Playing for "Amusement"

Ron Scott · Post by **Ron Scott** » 10 Jan 2007 5:31 pm

I also play for my own enjoyment now that I don't play out anymore but I always did play because I really enjoy the sound of the Steelguitar but then I had to play what everyone else wanted..Not anymore...I also don't play everyday but when I really feel like I can get something out of it,I can really get into the feel of things....RS

Robert Dominick · Post by **Robert Dominick** » 10 Jan 2007 6:52 pm

John,

Add me to your list too! I feel exactly as you do. I play for my enjoyment, amusement, and love for the instrument and the music. I did play professionally "full time" for 22 years (12 of them on PSG) but have been out it for 9 years. Just got back into the steel this past summer...couldn't stay away from it! Anyhow, glad to see others who have the same sentiments.

Robert

Michael Dene · Post by **Michael Dene** » 10 Jan 2007 7:12 pm

Jerry,
don't know what your wife thinks of as odd ......
all sounds perfectly normal to me.

In answer to the original question, I've been playing some sort of music or another for 60 odd(some very odd!!) years, always for my own pleasure. I reckon it's a bonus when someone else wants to do it with me, or more amazing still, wants to pay me money to do what I was going to do anyway!!!

Michael

Calvin Walley · Post by **Calvin Walley** » 11 Jan 2007 1:34 pm

i have never had any desire to play anywhere other then at home ...its just my little toy to play with

Jerry Hayes · Post by **Jerry Hayes** » 11 Jan 2007 2:33 pm

John, I played full time for over 22 years myself and was lucky enough that I didn't have to work a day job. I quit playing at the end of '85 and moved from SoCal to Virginia and got a City job which I've just retired from. Since I haven't been playing for a living I've really enjoyed playing so much more. I'd rather do a gig or benefit for free than make a hundred bucks picking with some "jerk" like some I've had to play with in the past when I did it for a living. I play at least two or three nights a week now and when I don't have a gig there are some local jams I attend just because I like to pick. Some of the folks I play with are pro quality pickers and others are right on the verge of being amateurs but if I enjoy playing with them I do it. I'm enjoying my steel so much more these days and will continue. Life is good!..............JH in Va.

Jim Peters · Post by **Jim Peters** » 11 Jan 2007 2:42 pm

The only reason I play is to practice for a gig. I do not enjoy it otherwise. JP

James Cann · Post by **James Cann** » 11 Jan 2007 3:36 pm

OK, here it is. I often envision myself back in high school, where all the girls I used to covet are in the audience and are impressed, of course.

Yeah, man, swoon 'em!

Wally Taylor · Post by **Wally Taylor** » 11 Jan 2007 4:54 pm

Calvin,
I am with you man!! Kinda partial to your last name too!

Wally

Jerry H. Moore · Post by **Jerry H. Moore** » 11 Jan 2007 5:00 pm

I'm gonna reply as a tele picker on this right now because I'm still chasing notes around on my old 1000 trying to sound like Ralph Mooney and Norman Hamlet. At an outside rainy show I only took the bare essentials, tele, hot rod tweed amp and a cord. Normally there's the delay, phase, etc. etc. Another very hot picker ask me what I was playing through, it sure sounded right, he says. What a reality check!!! I had went back to the real thing, a guitar, a good tube amp and a good crowd wanting more! Les Paul said, give me any guitar and an amp and 15 minutes with it and I will sound like Les Paul. What I learned was this: As the original vent suggested, do you ever just get lost in it? Yes I do and that is when it is the best. If you have to worry what the delay is set on or what another setting is or what some other player uses you aren't getting the most out of it. I'll just be glad when I can express myself on the psg. It's in my head right now, I just need to get it to my guitar. Thanks

John De Maille · Post by **John De Maille** » 11 Jan 2007 5:03 pm

Jim P,
Somehow, I think you're stretching my strings here.
So far, we have 31 posts agreeing and 1 non agreeing ( I think not )

Alan Brookes · Post by **Alan Brookes** » 11 Jan 2007 5:06 pm

James Cann wrote:I often envision myself back in high school, where all the girls I used to covet are in the audience and are impressed

So do I, until I realise that all those beautiful young girls I remember with lust are tubby grandmothers by now....

Jim Peters · Post by **Jim Peters** » 11 Jan 2007 6:07 pm

JDM, not disagreeing, just telling the truth. I am goal oriented on steel, my goal is to play it out as good as I can, and I am a relative beginner, maybe 40 gigs in the last 2 1/2 yrs, about 10 straight up country, the others country rock. I do enjoy playing out, but do not enjoy practicing unless it is to learn a song to play out. For example, sure it was fun to learn Panama Red (well,sortof,anyway), but only because I knew I was gonna get to play it out. But no, I wouldn't play it while the house burned down. Bu I am that way about 6 string guitar.

Re reading my post, it is a bit harsh, steel guitar is fun, but I find it diffficult to get into the practicing unless there is a gig in sight. JP

John De Maille · Post by **John De Maille** » 11 Jan 2007 6:33 pm

Jim,
Well, I think your approach is commendable. You fall into another catagory, and that is, a man with a vision and goals. It's not like I don't have goals, mine are just different at this stage of my life. I wish you much success in your endeavors and I know you'll enjoy the outcome.

Bob Carlucci · Post by **Bob Carlucci** » 11 Jan 2007 6:42 pm

If I don't get paid I don't play.. I will turn on music and play along with it to keep my chops honed, but I play to make money.. That doesn't mean I can't have fun with it , but in general, I use all my instruments to entertain folks that will pay for the priviledge.. The words to an old Willie Nelson song..

" if you wanna dance you gotta pay the band"...

that sums it up for me...bad attitude??.. maybe... but someone here has to have one.. might as well be me... bob

Ron ! · Post by **Ron !** » 11 Jan 2007 7:12 pm

Well right now Karen and I play for fun but it won't take long untill we will be gigging again.
After a long time of absence we are getting back at it.Times changed and with all these DUI's in PA here....it's hard to find a good paying gig.We are just going for it.we are recording a new cd here and hope that ya'll like it when it comes out.

Play like you have been tought......doesn't matter if it's for money or not.Thats my motto.

Ron

C. Christofferson · Post by **C. Christofferson** » 11 Jan 2007 7:32 pm

Sometimes i think that it's playing Me for It's amusement !

custom steel / recordings

Bob Ritter · Post by **Bob Ritter** » 11 Jan 2007 7:44 pm

Well today school was cancelled because of a snow storm we had here. So the kids were jammin out in the garage and they called me up at work and asked me if the could play my steel out in the garage out where they were jammin...I said ok. But try not to break any strings on it..They said no dad we just wanna use it to make noise with...They told me they hooked it up through my nashville 400 and used my son's digitec Jimi Hendrix effects pedal...I asked them about it when I got home tonite and they said we just messed around with it. I told him well I got some Jeff Newman video if you wanna watch it and learn something..he just said no and went on my space...It is a start but it is still dad's old country instrument to him.

Post by **Dave Mudgett** » 11 Jan 2007 8:10 pm

Only I know why I play, and most of the time, I couldn't really cogently explain why in a way that would make sense to anybody else. Most of you know I'm not usually at a loss for words.

I have always done things for my own reasons, which are not always obvious, even to me. One thing for sure - my main career would have been a helluva lot better off if I dumped music 20-30 years ago.

Read Richard Feynmann's book "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynmann", and that's about as close as I can come to explaining why I think motivation comes from inside, and not some external source.

Bill Duve · Post by **Bill Duve** » 12 Jan 2007 8:22 pm

Is this the same as going to sleep at night with STEEL running around in my head ?

Calvin Walley · Post by **Calvin Walley** » 12 Jan 2007 10:06 pm

you know its Jim that i feel sorry for , it seems that he is looking at the steel as a job. we have all had jobs and most of us would tell you that we would not do our jobs without being paid , having to do something always took the fun out of anything i was doing just because i HAD to do it , not because of what i was doing..ever think of doing something else for a living and just playing the steel for the sheer pleasure of it .
i can tell you this : i have worked harder learning to play the steel then any job i ever had, but i enjoyed every minute of it
just my 2 cents...no harm intended ....i'll shut up now

Tony Prior · Post by **Tony Prior** » 13 Jan 2007 3:54 am

I guess I'm in the BIG crowd this time..

Enjoyment, enrichment first, always.

I have never been one to chase tone or amps or brands other than the Tele of course . I have always purchased and owned GEAR that is considered quality and never really succumbed to that " You gotta play brand X" or your "Cheesey" theory.

I practice and apply yesterdays knowledge to get to tomorrow. I do play an average of 4 or 6 gigs/month , and if it was not fun I wouldn't do it.

I have always chased the Music rather than skirt around it with a new Steel or a new Amp or by modifying my Tele's or Strats..

Don't get me wrong, I do upgrade Instruments and amps now and then , but more of a staying current exercise than anything else..

t

Eric West · Post by **Eric West** » 13 Jan 2007 11:09 am

Well I can bury this in a long thread..

If you only go out and play for money, you can dodge the responsibility if it turns out badly. You still have your dignity when because of your effort and your demanding to get paid for it, you can pay your telephone, electric, gas bill or buy a new music tool.

I've done this for as long as I remember. more than a couple thousand times.

If you play for "the art", and it turns out badly, you don't have anybody to blame but yourself. Then it's really hard to go out and do it again.

In the process, I've come across both the best and the worst.

In one case, or really more than that I remember thinking to myself, while I'm sitting there, smling, playing a "combat style" "crazy arms" or "truck driving man" agains a lousy rhythm section, or backing up a caterwalling drunken slob that has insulted a couple of my dear, but not so thick skinned friends when they tried their best to play with them: Some day you jerks will realise that I really didn't need the money, and that I must have played with them out of pure spite..... Some of them have I suppose, as they finally dry out, hit bottom, or maybe even listen to some of their old live tapes. and realise that they haven't played a gig in years, and I've never quit..

Over the years, I have played with some pretty good bands in parts of their curve, or "shelf life". One where there was a perfect mix of a good job, a big crowd, the keyboard put just the right amount of speed in his speedball, the guitar player hadn't yet beaten the drummer half to death, and the drummer actually must have warmed the steel plate in his head just right, and was hitting close to actual "steady tempo". The bandleader was still writing checks that were good a couple days after the gig, for a couple of days, my amps were pointed just the right direction, I wasn't dog tired from having hauled paving machines til a half hour before the gig... You know.. "Zoning". Then it fell apart.. The best ones always seem to.

Well at the end of it, I actually got my "artistic integrity", even if "nobody else" saw or heard it, and I can still write it off as I "did it for the money". Why it "fell apart", Well maybe it was a divorce, maybe in the end it was the keyboard putting too much "ball" in his speedballs and ended up in methadone treatment, maybe just a lousy guitar player, or a bandleader that had too big of a cell phone bill, bar tab, or child support payment, and too small of a brain.

Either way, I did it for the money, it's not my fault, it's not my problem, and they know that if they called me up, with VERY few exceptions, that I'd work for them. That should pretty much un-nerve them. Especially those that finally sobered up..

"Fun".

"Fun" like "Artistic Integrity", is more likely and often as not nothing more than...

Subtle Tyranny.

I'll take the Liberty and what Integrity, and Pure FUN that seems to belong to..

The Mercinary.

There's usually as much Integrity, all things considered.

Artistic and otherwise..

Definitely as much or more "Amusement".

(I've tried to use the Money wisely.)

I'll make $125 for this weekend that will go for the copays on my spouses' long delayed doctor visit. The upcoming month's worth of gigs will pay my house insurance, or buy a new set of alumitone lace pickups besides if I want. All without spending a penny of what I make on my ample "paycheck".

There's always, and maybe thankfully enough economic impetus to be interested in going out and doing it again, and helping promote "the band".

I only made 48 grand last year, which is probably about half of what most folks make that have time for the Internet, and probably about what b0b pays his Limo Driver

If I was a Trust Fund Baby I might have a little less "motivation" I guess, and consequentially might have missed a LOT of music I REALLY ENJOYED PLAYING. All things considered.

Another reason lately is my long neglected Guitar PLaying.

I'm working with a real solid, old time and well schooled guitar player that is encouraging the heck out of me, even when I know it isn't very "polished" yet.

"Enjoyment"?

You should enjoy the Total Result of what you do, or no, it probably isn't worth it.

Much like a Job.

Some people live for their jobs and have no lives whatsoever.

Some have jobs that are really worth living for.

Some people hate their jobs.

Some people enjoy the fact that they "can do their jobs" as much as actually doing them. I find this myself in hauling heavy equipment, lining out and "foremanning" a group of dump truck drivers, as well as in my music, which is stlll my top priority in "things I do for my spiritual well being". Most of the "nuts and bolts" of both are very hard, and sometimes tedious, and physically and even mentally overwhelming.

Oh well. That's what Life is. Overwhelming. Mortality.

Some people, no matter where they are, are never satisfied with it, and waste all the time they spend in "The Present".

That's where I choose to live mine, for the most part.

I wish to imply no "judgement" to any facet of playing music, merely a statement of what I've noticed in the "motivation" department.

With enough actually experience that I would probably know.

Thanks for the indulgence.

It's Amusing being able to write about it as well.

EJL

John De Maille · Post by **John De Maille** » 13 Jan 2007 2:07 pm

As an addendum to my original question- I wonder how many of us, myself included, thought at one time, that we could become as popular and as in demand as Buddy Emmons, Lloyd Green, Paul Franklin, John Hughey and all the rest of our heroes ? I had the fleeting thought, at one time, that, I was on the right track. I was a good steel player, getting better all the time. I was working, mostly through my own consent, putting a down payment on a house and purchasing "things" with the extra money I was making at the time Then, I guess, I became a victim of circumstances not created by me. The music scene, here, where I live, slowly started to dry up. I suppose I could have chased it down, but, I didn't want to relocate anywhere. I had opportunities, but, didn't want to take them. Would I have been happier taking a different route ? Only God knows for sure. And, that's where my original post emanates from. Because, now, I strictly play for my amusement and all the other self motivated thoughts, through which their outcomes make me content. I don't consider myself a hasbeen or a leftover, because, I still get calls to work because of my prowess on the steel and the way I present myself. I just find myself enjoying my music more, now, than I did in the past. Sure my chops have slowed a little, that's to be expected at my age, but, my intuition and thirst for knowledge has never changed. The sound I love and endeavor to play will never leave me. It's in my blood! Also, I think it"s natural to upgrade equipment when you think it's necessary. But, becoming a "gear junky" in order to sound like someone else, is one of my pet peeves. I don't see where it will benefit one's basic steel playing, trying to copy someone elses style and sound. Just another opinion I have on the take.

Bob Ritter · Post by **Bob Ritter** » 13 Jan 2007 2:37 pm

LOL. I am watching the football game on tv and my 17 year old is setting next to me playing acoustic and he is schocking my mind playing along with the music on the commercial's...he is ripping along pretty good rendition of Allman bro's Jessica...he is ten times better than I was at his age...I guess it is time for this old man to pay up and buy that Taylor or Martin acoustic..hell I just bought him a Paul Reed Smith last year

Alan Rudd · Post by **Alan Rudd** » 13 Jan 2007 5:02 pm

Man, I've hoped for years my kids would love music as much as me. I finally have one, the baby of the family, my 15 year old daughter who amazes me every time I hear her. She writes her own songs, she even wrote one last summer with Aaron Barker at a summer music academy. Good stuff! I've loved the steel for a long, long time and just started playing a couple of years ago even though my experience with guitar is now some 37 years. I read one of the posts where a guy said he only practices for gigs and otherwise doesn't really enjoy it. That's cool if that's what you are doing it for, but, Man, if you don't enjoy it, you'd better quit! If I didn't enjoy it, I could find lots of things I could do, like ride my Harley or go fishing or something...

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