Getting down

[yaclaus]

Hi

Yesterday I discovered how to record through the computer utilizing my korg ax 1000 board. I decided to record some stuff briefly and it wasn't really good or anything. 1st take and the same chord progresion through the song. I saved the whole thing on a sound file for fun and the I did the stupidest thing...

I ACTUALLY PLAYED THE FILE FOR SOMEONE! I was told it sounded boring and I felt surprisingly very hurt! All that hard work I had put in to be able to play such stuff just felt as if I'd wasted my time..

Do you think it's a normal thing to be oversensitive about? Have you tried anything similar, and what do you then do to get through these kind of defeats?

http://www.geocities.com/yaclaus/blues-heavy.wav

Claus

[UKRuss]

Firstly, let me say that little kids to my mind have the best ears. They know a tune when they hear one. Generally of course they like major scale tomfoolery a la nursery rhymes etc. It makes them laugh and dance.

Needless to say then that when my 3 year old son said, "Can you play a different song now daddy?" after I'd run through my most outrageous and entire catalogue of shred for half an hour I was mortified.

I thought to myself, he doesnt see what great technique I'm using there, did he see that sweep, did he catch that arp progression, did he see the 4nps run with outrageous strecth, did he see me shred at crazy speed????

DID HE SEE HOW MAY NOTES i CRAMMED INTO THAT SHORT PERIOD OF TIME!!!! HmmmHMMMM did he eh? eh ?

Answer: no he didnt.

Do you know why? Because he isn't a guitar player and therefore none of that interests him. He wants to hear a melody. He wants to laugh and dance.


This is the same thing your friend is trying to say to you. (although older kids/adults may want to feel a whole range of different emotions from music rather than just laughing and dancing, although who doesnt like that eh?)

I wasn't bored with your clip, I liked the techniques in part but that's cos I'm a geetar player too!

Use your skills more sparingly and cleverly and find a melody amongst it all, even in a minor key and using minor scales.

Mindless shred is just mindless shred my man...and yes to the listener can get a leeeetle boring.

Don't let it get you down but next time play a tune (with shred in the right amounts in the right places) and you friend will be more impressed.

[oRg]

You know, I have this kind of philosphy where it says "If you like that your playing, who cares what everyone else thinks?", and I seriously take it to heart. There are lots of people out there quick to cast an opinion on someones work or idea but do very little to actually help you better yourself. Music is very personal IMHO and not everyone is going to like what your playing. I know this becuz I play death metal with a twist of jazz and classical dodecaphony...lol. Not alot of people like the music I play but I feel great about the music I play. I take no ones opinion of my music seriously and I'm all the better for it. Though if you do want to be able to impress people and get a small crowd going then go easy on the shred like UKRuss said. Most people don't care whether you can play 16th note triplets at 180bpm. They want to hear something catchy that will stick in their head all day long. Melody and Harmony are the best ways to do this. I say keep the shredding to the guitar solos but for the most part just play variations of a certain melody throughout the song. Add vocals and don't be afraid to add guitar fills, and add some extra sound effects. Add a small backing drum track for the listener to "be-bop" to...lol.

[yaclaus]

Hi again

Just to make sure I need to empathize that this "blues heavy" only was a little thing I just recorded for experimenting. The reason for the name "blues" is simply that the chord progression is E5 Bb5(the blue note) and that progression works well with dimminished passages and the blues pentatonic. This is not Robben Ford laying down a groovy solo!(not trying to make a comparison!)

It was just a little stupid thing, and when I relisten it I can see that the impro needs a lot more breathing! I can follow the anti-shred jammer there! Now I know that for next time .

One of you said that it's important not to care what others think, but one thing is style another thing is quality and every style can have numbers that lack quality(quick formulation, sounds squareminded). It's very important for antist to make that quality cut!

I think it's important to have a technique that allows you to do everything you think you'll need to play, but I think the disadvantage is that one will easy loose the groove and just try to get super shredding! Guess that also happened to me

Claus

[Slaindude]

Honestly i think it happened to anyone who like to shred. We always tend to let our speed do the talking... but damn its fun. Its really fun to speed everything up play at light speed and all, but most of the time you miss the point. I think playing in a band is great for that cause you need to give space to all the musicians, so the point is not always to play the most complicated or fastest things. When the chemistry is good you can speed up things or more complex signature. But you need to keep that story in there, mindless shredding is not a story .

[silent-storm]

I don't necessarily agree with the idea of not carring what others think. It's just that certain people's oppinion of your playing is going to be a lot more valuable then others.

When I'm listening to a bunch of rock hacks in a local bar there's a difference between a bunch of chicks swooning at how the guitarist can play behind his back and me sitting there saying to myself "guarenteed I'm the only guy that realized he just sweep picked that diminished arpeggio."

I always used to wonder why on entrance exams or auditions they'd only make you play for around 2-5 minutes...then later I realized that most good musicians will be able to make accurate assements of people's playing within the first minute or two, regardless of how good or bad of a day they are having.

[Los Boleros]

Oh my god! Sounds like something from Waynes World. Hey don't take the critisism to heart. You are obviously young. The good news is, you will eventually grow.