What got you playing...what keeps you playing?

[ridingeternity]

When I heard pink Floyd Animals at the end of 5th grade I decided I wanted to play music and it took a couple years to realize it was the bass I was hearing that I wanted to play. Since I started actually playing its just whatever sounds interesting to me. I love all kinds of music but the common thread in it has always been that an album or song sounds interesting, different, and new to me. I have not ever had any delusions of being famous or anything I just love the creAtion of something I find interesting.

Man that album recently refreshed my spirit in music, especially Pigs(three different ones) I had listened to it many atimes before but now with contextual experience it really speaks to me, especially the lyrics "HAHA! Charade you are..." and "You're almost a laugh, but you're really a cry"

But i must say, my favorite part of that song is how badass this line sounds:

"You...fucked up...old haaag...HAHA! Charade you are..."

[ridingeternity]

Oh and the talkbox solo makes Frampton sound like a little bitch, no offense to any Frampton fans, but compare the Pigs solo to any of Framptons and im sure you will at least sort of see where im coming from...

[Derelict78]

Oh and the talkbox solo makes Frampton sound like a little bitch, no offense to any Frampton fans, but compare the Pigs solo to any of Framptons and im sure you will at least sort of see where im coming from...

Yeah this! I think Gilmore was at the top of his game here. There was also lots of discontent within the band and that tension really shines through to the music in a beautiful way.

[Swordfishtrombone]

I started playing guitar cus I decided to grab some cds from my mom's collection one day, heard Nevermind and thought "Hey I can do that!" As far as keyboard, I started cus I wanted to learn a couple piano parts from some Nick Cave songs + start making horrible synth noises.

As far as why I keep playing, I just want to make the music that I want to listen to. Sure, it's nice to put on some music that already exists, but I want to create stuff that's basically just for me (and if other people happen to enjoy it too, then that's even better).

[humancertainty]

I decided to grab some cds from my mom's collection one day, heard Nevermind

Oh, man. You just made me feel pretty old.

Black Flag made me want to play music. Plus I was a skater at the time and I sucked at it. It didn't matter how bad I sucked at guitar since I was just playing in my room by myself.
Expression, travel and friendship makes me keep wanting to do it. Carpal tunnel is slowing me down to where I'm not gonna be able to do it in the same capacity I always have, unfortunately, but I'm trying to figure out some sort of alternative.

[D.o.S.]

My dad was a guitar player, so I guess one might say I was conditioned...but it was always clear that it was my choice and I was never taught a thing about playing.

The first guitarists I remember that instilled in me that I needed to dedicate all within me to it were Iommi, Hendrix and Townsend. Much of that is lost within memory, but I still remember clearly the first time I heard the opening riff to Electric Funeral, I mean Hendrix and Townsend got me excited to play and about different things one could achieve in their playing with a guitar, but that riff just sang to me...the PERFECT TONE.

Add in Cream, Zappa, Blind Faith and the Allman Brothers...

Hello, west-coast me.

[new05002]

Not exactly sure why I started playing, maybe I was just interested.

Building keeps me playing. Building was actually supposed to be an extension of playing, something to motivate me to play more. However, in reality I enjoy building more than playing. At times I consider that if by some chance I could trade my building talents for actual music talents I would take that chance up. However, since that is not how life works I just keep on trucking with the current setup.

[skullservant]

Building keeps me playing. Building was actually supposed to be an extension of playing, something to motivate me to play more. However, in reality I enjoy building more than playing.

I'm finding that building is really my motivating factor now as well. Finding new sounds, experimenting, creating new things.

[new05002]

Building keeps me playing. Building was actually supposed to be an extension of playing, something to motivate me to play more. However, in reality I enjoy building more than playing.

I'm finding that building is really my motivating factor now as well. Finding new sounds, experimenting, creating new things.

For me, since I take on a fairly decent build order I tend to have to move any musical ideas down while I attempt to address engineering goals. I am an engineer so I like building even if I couldnt play worth a shit.

[skullservant]

Yeah. I feel you man. I could sit and build for hours a day if it was possible.

[DADGBD]

I'm in it for the money...





What else would I spend it on?

[louderthangod]

Lately I've been getting into playing improvised music. Sometimes the entire piece is improvised and other times there are a couple of main parts but everything them is wide open. I had a really strong bias against improvised music. I grew with a deadhead for a mom and trading solos for 30 minutes just seemed to be the worst thing possible in music. What we've been doing lately though isn't that sort of thing at all, it's very melodic, it's got riffs and a lot of interplay between everyone. It might help that we don't have a traditional lineup. Just one guitar and a guy that plays mostly violin and sometimes bass and sometimes we add a cellist. It's all been very inspiring musically and something I really needed since I was starting to feel like my creativity was drying up.

Last night I started thinking about the relationship of time and liver performances. With improvised music you have to be completely committed to being present and in the moment (something I have a hard time doing in my personal life). What's interesting about that is that you can only look at an improvised piece properly in the past tense. It's like everything is in real time but everything the audience and the musicians are experiencing is in the past. You're feeling the music in the present but all of your thoughts, analysis and memories are in the past. One of the interesting about the past is that it's personal and oddly enough ever changing. Those precious and terrible childhood moments we have are never static. I remember hearing an author talking about why he didn't want to write about his own experiences because once he doesn't they're then frozen in time and forever static whereas when we recall something in our past, our interpretation and even the very "facts" and details of those events change over time as our experiences, insights and even our ability to remember changes. All of this mumbo-jumbo is really just a way of saying that everyone involved in improvised music (and all preformed music but especially music where the listener and performers don't know how it'll turn out) is a personal experience that can only be experienced in that exact way at that exact moment but just that single person. That's kinda cool and as long as I'm submitting myself to the moment, it takes the stress off of coming up with something good. I just have to represent me and the moment rather than worrying about coming up with the perfect riff each and every time.

[skullservant]

I also vibe hard with ^^^^^^^ as well
I used to be into song writing when I first started doing my solo black metal stuff, writing out the drum programs, rehearsing riffs, playing through songs. Coming from a noise-associated background, improv was always something that I did previously, so it was nice to have some structure for a change. I did it for a year or so before I started loosening up and improvising more and more of each of the pieces that I worked on. It would go from a solo, to a section, to now an entire project dedicated to improvising everything on the spot. Like you said, it's definitely a freeing sensation and I think that the music I make while improvising.

[louderthangod]

What opened it up for me was that I was capable of going into the full tabla rasa and could trust in my instincts and just let myself play without trying to force old riffs in. I feel that no matter what preparation I've been doing, we can show up with absolutely nothing and play an hour or more set and be very proud of it.

[MeSoFuzzy]

One of my friends played guitar. He showed me how to play a couple Nirvana songs. I played around with my mom's acoustic guitar. Cliff burton's playing got me interested in bass. After I got my first job, bought an ibanez bass starter pack and took lessons for about a year. I got into moogerfoogers, and trippy+heavy instantly gelled with me. Just recently got back into playing bass after doing nothing but fucking around with synths and drum machines. Now I can't imagine not using both and I'm slowly building up a rig so I can play out.