I have been listening to music since I was very short… very short indeed.
I was in a ton of garage bands and we played all the awesome hits of the day.
Two guitars, bass and drums.
And today, guitar bands still dominate pop rock music.
Why guitars? Because guitars dominate the pop rock music.
Why bother to think different? That can cause confusion, and confusion can lead to not having a category for people to pop you into.
I eventually tired of guitars only…. and found jazz. And yep… we were back to sax/trumpet, piano, bass and drums.
No oboe. No cello. A violin or two, but for the most part jazz musicians are sax, trumpet, piano, bass, drums…
But there are always new, creative people out there. Frank Zappa went as far away from the traditional rock band of the era that one could go. Don Ellis added strings to an already big band – and three drummers. Harry Chapin had a cello player that was a part of his band.
Why? Because they didn’t let the conventions of the day lead them from what they wanted to do.
Here’s a rock string duo with drummer… and they cut it up big time.
Enjoy while you think of how you can do what you want while staying authentic to who you are.
