• Musicians Off-topic Discussion Thread
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I guess I failed to mention that I have to get musicians to play it for the class, and rehearse with them. That's part of the assignment, to learn the restrictions and features of the instruments you're working with. I'm thinking I'm going to write something jazzy for trombone with a piano accompaniment, if I can get my housemate to commit to it. Hell, if I make it simple enough, I might be able to play it.
If I could do that kind of stuff I'd go crazy and make something really weird. If this is what you get to do in composition classes, I might want to take some eventually because that seems like a bunch of fun. Though I should go with my first idea which is to get involved with the campus tv station and make a song each week with a music video, and put it on youtube to be sold. I think it'd be a really cool idea because there are a lot of musicians on campus who probably want some exposure and this would be a good way to do so. I could probably get a lot of experience doing just about everything, though I'd like to run it. My friend could probably land me that gig, though he may have graduated by the time I get back to college.
I want to learn how to program breakbeat style drums.
[QUOTE=T.F.W.O.;32113889]I want to learn how to program breakbeat style drums.[/QUOTE] rip some amens apart, and slow it down so you know what the seperate drums are in there
Oh god, I changed the strings on my telecaster and they are the wrong thickness which means the action is way too low. How do I change it?
Adjust the string height. As far as I'm aware, you'll want to be weary of the neck as it is likely to start bending, or maybe it already is.
yeah whenever you change string gauges you'll usually have to intonate the guitar and might have to adjust the truss rod
Going to go to a Circa Survive concert in a few weeks. Girlfriend broke up with me and I have no close friends...woohoo. fuck
There's no such thing as 8-tone serialism, is there?
Just bought me an ear-training app on my iPhone. It starts easy, and then it gets almost impossible. Especially when you have to differentiate tritones, fourths, fifths and identify chord inversions.
I have probably been there, where you kind of just hit a wall. Try transcribing some stuff. I don't do that as much as I should, but I still find I'm pretty decent at it. I like a lot of blues players because they usually leave a good gap after their phrase which allows me to try to repeat what they did which usually happens to be something similar.
True. I'm practicing for musical studies, so I need a little bit of everything. I'll major in drums, but the other stuff is what needs practicing. I've chosen piano as my secondary instrument, so I now I practice drums, piano, notation-reading, ear-training and general music theory. I'm just starting to transcribe drum parts.
[QUOTE=Thaard;32127986]Just bought me an ear-training app on my iPhone. It starts easy, and then it gets almost impossible. Especially when you have to differentiate tritones, fourths, fifths and identify chord inversions.[/QUOTE] that's not a very good way to get ear training. you need a teacher. I'd say I'm pretty decent at it now myself thanks to that. some other things I recommend for learning is getting a vocal book that is designed to teach music theory and then learning the spacing for every note in each song (write out the solfege under each note in other words) then sing it and try to recognize the spacing between said notes as you sing them.
[QUOTE=Vedicardi;32132713]that's not a very good way to get ear training. you need a teacher. I'd say I'm pretty decent at it now myself thanks to that. some other things I recommend for learning is getting a vocal book that is designed to teach music theory and then learning the spacing for every note in each song (write out the solfege under each note in other words) then sing it and try to recognize the spacing between said notes as you sing them.[/QUOTE] I'm seeing a piano teacher, who will also help me with all of that. The ear-training app thingy is something I'm doing at home.
The interval that messed me for a while was the major 7th. The source I was reading from told me a well known song hinges on going from the root up to the major 7th and told me to guess what song, and I played it on my piano and was really confused. Ends up it is from Willy Wonka and that just messed with my head.
Easy intervals: Minor 2nd: Jaws Major 4th: Here comes the bride Major 5th: John Williams themes
major 6th: nbc (n to b) major/minor 3rd: just sing a triad in your head major 2nd: the thing that should not be (the riff played over and over just before vocal parts come in during the verse) super simple ones have fun distinguishing 7th chords! [editline]5th September 2011[/editline] easy way to do a major 7th is to just sing a half step down from tonic then go up an octave from there
major second: The main solo riff in Hey You by Pink Floyd. You could also just memorize the major or minor scale. minor third: Smoke on the Water I have a book with a list of these, I think I'll post that tomorrow.
[QUOTE=Pepin;32119999]Adjust the string height. As far as I'm aware, you'll want to be weary of the neck as it is likely to start bending, or maybe it already is.[/QUOTE] That's what I was asking how to do.
Finally started taking piano lessons again, the guy teaching me is really good and now I'm learning blues [I]theory[/I] heck yeh :dance:
I found this awesome melotron in FL, but it is kind of hard to use. It has a weird attack so notes and patterns have to overlap.
I've been playing bass for about 4/5 years and I'm getting past grade 5, but I've not really tried ear training. I can't even tune my bass by ear. where should I start learning?
My music theory AP class in school is the shit. It's like, 11 of us and it's so chill and we're all friends and everything. [editline]6th September 2011[/editline] [QUOTE=luke8902;32154177]I've been playing bass for about 4/5 years and I'm getting past grade 5, but I've not really tried ear training. I can't even tune my bass by ear. where should I start learning?[/QUOTE] A piano may be a good place to start. Hit the key and listen to the note. Repeat over and over until you get a basic idea on what it sounds like. Then move onto the next note, etc. It's a very long and time-consuming process which requires a ton of practice, so don't get your hopes down too quickly.
Singing in my opinion. There are some online applications as well that can help you out. Practice your scales and know how they sound. Play intervals and see how they sound, like go from the root to the minor third. What I really suggest is playing the root and singing the new interval before you play it to see if you get it right. You don't want to second guess yourself. And improvise, choose a random interval to go down, hear it in your head first, and then sing it, and check with your instrument. That may be harder to do with a bass, so I suggest using a piano. Honestly, guitars can be a bit tricky to tune by ear, mainly when the two strings have two different characteristics. This is very prevalent on the first unwound string. Though both notes are the same, the string makes the note sound a lot different. I've sound a good way of getting around this is playing power chords. But really, you can tune by hear pretty easy with some ear training, though it's a good idea to tune at least one string with a tuner. [QUOTE=redBadger;32154749]A piano may be a good place to start. Hit the key and listen to the note. Repeat over and over until you get a basic idea on what it sounds like. Then move onto the next note, etc. It's a very long and time-consuming process which requires a ton of practice, so don't get your hopes down too quickly.[/QUOTE] Sounds like a terrible method. Repetition is a big factor in learning anything, but just repeating the same note over and over?
I used that method alongside other training methods like the ones you've mentioned.. Honestly, it worked for me.
I just learned the sound of an E and tuned from there
The thing about learning to use your ears is not to be able to just sing the A note out of the blue or something like that. It's more about the 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and so on. If I give you a C you should be able to figure out how an F sounds. You'll know by pretty much making a virtual instrument in your head whatever that means. I can give you an A and tell you it's a C and you would figure out what the F sounds like while it's actually a D. It's all about... relativity? [editline]7th September 2011[/editline] So in reality there is alot of 'scale' work when using the ear, so it's still theory.
There are two different parts to ear training, perfect pitch and absolute pitch. They are both independent of each other, but you could use both to figure out notes. Someone working with relative pitch needs to relate two different pitches, and they can't say what note either are, but they can give the relation. Someone working with absolute pitch will be able to give recognize both notes from memory. Both skills are essential to combine. As far as I'm aware, relative pitch is generally easier to get a handle on.
Relative pitch is definitely easier and generally more important :v:
I've heard a few people who say they have perfect pitch claim it is more of a curse than a gift, because they always recognize when something is off. Like if I were just to start on some random frequency, this would bug them. I'm pretty sure Hendrix had his band tune relative to him, which kind of seems like a dick thing to do. Now that I think of it, there was a guy who I played with a few times who was a big Hendrix fan and who did this with his band. He was an idiot because his guitar wasn't even tuned in relative manner, chords sounded awful and there is no way one string was in tune with the other. It wasn't a matter of not having tuners because I had two, and even if we didn't, we still had a keyboard that we could tune to. This was the same guy who during the middle of playing live turned off the bass and two rhythms guitar and just left lead and drums. Not too far into the jam everyone everyone agreed it sounded awful and I convinced them to tune with a tuner.
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