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Post by drlj on Sept 30, 2014 8:01:21 GMT -5
Marshall said, "People my age don't go out anywhere anymore. Certainly not to listen to music."
One of the many things I love about concerts at the Old Town School is that the audience is a real mix of young and older listeners. At Sarah Jarosz's concert the other day, there were people who looked like they were in their 60's and 70's and there were people in their 20's. I love looking at that mix of listeners and knowing they are all there for the joy of the music and that it crosses any age barriers.
I wish there was more of that. So many of the people Barb and I know do not have a clue as to who I am talking about when I mention the concerts we attend or the music we listen to. They think the Old Town School is like the folk scare of the 60's with trios wearing 3/4 length shirt sleeves and singing Puff the Magic Dragon. I have managed to convert a couple of people but, man, it is hard work!
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Post by Marshall on Sept 30, 2014 8:09:50 GMT -5
You da Man, lj ! ! ! !
I forceably dragged some people to OTS to hear Abigail Washburn a coupe years ago. Absolutely fabulous show. 6 months later I invited the same people to go see Darrell Scott. One guy did some surfing of Darrell Scott and realized he never wrote a top 40 hit in the 60s or 70s and decided not to bother making the arduous drive into the big city.
And I took a golf trip with some guys before going to I-Jam. I got so tired of hearing "The Eagles Greatest Hits" on the stereo. Finally I plugged my iphone into the system and played a couple Abigail Washburn, Pierce Pettis and Darrell Scott tunes. One guy grabbed my iphone and searched it to find something else to play. he was surprised that he didn't recognize any of the artists on the 100 or more albums I have on there. His answer was to plug his ipod back in and play some Neil Young for me.
. . . , I smiled and walked into the other room and read a book.
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Post by mnhermit on Sept 30, 2014 8:38:49 GMT -5
The guitar will sit and gather dust for months, then I'll find a song I want to sing and pick it up and start working the three chords I know until they sound good enough and sing along until my throat craps out from trying to hit notes that I was never meant to sing. And I'll keep playing until I get bored with the 'set' I'm playing. Right now I'm going through a Shel Silverstein binge.
It always amazes me to get into a group of people who also like to MAKE music rather than have it as a background noise. But when I do I soon also realize that I'm always going to be a dabbler - so I go back to my corner and sing for my dogs, maybe turn up the reverb on the amp and put a little tremolo in the song. As much as I like playing with other people I always feel I'm out of step, tune, and time - occasionally for two or three measures there is a synthesis and its wonderful, but those are so few and far between it doesn't keep me involved in group music. But the dogs don't run away when I plug in, so I think I'll keep at it as long as the callouses last.
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Post by billhammond on Sept 30, 2014 8:43:45 GMT -5
Although I don't play as much these days as I have in the past, I can't imagine a day when I do not make music, as in many ways it is my truest identity. The most vital-to-me stuff I play is my original material, and I would say my most important reason for playing is to express what I am feeling or thinking and to exercise creativity.
It is reassuring to me that although I listen almost totally to classical music and fully realize I will never produce anything as monumental and enduring as most of those works, that I am nonetheless immersed in the same basic art form -- creating sounds and rhythms that say something, suggest something, that provoke an emotion in me and hopefully others.
Music is my spouse, my lover, my gym, my exotic sports car, my sabbatical in Paris, my confessional, my broadcasting network, my psychiatrist's couch, my hospital, my clown shoes, my spa, my easel, my thesaurus, my favorite tavern, my youth, my old age, my Etch-A-Sketch, my river bluffs, my Metamucil, my tuxedo, my most comfortable jeans.
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Post by Doug on Sept 30, 2014 8:50:07 GMT -5
Damn Bill, I thought you played music so that you could afford the fishnet hose.
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Post by drlj on Sept 30, 2014 8:50:33 GMT -5
Not to mention it is an ice cold beer on a hot summer day.
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Dub
Administrator
I'm gettin' so the past is the only thing I can remember.
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Post by Dub on Sept 30, 2014 9:06:42 GMT -5
Music is my spouse, my lover, my gym, my exotic sports car, my sabbatical in Paris, my confessional, my broadcasting network, my psychiatrist's couch, my hospital, my spa, my easel, my favorite tavern, my youth, my old age, my river bluffs, my most comfortable jeans. Well there's that too… except for the spouse thing.
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Post by dradtke on Sept 30, 2014 9:18:27 GMT -5
If I knew I'd try to tell you.
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Post by fauxmaha on Sept 30, 2014 9:54:19 GMT -5
Prior to this year's IJ, I hadn't touched a guitar in probably a year.
I have had a lot of interests over the last 40+ years. They wax and wane over time, but the "core" group of them (music being in that core) always comes back.
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Post by david on Sept 30, 2014 11:57:56 GMT -5
I love the sound of fingerstyle guitar pieces played live. And if I am the one playing, it gives me a feeling of accomplishment. I like the discipline of practice and the feel and look of my guitar and the strings under my fingers. To play is familiar and comforting.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 30, 2014 12:36:10 GMT -5
It's therapeutic!
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Post by Marshall on Sept 30, 2014 13:08:45 GMT -5
I have to say performing out is a bit of a crap shoot. It's rarely a perfect event. There are many distractions and complications that get in the way of the pure enjoyment of the exercise. But many times it goes quite nicely and is satisfying. Plus it gives me a reason to put in so much effort practising and perfecting the craft (ha, ah). . . . , Whether anybody is listening or not.
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Post by aquaduct on Sept 30, 2014 14:25:37 GMT -5
And of course there's always caffeine and wine.
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Post by dradtke on Sept 30, 2014 15:10:35 GMT -5
And of course there's always caffeine and wine. and beer.
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Post by Doug on Sept 30, 2014 15:22:01 GMT -5
I don't think I can say that consumption of alcohol by me has improved my music, ability or enjoyment, consumption of alcohol by others one the other hand ..... And people wonder why I like playing bars. The mistakes in your ability are covered by the mistakes in audio input circuit by the consumers.
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Post by Russell Letson on Sept 30, 2014 15:31:36 GMT -5
Don't know that there's a single thing that has kept me at it. I got a guitar for Christmas of 1955 (because I wanted to be Roy Rogers*), took lessons for a few months from the school piano teacher, put it down until I was 15 or so, picked it up again (inspired by the Kingston Trio this time, and then PP&M) and then never stopped playing. Once I got a better instrument than that 1955 Airline, it was the sound of the guitar as much as anything. I certainly couldn't reproduce the music I was hearing on my record player, so it had to be guitar-as-guitar. I think it still is. I sit on the sofa after Cezarija's gone to bed and just make sounds. With the guitar, I mean. Though I probably grunt and swear once in a while. (C. told me I shouldn't do that on stage, but I figure in the living room it's OK.)
* I was probably closer to Pat Brady, and now I'm in the Gabby Hayes demographic, though I lack a beard and possess teeth.
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Post by brucemacneill on Sept 30, 2014 18:35:32 GMT -5
I got a lot further into music in the past 5 years than I ever expected and now I have fans here. I don't understand it myself but every time I want to drop it as something I have done but don't want to put the time into anymore, someone asks me to play and I do it. Even if I embarrass myself, to my mind anyway, they applaud. I suppose that part is addictive. I don't know if I can walk away from that. During my working career I got to be a hero a lot for fixing problems no one thought could be fixed. I might have missed that but the music has given me some of that recognition again. I faked my way through many of those hero things and I'm faking through the music too but as in the old days, no one seems to notice, 'cept my wife.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 30, 2014 18:39:33 GMT -5
I don't play in front of anyone but the family. I have in the past twice now: once in Iraq and once in Afghanistan.
That said, and echoing how I feel my best days on several fronts are still ahead of me, I still have this desire to hook up with a good teacher or a group of like-minded guys, plug in the electrics, and cut loose on some good rock and roll or blues.
I think, partly because I am not now, nor probably ever will be, a finger picker, the acoustic will remain a solitary pursuit.
Every once in a while, I still get goose bumps when playing something or another, so the spark is still there. I wish it was there every day, but I find my desire to play directly related to how comfortable I feel. Lately that has been rather lacking.
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Dub
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I'm gettin' so the past is the only thing I can remember.
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Post by Dub on Sept 30, 2014 18:54:27 GMT -5
Bruce, You aren't faking. Not any more than any of us are faking. We all want to go beyond what we can do now. And no matter how far we go, there's always someone who's gone farther in less time. What you don't see is that there's someone better than anyone you can think of. Better in some sense. There's no “best” in music. Only different. People want to hear you play. You are already validated.
Knowing the answer to a technical problem that's never been solved is just a mater of fully understanding the problem and knowing the rules that govern its solution. You just took the time and had the experience to fully understand the problem and you knew the domain rules. Music has some similarities. It has rules and you understand them well. You already know how those rules are applied to existing problems and others have found your solutions satisfying.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 30, 2014 19:20:12 GMT -5
Music is math, and thus ever-intriguing to me.
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