Do you PLAY the same type of music you LISTEN to?

[Silence Dogood]

I was wondering about this the other day.  I listen to a lot of different types of music, most of which I do not play.  I listen to classical music but do not have the technical ability to play it, for example.  I like Irish pub tunes but don't play that music either.  However, I listen to a lots of rock music and mostly play rock music on guitar.  I once knew a fellow that played in a pretty heavy rock band.  When he told me he mostly listened to soft pop singers like Richard Marx I was a bit taken aback.  It just didn't seem to fit.  Makes me wonder about the folks here.  What say you?

[eded]

I listen lots of music styles, but only play a limited number of styles.  And the ones I play are at varying levels of skill.

Ed

[unclrob]

I too listen to a lot of music I can't even begin to play but my two duo partners say they can hear much of what I listen to in my rythm's that I play.

[Silence Dogood]

I too listen to a lot of music I can't even begin to play but my two duo partners say they can hear much of what I listen to in my rythm's that I play.

I can see that happening.  The things we love and are influenced by will come through our technical abilities.  My abilities are sorely limited, but I've seen this in my own playing. 

[ducktrapper]

Now that's an interesting question. The answer is do I ever! Besides writing songs that I'm the first to hear, (lucky for you) I listen to a lot of different music, artists and styles. The emphasis would probably be towards the singer songwriters as well as as those sorts in folk and country. I do listen to a fair amount of pop, rock and blues too. A smidgen of jazz and much less than a smidgen of whatever is left. 

I have a friend, pretty decent guitarist and songwriter, who absolutely refused to listen to John Prine. Not that he didn't like him and they were plowing the same ground but he said, if I listen to Prine, I start writing Prine songs. Anybody else have that problem? Anyone prefer not listen to the kind of music they play? 

[Riverbend]

Good topic, and it made me think. My musical tastes are as diverse as my wife's garden plants, which is to say the list is long and broad. At 65, I still find the rock music of my youth to be some of the best ever and I still listen to it often. But I don't play it, on guitar or mandolin, at least not the way it was played originally. We, and "we" being either a guitar, dobro and mandolin or two guitars and a mando, do a version of Dead Flowers that's more countrified bluegrass than Stones as one example. The Boxer, Gentle On My Mind, The Dutchman, and Willin' are a few more. So that's been the general direction of what I mostly listen to these days. There's some great new Americana style music being created these days and I'm drawn to it, whether it be original versions or newly reconstituted.       

[ducktrapper]

Good topic, and it made me think. My musical tastes are as diverse as my wife's garden plants, which is to say the list is long and broad. At 65, I still find the rock music of my youth to be some of the best ever and I still listen to it often. But I don't play it, on guitar or mandolin, at least not the way it was played originally. We, and "we" being either a guitar, dobro and mandolin or two guitars and a mando, do a version of Dead Flowers that's more countrified bluegrass than Stones as one example. The Boxer, Gentle On My Mind, The Dutchman, and Willin' are a few more. So that's been the general direction of what I mostly listen to these days. There's some great new Americana style music being created these days and I'm drawn to it, whether it be original versions or newly reconstituted.       

We seem to swim in the same stream. Done all those songs at one time or another ... and still do, I guess. 

[eded]

Maybe a sideline to the original question...  do you try to play songs in the way the original players did, or do you make it your own? 

In general, I figure they did it their way, if you want to hear it that way, listen to their recording.  I usually do songs in my own way.  Especially when I play acoustic, I think every song at its base is a folk song.  I treat it that way...  get the basic chords and rhythm and embellish as much (or as little) as I want.

Ed

[Silence Dogood]

Maybe a sideline to the original question...  do you try to play songs in the way the original players did, or do you make it your own?  

In general, I figure they did it their way, if you want to hear it that way, listen to their recording.  I usually do songs in my own way.  Especially when I play acoustic, I think every song at its base is a folk song.  I treat it that way...  get the basic chords and rhythm and embellish as much (or as little) as I want.

Ed

I like to learn a song to prove to myself that I can play it, and also to make it recognizable to others, but I inevitably end up deviating and playing it my own way.  To me that is a lot more fun and much more creative.  But it's always vital to stay close to the original melody and keep it intact.  Otherwise it'll be a mess and unrecognizable.  But I've always been a melody guy first and foremost, which is what usually draws me to a song anyway.  

Not long ago I decided to learn "Patience" by GNR all the way through, note for note, completely by ear.  It took me a good long time, and in this instance I didn't deviate hardly any at all.  It's so perfect the way it is, and it was so hard to learn, that I just left it alone.  I really enjoy playing that song too.

[Riverbend]

We seem to swim in the same stream. Done all those songs at one time or another ... and still do, I guess. 

And some of them just need to be played as they were created. And then some of them just about beg to be "played" with, no pun intended.
We play more than just a few Prine songs, because they're just so dang good, and we pay them the homage they deserve. Which isn't to say that other songs don't deserve the same, but the process just happens. My playing mates and I have spent some time discussing how accurate our renditions need to be.         

[unclrob]

All the tune's I play I play my way.


Keep smilin and keep dancin 

[markj]

I play stuff from Bach to Rock and everything in between.  I also listen to the same. Music to me in an unlimited universe of possibilities. I like to explore and I am constantly learning new things. Lately I've been learning to improvise in a bluesy style. Also learning new finger exercises. I will "write" stuff that I play once and never again. I record on occasion but, most of that will never be heard by anyone but me.

[jpmist]

Most definitely! But my guitar journey has narrowed what I listen to quite a bit to strictly folky fingerstyle that I can copy and learn from. A recent thread on AGF introduced me to a group new to me, "The Wailin' Jenny's" so I went to iTunes and scanned of all their albums and as you might guess, picked out about 6 that were heavy on their folkly fingerstyle tunes to start with.

I have a strat that I try to pick up more regularly than I do, so there are some rock songs I stumble on from time to time. "My Cleveland Heart" by Jackson Browne get's heavy play mainly cause I wanna learn the lead break. But apart from that most all the stuff I play in my car will be singer-songwriters who's songs I enjoy . . .