Do you play an instrument?

Drums. Played for 15 years. I still suck.

Pinworm said:

Drums. Played for 15 years. I still suck.

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some folks may think drums are a breeze. we slap wipe out on our legs, and think it's easy. drums are tough to learn...

Used to play semi-professionally back in the 90's, guitar, bass, a little piano/keyboard, self taught. I started playing when I was about 14, after 3-4 years of practicing 8+ hours a day I was better than most, started out with the basic metal stuff at the time. I was playing yngwie malmsteen, randy rhoads, van halen, steve vai and tons of classic rock stuff, Hendrix etc.. I had a very shitty cheap electric. I dropped out of school to practice guitar more, taught myself basic music theory out of whatever info I could find at the time, mostly old Guitar Player magazines from the library.. Started playing bass in a few local weekend country rock bands because those were the type of bands that got gigs that actually paid something where I lived which sounded a lot better than playing for free. An older guy gave me like a 3 hour crash course on playing bass and we went and played a New Years Eve gig, then his old bass player came back and I got in some other band with a bunch of old hippies. Eventually ended up playing guitar, I could always a better guitar player than the guys I was playing in bands with so eventually I ended up on it after someone quit, I taught myself all the chicken picken country guitar stuff, Albert Lee, Brent Mason type shit..

A guy I was in that band with told me about his friend's band and wanted to go see them, they had a tour of Asia coming up and were trying out musicians at a local club where their gear was setup in the backroom. I saw the two guys trying out, who I knew, then told my friend to get me get me an audition. I went in a few nights later and this dude that played keyboards who had went to Berklee School of Music in Boston and could play anything was auditioning too. We both got the job and a couple months later we were all a bunch of midwest hippies in Asia. After that we came back home, replaced the bass player overnight with a very talented road warrior who ended up leading the show, and we became a party band. We started playing the shitkicker club circuit in all the western states and we also did 5 more tours to Southern Europe twice, the Caribbean, and another Asian trip. I don't think we ever played one original song lol. We didn't make a lot of money but it wasn't bad for a guy in his 20's with no bills and no dependents. We stayed in everything from the most depressing dive motels to awesome 5 star hotels... sometimes we'd eat chili cooked on an electric skillet on top of a cooler, other times they'd be feeding us free filet mignon and steaks.

It was a great life for someone in their 20's but after 10 years of it I was done, at one point the drummer and I had been in a bad car accident riding with a drunk driver, he got hurt a lot worse than me. Various talented people like the keyboard player had left the band long ago and then our agent, this old guy in Iowa got in an argument with a guy in our band who handled all the booking shit and blackballed us from all of the clubs we had been playing for years and even the ones that really liked us wouldn't hire us. So then were all stuck back at home after 10 years of being gone, broke of course, it was back to playing crappy local clubs, the internet was just coming around and I started getting into computers at the time and making better money than I ever had playing music, the band was sucking and I was like fuck this. I tried playing in another local band for awhile with this dude who was a virtuoso fiddle player who had did the road circuit with another band (killed himself a year ago or so), a really good pro drummer, pedal steel player and a bass player and we kicked ass but we were playing total dive ass bars. After I saw a cute girl get a beer bottle busted on her mouth and a moment later some guys head getting slammed into our wedge monitors with a sickening sound I was done. Haven't really played since... I've still got my gear in case I ever go broke and need to play for money, an American Standard Tele needs a bit of an overhaul, a Peavey Classic 50 and a bunch of assorted stomp boxes. It has probably been close to a year since I've had it out of its case.

Anyways, it was what I wanted to do back then, so I did it until I got my fill of it.

I have been playing guitar for 50 years and I play mandolin. I have already had my fill of playing in bands. There is nothing like playing in front of a large group of people and having them like what you're playing but, there comes a time when it is no longer worth it. I just jam with friends about once a week now.

I just released my first solo CD. I play guitar, an Ovation and Fender tele and Fender precision bass
Im more of a singer/songwriter and always played bass because no one ever wanted to.
Ive got 10 new songs written and head into the studio soon.
Like Choo above, I got sick of the live gig thing and it is a big reason my cd isnt selling. Its getting good reviews. Im just tired of slugging Marshalls through snow drifts at 3am.
Live music is dead in my area. Karaoke, jam nights and not being able to smoke in the bars killed it imho

UncleReemis said:

Piano since I was six, trumpet for 11+ years, drums for 6, some self-taught guitar. I love music, especially making it.

Jazz band was always super fun. I recommend you guys to play in pit bands at local theater places, it scratches the itch to jam.

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Can you play " Uncle Remus " ? Not real complicated but beautiful none the less .

I cant wait till my fro is full grown , have you seen us Uncle remus ?

Ive been pluckin round a bit on guitar since the mid 60's .

Ive got a 1965 Gibson SG & run a Marshall half stack with a Heavily modded Marshall 9200 tube Head .

Ive been workin on Smoke on the water ever since , lol .

I still have my equipment too. I have a 76 Ibanez lawsuit V with Dimarzios, super 1 in the bridge and a super 2 in the neck and split switches and a bone and brass nut. A strat with a hot rails in the bridge and a 59 Barney Kessel Kay with the Kelvinator headstock and tissue box pickups, figured maple back and sides in natural and a couple accoustics a Yamaha and a Alvarez and a couple silvertones from the 60's and a Harmony one of our friends gave my wife, and a Dobro and an Epiphone acoustic/electric mandolin. I also have my Marshall but it needs work, and old 15watt Kay that I put a Fender front end in and a 30W Kustom.

When I was a teenager I had one of these, I hated it then but I wish I still had it! Kustom.

Ive had one of these for about a year. Fits it the palm of your hand and fills a room with crystal clear crunch. If I was rich, Id own all Orange gear