BS: Below the Line... Musicians or not???

Subject: BS: Below the Line... Musicians or not???
From: Bobert
Date: 24 Oct 12 - 05:53 PM

Well, seems that I just discovered that another Catter who I always thought was a musician wasn't... I mean, it's okay... I'm not trying to put anyone down or up for being either a musician or not but...

Is ya or ain't ya' and if ys is then what do you play??? Instrumentation, style, CDs, etc...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Below the Line... Musicians or not???
From: Charmion
Date: 24 Oct 12 - 06:37 PM

I'm a singer who also plays guitar and mandolin. You've even seen me at the Getaway.

Subject: RE: BS: Below the Line... Musicians or not???
From: GUEST,TIA
Date: 24 Oct 12 - 06:46 PM

Banjo (five string and short scale Irish), guitar, bouzouki, acoustic bass, cello, trumpet, trombone, euphonium, and can't sing worth crap.
Play gigs with my daughters who are truly truly talented (All-State on several instruments, and all can sing) with various instrumentation and under various names.
Have about six or so Irish gigs per year, several world folk gigs, and tons of work for the holidays as a brass ensemble (in full Dickens garb).
Have played in four countries, for three Nobel Peace Prize winners, and two ex-US Presidents.
But it's the girls who land all that stuff and kindly let me play along.

Subject: RE: BS: Below the Line... Musicians or not???
From: John P
Date: 24 Oct 12 - 06:49 PM

I've been performing since age 15. Piano, guitar, cittern, percussion, Celtic harp, accordion, lap dulcimer. Working on my seventh album.

Musical focus in chronological order, sort of: blues, pop, hard rock, jazz/rock fusion, new age, medieval, British Isles, Appalachian, French and Breton, Balkan, Swedish.

Subject: RE: BS: Below the Line... Musicians or not???
From: GUEST,Guest from Sanity
Date: 24 Oct 12 - 06:55 PM

I play, engineer, compose and more..but you already know that...

GfS

Subject: RE: BS: Below the Line... Musicians or not???
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 24 Oct 12 - 07:02 PM

Guitar, melodeon, autoharp, harmonica, gramaphone.

Subject: RE: BS: Below the Line... Musicians or not???
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 24 Oct 12 - 07:03 PM

Music.

Subject: RE: BS: Below the Line... Musicians or not???
From: Ebbie
Date: 24 Oct 12 - 07:17 PM

Depends on what a musician is. I play, mostly guitar, sing some, know lots of songs, do not like to "perform" but love to jam, love to hear music, love to get other people started, wake up every morning with a song in my head.

Is that being a musician?

Subject: RE: BS: Below the Line... Musicians or not???
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 24 Oct 12 - 07:22 PM

You're a musician if you play (or sing) music. If you play an instrument and make your instrument the point of the thing, you are playing an instrument but you are not a musician.

Subject: RE: BS: Below the Line... Musicians or not???
From: Bobert
Date: 24 Oct 12 - 07:26 PM

This is all fascinating...

Who else???

And if ya' aren't a musician but connected to music, tell us about that... I know that beardedbruce is a collector of instruments and buys and sells 'um...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Below the Line... Musicians or not???
From: Ebbie
Date: 24 Oct 12 - 07:27 PM

Does that mean that a kid playing in a school band is not a musician? Come to think of it, you are probably right. Although a great many musicians get their start there.

Subject: RE: BS: Below the Line... Musicians or not???
From: Don(Wyziwyg)T
Date: 24 Oct 12 - 07:27 PM

Singer/songwriter (no diary entries), mostly humorous, and folk song singer. I have a large and always expanding repertoire.

One CD, working on No. 2.

I play a vintage Framus Nashville acoustic guitar and a (not quite ready for public performance) guitar banjo.

And I post quite a lot upstairs.

Don T.

Subject: RE: BS: Below the Line... Musicians or not???
From: GUEST,olddude
Date: 24 Oct 12 - 07:28 PM

I mess with the guitar a little

Subject: RE: BS: Below the Line... Musicians or not???
From: Don(Wyziwyg)T
Date: 24 Oct 12 - 07:31 PM

I also have a fifty year history of performing in, and organising, folk clubs, singarounds and sessions.

Don T.

Subject: RE: BS: Below the Line... Musicians or not???
From: gnu
Date: 24 Oct 12 - 07:34 PM

I used to play some real musical instruments before my health problems. I sold them to good homes. But, I kept three of my Bodhrans and about 50 of my ciapans (tippers, mostly ones I made) because, in the hands of a true Rhanner, they actually are a real musical intsrument and I feel the need to foster that excellence of being able to make a simple drum far more than a "beat". I still teach. But only to few as they must learn on my Rhans.

Voice... same deal. Lost it, as many who post here lost theirs... smoking.

Smoking... f********ck. I don't just cry for my voice back... I can cry for far too many Mudcatters that derserve a "second voice"... a second chance... far more than me. Youse know who you are. Thanks to each of you for your music and for your comradeship over the years. It ain't easy when ya lose it but good freinds help a lot. Thanks.

Subject: RE: BS: Below the Line... Musicians or not???
From: Janie
Date: 24 Oct 12 - 07:44 PM

Musician? Absolutely not.

Human being and therefore folk? Most definitely.

Subject: RE: BS: Below the Line... Musicians or not???
From: Henry Krinkle
Date: 24 Oct 12 - 07:48 PM

I collect. Buy and sell. And bellow and play monkey junk.
=(:-( ))

Subject: RE: BS: Below the Line... Musicians or not???
From: Don(Wyziwyg)T
Date: 24 Oct 12 - 07:49 PM

""I mess with the guitar a little""

If I messed with the guitar half as well as you Dan, I'd triple the gigs I get.

Don T.

Subject: RE: BS: Below the Line... Musicians or not???
From: Bobert
Date: 24 Oct 12 - 07:50 PM

Oh??? Me???

Musician??? Well, kinda... More a performer... I play drums, guitar, Lowebow (Google it), lap dulcimer, a little banjo, a little piano and can do country, old time, folk, rock but purdy much locked in on the blues because it fits my aging voice...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Below the Line... Musicians or not???
From: Bill D
Date: 24 Oct 12 - 07:55 PM

In my mind a 'musician' is one who works at it and worries about being as good as possible... my wife calls it "the fire in the belly".

I play some instruments and sing a little....autoharp, recorder, dulcimer, nose flute, ocarina.

I have never been paid for performing (though some have suggested they'd give bit for me NOT to play) Have only played into a mic a dozen or so times.

I collect and listen far more than I play.....now my wife is seldom very far from a new song she is learning.

Subject: RE: BS: Below the Line... Musicians or not???
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 24 Oct 12 - 07:57 PM

Does that mean that a kid playing in a school band is not a musician? Come to think of it, you are probably right. Although a great many musicians get their start there.

The aim of anyone playing any instrument should be to put themselves at the service of the music. "My instrument" is the harmonica. In sessions, I wish that to be not to the fore. Not because I'm ashamed of the harmonica (I'm not, though in my next life I shall come back as a fiddle player), but because I want to be part of a mix that projects music, not us as individuals. That isn't for one minute to say that one should not acquire and seek pride in instrumental skills. If I put up a shelf in my kitchen, I might invite you to admire my finished handiwork (unlikely in my case, as it happens), but I will not be singing the praises of my screwdrivers or electric drill. As for kids in school bands, sometimes they seem to have more innate feeling for music than many an adult player I can think of.

Subject: RE: BS: Below the Line... Musicians or not???
From: Rapparee
Date: 24 Oct 12 - 08:02 PM

Banjo, double bass, fiddle, classic violin, concert piano, ukelele, guitar, trombone, xylophone, bass drum, bagpipes (several sorts), piccolo, flute, tenor, bass, and alto saxophone, french and english horn, tympani, Sousaphone, tuba, euphonium, hurdy-gurdy....

Oh. What instrument do I actually play? A 1929 Conn trumpet, but it's been a while due to various injuries. I can also read treble clef and some bass clef (alto and tenor clefs never thrilled me enough to learn them). I also know a bunch of songs, but can never remember them at Getaway.

Subject: RE: BS: Below the Line... Musicians or not???
From: Joe_F
Date: 24 Oct 12 - 08:05 PM

Not.

However, I sing songs & have even written a few. I can sort of hack some of them out on the piano.

Subject: RE: BS: Below the Line... Musicians or not???
From: gnu
Date: 24 Oct 12 - 08:06 PM

Janie... you ARE a musician. A silent musician.

If that sounds silly to some... well, I don't need you to tell this here gnu about it. You all play and sing for two people... yourselves and Janie. I know I do (did).

Subject: RE: BS: Below the Line... Musicians or not???
From: Bobert
Date: 24 Oct 12 - 08:11 PM

Yo, Rap...

You play a mean "duck call"...

B;~)

Subject: RE: BS: Below the Line... Musicians or not???
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 24 Oct 12 - 08:28 PM

Yes, I am a musician, but I can most often be found down here in the BS section. I rarely post above the line because most of the threads are either (A) too esoteric, (B) too Anglocentric, (C) too infested with proprietors of oversized egos and undersized senses of humor, (D) even more snarky and contentious than those below the line.

Subject: RE: BS: Below the Line... Musicians or not???
From: Amergin
Date: 24 Oct 12 - 09:11 PM

I write and perform poetry. I do have a lap dulcimer which I love playing, too...but I'm not that good.

Subject: RE: BS: Below the Line... Musicians or not???
From: GUEST,olddude
Date: 24 Oct 12 - 09:53 PM

Thank you Don that made me smile :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Below the Line... Musicians or not???
From: GUEST
Date: 24 Oct 12 - 10:01 PM

I am a music lover, not a musician.

I played a few stringed instruments in my younger years (leaning towards 12 string guitar and banjo) and enjoyed it. I haven't done much instrument playing for awhile. I am not a singer.

I like all types of music and spend much time listening to all types of live, recorded and online music from all around the world. I especially enjoy small live music events, jam sessions and gatherings (especially in summer). IMO, (like I suspect with many here) even mediocre music can be magic in the right social setting, such as a community céilidh, a kitchen party, an Irish pub and with "all night music get togetherings, with brew").

Subject: RE: BS: Below the Line... Musicians or not???
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 24 Oct 12 - 10:13 PM

I play nothing. I sing badly. Sometimes I say that I used to want to be beautiful but now I just wish I could carry a tune. I love music as a listener!

Subject: RE: BS: Below the Line... Musicians or not???
From: GUEST
Date: 24 Oct 12 - 10:14 PM

Still playing and collecting guitars, my current main go-to's are a Cole Clark 6-string and a nice old Japanese D-28 Sigma 12.

Been playing guitar since age 15 (now 68), also had piano training and at one time played baritone euphonium in a Silver Band.

I play most Sundays in my church music group and at open mic nights around where I live. Sing bass in the church choir and in a local chorale society as well.

Musician or not? Not a very good one, I suspect, but music has been a big part of my life and I'm lucky to still have it.

Subject: RE: BS: Below the Line... Musicians or not???
From: GUEST
Date: 24 Oct 12 - 10:15 PM

Guest above was me, Fossil, at work

Subject: RE: BS: Below the Line... Musicians or not???
From: Rapparee
Date: 24 Oct 12 - 10:20 PM

A couple weeks ago the local buckskinning group (the WFT is inactive at the moment) met at the Elks Lodge here. After the meeting, someone had brought a guitar. Folks were singing "Streets of Laredo" in the bar when I left, members of both the Elks Lodge and the buckskinners, and drinking beer of course.

Define "musician."

Subject: RE: BS: Below the Line... Musicians or not???
From: Beer
Date: 24 Oct 12 - 10:32 PM

I pick up the guitar once a month and join in on a fiddling jam. I just love it. I use to pick up the guitar daily and sing, sing sing. But now I've lost interest because the voice is gone. I also chord along on the piano.
Adrien

Subject: RE: BS: Below the Line... Musicians or not???
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 24 Oct 12 - 10:42 PM

I play piano, recorder, flute, guitar, fretted dulcimer, percussion. And I like to sing.

I also download and arrange music for my friends.

Subject: RE: BS: Below the Line... Musicians or not???
From: Amos
Date: 24 Oct 12 - 10:43 PM

I have an old martin that I love to pick and strum on occasionally. I know some songs, so I will sing one if you twist my arm or saturate my cerebellum. I ain't all that, but I really enjoy the hell out of it when folks are kind enough to let me roll that way...

Subject: RE: BS: Below the Line... Musicians or not???
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 24 Oct 12 - 11:07 PM

Piano. I used to play a lot, but my current piano is an antique that needs to be refurbished. I've almost bought another instrument a couple of times, but in an overcrowded house, two pianos is a bit much. The antique is a piano bought by my great grandfather in 1885 Connecticut. It's lovely, and if I ever have an extra 10 grand, I'll have it restored.

I grew up in a household with most of the kids taking piano lessons and my father a folksinger, his predominant instrument being guitar.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Below the Line... Musicians or not???
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 24 Oct 12 - 11:27 PM

I'm not a musician. But I play guitar, sing and write songs.

Subject: RE: BS: Below the Line... Musicians or not???
From: number 6
Date: 24 Oct 12 - 11:51 PM

Guitar until arthritis set in on my hands a couple of years ago ... harmonica and the sax.

biLL

Subject: RE: BS: Below the Line... Musicians or not???
From: Deckman
Date: 24 Oct 12 - 11:57 PM

I am a musician. I play: voice, piano, two guitars (classical and steel string), autoharp, five string banjo. I have been performing on stage for 61 years ... in fact, in ten days, I'm singing my final concert. bob(deckman)nelson

Subject: RE: BS: Below the Line... Musicians or not???
From: Howard Jones
Date: 25 Oct 12 - 03:38 AM

Guitar, recorder, melodeon, anglo concertina, hammered dulcimer. Occasionally bones, but I've come to realise that a little percussion can go along way, unless the player is really good, which I'm not, so I do that sparingly. I sing too.

Mainly British, and particularly English, traditional songs and tunes. But a good song is a good song, whatever its origins.

I've been performing solo (as floor singer and paid guest) in folk clubs for nearly 45 years, although these days it's mostly informal tune sessions. I've played in a couple of ceilidh bands (one of which became nationally known and played many of the major English festivals) with whom I've made a couple of albums, and also contributed a track to a compilation album. I also help to organise local ceilidhs.

Subject: RE: BS: Below the Line... Musicians or not???
From: Will Fly
Date: 25 Oct 12 - 04:54 AM

Bit of guitar, mandolin, tenor guitar, fiddle, blues harp, keyboards, bass, Appalachian dulcimer, vocals.

Music: traditional and traditional-style tunes, rock'n roll, jazz, ragtime, music-hall, French stuff, anything that takes my ears...

Subject: RE: BS: Below the Line... Musicians or not???
From: Don(Wyziwyg)T
Date: 25 Oct 12 - 05:18 AM

The only thing, other than my wife, that I will never give up is the music.

In preparation for the day when the voice fails to report for duty, I've been improving my guitar skills playing rhythm at diddly sessions.

And when the arthritis in my hands gets too bad, I'll be wheeled in as a listener.

Don T.

Subject: RE: BS: Below the Line... Musicians or not???
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 25 Oct 12 - 05:41 AM

I love singing & sing along with choruses as I can't hold a tune on my own. But I have on 2 occasions sung in a session - once with the 2 friends (both good singers) sitting beside me, once on my own in a very small session.

I also run a folk club famous for it's beautiful acoustic space, singing performers & singing audience.

sandra

Subject: RE: BS: Below the Line... Musicians or not???
From: beardedbruce
Date: 25 Oct 12 - 09:14 AM

" I know that beardedbruce is a collector of instruments and buys and sells 'um...

Also I ( am learning to) repair and modify instruments ( violins and violas these days- I just sold another chin cello and an octave violin), sing in the chorus, and occasionally do Alan Sherman and Tom Lehrer songs. I've written a few parodies ( two in the DB) but mostly write sonnets.

But mostly I listen.

8-{E

Subject: RE: BS: Below the Line... Musicians or not???
From: GUEST,CS
Date: 25 Oct 12 - 09:25 AM

I sing among folkies now and then, and that's it.

Subject: RE: BS: Below the Line... Musicians or not???
From: GUEST,BrendanB
Date: 25 Oct 12 - 09:52 AM

Bouzouki, bodhran and guitar and vocals. Play in a trio with melodeon and flute. Play in a celidh band with concertina, melodeon and keyboards (I'm also the caller). Sing in a folk choir.

Subject: RE: BS: Below the Line... Musicians or not???
From: GUEST,Stim
Date: 25 Oct 12 - 10:49 AM

I play and occasionally teach guitar, bass, ukulele and some random fretted ethnic instruments. I was a folksinger once, and have played in bands of one type or another over the years-at lot of folk and ethnic dance stuff,but also club dates and casuals. I write and arrange sometimes, too.

Subject: RE: BS: Below the Line... Musicians or not???
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 25 Oct 12 - 11:04 AM

Write and sing Folk songs... sing anything really.. Play Harmonica, penny whistle, Smokey Mountain Strumstick and pan pipes.   Some of my songs are on this page :-    Mikes Songs/facebook page.    Scroll down on page for the individual songs. Best wishes, Mike.

Subject: RE: BS: Below the Line... Musicians or not???
From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker
Date: 25 Oct 12 - 11:54 AM

Electric Guitarist & keyboard Synthesizer player since the mid 70s...

If it's got strings or keys, knobs, faders and switches I'll have a bash at getting a 'musical' sound out of it.

I tried clarinet but was shit at it..

I'm also rubbish with recorders so sadly will never be any good at bagpipes...

My playing skills & abilities are too variable, inconsistent and unpredictable
to have ever stood any chance at a full time career as a 'pro' jobbing musician.

But on some occasions in the last 35 years I've been in bands
that had minor brushes with recording contracts
and media attention.

In so many ways I'm glad I was never in a band that 'made it'
because there's no way I have the constitution & genial disposition
to be arsed getting up early in the morning to do promo spots
on Breakfast TV shows..

..let alone being cooped up in an uncomfortable minibus touring for months on end.

I like my own bed & and bathroom too much..