Emotional reaction to playing music

[saturn]

I wonder if anyone has ever had similar experience to this? Or maybe it happens to other all the time?

I've been jamming and playing in bands since the mid 1990's. I've done more jams, parties, gigs etc than I could ever count. And with different groups, bands and lineups. There's been lots of fun times and there's been plenty of times where I thought (and everyone else) that we played and sounded great.

But I had something happen recently that I've never experienced before. Now I'm not generally an emotional guy or overly sentimental. We played a gig the Saturday before St Paddy's Day. Initially it was going to be Steve and I acoustic. Then they wanted a band so we got drums and bass player. The day of gig the bass player's brother showed up so we squeezed him in as another guitar. This guy Elvin is so good. His brother Ed on bass is amazing too. It's such an honor to play with these guys. We had a great gig all around and they loved us.  But there was a particular point we were playing the song Dead Flowers. Simple 3 chord song with simple lyrics. There was a moment when we were all so locked-in. Drums were perfectly grooving with bass, Steve rhythmically strumming his D, A, G chords and singing, and Elvin and I improvising together on the fills and extended lead jam. Our two guitars were blending so perfectly that I got goose bumps and a lump in my throat and even got a little light headed. It had nothing to do with the song we were playing or the crowd (including my wife) there. It was like the vibrations of the music, especially our two guitars, triggered a weird response. Again I'd never had that happen before and it kind of freaked me out a little. 

 Anyone else have something like this happen when they play?  

 

Edited March 23, 2022 by saturn

[Tman]

It's a kind of connection on another plane, sort of surreal. I played in a band in the 70s where it was my life. Practiced 2-3 times a week. Gigged twice to three times a month. I quit and went to college and then post grad then career and when I turned 50 in 2010 the old band (except one) got back together for a reunion 33 years after we used to play. The other guitar player is incredibly talented and can sing Robert Plant and Brad Delp as well as nail Slash's solo on Sweet Child as well as a lot more. We got together to "practice" before the birthday party and started playing songs we hadn't played together since the 70s. Would play the whole song. We gave each other looks that communicated song changes, your turn to fill, wait until next go round, etc. Then we played the harmony solo for Can't Get Enough. Not a hard thing but it just flowed. The small audience of wives went nuts. It was incredible. Goose bumps and the lot. One of the reasons I love playing. So yes, it happens. I appreciate it when it does, like so many other things these days.

[kidblast]

I can relate.  It happens, not all the time, but when it does, I take it as a gift. 

There's one guy in particular that I've working with for a long time.  Over the 45+ years we've been at it, we've become more like brothers than anything else.

We read off each other all the time for all kinds of little moments during songs.   We just kind of look at one another and give a little nod, wink or smile.   

The connection part of playing with others is really quite special.   It's what keeps guys like us coming back for more.

 

[Murph]

Many times.

When you are in sinc with fellow musicians, it's like another language. It's a form of communication.

All of my best friends are musicians from different bands, from different parts of the Country, from different times.

 

[rct]

It's why lots of music types end up in gutters with various problems.  Looking for that one thing you only get from playing.  That happened to me young, still looking for it, still rejoice every time it happens.  Some folks around here have been in and out of each others bands and all that for a very long time now, so this can happen frequently.  Usually 3 or 4 part harmonies going on, that's a real special thing.   Never pass up a chance.

rct

[saturn]

Yeah thanks. Not to run it in the ground, but just to emphasize I've had the adrenaline high from a great song or gig before. You know the crowd is dancing or getting into it and the band is really cooking. But this seemed like it was related to the physical vibrations of the instruments. Like the sound absorbed into the soul or something.  I know that sounds corny.

[Whitefang]

Something like that happened to me twice.

Once in '74 a buddy of mine who was once the drummer in an earlier band I was in(and the Godfather of my 2nd daughter) took me to another guy's home that he knew.  Can't recall his name and haven't seen him since, but we wound up doing an acoustic improvisational jam that when it was over, we both admitted blew our minds.

The next was a harmonica jam a buddy(and co-worker) and me did one night at his dinner table.  Even his otherwise musically disinterested wife was impressed.

I can well relate to the high it probably gave you Saturn.   And I wish you and the others here many more of those moments.

Whitefang

[kidblast]

20 minutes ago, saturn said:

Yeah thanks. Not to run it in the ground, but just to emphasize I've had the adrenaline high from a great song or gig before. You know the crowd is dancing or getting into it and the band is really cooking. But this seemed like it was related to the physical vibrations of the instruments. Like the sound absorbed into the soul or something.  I know that sounds corny.

The crowd stuff is cool, and yes I think at some point if you're in a decent band that's gonna happen.  some nights are like magic, and others, "meh"..

this... is not that. 

RCT hit on a point I was going to make in my response.  Vocals / harmonies with one or two others, that's where the juice most often happens with what you are talking about.

 

[Rabs]

Yeah its happened to me before when I was in a band many years ago and as others have said, its an amazing high as such..  Used to get it quite regularly in that band and it was full of very good friends of mine some who I knew since school.. I also have had this feeling alone. Times when I am practicing a solo or something and just hit it exactly right. When that happens the whole world slips away and its as it its just me and my guitar,, there is no other feeling like it... The thing that happened to me though is after that band broke up, and we were only together about three years (just before some went off to University, thats how long ago it was) and after I searched for another band to be in for several years before I gave up trying (or work got in the way) and never found that feeling again as part of  a band which I think put me off the whole thing.  Which is sad as I loved that part of my life. But hey, thats just how life goes sometimes.

[Tman]

3 hours ago, saturn said:

Yeah thanks. Not to run it in the ground, but just to emphasize I've had the adrenaline high from a great song or gig before. You know the crowd is dancing or getting into it and the band is really cooking. But this seemed like it was related to the physical vibrations of the instruments. Like the sound absorbed into the soul or something.  I know that sounds corny.

I've found that anything is possible with Dead Flowers.

[jdgm]

It's when the music plays you, so to speak.  It really is a transcendent, telepathic experience.   Everyones gears and cogs completely in sync but more than that too.  You cannot control, plan or predict it.

I had it happen once unforgettably when I was on bass playing a corny song in a country-rock band.  It's a good story and I still get emotional when I think about it.

When it happens you don't want to do anything to disturb or interrupt it.  Just keep playing, let it happen.

Jazz musician Ronnie Scott once asked Dizzy Gillespie about it, and Gillespie said it happened to him once 'every couple of years or so'. 

Edited March 24, 2022 by jdgm

[Larsongs]

It happens often when I play with really really good Musicians…  I especially like it when you can tell that the Audience is feeling goose bumps as well..

[merciful-evans]

I became unexpectedly emotional when my partner Cherry asked me to sing. I don't often sing, and only do backgrounds in the band. I sang Ripple (I don't think I'd ever sung it before) which I know well just from hearing it for many years. I actually shed tears and had to quit early. It may be because I had to think about the words. I don't really know. It was the strangest thing. This happened last year. I felt foolish at the time, but she was appreciative. 

The band connection thing however, is a whole different thing for me. Its more of a buzz. Emotional of course, but also a bit like being on autopilot. As jdgm said 

10 hours ago, jdgm said:

It's when the music plays you, so to speak

 

[tlwwalker]

Our five piece band plays the Allman Brothers' Blue Sky. Been trying to perfect it for years. There are two long solos, 36 bars each. Duane goes first, Dickie goes second. At the end of Dickie's solo, Duane rejoins and they harmonize until the beginning of the third verse. My buddy, Jeff, does the Duane part. I do Dickie's part. We usually do acceptably well.

On ONE occasion I was particularly fluid as I ended my solo. I had my eyes closed and the tempo was PERFECT. Jeff joined me at the exact right time and we played that rapid  duet to perfection. 

That's when I got the lump in my throat.  My eyes watered and I was grinning ear to ear..   I only wish it would happen more often.

[sparquelito]

It's what I live for. 

It's what makes the entire gig worth all the effort of loading in, the lousy pay, and the loading out. 

Thanks for that original post, saturn. 
It's the best stuff, ever. 

🙂

[rct]

2 hours ago, tlwwalker said:

Our five piece band plays the Allman Brothers' Blue Sky. Been trying to perfect it for years. There are two long solos, 36 bars each. Duane goes first, Dickie goes second. At the end of Dickie's solo, Duane rejoins and they harmonize until the beginning of the third verse. My buddy, Jeff, does the Duane part. I do Dickie's part. We usually do acceptably well.

On ONE occasion I was particularly fluid as I ended my solo. I had my eyes closed and the tempo was PERFECT. Jeff joined me at the exact right time and we played that rapid  duet to perfection. 

That's when I got the lump in my throat.  My eyes watered and I was grinning ear to ear..   I only wish it would happen more often.

It's why I don't really do much Allmans, even though everyone expects me to want to.  Takes a lot of chemistry to do that, I am so glad you guys pulled that off.  We only do Melissa now, a bar band version of it.  Meh.

But man, there is a record from long ago, turn of the centuryish, with Warren and I think Allen was still alive.  An Evening With, I think it was Beacon, may not have been.  "We got a long time to go this evening, so if you don't hear what you want to hear well that's just tough", says Dickie.  And then "This is an old song called Bloooo Skah", and they lay into it.  Keep in mind, they had not done Blue Sky out in like forever, so it was really a joy to hear them do that again, and of course that tour I got to see them do it quite a few times.

So anyway, if you love that old coot like I do, you owe it to yourself to track that one down and listen to that Blue Sky.  There's a guy playin that song that he's been doing since he was a young 25 or thereabouts.  He stands back there off the verses and choruses and Warren just goes to town.  I do love Warren, but he ain't the Allmans.

Anyway, just listen to that guy chord through that song while Warren just wails away.  It makes me sniffle every time I hear it he does it just so...loving.  He just loves that song and man that tour was some of the best Blue Skys I ever did see, they would start it with a bit of Franklins Tower(?) from The Dead, I don't know them at all so I'm guessing.

So anyway again, yeah.  Blue Sky.  Tears.  THAT is why I don't do that song.  Can't get near that one recording ever.

Fast forward to 200...7, 8 maybe?  The Outlaws did Prisoner, a great Billy Jones song, one of his favorites.  This guy Dave Carpenter did the Billy stuff, and sang it.  I wept.  Hard.  Never thought I'd see them do that one again and man they just murdered that thing.  Mrs said you can stop crying now, but jeez, it was like as good as seeing Billy do it all that time ago.

I would play that song in a band with SurfPup. Anybody remember him?

rct

[Rabs]

Actually thinking about it all more I think there are two aspects to this;

One is as the main OP talks about.. The situation in a band when everything just works due to the "vibe" between the band. And nothing feels greater than when you are all feeding off each other..  But thats part of being in a band..

The other thing which I was talking about earlier is the feeling you get when as JDGM says when the music or the guitar is almost playing you like some true symbiotic relationship. This I think is something different and is akin to meditation or anyone who has a great physical skill when your brain just seems to open up and you stop thinking you just act on instinct And as I said its like the world slips away and in that moment its just you and your guitar... 

It is true that they say playing (and listening to) music is good for the brain .. (but maybe not at the sound levels many of us have in the past  🙂 ) 

 

[rct]

4 minutes ago, Rabs said:

The other thing which I was talking about earlier is the feeling you get when as JDGM says when the music or the guitar is almost playing you like some true symbiotic relationship.

As it should be.  My guitars, pedals, amps, they know what I am going to do before I do it.  We all work together to make <whatever> happen.  This is why I stress so much to students and knuckleheads on the internet that guitar playing is about 90% physical, and that you have to become so familiar with your neck and scale and bridge under your hands that you can do anything with it without a whole lot of thought.  When you are there, don't have to think, don't worry about all the things it seems guitar players seem to worry about, that's when the three of you work together.  It's like the most fun you can ever have with clothes on.  And if it comes together with a smokin hot band and some good voc's it is just magic.

rct

[Rabs]

Its why I ALWAYS help people that want to learn how to play, well any instrument really but especially guitar.

I found out last week my niece (who is 12) is in to Nirvana and Green Day and has been wearing Pink Floyd tshirts...  She has talked about being in a band too but I am not sure how serious she is yet but I will do my best to steer her in the right direction  🙂 

[Big Bill]

I never experienced the feelings you guys described while playing, however I did get an erection once. 

[Karloff]

33 minutes ago, Big Bill said:

I never experienced the feelings you guys described while playing, however I did get an erection once. 

lolol. and that probably had more to do with the hot little brunette dancing ... 

[Karloff]

10 hours ago, rct said:

As it should be.  My guitars, pedals, amps, they know what I am going to do before I do it.  We all work together to make <whatever> happen.  This is why I stress so much to students and knuckleheads on the internet that guitar playing is about 90% physical, and that you have to become so familiar with your neck and scale and bridge under your hands that you can do anything with it without a whole lot of thought.  When you are there, don't have to think, don't worry about all the things it seems guitar players seem to worry about, that's when the three of you work together.  It's like the most fun you can ever have with clothes on.  And if it comes together with a smokin hot band and some good voc's it is just magic.

rct

to paraphrase the late great Yogi Berra, guitar playing is 90% physical, the other half is mental ...

 

Edited March 25, 2022 by Karloff

[kidblast]

1 hour ago, Big Bill said:

I never experienced the feelings you guys described while playing, however I did get an erection once. 

that's a little too much info Bill..  😏

[Whitefang]

2 hours ago, Karloff said:

lolol. and that probably had more to do with the hot little brunette dancing ... 

But then too, there HAS been some discussion 'round here about guitars designs resembling  the female torso.  

And also mentions of "sound holes" and "F holes",  why who's to say nobody mistook what the "F" in "F hole"  stood for?  

Whitefang

[jdgm]

19 hours ago, rct said:

I would play that song in a band with SurfPup. Anybody remember him?

rct

Yes and miss his input here.