"What kind of music do you play?" and other pet peeves

[Mark Gunter]

God bless 'em, they really don't know any better and are genuinely interested or at least curious - but hey, is it just me, or does anyone else get a little tired or annoyed when people ask "What kind of music do you play?"

As I said, it's not the folks who are asking, I know it's my problem not theirs. But I just can't limit myself to any genre and don't know how to answer such a question without sounding glib. Something like, "All kinds (more or less)" or "Lots of different kinds" or "Whatever I feel like playing."

Anybody else have trouble with this?

What about other pet peeves?

[Jeff Mando]

When I was young I played current music. Now I play oldies..........

[foldedpath]

If you're not playing something locked into a recognizable box like Bluegrass, then your basic shortcut for civilians is to call it "acoustic music." That covers a lot of bases, and then you an elaborate from there, if anyone is really interested.


My pet peeve is the term "Celtic," for various reasons that have already been covered here.

[Rob Ross]

"Really cool music. Where's YOUR mandolin?"

[John Rosett]

"The good stuff".

[Bertram Henze]

Anybody else have trouble with this?

I used to, but since I gave up trying to be helpful I feel much better.

The core of the problem seems to be that most people who ask are not really interested in an answer, they just want to start a conversation (i.e. employ your time for their own entertainment, in life as on the Cafe). Try them and answer with some balderdash like, for instance, "I'm playing traditional psychoacoustics", and if they say "cool, and what did get you started?" you know what's going on. If that happens to me, say at a party, there are two options:
- I quickly excuse myself ("I'll be right back") - then head to that car waiting outside, engine running, or...
- I elaborately start a lecture about every detail of the music I play until the other person says "I'll be right back".

[RodCH]

These people are not your spouse, so of course you are free to blow them off. For example, when somebody asks what I do for a living I say "something to do with computers".

For your spouse, or somebody you care about, the general rule is, whatever they say, you ask two caring questions. An uncaring question, just for comparison, is "who gives a ...". "What kind of music do you play?" counts as a caring question. No, the person probably doesn't care about what kind of music you play. They are displaying a mild interest in you as a person and by being pissed off about the question you are pretty much telling them everything they need to know about you.

Sorry, that sounds a little harsher than I really mean it. I just mean that most conversation, even between spouses, is really not about the content of the conversation. It is a method of checking your state of mind.

Hook a couple of Windows machines up to each other with an ethernet cable. Instant network. Do nothing. Watch the traffic on the network. What are the machines talking about? They are just checking the status of the partner machine occasionally. Is it still there, is it functioning?

This is actually the purpose of most human conversation. Conveying information is secondary.

[Bob Visentin]

What kind of music do you play?

What ever they pay me to play.

[DavidKOS]

"The good stuff".

As Louis Armstrong said, "the good old good ones".

Maybe it's where I live in North CA, where they have a lot of folk music and music camps and such, I don't get that question very much.

But the general assumption around here seems to be that a mandolin is most likely going to play:

1. Bluegrass, Old Timey, or some other similar modern variant of acoustic Americana

2. Irish session tunes

Both of which I dabble at a bit, but are not really the genres I play.

[RodCH]

"Whatever they pay me to play". That's what I say about computers.

[T.D.Nydn]

I play free jazz,bluegrass,rock and even disco dance beats,often in one long nonstop practice session,,what's it called? Forget about it,,it is what it is.people enjoy it who I play for but often I get "its complicated",,

[Bob Clark]

Actually, I welcome the question because it presents me with the opportunity to be an ambassador for our little instrument. I tell them how adaptable the mandolin is, then ask what kind of music they like. Then I tell them about ways in which the mandolin fits into their preferred genre.

Being in the winery business, this happens to me quite frequently. It has led to some really interesting conversations. If it builds interest in mandolins, I figure there is no down-side. Truth be told, talking wine at tasting events gets a bit, well, tired. This is especially true when the tasters think they know a lot more about wine than they actually do (frequent occurrence ). Talking 'mandolin' breaks it up a bit.

[Astro]

I just play the easy stuff.





Then I do it again and again until they like it or go home.

[Nevin]

I tend to appreciate that someone wants to talk to me about music. My stock answer is "all kinds. I started off in rock but my last gig was with a singer songwriter and before that I played in an Irish band."

[Austin Bob]

I dunno, it all sounds the same to me. I just buy whatever sheet music is on sale.

[Caleb]

I don't like the question either but I get it all the time.

[Rush Burkhardt]

No, Folks! It doesn't bother me at all, and is usually an early question I ask! Having played the mandolin for 55+/- years, I've had a lot of varying musical experiences; that being said, I am primarily a bluegrasser. I love to cross the borders, and learn as much as I can about other genres. When I find someone who plays blues or jazz or even rock, I relish the idea of trying that musical form. In many cases, the fact that I don't read music - traditional or tab - I'm limited, but no eliminated!

Then there's this side of me: At 74 I'm not gonna' waste my time with the stretch to particularly disparate styles. And I don't like all musical forms.

I appreciate being asked my preference!

[jim simpson]

I play in an acoustic trio (guitar, bass, and mandolin). We missed out on one job because bluegrass might have been used to describe some of what we do. Now we've been hired by the same place as we are going by our alter ego: The Old Time Gospel Trio. Gospel will be the focus of our concert. It's hard sometimes to know how to describe what one plays.

[allenhopkins]

I used to always say "folk music" because I considered that a broad genre that could be said to include bluegrass, hillbilly, blues, Celtic, klezmer, contemporary acoustic, and the other types of music in which I've dabbled. This made sense to me, perhaps not to the questioners, who probably considered folk music to be singer-songwriters with acoustic guitars, or obscure Appalachian banjoists doing American versions of Child ballads.

Well, I'm still all acoustic, and consider myself a "folkie" (whatever that is), but then I look at the seniors' programs that make up maybe two-thirds of my gigs nowadays. I'll start out with You Are My Sunshine, then add Hey Good Lookin', Those Were the Days, Home On the Range, Oh Susannah, Side By Side, Shine On Harvest Moon, You're a Grand Old Flag, Swing Low Sweet Chariot, Tennessee Waltz, When the Saints Go Marching In, Que Sera Sera, Autumn Leaves, It Had To Be You, and finish up with Goodnight Irene.

Calling that "folk music" stretches the term to its breaking point, unless we adopt the viewpoint variously ascribed to Louis Armstrong or Big Bill Broonzy, that "All songs is folk songs -- ain't never heard a horse sing one."

I kinda like the "Americana" label, but it's pretty much taken over by rock bands doing folk-rock kinda stuff, right?

[Mark Gunter]

I used to always say "folk music" because I considered that a broad genre that could be said to include bluegrass, hillbilly, blues, Celtic, klezmer, contemporary acoustic, and the other types of music in which I've dabbled. This made sense to me, perhaps not to the questioners, who probably considered folk music to be singer-songwriters with acoustic guitars, or obscure Appalachian banjoists doing American versions of Child ballads.

Well, I'm still all acoustic, and consider myself a "folkie" (whatever that is), but then I look at the seniors' programs that make up maybe two-thirds of my gigs nowadays. I'll start out with You Are My Sunshine, then add Hey Good Lookin', Those Were the Days, Home On the Range, Oh Susannah, Side By Side, Shine On Harvest Moon, You're a Grand Old Flag, Swing Low Sweet Chariot, Tennessee Waltz, When the Saints Go Marching In, Que Sera Sera, Autumn Leaves, It Had To Be You, and finish up with Goodnight Irene.

Calling that "folk music" stretches the term to its breaking point, unless we adopt the viewpoint variously ascribed to Louis Armstrong or Big Bill Broonzy, that "All songs is folk songs -- ain't never heard a horse sing one."

I kinda like the "Americana" label, but it's pretty much taken over by rock bands doing folk-rock kinda stuff, right?

I like that playlist! And agree wholeheartedly on the Americana label; I feel the same about it. I consider myself both folk and Americana - but that's paradoxically 'not sayin' much' and 'sayin' too much' simultaneously, which in the end says nothing.

[Steve Ostrander]

So.....what kind of music DO you play?

[catmandu2]

Of course, we're frequently and regularly asked. While I inhale and begin with, "Well...", my wife and kids always quickly respond with, "Everything."

Then, I exhale and begin explaining myself..

[John Flynn]

I play both mandolin and OM and I still get, "What kind of instruments are those?"

Me: "This is a mandolin and this is an octave mandolin."

Them: "What's the difference?"

Then my mind races through all the smart-arsed answers I could give, but I finally give them a simple answer.

Them: "I have a cousin who plays the banjo."

Me: "I'll just bet you do..."

I have an easy answer to the OP's question because I have gone back to my roots and only play church music and people seem to accept that. But that is deceptive. In my church we play classical, folk, various ethnic and even some acoustic rock stuff. So it's still "a little bit of everything."

[Jack Roberts]

I used to always say "folk music" because I considered that a broad genre that could be said to include bluegrass, hillbilly, blues, Celtic, klezmer, contemporary acoustic, and the other types of music in which I've dabbled. ...

That is why I always say "Traditional Music". I consider myself a curator of tunes that I keep alive by playing.

[mandroid]

I Try to Play Kind Music since I dont have Vinyl Pants and Hair, and a Electric Guitar ..