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Hey, Why are You In This?

#21
JimmyM said:
while that is true, ed nugent, i can't bring myself to make a value judgment on people's motivations for wanting to play music. or wanting to stop playing music. to me it's all good and i'm totally behind whatever anyone wants to do with music for whatever reason they choose. so if it's non-musical motivation that makes them do it, fine.
Click to expand...

OK.
Have a blessed day.
 
#23
I come from a fairly musical family. Surrounded by music constantly. When I was 5, I wanted a violin. Never got it..When I was 10, I wanted a cello, Dad said "No Way". I think they were afraid of the screeching bow. When I was 13, I was sitting in math class as a freshman in high school. I don't remember what I was talking about with my friend, but the varsity football player (held back, apparently for mathematical reasons) in front of me turned around and said "you know, if you play bass, you can get in a band real easy. and if you are in a band, you can get laid real easy".
So, when I was 13, I wanted a bass. I remember my dad asking "double or electric". I didn't know the difference, so I said electric because that sounded cool. That Christmas I got a bright red Kramer Aerostar bass and a Peavy 30 watt bass amp. My first paid gig was on a weeknight at a saloon in spring Texas (I was by far the youngest one in the band). My cut of the opening act was $10. I was hooked. It took me another 2 years to get laid. Nearly a quarter century later, I still love bass. I played other instruments in between, but I still always come home to bass.
 
#25
grew yup in the 90's where alternative music was all the rage and my dad used to play me stuff like r.e.m, blur, nirvana, inspiral carpets, sonic youth, my bloody valentine, mudhoney

but he was also really into prog and punk

my dad was a bass player back in the day but gave it up when i was born

i lerned the keyboard when i was younger but after i kept getting letters home from school saying i dont pay attention i had to give it up

my 1st day of high school we had to decide on a instrument and i didnt want to go back to keys.... i actually wanted to do drums but the school said "i think you would be more suited to bass" fell in love with it and when i got home and told my dad he brought out a stranglers album and said "listen"

ever since then ive been obsessed
 
#26
I have social anxiety bordering on agoraphobia, so the whole "let's get chicks" thing never crossed my mind. I tried learning piano and regular guitar when young, then one day I thought I'd try bass. I mentioned it to my dad and he bought a starter bass for my birthday. I've been playing since, and I've taken up composing and audio recording/mixing. So I guess my reason was just because I loved music.
 
#27
I asked God for a sign of whether I should learn guitar (six string) and give up clarinet or not, and the sign happened. So, I got my mom's old Epiphone acoustic and learned. That was maybe fifteen years ago now when I was ten, and I've loved the ride ever since. I incorporated bass when I was about fifteen or sixteen to record with a group of my friends. I've always loved the sound of the bass more so than the sound of the guitar, and it kind of befitted my identity and the ideas I have for music to be the bassist. As a songwriter, I play guitar and sing. But as an instrument, I prefer playing bass.
 
#28
To be honest, I don't know. I love playing in a group and that's all I know. Well I also do know I love my day job more. This is a hobby for me and its all it ever will be. I remember presenting my research at Penn State one time and talking to this girl about being a musician. She said "So if you hit it big and could play the world, you wouldn't?" I thought about it and said "Give me $5 mil a year for 5 years and I'll do it, but only for those 5 years." I'm not a creative person. I find logic much more fun. I was talking to the band leader at church Sun and he said he could've gotten promoted at his work but the boss was scared that as soon as a music opportunity arose, he would be outa there. And he was right. Sometimes I feel like I'm the only musician who enjoys his day job more and I'm surrounded by all these disgruntled musicians working dead end jobs hoping but not expecting that they'll get their big break. I'm the guy on the outside looking in. I love music, love to folow music. My neighbors played stump mike yesterday where they played a song off of their phone and I had to guess it. I nailed every single one in a matter of seconds. I flollow all types of music. You may have seen my posts on how I feel about Rush. But I was pissed when Paladia wasn't coming in so I could see the Rush documentary. I think Motley Crue is a joke. But I watched one of their concerts a few days ago. Kiss' lyrics are bad and have no meaning, but it was one of the best concerts I've been to. I don't like one of Tina Turner's songs, but the $90 I spent on her concert was some of the best money I've ever spent. I'll listne to any music anytime. to me there is no bad music, just music I like more than others. I have respect for all of it at some point. I love listening to, playing, and watching music. But at the end of the day, I feel like I'm the only one who given the choice, would dissect an income statement over playing his instrument. But what draws me to not only play in, but lead a band? I don't know. I just know that muic's the thing I love 3rd most behind my familly and job.
 
#29
Mom and Dad played guitar Mom acoustic and Dad electric the music however was Honky Tonk! I grew up on Hank Williams, Hank Snow, those guys rocking the record player and Mom and Dad playing along. that was where my love of music started from. I still enjoy the old Hank Williams stuff that guy could write a song! But my taste turned to Sabbath and that was my musical direction.
 
#30
You know how music seems to be about some other thing, some other place, some other way of feeling, seeing, and talking? It's an often undescribable force.

When I was a kid, I was lucky enough to see a few musical groups play, and the things that they did made the truth and depth of music completely transparent to me. I knew that I had to be part of that experience, and maybe I could speak to somebody else in the same way I had been spoken to.

Now that I think of it, being a musician is not at all unlike being a minister. Done properly, we get to serve as the door to an entirely different consciousness and give people a lot of what they need, and that they can't get without us.

Who wouldn't want to do that?
 
#31
I have to play! I'm all out of sorts if I'm not playing. I started when I was a teenager because I thought it was something that would set me apart from everybody else. Now I can't do anything else and don't want to. I think it was Steve Swallow that said "If you just love music it's a lousy job but if you feel that you have to play music it's the best job in the world". I'm paraphrasing but the point is that if you have an inner need to play it's a great gig. And the "perks" can be lots of fun. :D
 
#32
For me it was never about the girls. Yes, thats a perk but it was always me wanting to able to get on stage and play guitar/ bass and rock out. I started young at 10 or so and had a few crappy high school bands that went no where but I dreamed of getting on that stage and being a star...doing it with a guitar.
Years latter I now have fun playing in a regional ,local originals band thats is growing. I am married so its not for the chicks, it is for what i started doing it for at age 10. The music, gear, playing in front of people. I'm not a rockstar...will never be but i did it...In a small way... but I am happy :)
 
#34
It's too late to do anything else....;)
Seriously, it's still fun. As a friend of mine wisely put it:
"A bad day of playing music still beats a good day of doing anything else for a living".
Word!
 
#36
I play bass so I can escape my life (now don't get me wrong I'm not a whining goth who has suicidal tendencies). You all know that sometimes in life there are moments when EVERYTHING is going wrong and and no matter what you do the inevitable trainwreck is coming. You just want to run and say "**** you world" and find a place where no one bothers you. When I have that moment I pick up my bass and the "blues" and anger goes away. From this :( - to this :)

I'm on autopilot when I play bass. My concentration is on the bass and all I think about is the sound and the rhythm coming out of the instrument. When I hear a simple rock n' roll riff with a good beat, say AC/DC, Airbourne, ZZ Top (you know what I mean) my foot starts tapping and shivers run down my spine when the hard beating drums kick in and the driving 8th notes on my bass come out of the amplifier. This :) turns to this :D

The beat is just controlling my mind. My feet ain't just tappin', they're flying across the room, head is bopping and I'm twisting like a madman. Maybe it slows down for a while when I scream the background vocals on the mic (something useless and stupid like "I'm a rebel - rebel"), but only for a while. I don't care if the crowd likes me or not, I just do these manners even if I'm practising home. I think I look pretty stupid and foolish but I don't care, I have recieved my satisfaction. My brains were "off" for the last 5 minutes and I'm back here, and the next song is starting... Here we go again

I think I'm the lost brother of Angus Young. :D

But seriously that's how it goes
 
#37
How I got into playing bass? In eighth grade, my junior high band director (I was playing French horn) told me he wanted me to also play bass in the "stage band" AKA the jazz band.

So I took a couple of lessons with a 9th grade string bass player, and convinced my parents to buy me a Telecaster bass (long gone). I played electric and fretless electric almost exclusively until I was in my late '20s, when I began focusing on upright, while still playing lots of electric.

While I played French horn seriously through high school, and I've also played piano and guitar - still do, a bit - the bass, upright and electric, is the sole instrument that "speaks to me" as a vehicle for my musical expression.

Just can't quit her.

So, I have to say, although I don't like the idea of band directors telling kids which instruments to play, I am eternally grateful to my junior high band director (Frank Howes in Lakeland, Fla.) for telling me to play bass.
 
#38
I'm very much a hobbyist not a pro. My main motivators are:

- The social experience of playing with others, especially those moments when you are "being played through" rather than "playing" (not in any religious sense, mind you)

- I enjoy tinkering with the gear

- I enjoy making obscenely loud semi-musical noises
 
#40
For me I started playing drums in 5th grade and still play a little bit, but when I was 27 I was at a friends house that has a really nice music room, he had a few basses in a rack and I asked if I could try one out. I was instantly hooked and bought my own a few weeks later, joined a local band about a year after that, played with them for about two and a half years then decieded playing out wasn't for me. Now at 35 I still play bass and very little drums.

It was never about girls or being on stage for me. Now I'm married and have no desire to play on stage agian. I'm just as happy jammin' long with the laptop.......for now anyway..lol

I think that the reason I'm drawn to music is the fact that you can hand any instrument to someone and they will play a certain way or certain style (their own creativity/skill) then you can take that exact same instrument and hand it to someone else and they can make it sound completely different with their own style of music.
 

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