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

Cafe Society
21

I am a singer songwriter. I have been playing since high school in various bands and doing an acoustic single act and duos. I made my living playing music for many years but when my kids were growing up it started to become more of a part time thing.
After my kids grew up I moved to Nashville to pursue the songwriting end of it. What an education that has been. I’ve had a few independent cuts but no major breakthroughs yet. Still it’s an exciting and creative ride. Lots of great musicians and creative people in this town, Many more than ever get a contract or air play.
It’s a real privilege to jam with some of the great musicians I know.

I still enjoy picking up the occasional gig. Classic rock, Acoustic, or a small jazz combo

I have many influences and enjoy a wide variety of music, but mainly it’s been the singer songwriters of my youth.

Cat Stevens
James Taylor,
Bob Dylan
John Denver
Gordon Lightfoot
Joni Mitchell,
Judy Collins
John Fogerty

stuff like that.

22

I play drums out in my garage. I pretty much suck. Keeps me off the streets, though.

I have a Mapex V series 5 piece kit with a whole bunch of Zildjian cymbals. I can make all sorts of racket!

23

Drums are my main instrument, but lately I’ve been playing around putting grooves together with Acid Pro on my laptop and figuring out tunes for fingerstyle guitar. I try to keep my drum chops up but it’s hard given limited time.

The last band I was in gigged around NYC with stops in Boston and Philly. I enjoyed playing in the band and playing in some of the name clubs but we never gathered a sufficient audience to keep the enterprise afloat. We were well into our 30s by the time we started, and with careers, marriage, kids, differences in what everybody wanted to do and commitments we wanted to make, we went our separate ways sometime around 2000 after four years or so.

I fantasize about playing in a band again but I split my time between the city and the country so scheduling such a thing is too much of a bother. Maybe once I settle down somewhere.

I also played Tympani in the university orchestra and Bass in a country/rock-a-billy band.

One of my favorite musical activities is playing bass along with some favorite tunes. There’s something about it that gives me that kick.

I have 20 year old Yamaha recording custom kit and some cymbals older than that. If I had to choose only one thing to keep from all the stuff I’ve accumulated over the years it would be my Taylor Grand Auditorium acoustic. Once I got that I desired no other. I also have a Strat and a Fernandes bass. Cheap bass but the neck was so perfect I had to get it. I also have a G&L L-2000 P-bass and a G&L F-100 series II guitar gathering dust. Banjo, Mandolin, Hammered Dulcimer, Lap Harp round out the string section.

Workstation/MIDI-wise I use Cubase with Sampletank/Sonic Synth and Reason with a D-50 for the controller.

As you might have guessed my big fault is I spread myself too thin.

24

I’m a violin teacher, kinda by accident, kinda in between academic stints, or so the theory goes.

I got as far as a Master’s degree in musicology, and then for various reasons I couldn’t continue, although eventually want to head down the PhD route. Earlier on, I’d chosen to not head into the underpaid and overworked field of only-just-good-enough-to-be-pro orchestral work.

So I teach, which is something that I’ve learnt a lot from, and is enjoyable at times, and I don’t do as much playing as I’d like to. I’m a member of one fairly-decent amateur orchestra, and recently have managed to get a quartet together, with the intentions being to have fun and to not end up churning out Pachelbel at weddings every Saturday. Who knows, I might decide to form a contemporary music group, and have a bash at things like Lachenmann, but I suspect there’s not much of an audience for it around here.

25

Let me start by say that I have been to bienville’s myspace page, and you should check it out…he’s too damn funny.

Oh…and Pool that’s a sweet looking bass. I once played with a guy who was exclusive to Schecter. He used to refer to himself as the “Schecter Collector.”

I’m in a three piece rock band )don’t call us a power trio) called Clocktower. I play bass guitar and sing about half the songs (my guitar player sings the other half.) We were heavily influenced by Rush, and then sprinkle in Iron Maiden, King’s X and Phish. We tend to play pretty heavy, with a tendency to go into extended jams. My personal favorite bass player is Victor Lamonte Wooten, but he’s so jazzy that I only slightly steal from him. I’m influenced as a bass player by Geddy Lee, Jaco Pastorious and Sting (That’s right, I love how Sting played bass). As a singer, I don’t think I’m that special…In fact, I couldn’t tell you who influences my singing. I guess I set my sights lower as a singer than I do a bass player. I also have been known to play 12 string guitar, theremin and random percussion for the band.

For a while, we were pretty active as a cover band on the Long Island scene, but a few years ago we gave up covers completely and devoted ourselves to original music. We are currently in the process of recording our first “Album” (I must have done 10 demos over the years) which we hope to release early next year. We haven’t played out (with a paycheck anyway) in over 3 years. Of course, things like my guitar player getting divorced & me getting married have slowed our progress. We are psyched to stage a triumphant return to gigging soon. We have a seldom-updated myspace page, with a few of our works-in-progress, that can be found by clicking here.

I play a Spector bass, that I have shared my soul with. When I play other basses, my Spector gets jealous. I do own a Aria Integra that I stripped down to 2 strings so I can play along to Morphine songs with it (it has ruined the bass for ‘normal’ playing, but it’s sooo cool to do it the way Mark Sandman did it) and I have another Aria custom that I let my guitar player keep at his house so he can play a little 4 string. I also own a six-string Ibenez bass guitar that I disrespect so much that it is currently buried in a closet. I run through a SWR 350 head with their Triad cabinet, which is good for pretty much everything I need it to do.

26

I’m in a real band on a real record label; I’ve mentioned it here before when pertinent in music-related threads. We’re by no means huge, but you could walk into your local Best Buy and buy our records if you were looking for them. We’ve toured with bands you’ve definitely heard of, and if you keep up with the Pitchfork set you’ve heard of us. I’ve played in front of 10 people in a toilet bar in Indiana and I’ve played in front of thousands at outdoor festivals.

I play synthesizer; specifically analog synthesizers like old Moogs and Arps, even a big modular setup that uses 1/4" patch cords like an old telephone operator. I screw around and make synth-only music on the side, but none of that’s been released in an official capacity yet.

Being in a working band is incredibly fun and incredibly frustrating, but worth it. I’m simultaneously doing what I always dreamed of while realizing that it’s completely different than how I imagined it would be.

27

I used to be the bassist/lead vocalist in a power trio called Ponophobic.

Now my only regular “performances” are every Sunday morning at church, where I play bass on the worship team. There has been some talk about putting something together with a singer/songwriter/guitarist at work, but so far our schedules have not meshed well enough to make any progress.

28

I play guitar and sing. I’m 52 years old and have been playing in public for 40 years, solo and in bands. I made my living playing guitar for a few years while I was in my early 20s. I’m currently in a cover band that plays locals bars 2 or 3 times a month, and I play every Sunday at church. My band plays a wide variety of music: Beatles, Creedence, Janis Joplin, Bree Sharp, Melissa Etheridge, Dire Straits, Cream, Police, all kinds of stuff. My acoustic playing has been influenced by James Taylor and Paul Simon, my electric playing by George Harrison, Eric Clapton and Mark Knopfler.

29

I’m a classical vocalist and voice teacher. I’ve never gotten beyond the local level, and probably never will (not for lack of talent (so I like to think) but because I have come to a point in my life where I want stability, and opera singer ain’t where that is). I’m taking classes now to get a K-12 teaching certificate; I hope to be a high school or possibly college choir director. Most of my professional gigs are with local opera companies and doing Messiah gigs and the like. I also have two choir jobs, one with a church and the other with a local professional a cappella choir.

I have a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in vocal performance.

30

I play in a semi-pro band. Our Myspace page is here. We play around town and NYC and do it for fun. Mostly dance-able rock with a heavy dose of the 80’s, but we are doing some newer stuff like Jet, Foo Fighters, and The Killers.

I play guitar - my main guitar is a Les Paul, but pretty different from your typical one - it is a reissue of a 1954 Les Paul Custom. I have other guitars but that one is my main gigging guitar.

31

I busk a little on keyboards, sing way better than most, and just about hold down the second trumpet part in my local wind band. I used to scrape ineffectually at the cello in school and crossed over to the double bass in the last year when we were short of a 'bass player. I’m a frustrated composer who, apart from arranging a wedding anthem for my niece last year, has yet to have anything performed in public.

32

I’ve played guitar in bands since I was 14. I’m now 57. I play in a couple of bands nowadays, a bluegrass project and a sort-of swing band. The swing band has been working regularly for the last six years, but is starting to wind down some. We’re working on our second CD, and I think by the time it’s done, the band will be pretty much finished, too. It’s been a nice run and we’ve had great times, but maintaining an active interest is getting harder for all of us, I think.
The bluegrass project, on the other hand, is just getting off the ground, and has some really interesting possibilities. Of course, as a genre, it’s a tough one in which to make any real money, but I’ve worked a regular day job for more than twenty years, anyway, so I haven’t depended on music to feed me for a long time.
I have a Martin D28 for the bluegrass and a Guild X175 for the the swing stuff.
I took some theory classes when I was in college and studied guitar theory specifically with a private instructor for a couple of years.

33

Hooray! Other people are posting links to tunes I can listen to!!!
Last I checked I was the only one who posted a link, kinda felt like a whore when I saw that nobody else was linking.

Glad to see more links, I dig getting to hear SDMB tunes!

An Arky, AndyPolley, and WordMan, you all sound great. Since you linked to MySpace pages I sent each of your bands an “Add Request”.

AndyPolley, thanks for the compliment!

WordMan, your singer is a major cutie!

34

I was an active, performing musician from 1972-1998. I’ve been the bassist, guitarist, drummer and/or keyboardist in numerous bands, and on many demos and recording sessions. I don’t have anyone to play with currently. I don’t know any serious musicians, just hobbyists and putterers, with day jobs and families. I stay active doing multitrack demos at home, mainly for practice. I have a Yamaha acoustic guitar, a bass with no name that was given to me for free, a Stratocaster (made in the US), a Hammond organ with Leslie (not a B3, sadly) and a piano. I have access to a 1920s Steinway concert grand for recording, and a drum kit.

I kinda freaked out some people on Thanksgiving. I have a friend who has a left-handed, studio-quality Fender acoustic that he can’t play (at all). I made music come out of it for the first time, playing upside down and backwards. They’d never seen anyone do that before!

35

I’m not a musician per se, but I did recently (well, now it’s been a year) do a remix for a band called the Splendor Projekt (check it out as the top song on their player here on myspace). I think it’s a pretty nifty little remix.

Allow me to also rant a little - the band recently used my remix for a label compilation. I was pretty excited simply because I’m not a musician but am a huge music fan and have never had any music commercially released. I was contacted by the band today that they finally got copies of the compilation and … the idiot label completely omitted any mention of my name or the fact that the song is a remix and not the original version. So I really have no proof on the cd that I did anything at all. Jerks :rolleyes:

36

I’ve made a living as a pianist/keyboardist for fifteen or so years now.

I’ve played gigs (both cover and original), done sessions, worked as an accompanist for voice teachers and soloists, and did a fair amount of musical theatre–that’s my main gig now.

If anyone here was in San Diego in the mid-to-late 90s, you might remember a pretty popular soul band called Hot Chicken Stew–I was in that.

Currently, my only non-musical theatre band is an eclectic Americana amalgamation called The Cat Mary; here’s the obligatory MySpace link (warning: music autoplays when page loads):

The Cat Mary.

37

I don’t feel that I compare at all with the other musicians on this board, but I will mention my humble attempt at stardom. hah.

I play acoustic guitar in the tri-state area for my only source of income other than my extremely part-time job on campus. I have been playing guitar since I was about 6 or 7, now I’m 20. I write my own songs and play those, as well as many songs written by Mrs. Small. I do a lot of covers (because drunks in a bar love them) but try to mix them in well with my own songs.

The only style I really do is acoustic-pop-rock-type-things. My songs vary from slow, sad ballads to random guitar solos without vocals. When I play covers, I play a lot of R.E.M. and Travis. Also, I play a bit of Goo Goo Dolls or Matchbox 20 just because so many people remember them and will sing along.

I’ve been working on my cd for a few months now. Mostly, it’s taking so much time to get everything together, and with the laptop crash that happened a week ago, it will probably take even longer…

Brendon

38

Jazz saxophonist/clarinetist/leader here. I gigged in and around NYC for 14 years, loving the music but getting increasingly bitter about the scene (pecking order, cliquish, hypercompetitive, bullshit-laden). Currently I’m staging a slow rehabilitation.

39

My sole paying gig was as a busker in Cork, Ireland.

One day I was walking downtown and took notice of a “busker” who played almost every day in a busy square. I put the word in quotes because the man was really a half-crazed drunk, his guitar had only three strings on it, all out of tune, and his playing style could best be summed up as pounding on the instrument and screaming.

I looked at all the coin in his batterd case, and as I flipped him 50p I said to meself, “Self, if that guy can make money at this, you sure as shit can make money at this.” After traveling expenses I needed extra cash for the pub, and so I felt desperate times required desperate measures.

At first I didn’t know what I was doing, and made very little, maybe only five or ten quid for what seemed like nearly as many hours shivering in the damp air and playing things I didn’t really like. What shocked me about the Irish guy on the street is he wanted most to hear things like Cat Stevens, or maybe Lyrnrd Skynyrd, played by a hoarse little American guitarist with cold fingers. I lost count of the number of times people came up and said “D’ya know ‘Sweet Home Alabama?’” “Can ya play ‘Your Song’? ‘Tiny Dancer’ then?” I had to fake a lot of it because I had never put much effort (well, none, really) learning the great majority of the things I was asked to play when requests were made. I mean, Elton John plays piano, right? The results generally failed to impress. I wasn’t pathetic enough to get pity money, and not versitile enough to entertain my audience.

As it turns out, one of my housemates, an Irish student renting a room from the same family I was, had busked with some of her mates, and offered to go along with me if I agreed to split the earnings. This was the true beginning of my busking career, as she knew all the good spots, as well as how best to use my time. Instead of shivering all day or night on a lonely corner for peanuts, she planted us in front of the poshest pubs at around seven for a couple hours, when the crowds were going in, then around midnight, when the crowds were exiting for a dance club where they could continue drinking. The rest of the time we’d hang out in a chipper eating and drinking tea. The midnight crowds were especially generous, plastered as they were, with pockets full of heavy Irish change to unload (I am forever grateful for the enormity of the punt, and wonder if the smaller Euro makes for bad busking).

My roomie coached me on what songs to learn, and I dutifully picked them up by ear or found music somehow, and pretty soon we had a very lucrative act. We’d be pulling in twenty, maybe thirty pounds each on a good night. I played a lot of stuff I found baffling, like ‘House of the Rising Sun’, or ‘Needle and the Damage Done’, or even ‘Cats in the Cradle’, and had loads of drunken Irish lads and lasses draping an arm over me and singing along at the top of their lungs. It was incredibly fun, really. I even tried to throw in some suggestions of my own. At the time REM’s ‘Losing My Religion’ was blaring from every speaker, it seemed, so I stuck a capo way the hell up the neck and did my best mandolin imitation, and that was a total hit. I adapted this approach for Sting’s ‘All This Time’, which was also getting serious airplay. I even figured out how to play Seal’s ‘Crazy’ in such a way that it sounded decent on an acoustic guitar, and even though my partner protested, I said “They play it every two minutes on the radio, just sing it, or I’ll do it, whatever, just let’s do it.” I turned into a total whore. It was awesome. Stuff that would have normally made me gag I was trying to figure out how to play and sing along to in harmony with a pasty 4’11" Irish girl who fancied herself Etta James (recall ‘House of the Rising Sun’…interesting, to say the least…) I don’t know what we looked or sounded like, but I do know how much money we were raking in, and it exceeded my wildest expectations.

It got to the point that I was trying to figure out how to stay on in Ireland through the summer, figuring I could travel and busk to get by until school continued at home. Alas, my student visa would soon run out, and I couldn’t find an official job to extend it for work. Unemployment was something like 20% over there at the time, the immigration laws were being enforced, and I didn’t like the prospect of being deported. Nobody throws money like that at buskers in the States. My short busking career came to an end.

Later I did goofy student gigs, mostly coffee-house stuff for the remainder of undergrad. While in grad. I participated in the Blues Jam at Johnny D’s once in a while for kicks, but I never tried to actually earn money again for playing. These days I don’t play for anyone but myself, usually, if I play at all. It’s kind of sad, but I never was good or driven enough to be a pro, and there’s so little time or motivation to keep my chops up. But for that brief time when I was living quite modestly in another country and literally singing for my supper I actually came to feel like some kind of “real” musician, and I have to say it’s one of my fondest memories of my otherwise often ill-spent youth.

40

These days, I’m not often a publicly active musician, but I am always playing something somewhere whether people are listening or not.

I have played:
guitar: various types including electric, acoustic, lap steel, classical (10 years continuously)
piano and keyboard: (~15 years mostly continous)
banjo: bluegrass style (8 years but only ocassionally)
sitar: acoustic (3 years)

For the past 5 years, I’ve played electric guitar more than anything else. I’ve also dabbled with (but never owned) harp, electric bass, chapman stick, and mandolin.

I believe that I play a larger variety of styles than most musicians and I’m still expanding my horizons. As far as cover songs go, I’ve played classic rock the most (such as Beatles, Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Queen, Pink Floyd, and many others etc.). I can play the guitar and/or piano parts on several entire albums including Dark side of the Moon, The Wall, Abbey Road, Revolver, and Led Zeppelin I. I also enjoy playing music in many other styles: reggae, fusion jazz, classical, baroque, hip hop, progressive, heavy metal, bluegrass country, hindustani, swing/big band, alternative, grunge, world music (for lack of better term), Euro pop, and some mellow acoustic shit that the ladies like to hear. Lately, I’ve played a lot of Dream Theater (John Petrucci) because it helps me to further develop advanced techniques on electric guitar. Also, there are

My original songs frequently blend styles. For example, the last song I wrote and recorded included heavy metal guitar chords with banjo licks, sitar drones, and a reggae beat.

My list of influences is literally pages long; I will list a small sample of some of the better known acts here but anyone may email me if he/she wishes to know more of them:
Pink Floyd, 311, Sublime, Ravi Shankar, Anoushka Shankar, Stereophonics, The Beatles, B.B. King, Xavier Rudd, Allman Brothers, Frank Zappa, The Eagles, Led Zeppelin, The Who, Jimi Hendrix, Phish, Ben Harper, Rolling Stones, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Tom Petty, U2, Radiohead, Red Hot CHili Peppers, Postal Service, Neil Young, Grateful Dead, Foo Fighters, Doobie Brothers, Buddy Guy, Queen, King Crimson, Acceptance, Dream Theater, Weezer, Liquid Tension Experiment, Phish, Scarlett Threshold, Buddy Guy, Ray Charles, Bob Marley, The Wailers, Oasis, Death Cab for Cutie, Counting Crowes, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Guns ‘N’ Roses, Opeth, James Taylor, Jerry Garcia, Counting Crowes, Muddy Waters, DMB, My Bloody Valentine, Earl Scruggs, Chick Corea, Al Di Meola, Primus, Les Claypool, Tool, Black Sabbath, Cream, Eric Clapton, Vanilla Fudge, Billy Joel, Elton John, Queensrÿche, Bela Fleck, The United States of America, Flaming Lips, Sitarzan, Brian Setzer, Deep Purple, Steppenwolf, Black Crowes, Emerson Lake & Palmer, Electric Light Orchestra, Count Basie Orchestra, Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, and many others.

I am not in a band right now and haven’t been in one for over 6 years now.

I have jammed with a few bands on occasion in recent years both on stage and in studio, but I mostly play alone with headphones on. I have composed much music but have not recorded much of it. Right now, I’m composing a rock opera that will syncopate to Alice in Wonderland the cartoon movie version; I’m still in the early stages of a very long term project and it may or may not result in something desirable.

I have played several paid gigs as a solo pianist at weddings.

I would very much like to be in a band again within the next couple years. So far, it has been difficult to find a group of musicians who have goals compatible with mine. I have never in my life met a bassist who could keep up with me AND who was not already in a band. Additionally, most musicians don’t like to mix styles to the degree that I do.

I wish I could sing lead, but unfortunately my voice is deep with limited range. I cannot even reach as high as middle C.

The only band I was in lasted about a year and recorded one studio album of original music and only played a handful of gigs and was never very serious. All of us were still in our teens at the time. The album was pathetic IMO mostly because the our singer often could not sing on key on our original sings (though he could on cover songs that he sang along to a lot). I played melodies on keyboard and guitar until he got it right, but then he’d be off key again when recording resumed. The live gigs (mostly covers songs) all went very well I thought.

At age 24, I hope the best is yet to come.