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What you listen to vs what you play

scottfeldstein

Roots and fifths and a little extra.
Jun 20, 2011
6,544
4,412
57
San Marcos, California
endlessblue.bandcamp.com
Somehow at age 42 I find myself in a pretty hard rocking band. I'm sure my bandmates would be horrified beyond description if they could hear what comes out of my car stereo on the way to rehearsal. Upon arrival I might play originals that sound like Iron Maiden or at least Guns N' Roses. But on the drive over... right now it's:

Delerium, Venus Hum, Frou Frou, Cibo Matto, Gogol Bordello, Toby Lightman and Girlyman.

Is there a disconnect between what you listen to and what you're playing right now?
 
Even though what I play and what I listen to are close, I'm much more likely to listen to my favorite led zep, aerosmith , who, queen and rush tunes then listen to my nirvana, presidents of the US of A, ramones, or scorpions tunes.
 
ha - that disconnect is there all the time. I like pretty much all kinds of music, except perhaps some kinds of rap and metal. My gigs, though, range from country-rock-blues, to bluegrass, to jazz. So it's not unusual for me to drive to a gig listening to something completely different than what I'm about to play.
 
I play a lot of rock, country-tinged folk/roots, and blues, mostly. I never listen to rock anymore (not really since I was about 20), never listened to any country ever, I do like some folk-esque stuff, and blues here and there. I grew up on Chicago-era blues and 70s blues-rock. Now I mostly listen to jazz, funky blues-roots stuff like Mofro, as well as curveballs like Pizzicato Five just to keep it interesting. There is no end to exploring the musical landscape - but so many of the people I play with are pretty stuck in a rut.
 
Same here:
Texas blues/rock originals + classic rock + country + classic R&B for band(IIRC).
I listen to ANYTHING except rap most of the rest of the time.
Drive to gig = about 2 hours one way. During that time, the 299 songs currently on the "KNOW THESE" list are listened to.

My listening tends to use music for what it is. If I need energy = metal, relax = classical, new age, or similar, monotonous work to do = trance or what I call "machine music", etc....
 
IbanezSGfan said:
Listen to metal; between the buried and me, lamb of god, opeth, august burns red, etc.. currently play the keys in a country band "Seven's Pine" :) youtube us sometime if you're in east tennessee we gig for pretty reasonable fee!!
I listen to the bands you listed (in addition to a lot of jazz, Latin jazz being my favorite). I'm also big in to 3rd eye blind, RHCP, incubus, 311, etc.
I just joined a ska band. Never played it before, so it should be a good challenge.
 
yess... I play melodic death metal kind and listen to jazz, funk, rock, prog rock, new rock, all kind of metals/hardcore... whatever... My i-pod is full of all of this and on random playing it gives strange mix... my girl friend step a bit and get upset when passing from a smooth jazz to a full drive blast beat...

All this influence my playing of course, but I find my way through and that works and I find something interesting to play...
 
I'm so weird I can listen to anything from old Henry Rollins Band to Bluegrass music in a given day as to what's playing on the audio system in my truck or car. With that said most of my music ventures involve lots of classic rock and blues as to what I play as a bass player these days.