Musicians' thread

[iffe]

Do you play an instrument? Make music? I made this thread to talk about playing and creating music, instruments, tips for playing and so on.

I play the guitar, started a few months ago. Got an Epiphone LP and my dad's old acoustic. I haven't recorded anything yet, but maybe I'll link some stuff here when I'm a bit better. Currently working on Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd, and some Built to Spill stuff.

[hooplah]

i played piano for ten years or so but i hated it so I never practiced. i suck at it.

i have a telecaster, taylor big baby, and an '84 japan-made p-bass, don't use any of them as often as i should and i suck at all of them

[hunnish]

I'm getting a keyboard soon so I can get back to practicing piano (in tandem with schiaparelli!) because I have way too much free time and not enough talent.

[UnwashedMolasses]

I play guitar, piano, drums, and sing. Been focusing mostly on the creating aspect nowadays, writing my own music and exploring electronic sounds/synthesis.

[deadkitty]

I play bass, ukulele, keys and a bit of guitar. I've got a squier bronco bass, knockoff PRS semi-hollowbody and an ashton mangowood uke. Just sold my microkorg and I'm probably going to get an alesis micron to replace it towards the end of the year.

I'm probably going to study sound engineering at uni, so I'm focusing a lot on production and stuff atm. I'll upload some recordings that I'm working on now of some songs I've written with a friend of mine tomorrow

[bels]

someone make me some beats please.

[deadkitty]

what kinda of beats? if youve got an iphone I'd reccommend fl studio mobile, it's pretty easy to make some really cool beats on it and it's actually a pretty decent daw

[bels]

sick beats.

I have g-stomper studio for android but honestly don't mess with it as much as I should.

[germinal]

i made you a sick beat bela

http://vocaroo.com/i/s0oSIJQgukaY

[sknss]

are you farting?

[germinal]

alternate endings:

shout out to boots' meal deal
shout out to krishnan guru murthy
shout out to only connect

[rjbman]

I have owned a guitar for about 4 years now.

I can play Wish You Were Here, Wagon Wheel, Hurt, Everchanging, and the themes to Pirates of the Caribbean and The Hobbit. Plus random bits and pieces of various songs. Cannot sing + play together (or sing well at all for that matter). Put simply, I suck at it. But I enjoy it and that's what matters, eh?

[RycePooding]

I can play Don't Look Back in Anger and it's all I need.

[agvs]

Creating music is my favorite thing to do. I can just zone out. Got my pro tools recording set up. I sing and play a bunch of instruments but mainly guitar. I can't read music but I should probably learn to at some point. It's really exciting and fulfilling hearing a song come together or have a song sound totally different than when you first wrote it. Of course half the time you'll go back and listen to it a few months later and think it sucks but that's all part of the process, learning to edit and listening with a critical ear. I am also pretty ignorant on the hardware side of things. I like to just fuck around with sound until it sounds how I want but my time would probably be spent much better if I had an idea of how different setups will sound (guitar A + amp B + mic C or whatever).

One thing I've never been good at is collaborating with other musicians. I can jam with friends but I'm never really as into it as when I'm sitting by myself making something up on a guitar. I'm kind of a lone wolf in all creative aspects in my life though so that's not really surprising. Maybe I just never found the right collaborators.

[cormac]

I play saxophone, guitar, and bass. i also have a shitty trombone I never play. I used to have an epiphone Les Paul but I neglected it and now It doesn't really play. i was in a fairly active band and had the money a couple years ago so I used my savings plus christmas and bought a made in America P bass that i still have. However, that band ended so now I kind of want to sell it and keep the money for other things. I reeeeeally want a professional Selmer saxophone. I also own a seagull acoustic and I write songs mainly for my own ears. I like singing my own songs, just not in front of people yet. I also really like drums, but I'm probably never going to be able to own a set.

I also used to write music, mainly with tuxguitar. I really wish I had a computer other than my school computer so i could download Sibelius or at least guitar pro. Oh well; I guess that'll come with timee.

[RycePooding]

Teaching myself ukulele.

Feel like a fuckin' bad ass.

[slappa]

I used to play and sing a lot when I was in high school and college, but it has faded out the last couple of years. Like agvs I also have a home setup for simple recording that is fun to play around with. I recorded this acoustic song 2.5 years ago, which is also the last thing I've recorded since :

Please excuse the scandi-accent and any language errors.

[agvs]

I've mentioned before that I used to write music a lot. I haven't had much time the last few years but as my kids get older and I slowly get a little more time to myself I'm getting back into the swing of things. I think I'm finally going to finish an album this year that I've had almost done for years. Anyway what's a musicians's thread with music? So here you go. This song is like 6 years old at this point and it was on my first album. I've since realized that I "borrowed" a Bruce Springsteen phrase (suicide machines) in the bridge but I'm confident he won't sue me since we share a first name. CAUTION - lots of man swaying and and an emotive face.

[balloons]

the eternal struggle of wanting to start a band but none of my friends are as into it as I am / are willing to put in the effort / like the same music / etc.

[IsaiahSchafer]

My friends and I got bored once when getting snowed in during a big blizzard. There's.. there's a lot more.

[fraxcell]

I've played cello and piano for 10+ years each. Unfortunately, I don't really have access to either right now.
Last piano pieces I worked on were Liszt's Liebesraum and Rachmaninoff's Prelude in g minor. For cello I was playing Brahms' cello sonata in F major, and Shostakovitch's cello sonata in d minor.

Hoping to get my hands on a cello next year to experiment with looping. Inspired by stuff like and songs that use cello like by Lou Reed and by the Mountain Goats.

[agvs]

[trav]

I play guitar/drums/sing. I'm also a huge tech/gear nerd especially in the area of fx pedals...



Probably the only area I spend more money than clothes

[balloons]

was totally gonna comment about being a pedalhead but assumed no one else here was into it

recently sold off my entire rig except for my digitech xp300 and also I traded my CE1 for a CE2 (green label) + cash

next purchase will probs be either a mxr micro amp or an lpb1, can't decide

[sid3000]

I dont know if it's because I suck at changing strings or my acoustic is just super old and the tuners keep slipping but it's the biggest pain in the ass that I have to put it off to only once a year. I hope one of gets developed enough in the future to a point where I can just cautiously lay a pack of strings within a 2 meter radius of it and irobots the fuck out changing the strings for me.

[fraxcell]

Changing strings is the worst. One of my more embarrassing musical memories occurred when I was coaching at a summer orchestra camp. I was helping a kid tune their cello and of course I snapped one of his strings. Luckily I was able to offer him a replacement, but there was no way I was trusting myself to put it on for him, so I had to find someone else to do it.

I'm all in favor of robo tuners for every instrument.

[BobbyZamora]

[agvs]

[SteevMike]

i have played the guitar on and off for like 10 years and i am not nearly as good as your average person with 10 years of guitar experience should be. I can almost play two John Fahey songs ("in christ there is no east or west", "beverly") and am working on learning "the yellow princess" but that one is a srs endurance test. i do want to get an acoustic at some point so i can record myself playing them + critique my performance of them. taught myself "moby dick" (yeah, yeah, its mostly drums but w/e) and st. vincent's cover of "dig a pony" and those are both big fun riffs.

[sparkyoriental]

- regarding singing, I'm going to have to agree with the people who suggest you get a vocal coach. If you're at all interested in seriously singing, you will need one. It is easy to damage your vocal cords/voice irreparably with incorrect or sloppy technique. I'm a little biased (ok maybe a lot) because I sing classically, but I think that the advice you see on forums and stuff is good, conservative advice to follow. You're not going to progress much/at all if you try to teach yourself, particularly if you don't have much baseline knowledge.

Sorry, I guess that's kinda a downer, and it's just my opinion, of course, but it's the general advice for a reason.

If you decide to go without a coach, I would focus on learning technique and learning it correctly. I think that's why I'd be hesitant to go without an experienced teacher. It's very easy to develop bad singing habits and it's hard to correct. Stuff like tone, pitch, coloratura, vowels/pronunciation/enunciation (phonetics), resonation, head/chest voice, working on range, breathing, posture, articulation, vibrato, etc. are all part of vocal technique. Obviously this is dependent on what kind of singing you want to do, but those are the basics of all singing in general and each genre such as pop (belting), classical, jazz, etc. all have their own technique associated. Tbh, I'd feel totally lost without a voice teacher. It's really hard to get a feel for technique when you have no idea what it's supposed to physically feel like - it's not just about the sound you produce.