So who all here is an active musician? Tell us about it.

Cafe Society
1

I’ve always wondered how many dopers are regular musicians or members of bands. Here’s the thread where we find out.

Tell us what instrument you play, what kind of music you play, what your influences are, and anything else worth mentioning. (I take it that blatant advertising for shows is not allowed here, so don’t do that then.)

I will go first. The band is called Bridge. We have our own style - no vocals, only instrumentals, heavily driven by the percussion and bass, with improvisational layered guitar parts. The sound we are going for is somewhere between Tortoise and Explosions In The Sky , combining the layered guitar melodies of the latter and the drum and bass driven groove of the former. Instrumentally, there are also elements of The Smashing Pumpkins and Weezer (I like to throw in the occasional root-eight-note Weezer/Grandaddy style bass line sometimes for nostalgia value.) In addition, we have regular free-association sessions where we play avant-garde jazz fusion - we call this “Traditional Turkish Music” (long story.) For these sessions, I sometimes bring out my alto saxophone (I’ve played sax since 7th grade.)

So the band has 4 regular members: Me (I alternate between bass and guitar,) a guitarist, a drummer, and a keyboardist. Since I sometimes play guitar, some of our songs don’t have a bass line, and this is one of the things that keeps our style varied.

Our main influences are Tortoise, Pele, STS9, The Sea And Cake, Amon Tobin, and Modest Mouse (might seem like it doesn’t fit, but I try to emulate the guitar style.)

Personally as a bass player my greatest influences are Phil Lesh, Paul McCartney, Peter Cetera of Chicago, and Chris Wood of Medeski, Martin and Wood. Therefore, my bass style, is very “bouncy,” fluid, and moves up and down the scale a lot. On guitar, I try to emulate The Smashing Pumpkins, although whether or not I actually do this is a matter of opinion. Suffice it to say I try to have a trebly, piercing, 90s sound.

My bass is a 1999 Fender J-bass and the guitar I play is a DeArmond Jet-Star. (It doesn’t belong to me, it belongs to our main guitarist - he usually plays a Fender JagStang that doesn’t belong to him and was left at our house long ago by a friend of our drummer who never came back to pick it up and probably never will because he has a million other guitars.)

We haven’t had any real gigs, but we’re working on it. We played, with a slightly different lineup, at an outdoor music festival last summer and drew a significant crowd, but we were playing completely different music then (ambient/minimalist) and our style has changed so much. We were also supposed to play at the Eleusis festival at WashU but things came up at the last minute and we decided to forego the 6-hour drive to St. Louis just to play one set. We are working on putting together a demo tape and trying to get our work out there - in the mean time, we’re just playing regularly and refining our sound. We had a 6 and a half hour jam session just today.

So - who else here is part of a musical group, or any kind of musician at all? What do you play? What style? This is the thread to share.

2

Keyboard and drummer for 30 or so years. I primarily play in two bands, a jazz trio and a Grateful Dead tribute band and do about 15-20 gigs a month. I also take an occasional solo piano gig and play for my supper (and a few bucks) once a week at a pretty tasty Italian restaurant. All in all, I do quite a bit of playing. I used to play more drums than keyboards but found that keyboardists were much more in demand. I spend much more time playing keyboards now and enjoy not having to lug a set of drums around all the time. :slight_smile:

Influences are pretty varied. Everything from Led Zeppelin and The Beatles to Charlie Parker and Chick Corea. I pretty much enjoy listening to anything and everything.

3

Primary instrument: guitar
Other instruments: flute, trumpet, flugabone, bass, keyboards
I also sing

Band: David plays percussion and sings really well. Paula plays guitar and keyboards and has one of the great voices in the Western World. We just lost our bass player–anybody looking for a gig?

Music: Mostly blues/rock (bonnie raitt, stevie ray, eric clapton sort of stuff) but we do whatever we like, no matter what the style. For example, we do Leave It by Yes and Ain’t Nobody by Chaka Khan–with two guitars, congas, three voices.

Gigging: not near enough. Right now we’re looking for acoustic gigs we can do as an acoustic trio, since we don’t have a bass player.

4

I’m a theatre pianist. Sometimes I’m also the Musical Director (or assistant MD) and sometimes I’m just the pianist and/or keyboardist. The gigs used to be few and far between but I’ve been doing it for a while now, and knock on wood they’re pretty steady now. Enough to make a living at it, at least. Sometimes I play here in NYC, sometimes theatres in other states for a month or two at a time, and sometimes national tours of shows.

I also compose for the theatre, as well as film scores and random stuff like children’s music and music for commercials. But I love performing, and I love the fact that I work in an industry where I don’t have to do the same thing for years on end (i.e. I get to play a new score every time I change shows). Obviously the syle just depends on what the show calls for, but it’s good for my short attention span.

5

Primary: Keyboards: Hammond B3 /Leslie Speaker, Arp Axxe synthesizer, Piano
Secondary: Bass guitar

Style: R&R: Pink Floyd, Aerosmith, Zepplin, the Cars etc.

Last gig: 1980

6

I’m a jazz and classical guitarist.

Right now I’m not very active. I have chosen teaching over performing due to the increased pay and stability. But last year I played regular in a jazz sextet and a big band while also doing freelance work. An average month would bring me around 8 gigs or so + whatever I did through private lessons.

In the end I didn’t enjoy the lifestyle and I find teaching in school much more fulfilling. I have a fun band I play in and we gig about once a month.

7

Comedy Songwriter

You can hear some songs on my MySpace page (MUSIC PLAYS WHEN YOU CLICK THE LINK)

I perform my own songs a few times a month solo acoustic and once about every two or three months fronting a six piece band.

When I perform with a full band I don’t play guitar, I just do vocals. So, that makes me one of six, the other five being: Rhythm Guitar, Lead Guitar, Keys, Bass, Drums.

All the songs I write are funny (or they’re meant to be funny, anyway). So, I perform in both Comedy venues as well as Music venues. It’s always the same material no matter what kind of venue I’m playing. In Comedy venues I get up on a bill with Stand-Up Comics, I perform as a “Guitar Comic” but I take those same comedy songs to songwriter nights at Music venues and at other times book the full band to perform with me, but it’s still the comedy material.

I’ve been played a few times on the Dr. Demento show. For those of us in the Comedy Music world, this is among the highest possible honors. :smiley:

In terms of style, it changes from song to song. The style of humor and/or the topic of the humor can be better served by picking out which genre delivers the joke the best. My newest album features Reggae, Country, Punk, Pop, Funk, Folk, and a bit of 50’s Rock.

I myself am not a solid enough musician to do all this genre switching, but I work with talented musicians who can do anything. Also, recording the album I worked with an amazing producer.

Among my Comedy influences I’d have to count:
[ul]
[li]Monty Python[/li][li]The Upright Citizen’s Brigade[/li][li]Steve Martin[/li][li]Gilda Radner[/li][li]Tom Lehrer[/li][li]many others[/li][/ul]

Among my Music influences I’d have to count:
[ul]
[li]Elvis Costello[/li][li]Michael Nesmith[/li][li]Aimee Mann[/li][li]Nick Lowe[/li][li]Jill Sobule[/li][li]10,000 Maniacs[/li][li]many others[/li][/ul]

It should be noted that my influences may not be apparent in my work. :o
It should also be noted that the “embarrassed” smilie does not look like he’s embarrassed, he looks like he’s yawning.

8

I’m a guitarist.

I haven’t played in a band in quite a while, and I haven’t played a paid solo gig since I graduated from college. But I have a standing command performance every week for my 95 year old mother who is being exposed to John Denver, Gordon Lightfoot, Peter, Paul & Mary and a variety of other music, from Carly Simon to Disney movie soundtracks. And she’s loving it.

9

I’m a tenor sax player who does weddings, but I used to play in jazz bands (middle school, high school, and college), a ska-punk band (Baker Act), a short-lived jazz combo (Orjazzem), and several fill-ins and studio jobs with bands in and around Gainesville, Florida, mostly in the late '90s.

Now I’d hardly call myself an “active” musician, but I miss it terribly. I’d love to join up with some kind of swanky swing band or a lounge act, with a sexy girl singer and a horn section and twangy reverb-drenched lead guitar, where we’d perform dark, sexy, mysterious “film noir music,” kind of like trip-hop blended with surf, swing, and spy movie and spaghetti western soundtracks. All the guys would wear sharp suits and engage in inter-song banter with the girl, and we could take requests all night but put our own smoky spin on every cover we played. That would pretty much be a dream come true.

Oh yeah, I also play the melodica and I have every intention of learning guitar so I can write my own songs, but I don’t actually own one.

10

Thanks for sharing everyone!

BBVL, I’ll be there at that show you’re talking about! Just tell me when and where. I have a mental picture of it like you wouldn’t believe. And oh yeah, just so you know, I’ll be requesting Vixen by Cement Pond and Wiggle Stick by Reverend Horton Heat, so practice them!

Quasimodal, what capacity do you teach music at a school in? Are you a band teacher or is there actually a guitar program? (I’m assuming you’re talking about high school or middle school, so correct me if I’m wrong.)

11

I’m a guitarist. I made a living at it for a while playing bars/fairs/festivals, basically anything that paid. At the time it was a metal band.

Presently I have a home studio and am looking for a band. I want to get a CD worth of stuff done. Right now I have enough material for at least one CD but I need a vocalist. I can do everything else (drums/bass/piano/violins, etc) with Ableton Live or Sample Tank.

I play some heavy stuff, fairly progressive, and some acoustic stuff.

Slee

12

Bass player here. I was in a band but recently quit. My primary influences were Flea, Les Claypool, and Victor Wooten. I would describe my style as funk/jazz and I tend to play a lot of slap-heavy stuff. It was relatively recently that I have started playing a lot more two handed tap stuff and now even have a few songs that are entirely two hand tap. I mostly play by myself more because I don’t usually have the time for regular band practice. But hopefully things will pick up soon.

This is my bass

I’m pretty particular about the kind of bass I like to play I think all you really need is a 4 string and I prefer the full 24 frets for the two octave range. I prefer two pickups as opposed to say 3 and like the action to be high enough for good slapping but not so high as to pose difficulty for tapping. One day when I get a vid camera i’ll put up some vids or something.

13

Actually this is the exact bass I have.

14

School concert band count? :slight_smile:

Well, if on the odd chance it does I play the flute in that. And… I sing, sort of. Christmas concert coming up soon. But I wouldn’t consider myself a real musician. There are some guys I’m friends with, though, who are leaving school this year and are undoubtedly among the most talented young musicians in the country (she says, in her not-at-all biased way) so I’ll mention them to feel included.

15

Everything is identical to DooWahDiddy, except that I don’t make a living at it, because most of my gigs are community theatre, which pays bupkis. Maybe one of these days it’ll be my full time gig.

I also play and sing in an 80s cover band, and on occasion with a jazz trio.

16

It’s a beauty. I’ve heard great things about the Schecter guitars and basses (the best guitarist I know plays a Schechter) but mostly I just love the way they look. The zebrawood finish is especially nice.

17

Thanks. I really love the finish too and it is the first really nice and active bass I have owned and I have no complaints about it.

18

I play guitar/sing/write songs for my band, Yell County (see sig). I don’t, never have, and never will make a living at it. But the music is in me, and it has to get out, ergo I’m in this band. We do play the occaisional gig, and we just laid down basic tracks yesterday at Cue Recording Studios in Falls Church, Virginia, produced by our friend Mike from Actiondale Studios, where we’ll be doing the mixing. We should have the new songs up on our MySpace sometime next month.

Our sound is sort of a combo of late 70s punk, power pop and 60s British Invasion music. We have no hope of ever getting famous, wealthy, or even cared about by anyone other than family and friends, but that’s OK. We enjoy what we do.

19

I don’t currently play, but I’ve been involved in several groups, gigging and touring. The last of these was a Hungarian band called Amber Smith (which still exists, and had its most recent album hit #1 on the German college radio charts) for whom I played keyboards and the occasional guitar (which we were short a rhythm guitarist). Touring with this band was a lot of fun, and we got through most of Germany on our tours, as well as the occasional stop in Paris or Strasbourgh, as well as Prague, Ljubljana, etc… Definitely something I would not have been able to do had I not lived in Budapest.

Our sound basically has been compared to Radiohead, Coldplay, Eggstone, the Cure, a little tiny bit of Stereolab, a sprinkling of Beatles, a bit of Depeche Mode, etc. The album I played on was stylistically pretty all over the map. The last album–after I had left the band and moved back to the US–was partly produced by Rob Guthrie (ex-Cocteau Twins) and has a much more cohesive and shoegazery sound to it. At any rate, it was a lot of fun, and I got to play with some first-rate musicians.

Personally, the only influence I could think of in my playing is Chuck Leavell, although I’ve only played in one band that could showcase that influence. I suppose I’ve imitated keyboard parts of The Cure and Stereolab in my music, as well, but I’m not sure they’re a pervasive influence.

20

I’m a full time performer, songwriter and session player - my primary instrument is flatpick guitar ( a la Norman Blake or Doc Watson) but I also double in the studio on Archtop Guitar (primarily jazz, esp. bop), electric and string bass, mandolin and banjo (mostly drop-thumb and other mountain styles, although some Scruggs-style in a pinch.) I also sing both standard lead vocals and harmony (traditional and bluegrass style high tenor)

I dissolved my main band about a year ago and have been primarily performing solo, mostly in WI & MN but also short runs in CO along the front range area - next year I’ll be expanding into TN, VA and NC.

I also teach theory, guitar, bass and voice privately and host an open mic here in Madison. I could teach mando, but my current on again off again mando/fiddle player is just so much better that I figure what’s the point?

I’m in the process of putting a touring band back together, but it’s slow going - bluegrass/old time/americana isn’t a genre rife with pro-caliber musicians ready to hit the road and be poor and hungry.