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What playing music means to you


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As a continuation of the covers band thread, which has certainly provoked some lively discussion, I thought I would start a thread asking people here what it is they want from being in a band, and what they enjoy most about it. We've got users here who regularly tour, are very active locally, play in wedding/covers bands and people who just enjoy jamming their favourite songs with their mates.

 

For me, playing in bands is what I'd describe as a serious hobby. Myself and the missus essentially spend all of our free time listening to, writing, playing and promoting as it's what we love to do. Neither of us are under any illusion that we will make any money from what we do - certainly not to keep us in the lifestyle we are used to, but we have no qualms about spending our hard earned cash and our time on noisy pop music and the instrumental shoegazing.

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For me a band now is a part time hobby ill fit in if possible. It used to be something that was my main priority outwith work, and even more important than work a few years back, but my enthusiasm for it has waned recently and i think it will now become something i will do if it fits around my life, rather than me fitting my life around my band.

 

All i really want from a band, is to have fun, i want to play some songs i enjoy, and hang out with people i get along with. Especially now a days. I dont really want to travel out of Aberdeen to have this fun, or to drag myself down to the Tunnels on a tuesday night playing to 15 people to have this fun. This is probably the main reason i wont be jumping into any new band now a days, but keeping my cover band going for a few gigs a year will do me now a days. 

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I don't play music, which I guess puts me in a minority here. Minority of one maybe even.

 

I tried in the past, when everyone else at school was getting a guitar and starting a band I joined in. So for a few years I played guitar a bit at home and sometimes with friends playing original stuff but the truth is it never really did that much for me. Not enough anyway to put in the effort necessary. It became just something to occupy myself when I was a bit bored at home and when I moved away I didn't take any of the guitars I had with me. Eventually I got my mum to donate them somewhere. 

 

I love music though, listen to it all the time, I enjoy talking about it and love going out to see live bands or DJs I like but for whatever reason I don't have the desire to create my own.

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When I write lyrics, it's a great outlet. I normally need to reign in what I write before letting people hear like, but it's good all the same. And playing music is an outlet in different ways. Heavy music I tend to just give it tits and let off some steam, lighter stuff it's just a bit of fun. Music is very important to me. It's that whole thing "Would you rather be blind or deaf?". Definitely blind.

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Good thread.  There is more merit to this kind of topic than a battle of people attacking and defending playing in covers bands - a pretty futile debate. 

 

I get enjoyment from so many aspects of music it's hard to condense.  I must have tried out most aspect of music that can be acheived on a local level - experimenting with many different genres, setting up and running quality groups, promoting, sessioning for others, composing, going to gig and enjoying other people's music.  Although I am less active on the live music front these days I get my pleasures from developing my studio, keyboard and synth collection and composing stupid electronic music.  I have a growing desire to start up some kind of music event again but I've only just started thinking about this.  

 

I also get a lot of enjoyment out of working with other people and helping them progress their own music.  I'm hoping to have a studio set up soon that I can invite my musical pals round to record with as near professional quality equipment as possible and for free.

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Good topic.  Over the years it's been everything and nothing to me but even at my lowest point when I could barely bring myself to look at a guitar I couldn't comprehend never picking one up again. 

 

It's a hobby, a release, it'll never be a profession.  But the best hobbies will stay with you longer than your profession will.  When I'm retired I hope I'll still pick up a guitar and strum away.  Playing music is a wonderful thing that I never want to lose.  Not the most important thing in my life and at times it's not even my most important hobby, but it's always there, sitting in a gig bag in the corner. It can cover so much variety as well, from playing a storming metal song, strumming a trad folk song, standing on stage with friends playing the songs you wrote or just mucking about with a piano or synth and trying to learn something new.  Limitless possibilities that I've got the rest of my life to enjoy.

 

Writing music is different...  I hugely enjoy playing stuff I've written - riffs, songs, whatever.  I love strumming a guitar and signing my own songs and I love standing in a room with friends and getting that great feeling when we're all playing our songs and everything's going right. 

 

I hate the writing process though.

 

Some people say that writing songs is the fun part, I don't agree.  I enjoy coming up with new ideas and have loads of them but then when it shifts into the act of moulding and shaping those ideas, crowbarring them and hammering them together to form a cohesive whole... well it's worth it to get to the end but I never feel comfortable in this stage. It's endured, a necessary step to get the good feeling at the end when I fall in love with all again.

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I hate the writing process though.

 

Some people say that writing songs is the fun part, I don't agree.  I enjoy coming up with new ideas and have loads of them but then when it shifts into the act of moulding and shaping those ideas, crowbarring them and hammering them together to form a cohesive whole... well it's worth it to get to the end but I never feel comfortable in this stage. It's endured, a necessary step to get the good feeling at the end when I fall in love with all again.

 

I agree with this, only, I really love the writing process............when its going well, which unfortunately isn't a lot of the time. I was listening to an interview with Wino and he was basically saying writing and being in a band is a total pain in the arse 90% of the time, but its worth it for the 10% when it IS going well? I think theres an element of truth to that with the vast majority of bands, although theres  obviously a difference with "full time" bands and ones that play the Tunnels 5 times a year.

 

On the main subject, I love playing music, I think id be happy playing anything from Black metal to pop If it was decent. I've been playing guitar with Deadloss Superstar for the last 12 months or so and can honestly say its the first time ive been 100% stress free and 100% enjoying it..........feels a bit weird, I mean that in the best possible way, in that.........there is NO stress and stuff still gets done. 

 

Its my main hobby, always has been. Im kinda easy with what it brings, Tuesday jams and the odd gig is great! Cant help but wonder what its like to pile everything in a van and go around the country or something. Bit old for that now though!

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I perhaps don't quite have the love for it I did when I was 20/21. It's not a slight on Aberdeen. The scene here is good at the moment, but I find it's alot more difficult to 'get out' of Aberdeen with a band, since it's so far away from any other town or city with a music scene. That's no one's fault. It's just geographical. Playing in bands in Leeds, we had instant opportunity, as we're surrounded by so many other towns and cities within less than an hour away, so a midweek out of town gig was always an option and it was much easier to get ourselves involved and quite well known in cities outside of your own. Networking is a breeze when there's dozens of promoters from a number of different places within close vicinity, and it's easy to get string some dates together for a tour. It's much more difficult up here, as there's only really 4 cities in Scotland you'd really want to be playing gigs in, including Aberdeen, and next one is about an hour and a half way.

 

I'm still enticed by the idea of being in a band, writing songs as a unit and the accomplishment that brings. I love that. Sharing a riff, building on it, and everyone totally digging it. That's just the best. But then the idea of taking that band and just playing gigs in Aberdeen fails to excite me. I'd want more, but being so far away from other gigging opportunities makes it much harder unless you've got the time and resources to fully invest in it and perhaps prioritise it above other aspects of your life.

 

To be fair, if you're in a band that is able to play outside of Aberdeen regularly, then I imagine you've put in alot more effort into your band than a hell of alot of bands in England or even Glasgow/Edinburgh have, and that's all credit to you and your band. There's much less opportunity to do so up here, unless you're investing as much time as possible into it, which isn't always viable if you're all working full time, so you've really gotta graft for it. I'm not saying I want it to come easy, but I wish I had that amount of time to invest in a band to take it further than just the local gigging circuit, but I just don't right now. Not as much as I did when I was 20/21, with much more disposable income and much less responsibility.

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Guest Young Adolesent

I agree with this, only, I really love the writing process............when its going well, which unfortunately isn't a lot of the time. I was listening to an interview with Wino and he was basically saying writing and being in a band is a total pain in the arse 90% of the time, but its worth it for the 10% when it IS going well? I think theres an element of truth to that with the vast majority of bands, although theres obviously a difference with "full time" bands and ones that play the Tunnels 5 times a year.

On the main subject, I love playing music, I think id be happy playing anything from Black metal to pop If it was decent. I've been playing guitar with Deadloss Superstar for the last 12 months or so and can honestly say its the first time ive been 100% stress free and 100% enjoying it..........feels a bit weird, I mean that in the best possible way, in that.........there is NO stress and stuff still gets done.

Its my main hobby, always has been. Im kinda easy with what it brings, Tuesday jams and the odd gig is great! Cant help but wonder what its like to pile everything in a van and go around the country or something. Bit old for that now though!

when it comes to writing music i think when your on your own its fun but when your writing music for your band your preasured to do it and worried what the band will think. I dont write for my band its too stressfull. I prefer to be on my own its more relaxing when its just you to yourself with a guitar

anyway id probably be in queen street right now if it wasnt for music. I was in with a bad lot just asking for trouble from the police. But music came and turned my life around. Its all i focus on now. Everypenny i have goes towards it its a way of life really every second i have spare im listening playing or creating music. Ive mate loads of new friends through music. There have been good and bad times but its been worth it

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It's also a great confidence thing. I've found that I'm better at conversing and feel more at ease in large groups from having played shows. Considering how laughably nervous I am now regardless, this is probably a funny post to some folks.

Also I fuckin' shred and it's great fun.

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...but I find it's alot more difficult to 'get out' of Aberdeen with a band, since it's so far away from any other town or city with a music scene. That's no one's fault. It's just geographical. Playing in bands in Leeds, we had instant opportunity, as we're surrounded by so many other towns and cities within less than an hour away, so a midweek out of town gig was always an option and it was much easier to get ourselves involved and quite well known in cities outside of your own. 

 

would disagree with that. it's just about how willing you are to do it.

 

the other week, i went to a gig in Edinburgh on Monday, played a gig in Glasgow on Tuesday, played Dundee on Wednesday, Edinburgh on Thursday, Aberdeen on friday and worked 9-5 every day that week in ABZ.

 

If you want to make things happen, you will. If not, you won't. You get as much back as you put in.

 

HOWEVER I will agree that being in Leeds/Manchester/centre of Britain is massively beneficial to playing out of town.

 

 

p.s aren't i great?

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would disagree with that. it's just about how willing you are to do it.

 

the other week, i went to a gig in Edinburgh on Monday, played a gig in Glasgow on Tuesday, played Dundee on Wednesday, Edinburgh on Thursday, Aberdeen on friday and worked 9-5 every day that week in ABZ.

 

If you want to make things happen, you will. If not, you won't. You get as much back as you put in.

 

HOWEVER I will agree that being in Leeds/Manchester/centre of Britain is massively beneficial to playing out of town.

 

 

p.s aren't i great?

 

I completely agree, It's all about how much you put in and getting away from Aberdeen to play, whilst being an effort, is definitely possible and has a great sense of reward in itself.

 

Can't wait to play out of Aberdeen with Needleman.

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That's pretty much what I'm saying. It's not impossible by any stretch, but it certainly isn't as immediately accessible up here to just get out of town, and because of the extra amount of time required for travelling for out of town gigs - as connecting cities to Aberdeen are much further apart than the cluster of cities in the northern/central parts of England - you have to be able to invest alot more time into your band and prioritise it alot more than you would if you lived somewhere in England, like Leeds or Manchester, where there are dozens of surrounding places with their own local gigging circuits. That's why I say it's all credit to you and your band if you manage to play outside of Aberdeen regularly, because I reckon it requires a hell of alot more effort, legwork and sacrifice to be able to do so whilst being based in the north-east, than it does if you are based in Leeds/Manchester etc.

 

I agree that you get out of it what you put it in to it. If you want to get out of Aberdeen, you've got to put alot more into it, than if you want to get out of Leeds/Manchester.

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