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

[Denny Gies]

Mainly bluegrass with some John Prine, Neil Young, Jessie Winchester and Jason Isbell thrown in.

[Jeff Mando]

I think it is like asking, "what do you do for a living?" Just a part of polite conversation, with no hidden agenda. Sometimes the answer is simple -- bluegrass, or plumber. OTOH, sometimes it takes a bit of explaining and sometimes I don't feel like going into that kind of detail with total strangers, depending on my mood......

[Caleb]

I hate the question because it is so rarely an honest curiosity. Yes someone is trying to be nice and appear interested, but no they are not really interested.

This has been my experience nine times out of ten. People ask but don't really want to know the answer. This is almost always true when it's a non-musician (which is almost everyone), in my experience.

When a musician asks, though, sometimes it can lead to a great conversation. One of the ways I've found to lead into a meaningful conversation with a fellow musician is to ask what brand of instrument he or she plays. If the person seems bursting at the seams to talk about his Martin guitar or Gibson mandolin, I usually know a lively talk is at hand. But if the person doesn't know, it usually means he or she isn't really all that interested in playing and doesn't do it that often.

I was at a living history site the other day and a fellow was playing a banjolin. We started talking. He asked me what kind of mandolin I play and I told him. It ended up being a great talk.

Once a non-musician asked me about playing mandolin. When I said I didn't play BG he said he didn't think a person was allowed to play anything but BG on a mandolin. Ha.

[CES]

I don't mind the question. I do prefer it to be asked by someone genuinely interested in my answer, but I'm not easily offended. I'll occasionally answer, "Well, I've been kind of deep into Five Finger Death Punch of late..." just to see their response

"I'm kind of all over the map" pretty much covers it for me. I usually follow up with, "My favorite band at the moment is the Punch Brothers. You outta check them out!" If they're really interested the conversation will run from there. If not, there's room there for a polite exit by both of us.

[UsuallyPickin]

My usual answer to this question is " Whatever I can get away with". R/

[Bill Kammerzell]

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?

They always figure it "must" be bluegrass. As you say, "not their fault." The most famous mandolin player in popular history played bluegrass. Invented it.
When I retired, people always asked, "What do you do now?" I always answer, "Anything I feel like doing."

[soulwyvern84]

Usually, I used to grab my instrument and play to anyone who'd listen, thinking they wanted to hear original compositions, my pet peeve I suppose is that no one seems to care about original music unless you're already famous. It really let me down, another one is people talking over the music.

[DavidKOS]

Usually, I used to grab my instrument and play to anyone who'd listen, thinking they wanted to hear original compositions, my pet peeve I suppose is that no one seems to care about original music unless you're already famous. It really let me down, another one is people talking over the music.

People don't know what they like, they like what they know.

[Shelagh Moore]

I get this question a lot... the last time from a very nice person who saw my instrument case at a venue yesterday so it happens. I always try to answer it as best I can (I play a variety of genres) and with good grace and have had some lovely conversations as a result. I can see little point in giving a smart-arsed reply but that's how I am...

[Bertram Henze]

I can see little point in giving a smart-arsed reply but that's how I am...

The definition of what is smart-arsed unfortunately lies with the listener.

I always try to answer it as best I can (I play a variety of genres) and with good grace...

I had it happen to me that exactly this was received as being smart-arsed. I try not to appear stand-offish in the situation, but I have become very cautious. You have to detect what kind of person is in front of you; one size won't fit all.

[Cosmic Graffiti]

I ask other musicians that all the time. Why would you not ask that question? A lot of people play one style of music that they enjoy or are comfortable with. I love it when people ask me that my answer "Anything that I can from Bach to Grisman back to Led Zepplin and everything I can figure out in between and right now I am really in Jazz and Blues but still love all music." It opens up a whole discussion with other musicians or music lovers. I have zero elitist mentality so enjoy talking to anyone about music from basic to Rachmaninoff.

[Reinhardt]

I play whatever I like ( maybe that should be can instead of like,, cos I cant play a lot of the music I like!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! does that make sense?? Thought not!!

My pet peeve as far as musical instruments goes is calling bouzoukis "Zouks"" . Bouzouki is such a nice word, why ruin it by shortening it!!

[farmerjones]

Sure, I always answer honestly, "I only play what grabs me."

But it reminds me of Jimmy Buffett and how he struggled. Then the John Hartford story, "Had a lady come up to me one time. She said, 'I wish you'd play something I know, so I can tell if you're any good or not.' Y'know, I pretty much based my whole thing around that."

It does bother me when I'm billed in goofy ways for a gig. In years passed we were billed as Bluegrass. It bothered me because we really don't bring a banjer along. Another time it was Blues. Hoping by mistake?!?!? I can't imagine the local folks thinking the likes of Buddy Guy, or Muddy Waters, were going to be there. I'm not going to fool myself into my name alone will draw a crowd. I realize that. But I don't want some bunch to show up to be disappointed, by false advertising. I've been there. But will admit, I give anybody that gets up there and gigs a chance.

[Shelagh Moore]

The definition of what is smart-arsed unfortunately lies with the listener.

Well, a message can be smart-arsed in nature, and intentionally so, from the speaker in my experience...

[Caleb]

Usually, I used to grab my instrument and play to anyone who'd listen, thinking they wanted to hear original compositions, my pet peeve I suppose is that no one seems to care about original music unless you're already famous. It really let me down, another one is people talking over the music.

If I play a piece and then say it was mine, it's usually well received. If I announce it beforehand I usually see the person brace him/herself for a train wreck.

[jaycat]

"Popular music."

If I play a piece and then say it was mine, it's usually well received. If I announce it beforehand I usually see the person brace him/herself for a train wreck.

I have had that happen too. Good strategy.

[Caleb]

"Popular music."



I have had that happen too. Good strategy.

In fairness, it puts too much pressure on a person to say, "Here is a song I wrote: check it out." I've heard many songs by friends that I thought were, well, not my thing, but I still felt pressure to conjure up some canned reaction to avoid hurt feelings. To say it was your song after the fact doesn't totally avoid the awkwardness but curbs it some.

[JeffD]

In fairness, it puts too much pressure on a person to say, "Here is a song I wrote: check it out." .

"Here is a song I learned off my first album."

[JeffD]

In order to avoid derailing the thread I blogged an interactive story on this topic.

[Paul Kotapish]

I don't mind the question, but I usually answer with something kind of vague and ask a question or two in response, such as "What kind of music do you like?" or "Do you play?" That usually sets the parameters of how much detail I should bother going into and whether the person will understand any specifics. If it's just a polite question to make smalltalk, then the "everything from mountain music to rock 'n' roll" will usually suffice. But just as often as not the person is better informed than I might have suspected, and we get into a fun chat.

[JeffD]

I guess if I have a pet peeve, it's along the nature of JL277z's -- condescension from the immediate relatives on my husband's side of the family (mine all play musical instruments of some sort, oddly enough). Not necessarily reverse snobbery, but the snobbery of the non-musician, who doesn't really know the difference between someone who's picked up a recorder and plays "Mary Had A Little Lamb" (polite applause) and someone who actually knows how to play... or someone who doesn't consider anything except songs to be "real" music.

"Uncle Jeff, why do you play the mandolin? Isn't that something musicians do?"

[catmandu2]

And Re - 'being pigeon-holed...etc"

It's an imperfect world, for sure. Look, I have to use a term we (those of us who play trad) don't even like - the dreaded 'celtic.' I could say 'medieval/gaelic,' but vastly most won't get a bit of it. I know other players too, in trad who are using the 'celtic' monniker just to make advertising/communication more effective (especially harpers, as probably EVERYone on the street sees a lever harp and thinks, "ah, celtic harp, of course'")

When I unpack my instrument, I'm obliged to provide a brief history lesson. Obviously, I'm not going to do that with everyone -

[Charlieshafer]

It can get tough. I usually just use the geographic description: "Ah, yeah, we start in Scotland, go through Ireland and over to Canada, down the coast through Appalachia and end in cajun country. It's all mushed together so there's no real way to describe it."

[catmandu2]

Right, may as well make it fun - "diddly," for example..

I could say, for example: playing pipe tunes and pibrochs on clarsach, and the old sook and blaw...confess we sometimes get ever more 'abstruse'

[Matt DeBlass]

If it seems like it's just a polite conversational gambit, I'll usually go with "folk, mostly Irish and American stuff" or a similar answer. If they're actually interested beyond that I'll go into detail.

Either way, I don't mind unless they're that guy who then turns around and says something like "you should play this other type of music, people like it better." I don't know what people are hoping to accomplish with that kind of comment, I mean, I've worked really hard to be as mediocre as I am at what I already do, I'm too tired to start over with something else.