The side effects of being a lifelong musician...

[ProfD]

He has perfect pitch and the most 'severe' I have ever seen that I would not believe exists unless I experienced it. I can bang any notes on the piano do glisses and noise and then land on ANY altered chord and he will tell me the chord 1/2 second after I play it like Cm7b5.

My saxophonist is the same way. He doesn't have a play a note to hear chord changes or melody lines. He sits there listening and calls them out. Perfect pitch. Amazing.

 

Otherwise, while I do not have perfect pitch nor have had the luxury of being a full-time musician, in some way, shape or form, music is a constant with me.

[Quai34]

1) Poverty:

That's why finally I didn't do it for a living, well, I'm not really rich anyway

2) Ear works: all the time, melody, song, etc...But I don't complain...My wife does....

3)Listning deeper to a song:

My bassist and guitarist, who are teachers and producers, tell me all th time that I hear so many thing marie than them, webpages when it's not my part...They use it to find what nite they have to play....

4)Tapping a bit all the theme, yes.

5) Not knowing the lyrics of a song, even in my native language but seeing the director part in front of my eyes, yes, all the time....I really have to focus on lyrics to learn them....

[Bill H.]

#1 on my list would be chronic sleep disorder brought on by 50 years with no solid sleep schedule: broken sleep, interrupted sleep, not sleeping when my body says I should be, taking a catnap when I should be awake...

 

 

#2 would be mentally arranging chord patterns and melody lines to the complex polyrhythms of my sleep machine.

 

 

#1 and #2 are related...

 

[SteveO42]

If I'm not focused on something else, music in one form or another is constantly running through my head.

 

It's my default state of mind.

 

A friend of mine does a single act and has only played music all his life and has been very successful (like many here) and has done NOTHING but play music since his teens. (When we were kids I played B3 in his trio and was booked by an agency working usually 5 or 6 nights a week (staying in the same room for months sometimes) for a few years - great band)

 

He has perfect pitch and the most 'severe' I have ever seen that I would not believe exists unless I experienced it. I can bang any notes on the piano do glisses and noise and then land on ANY altered chord and he will tell me the chord 1/2 second after I play it like Cm7b5.

 

He said he hates it (the severity) and he lives in a world of notes. I am on the phone and he may say. "You are speaking in D". I knocked on his door once and he said the "door was doing a low Eb." (and by the way, there may be some that do this very same thing in this forum)

 

Any key you strike on the piano he can ID 1/2 second after it is played. I have done it disbelieving many times. I have a good ear but more relative pitch. I think I like it the way it is.

 

The man can sit in with any band and prehear the chords with no rehearsal and looks like he has played with group for years. I have seen him work the outside. One of the best, imo. (and great vocalist) But what a SIDE EFFECT!!!

 

WH

 

I am like your friend. It's a curse and it's a blessing all at the same time. I was in an introduction to music class in college, bored to tears, and was talking to a young lady. The professor was discussing the circle of 5ths. I wasn't listening so he tried to make an example out of me by quizzing me in front of the rest of the class. He would play a chord and ask me to use my "chord wheel" to find the next chord. Before he finished asking, I answered. Never even looked at the wheel.. He got mad and tried a few more times and each time I beat him. So finally he asks me how am I able to do this. I told him the truth, I see the notes in my head and I can hear them so I know what keys you pressing. He couldn't believe it so he tested me. I think I might have missed one because I was getting bored and the class was laughing their asses off but he got the message. Left me alone for the rest of the semester and I got an A. I was an EE student BTW.

 

[El Lobo]

Like others in this thread, I can't listen to most music, live or recorded, because all I hear are the bad things about whatever the music is. I hear clichés or boring (un)originals or bad production or limited playing or something else. When I listen to music I like, it tends to be either classical (Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin) or vintage R&B. I recently rediscovered Ann Peebles. She had somewhat of a hit in the 70's with I Can't Stand The Rain. It turns out the producer and the musicians were all the same people who made Al Green records, so the cuts sound like Al Green backing tracks with a great female singer out front. I also like Pomplamoose. Look them all up on utoob.

[El Lobo]

I have a ton of classical piano related music - mostly Martha Argerich - in my playlists.

You just turned me on to her. Thanks for that. Been watching utoob vids. I love how she comes on stage and sits down at the piano and just starts in with no frou-frou introductory getting-ready-to-play moves.

 

Edit: of course right after I wrote that, I watched the Chopin Piano Concerto No. 1, which has about a 5-minute long orchestral prelude before the piano starts in.

[Bobby Simons]

He has perfect pitch and the most 'severe' I have ever seen that I would not believe exists unless I experienced it. I can bang any notes on the piano do glisses and noise and then land on ANY altered chord and he will tell me the chord 1/2 second after I play it like Cm7b5.

 

He said he hates it (the severity) and he lives in a world of notes. I am on the phone and he may say. "You are speaking in D". I knocked on his door once and he said the "door was doing a low Eb." (and by the way, there may be some that do this very same thing in this forum)

 

Any key you strike on the piano he can ID 1/2 second after it is played. I have done it disbelieving many times. I have a good ear but more relative pitch. I think I like it the way it is.

Hmm, you might want to check out Ricks son. . .

 

[video:youtube]

[Daniel Heslop]

Hearing loss can be caused by many things not just exposure to loud noise. I too used ear protection my entire adult life yet had temporary loss of blood to the left inner ear while sleeping. I was in my mid thirties. Consequently I have perfect hearing in one ear and profound loss in the other.

 

You forgot #11, Poverty!

 

UPDATE:

 

My muso's curse is cringing when I hear an auto-tuned vocal that others are completely oblivious to. Sets my teeth on edge every time.

 

This!!! It drives me nuts to hear most current pop hits.

Brother from another mother!

 

I lost 90% of the hearing in my left ear due to a virus. This happened 12 years or so ago. At this point the biggest issue is I like to set up profile to audience, and guitar players always want stage right (I think....to the right from the drummers point of view) This means my monitor need to be facing the audience and some sound men don't like that.

Now I"m using a Krome 88 which is too long to go profile on most stages I play on without completely cutting it off from the rest of the stage, so I now face forward, so monitors are less of an issue.

 

The only other thing was I couldn't listen to the Beatles in headphones. Now I have all their mono mixes (and created mono versions of Abbey Road and Let it Be) so once again I can listen to the Beatles in headphones! yay!!!

 

As for poverty...absolutely. Made worse by the fact I married a piano teacher, so we both go through the same economic ups and downs except she doesn't gig at all. If I could talk to myself at 20 I"d say "get a trade or an education in a field with job security...you can still be passionate about music on weekends and evenings, except you will more easily be able to afford good gear, and retirement at some point"

 

 

As for the rest of the list, I think most of us experience the same things. Listening to music to sleep can be tough because I'm dissecting all the parts. Still it's that or my wife's snoring.

[marino]

Earworms usually assault me whenever I let my guard down. I find myself humming some melody around without even realizing it. If they become really obnoxious, usually a Zappa song or two are enough to regain aural peace.

 

The worst earworms are the ones which I can't recognize. I know this music, but where it comes from? Then I'm not satisfied until I have traced down its origins. It could be a pop song, a jazz tune, a classical piece, or even a fragment of my own music...

[DanL]

1- feeling of well being and satisfaction from doing something I love

2- feeling and looking (somewhat) younger than I really am. I think music keeps you young.

[kbrkr]

I was talking to a few musicians friends about this thread and they reminded me of two new side effects they have seen/experienced:

 

11. Addiction

12. Rehab

[marino]

You forgot #11, Poverty!

Painfully true.

[xKnuckles]

Possibly the most worrying symptom of all..... I generally prefer the company of musicians to everyone else....

[hardware]

Vacations suck because I miss my rigs.

[ChiefDanG]

Vacations suck because I miss my rigs.

 

Or, you never vacation with your families cause there are gigs to be had.

[David R]

- ability to associate mundane lines of conversation to existing songs; or thinking "that would be a good song/album title or band name."

- not being able to go anywhere without running into either fellow musicians or people I've met through music. This is not a bad thing, necessarily.

- ditto on the lack of vacation time and/or needing to find a piano/keyboard shop while on vacation because I feel the chops (mental and physical) going away.

 

The majority of my friends are musicians, music fans or artists of some other persuasion; I have a pretty hard time relating to "normal" people.

[Adan]

I think we've all known visual artists who are constantly doodling with whatever is available. Runners who take their shoes with them on vacation and get up at 6 am to hit the road. Lawyers who pick apart every argument no matter how trivial. On a fundamental level it's the same thing. You get good at something by doing it. You get really good at something by being obsessed with it.

[hardware]

Vacations suck because I miss my rigs.

 

Or, you never vacation with your families cause there are gigs to be had.

 

Former member of the national maritime union out of the Miami local.

Use to take the family on vacation using my gig on on an NCL Flagship as a cheaper alternative to see Disneyworld and the Virgin Islands, Bahamas are over rated.

 

Now we go to Mammoth, Yosemite, Yellowstone and Pacific Coast Highway spots, and after 2 days Im playing tunes on Tree bark..

[Theo Verelst]

I'm still glad to hear a good piece of music, well recorded/played back or live, analog or digital, even though I've (part time) acted as some form of musician since halfway my teens So I don't feel connected with neurotic obsessed drummer habits, choir chants, or even the degree to which I turn my chord recognizing abilities on (I didn't train PP, for which there is a reason).

 

I don't think music becomes better by making it an obsession, though I acknowledge, like getting a PhD or something, there's training, concentration and inspiration funnelling possible.

 

Preventing repetitiveness and boringness isn't the same a a genuine concern for sound quality, and there are types of music (like serious Jazz, old or new) where all those issues are explicit part of the ongoing, just like producing quality pop.

 

T

 

[Michael W]

My back hurts.

[RABid]

Number 4 is why I won a "Name That Tune" contest at college way back when I was 17 and Name That Tune was popular. I didn't just win, I slaughtered everyone by frequently choosing "In one note." They were using actual recordings of hits. I was not listening for melody, I was listening for tone, reverb, distortion, attack and decay of the sound, etc For fun they offered to end the competition and declare me the winner if I could name that tune in half a note. The song was "Straight On" by Heart. It was easy identifying the beginning of the slid of Ann Wilson's opening lyric. I'm betting most people here could do the same thing.