Do you play an instrument?

sufi

lala
I guess i mean a classical one, but if you consider frootyloops one then please comment...
& if not... then how come you have this interest and insight into music?

myself i really regret now not being able to read music, play any instrument or even sing. :( :( :(
 

gek-opel

entered apprentice
I do play an instrument: guitar, bass, keyboards, (non-virtuouso) vocals (badly) production (cubase sample based and vst processing). I have found the further I get into analysing music (as a creator, or wannabe creater or whatever) the less "magical" it becomes, which is a bit of a shame, I guess, the layers fall apart all the more easily. It also appears to withstand less and less listens, its easy to absorb something when you know exactly how to produce those rhythms, exactly what the chord changes are, how the effects are created and such. That then leads to a tendancy to (a) seek out ever less easy to assimilate music (ie: more academic esoteric and atonal stuff) and (b) to start to treat listening to music as more of a "research" like activity rather than one based around some kind of passive pleasure. Which is both an advantage and disadvantage!

I would be interested to know how people who don't produce/analyse music in this kind of manner "hear" it-- do the layers remain in place as a single unitary entity or what? Its been so long since I have heard anything in that way!
 

Canada J Soup

Monkey Man
I play piano badly, despite enduring years of lessons as a youngun (perhaps because I considered them something to be endured) and guitar slightly less badly (although not well enough to do it in public without many hours of careful practice beforehand). I can sightread musical notation if it's not too complicated and used to sing very well years of smoking ago. I'm a fairly skilled DJ as far as mixing house / techno / drum+bass is concerned, but my scratching is nothing to write home about. I'd say I'm an advanced user of Logic and the MPC 2000XL if not quite expert, and I know my way around a bunch of other pieces of gear, apps and plug-ins.

And what do I do when I get home from work in the evening? Spend all my time talking about music on the internet.
 

D7_bohs

Well-known member
Guitar 'professionally' for years (i.e. full time, in that i didn't do much else, but not as in 'made a decent living'); can play a bit of piano and do things with cubase and the like. Definitely hear music differently as I've gotten more technically aware; virtuousity impresses you differently; you know exactly how difficult something is and you admire it the way you admire gymnasts or something, but you also know come to admire musical intelligence and taste as in knowing what, and when, to play a lot more. You realise that genre and fashion essentially cover up much of the same basic material; conversely, artists working in the same general area that may not appear that different to the non- muso can seem miles apart from a pro POV.......
 

corneilius

Well-known member
music in all of us for joy

I currently guitar, bass, keys, djembe, didge, voice, spoons and any electronic device I can get my hands on - and with regard to regretting not starting, just start.

The real talent is in choosing to do what you love doing, irrerspective of the immediate results, and if you do a little every day or two days or whatever, loving it for what it is, there's only one thing that can possibly happen - you're gonna feel better about it and get better at the making music. ;)

You have all the rest of your life to engage in it, so why not? We are all musicians, and don't you believe anyone who says otherwise, especially if that person is a musician (that kind of person is a snob, a musical racist/sexist/facist).

Comparison oneself with someone who's been doing it for a while is one way lots of people stop themselves from playing music, and it's just a product of school and social conditioning.

Let go of any comparison, enjoy what you do for youself, and if in two, five, ten or even twenty years time you notice that you've become quite good at it, then don't be surprised or too proud of the fact. It's natural. It's nature.
 

gek-opel

entered apprentice
Re: Cornelius' statement on musical fascism-- yer, it seems obvious that "talent" and "genius" are pretty spurious concepts (well to me anyway...) --- the key thing is thought, taste, and ability to think critically. By that I mean so long as you have some basic ability (which can be learnt) then all that needs to be done to create a piece of music is to start, then think "what's wrong with this?" From that basic point you gradually edge towards something, an endpoint which may be conscious, or one which only reveals itself as the creation emerges. So long as at any given stage you have the ability to listen and think "What's wrong with this?", then by a process of erasure and tweaking (be it a drum loop or an acoustic guitar chord sequence or a vocal melody or an abstract texture) gradually it shifts closer to being something. The only problem I sometimes get is that after hours of slowly shifting something towards an end point, it ends up being something that I don't actually like! The question then is whether it is better to "have faith" to the emergant creation or to take the final piece and then twist it into something else. In any given piece of art there must be tens of thousands of decision points....
 

SIZZLE

gasoline for haters
I can only play the keyboard, and that very badly, but using the computer I manage to produce some tunes that some of my friends like.

One of my favorite quotes about making music is from Yamatsuka Eye of the Boredoms, saying "One of the most musical things I can do is listen." Which I feel is powerfully, deeply true. As gek said, every piece of art contains a huge number of decisions and listening and thinking actively about those decisions are some of the most musical things you can do.

Cornelius, it's interesting having you on this board because you constantly post broad statements which make me want to attack you, however, I agree basically with what you say here. Everyone can and should make music, it's really fun, feels great, is a better use of your time than playing video games or talking about it on the internet and barring things like tone-deafness (wonder how much this exists and how much is a suppressive myth) it's really not that hard, given a certain willingness to be bad when you start and a bit of time wading through that.

I wouldn't say that talent and genius are completely spurious though, I'd say they just make it easier for some to produce good work faster and with less fussing and deliberation. I'm thinking of one good friend of mine who is a visual artist and clearly has some kind of major talent, which is evidenced by the fact that he will make these insane, detailed, beautiful black and white drawings of complicated machines and perspectives and things and he just puts the pen down somewhere on the paper and starts this line which just continues and turns into the image. Basically, he's tracing a mental image onto the paper, there's no sketching, very little deliberation, he just draws what is there in his mind. That's what I call talent, the ability to do something good in a way that looks effortless, and I think it applies to music as well.
 

polystyle

Well-known member
Hmmm , used to drum then became drum programmer bk in early '80's ,
moved that up some levels to doing same for TV like Discovery Ch. and so on ,
good gig while it lasted (4 years).

Playing kyboards and synths since early '80's - wish I'd taken lessions early on tho'
cuz it took until the TV work to really sort out notes and chords are still a learning experience ...
Always had an affinity for a nice piano to plink on

Been doing vocals , well for a long time , on this release and that and have gotten more into that ,
esp. like writing lyrics and then figuring out how they fit

Sufi , sorry no classical ('cept piano and technically not advanced wid it at all) - but I did have the super experience of having some classical music composed (on piano) with another composer , printed out and then played by the Rotterdam Philharmonic conducted by Reinbert de Leeuw' ( too bad the show itself was a bit crap but ...). That was an awesome sound .

Digging the comments so far ...

On finishing or moving a 'piece' along : Sometimes a piece needs direction , take a day off and come bk to it.
Don't expect the first things one cooks up to be really great, tho' one may get lucky, take the time to make a few things and then really listen , sit bk and see what you like .

Only in the last years after releasing 10 records & CD's did i find that I could listen to something i was doing and clearly , easily see what it needed ( like you can when you come bk to something after some time away) - while doing it .

Also great fun to work with others , producing and mixing .
Have made groups since late '70's and dealing with everyone used to be not so easy , trying to find a balance , now making another group , first one since '99 so it's fun again !

What I really like is making the music and reaching where you feel it doesn't need anything more (like painting or drawing),
it might be that one session where you intend to "ok tonight I finish' or it may not be !
Anyway, got to go eat now , could go on on this subject for a long time.

I do agree , Don't die with the musik in you !
Get it out - others sure aren't shy about it !
 

corneilius

Well-known member
ears for it!

Listening is so so so much a part of making music, I am embarrased I did not mention it. DOH!

So is feeling, and if it feels good, it feels good - though that said when playing with other people it is important to not judge, either oneself or the others, but to keep listening and to still play what feels good.

As for sizzles comment that I have a tendency make broad seeping generalisations, it's true, I do .... part of my own healing path is to deal with this and many other similar 'quirks' ... and that's partly what discussion is all about, it's a process of refinement... or at least thats what I keep telling myself lol! I do know where my heart is....

And I like playing kitchen implements as well, pots, pans, cups, plates, so many tones and resonances
 

shudder

Well-known member
play (classical) piano pretty well, play other keys wellish, passable on alto sax, can get by playing rhythmy parts on guitar, shite on bass. know my way around pro-tools and sequencers and the like, know a little Max/MSP....
 

Rambler

Awanturnik
I used to be pretty good on oboe :eek: - now it just comes out about once every six months for Bach concerts a friend organises. I'm really bad these days though; can just about get by without completely embarrassing myself. :eek:
 
Rambler! A fellow oboist! Well I never....as proper middle-class girly swot, I happen to be the holder of:

Grade 8 oboe
Grade 7 piano
Grade 6 violin
Grade 5 music theory
Various grades on recorders

I can also play the cor anglais, flute (not very well), and used to play xylophone in my local windband (when I wasn't playing oboe). I have also partaken in an equal voice choir. I can't play anything in a jazz style to save my life, though I did once think that 'jazz oboe' might be a good idea.

I used to get up at 7.30 before school to practice...and every Saturday morning I used to get up at 5.30am to travel from the countryside to a junior music college in London. It seems weird now, but at one point I had to decide whether I would pursue a career in music (most likely as an orchestral player - wasn't cut out for the solo stuff) or go and study something academic. So there you have it...now I live in a small flat in London there's no room for any piano (not even my clavinova), which is a bit depressing.

Some of the most fun I've ever had was playing in an orchestra - something about the combination of formality and massive sound which is completely overwhelming...
 
D

droid

Guest
I can play the theme from 'The A Team' on the tin whistle.

The music from Macgyver was a bridge to far though...
 

Rambler

Awanturnik
Elvis oboe:

oboeelvis.JPG
 

borderpolice

Well-known member
gek-opel said:
I have found the further I get into analysing music (as a creator, or wannabe creater or whatever) the less "magical" it becomes, which is a bit of a shame, I guess, the layers fall apart all the more easily. It also appears to withstand less and less listens, its easy to absorb something when you know exactly how to produce those rhythms, exactly what the chord changes are, how the effects are created and such.

I am experiencing the same. used to be a listener only. Remember asking my friend (who played bass in a band) what the point of a bass was, i could never hear it anyway among the guitars, drums and vocals. Didn't understand what people were on about when the distinguished 4/4 from breakbeats. Then i started DJing. learned to hear rhythms. then i started producing and playing keyboards/drums. now i hear so much more. i can hear the different layers in almost perfect clarity and separation (at least with music or genres that i am familiar with). i can now easily listen to two pieces of music at the same time and begin to be able to tell what kind of chords, progressions etc are being played without effort, though i'm not totally there yet. it is quite a different listening experience.

but it didn't lead to disenchantment. It's just that the mystery is now deeper!
 
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D7_bohs

Well-known member
so; 5 pianos , about 8 guitars, 2 oboes and lots of knob twiddling (and Droid on his tin whistle) - ladeez an' gennelmen, the Dissensus International Orchestra ! (or the dis- consort of St. Sepulchre?)
 

Troy

31 Seconds
With regards to the link between "playing music" and "enjoying music":

I firmly believe that you don't need any sort of musical ability nor any knowledge of musical theory in order to enjoy even the most highly evolved and complicated musics which are played by true masters.

All that's needed it the ability to clear your mind and open up to the music, which is very different from concentrating on the music. If it moves and pleases you then it will.

However, I once rented a saxophone once and played around with it for a month or two, and after becoming familiar with the tone, began to hear much more tone and music coming out of the saxes on my jazz records...
 
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