I’m probably the least of the talents here. I play guitar well enough to accompany 4- & 5-yr-olds singing songs at summer day camp at my synagogue.
I practice beforehand, and can play the songs I have rehearsed, but I can’t “strum in the key of G” or whatever, to accompany a song I haven’t rehearsed. That is what I am currently working on.
I am very good at picking out tunes I have only heard, though, and when I have rehearsed, can combine fingerpicking (actually, I use a pick) with strumming.
I can transpose any melody written for another instrument into notes for a guitar tuned to the key of G. I can read music, and know terms like “key signature.” But my music education ended in the 8th grade.
So, I barely qualify, but I do play in public, and the preschoolers like it.
I played violin up to grade V (pass mark 100/150, I got 101 !)
Played clarinet until I left school then played sax since then.
Played on this single..
(Full story)
I was playing with a bunch of guys, and a couple of other guys
approached us looking for some musicians to record a demo single.
They had 2 chords and a middle bit ! I came up with the sax riff,
and the keyboard player came up with the (you guessed it)
keyboard riff.
A friend had told me of his band who had been ripped off by a
record company, so I refused to sign anything. Same with the
keyboard player.
Next thing I know, the single was released with 4 names down
as writers.
It did fairly well in the club charts, with several people doing
remixes versions, so someone’s getting royalties for my sax riff. Bastards !
But I’m not bitter about it.
..along with this dude. (before he was “famous” !)
Currently playing funk with a group of like minded old fogeys.
Hi, everyone. Yes, it’s true - I’ve been a professional muso (among other things) since Sept., 1984. Mostly voice - I premiered with Edmonton Opera, and have done a lot of opera, oratorio, operetta, and musical theatre. I’ve also branched out into theatre, but I mostly get hired either because of my voice, my instrumental abilities, or both.
Which brings me to my side career as a multi-instrumentalist. Main instruments are guitars and bass, but I also play mandoline and Appalachian dulcimer, Irish flute and penny whistles, low brass (Tuba, euphonium, bass trombone), a bit of keyboards and a bit of alto sax. I get asked ‘How many instruments do you play?’, but the question for me is always ‘What do you need, and how much time do I have to learn a new instrument?’.
Currently living in NYC, doing choral sub work, doing open mics, busking, and looking for actual gigs in venues.
If you look for Doug MacNaughton on YouTube, Spotify, etc., you can catch up to my stuff. Most recent project was an album of original songs called “Old Enough to Know Better”, released in 2023.
I’ve messed with the bass guitar since I was 14 years old. I used to spend hours trying to figure out the bass lines in Black Sabbath songs, and succeeded for the most part.
I still pluck the strings on occasion. But I would never consider myself a musician.
66-year-old singer and acoustic guitarist, plus some harmonica. I mostly perform solo, but I also accompany others on harmonica, and Dobro. I grew up playing oldies rock, but don’t care much for it now.
As for genre, it’s basically anything I can pull off with one guitar and one voice. Old-time blues, old-time country and bluegrass. Also GAS (Great American Songbook): Ellington, Gershwin, Cole Porter, et al. I also love bossa nova.
Army band…Most major army bases have a band as part of their personnel. AFAIK, Navy and Air Force bases do, too. The ostensible purpose is to provide music for all occasions as necessary. Most gigs involve traditional military music – marches, ceremonies, bugle calls, etc., but bands also give concerts and provide entertainment when & wherever requested.
I served in two outfits during my 3 year enlistment; one in Oakland, California (22nd Army Band), and the other at a base near Saigon, Vietnam (Big Red One Band). We had a terrific stage band and often put together a small combo, once for a strip show. What the general wants, the general gets.
In Oakland, we played for the troop ships coming and going; parades in Reno, Nevada, Boy Scout Jamborees, and Wally Bynum gatherings (that’s an Airstream trailer club). One of our piano players played several piano bar nights each week at the NCO club – Danny was quite the entertainer.
I played church organ for the base chaplain (in Vietnam) and once accompanied the chaplain and Santa Claus one Christmas when we visited a dozen tiny fire bases. I had to lug a small but heavy foot-pump organ in a suitcase.
In Vietnam, the band traveled by Huey, Chinook or trucks. Stateside, by bus and/or our own cars.
Appalachian dulcimer? Mandolin? I knew you were a friend. Need a spoons player?
Yep, musical spoons, hence my username. I’ve played along with bluegrass, Maritime, British Isles, Australian, and just about every kind of Anglo folk music you can think of. I’ve played spoons with some very well-known bands on stage, and with nobodies you’ve ever heard of at ceildhs (kitchen parties). Applachian dulcimer and mandolin are particularly suited to spoons in traditional music.
Also, for me, piano (years of lessons), trombone (high school band and an R&B garage band).
Flute, though, is what I discovered to be my instrument. I arrived at it via pennywhistle and recorder, and ended up studying classical flute for years. I also seemed to be very good at figuring out and writing down the flute solos in songs like “Nights in White Satin” and “Daniel” and others, and I would be called in by various bar musicians when they and/or their bands wanted to do songs with a flute solo. Not exactly professional gigs, but my bar tab was often covered for me.
Vocal also. I was a karaoke host, and sang in church choir for years. I also did musical theatre, and usually got a solo or half of a duet in community theatre. The tenors may get the best parts, but we basses have the most fun.
Lifelong keyboardist here; classical training (though in composition, not piano), drifted into rock, blues and other styles adjacent to that, and eventually found my way into musical theatre. (I also play–on a strictly hobbyist level–guitar, bass, flute and lap steel.)
I gigged a lot in San Diego with many bands, at least one of which was quite popular locally, through it dissolved for mostly the usual reasons.
The one thing I did that people nationally may remember: I was on the entire original run of Jersey Boys on Broadway, where I played the humble Keyboard II book, did some rehearsal piano and occasionally conducted. (To be clear, I had no creative involvement, just played the stuff they told me to play!)
Having gigged in San Diego a lot in the 90s and early 2000s, I wonder if @Disinfectus and I ever crossed paths?
(Also, I’ll page @DooWahDiddy, though he doesn’t seem to have posted here since 2019)
I’m a singer. I’ve always been too lazy to learn an external instrument. I played music off and on for around 30 years. I met my husband when I joined his band.
We were a cover band with a couple originals. We played bars, and weddings.
I came up through choir, high-school and college. I had private vocal coaching and drifted through some garage bands, and sang with a few bands on open mic nights.
My husband would like to play again, he was rhythm and sometimes lead guitar. He was also the one who organized, scared up jobs, did most the yakking, and picked what we played. Unfortunately, though he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s around 4 - 5 years ago. It’s pretty much stolen his voice, and though he has a guitar, amps etc. I don’t think he can play anymore. As for me asthma, and lack of real practice has taken a toll on my voice. Shrug he’s 73 and I’m 66, it’s sort of time to let it all go. It used to really bother me because it was such a part of our identities. I still belt ‘em out in the car though.
It’s possible, although the vast majority of my San Diego gigging started after 2010. Before that, I primarily worked in Los Angeles and Orange County.
I’d like to say that I play guitar, but I really just noodle around. Took lessons for several years leading up to COVID, then lost my teacher and just haven’t kept up. Also, arthritis is a bit problematic now.
I’ll brag on grandchildren a bit, though. The 12 year old boy plays French horn for the St. Paul youth symphony and sax for the school jazz band. His older sister plays trumpet for marching and jazz bands and sings in chorus and jazz ensemble.
That’s honestly really cool. I think our Navy bands were regional, the MU I met was actually stationed in Newport but was TAD in Groton for some reason or other.
I was in a transient personnel unit at the time waiting for my clearance, and those of us who weren’t $#!+bags (most of the people in TPU were in trouble and being processed out) were often tasked with rendering honors at veteran funerals.
It really wasn’t standard for most of the funerals we did, but because he was available (and presumably didn’t have much to do) he’d come with us quite often to play trumpet. Really cool guy, probably the most squared-away sailor I ever met haha.
A related anecdote…Our Oakland band often played for troop ships coming and going from the Alameda docks. One day we were playing in formation on the dock as a large carrier (the Enterprise?) came in. As the ship came closer to the dock, we saw that they had their own band on deck playing for us! And their band looked bigger than ours.
Not currently a musician, but I studied piano for years as a kid, and then I played cornet and trumpet in my high school marching band and symphonic band. But when i went to college and joined the musical theater groups it was as a performer, not a musician.
I’ve also played harmonica and recorder for my own amusement.
I play guitar, bass and some hand-drum. I usually program keys and synths instead of playing them directly. I am self taught. I really enjoy the creative process and mixing.
Lately I have been making some ambient-dub inspired songs that let me play with VST effects a lot.
The songs I made that I am most happy about are a number of 45 minute+ ambient electronic pieces. But if you are not into ambient electronic music then I do not suggest that you listen to them. Anyway, some of my songs, I put on YouTube with a placeholder video. Here is my channel: https://www.youtube.com/@jatna77/videos
The minor dilemma I have now is that I can play the bass track or program it. If I program it, it will sound perfect and professional. If I play it, it will take a lot more work to get it sounding close to as good as just programming it would.
So, I told my friend the other day that I programmed the bass tracks on my latest songs. He said “oh” disappointingly. Like I was cheating at poker or something lol!
