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Thread: Love and Hate

  1. #1
    Forum Member ch willie's Avatar
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    Love and Hate

    I have very limited time to play music these days. I really enjoy playing my acoustic and just working on the craft of songwriting. It's fulfilling, but I also miss playing live in a band. At the moment, I can choose to do one or the other.

    If you've played in bands for over five minutes, you know there's the joy of playing with other people and then there are all the aggravations of being in a band--personality clashes, lack of unified vision for the band, the ins and outs of dealing with club owners. But then there's camaraderie, the joy of meshing with other instruments to creates something fresh or new. It so fulfilling and frustrating at the same time.

    My choice is to concentrate on the acoustic and songwriting. As much as I love playing in a band and hating being in a band, songwriting, especially when it works, is so much more satisfying to me.
    If we'd known we were going to be the Beatles, we'd have tried harder.--George Harrison

  2. #2
    Forum Member Don's Avatar
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    Re: Love and Hate

    I need to be in a band. I'm not a song writer, just a guitar playing cog in the machine. I got into this 40 years ago when I heard Derek and the Dominoes and Delaney & Bonnie & Friends and wanted to jam on the blues with friends like it sounded like they were doing and it's still what I like to do. I don't even care if we don't play out often, and when we do, I don't care what I get paid. My guitar teacher back then said I'd never make any money doing that and he was right!

  3. #3
    Forum Member DanTheBluesMan's Avatar
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    Re: Love and Hate

    I'd be happy just to find some like minded people who like electric blues/rock and want to jam. I don't care if we don't play out. Nothing against my friends who all play acoustic but I've been and always will be an electric player first.
    "Live and learn and flip the burns"

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    Forum Member Offshore Angler's Avatar
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    Re: Love and Hate

    Been there, done that. I finally started to enjoy being in a band when I threw all that emotional crap out and just looked at it as a job. I'm the guitar player for the Mason Tyler Band, and as such, I'm just a hired gun who shuts up and plays what he's paid to play. Takes all the bullshit out of it and it's extremely liberating.

    I'm scaling back and I only play in one band now since my first love, fishing is taking a lot more of my time. After decades of playing my ears are semi-shot and I need to rest them instead of playing three or four times a week.

    It's a mixed blessing - the road-warrior stage is what makes you a sound player, but it wears you out physically and mentally.


    BT, here's the latest Album/CD/Streaming or whatever we call them now of our band. All originals written by Mason.

    https://www.masontylerband.com
    "No harmonic knowledge, no sense of time, a ghastly tone, unskilled vibrato, and so on. Chuck is one of the worst guitar players I know" -Gravity Jim

  5. #5
    Forum Member ch willie's Avatar
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    Re: Love and Hate

    Offshore, I like playing with people I have some kind of bond with. Having said that, I get satisfaction from writing and playing at home; I don't need a band for that.

    In fact, after a day of thinking about it, I might just try to hire myself out as a bassist (too many guitarists here, too few good bassists.) If so my goal is to stand at the back of the stage and let the stars do their thing. It depends on how much of my time it would take. I don't have a lot of free time these days.
    If we'd known we were going to be the Beatles, we'd have tried harder.--George Harrison

  6. #6
    Forum Member S. Cane's Avatar
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    Re: Love and Hate

    This place was in need of such a good thread.

    Like I said in another forum recently... Playing in bands is indeed a case of love and hate. Songwriting is an entirely different musical activity, which to me fulfills a whole other sector of the soul. It's like eating and drinking. You love both, but you can't quench your thirst with food or satisfy your hunger with drinks.

    I do have ideas for songs. Never had the peace of mind to sit down with my Washburn to polish and write them down. They're probably a pile of bad songs, but it's a start and at some point I will do it.

    That said, I'm the guitar player for Blue Maverick and though I play in other projects every now and then, I can't imagine myself out of this band.

    So I live literally on the road, as the band is based in the state capital, about 805 miles from my hometown. I have to hit the road every week to practice and gig, and we also play in other cities. I've been doing this for years now. At first it's a bliss for the road-thirsty warrior, but as the years go by you get TIRED. It begins to be a PITA to load your car, fill it up and drive for hours to meet guys who are pissed off with their own lives, will very seldom acknowledge your efforts, there are arguments over repertoire, fights over style, endless mutual pestering, members' wives and chicks coming, going and creating mayhem in between... Sometimes even actual fighting.

    We've had some pretty ugly moments, and I mean ugly. Late 30s guys don't fight and all is well an hour later, like teenagers. Our band is all that. But we've also had GREAT moments as a gigging band. Stories to tell, photographs to show to our grandsons if they're ever interested.

    I'm even writing a journal that someday could be a nice and funny read.

    Continues (character limitation)

  7. #7
    Forum Member S. Cane's Avatar
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    Re: Love and Hate

    Some say that bands are like families. Well, let's put it this way: Most bands aren't exactly like being in a family. IMHO, being in a band is more like being in an outlaw Motorcycle Club. The guys got your back up to a point, but you have to be able to ride and get the job done to be one of them and keep your place. And you gotta stand your ground when you need to, both as a musician and as a person, under pain of losing the others' respect.

    I said all that because being away from all that trouble would be pure and heavenly bliss... For about a week or two. Then I'd get the craving for the action. I need this. I'll stop when I have to, not any time sooner. Couldn't live without being able to say "Good evening, I'm in tonight's band" and get a free pass into the house.

  8. #8
    Forum Member S. Cane's Avatar
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    Re: Love and Hate

    Quote Originally Posted by ch willie View Post
    Offshore, I like playing with people I have some kind of bond with. Having said that, I get satisfaction from writing and playing at home; I don't need a band for that.

    In fact, after a day of thinking about it, I might just try to hire myself out as a bassist (too many guitarists here, too few good bassists.) If so my goal is to stand at the back of the stage and let the stars do their thing. It depends on how much of my time it would take. I don't have a lot of free time these days.
    I saw the videos, great music, Chuck. I really liked it.

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