A few weeks ago, I got into a conversation with a guy at a party. Turns out that though he has a day job, his love is playing blues bass, which he does jamming with others a couple of times a week. So we’re talking about that, and I’m asking some questions in a small-talk sort of way, and one of the questions I asked was “So who are the really good blues bassists?” and he said [paraphrasing here, this was a couple of weeks ago and I don’t remember exactly what he said] “I don’t know, I don’t listen to a lot of it to listen to it, I’m mostly analyzing what people are doing so I can play myself.” Which seemed pretty weird, but whatever. I don’t think he was trying to blow me off or end the conversation, because we kept talking about this and that for another half hour, and I ended up asking again, “I’m not super into blues, who are musicians you recommend?” (here meaning anyone, not just bassists), and again he said, “I don’t know, I can’t think of any names of people I like.”
Is this as bizarre as I think it is? Or do I have some fundamental misunderstanding of musicians, and y’all really are just doing your own thing and not listening to each other?
I’ve known a bunch of musicians–many of whom have quit their day jobs. Most of them listen to other musicians–live or recorded. Sometimes for inspiration, other times for enjoyment.
I was at a concert with a friend who had invited their friend, who happens to be a professional drummer. I found watching him as he watched the concert to be fascinating - he was intent on the drummer on stage, exclusively. He looked quite serious during the show, as if this was work for him - he wasn’t watching with admiration, he was studying.
One guy, of course, but it supports the idea of analysis vs. “listening to the music”.
It can get a bit like that, especially if you write and record music as well as play it.
There’s been more than one occasion when I’ve thought about a certain kind of music and just made some stuff up rather than going to all the trouble of searching for artists who’ve already done it.
Also, if you’re listening to music to learn it and play it, that’s a different thing to just listening for pleasure of it. It’s not that you don’t listen to other players at all, more that you listen in a very technical way.
I have a brother-in-law who plays guitar in a band. He’s said before that he’s analyzing the music and, what’s more, is only listening to the guitar parts. He couldn’t tell you the lyrics beyond a line or two from any number of common/popular songs.
Some musicians find that discussing music for them is a frustrating experience - they don’t have the words to articulate their musical impressions or emotions; or they find that when they talk with non-musicians, it gets tangled and awkward, so they learn to fill in with non-answers and move on.
Some musicians don’t actively listen to the genres that they play. Blues bass, unless it is in the hands of a truly creative player, is pretty standard “hold down the I IV V chords” type of playing. You can actively play the instrument and not really be engaged in keeping up with who is playing out there - you know what you would play. I don’t listen to a ton of blues these days - for now - but continue to do a ton of blues noodling when I am playing on my own…
Some musicians listen to the music, but focus on their complements, not on their role, which I think is what the person what you were talking to was referring to. If, for 95% of the blues you hear, the bass playing is standard hold-down-the-groove stuff, you can tune it out. Instead, you listen to the other players and think more about what you - a much better player than the bassist on stage - would do if you had to occupy the “bass space” in that song with those players. I often look at guitarists that are not good rhythm players and think about how I would lock in with that particular drummer and bassist differently.
I wouldn’t take it personally - musicians can be characters…
Yes, you’d be able to do that. It’s very odd that he can name absolutely nobody, nobody at all. Musicians listen to each other all the time. Read a few guitar mags. Every guy interviewed goes on and on about all the players who influenced them. The fact that your guy can’t name anybody at all? Very odd. He started playing because he loved what he heard someone else playing. He should at least be able to name that person. I started because I loved Kottke, Fahey and Hedges. Now, in a complete about-face, I love Noel Gallagher. Every musician goes through this. Something odd must be going on when he jams two nights a week in a blues group. I mean, he gets together with these other guys, and they play strictly original material every single time? No covers ever? No one ever warms up by playing an old standard? No one ever says, Hey I figured out that riff that Blind Joe Death used to play on Some Summer Day? That’s very odd.
Good point. But lately I’ve become aware of how many band and song names I don’t know. Sometimes my ear worms were extremely popular songs back in their day, and there’s not a person on the planet who hasn’t heard that song at least a hundred times – but I couldn’t tell you what it was if you held a gun to my head.
They do play standards, apparently – he mentioned that they were currently working on a particular song (which I don’t recall) – but not apparently any particular version of them.
Probably 80% of my guitar playing these days consists of heavy metal riffing. But I could probably only name 2 or 3 metal guitarists. I listen to the likes of Bjork, Norah Jones and Lady Gaga, I can’t stand metal (or most hard rock for that matter). It’s fun to play, but I would never actually listen to that crap.
Because the stuff I listen to isn’t the most complex music in the world, and I suspect I enjoy it more having no idea how it is done than if I were capable of analyzing it.
You ever notice that, on the rare occasion, a band will sit down for an interview after playing a late night talk show, they are inarticulate and boring? This must be why.
Well, if you got stoned and then absorbed in the musical groove and communication with your bandmates and then was supposed to be all conversational with Jimmy Kimmel, you mind find it difficult to change gears, too!
Maybe. I know that learning to play music has changed the way I listen to music, but it hasn’t stopped my love of any of the stuff I liked before I learned to play. Granted, I learned to play young, but I still love the blues, and the blues is dead simple. So is most rock for that matter, and there is tons of complex stuff out there that I can’t stand because I feel like the musicians aren’t seeing the forest for the trees.
On the other hand, I would probably have never fallen in love with Hip Hop if I hadn’t learned to play music. I know I wouldn’t listen to Jazz. I have a thing for singers with “bad” voices (think Tom Waits, Bob Dylan, or Connor Oberst) that is probably directly related to me being a musician and subconsciously looking for quirks in the music to give me something new.
I do think that with any art form, as you learn the art you start to go through a period where you are incapable of looking at it non critically. I liken it to the phenomenon of first year med students diagnosing everything in the world around them. So musicians stop hearing music and start hearing parts and technique etc, but usually that goes away as you progress and you start being able to just sit back and listen again.
- would do if you had to occupy the “bass space” in that song with those players. I often look at guitarists that are not good rhythm players and think about how I would lock in with that particular drummer and bassist differently.