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If you play an instrument

  
  

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—| x |—
21:35 / 14.05.03
...then what kind of music do you like to play?

It’s been about six years since I’ve been in a band, and I find that I don’t play my guitar as much over the past few years; however, today I busted out the ole axe, and put on a couple of CDs to play along with. I ended up with a blister on my left ring finger, and chapped up my right index finger (hell—when I used to play live it wasn’t a good show unless my right index finger was bleeding all over my pickups).

When I was younger, I used to play along to all kinds of crap stuff: Poison, Kiss, Cinderella, Metallica, Def Leppard, etc.—I even learned how to play the fucking Top Gun anthem. Man, I used to know how to play a bunch of shit.

Nowadays I find that mostly I like to play thrashy-noisy delights. Probably partly ‘cause I’m kinda’ a crap guitarist, but also, I like to jump around and scream. These are some of the bands I like to play along with:

I really enjoy playing “Miss World” and “Rock Star” from Hole’s Live Through This. “Rock Star” is especially fun for the screaming along with Ms. Love (even if she is a hag).

When I used to work at a shitty job, I would often like to come home and let Tar’s Jackson play through the whole album and I’d jam along. Some especial favorites off that CD are “Dark Mark,” “Goethe,” “Tellerman,” and “Viaduct Removal.” That last one is often a string breaker but it is by far one of the most fun. I find that I often end up bleeding after rocking out with Tar. Some other songs by Tar I like to thrash along with are “Dean Martin” from Clincher and “Building Taj Mahal” from Over and Out.

As well, on occasion I like to put on Nirvana’s Nevermind and play along.

Today I taught myself “Hag” by The Breeders from their Last Splash CD. It’s a nice one to strum along with, IMHO.

So, what do you like to play to unwind or get wound up?
 
 
—| x |—
21:40 / 14.05.03
Oh yeah, I forgot to include Weezer from their self-titled album: "My Name is Jonas" is another of my favorites to rock along with!
 
 
gingerbop
21:54 / 14.05.03
I used to play piano, but it kinda died out, probably coz of this computer actually.
But Beatles mostly- yesterday and here, there and everywhere being my favourites- nothing to do with them being easy or anything...
 
 
Saint Keggers
23:37 / 14.05.03
I used to play the piano when I was but a wee child...but my most conplicated song was When The Saint Go Marching In.
 
 
Baz Auckland
03:09 / 15.05.03
I play the violin as a fiddle. (I feel odd calling it a fiddle for some reason, but I guess that's what it is since classical music hasn't really graced its strings in the last 7 years).

Since I was 16 I've played mostly fiddle stuff. Irish, English, Scottish, East Coast Canadian, Southern American, etc. etc. I've had the craving to start learning some classical stuff again since my teenage rebellion has mostly worn off. The best song I have to get wound up is based on the mandolin solo from Spinal Tap's "Stonehenge".
 
 
—| x |—
03:23 / 15.05.03
Cool Baz.

Hey, there's this Canadian guy named Oliver Schroer and he plays some amazing music with the fiddle. Not close to the “classical” in any sense, I saw him perform at the Folk Festival in Victoria last year. He described some of his pieces as variations on “reels” but referred to them as “surreals.” He also casually mentioned some Quantum Mechanic references while he told stories between his songs. It was amazing, and his last song, a tribute to a woman who he played fiddle with on occasion who had died the past year, had me in tears—beautiful.
 
 
that
09:22 / 15.05.03
I used to play the violin, the flute and, ahem, the recorder. And I played whatever the hell my teachers told me to play. Sigh...
 
 
Kit-Cat Club
10:09 / 15.05.03
I spent a year or so trying to play the clarinet solo from Fats Waller's 'The Minor Drag' but my lip just isn't flexible enough - I still can't manage glissandi. Apart from that I like playing stuff with lots of flashy twiddles because I'm a show-off (and it disguises the fact that my tone isn't very gutsy sometimes because I can't cope with hard reeds).
 
 
Old brown-eye is back
11:15 / 15.05.03
I wasted my youth and scuffed up my little hands teaching myself to play the drums using Frank Zappa, Rush, Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin. Proper music - men's music.
 
 
Persephone
11:38 / 15.05.03
I used to play the flute and the saxophone, but I hated them. Though I can still play a tattered version of Flight Of The Bumblebee. I like to sing a lot. I sing mostly standards. My two favorites are "You Don't Know Me" and "MoreThan You Know" ...I'm not a sad person, I just like to sing sad songs!
 
 
Bomb The Past
15:02 / 15.05.03
Live Through This is a pretty neat album to strum along too, with Rock Star being amongst my favorites as well. I heartily recommend thrashing away to a power-chord-tastic version of Violet as well. 1979 by the Smashing Pumpkins is another simple yet satisfying guitar choon that has me beeming and kidding myself that maybe I'm not such an ignorant fool after all.
 
 
Saveloy
15:46 / 15.05.03
I used to try and play the drums with a bunch of friends who would try and play their instruments. The thing we all enjoyed doing the most was making a f***ing racket - usually some form of drone rock, punk or doom metal. One of the guitar/bass players was a hairy surfer into Minor Threat and the Melvins. The other was a hairy biker into Maiden and Sabbath. I was joined by a second drummer - we had half a kit between us - whose favourite record was Hair, the musical. She was also hairy and would occasionally play keyboards. We'd attempt to play over-complicated Fall or Can drum riffs. I also got a great deal of pleasure out of really slow, sloppy playing, making a clattery sound like a band falling asleep at their instruments.

We were terrible, and we knew it, but we weren't setting out to make great music, we were setting out to have a laugh by way of trying to play properly. So we weren't being awful deliberately, we just didn't mind very much that we were. A bit like the Portsmouth Sinfonia, if anyone remembers them. The rare occassions that we found ourselves playing in time and in tune with each other were, possibly, some of the most enjoyable and satisfying moments of my life.

I secretly hoped that we would accidentally come up with something worth listening to, so recorded most of our sessions. I put everything that came even vaguely near to being a tune on a CD, and I swear that if the flat was collapsing around me I would save that one disc, even if it meant losing every other record in my collection.
 
 
telyn
20:08 / 15.05.03
Um. Many instruments. I don't play all of them anymore, most very rarely. What I admit to playing now is voice and harp - even though I'm not fantastic at the harp as I came to it relatively recently.

The repetoire that I currently perform with this combination is either early music or folk - both of which require me to create arrangements of songs from little original material (generally just a melody). That's what I really like about the music I make - that I make it. I get to mess about with chords and textures and rhythm vs more fluid things. All good.

However I don't think I have found my favourite style of music to play. I'm still looking - what I'm doing doesn't sit right yet.
 
 
Rev. Orr
22:20 / 15.05.03
A couple of years ago I had to list all the instruments I could play for my entry in Spotlight and the first time I filled in the form it was ridiculous. Quite apart from how often I was going to be asked to play the bass recorder or somesuch, it was brought home to me with some force that I never played music any more. Even after I left home I still had access to a piano in college (even had one in my room for a year) and I realised how much I missed just noodling on a keyboard. I wouldn't claim I can play the violin any more as I haven't touched one for nearly eight years and my ability on the guitar is strictly in the 'for my own pleasure' category. The odd thing, for me, is that there are some instruments that give me a tactile pleasure from playing that is distinct from any sound generated. I was a technically superior violinist than I am on the guitar, but I keep an electric by the tv and strum along when I'm alone in a way that I would never go near a violin unless I was forced to.

With the piano, it's a combination of the two. I enjoy the act of playing and I can enjoy the noise I make as well. When I'm just playing for myself I tend to go for thirties and forties jazz - the Johnny Mercer era - as most of the other music I like sounds daft arranged for solo piano (although my version of 'Sex bomb' as a torch song rocks). The rest of the time I'm usually writing or practising the stuff my writing partner sends me but I usually end up twisting whatever she comes up with into a Cole Porter pastische. I would say that my 'favourite music to play' is quite distinct from my 'favourite music'. However, the former is instrument-specific and I would kill to be able to play exactly what I want to hear.

Finally, I just have to agree on the sad songs front. Primo wallowing experience.
 
 
rizla mission
13:58 / 16.05.03
Not being terribly experienced in matters musical, my current repertoire runs to:

a handful of Ramones songs (the chord changes done considerably slower than Johnny did them!)
'The Girl Who Lives on Heaven Hill' by Husker Du
'Cherry Came Too' by the Jesus and Mary Chain
'Louis Louis' (but of course)
and a not quite right version of 'After the Goldrush' by Neil Young

Most of the time though it's just made up un-musical fooling around, varying between quiet, post-rock-ish, distinctly un-melodic melodies and utterly repulsive bits-of-metal-under-the-strings no wave shredding, distorted to the point where it doesn't really matter what I'm playing.
 
 
—| x |—
16:46 / 16.05.03
Ah, the joys of making music!

I mean, don’t get me wrong, I don’t only play covers, but also have several of my own numbers, and the band I used to be in was all originals. We got so far as to get a demo tape together, but then our drummer got all wrapped up in a school theater project, and we put our weekly jamming on hold. We were all supposed to move to a larger city together, but then I ended up the only one willing to go. The end.

I certainly agree, Harmony, there is something quite wonderful to creating your own music. Perhaps like Rizla, I also piss around with overly distorted nonsense. A few years back, after a good session of rockin’ out, I’d enjoy leaning my guitar against the amp, and once I got a decent wave of feedback going, I’d sit and twist dials—playing with the feedback’s modulation (sometimes for over an hour). I’m sure the neighbours in my apartment loved that…

Johnny, you bring up something that is really interesting, but mostly alien to me—tactile pleasure. I find this fascinating because, while in a sense quite obvious, I’ve never really considered it before in relation to the joy of playing a specific instrument. I don’t have a wide range of experience with different instruments (piano—when I was a wee lad [though I still plunk on organs and whatnot occasionally], guitar in mid-teens to present day geezerdom, and some bass spattered in with the last ten years), so I can’t really say I’ve much of a range to feel for this sort of dynamic. I can say that I know I prefer the feel of guitar stings to the feel of bass strings, but is it a pleasure? I think I might try to pay a little more attention to that aspect of playing. Although, I do know that, when I am in the right mood, the whole feel of weilding a guitar is quite enjoyable.

I realize that I forgot to include one of my old favorites (but I haven’t played it as much in the past few years ‘cause I only have it on a cassette and who uses those things anymore ): “Savory” by Jawbox from For Your Own Special Sweetheart is a really intense kick ass number to play.

Rizla, Husker Du is a great choice! I think I used to know some or most of “A Good Idea” by Sugar—Copper Blue is such a damn fine album. I think Beaster would be a great album to learn how to play too!

Dead Flower—it’s kinda’ neat that we both like to wet our chops with “Rock Star”!
 
 
Bomb The Past
17:11 / 16.05.03
I find that playing my guitar acts as a bit of a security blanket (well that, or a giant blue phallus covered in stickers). It's worryingly comforting.

<threadrot>

I've got fond memories of Sugar — Copper Blue, if only because I have consistently used the tape box to store certain *ahem* pharmaceuticals in.

</threadrot>
 
 
—| x |—
17:38 / 16.05.03
Yeah DF, I know what you are saying. Like I said above, I used to play TAR to relax after work. I find that I playing my guitar can sometimes be meditative, or a least, provide for a focus. As well, on occasion, it can change my mood from not-so-happy to feeling better. So why haven’t I played as much in the last few years?!?
 
 
rizla mission
10:36 / 18.05.03
..Rizla, Husker Du is a great choice!

and "..Heaven Hill" is a great song, in that it's dead easy to play and sounds good performed in pretty much any way, from suicide note acoustic slowness to noisy thrash-punk singalong.. kinda recommended.
 
 
gingerbop
09:33 / 19.05.03
I find pianos- both playing and listning to others- kinda comforting. Even the piano itself, its just warm and homeley. I think houses without one seem really cold.
 
 
Brigade du jour
20:29 / 19.05.03
Im play guitar, drums and bass, therefore I play very simple twelve-bar blues rock because it's easy. Although with drums I like to play jazz because I can much about a bit and don't have to stick to the same rhythm for long which bores the hell out of me. And I will absolutely anything. But not necessarily very well.

Are you looking to audition some musos or something, dude?
 
 
—| x |—
20:46 / 19.05.03
Well Rizla, I might have to throw on New Day Rising sometime soon and figure it out!

"Are you looking to audition some musos or something, dude?"

Well, that would be cool, but due to the distance between most of us, I don't see how it would be very useful. Nah, mostly I was simply feeling chatty about playing an instrument, and was wondering what instruments others play and what kinds of music they like to play.

  
 
telyn
22:17 / 19.05.03
That whole 'tactile' thing - if you've got it with an instrument it's generally a pretty good sign. So much of technical performance is down to how well you can 'feel' your instrument and make it respond to you, make it sing. I often forget how important physical skill is with musicianship.

The act of playing music can definitely be mediative, as to play well you have to be in that particularly still state because of the constant focus required. It's one of the good things about playing music, the mental discipline.

I definitely agree on the 'piano makes a house a home' front. Keyboards just don't cut it for me.
 
 
—| x |—
02:23 / 20.05.03
Yeah, I third that “piano-homey” connection. I grew up in a house with a piano and a big old organ with red, white, and yellow coloured switches.

And to continue to illustrate how narrow the range of my song playing selection is, I remembered today that I also sometimes play “No Love” by The Big Boys—yet another punk-thrashy guitar tune.
 
 
01
04:18 / 20.05.03
I play guitar. I find that when I'm playing at home I tend to get very A.D.D. in my playing and rattle off a bunch of Slayer-esque rapid fire, machine gun burst type riffs that keep morphing and playing off each other. I also play in a punk rock/(fuck I hate to use the dreaded "E" word but for lack of a better description I'll drop it anyways)emo band and so I fuck around alot with various chords and finger picking in drop d tuning.
 
 
—| x |—
22:20 / 26.05.03
So I’ve been paying more attention to the tactile experience of playing guitar and I’ve noticed that there is certainly something very pleasurable in my right when I strum and pick. I’m not sure if I can articulate it very well, but it is simply a certain comfort—a sort of strong but relaxed comfort.

I wanted to ask other guitarists what sort of picks they play with. Me, a long time ago I used to play with super-thin picks, but for the last, say, ten years, I have changed to playing with a moderately thick pick—.88mm. I find that this gives more “power” to my picking and strumming. Also, to go with the tactile experience, I tend always to pick/strum in such a way that the “meat” of the inside top of my right index finger strikes the strings just before the pick does (this is why I’ll bleed if I play real hard). This tends to create a sort of “artificial harmonic” to all my strumming, which, in turn, gives it that much more of a grind-core / noisy sound. Kind of akin to the sound of TAR’s guitars or such.

While this picking technique does tend to rough up that finger, I simply don’t think I’d be as comfortable playing differently—the pain is part of the pleasure!

Anyway, while playing the other day, I recalled and so played two other songs that I sometimes like to play (again, pretty narrow range, but…): first, I played “Requiem” by Killing Joke—hadn’t played that one in years, and then I played “Hang the Dog” by Alice Donut—another number I hadn’t played in quite awhile. As well, while poking around yesterday, I found the Alice Donut website, downloaded one of their mp3 files, “Cows Placenta to Armageddon,” and figured out the rhythm guitar part.

I simply love playing “Apocalypse Rock”!
 
 
—| x |—
07:44 / 29.05.03
I wanted to say that since starting this thread I have been playing my guitar more than I have in years. Seriously, I have played more in the last two weeks than I have in the last four years. I find that to be a good thing, and it is really nice to be playing again!

So, along with tactile pleasure, I’ve noticed that as I play more, I am remembering more of the riffs and songs that I used to play. I’ve heard people talk about muscle or body memory, and, while I don’t know too much about it, it seems to me that perhaps there is something to this. I mean, I’ll be plunking around and suddenly a certain combination of sound, finger, and hand position will remind me that I know how to play such and such a tune. Yesterday, I was pissing around, and I found myself playing a part of “Kundalini Express” by Love and Rockets. Needless to say, I busted out the CD to refresh myself on the whole song. I also found myself playing a couple more Donut songs: “Roaches in the Sink” and “Medication.” Anyway, it’s weird how I find myself playing these songs that I’d forgotten I’d ever known how to play.

Yeah, this thread has nicely coincided with a renewed interest in playing guitar: thanks Barbelith!
 
 
—| x |—
22:31 / 29.05.03
So yes, it never fails. I put on Jackson today, played through the album (though had to review some songs to get them back) and I get to the last song, "Viaduct Removal," am half-way through playin' and PTWANK! broke my D string, sigh.
 
 
The Return Of Rothkoid
00:39 / 30.05.03
I play guitar. I chunk away on a big Yamaha ES-335 copy. Some barbeloids will recall my squawking from a barbejam in Southampton some time ago. Playing? Anything. Big Rock Moments as heard through a fucked-up backwoods filter. Lots of Tom Waits. Pulp. Trying to play like Django Reinhardt, but it's amazingly difficult. "Minor Swing" at 1/5 speed just isn't cutting it. But I Will Continue.

If in doubt, I go for porno wah action. With lots of volume. Though I'm pretty happy with my Ribot-style deconstructed "Summertime", I am. Like effects units, but am discovering the joy of plain guitar-to-amp goodness.
 
 
Professor Silly
15:04 / 31.05.03
I play a fretless electric bass (I used to play trombone as well).

I come from a background mixing metal and concert band material, since tempered by some professional theater work (Jesus Christ Superstar, Sweeny Todd, Godspell, etc) and jazz....

I'm currently obsessed with sound, running through a Russian distortion petal and a noisegate. I want my bass to be felt more than heard. Of course, I do listen to a lot of Melvins now-a-days, so that probably has influenced my playing. So sometimes I play in more of a bluesy style, sometimes a jazzy walking line, sometimes a hoedown/polka style, sometimes just feedback....

And occasionally I'll throw out some random song from my youth, like Jane's Addiction, Nirvana, Danzig, Iron Maiden, or Motley Crue...just to fuck with people.

By the way, I play with a band called The Sacred Cattle.
 
 
rizla mission
14:42 / 03.06.03
I don't know what the fuck a "noisegate" is, but I feel I should own one.
 
 
Jack Fear
18:26 / 03.06.03
You wouldn't like it, Riz: it keeps the noise out.
 
 
—| x |—
18:45 / 03.06.03
There really is something to the sound of the word 'noisegate', isn't there. It does sound like it'd be something for us noisy players to have in our gear.

Me, I've two guitars. The first guitar is a Fender Squire Katana--it's got a bit of a strange shape, kinda' like a flying V but with the bits of the 'V' cut off. It's black, has one double pick-up, a die for the volume, and currently is in need of repair. My other guitar, the one I use most often, is a Peavey Tracer, and it too is black. It's got a couple pick-ups, but the single coil at the top has been on the fritz for use; however, this allows me to use the pick-up switch as a sort of toggle / cut-off switch. This guitar also has one of them high-falootin' Floyd-Rose tremelo systems with the locking mechanisms for the strings and such. I can use the whammy to such a degree that my strings are literally floppin' around, let it go and my guitar stays in tune--it's pretty freakin' cool. I like to use the whammy a lot in combination with harmonics and feedback.

So, I've yet to change my string, but I think that I'll put a whole new set on, and while I'm at it take the time to give my guitar a little TLC.

There used to be a band in my old town called "The Sacred Cows," btw, but "The Sacred Cattle" has a much cooler ring to it!
 
 
Char Aina
19:56 / 03.06.03
all you stringers who play with picks, i would like to emphasize how much i came on by fingering instead.


seriously, at first you will suck, you may even play more slowly with four fingers than with one pick, but once you have it you will be so much more expressive.

this ABSOLUTELY applies to bass, in fact i would say that if you can t use your fingers at least as comfortably as you do a pick, then you should try to shake the bad habit.
it applies less to guitar, but i still think it is an important string to your bow, as it were. see the inner terrestrials for a great example of this live.


alright. lesson over, sorry if that sounded like i was telling you off, i wasn't.
 
 
—| x |—
16:41 / 04.06.03
Oh no, I agree, there is something to learning how to finger pick. I learned a little of this when I learned how to play some of a Metallica song from And Justice For All, "To Live is to Die." However, my skills in this area are pretty much specific to that song. I can do a little finger picking otherwise. I had a friend who showed me some really keen exercises to learn how to finger pick--my problem is that I'm more than a little lazy and/or impatient and rarely want to do "exercises" when I am playing guitar. This is why I only know a couple of scales instead of the range of scales!
 
  

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