The Musicians Lounge

PureX

Well-known member
Ah, now you're sliding into a unique subset of musical coordination made possible by the production of the venerable Hammond B-3 organ. This allowed for the possibility of playing true bass lines with your feet while freeing your hands to explore previously unrealized possibilities. Jimmy Smith was the grand daddy of this school that has since all but disappeared as the popularity of Jazz and the B3 waxed and waned. Some of his bass lines were quite good owing to the fact that he played some bass. This set up lead to a coordination challenge that was unique in its demands.

I remember reading an interview with a practitioner of this style whose name now escapes me and he related a conversation he had while on break with a patron who said he didn't think he was actually playing those bass lines with his feet. He invited the guy to place his fingers under his bass pedals when he got off break and then tell him whether he was playing with his feet or not.

Though cathedral organs had used bass pedals as drone tones for centuries they weren't really exploited to their potential until some time later. The musical needs of the time being what they were no doubt contributed to this. I'm sure it wasn't anticipated that centuries later Zappa's then keyboard player, Don Preston, would scale Royal Albert Hall to gain access to its organ to play the signature riff of "Louis Louis" for their guitar player who feigned ignorance of it.

Check this out about a minute and 50 seconds in: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTLhR8hrYHI
The popularity of the B3 never waned with me, and I have the Jimmy Smith CDs to prove it! I even bought an old Hammond (not the B3 model) at a church auction, once, and tried to play it. It was fantastic - I had to hold a lever down while it warmed up, before turning it fully 'on'. But I never did learn to play it.

 

fzappa13

Well-known member
When I said "play professionally" I meant busking with my son or maybe recording some belly dance compositions and selling them on iTunes. I couldn't handle the hours a professional musician has to work playing clubs, couldn't handle touring and wouldn't enjoy the time away from my family. I can imagine many reasons to avoid pursuing a music career.

Yep, the amount of practice necessary to play at that level is a much bigger investment than most are willing to make. I had a friend who was the music director at a college and he was friends with "Doc" Severinsen of tonight show fame. Doc said that when he missed one day's practice he could tell. When he missed two the band could tell. When he missed three everyone could tell.

As it concerns the realities of a musical career everything you heard is true ... both the good and the bad.
 

fzappa13

Well-known member
I'm picturing Don Henley playing drums while singing Hotel California. Saw him do that at Giants Stadium when I was a teenager.



:chuckle:

We (Middle Eastern drummers) call the ability to play two rhythm parts simultaneously with the right and left hand separation of senses. Check out this example from a master player of my instrument. He is considered the "father" of the Turkish split hand technique and is showing off here by playing two drums at the same time.

Misirli Ahmet Solo

One person dealing with two different time signatures is a talent I never had. You see it manifest in different ways. Folks like Rickie Lee Jones can play guitar or piano and slide in and out of time with their voice while keeping time with their instrument. Don't ask me how.
 

aikido7

BANNED
Banned
I used to be a working musician who played guitar for years. After I was recently diagnosed with an end-stage kidney disease, I stopped playing.

That was 4 years ago and I must have been depressed, even though I was really not aware of it.

These days I am thinking more and more of picking up my guitars and playing again. There is much I hear around me where I will say "I would love to learn that song" or "I sure would like to play that again."

I have no callouses on my fingers yet but I am thinking seriously about bringing my axes in from storage and having at it again.
 

fzappa13

Well-known member
I used to be a working musician who played guitar for years. After I was recently diagnosed with an end-stage kidney disease, I stopped playing.

That was 4 years ago and I must have been depressed, even though I was really not aware of it.

These days I am thinking more and more of picking up my guitars and playing again. There is much I hear around me where I will say "I would love to learn that song" or "I sure would like to play that again."

I have no callouses on my fingers yet but I am thinking seriously about bringing my axes in from storage and having at it again.

That's always an option. There are others. I've found that musicians have a creative impulse and should they lay down their axe they are well advised to find another outlet for their creative energies for their own well being.
 

PureX

Well-known member
One person dealing with two different time signatures is a talent I never had. You see it manifest in different ways. Folks like Rickie Lee Jones can play guitar or piano and slide in and out of time with their voice while keeping time with their instrument. Don't ask me how.
Two sides of the brain working at the same time, I guess.
 

PureX

Well-known member
I used to be a working musician who played guitar for years. After I was recently diagnosed with an end-stage kidney disease, I stopped playing.

That was 4 years ago and I must have been depressed, even though I was really not aware of it.

These days I am thinking more and more of picking up my guitars and playing again. There is much I hear around me where I will say "I would love to learn that song" or "I sure would like to play that again."

I have no callouses on my fingers yet but I am thinking seriously about bringing my axes in from storage and having at it again.
I stopped playing after I sobered up. I'm not sure why, but I think it was because I had come to use music as my way of expressing a kind of existential sadness that I no longer wanted to engage in.

But I was always a sculptor, as well. So I didn't feel the loss of a creative outlet. Eventually I 'retired' from fine arts, too. But I still enjoy making things; so long as I get to exercise my own creative design and execution.

One thing that happened when I quit playing music was that I began to really enjoy listening to it, more.
 

PureX

Well-known member
A possibility. Sort of like being ambidextrous. I always thought it odd that, being right handed, as a guitar player my left hand was the busy one.
Being a guy, I just figured: right hand - rhythm - of course! :chuckle:
 

Buzzword

New member
That's always an option. There are others. I've found that musicians have a creative impulse and should they lay down their axe they are well advised to find another outlet for their creative energies for their own well being.

There are always outlets.

Even if you just sit on a park bench and play Nothing In Particular for a few hours every day.
 

Buzzword

New member
That would not do it for me. I need some material outlet for my creative juices or I get constipated.

For me it depends on how much I have to practice.

The best part of being a musician for me is the performance for which I've spent hours and hours rehearsing, working, struggling.
Even if it's to an audience of one, or none.
 

aikido7

BANNED
Banned
That's always an option. There are others. I've found that musicians have a creative impulse and should they lay down their axe they are well advised to find another outlet for their creative energies for their own well being.
There's nothing like playing one's own music and being further inspired by what s/he hears. Instead of smoking or lying around I touched base with my guitar every day.

I hope to do it again!
 

aikido7

BANNED
Banned
I stopped playing after I sobered up. I'm not sure why, but I think it was because I had come to use music as my way of expressing a kind of existential sadness that I no longer wanted to engage in.

But I was always a sculptor, as well. So I didn't feel the loss of a creative outlet. Eventually I 'retired' from fine arts, too. But I still enjoy making things; so long as I get to exercise my own creative design and execution.

One thing that happened when I quit playing music was that I began to really enjoy listening to it, more.
Your journey is very cool to read about. We can either "sculpt" our own music or we can use clay, marble, stone to do it.

There are a lot of songs that are positive and can always put me in a good mood. I started with "She Loves You" and "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and then went on from there!

I did some sculpting with clay in high school. I made a lifelike head and used to lie in bed with my pillow over my face and put the head on top of the pillow. It looked very strange--a sculpture that had a head and a moving, human body.
 

TIPlatypus

New member
I play the drums, and the piano. I sing too. I like writing music, although I am usually hard pressed to find the time.
 
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