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Why do you like to play?

What’s MOST important to you - performing, making money, or playing music you lik

  • Being on Stage (the high from performing)

    Votes: 78 36.3%

  • Making Money (show me the money).

    Votes: 9 4.2%

  • Because you like writing/creating music.

    Votes: 97 45.1%

  • Because you like making music as a hobby

    Votes: 31 14.4%
  • Total voters
    215
Joe Louvar

Joe Louvar

Guest
Jun 6, 2011
7,543
289
Santa Rosa, CA USA
www.reverbnation.com
#1
NOTE: "Because you like making music as a hobby" has been added. This is for those who don’t preform/gig.
----------------------------------

Out of curiosity, I was wondering what the TB majority thinks, so here's a poll ~

What’s "MOST" important to you - being on stage, making money, or playing music you like? Also please feel free to comment but please respect everyone opinion/comments/etc. Thanks

I'll start - Originally for me is was the music, then the money, and now the music again - but I'm not saying money doesn't talk. :D

EDIT: I know there are many other reason - I just picked what I thought might be the 3 biggest IE, some just play for themselves, etc.

Wow- the thread start before I even finished posting the poll, lol - thanks :)
 
#3
Personally for me it's;

  • Still being able to do this at 60 years old.

  • The music, an outlet for creativity

  • Gigging

  • I love the atmosphere of bars and clubs

  • Being a part of the overall gigging rock band sub-culture

  • Collaborating with other musicians

  • Watching people enjoy the music your creating

  • Talking to fans

  • The money

blue
 
#5
Making music, but especially being part of the creation of original music. I'm getting to a point where I'm losing enthusiasm for performing, but it may have to do with the types of venues I play and the 'scene'. Good people, all, but I'm just getting tired of playing where the main purpose is selling booze (i.e. bars), and I'm finding it's just not really my 'tribe', so to speak. We'll see, we're booked into September and even have Christmas show booked. I'm just jonesing to go my own way again.
 
#6
Well, after 45 years (yikes!), I still love to play live, still enjoy $$$ (of course), but the music and the right people are now way more important. Not playing nearly as much as the old days. Now it's quality over quantity. Times change sometimes for some people!
LOL! No right or wrong answer IMO, but a good question!
 
#7
Therapy. I always thought stringed instruments sounded amazing and always looked good and always wanted to make those sounds. I have internal rage issues that kinda just melt away with good music and the sound of a well played string and have always liked it. When I got into bass I wanted to be that big famous rock star in front of the masses but I knew inside it really didn't mater, on stage or at home by myself, its just those sounds that are all that matter.
 
#8
I'd love to be able to make a living from writing music. Gigs are great and when I'm feeling especially tense I look forward to them but it's mostly the music. If there were a way to work at a middle wage and write music and be sure of work, hell i'll do that in a heartbeat.
 
#9
I love music. Always have, always will. Too much a part of who I am, even though I have had periods totally away from it, and have had to reinvent and rebuild myself a couple of times.

I enjoy being with a good band and entertaining others.

Money is in there too, as a not so distant third. I can, of course, always do my own stuff at home for free. But if I am going to invest time and resources into going out gigging, some cash incentive has to be there too.
 
#10
*** is "Making Money" :help:

No really though, writing music, whether it be on Bass or any other instrument is the best hobby/creative outlet I've ever stumbled upon. I've written a gang of songs that I've never played for anyone, don't really intend to...but the process of working out specific thoughts or emotions into sounds is, as Technotitclan noted, extremely therapeutic.

Throwing a band into the mix, especially when everyone involved is on the same page, is just the most fun I think I can have in a sitting...getting paid gigs or even the tips + free beer setups are well and fine, but I'd almost argue playing in a garage with a few friends on and off "stage" is the superior venue
 
#12
Since you added "the high from performing," I'll go with #1, although I don't necessarily need any crowd present to get that "high." I'll never forget the first time I played bass--I was with a guitarist (maybe there were 2) and a drummer, and I was playing the simplistic lines to Cocaine and Crazy Train (playing them simpler than they are). But I just loved the feel of interacting with other musicians, of being a part of making songs come to life, even though we weren't writing/creating anything new. Almost 30 years later, I still just love playing music.
 
#13
I love the stage! I just can't play by myself, and I have a hard time getting myself to practice, but I will spend hours and hours in a rehearsal room with the band and I will play a gig no matter how long or how tired I am. I love getting ready for a show, setting up the rig, chatting with the other bands, meeting people and of course the icing on the cake, playing live. I don't like to show off, I'm not getting off on people applauding or anything, I just like being on stage, I feel great there. Preferably playing a song or a line I wrote, but ... you know.
 
#17
I love music and I love to play. Plain and simple!

Playing out to an audience is the ultimate culmination of putting in the work to write or learn a song IMO. Making money doing it is just icing on the cake for me, but I certainly don't complain about it! Right now it's a very welcome supplemental income.
 
#19
I love developing ideas. I love obsessing about a little melody or rhythmic phrase, something which has no context or home just yet. I'll play it in different keys, backwards, funkier, heavier... I record everything that sounds like music. Then maybe I'll put the bass away for a week and work on some drum rudiments. By the end of the week I always take what I've learned to the drum set, and I just jam. Fresh ideas always emerge, and I record and edit what I like best. What happens when you do this is, over time, each idea is developed to feel like a vital organ of some yet to be created beast! With so much of this stuff saved, a lot of ideas will just fall together, and then you write from there. I realize most people don't write like this, but it's fun for me.
 

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