Playing the saxophone Snobbery over certain standards

[Targa]

I’d say a working musician is likely to find themselves having to play a tune they don’t like.
For example if they have been hired to do a wedding and the bride requests her favourite tune saying ‘xxxx off I don’t like that one’ is unlikely to get you paid or even out alive.

 

[Grumps]

Maturity or not, personally, I find that the distaste for the music comes across in the music, and so it's not a great experience for the people who want to listen to that stuff. As an audience member it's better to have someone playing who's enjoying what they're playing. If you like what they're playing too, all the better.

Performers can be actors. Your superpowers in this regard aside. Funny how folks tend to read the extremes into what people write online. I suppose now I hate everything I play... just like everybody else.

 

[mrblackbat]

Performers can be actors. Your superpowers in this regard aside. Funny how folks tend to read the extremes into what people write online. I suppose now I hate everything I play... just like everybody else.

Can be. But aren’t always, and even with actors you can often tell whether they enjoy their performance or not.

Sorry you hate everything you play. That must suck.

 

[Grumps]

Sorry you hate everything you play. That must suck.

No, I look on the bright side. Sometimes I find a player I hate more.

 

[Wade Cornell]

No, I look on the bright side. Sometimes I find a player I hate more.

I think you helped uncover another type of snob. Well done Grumps!

 

[mrblackbat]

No, I look on the bright side. Sometimes I find a player I hate more.

You remind me of a saying: better to be a pessimist than an optimist; you can only ever be pleasantly surprised….

 

[Tenor Viol]

Issues mostly arise with songs because of the lyrics. There are multiple reasons for that, apart from simply not liking them. There are songs I just dislike.

A big issue with older songs is that the meaning or perception of words can change over time. Also, terms that were acceptable become unacceptable, or at least frowned upon. Given that your typical 'standards' were written somewhere between about 1920 and 1960 that's more than enough time for changes to occur in how words are used/understood.

Some songs do carry coded meaning and we need to be aware of that as well. There is one old but still used 'silly' dance floor song which is extremely offensive on religious grounds. I guarantee that almost no-one is aware of the offence they are potentially causing.

A case where the lyrics were changed is the Cole Porter song which now has the line "I get no kick from champagne" - those are not the original words. Equally there is a well-known UK song from the 1920s which either omits the 'offending' lines or changes the words. How the words are used and how they are understood varies on each side of the pond, which is a major part of the issue here. So that brings us to...

What is a real problem is where how English is used/understood varies from one side of the pond to the other. Some words carry a pejorative sense on one side but not the other. At best, this leads to humorous misunderstandings, at worst to offence.

In general, I think people should have more tolerance as we need to understand history and be aware of how things were different and why we have changed. There are cases where the words are just too egregiously offensive to be used without at least prefacing with an explanation of context. There are times when something should just be retired and put in a box labelled "historical interest only".

 

[Tenor Viol]

You remind me of a saying: better to be a pessimist than an optimist; you can only ever be pleasantly surprised….

My definition of pessimist: a realistic optimist.

 

[Grumps]

I remember some of the pros in my father's old group that I stole for my combo. When they hated a tune, they'd often come up with a more derogatory way of calling it. Like Anything But Love became simply, But Love.

I suppose if you're going to play with other people you have to compromise when choosing tunes. I think of it this way. Do you want to be in the band with the guy who says "I hate this song. Not gonna play it". Or maybe you'd prefer the guy that is a bit more flexible. They're just songs.

 

[mrblackbat]

I remember some of the pros in my father's old group that I stole for my combo. When they hated a tune, they'd often come up with a more derogatory way of calling it. Like Anything But Love became simply, But Love.

I suppose if you're going to play with other people you have to compromise when choosing tunes. I think of it this way. Do you want to be in the band with the guy who says "I hate this song. Not gonna play it". Or maybe you'd prefer the guy that is a bit more flexible. They're just songs.

To be honest, we used to do that with songs we liked as well, and usually very crude. I won’t say what Someday my Prince used to get called….. yikes.

Think it goes back to that maturity thing you mentioned.....

With my comments about not playing music I don't like, it tends to be more style than specific songs etc. But I'm no pro, and I don't really get into situations where someone is going to ask my to play something I really hate for a wedding or whatever.

 

[turf3]

Certainly I can't imagine ANY trad/Dixie group that would have the nerve to play and sing "Mississippi Mud" with the original words today. And if they did, I'd probably walk out.

But aside from changing mores and changes in what's acceptable, there are songs, or styles, or artists, whose work you just don't particularly care for.

I was taught, that if you are engaged to play the gig (whether paid or unpaid, professional or amateur or even just a jam session), that part of musicianship is to play EVERY SINGLE PIECE as if it were your favorite, and you were just champing at the bit to play it. Give EVERY SINGLE PIECE all you've got, no matter what your personal opinion about it. As I say, in my world that's Musicianship 101, just like showing up on time correctly attired, playing things stylistically accurate, etc.

You never know when there's someone out there in the audience that has waited all night to hear In the Mood or Mustang Sally or Running with the Devil or (yes, even this) Muskrat Love, and when you play it with full ATTENTION and INTENTION, as if you TRULY enjoy it, you'll make their evening.

If you don't want to play the tunes, decline the gig, and find other groups that play different stuff.

If no one in your area plays the stuff you like and avoids the stuff you don't, then I guess you've got to start your own thing.