OT: any musician types out there?
 

Man, I haven't touched any of my noise makers since I started riding with a purpose again last year.

There's enough dust on my snare head that if I hit it'll be like shooting a bag of flour.
I can't get to my upright bass for all the crap that's piled in front of it. Same with my guitars - plus the strings are all corroded.
I don't even know where the keyboard is. (Seriously, how the heck does one loose a 3+ft long keyboard?)

I really need to find a way to have an income without having to work so I can free up some time. Any ideas?

I sure as hell don't know. The drummer in our band started a company, and we all got sucked into it. It's a good gig, but now we have all the musical toys we ever wanted... Including a killer studio. And no time to play at all. Wasn't the trade off we were prepared for!

Stand up bass? You a jazz guy or rockabilly?

jazz wannabe on drums & bass.
guitars are all about standing in front of a 4x12 pretending I'm Mick Green and/or Malcolm.


I think we need to go back in time & give our gear to our teenage selves.

OT: any musician types out there?
 

That is the very truth!

I wish I could play an instrument. I'm jealous of you folks that are able to make music.

I am familiar with the scenario.

Definitely not a 'musician', but I do like to mess around with my Les Paul Traditional (and H&K Switchblade).. :)
My kids hate it when I play.........

Potd.

Plus 1.

I've been building and repairing guitars for 20 years. Been playing them for a few more years then that. I have a banjo and a mandolin too and oddly enough don't care for Bluegrass too much though I like the banjo and mando.

So yeah it's an important part of my life :)

It's all I've ever done--piano/composer/arranger/vocal. I'm 61 and started gigging at around 14.

Played around STL (hometown) mostly with rock/bar bands in my early teens to middle '20s. The last "band" I was in in STL , Full Moon Consert, did a lot of original stuff, had a record out (at that time it was a big deal) and opened for people like Pat Metheny, Todd Rundgren, Poco and others that came into STL.

Moved to LA in '79 and have been a freelance guy for the past 36 years. Used to do a lot of road stuff and a fair amount of studio work , but like everything pertaining to "live music" and studio dates...it's all pretty dried up here for me and most of my friends.

Never went to music school or college, but studied privately with top guys here in LA. I've done gigs with name, top musicians in the world and conversely, guys that couldn't even cut it in a garage type rock band.

Being a pro musician means you have to do what you have to make $$$...unfortunately.

I was pretty much an everything to everyone guy (meaning playing all styles) for the longest time out here. But in the late '90s started following my heart more and just tried to play more jazz gigs. It's what I moved out here to do in the first place but got caught up, like everyone, making a living and playing RnR, or whatever to make dough. I'm certainly making less of it these days , but can look myself in the mirror at night and not feel like a like a musical prostitute.

It's a ridiculously hard life and basically impossible to make a living at it today without some supplemental income as teaching, or some tech related industry job.

In the time I came up out here -early '80s through to around 2004 - if you could play, sight-read well, had a solid understanding of playing in all genres, and were an easy person to get along with , basically you would never be out of work-- even if you were considered a *Jazz guy* like me.;)

The scene (related to changes in society) has changed SO dramatically (for the worse) in the last 10-15 years -- I don't think any of my fellow musicians could have predicted where we would be at this point in time. :mad:

Still practice the piano, vocalize 2-4 hours a day...some days longer, sometimes shorter depending on teaching or gig schedules. In addition I try write at least 4 bars a day. It's what I do and all I know. Serious muscians never retire, they keep practicing..:cool:

Have a 2005 NY Steinway D in my studio that's my pride and joy. I mostly gig on electronic keyboards -Yamaha CP4, Nord Piano 2. Don't do hardly do any synth stuff anymore...thank God.

Three foot keyboard is setting vertically right beside my bed... has been for months. *sigh* Just started picking the guitar and mandolin up again recently, as I'm trying to learn some bluegrass. Hopefully, the momentum will build and I won't go through another music dry spell lasting several years.

Hey Dave Ferris based on your experience what do you think has killed or is killing the scene?

My wife plays keys in our band and loves her Nord! She also still plays through an old Rolland using a JV-1080 module :D

I was a much better violin player than cyclist, at least in terms of ranking among peers. I started when I was 5, apparently having pestered my mom for about a year about playing the violin (she was taking lessons). I was one of four people selected to audition for concert master at All States. The actual concert was a very intense performance, very bike-race like, because I had a nosebleed in the middle of it. I asked my stand partner if she had a hand kerchief - she almost fainted as I had blood everywhere. Just like bike racing you really can't stop for anything so I was playing with blood on my face, violin, shirt, etc. The conductor had some kind comments after the performance also, pulling me aside during the traditional "shake everyone's hands" thing after a show.

I didn't play regularly after that performance, which was in 1985.

It's an obsessive thing - when I brought my violin to school in 1988 or so I ended up playing about 3-5 hours a day and skipping my afternoon class. I bought my violin back home before I failed out of school. I didn't even train as much as I played the violin (I had been racing about 5 years at the time). Let's put it this way - I kept my bikes at school when the violin went home.

I last played a few years ago, a couple hours before my fingers and arms went.

I still have my violin, my main bow, and my back up bow. Bows are like wheel sets, you have a couple. My violin is very unlike my bike. The violin is really nice, sort of like a beautiful custom frame. My bike is very workmanlike, with a sturdy, industrial kind of (custom) frame.

I'm a pretty crappy guitar player, but it's a great stress-reliever. Have a custom that a buddy of mine made and a Strummer edition Tele which plays as well as any guitar I've ever tried. Just picked up a pretty beat up P-Bass and an older TNT115 amp that's my current obsession. I think I missed my calling as a bass player; it just makes more sense to me in a lot of ways than guitar--just a red bass, 4 strings and the truth! ; )

One of these days when I figure out the whole income vs. working thing I'd love to learn the tools and get set up to do some recording/screwing around, even if it's just in GarageBand, although ProTools would be nice.