Great stuff about music

Subject: Great stuff about music
From: pinkfiddle
Date: 01 Nov 01 - 12:13 PM

I expect this has done before but after writing my post on the 'My pet musical peeve' thread I felt a bit depressed about it all so thought we could do with something to balance it out.

So what do you love and playing music? Not so much the magical moments but the ordinary everyday things that keep you going.

Personally it is the gradual feeling of progress that keeps me going. Although there's been times when I thought I'd come to a ceiling on what I could achieve, occasionally I feel like I might be on the way to breaking through again.

Some years ago I could barely pick the thing up in front of people without going to pieces but I play gigs regularly now and have got past that problem.

Also I love the feeling of being able to contribute to group music making especially when I really like and respect the playing of the other people in the group.

pf

Subject: RE: Great stuff about music
From: 53
Date: 01 Nov 01 - 02:00 PM

what do you play? i play the guitar and i love it and i always feel a sense of well being when i finish playing or performing it makes me feel good, and help to heal some of the hurts in my life. BOB

Subject: RE: Great stuff about music
From: GUEST,Russ
Date: 01 Nov 01 - 02:05 PM

Making my own music has kept me sane...or at least my (sometimes very) rough approximation of sanity. I am not the only one in my peer group of musicians who think this way about music.

Subject: RE: Great stuff about music
From: 53
Date: 01 Nov 01 - 02:06 PM

playing music will do that, sometimes it's kind of hard to explain, especially to a non-musician. BOB

Subject: RE: Great stuff about music
From: breezy
Date: 01 Nov 01 - 02:13 PM

best form of therapy

Subject: RE: Great stuff about music
From: pinkfiddle
Date: 05 Nov 01 - 11:28 AM

I play the fiddle... just got a pink one. Definitely the best kind of therapy

pf

Subject: RE: Great stuff about music
From: CarolC
Date: 05 Nov 01 - 05:23 PM

I think accordions do something to the chemistry or wiring of the brain that acts as an anti-depressant. It's not that I never feel depressed when I play the accordion, but I do seem to feel happier overall if I am able to play. And I seem to go through some withdrawal symptoms if I don't play for a while.

The most special part, though, is with certain pieces that are so beautiful, I fall in love with them. And playing them puts me in that state of in-loveness that then carries over into other pieces that I play. Right now I'm in love with Emma's Waltz. When I play it, I get a beautiful, calm, spacious inner feeling.

Subject: RE: Great stuff about music
From: Deckman
Date: 05 Nov 01 - 11:24 PM

Hi Pink Fiddle (who thinks up these names) ... this is a nice idea for a topic. I'll tell you what keeps me going, right now. I say "right now" as life is an everchanging process, with always changing stresses and joys, etc. Right now, for me, it's occasionally walking into my bedroom and seeing one of my two beautiful antique martin guitars hanging on the wall. One is a 1922 New Yorker, the other is a 1938 Classic. Sometimes they just cry out to me that they need to be held ... so I do. And I stroke them, and strum them, and hum a little, and soon we are carried away into music for a while. Would that we could do that more frequantly, but right now ... life is weird. Thanks for posing this thought. CHEERS, Bob(deckman)Nelson

Subject: RE: Great stuff about music
From: DonMeixner
Date: 05 Nov 01 - 11:38 PM

Carol,

That feeling is caused by your subtle breathing in and out along with the bellows on your conordion. It may feel like a spacious inner feeling but its really your brain being staved for oxygen due to hyperventilation, :-)

Don

Subject: RE: Great stuff about music
From: SINSULL
Date: 05 Nov 01 - 11:52 PM

That same feeling comes over me at the opera, Carol. It is as if the beauty and movement of the music take over and I go with it. Total relaxation and a sense of peace. DaveO and Kendall have the same effect on me sometimes. And a guy at Mary's Acoustic room on Paypal. Maybe it is the tone of their voices... I don't know.

Subject: RE: Great stuff about music
From: Skipjack K8
Date: 06 Nov 01 - 05:46 AM

I, like you, Pinkie, have got over the public performance thang, but I was musing last night, as I had 'my' time, after children's taxi service, cursing (and fixing!) simultaneously broken dishwasher and washing machine) flatpack hell, and a killer lasagne I manufactured on Saturday, when I took up the fiddle, and played to my own full satisfaction, then the mandolin, same, and then my beautiful 72 bass Guerrini accordion, complete nirvana. Even sang, I was so happy. The question is, why are those moments alone so perfect, yet group or public performance so flawed? I just have to click the recorder on, and the elves all disappear. It's enough to make one stay home, take the phone off the hook, crack a beer ........... and play. And play. And play, and to hell with sleep deprivation.

Subject: RE: Great stuff about music
From: pinkfiddle
Date: 06 Nov 01 - 05:58 AM

Thanks for everyone's thoughts. Reading the stuff about playing music as therapy has made me think about when a friend of mine died in a motorbike accident two years ago (almost to the day). After I found out I just got my fiddle out and played and played and played until I was spent. Those moments alone without the pressure of audiences/recording equipment etc are definitely the best no matter the buzz you can get from performing well

pf (named after my new fiddle, a pink/purple Brige Aquila (electric) which I absolutely love)

Subject: RE: Great stuff about music
From: GUEST,Roger the skiffler
Date: 06 Nov 01 - 06:18 AM

May not keep me sane but it keeps me happy (it's anyone else in earshot it drives mad!)
RtS

Subject: RE: Great stuff about music
From: RangerSteve
Date: 06 Nov 01 - 10:16 AM

I suppose I'd still have friend if I didn't play music, but I'm not sure, since just about all my friends are musicians. I'm amazed at how democratic music can be. I'm a middle-class, politically moderate police officer, and I've been in jam sessions with wealthy lawyers, doctors, blue collar workers who are just getting by, conservatives, avowed communists, born-again Christians and atheists, and nobody judges anyone else, we're only interested in playing good music. What ever differences we have outside of music are just plain unimportant. I'd probably never associate with these folks if it weren't for music.

Subject: RE: Great stuff about music
From: pinkfiddle
Date: 06 Nov 01 - 10:26 AM

that's true of me too - it's easy to make friends when you play music - even if you hardly ever see them you've always got that key thing in common so when you do meet up you can always play music together.

pf

Subject: RE: Great stuff about music
From: Robin2
Date: 06 Nov 01 - 10:29 PM

Just came from a great three hour rehearsal with my band...I guess one of the things I love is when creativity takes over, and you get to take your music to new places with other musicians you respect, sometimes to the point where you're into it so much, and something musically astounding happens, and all of the people just jump back and say "WOW, WAS THAT US?" I left tired but very, very satisfied.

Connecting with other musicians and letting the music grow and become bigger than any one person, that's what I love

Robin

Subject: RE: Great stuff about music
From: Amos
Date: 06 Nov 01 - 11:41 PM

The Bard's "music hath charms to sooth the savage breast" wasn't far off. There is a soul-to-reality phase shift that occurs in the presence of musical and emotional beauty (even rough-hewn beauty as in folk-music -- it can shiver you to the bone) and when that phase shift hits you get transcendental lifters on all four corners. You're in the zone where the bridge to divinity is right at hand, however briefly. Them as visits there often know this magic and it is sort of a trade secret among 'em.

A.