How many musicians here?

[Qhartb]

I just noticed in the "Halflife2.net Feedback" forum, someone suggested making a subforum for musicians, and I wondered how many we have that does what as far as music goes. So here's a poll.

I separated some writing styles out, so choose the one that applies most to you.

Songwriting: The stereotypical songwriter writes song, singing along with a guitar or piano as they follow their ears as to what sounds right. They are often, but not always, write lyrics for their songs. They are likely to think in terms of hooks, bridges, and choruses.

Electronic composer: Works with programs like Acid and such. Puts together music in terms of loops, often leading to an ambient or minimalist feel. I am least familiar with these, so I can't give a stereotype.

Composer: Mostly likely to be classically trained. Familiar with classical theory, forms, and counterpoint. Probably familiar with at least some post-tonal theory as well. May write for traditional chamber groups or orchestra, but may write on the progressive side of rock, jazz, or avante-garde.

edit: I didn't know you could make polls with multiple selection. I may have used that...

[sea]

I wrote this awful pop song a few days ago, if that counts.

http://uploadthis.co.uk/uploads/sea/Pop_Abomination.mid

[Absinthe]

Electronic music, make my own loops.

Unless I'm somewhat confused here. While I don't record my own raw materials and whatnot, I always make the beats myself. I do use loops, but I cut, edit, and arrange them myself.

[Vegeta897]

Those groups are poo :p
Your definition of Electronic Composer applies only to the noobiest of noobs in electronic music making... Not to mention you completely left out electronic music hardware like drum machines and synthesizers.

+1 to Absinthe, I compose my own loops with music hardware, and my own tracks with software. (generally)

[Shift]

I am a songwriter (and presumably sing or play an instrument).

In a band and am a well trained in the art of music.

[Muffin Man]

I just put down that I play an instrument(s). I would have put songwriter, but my band isn't really doing much at the moment, so I'm just sort of chillin'.

[theotherguy]

composer, songwriter, electronica, I do it all.

You should have let us select multiple options.

[Seppo]

i studied some music theory and used to play guitar, but I quit, or at least lost the passion because I realized that i can never become a good guitar player. I just simply lost interest when I started recording my shit and listened to the stuff I had played, it just sounded horrible. That's when the reality bit me in the ass. It was tough, but you just have to live with it. But I can't believe how naive I was when I actually thought that I was good. wasted all those years of practice for nothing.

I still pick up the guitar when i don't have anything better to do, but if anything I seem to subconsciously avoid it, because it'll just remind me of something I can never achieve.

[Viperidae]

Self-made electronic, classical piano trained.

[Fliko]

W00t! Only person that sings and play instruments.

[Combine Hybrid]

No, but I want to get into playing a guitar...

[CrazyHarij]

pretty much all round, i produce electronic music, play guitar and piano/synths. i'm familiar with music theory, try to incorporate a little bit of everything when i compose stuff.

[CrazyHarij]

seppo playing good is all about practice. being judgemental on yourself about your playing really destroys creativity, i know... if you really want to play, read up a little, play scales you like, just have fun. the rest comes naturally. :)

[sea]

seppo playing good is all about practice. being judgemental on yourself about your playing really destroys creativity, i know... if you really want to play, read up a little, play scales you like, just have fun. the rest comes naturally. :)Not really. I'm more or less in the same boat. Despite my practice my technique is still sloppy, my timing isn't that great, and I really can't do anything aside from fairly simple stuff.

[Fliko]

Practice with a metronome, learn music that challenges you.
Most people quit playing guitar because it's too hard for them.

[Qhartb]

Unless I'm somewhat confused here. While I don't record my own raw materials and whatnot, I always make the beats myself. I do use loops, but I cut, edit, and arrange them myself.

Your definition of Electronic Composer applies only to the noobiest of noobs in electronic music making... Not to mention you completely left out electronic music hardware like drum machines and synthesizers.

Yeah, I realized I wasn't gonna be as accurate in the Electronic description as the others, since (as I admitted) I'm least familiar with it. I didn't want to neglect it, though. I did the multiple catergories to try to separate the "noobiest of noobs," who use a program like Acid to mix preexisting loops, from musicians who make their own loops and otherwise get deeper into the music.

Guaging familiarity with different EM hardware would've taken too many catergories and not gotten much more useful info. EM already has 3 catergories. Strictly speaking, programming a drum machine can be seen as a very special case of making your own loops, and a synthesizer is just another instrument to be played.

Sorry if you find the groups to be "poo." Compromises have to be made when putting all musicians into one of ten catergories. I think they're pretty good, other than the overlap with elecronic musicians who make their own loops and play or sing also.

[sea]

Practice with a metronome, learn music that challenges you.
Most people quit playing guitar because it's too hard for them.I do all of those. Either I just don't practice enough (do you have to spend four hours a day or something?), or I've hit my peak.

[Fliko]

You've probably just hit that point that you really have to surpass (I hit it with drums, and somehow I got out of it and now I'm fairly good on them).
Guide 1 (http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/columns/junkyard/perseverance_it_will_make_you_or_break_you.html)
Guide 2 (http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/columns/general_music/mindless_exercises.html)
I really like Ultimate Guitar for the guides that the users put it. I find it can help me a lot every now and then, perhaps you should take a look at those and other guides/articles?

[Qhartb]

I wrote this awful pop song a few days ago, if that counts.

http://uploadthis.co.uk/uploads/sea/Pop_Abomination.mid

If that's your first piece, that's pretty dang good. I wrote my first "piece" when I was still in one of my first lesson book when learning piano long ago. It wasn't part of the lessons or anything, so I was so proud that I wrote it all by myself with no prompting or requirement, just because I wanted to write it.

It wasn't really a "piece" at all, hardly even a technical exercise. Had both hands on a C-Major triad in root position, playing the block chord, then arpeggiating over it up and down a few times both hands in unison, block chord, arpeggiating down and up a few times, block chord, then the same with contrary motion instead of parallel. How stupid it was wasn't the point, though. The point was that I could play something that I came up with rather than the examples from the book, so I was proud.

What I'm trying to say to you, though, is where I went from there. As I saw more stuff in music, I'd write music that would try to incorporate that, adding to my toolbox. I remember the first piece I wrote in an odd time signature, my first key change, my first electronic piece, my first piece for solo instrument and piano, my first free-time piece, etc. So I'd recommend you find a specific challenge in music and try to figure out how to make it work. Listening to your piece, I'd recommend trying more chord relationships, since it didn't have much harmonic movement. (You obviously know how to resolve a suspended chord though, so good for you!)

Incidentally, there as still elements of that first "piece" in my writing. Setting up a system then systematically exhausting its possibilities is a common theme in my "serious" music. The systems have just gotten more complex than "do one of two arpeggio patterns in each hand."

[sea]

If that's your first piece, that's pretty dang good. I wrote my first "piece" when I was still in one of my first lesson book when learning piano long ago. It wasn't part of the lessons or anything, so I was so proud that I wrote it all by myself with no prompting or requirement, just because I wanted to write it.That's not my first "piece." I've recorded plenty of other stuff, but usually not with that sort of melody. I tinker around in blues standards and write metal stuff, but none of that really requires to pay too much attention to the notes and whatnot that I'm using - I'm used enough to playing it that I can go by ear just fine. I came up with that awful chorus riff a while ago and decided to turn it into a cheesy song because I was bored.

http://eric.hosted.luckz.de/audio/Beyond_Sleep.mp3
http://eric.hosted.luckz.de/audio/Northward_mixdown_rerecord.mp3
http://eric.hosted.luckz.de/audio/The%20Moon%20Was%20Red_mixdown.mp3
http://eric.hosted.luckz.de/audio/Melodeath_Is_Easy_To_Both_Write_And_Play.mp3 (very obviously cut-and-pasted)
http://eric.hosted.luckz.de/audio/meshuggah_ripoff_mixdown_compression.mp3

Nothing I've done has been that developed though, mostly because programming drums takes a lot of time and I lose my patience. After setting up my new computer I haven't got around to installing any audio production stuff. Recording is a real bitch because I just don't have the proper hardware for it - I have to compensate for tons of delay and whatnot.

[Vegeta897]

Sorry if you find the groups to be "poo." Compromises have to be made when putting all musicians into one of ten catergories. I think they're pretty good, other than the overlap with elecronic musicians who make their own loops and play or sing also.
Eh, no, that's not what I meant. I'm fine with the 3 groups you have in your post, but not the way you defined electronic music as "arranging loops"
Sorry for the misunderstanding. And don't take offense to the "poo", note the smiley :)

[Jintor]

Singer, Violinist, Pianist.

Not all at once though.

[The Monkey]

I never learned how to play in instrument, which is a shame. Would love to be able to play the piano.

[evil^milk]

I write scores, play the piano, a bit of guitar, and attempt to sing.

Almost always I'll sit down on the piano and try to "improvise." Sometimes I'll get a decent sounding melody, sometimes the stuff I play just won't make sense. As many have said it takes practice if you want to become better every day.

You can listen to some improvisations of mine on the myspace link in my sig, though I'm going to delete those soon to add new and better ones.

@ Seppo:

Earlier this year I felt exactly the same way (but with the piano). I was practicing for days and days and months and even years - but soon realized I was going nowhere with my performance and composition. I submitted my compositions to be critiqued and people would be harsh and I'd take it personally (they all said it sucked). My performance wasn't improving much, either.

What I didn't do is realize that I was doing so many things wrong - I was studying in very inefficient, time wasting way. Same with my compositions. Which is why I never got anywhere, or moved forward... but worse, I had lost the attitude that is necessary to reach your goals. When you've lost the attitude, you've lost everything.

So after about 7 years of playing the piano I just said "**** all of it, I'm done." I know it sounds corny, but it broke my heart; I couldn't really fill the enormous void anymore. My days were filled with woe.

Can you say specifically where you think you failed? I may be able to help you get back on track. I know what it feels like to fail at such an awesome thing such as music, and it'd be great if I could be of any help.

Same thing goes for you sea.

@ The Monkey:

Do it man. Playing the piano has been one of the, if not the most rewarding thing in my life.

[neptuneuk]

Ive tried most of the above at some point?

lol

[ComradeBadger]

I sing, write songs, can play very basic guitar, bass and keyboard :)

[Muffin Man]

i studied some music theory and used to play guitar, but I quit, or at least lost the passion because I realized that i can never become a good guitar player. I just simply lost interest when I started recording my shit and listened to the stuff I had played, it just sounded horrible. That's when the reality bit me in the ass. It was tough, but you just have to live with it. But I can't believe how naive I was when I actually thought that I was good. wasted all those years of practice for nothing.

I still pick up the guitar when i don't have anything better to do, but if anything I seem to subconsciously avoid it, because it'll just remind me of something I can never achieve.EVERYONE feels like that. It's frustrating as hell. The better you get, the more you realize what's wrong with your technique. And it's a bitch to get better at, but that's no reason to give up. Nobody has great technique just thrust upon them, you know. It's not only the time you practice, remember, it's the quality of practice. Perseverance pays off, my friend. It just takes a while...

If anyone cares I've been playing trumpet/euphonium for seven years and guitar for three. I also have a mandolin, but I need to get it fixed. I also love music theory, and try to learn more about it every day.

[Bad^Hat]

I play an instrument.

Been jamming on drums for a few years now, solo and with friends. Never actually been in a band, which I'll be looking to remedy soon enough (don't think that's the first time I've said that, though :P).

[Ennui]

I've recently decided to learn guitar, I already know quite a lot about music but at the moment I'm mostly a listener.

[Rizzo]

I play guitar, or trying to, , and i can make techno in fruity loops. But I can't sing for shit

[jverne]

That's not my first "piece." I've recorded plenty of other stuff, but usually not with that sort of melody. I tinker around in blues standards and write metal stuff, but none of that really requires to pay too much attention to the notes and whatnot that I'm using - I'm used enough to playing it that I can go by ear just fine. I came up with that awful chorus riff a while ago and decided to turn it into a cheesy song because I was bored.

http://eric.hosted.luckz.de/audio/Beyond_Sleep.mp3
http://eric.hosted.luckz.de/audio/Northward_mixdown_rerecord.mp3
http://eric.hosted.luckz.de/audio/The%20Moon%20Was%20Red_mixdown.mp3
http://eric.hosted.luckz.de/audio/Melodeath_Is_Easy_To_Both_Write_And_Play.mp3 (very obviously cut-and-pasted)
http://eric.hosted.luckz.de/audio/meshuggah_ripoff_mixdown_compression.mp3

Nothing I've done has been that developed though, mostly because programming drums takes a lot of time and I lose my patience. After setting up my new computer I haven't got around to installing any audio production stuff. Recording is a real bitch because I just don't have the proper hardware for it - I have to compensate for tons of delay and whatnot.


i play guitar, but when i get tired i do some piano. i like to sing also but my voice sucks.

honestly...your songs are really not bad. just keep practicing man

[Kouler]

I play guitar, bass, keyboards, drums and also do vocals. I pretty much compose my own music and record it all myself.

On the sideline, I play lead guitar in a metal band.

[Stigmata]

I play guitar and bass at a fairly sub-par skill level, I sing slightly better than average (I hope :x), and I write electronic music. I'm hoping to take some music theory/composition/instrumental lessons in the future to make myself better.

[Shift]

EVERYONE feels like that. It's frustrating as hell. The better you get, the more you realize what's wrong with your technique. And it's a bitch to get better at, but that's no reason to give up. Nobody has great technique just thrust upon them, you know. It's not only the time you practice, remember, it's the quality of practice. Perseverance pays off, my friend. It just takes a while...

Exactly, everyone says Hendrix was born with the talent of guitar playing, but its bollox, he had been playing the blues scales since he was 10 (or around that age), he was poor so thats really all he did. The blues is a very hard style to learn, and since he grew up around it he had just developed a technique of awsome proportions, and thanks to his idols he developed his awsome style of rock/blues/physcodelic (spelling!).

I merely played accustic guitar for many, many years having guitar lessons but I thought I wasn't get anywhere until about almost two years ago I decided to really have a good go at learning songs that I like and once I just sat down, concentrated fully on what I was doing, breaking the songs up bit by bit, bang, I learnt Plug In Baby by Muse in about 20 minutes, mainly because without realising it my technique was being perfected from all those years of playing the accustic with my awsome guitar teacher lol. From then on it was smooth pickings, now I have had all the training I could need, just molding into my own style with my band, but always room from improvement of course.