Musician Archive
Thread: Music why?
Why do you like the music profession so much?
For me I like the idea that I can be loud and shout to the crowd while play some great songs. Also if I want I can stand in the background and jam away. I was in a good band last night and someone put a macro together for a song. I can't belive how much fun it was. And the crowd was going wild and I though to my self, this is such a diversive proffesion. You can do so much and make entertaining the crowd sucha more enjoyable experiance then just "healing battle fatgue". So rock on my musician brothers, (or will soon be brothers)and hold your Slitherhorns high and be proud to be called musicians.
Last night I got bored with not being able to do missions as a marksman, so I started a musician. This is the first time I have ever been anything other than a combatant.
I had a great time. I didn't know what to do at first but by the end of the night I had gained a ton of xp and had a blast. Had a nice group and plenty of fun.
I don't think it will be my main, but I do know that I will be going back - often
Because I'm a socializer at heart in these games.
Being a musician in RL, I typically play the more musically inclined characters in games. For instance, in EQ I was a bard. I played for about 2 and a half years, and I only made it up to level 24. Why? Because I spent MY time hanging out in cities talking to people. I never really cared about going out and hunting and the combat. So, in essence, my in-game character suffered. But I was having fun so it was okay.
Now I have the best of both worlds. I am rewarded for sitting in one place and socializing. I have spent so much time socializing and entertaining other players during their downtime, that I'm all the way to Novice Musician. And, I'm not bored, even though I've spent almost all of that time in the exact same Hotel, in the exact same location on the stage, looking at the exact same set of chairs. My location never changes, and I haven't wanted it to - the people come to me to see me, and I feel like I am an integral part of the community.
And I don't have to kill a single Nightspider to do it.
Artisan is my main profession, Entertainer only one of my hobbies. So far. But I'm thinking about that; I may even give up one of my commercial specialties for it. Why?
Yesterday evening, in a tiny little bar in a tiny little town on the backside-end of nowhere (Restuss Hotel, Restuss, Rori, Kettemoor), We actually had 5 musicians on stage at once - 4 slitherhorns (*shudder*) and a fizzz. People were spamming the /bandflorish commands so fast we were all running out of breath. Not quite continuous, but d**n. With just enough pauses in there for the occasional solo florish. Not to mention the times when people were determined to do so anyway, so they'd cram in a couple of solo florishes before the bandflorish could take them over - that means 1 to 2 people jamming separately, while 3 provide the main jam.
Now, mind you, we suck. This was a pickup band, a jam band, in a tiny and backwards town - I can count all the power-levelers in town on the thumbs of one hand. Onlytwo of us knew anything but the starter tune; only oneof us wasn't playing the slitherhorn.*And we rocked! That was more fun than any number of combat jobs I've done. It was as emotionally fulfilling as the fact that half the town is running around with my weapons.
Even with 4 slitherhorns and a fizzz playing Starwars1, most of us in starting clothes and 1 of us (god help us) in his underwear, we looked so cool, got so much egoboo from the audience, and had so much fun practicing our bandflorishes, I am not giving up this hobby. In fact, I can't wait to play the bandfill - I'm a hand-drummer in real life, as one of my other real-life hobbies. For some of the same reason, mainly, I guess - there's very little as fun in this life as a good drum circle. And there's very little in SWG as fun as being in a pickup jam band.
* The slitherhorn - that awful instrument. It looks like a toy-store clarinet. It sounds like a toy-store harmonica. On a slitherhorn, the default riff in Starwars1 sounds like a asthmatic flying monkey with a head cold; it was giving me literal nightmares. Only twice in my life have I ever seen anyone tip a slitherhorn player, and the light was bad. But you know what? Take a bunch of 'em, add even one instrument that doesn't suck, and some nice group choreography, and it's more fun than the law allows.
I love role-playing a drunk, cigarette-smoking, sunglass-wearing horn player. Also, I'm a musician in RL, and so this profession was just irresistable. There really is a game to it. Musicians need to line up in an organized way, behind the dancers, do some bandflos, some coordinate flourishes, get a mix of sounds into the group, change songs, start and end songs in a reasonable time, talk to the crowd, and put on a good show.
Putting on a good show brings in many more tips than begging for tips does.
My Musician is my "main." I love it.
I started the game as a scout, with the intention of becoming a creature handler. After about 3 hours of sitting in the wilderness hunting, trapping, and crafting (and getting berated to death by some rather cute and cuddly woodland creatures) I had a realization: what good is sitting alone in your room? COME HEAR THE MUSIC PLAY! Whywas I paying 15 bux a month to sit alone in the desolate wilderness?!?! Short story long, I started up an entertainer. Well, actually, my friend decided that he would make one, so I kind of watched. So he, a gloriously green Twi'lek in terribly ugly starting clothes, walked into the local cantina and saw the band on stage. He immediately jumped on and asked if he could jam with them. They said sure, and they started playing the coolest version of Starwars1 I've ever heard. There was even a little crowd that came in to hear this ragtag group of musicians playing the most basic song in the book. AND IT WAS AWESOME! I immediately wrestled the controls away from him and threw in some sweet flourishes of my own, and it was TWICE AS AWESOME!! I didn't think that a game could come close to the feeling of actually performing musically (which I do in RL) but SWG is well on its way. There is no reason not to be a musician, if you ask me, and I'm going to do my best to get a band started real soon.
THANK YOU CORELLIA!! HAVE A GREAT NIGHT!!!
Quote: what good is sitting alone in your room? COME HEAR THE MUSIC PLAY!
Funny you should mention that... I actually have some stuff from Cabaret in my repertoire 
It took a while to get it worked out... but you know Wilkommen? K'vera performs a star wars version of it using Zabrak for German, Lekku for French and Basic for English Great fun! You will have to stop by Dearic sometime to hear it!
The best part about playing a musician is meeting the other musicians/dancers. Some people may play a musician for a short period of time before getting bored of not killing stuff... but the people that stick are a different breed of people. I actually have more fun watching some of the dancers ply their trade on customers than anything else.
The possiblilities of actually putting together a band/orchestra that people would WANT to listen to is exciting.
I was in a group last night with both a bandfil and an omnibox. Not sure whether they were playing them both at the same time or not, but man do those instruments fill out the sound. A manovial or whatever the stringed instrument is also made an appearance.
It sure sounds great with those advanced instruments.