What do you do besides playing music?

[Mark from Boston]

Work, practice, gym, read, watch baseball and hockey games.

I've been a devoted amateur jazz trumpet player on and off all my life. I got serious about trumpet when my wife and I bought a house and I built a music room in the a basement. Studied for 12 years with a guy who teaches at Berklee. Play in a couple of local combos.

Decided a few years back I wanted to learn a rhythm section instrument, so I spent a year teaching myself bass out of books. Then I found a great bass teacher. At the first lesson, he said "Play something for me." I did. He said, "No no no no no no." Rebuilt my technique from scratch. What a difference!

I spent almost 30 years as a newspaper reporter and magazine writer, and made a career change 10 years ago to academia: I'm a college professor who teaches journalism.

Six months ago I put together an adult student rock band at a local music school: me on bass, two other aging journalists on guitars, a woman in her 30s on drums, and a teacher who is a very good guitar player and a patient man. We are awful but our Tuesday night sessions are pretty much the most fun I have every week.

 

[Captain Comet]

Mess with old cars and build furniture.
I also have co-ordinated and emceed a couple charity events.
Chase after 4 grandkids.
I have done a lot of theatre in the past, and look forward to resuming that in a few years when I "retire". That is in quotes because I know I won't be sitting still.

 

[JZQuantum]

Besides bass and songwriting, I obsess over having the best lawn in my neighborhood.

 

[tweety]

I have a rock crawler 86 toyota I maintain and destroy, and rebuild from time to time. maintain the house and property. Keep the wood stove rollin. Drnk beer. over

 

[Mike N]

cars , boats, building engines, rescue cats, retired

Is that a quick change rearend??

 

[dpbass66]

I didn't assume that at all. I just wanted to know what people do that isn't music and isn't their day job.

Maybe I should have said "implied" instead of "assumed", since I could never know what you assumed. You never said "and isnt your day job" in the original post, so it sounded like you were asking, "what do you do as a hobby when you're not making a living playing music". My first thought to the original post was "music IS what I do for a hobby/on the side".
I get what you were asking now, though. It's an interesting post topic... because we all just communicate as bass players... while there is a whole lot going on with everyone on TB that might be interesting to know. I'd like to know what people's day jobs are... who is a doctor? Who is a carpenter? Who is a priest? Etc....

 

[D M C]

I've been a puppet, a pauper, a pirate
A poet, a pawn and a king
I've been up and down and over and out
And I know one thing
Each time I find myself flat on my face
I pick myself up and get back in the race

 

[dafunky1]

Rocket Scientist (really)

 

[Jim622]

Fire Boat Pilot

 

[Malak the Mad]

As I've stated across many threads, I'm a professional massage and neuromuscular therapist (L.M.T./C.N.M.T.) who specializes in pain relief and dabbles in sports massage and flexibility. One of the ways I like to challenge myself while working is to bring a strong dose of "Cause & Effect" to bear for the benefit of my clients. I take their symptoms, compare it to their day-to-day activities/repetitive stress(es) and try to zero-in on what's causing or reinforcing their pain/tension…or to put it simply, I "play detective" for an hour or so.

So, if anyone has a serious question or needs some advice on that front, feel free to PM me. The worst I can say is, "Hmm…I dunno…talk to an actual doctor."

Outside of helping people through their pain and discomfort, I balance things out by inflicting a great deal of pain on many, many people…by the hundreds or even thousands at a time!

No, I'm not talking about my amateurish bass playing. I speak on panels and do presentations at anime and sci-fi themed conventions up and down the East Coast. Strange thing though…of all the cultural/informative/best-of panels I speak on, the one that gets the biggest turnouts are the ones devoted to showcasing the worst of the worst of the worst the animation industry has to offer.

For almost twenty years, I've been running a part-presentation/part-stand-up-routine called "Bad Anime, Bad!!" which weirdly enough has garnered a bit of a following. This has culminated at Anime Boston, where I'll be performing in a week and a half (shameless plug ). For some bizarre reason, it's become "quite a thing" there, gathering crowds of considerable size. But don't take my word for it, see for yourself…

• Anime Boston 2012 – Bad Anime, Bad!
• Anime Boston 2014: Bad Anime, Bad!
• Anime Boston 2015: Bad Anime, Bad!
• Anime Boston 2016: Bad Anime, Bad!
• Invalid Link Removed

From 2015, over 2200 faces, my best crowd turnout…EVER!! (pardon the panorama effect warping the photo )

 

[The Owl]

Cooking

Ballroom dancing

Model railroading

Yelling at imaginary kids to get off my lawn

 

[klejst]

Every other Thursday and starting exactly at 3:43:32 pm I walk down the street and yell at every rock on the ground I see....gives me something to do for hours.

 

[edcars]

i make pomade.

 

[pappabass]

Listening to music ! take a few pictures, go to the beach, I am fortunate to live close to the beach. Work on what is broke! Just finished building a house, me & my son were the contractors, moved in last week.

 

[Pug the Pig]

Mess around with old cars, weld stuff together, hit things with hammers, that kind of stuff...all fairly typical bass player malarkey so I'm told...

 

[D M C]

I’ve recently decided to take up hypochondria. I don’t want to brag, but I’m a natural.

 

[Pug the Pig]

You should get that looked at...

 

[toowrongfoo]

I post or I play bass. Sometimes I feed the cat. Ok, that's not all, I watch TV too. It's amazing I'm only 180 lbs.