Any musicians on the forum?

[NewRetire18]

In 1999 I was using windows 95. I bought a $100 midi guitar pickup that plugged into the printer port. I also used a hacked Yamaha 50-YXG software synthesizer. It had over 128 different instrument samples on it. I really like creating songs with that setup and made a whole bunch of them. Here is an example of what came out.

https://audiomack.com/paco-dennis/song/charlene

Cool!!

 

[Paco Dennis]

Tony, what always amazes me is the great ability of the Classical Masters to sheet arrange music without the aids of today, recording devices etc. I don't think I could arrange music in a hundred years, too much for my mind.

Couldn't have said it better.

 

[drifter]

Growing up I ran around with a bunch of musicians. I wanted to play badly but never learned to play an instrument.
Back then there were no amps. All the musicians would gather on someones front porch and would start tuning up
and before you knew it, ir was three or four a.m.

My brother was a musician, my son and grandson are musicians. I could never cut the mustard.

 

[ohioboy]

My brother was a musician, my son and grandson are musicians. I could never cut the mustard.

Try Ketchup.

 

[SetWave]

Not exactly sure why, but there does seem to be a strong correlation between music and engineering.

Music, mathematics and language all relate in our attempts to communicate.

 

[Paco Dennis]

Ditto to all the thoughts on "going on the road". It was WORK. 6 nights a week. Restaurant food. No new lasting friendships. Bed at 2am up at 10.
very long travel destinations ( through the night sometimes ). Then I started disliking the local gigs. Just a lot of hassle for barely any $. I stopped playing live in 1993. My other occupation was a cabinet maker/installer. Then I started housecleaning and did that for 25 years while living in an intentional community, where I still am. I haven't played the guitar for about a year now. "Dust in the Wind".

 

[tbeltrans]

Do you folks know what the difference between a rock guitarist and a jazz guitarist is?

I know we have both here in this thread, so here goes...

A jazz musician plays 10,000 chords for 3 people, while a rock guitarist plays 3 chords for 10,000 people.

Nobody said life is fair.

Tony

 

[OneEyedDiva]

I think the best way to share your music is upload it to a music site and then just post the url where it is in your post.

It took me about 5 minutes to sign up and upload a song at "Audiomack". Free and unlimited space.

https://audiomack.com/paco-dennis/song/13324942

I really like your song Paco. I can imagine listening to this while relaxing and reminiscing. I like the production. It sounds real good coming out of my speakers. I'd never heard of Audiomack before. I'm using SoundCloud. I wonder if one has advantages over the other.

@tbeltrans "Do you folks know what the difference between a rock guitarist and a jazz guitarist is?" And what ticks me off about that is that when some obscure rock musician dies, it makes the news. There have been some great Jazz performers who's passings did not make the news.

@Keesha I'm doing a little something in Garage Band for a project with my son. He invested in the Logic digital studio. I had Logic years ago and finished producing some of my music in it (after transferring from my instrument). After a few years, the program crashed. Good thing I had "bounced" some of the songs into iTunes. My son was able to help me raise the volume of one using Audacity so I could release it. Another that I released was completely done in Logic using a Logic loop as it's foundation. Unfortunately, I lost several tracks even before the program completely crashed. My son is trying to get me to get Logic again. I told him I'm not willing. If I can't do the majority of what I want to do in Garage Band then have him import the tracks into Logic....so be it. He was excited when he figured out how to get the Clavinova and Logic program "talking to each other". I'm sure he'll be able to do the same with Logic and GB.

I'm not crazy about digital production although I know that's the way to go these days. How do you feel about it?

 

[tbeltrans]

In 1999 I was using windows 95. I bought a $100 midi guitar pickup that plugged into the printer port. I also used a hacked Yamaha 50-YXG software synthesizer. It had over 128 different instrument samples on it. I really like creating songs with that setup and made a whole bunch of them. Here is an example of what came out.

https://audiomack.com/paco-dennis/song/charlene

I tried a couple of different midi guitars over the years. I even had a Yamaha G10 for a while:

https://yamahablackboxes.com/collection/yamaha-g10-guitar/

I did some redesign to the front end to lower the potential for false triggers due to noise and for faster response times.

With all those midi guitars, the problem was always that you had to change your technique specifically for that instrument. The last midi guitar I had was actually a Roland GK-3 to GR-55 and later got the older GR-33 because it was a bit faster/cleaner playing.

Also, back in the early days of midi and DOS, I wrote my own midi software and used it until Cakewalk came along and was mature enough. I also built my own midi interface for my PC. I did a lot of experimenting with midi guitar, synths, etc., for a while. In hindsight, I feel as if I got off my own path during that time.

I did have some cool midi synths for a while - A Sequential Circuits Prophet VS, a Sequential Circuits 2002 sampler, a couple of Yamaha boxes, and a bunch of other stuff along the way.

Now, I have a Roland Virtual Grand digital piano, which is fully modelled (no sampling), a Roalnd FA-08 and a Roland FA-07 workstation(s), and an old Yamaha QX-5 hardware sequencer and a Yamaha QY-100 because nothing like that is made anymore.

Roland V-Grand: https://www.roland.com/us/products/v-piano_grand/

Roland FA-07/08: https://www.roland.com/us/products/fa_series/

Yamaha QX-5: https://www.polynominal.com/YAMAHA-Qx5/

Yamaha QY-100: https://www.yamaha.com/en/about/innovation/collection/detail/2091/

Tony

 

[OneEyedDiva]

This is my Yamaha Clavinova which has hundreds of instrument "voices" and rhythms. I record the music onto the floppy discs. My son, who is my studio engineer, transfers the music via cables into our home studio. We communicate back and forth until he's satisfied with the levels for each track. My album (2003) was produced completely on this instrument because I didn't know about digital programs back then. After I got Logic, I used a floppy disc drive to transfer songs into the program. @Pecos

 

[Shalimar]

Growing up I ran around with a bunch of musicians. I wanted to play badly but never learned to play an instrument.
Back then there were no amps. All the musicians would gather on someones front porch and would start tuning up
and before you knew it, ir was three or four a.m.

My brother was a musician, my son and grandson are musicians. I could never cut the mustard.

But you touch people’s hearts with your words.

 

[tbeltrans]

I really like your song Paco. I can imagine listening to this while relaxing and reminiscing. I like the production. It sounds real good coming out of my speakers. I'd never heard of Audiomack before. I'm using SoundCloud. I wonder if one has advantages over the other.

@tbeltrans "Do you folks know what the difference between a rock guitarist and a jazz guitarist is?" And what ticks me off about that is that when some obscure rock musician dies, it makes the news. There have been some great Jazz performers who's passings did not make the news.

@Keesha I'm doing a little something in Garage Band for a project with my son. He invested in the Logic digital studio. I had Logic years ago and finished producing some of my music in it (after transferring from my instrument). After a few years, the program crashed. Good thing I had "bounced" some of the songs into iTunes. My son was able to help me raise the volume of one using Audacity so I could release it. Another that I released was completely done in Logic using a Logic loop as it's foundation. Unfortunately, I lost several tracks even before the program completely crashed. My son is trying to get me to get Logic again. I told him I'm not willing. If I can't do the majority of what I want to do in Garage Band then have him import the tracks into Logic....so be it. He was excited when he figured out how to get the Clavinova and Logic program "talking to each other". I'm sure he'll be able to do the same with Logic and GB.

I'm not crazy about digital production although I know that's the way to go these days. How do you feel about it?

Unfortunately, it is a popularity contest. There are good rock musicians, but there is a lot of nonsense too. Any time I mention any of the jazz musicians I listen to, all I get are blank stares.

One problem is exposure to the music. When we were growing up, there was mainstream radio and what we heard was what we knew. Most of the time, we listened to AM radio. At least in our area, jazz and classical music were the domain of FM radio for a long time. Most of the kids I knew did bother with that. Later, when Top 40 and country became available on FM, that attracted us kids.

I really wasn't exposed to jazz until later when I got into the band. I have to admit to being the typical suburban kid raised on Top 40. Little did I know there was a whole world of music just waiting for me to discover it.

As for your last sentence, my feeling is that whatever gets the music out is good. I believe that all humans have the capacity to make music of some kind. It is a real shame that music, in our Western European culture, was not treated in a similar manner to learning to walk and talk. Those skills are just naturally assumed as something everybody can do. But for some reason, music has long been held as some mystical thing that "some gots it, some don't", and those that are deemed to not have that mystical God-given talent, are to forever stay away from it and leave it to the "gifted". What nonsense! But by the time we each realize what could have been, we seem to accept that it is too late. It is the myths that prevent most people from even trying.

Tony

 

[old medic]

I dont consider myself a musician, but I have been picking around on stuff since a kid... Grandfather had a square dance band,
So was always around the old tyme music... Picked up a Mandolin around 8... Guitar around 14... High school we had a garage band and played Bass and some drums. Then I got back into the old tyme music and started playing clawhammer banjo and some fiddling.
Love the sound of an old frettless Banjo.

 

[OneEyedDiva]

Unfortunately, it is a popularity contest. There are good rock musicians, but there is a lot of nonsense too. Any time I mention any of the jazz musicians I listen to, all I get are blank stares.

One problem is exposure to the music. When we were growing up, there was mainstream radio and what we heard was what we knew. Most of the time, we listened to AM radio. At least in our area, jazz and classical music were the domain of FM radio for a long time. Most of the kids I knew did bother with that. Later, when Top 40 and country became available on FM, that attracted us kids.

I really wasn't exposed to jazz until later when I got into the band. I have to admit to being the typical suburban kid raised on Top 40. Little did I know there was a whole world of music just waiting for me to discover it.

As for your last sentence, my feeling is that whatever gets the music out is good. I believe that all humans have the capacity to make music of some kind. It is a real shame that music, in our Western European culture, was not treated in a similar manner to learning to walk and talk. Those skills are just naturally assumed as something everybody can do. But for some reason, music has long been held as some mystical thing that "some gots it, some don't", and those that are deemed to not have that mystical God-given talent, are to forever stay away from it and leave it to the "gifted". What nonsense! But by the time we each realize what could have been, we seem to accept that it is too late. It is the myths that prevent most people from even trying.

Tony

Who are your favorite Jazz artists Tony? I'm not quite sure how I first got into Jazz but it may have been when I heard one of my high school BFFs play a Jazzy piano tune her music teacher taught her. Then she played a clear red vinyl album, Ritmos Caliente, for me by Cal Tjader who was a master of Latin Jazz. I loved that album so much that she gave it to me. Now Latin is one of my favorite genres to compose in.

I started listening to Symphony Sid when I was about 15, around the same time I heard that Latin Jazz album. He came on in the evening and played Jazz tunes. In addition to Cal Tjader, I got into Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bob James, Herbie Hancock, Ramsey Lewis, Jimmy Smith, Charles Earland, Donald Byrd and so many more. But I also had R & B and Rock in my collection because like you, I listened to mainstream radio. I loved Jocko (Henderson) and Alan Freed. My son and I have a motto: So much music, so little time.

 

[Irwin]

Growing up I ran around with a bunch of musicians. I wanted to play badly but never learned to play an instrument.
Back then there were no amps. All the musicians would gather on someones front porch and would start tuning up
and before you knew it, ir was three or four a.m.

That's because they didn't have electronic tuners back then. It doesn't take nearly as long to get in tune these days.

(Sorry, I couldn't resist. )

 

[NewRetire18]

I really like your song Paco. I can imagine listening to this while relaxing and reminiscing. I like the production. It sounds real good coming out of my speakers. I'd never heard of Audiomack before. I'm using SoundCloud. I wonder if one has advantages over the other.

@tbeltrans "Do you folks know what the difference between a rock guitarist and a jazz guitarist is?" And what ticks me off about that is that when some obscure rock musician dies, it makes the news. There have been some great Jazz performers who's passings did not make the news.

@Keesha I'm doing a little something in Garage Band for a project with my son. He invested in the Logic digital studio. I had Logic years ago and finished producing some of my music in it (after transferring from my instrument). After a few years, the program crashed. Good thing I had "bounced" some of the songs into iTunes. My son was able to help me raise the volume of one using Audacity so I could release it. Another that I released was completely done in Logic using a Logic loop as it's foundation. Unfortunately, I lost several tracks even before the program completely crashed. My son is trying to get me to get Logic again. I told him I'm not willing. If I can't do the majority of what I want to do in Garage Band then have him import the tracks into Logic....so be it. He was excited when he figured out how to get the Clavinova and Logic program "talking to each other". I'm sure he'll be able to do the same with Logic and GB.

I'm not crazy about digital production although I know that's the way to go these days. How do you feel about it?

Out of curiosity, any reason you aren't happy with this method? After having used analog recording in studio in the past, I would readily agree that digital production is really is the only way to go. The number of advantages it has over analog it would fill this forum.

People incorrectly declare MP3s as the "digital standard", but those are really compressed (reduced depth/sample rate) mix-downs of much larger master digital files. I have a simple Digital Audio Workstation (DAW), but even IT works with 32-bit audio, with up to 192KHz bandwidth which is spatially (and physically) huge compared to the MP3s it can produce. The mastering data doesn't suffer from physical decline from storage problems like print-thru, wow/flutter, missing magnetic regions on tape, head bias and wear problems...plus digital recorded data never degrades between transfers of media. Once recorded, it stays in that shape, and can be re-mixed, re-mastered unlimited numbers of times. I am a budding novice in this field, but even my mastering experiments seem to get better and better with every re-master as I learn to use the tools.

The biggest downside to digital, though, is that it is not as simple as plugging in a mic, and hitting record. There is reason the field is called 'Audio Engineering', so I get that it is harder to manage. The biggest upside, as a musician, is that I can cut and paste out note errors, so I sound like a fabulous player!! OK, ok, then how about a good player? Ok, ok, a drunk novice on Paxil. But I am learning!!

 

[NewRetire18]

Unfortunately, it is a popularity contest. There are good rock musicians, but there is a lot of nonsense too. Any time I mention any of the jazz musicians I listen to, all I get are blank stares.

One problem is exposure to the music. When we were growing up, there was mainstream radio and what we heard was what we knew. Most of the time, we listened to AM radio. At least in our area, jazz and classical music were the domain of FM radio for a long time. Most of the kids I knew did bother with that. Later, when Top 40 and country became available on FM, that attracted us kids.

I really wasn't exposed to jazz until later when I got into the band. I have to admit to being the typical suburban kid raised on Top 40. Little did I know there was a whole world of music just waiting for me to discover it.

As for your last sentence, my feeling is that whatever gets the music out is good. I believe that all humans have the capacity to make music of some kind. It is a real shame that music, in our Western European culture, was not treated in a similar manner to learning to walk and talk. Those skills are just naturally assumed as something everybody can do. But for some reason, music has long been held as some mystical thing that "some gots it, some don't", and those that are deemed to not have that mystical God-given talent, are to forever stay away from it and leave it to the "gifted". What nonsense! But by the time we each realize what could have been, we seem to accept that it is too late. It is the myths that prevent most people from even trying.

Tony

For me, learning jazz guitar has been my ultimate goal, though I tend toward jazz/fusion (think Steely Dan) even at that. I am spending hours learning Larry Carlton's approach to the neck. Man, it has been an intimidating foreign land, but I am adapting to a new reality, and my wife has noticed a very big difference in my playing. It really makes you stretch when you are comfortable with the neck, but hear something that you really can't wrap your mind and fingers around. The main paradigm shift is beginning to happen, though. I used to be able to play anything I could mentally hear, but now I find mental progressions in my mind that I can't 'stream of conscious' play, so I have to stop, and slowly pick out the notes in places I wasn't connecting with mentally. That is forcing major fingering position changes, and to be honest, a completely different approach to the neck. I can hardly wait until I get there, and can naturally play some of what I am now starting to form in my mind.

 

[tbeltrans]

Who are your favorite Jazz artists Tony? I'm not quite sure how I first got into Jazz but it may have been when I heard one of my high school BFFs play a Jazzy piano tune her music teacher taught her. Then she played a clear red vinyl album, Ritmos Caliente, for me by Cal Tjader who was a master of Latin Jazz. I loved that album so much that she gave it to me. Now Latin is one of my favorite genres to compose in.

I started listening to Symphony Sid when I was about 15, around the same time I heard that Latin Jazz album. He came on in the evening and played Jazz tunes. In addition to Cal Tjader, I got into Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bob James, Herbie Hancock, Ramsey Lewis, Jimmy Smith, Charles Earland, Donald Byrd and so many more. But I also had R & B and Rock in my collection because like you, I listened to mainstream radio. I loved Jocko (Henderson) and Alan Freed. My son and I have a motto: So much music, so little time.

I tend towards solo artists and small combos. Bill Evans is a favorite, as is Joe Pass, Art Tatum, Oscar Peterson, Barney Kessel, Tal Farlow, Wes Montgomery, Ralph Towner, Charlie Byrd, Pat Martino, Oscar Moore (and the Nat King Cole trio of course)...

As you can see, I tend to listen less to horn players, though I do like Johnny Hodges, Stan Getz, and others of that general smooth warm style.

There are lots of jazz artists, but these are my primary influences for guitar and piano.

As for vocalists, my favorite collection is the Ella Fitzgerald Songbooks.

Interesting item about Nat King Cole was that apparently he wanted to be a jazz pianist, but had to sing to get decent gigs. Who knew?

Tony

 

[tbeltrans]

For me, learning jazz guitar has been my ultimate goal, though I tend toward jazz/fusion (think Steely Dan) even at that. I am spending hours learning Larry Carlton's approach to the neck. Man, it has been an intimidating foreign land, but I am adapting to a new reality, and my wife has noticed a very big difference in my playing. It really makes you stretch when you are comfortable with the neck, but hear something that you really can't wrap your mind and fingers around. The main paradigm shift is beginning to happen, though. I used to be able to play anything I could mentally hear, but now I find mental progressions in my mind that I can't 'stream of conscious' play, so I have to stop, and slowly pick out the notes in places I wasn't connecting with mentally. That is forcing major fingering position changes, and to be honest, a completely different approach to the neck. I can hardly wait until I get there, and can naturally play some of what I am now starting to form in my mind.

My studies, are continuous. For learning by ear, my ongoing projects are Joe Pass last two albums with him on solo nylon string guitar "Song For Ellen" and "Unforgettable".

I consider the materials from Robert Conti and Frank Vignola to be my primary "book learning" materials. Frank Vignola has several courses on Truefire, and Conti has a couple of book/DVD combos that are right in line with my interests. We never stop learning.

Tony

 

[drifter]

That's because they didn't have electronic tuners back then. It doesn't take nearly as long to get in tune these days.

(Sorry, I couldn't resist. )

 

[drifter]

Yes sometime our thought process gets in the way and our mind jumps ahead. We See it all in our minds but reader's don't and our written matter is unclear to everyone but ourselves. My old
self is developing flaws, eh?

 

[NewRetire18]

My studies, are continuous. For learning by ear, my ongoing projects are Joe Pass last two albums with him on solo nylon string guitar "Song For Ellen" and "Unforgettable".

I consider the materials from Robert Conti and Frank Vignola to be my primary "book learning" materials. Frank Vignola has several courses on Truefire, and Conti has a couple of book/DVD combos that are right in line with my interests. We never stop learning.

Tony

Yes, and yes, and yes. Charlie Byrd, George Barns, Bucky Pitzarelli, Joe Pass, Wes, Rit, Carlton, Earl Klugh, George Benson, and when I get good, I will finally tackle Charlie Parker's riffs, and John Coltrane's Giant Steps. I have seen guitarists do both, and I wanted to bow down at my screen. Both depressing and invigorating at the same time.

 

[tbeltrans]

That's because they didn't have electronic tuners back then. It doesn't take nearly as long to get in tune these days.

(Sorry, I couldn't resist. )

Leo Kottke once told me that we should try to continue tuning our guitars by ear because otherwise, our ears can get lazy. Obviously in noisy situations such as a gig, an electronic tuner is a definite asset.

At home, I use an A 440hz pitch fork and do the Johnny Smith of tuning all the strings to A (6th string/5th fret, 5th string/open/12th fret, 4th string/7th fret, 3rd string/10th fret, 1st string/5th fret).

A church band I played in for a while back when my wife wanted me to go to church with her, had two acoustic guitar players, me and another guy. There was a piano that was always out of tune because they didn't have the funds to keep it tuned more than once a year. I tuned my guitar by ear to the piano such that it worked with the piano, while the other guy always had to use a tuner. I remember it was a Korg electronic tuner with a big meter, and the needle pointed straight up when the string was in tune. He was truly unable to tune by ear so he couldn't tune to the piano. I had to start showing up early and tune up both guitars ahead of time.

So there is truth to what Kottke said. Oddly, I posted this in a thread in a guitar forum and was taken to task about using my ears when tuning! To me, music is a HEARING art first and foremost and I fail to understand why more people don't consider ear training to be of utmost importance. But, then, I guess I am just "old school".

Edit: For those who don't know who he is, here is a video of Leo Kottke in concert:

Tony

 

[OneEyedDiva]

Out of curiosity, any reason you aren't happy with this method? After having used analog recording in studio in the past, I would readily agree that digital production is really is the only way to go. The number of advantages it has over analog it would fill this forum.

People incorrectly declare MP3s as the "digital standard", but those are really compressed (reduced depth/sample rate) mix-downs of much larger master digital files. I have a simple Digital Audio Workstation (DAW), but even IT works with 32-bit audio, with up to 192KHz bandwidth which is spatially (and physically) huge compared to the MP3s it can produce. The mastering data doesn't suffer from physical decline from storage problems like print-thru, wow/flutter, missing magnetic regions on tape, head bias and wear problems...plus digital recorded data never degrades between transfers of media. Once recorded, it stays in that shape, and can be re-mixed, re-mastered unlimited numbers of times. I am a budding novice in this field, but even my mastering experiments seem to get better and better with every re-master as I learn to use the tools.

The biggest downside to digital, though, is that it is not as simple as plugging in a mic, and hitting record. There is reason the field is called 'Audio Engineering', so I get that it is harder to manage. The biggest upside, as a musician, is that I can cut and paste out note errors, so I sound like a fabulous player!! OK, ok, then how about a good player? Ok, ok, a drunk novice on Paxil. But I am learning!!

"Out of curiosity, any reason you aren't happy with this method?" I'm assuming you are asking me about not caring for digital production. If so, I feel that working at a digital station so much took my musicality away. And truth be told, to this day, I still think the songs sound better coming off my instrument. A friend of mine who has been producing music digitally for herself and other artists just told me the other day that MP3s don't render the best sound. My son who studied audio engineering at an institute that had Art Garfinkle as a client (forgot the name of it) agrees. See...this is "his" speak "but even IT works with 32-bit audio, with up to 192KHz bandwidth which is spatially (and physically) huge compared to the MP3s it can produce.". I play the music, I hear the music. Either I'm satisfied with it or I'm not. My son, who's also a deejay (who swears by vinyl but uses modern methods) engineers and masters my music for me. He's excellent at his craft. And he loves the digital stuff.

 

[Keesha]

Before moving I had my 1953 saxophone refurbished for its 3rd time. She’s 68 years old and still plays beautifully. I’m so glad I’ve never lost or sold this instrument. It’s vintage and I’ve owned it for 47 years now. It has sentimental value. I bought this cool case for it.