Category: Music Learning

I have had this site up for over a year…

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And I only have 20 posts (soon to be 21 with this one). I will make an attempt to post more and more. Since my band is currently in the midst of a ton of interesting and fun projects, I will try to make note of it here.

Current projects in the work…  our next EP,  Misanthropic Metropolis, has had us in and out of the studio for a few months. Doing final vocal tracking when we can get Brandon and Steve into the studio. I haven’t heard anything since I finished tracking bass for the EP, so I hope it sounds great after the guys finish the vocals. There have been talks of sending this to get mixed and mastered because having 4 audio engineers in the band could cause some butting of the heads when it comes to how it should be done. Aside from that, we are planning a tour for May with our buddies in Do As The Romans Do. And we are going to try to get a music video filmed in the coming months.

So the band front is really busy.

The personal work front has been the difficult part. I don’t have a consistent job, I am not doing anything outside of the band that is audio related, and I have a ton of bills.

That’s alright though.

I plan on doing a follow up Steve Jobs post, even though it is a bit late, but I’m still hoping it isn’t too soon.

Final thoughts heading out, I have been taking lessons and practicing new techniques on bass and I find that taking lessons, even if not in a musical rut or even if you are pretty confident in your playing, really helps you improve in ways you might not even expect. I suggest to everyone to take a lesson from time to time from a very skilled musician. And not just from the same guy. Take lessons from multiple musicians that play the same instrument with a different style. It helps so much!

Writer’s Block

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As some of you folks have experienced, writer’s block is just a straight up terrible thing. You get stuck in the same old rut and you try to push through it but nothing in your mind budges.

I’ve known some people that get through it by writing a bunch of junky, unusable tunes until they hit some spark and they go from there.

One thing I found to work for myself, is to play a different instrument for a while and play that instrument only (unless you play a specific instrument in your band or whatever). Playing a different instrument and forcing yourself to play it for a while will get you thinking differently about the same music that you write. I always have a guitar and a bass handy and I play the guitar with a pick and the bass with my fingers. When I’m not in a rut, I’ll play both interchangeably and do whatever I want with them (mostly meaning I play guitar with either my fingers or any one of various picks, and bass with fingers and/or picks).

This used to be especially successful when I also had a drumset or my keyboard handy. I am currently without the drumset and my keyboard is being used by my younger brother so I have been limited to the stringed instruments, but I eventually will get me another for use in my studio and also for me to get rid of my writer’s block.

Another good technique, is just listen to new music and pick out things you like and just learn how to play it on every instrument you own. It can give you some insight into how someone else plays and what their creative moments have lead to, which could also spark some sort of creative fire within you.

This is what has worked for me so far, and I am interested in finding more ways to help me become a better musician all around. I hope this helps one of you folks.

The start of summer…

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Usually I’m really happy to get away from school, I usually look forward to the freedom of doing anything I want to without any deadlines. But I have found that having this structured mess called IPR in my life makes everyday pretty fun. Sure, there is a lot of tough homework and tests can get on your nerves, but how often do any of us music nerds get to spend so much time with other like minded nerds?

I haven’t seen so many talented people in one place.

I have never felt totally right with the people I spent time with until now.

I have made a lot of friends. Maybe some enemies- don’t know until there is an attempt on my life. And I have just met some really cool people that don’t mind sharing some of their knowledge with someone who wants to know more.

Take advantage of this IPR goers. You probably will never have an opportunity like this where you can meet people of extremely different interests and be able to get non-smartass answers about their area of expertise.

Can’t get enough Metal…

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To come from these fingers. I need to practice practice practice. But that isn’t just me, you all need to practice too. You can’t expect to improve without some effort. My problem right now is that I have again fallen into my old trap. I have started to focus more on technique then on writing. Sure a really heavy part sounds great but if it appears to come from nowhere, it really doesn’t matter how cool that one part is. I need to just jam out, no more of this, “where can I insert finger tapping and sweeps without it sounding TOO cheesy?”

That issue aside…

I have fallen in love with my seven string guitar again. It is just so mean and it has a great eighties hair metal lead tone if I want it.

My goal for this summer is to get my own PA system. A new amp for the guitar, and maybe even a new 7 string. Longer scale, more chunk, maybe some sort of alder body super strat with some corksniffer pickups in there like some BareKnuckles. But BareKnuckles aren’t worth it if I get some cheapy 7 or even in my current Japanese made 7. I’m not going to cheap out on my next 7, simply because what sort of variations on a seven would anyone really want? If I just got one really nice 7 make specifically for tight clear and big sounding metal, I wouldn’t need any other 7 again. That isn’t true for 6 strings. You can get 9 entirely different guitars and you still could be unsatisfied with the overall diversity of guitars. Also, One nice metal 7 can replace a glam rock 6. It would accomplish the same thing if you used the appropriate amp settings.