Yes.

Since that photo I had to replace the thumbstrap with one made out of crushed up paper and sellotape. I think Seastick Steve made it fashionable to repair your own instruments.

I have large thumbs. I'll probably upgrade to a medium soon. That's got a proper keyboard but not the mass of pitch buttons on the other side.

Now this i got to hear.

Might YouTube it if I ever get a YouTube account.

If you ever do, that will be why.

Actually I made one for those AE sound replacement things, but I didn't really want to use that for anything else. I wanted to remain completely anonymous and neutral in YouTube-o-world.

How bizzare. I think learning to play an instrument should be someones choice, being forced into it takes the fun away. I'd hate that.

Me, I play Guitar and Bass guitar. Currently in a band that plays the Costa Blanca in Spain, this summer looks like it's going to be a good'n!

I was practically forced into playing music I hated by the most dull teacher ever from 7 till 11. After I failed Grade 3 I quit and didn't pick a guitar up for years. Thankfully I've been playing non-stop since 13 and excel mostly in spanish over anything else.

I was forced to play the recorder in school at age 7. I was god awful at it, but so was the entire class. That's probably the only instrument i ever even touched. I'm definitely not a big music person. I like to listen to music, just not play it.

I'm starting to try my hand at composing and that shit is not as easy as it seems. I mean, you could have a handful of riffs and pieces that sound great when played/listened to separately, but sound completely pants when mashed together. Unless I can think of a way to nicely fit together.

The pieces that I'm working on is going to be an instrumental but it isn't going to be wankity wank wank guitar work, there is going to be a few legato and scale use here and there but it isn't going to be primarily based around that. I've always said that speed != good music and I aim to showcase that that's case whenever people hear this.

I have ideas and notes for about four or five songs that I hope I'll be a good enough basis for a demo CD. One of the songs is shaping out to be a lengthy affair with piano being a huge factor and is going to be the one that has quite a bit of speed about it, even though the guitar work is going to be sparse.

The main trouble I have so far is the drums. It would help if I knew how to play the drums but I'm hoping that I'll be able to lay down a few rhythms that would sound acceptable until I can get a bit of experience, for the drums I'm using Drumkit from Hell EZX and fruity loops studio, which is absolute rubbish to use with it so if anyone has a better program to use with it... please let me know. I'll be recording the bass and the guitar but I'll be using a midi sampler for the piano pieces, which will probably suck ass but hey, I can't actually play the thing.

Whenever/If I get this demo CD finished it won't be used to showcase my talents (or lack of) to any other musician or company. It'll be made solely for me and for whoever wants to have a listen. I may even post it here for you lot.

A lot of work is ahead of me I reckon. Even one song finished will be a huge triumph for me as I always wanted to write and record a song. The tuning that I'll be using is Open C and the recording won't happen until I get my hands on a specific guitar.

I know my way around the drums, and I can get down on a keyboard/synth. By 'get down' I mean play basic stuff by ear/listening to it over and over. I was in a thrash/experimental/8-bit band for a while, and I played the keys. I'm miserable if you sit me in front of a piano, though. I like to think I'm better with a theremin than I actually am.

Have long dreamt of mastering the Banjo and Accordion. I almost bought a banjo, but had no one to teach me/no where to get lessons in my area, so decided against it. My father in-law is quite the accordion player, but lives in California. Dorian, and the majority of her family are all musically inclined. She is trained in the saxophone, piano, and guitar, but can pretty much pick up and play anything you hand her. She says it's because she's strong in math, and 'music is math'. I'm inclined to believe her, because math is my weakest subject.

I play the Theramin.

Other than that, I dabble in electric guitar.

You should teach yourself DI, I taught myself the basics of rock guitar after learning classical for years, I mean, I had never touched a chord in my life. Also I think everyone loves the banjo, you should pick it up!!!

Everyone is in music for different reasons. This is a man, my main influence, who is in music for the right reasons. Listen to this, even if you're not a fan because the stuff you will gather from this will definitely change your aspect on creating music.

I don't think this is a reason to post more Devin Townsend, I really think this needs posted.

While we're talking about people having different perspectives on music, I'd like to say that it is my firm belief that all modern composers should think scientifically about the subject (since we are dealing with the manipulation of sound, which is intrinsically a scientific affair, which is another reason why music is so mathematical). I cannot stand "modern" composers who are just regurgitating the stuff all the old classical composers did. The classical era is dead and a great deal of it is boring. Mozart, whilst being an important figure in Western music, is not interesting anymore and the attention classical music has should be directed at contemporary composers.

I've posted Varèse before and I've posted Xenakis before. These composers provide a great demonstration of what can be achieved when the composer thinks scientifically about music. With the technology available to modern composers, there is no excuse for classical composers who fail to produce works as advanced as their pieces.

EDIT: I had no idea who Devin Townsend was until I watched that interview, but if he played with Steve Vai, Scott Thunes, Terry Bozzio and Dweezil, he has to be good.

You couldn't be more wrong, perhaps the interest in it is declining but it is far from dead nor is it lacking interesting pieces. You cannot possibly stand by such and argument after hearing pieces such as Toccata and Fugue in D or the Four Seasons.

However I do agree with you that composers and bands these days need to look at music in the light it was looked in, music is a fine art and musicians with auto-tune and synthesised music need to go back to the roots.

I don't think I'm wrong at all. The "contemporary" classical pieces I've heard in that vein appear to be marketed at the group of people who believe that "high art" in music is classical music of that whole era. And I do not find Toccata and Fuge in D Minor (if you're talking about Bach) the least bit interesting, because I am sick of hearing it. There was a time when I liked Bach a lot, but I have grown to dislike the overall aesthetic of his pieces out of boredom.

And if the genre technically is not dead, I still maintain that the "classical" focus should be on contemporary composers of contemporary music with the niche market being the old-sounding classical stuff, not the other way around which it is now. Sadly, that isn't going to happen, because unfamiliar experiences are not as saleable as familiar ones.

And views like yours are the kind of views I'm talking about. What I'm saying is that we should expand on the roots, not go back to them. Auto-tune is great for creating a certain aesthetic (provided it is done intentionally) and I love synthesised music because there is a great deal you can do with computers which you cannot do with acoustic instruments or live musicians. I do, however, object to the commercialisation of that kind of technology, because the decisions made with that stuff more often than not are business decisions and not artistic decisions.

EDIT: Speedy shit.

I can play guitar okay. I can play tab if my instructor shows me it but if I look at it myself I often struggle to get the timing or hand positions for solos & stuff, though most of the tab I've looked at I dont know the timing by heart anyway.

I play harmonica also, self-taught, and it is a doddle to play or to improvise solos on.

I'm wanting to re-learn piano, I used to know the note positions and some basic songs but that was many years ago.

As for composition, I can come up with rather....meh, lyrics, I'll know the exact sound I want the song to have, but I can't get to it. Tempted to ask my guitar teacher for tips.

I composed the music for this. Hope you can enjoy what the sound fx don't bury.



I'm actually signed on as full-time composer for the guy who made this video. Imagine this as a series, only each episode is ten minutes and the quality is twice as good.

Wow! That's pretty amazing Sekto!

I used to love the harmonica. However after one of my best friends Enzo died a couple of years after high school, 'Amazing Grace' and 'Sad Hours' was played by several members of a motorcycle club at his funeral/while he was being buried, and now whenever I hear the instrument I feel like weeping.

Self-teaching is a rewarding way of learning and pretty easy if you can find a good book, plus you don't have to pay anybody. I only got formal teaching for violin, and I got pretty bored of that after a couple of years. I think I just don't like being told what to do.

I recently modded my accordion with a new paintjob and alterations to the buttons and panels. It'll go into a blog at some point, I'm sure.

Learning from a book doesn't even come close to learning from even a half-decent teacher. If you just want to play an instrument a bit then by all means teach yourself, but if you want to really learn it a teacher is the only way to go.

Unless it's a tinwhistle. They're fucking easy to learn as long as you listen to Irish music.

I agree with Phylum, learning theory from the internet/book will only get you so far. Also, learning from a teacher could even be more fun, and you'll be able to truly gauge how far you're coming along whenever you play to someone else.

Teachers can be expensive but are well worth it (at least when your parents are paying). I do need my piano teacher to continuously remind me the key of the piece - so I know what notes to raise/lower. Also to correct my terrible choice of fingering.

My friend Mordecai, who is an 85 year-old, retired, first-chair clarinetist for Carnegie Hall is offering me two five hour lessons for free. He says all he needs is two lessons to teach me all the basics and that from there I can efficiently teach myself.

I just hope he doesn't die mid-lesson.

At least you still would have got half-a-lesson for free. It's better than nothing so stop complaining.

I don't recall complaining.

short-term memory loss.

The old duffer's going senile already.

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I know I'm supposed to get that, but I don't.

IT WAS IN THE SAME THREAD

GAWD

I just bought a new flute from Top Wind. It's the best shop I've ever been in. It's where the good flautists in London go to hang out and drink coffee. I've been invited back there if I'm ever in London again.

The owner casually said something along the lines of "whenever James Galway's in the store and someone asks him which flute to buy he says buy a Marmatsu, but when William Bennet's in he says to buy an Altus". The fact that their visits seems to common is fucking amazing.

Also, yesterday I was at the Hornerman museum and I saw 3 of the 122 Claude Laurant crystal glass flutes.

England is so fucking cool.

Do they actually sound good? I vaguely remember reading somewhere (possibly you on here) saying that glass flutes generally have a crappy sound.

I'm assuming that because Claude Laurent, a highly regarded flutemaker in the 1890s, made 122 fo them they must be good. I've never heard one myself, though.

I can play guitars, I am currently taking a classical course for my classical guitar because I've had it for a year now but was playing like an acoustic/electric because I was too cheap to buy one.

And I can also play keyboards a little.