and getting plenty bookings. We must be doing something right.

As I say I shall stop when it is no longer enjoyable, and if you are not enjoying it then I don't blame you for not wanting to gig. I am sure if we had not had a good shake up a few years ago then I would probably have hung up my old P. As it is I have since bought a whole heard of basses, 2 X MM, 2 X G&L, fretless Jazz and a couple of project basses and loving every minute of it. Well maybe not the tearing down in the early hours so much !!!!!! Oh, or the setting up if the truth be told. But the playing and rehearsing is great.
 
#51
Bruce Lindfield said:
Our band played at a festival on Saturday that was all rock bands apart from us and it brought back how boring the tunes were and particuarly the bass lines - one note for the verse - a slight variation in the chorus and back to the same note!! :hmm:

I love playing Jazz, as each tune is different and is never the same each time we play anyway - so our normal set includes tunes in 3/4, boss novas, funky tunes, spanish-style rhythms - lots of walking lines etc. etc. Lots of musical interest and players who are interesting in what they do on Sax,Trumpet, Piano etc.

There is so much more variety and it is always fun! :)
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You'd probably appreciate my rock band. Very influenced by jazz in this regard. We never play the same song twice.
 
#52
MatticusMania said:
You'd probably appreciate my rock band. Very influenced by jazz in this regard. We never play the same song twice.
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But that's very different from what I said - we often play the same tune several gigs in a row - but my point was it doesn't always sound the same, as there is group improvisation going on...?
 
#54
Kawai-chang said:
am I wrong or just lazy to be happy playing along with CDs in the basement, and occasioanlly jamming with friends?
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No. "Wrong" is in the eye of the beholder, and for you alone to decide.

If you are enjoying your musicianship, wherever, whenever, you are already receiving the purest reward.

Of course, you'll never know until you try. Some people get absolutely hooked on performing, and it makes all the challenges easy to handle.

Some people can't stand it. Even established, well-known artists give up on the headaches of live performing, like The Beatles or Steely Dan.

Just be happy, and you will enjoy the gift some never recognize or receive.
 
#55
I realized just recently that I despise preforming in front of others. I'm much more content knowing now that I can focus simply of writing music along for the sake of writing music. For myself. I've always put my own stuff on the back burner for the sake of playing in bands. Now I can get back into it, write it, record it, and be happy. If I stick it on the internet and not a single person hears it, I really don't care. Music is my catharsis. I don't do it for others.
 
#58
i don't think your odd at all. i jam with a bunch of friends, either here at my place or at one of their places. i find it satisfying enough to enjoy what i am doing and share with some of my musical friends. we are able to play whatever we want to play in an atmosphere that encourages creativity.
 
#59
Bruce Lindfield said:
Well it's like the question - if a tree falls in the woods and nobody is there to hear it...? :eyebrow:

If nobody hears your work - if you have no audience - what is the point of it?
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It's nothing like that question, because someone IS there to hear it- yourself. You are your audience, and you are your most important audience. The existence of an audience is not needed for music or art to be created, so you'd certainly be no less of a musician or artist if you never showed your work to the public.
 
#60
Theres nothing wrong with it because music means different things to different people, but for me i know i cant live without playing live. The only thing as good as sex for me is playing live. That energy transfer that happens between you and the audience is really something special and i live for it.
 

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