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All musicians unite! - The Musicians Chat Thread

Started by Elite, August 26, 2012, 06:12:01 AM

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hefdaddy42

Quote from: BlobVanDam on December 11, 2014, 08:19:46 PMHef is right on all things. Except for when I disagree with him. In which case he's probably still right.

Sir GuitarCozmo

He's posted some sort of thing today, indicating that he's been in a bad place lately and he's sorry for anyone he's hurt.  She took her post down and replaced it with something apologizing for posting a private conversation, not wanting it to affect those associated with him, and notes that he IS a good singer and hopes all will be well, etc.  Hoping things are smooth sailing from here on out.  Crossing my fingers, because this project has the potential to be something out of this world.

Orbert

That's good news.  It sounds like they've both calmed down a bit.

People, especially drunk people, can do some really stupid things, and this girl that he pissed off may have some clout and some connections in the local scene, but pulling out the old "You'll never work in this town again!" isn't particularly cool either.

Sir GuitarCozmo

No, it isn't, and she very clearly recognizes that having posted what she did out of anger was not a good idea, so a classy move on her part.  I asked him last night to call me tonight when he gets home, so we could have a sober conversation.  Not sure what will happen, but hopefully nothing like this ever happens again.  It's deja vu, because my old singer often had problems handling his alcohol.

hefdaddy42

Quote from: BlobVanDam on December 11, 2014, 08:19:46 PMHef is right on all things. Except for when I disagree with him. In which case he's probably still right.

Sir GuitarCozmo

If push comes to shove.

Should this ever happen again and we have to boot him, there's always the option to revert back to doing classic rock, where the other guitarist and I can both sing.

Sir GuitarCozmo

So back to business, I guess.  He reached out to the singer to apologize and they're cool now.  I'm going to tell myself this was but a bump in the road and I will expect nothing but smooth sailing from now on.  I hope I'm right.

Orbert

Oh you silly person!  Of course there will be more bumps in the road.  This is a rock and roll band you're talking about.  The important thing is that you get through each one.

Sir GuitarCozmo

I know there will be.  :lol

I'm just telling myself there won't be any more, to get from one day to the next.

Orbert

That's how I do it.  "Let's hope there's no more psychotic episodes and/or complete meltdowns... today"

CodyWanKenobi

Sounds like another drunk playing rock star. Dump him and move on. Find someone who doesn't drink. None of my band members drink or drug, and we have an incredible relationship. Also, we're always tight and on top of the material. You've just gotta take a step back and ask yourself if you play music because you love the music? Or is it because you love the lifestyle. If your answer is because you love the music, then find people who feel the same.
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Sir GuitarCozmo

Quote from: TheLordOfTheStrings on March 26, 2017, 01:38:09 PMSounds like another drunk playing rock star. Dump him and move on. Find someone who doesn't drink. None of my band members drink or drug, and we have an incredible relationship. Also, we're always tight and on top of the material. You've just gotta take a step back and ask yourself if you play music because you love the music? Or is it because you love the lifestyle. If your answer is because you love the music, then find people who feel the same.

This seems like it was a fluke, so I'm gonna let it go and keep my eyes open for any other questionable behavior.  I can tell he loves the music just the same.  Saturday we're going to play straight through our opening set 2-3 times at practice, to get good and comfy with it.  I took the liberty of sitting down and tabbing out all of the vocal harmonies for our other guitarist, who has demonstrated that he's more than capable of handling any specific harmonies we give him.  This way, he look at the tab I put down, play the note, hear it, and replicate it with his voice.  Saturday, we're gonna get together a half hour earlier than full practice starts, to work on 3-part harmonies, as we have 5 (possibly 6) songs that will have 3-part harmony.  So freakin' stoked.

Orbert

I've got a "much music weekend" coming up.  Not the first time, but this is a good one, and for the first time in a while, I'm actually feeling just a bit of anxiety about it, to the point where I had a pretty wacky dream/nightmare last night.  That's how I know I'm feeling anxiety, or at least what other people must feel as anxiety, because I never know myself.  I just do whatever needs to be done, and in this case there's much music that needs to be made!


This Saturday is band practice, same as every other Saturday.  Nothing out of the ordinary there.  Four new songs on tap, plus run through some of the older ones, whichever ones John has picked that he thinks need some work.

Friday night, however, is the first rehearsal of a one-off project that I'm involved in with Mike and Karen, the husband and wife team who not-so-coincidentally used to be in the band I'm in now.  There's a charity gig on the 21st, and Mike and Karen are involved with the charity and offerred to put a band together so there would be live music at the event.  Cool enough.  Six people, three rehearsals, one show.  I can do that.  Slight concern about rehearsing Friday night after working all day, then getting up Saturday morning to load up again and head to another rehearsal, but such is the life of a musician.  I'll take a nap after I get home Saturday afternoon.

Then Sunday morning, singing with the church choir as usual, then afterwards we're rehearsing a recorder quartet.  Never been in one of those before, but our director thought it would be kinda cool to do, so she found a book of flute quartets and picked a relatively easy one for us to do on recorders.  It won't be anything mind-boggling, but it's one of those things where if everyone plays the right notes, it sounds pretty cool.  Anyway, I have to remember to bring my recorder with me to church on Sunday.  Should probably practice a bit after my nap Saturday, too.

Monday night, I got a call from Mike.  He'd sent out the song list for the charity gig two weeks ago, and I spent a lot of time working on the tunes this past weekend (and also working on the tunes for my regular band), but now Mike and Karen have some concerns about some of the songs, how the message might not be really appropriate for the gig and stuff.  Stuff they hadn't really thought about before.  They were just picking songs they thought most people would know and which would work, not necessarily how well they'd go over at a gig for homeless people and the staff at the homeless shelter.  "Put a Little Love in Your Heart", "Celebration"... yeah.  So he bounces some other song titles off of me for a while, we chat a bit, and he says he's gonna send out an email along with a list of "possible substitutions".  Okay.  We get the email Tuesday, and now I'm wondering when we're supposed to work up the tunes individually, since the first rehearsal is Friday night.  I Reply All to the email, wondering if we're just going to discuss these new ones, or try to run through them as well.  Most of us don't have a lot of time during the week, you know.  Plus, of the original 15 songs (we're only playing for "about an hour"), I've got the keyboards down, but there are three I'm playing sax on, and I haven't practiced them yet.  I was planning on doing that with the little bit of remaining time.

The new list is 12 songs and somewhat heavier on keys, usually no biggie, except that these songs happen to have parts that are pretty well-known and really need to be played like on the record or they'll sound "wrong".  Carole King, Fleetwood Mac, Rascal Flatts.  I sat down to see which songs I already had mp3's of, and which I needed to download, and found I only needed two of them, so that was cool.  But by then it was getting late so I didn't really have to time work on them.  Plus it was Tuesday, and "The Americans" was on.  Anyway, there's still a difference between knowing a song as in knowing what it sounds like because you've heard it for 40-some years and knowing it as in being able to reproduce it.  I'm fortunate that that difference is not as great as it is for some, but I still have to at least play through the song a few times.


So last night, I dreamed that I had agreed to play in a trumpet quartet.  I have working knowledge of all brass instruments, just as I do for woodwinds, but I don't profess to play brass because my embouchure doesn't cooperate.  Still, if the part is simple enough and I have time to practice, I can probably play it, or at least I think I could.  I have a cornet in the basement that I haven't touched for years, but I do have it.  Anyway, in my dream, it's Friday night and my wife are driving to the church (weird crossover) for the service, of which the trumpet quartet is a part.  All week, I've been trying to find some time to practice, and between being genuinely busy with my other musical projects and my feeling that I can probably just wing it, it just hasn't happened.  I mean, within the context of the dream, it's Friday night, and I can remember specifically blowing off practicing on Tuesday and Wednesday, then I had choir rehearsal on Thursday.  You know, the weird level of detail you sometimes get in dreams.

So we're there at the church, and it's the one I grew up in (which is about 500 miles away from where I currently live), and the service is going, and it's time for us to start getting ready for the quartet.  I'm thinking Man, I better be as good as I think I am at this shit.  Wait... where's my horn?  I'm such a spaz, I left my cornet in the car.  I go running down the stairs, and on the way down the stairs (two at a time), I realize Holy Shit, I didn't even bring it!  I did not grab it when we got in the car because we were running late.  I grabbed my choir folder out of habit, and I can picture the cornet case still sitting there by the front door (again, a weird detail, but I could "see" it there in the dream).

No resolution.  I woke up at that point.


Anyway, lots of music this weekend, lots of stuff to practice, hopefully I'll at least remember to bring the various axes I'll need to wherever I'll need them.

Sir GuitarCozmo

Hopefully everything worked out!

This weekend, practice went well.  For some reason, somebody mentioned "Raise Your Hands" by Bon Jovi and I mentioned that the only part I'd ever played was the intro riff, so I wasn't sure about trying it (it IS on the list to work on, we just hadn't gotten to it yet).  My guitarist Sean was in the same boat, he only knew the intro riff.  My bass player, Ray is fairly adept at watching me play and following along to what everyone else is doing.  So we said "F*ck it, let's give it a shot".  We got through the whole song, figuring it out on the fly and it actually sounded GOOD.  Tried it again later and it was like "Okay, this is going to be the new opening song".  So we put that first and cut Slither out of the opener set.  I was floored at how unbelievable it sounded.  The only thing I really need to figure out is the guitar solo and the keyboard chords in the background.  While Sean is playing the 16th note riff, I'll be banging out the keyboard chords on the guitar.

Orbert

I love doing that, playing a song you've never actually played before, but maybe you know some of it, and you've heard it so many times that you can kinda tell what the next chord is each time, and you get through it.  Like, you skip the step where you play a couple of different chords to see which one's the right one, and just go straight to playing the next chord.


I survived my "much music" weekend.  Five rehearsals in four days with four different ensembles.  Legs are sore, back is sore, but that's how it goes.

Sir GuitarCozmo

Quote from: Orbert on April 10, 2017, 10:04:18 AMI love doing that, playing a song you've never actually played before, but maybe you know some of it, and you've heard it so many times that you can kinda tell what the next chord is each time, and you get through it.  Like, you skip the step where you play a couple of different chords to see which one's the right one, and just go straight to playing the next chord.

I survived my "much music" weekend.  Five rehearsals in four days with four different ensembles.  Legs are sore, back is sore, but that's how it goes.

EXACTLY.  With each coming chord, I'd heard it enough to be able to anticipate where it was going next.  Fortunately most of it is A, G, and D.  It got to the guitar solo and as usual, the accompaniment in a solo usually differs a bit from the main song structure.  Somehow my brain knew to play D/F#, G5, A5.  After the first run through, we were all standing there looking at each other like "Whoa, that totally just happened".  What an amazing feeling.  I was high on that shit all night.  Well, that and beer.

5 rehearsals in 4 days.  Hardcore, man.  Not sure I'd survive.

hefdaddy42

Quote from: Sir GuitarCozmo on April 10, 2017, 10:36:35 AM
With each coming chord, I'd heard it enough to be able to anticipate where it was going next.  Fortunately most of it is A, G, and D.  It got to the guitar solo and as usual, the accompaniment in a solo usually differs a bit from the main song structure.  Somehow my brain knew to play D/F#, G5, A5.  After the first run through, we were all standing there looking at each other like "Whoa, that totally just happened".  What an amazing feeling.  I was high on that shit all night.  Well, that and beer.
Ray, pretend for a moment that I don't know anything about metallurgy, engineering, or physics, and just tell me what the hell is going on.
Quote from: BlobVanDam on December 11, 2014, 08:19:46 PMHef is right on all things. Except for when I disagree with him. In which case he's probably still right.

Sir GuitarCozmo

tl:dr

Somehow you learn enough songs and understand song structures enough that you're incomprehensibly able to guess how a song (you've never played) goes WHILE you're playing it.  It's magic enough when one person does it.  It's even more magical when an entire band does it.

hefdaddy42

I'm gonna take back some of the things I said about you, Egon.
Quote from: BlobVanDam on December 11, 2014, 08:19:46 PMHef is right on all things. Except for when I disagree with him. In which case he's probably still right.

Kotowboy

One day my uni band was just jamming and It was just me and the drummer waiting for the other guitarist and bass player...

I played something out of thin air and the drummer goes " that's a cool riff - what is it ? "

So I said " I just made it up on the spot.."

So he said let's jam it.

We figured out an intro and verse before the other two arrived. When they got there - we showed it to them and a chorus middle 8 and solo soon came along.

From absolutely nothing to a completely finished song...

...in 45 minutes.

Sir GuitarCozmo

So freakin cool. Moments like that are pure magic.

Orbert

I was my band would do that more.  When we're setting up and warming up, I'm always playing stuff, little riffs or chords or whatever.  If some of us are all ready before everyone's there, I'll say "Let's jam a bit".  Just play something, you know.  But the answer is always "What should we play?" or "What song?"

Well, "jamming" to me is more open-form, but I guess it can also just mean playing something.  I'll say "I don't know, play something."  I figure whatever riff they start with, I can work with that, we can work with that.  But they always just think of playing songs, never just "jamming".

Sir GuitarCozmo

I get that, because as a cover band, that's the mindset you're in.  This is what we play for people - other peoples' stuff - so let's work on that.  If this thing ever gets moving along, I hope that we will work on originals as well.

If it isn't one thing, it is another.  Monday morning, our guitarist, who'd been working hard over the weekend and practicing a lot, wakes up with ZERO function in his right hand.  Radial nerve palsy, the docs called it.  He has it in a brace and is supposed to rest it for a couple weeks.  On top of that, our practice schedule has been hampered from the start, due to the drummer making some dumb choices with credit cards MONTHS ago and now his wife is being a complete PITA and limiting when he can practice.  I'm ready to pull my hair out.

Orbert

Palsy is serious shit, but wife limiting practice time because of credit card debt makes no sense to me.  Okay, keeping wife happy, not pissing off wife, I get that, but not connecting practices to credit cards.  Unless he can't make practice without incurring some kind of charges.  You're not charging your drummer to play with you, are you?  'Cause that's not normal.

Sir GuitarCozmo

He opened two credit cards last year and put stuff on them without telling her.  She thought there was some sort of ID theft until he finally came clean and told her.

It's about 30 miles from his place to ours for practice.  We don't charge anyone to play, of course.  We could practice at his place, and practice more often, but my place is kinda right in the middle for the four of them.  If we went to his place, our singer and bass player would have to drive considerably FURTHER for practice.  The only charges he incurs for practice is in gas and I'm pretty sure that's not well received either.

Orbert

I was kidding about charging the guy to play, but I guess gas money adds up, and that doesn't help an already tense situation.  When you're younger, you accuse the guy of being pussy-whipped, but married guys who've been there are more familiar with "Happy wife =  happy life".

Sir GuitarCozmo

Of course, and like any married guy, I follow that philosophy as well.  I'm sensitive to it in other peoples' lives to a degree, but when it holds me back, then it's a problem.  Especially when it appears that the unhappy wife is holding things up to teach a lesson.

Orbert

Yeah, sounds like she's being a bitch.  But she's his bitch.  Or he's hers.  Or something.

Sir GuitarCozmo

Right.  At least with all the other issues, drinking, schedules (my bass player umps baseball games throughout the summer), nerve issues, those things are all somewhat within the person's grasp to control in some fashion.  A wife issue is often times 100% outside the band member's ability to control.

Skeever

Anyone ever just get tired of the circle of musicians they know? Where I live, it seems like everyone wants to play some kind of metal or space rock. Good stuff, but man am I tired of it. I play with a couple groups, but it's all the same kind of crap. I want to play blues, soul, jazz, even country. Tired of space rock and metal. I guess I should be happy I have semi-reliable people to play with at all, though.

Sir GuitarCozmo

Reliable is harder to come by than you might think.  It seems the greater wealth of "musicians" that we seem to run into are flakes in some fashion.

My old singer texted me yesterday, asking if I could fill in for two shows next month.  The first one is at a private party, the day of Jr's prom.  Fortunately, the gig is early (12 or 1) and I told him I have to be LEAVING by 3:30-ish.  The other is at a fire hall and is an evening show.  On a practice day.  So I asked if he'd mind if my band came and opened for them.  He agreed, we exchanged set lists and that's that.  So we have our first opener scheduled.  Not for as high visibility a band or venue as I'd have liked, but I'm not gonna complain.

My guitarist meets with the orthopedist today to try to figure out where the nerve issue is.  Apparently this is a common thing for guitarists and he had been playing non stop, all weekend, so it's not real surprising.  Sounds like the kind of thing that's not likely to recur, so that's good.  He just needs to stand while he's practicing, instead of sitting and resting his arm on the guitar.  Already getting some command of his hand back, so that's good.

Everybody is on board for this opener and it's a good thing.  I'll get to do a couple of gigs, get a couple bucks out of it, and get some much needed practice.

Orbert

Sounds like a good deal, and of course "a gig's a gig".

Sir GuitarCozmo

Guitarist Sean says doc told him to rest his hand for 2-3 weeks and he'd be fine.  Pinched nerve in 2 places.  Apparently the doc is a guitar player also and asked Sean "were you trying to play Ozzy or something?"

This is after I suggested last night that Bark at the Moon was probably what did Sean in.  :rollin

I've played that song countless times and it is STILL like a wrestling match with a similarly skilled (or slightly better) competitor.  It's fucking difficult, requires all of your effort and concentration, and it might still get the better of you, no matter how prepared you are.  By the time the song is over, my right forearm is angry at me.

Orbert

These are the sacrifices we must make for our art.