Rough night.

Because last night I was one of several musicians and groups scattered about a winter festival and I struggled with the holiday songs all evening. Because no one wanted to listen to me whine here at home I was hoping I would get a little love from my like minded friends here. That's all.

Ah, the universal problem of nobody on the home front wanting to listen to us whine! I think we can all relate!
 
Well these songs from Besley may get me out in December. BTW I love the holidays but certain songs drive me up a wall. The dreidel song, Rudolf the red nosed reindeer, and jingle bells in particular.
 
I am a Christian, I'm a pretty regular church goer, and I like Christmas, but Christmas music often times seem so contrived. I've never liked Christmas music. But I've gotten just piles of popular Christmas songs from everywhere I can grab them and it seems that the majority of them the chords do not correspond at all to the tune. That throws me off. I've sat down many times and tried to redo them with different chords, but for the life of me I can't come up with anything better. Anyway there are several that go quite well to the tune of Gilligan's Island and House of the Rising Sun. Those were my salvation. That, and later in the evening I threw in some sixties protest songs.
 
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Not sung any religious songs since school days either, but now & again I'll have a burst of Jingle Bells &/or Silent Night (I just like the tune of this one), around this time of year, just so as people don't label me as grumpy. :D
 
Every year I cringe when we pull out the same old songlist. Then we go to a community event and play for little Santa-crazed kids. That is when I remember what a stupendously great song "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" was when I was 5 years old.

Make eye contact with a child while you're playing and it might get you through. The light in their eyes could even make your day merry and bright :D

Lest I sound far more cheerful than I actually am, I'll add that we've learned to keep the setlist short and easy so we don't have to spend a lot of time practicing.
 
Every year I cringe when we pull out the same old songlist. Then we go to a community event and play for little Santa-crazed kids. That is when I remember what a stupendously great song "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" was when I was 5 years old.

Make eye contact with a child while you're playing and it might get you through. The light in their eyes could even make your day merry and bright :D

Lest I sound far more cheerful than I actually am, I'll add that we've learned to keep the setlist short and easy so we don't have to spend a lot of time practicing.

Holiday songs have a long tradition of people who like to hear them and who like to play them. It is not a service to anyone, much less people listening, to have people who abhor the music playing it and "trying to get through it". Your distaste and lack of enthusiasm will show through. There are people who enjoy playing holiday songs. Just leave it to them to do so. That would be service to everyone. I personally never play gigs or events, but I did ukulele caroling last year. Everyone playing was happy to do so, (we weren't a group doing a gig but just showed up at the meeting place to play Christmas songs), and everyone listening enjoyed it because we ALL wanted to be there.
 
You have my sympathy. Scrooge had the same problem. :D

Scrooge was misunderstood.

Last year,one of our Uke groups was doing songs near the Holidays Season, and one of the group members pulled out "Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer". In the name of whatever deity you want to choose, you would have sworn that I had just announced I had blown up an orphanage when I stated that I refused to play that insipid, asinine, revolting song! I just put my uke down, and left the circle until they finished playing it.

It wasn't an orphanage! They all had parents!

And, If I may, I'd like to be the first person this Holiday Season to wish you all a "Bah, Humbug!"





(g)
 
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Because last night I was one of several musicians and groups scattered about a winter festival and I struggled with the holiday songs all evening. Because no one wanted to listen to me whine here at home I was hoping I would get a little love from my like minded friends here. That's all.

I originally clicked on this thread because I thought Rough Night might be a song video.
 
Holiday songs have a long tradition of people who like to hear them and who like to play them. It is not a service to anyone, much less people listening, to have people who abhor the music playing it and "trying to get through it". Your distaste and lack of enthusiasm will show through. There are people who enjoy playing holiday songs. Just leave it to them to do so. That would be service to everyone. I personally never play gigs or events, but I did ukulele caroling last year. Everyone playing was happy to do so, (we weren't a group doing a gig but just showed up at the meeting place to play Christmas songs), and everyone listening enjoyed it because we ALL wanted to be there.

And here I thought I was making the case that there can be good reasons to play a song even if you don't particularly like it. I am enthusiastic about the pleasure "Rudolph" gives to children when they hear me play. That is all the motivation I need. I am curious about people who don't feel the same way.

Are you saying you can't play a song if you don't like it? Not even if the audience loves it? Not even if you're playing with other musicians who want to play it? Doesn't that get lonely?

I am, incidentally, not directing those questions to you alone, AQUATOPAZ, but to the thread in general. You have given us a very useful opposite viewpoint from most of the posts here, but you seem to agree with the prevailing idea that "I don't like this song" is the absolute final verdict and circumstances don't matter. That's fine when you're playing alone on the couch. But assuming you sometimes like to play for/with other people, your own personal song preferences are not the be-all and end-all. Are they?

When you hear musicians around town playing "Jingle Bells" are you under the impression they all like the song? That's their job. It's called "performing" and not "giving my true opinion" and I think we can all agree that's a good thing!

I hope we can all enjoy this season playing whatever songs we like, for whatever reasons we find fulfilling. You play the songs you love. I'll play songs I'm bored with but happy to play when the little kids jump up and dance!
 
And here I thought I was making the case that there can be good reasons to play a song even if you don't particularly like it. I am enthusiastic about the pleasure "Rudolph" gives to children when they hear me play. That is all the motivation I need. I am curious about people who don't feel the same way.

Are you saying you can't play a song if you don't like it? Not even if the audience loves it? Not even if you're playing with other musicians who want to play it? Doesn't that get lonely?

I am, incidentally, not directing those questions to you alone, AQUATOPAZ, but to the thread in general. You have given us a very useful opposite viewpoint from most of the posts here, but you seem to agree with the prevailing idea that "I don't like this song" is the absolute final verdict and circumstances don't matter. That's fine when you're playing alone on the couch. But assuming you sometimes like to play for/with other people, your own personal song preferences are not the be-all and end-all. Are they?

When you hear musicians around town playing "Jingle Bells" are you under the impression they all like the song? That's their job. It's called "performing" and not "giving my true opinion" and I think we can all agree that's a good thing!

I hope we can all enjoy this season playing whatever songs we like, for whatever reasons we find fulfilling. You play the songs you love. I'll play songs I'm bored with but happy to play when the little kids jump up and dance!

I'm saying that when people play songs they detest playing, it shows. There's a difference between not being enthusiastic about a song and having a disdain for playing it. Sorry, but contrary to what people may think about themselves, they mostly aren't that good actors, and their feelings about a song show, and being holiday songs, they would do everyone a favor to beg out of playing them. The holiday spirit deserves more.
 
What about playing the best Christmas song ever, "I wanna be your dog" by the Stooges. All it takes is three nearly adjacent chords (G F# E) and sleigh bells.
 
Rllink, you are not alone. I'm a Christian. I love gospel music. But really don't enjoy very much Christmas music. Traditional religious songs are ok but most of the pop stuff sends me running. Blue Christmas would probably be about it for me. I will not sing stuff like Mama Got Run Over By a Reindeer. Not judging, to each his own, etc. I avoid jams in December (wow, I do sound like a Grinch!).
 
Somewhat related to the topic at hand... I often wonder how it might be to be a member of a well-established band, such as "Chicago", for instance, and to go out there night after night playing nothing but Chicago songs. I would think that would become excrutiatingly monotonous after a while, but the guys in that band, and so many others (the Eagles, for example) seem to find ways to stay "into it". Perhaps the monetary compensation? Maybe it just comes down to having an ongoing consciousness that, hey, how lucky can I be, that I can actually play/sing this song for people to enjoy, and I never know which time doing it may be my last, so I'm going to see every note as a thing of beauty, and give it all I've got, every time!
 
I think some of us should form a uke band called “The Grinches.” Except we’ll probably never agree on what songs to play because someone in the group will detest every song choice.
 
I think some of us should form a uke band called “The Grinches.” Except we’ll probably never agree on what songs to play because someone in the group will detest every song choice.
I detest that idea ;)
 
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