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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
#61
dhagler said:
I got into playing because I wanted to be the bass player at my church (a position I still occupy).

Separate from that? Making music I like with people whose company I enjoy. Figuring out a song and then hearing my contribution to the song mesh with everyone else's.

I haven't played a lot of gigs, paid or otherwise, but I'm hoping that will change soon.
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Yeah, unless you’re being paid to perform at church and that‘s more important to you, I think the best Poll option for you is "for the high". Anyway, thanks for the comment, and I hope you get you gigging wish, and thanks for voting.
 
#67
Joe Louvar said:
Yeah, unless you’re being paid to perform at church and that‘s more important to you, I think the best Poll option for you is "for the high". Anyway, thanks for the comment, and I hope you get you gigging wish, and thanks for voting.
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Thanks, Joe. I do get paid (not a whole lot, comes to about $25 a Sunday) but I would still play even I wasn't. Not so much important as it is an integral part of my life. I do, however, welcome the other playing opportunities because the music is so different (gospel vs. rock, pop, and jazz).
 
#68
dhagler said:
Thanks, Joe. I do get paid (not a whole lot, comes to about $25 a Sunday) but I would still play even I wasn't. Not so much important as it is an integral part of my life. I do, however, welcome the other playing opportunities because the music is so different (gospel vs. rock, pop, and jazz).
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Way cool, I like contemporary gospel, pop, rock etc too - and thank you for voting. :)
 
#70
I love the way that a band locks in on a song where everything is clicking on 4 cylinders. You can't put a price on the smile I make when I sense that everything is clicking.

I used to be in a band when I was still in High School - we played thrash and hard rock. Now that I'm in my late 30s I wanted to play again not for performing but for personal satisfaction. Learning music theory etc - which I did not learn as much as like before because we frequently used tabs photocopied from magazines - to enrich my knowledge.

So far I am now more appreciative of other genres which I abhorred during my High School Days. Now I can play any genre which delivers nice grooves (anything from Sly and the Family Stone, EWF, Sublime, No Doubt, RHCP, Early Metallica, etc); I also listen to Jazz now (!).
 
#74
I like the way a well-executed bass passage feels. From a very early age, long before I could express it as a coherent thought, I recognized that nearly EVERY great song has a strong bass line—whether it's simple, complex, loud or subdued. It changes the way people feel. I want that, over and over again.
 
#75
Edward G. said:
I like the way a well-executed bass passage feels. From a very early age, long before I could express it as a coherent thought, I recognized that nearly EVERY great song has a strong bass line—whether it's simple, complex, loud or subdued. It changes the way people feel. I want that, over and over again.
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FWIW: I agree - however, many other instruments can change the way people feel too. Thank you for the comment, and thanks if you voted.
 
#80
First time I ever sat with a band, I couldn't believe the rush I got out of just bottom-lining some simple rock stuff from that time (REO, Rush - many of us remember well). I knew I wanted to play bass just from listening intently to my favorite songs, but didn't completely know why until I jumped in and did it. I basically understood the role filled by the instrument, but once I felt that power in a real-time musical situation, I understood completely why I needed to be doing this. The sensation was like chowing incessantly on steak and potatoes but never getting full, or like having an endless supply of some really good drug with no negative side effects.

Time passed and I came to think the girls, the money, and the adulation were pretty cool. I loved being on stage and getting that audience feedback. Then I discovered there was satisfaction to be had in a good studio session, and then discovered the satisfaction of writing and hearing some of my own stuff come to life...the dimensions just kept building.

Then somewhere along the way, I grew up and realized for myself that all of these great attributes revolved around the fact that music is a universal language. It exists in a place that's a little higher than ourselves. It's translated and rendered through musicians, but it's everybody's gift. Once I got that in perspective and kicked the ego completely out of the equation, it ceased to ever be a "me" thing again. It's an open-invitation magic carpet ride, and these days I just like seeing how many people I can encourage to hop on. I challenge myself and my fellow musicians to do that with our playing, and when we're doing it right, everybody in earshot is on board. That communal aspect of music is priceless.

Yeah, yeah...kum-ba-yah or whatever...but dig it. Music is about the best thing humanity has going for it. I voted "create and make music" because it is it's own reward. Musicians are conduits, and along with musical aptitude comes a very tangible responsibility to develop and use it for everybody's benefit.
 

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