Are you a fish out of water too?

I used to but not any more since I consider my days of gigging are over. I'd rather be home with my family than on a stage someplace these days.. period.

However, if I was to get back into it, the music I would consider playing has no outlet any more in the area I live in.

I would never, ever, ever, ever gig for the sake of "getting out there " to play. No thank you. I'd rather sell everything I have than do that.

eta: I gigged on a very active basis from 1984 - 2008 at which time I began to dial it back. It no longer 'excites' me to do it...
 
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I like Phish-in or out of the water. I like Fish to-in or out of the water. And you can tune a piano but you can't tune a fish. So I think that covers all the bases of the question. I've always felt like a fish out of water-not even drumming related I do to.
 
Greetings from a Tennessee native now in southern California. I was lucky to live in Nashville when Bela Fleck, Mark O'Conner, Sam Bush etc. were playing in the bars. Being more percussion player than drummer I tried to join the more open minded bluegrassy players with varying degrees of success. In California where most of the 'bluegrass' players learned from recordings instead of living it or at least rubbing elbows with the culture there are still haters of percussion though they're mostly older. I try to explain to them that the roots of this music go back hundreds or thousands of years from Africa, (home of the banjo), Europe, Scandinavia and the Scotch-Irish-Celtic regions and was rich with percussion and drums. Practical reasons including not enough room on the boat for drums, struggling for survival without the leisure time or spare materials to make drums and need for lightweight traveling musicians who don't want to split the meager money with another band member contributed to music developing without percussion. It's fine if everyone in the room agrees they don't want or need percussion. In the bigger picture the percussion-less bluegrass and mountain music years could just be a short break before re-joining a musical history with percussion that goes back hundreds or thousands of years. Sorry, Pork Pie, this doesn't help you get a gig, I'm just brain farting. Hopefully you can start your own band instead of looking for one to join. Good Luck! For those near Louisville, I have a bass playing brother in the Dr. John tribute band Zu Zu Ya Ya who is always up for a new musical experiment.
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Anyone else feel like you simply don't fit in where you are (musically speaking)? Have you had to learn a new genre just to play music? Any other thoughts?

PPG, can you write? Alternatively, do you have the logistic whatwithall to form/run a band that is close to your desired style and genre?

When it comes to playing the music we like, we either need to be extremely lucky or do a tremendous amount of the legwork ourselves.

Whenever I play for someone else, I always end up being a Blur guitarist in an Oasis band.
 
PPG, can you write? Alternatively, do you have the logistic whatwithall to form/run a band that is close to your desired style and genre?

When it comes to playing the music we like, we either need to be extremely lucky or do a tremendous amount of the legwork ourselves.

Whenever I play for someone else, I always end up being a Blur guitarist in an Oasis band.

I've tried and failed miserably at writing. I just enjoy playing, and I'm happy doing what I'm doing. I feel very blessed to be able to play drums in this town, but just like any other band, there are definitely some songs that I like better than others. :)
 
I have a couple of horror stories about this.

One is my uncle, who was an amazing guitarist when he was younger. He didn't want to move to the city where he could connect with other musicians and audiences, but he didn't want to play the music that was popular where he lived. So nothing happened. I kept trying to tell him, "If you want to catch a marlin, go where the marlin are" but he wouldn't listen. Other people told him to play for the audience where he lived, but he was too cool for that.

The flip side is me not learning to play the music I really liked because nobody else played it. Then an opportunity presents itself to audition for a really good band that play the music I like - and I got nuthin'. I'm nowhere near being able to play it, because I spent my time learning completely different music. D'oh!

So it's a crap shoot.
 
The flip side is me not learning to play the music I really liked because nobody else played it. Then an opportunity presents itself to audition for a really good band that play the music I like - and I got nuthin'. I'm nowhere near being able to play it, because I spent my time learning completely different music. D'oh!

So it's a crap shoot.

Why not learn the music you like anyways? There's nothing wrong with working on and playing music you like on your own AND playing music that's local. Just learn them both.
 
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