Gamers who play musical instruments

Fredrik_S wrote:

I only have a dropbox link at the moment to share the file, but I guess I should setup a soundcloud account one of these days as well.

I’m pretty sure you can setup your own SoundCloud account simply by downloading the mobile app and signing in with Facebook.

Gamers who use DAW's. I want to point you to Klevgrand's Feb 29th sale where all their products are for sale for $29. They, in my newbie opinion, make some of the best sounding plugins out there for your DAW's. I picked up 4 of them and saved a bunch of money on it. No affiliation, just a fan of their stuff.

Any tips on good ways to meet people looking to jam?

I started learning piano with Yousician. I’ve been enjoying the process, though I don’t think it’s for everybody. It’s really helping me to develop piano chops. I’m at the point where they’ve just started putting left and right hands together with simple melodies.

Some of the original tunes in the lessons are freeking hilarious. It’s They Might Be Giants level of funny. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that John Linnell wrote for them.

RawkGWJ wrote:

I started learning piano with Yousician. I’ve been enjoying the process, though I don’t think it’s for everybody. It’s really helping me to develop piano chops. I’m at the point where they’ve just started putting left and right hands together with simple melodies.

Some of the original tunes in the lessons are freeking hilarious. It’s They Might Be Giants level of funny. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that John Linnell wrote for them.

Nice!!!

It’s kind of interesting because I’ve had several false starts with teaching myself piano over the past five or six years. I’m in an awkward position of being fairly proficient in guitar and music theory but with zero piano chops. I was experiencing a knowledge and skill gap with piano and would simply lose interest or get bored of trying to teach myself piano basics.

Yousician is a lot like Rocksmith but a little more straightforward. Yousician definitely gameifies the process of learning piano. I think a big factor of me sticking with Yousician is that there are things I can focus on at the same time as I’m learning the baby steps. Specifically, I can work on my sight reading and work on maintaining tempo while I’m playing a dumbed down version of Yankee Doodle Dandy.

That's interesting! My partner is going through an adult beginner Alfred book now, but she might like that better.

I tried the book route on my first go at teaching myself piano. The books that I chose were supposedly aimed at adults but they were too simple and was bored to tears. With Yousician I did start at the very beginning, as in, “this is middle C.” Since it’s gameified you can rip through the simplest stuff pretty quickly, and maybe spend a little extra time on gaps in my knowledge of the basics. For instance, I’ve been able to read treble clef since I was a kid, but bass clef still throws me.

I’ll post updates as I keep going.

Cool!

I did a bit of guitar with Yousician a while back and it seemed solid - been meaning to get back into it. Glad it's working for you with piano!

Bass clef threw me a lot when I started learning trombone, after playing flute for many years. It was a very cool moment though when I realized I was no longer counting out the staff lines for most notes, and then again when I realized I was going straight from page to note, rather than having to think through page -> note name -> slide position -> play. That's one of the neat bits about learning an instrument!

On that note, why don't more apartment spaces offer practice rooms as amenities? I'd love to start playing my horns again but don't want to upset all the neighbors... Perhaps time for practice mutes. (And before anybody mentions how lovely a serenade would be, I am quite rusty. )

Yousician update: Today I disabled the color coding on the music staff. I noticed that I started using it as a crutch rather than a helpful reference. So now I’m legit reading black and white music staff. I’ve progressed to the point where simple chords were introduced. This not only challenged my coordination, but also my hand muscles. I’m still loving it, and excited that I’ve reached a point in which I’m feeling challenged.

In what turned out to be my last in-person guitar lesson last week, my teacher recommended I learn to play Hotel California when in lockdown. His reasons were to work on certain techniques, but it's also fairly on theme I suppose.

MikeSands wrote:

In what turned out to be my last in-person guitar lesson last week, my teacher recommended I learn to play Hotel California when in lockdown. His reasons were to work on certain techniques, but it's also fairly on theme I suppose.

There's Metallica's Creeping Death, too. That is a great song choice, though. Stairway to Heaven has similar techniques, I think.

MikeSands wrote:

In what turned out to be my last in-person guitar lesson last week, my teacher recommended I learn to play Hotel California when in lockdown. His reasons were to work on certain techniques, but it's also fairly on theme I suppose.

Which parts? Acoustic or leads? I spent the summer of my senior year in college working on those leads, they're fun.

If you haven't already, Fender still offering 3 months of online lessons for FREE. I have been dabbling there and the lessons look fairly solid, depending on your level of play. Good way to supplement your lessons while stuck inside.

ColdForged wrote:
MikeSands wrote:

In what turned out to be my last in-person guitar lesson last week, my teacher recommended I learn to play Hotel California when in lockdown. His reasons were to work on certain techniques, but it's also fairly on theme I suppose.

Which parts? Acoustic or leads? I spent the summer of my senior year in college working on those leads, they're fun.

His suggestion was "all of it"

MikeSands wrote:
ColdForged wrote:
MikeSands wrote:

In what turned out to be my last in-person guitar lesson last week, my teacher recommended I learn to play Hotel California when in lockdown. His reasons were to work on certain techniques, but it's also fairly on theme I suppose.

Which parts? Acoustic or leads? I spent the summer of my senior year in college working on those leads, they're fun.

His suggestion was "all of it" :)

Can't argue! Great song.

Anyone have a metronome app for android they like? I think I'd like to get a nice metronome eventually, but for now don't really want to spend too much unnecessary money. I'm happy to throw a few bucks at a good app in the short term, though.

Wembley wrote:

Anyone have a metronome app for android they like? I think I'd like to get a nice metronome eventually, but for now don't really want to spend too much unnecessary money. I'm happy to throw a few bucks at a good app in the short term, though.

I sprang for Pro Metronome. I dig it.

ColdForged wrote:
Wembley wrote:

Anyone have a metronome app for android they like? I think I'd like to get a nice metronome eventually, but for now don't really want to spend too much unnecessary money. I'm happy to throw a few bucks at a good app in the short term, though.

I sprang for Pro Metronome. I dig it.

There’s also browser driven online metronomes like this one:

free online metronome

I literally just linked the first one that popped up. At first glance it seems solid enough. It even has a tap tempo button.

It's funny, you'd think a metronome would be simple. Like I have Guitar Pro on my Mac for other reasons, but that damned thing cannot keep accurate time. It's got some maddening drift. That's one thing I'm really pleased with Pro Metronome, it's rock solid which is, you know, what you want in a metronome.

I claimed that Fender Play 3 months free deal, but am having trouble figuring out where to start. I had 4-5 years of guitar lessons, albeit the last one...jesus...20 years ago now? I've only spent 20-30 minutes with it so far and am just doing little exercises here and there in search of something that's hard enough for me to do.

I'm not missing anything about connectivity on this service, right? This is all just "listen to what you're playing and see if it sounds right", not like Rocksmith or whatever? I don't think it is, but want to make sure I didn't accidentally skip something crucial.

In this quarantine time, I dug out my pile of music books from when I was taking lessons back in high school and was kind of impressed at the sophistication of what I was learning. A lot of pondering whether I learned a bunch of stuff I've forgotten or if I just never did a good job learning it in the first place.

Thanks for the metronome suggestions!

I picked up my alto saxophone for the first time in YEARS (played from grade 6 till grade 12 and it’s been 9 years since I played seriously) on the inspiration of this thread. Two things stood out to me immediately:

1) It is an absolutely gorgeous piece of art. I was able to work out a financing deal with my parents (taught me about loans and interest payments from a young age!) and picked an alto without a lacquer so it’s weathered and aged beautifully (I’ll post a picture when the light is better tomorrow)

2) Good gracious your embouchure erodes so fast. Used to be able to play for hours without fatigue. Now I’m drooling after 15 minutes!

3) While my musical note knowledge has largely faded, the fingering patterns and knowing which notes are which on the saxophone is strangely still there! Must be the combination of visual, audio, and tactile learning that makes it stick for so long

Spent the afternoon hunting for sheet music. Want to make some recordings and will post them soon!

My nephew picked up an antique resonator banjo on a trip to West Virginia. we're trying to figure out how to play it.

I signed up for a trial subscription to Yousician, as they have now extended their trial period to 30 days. I am still offended by/amazed at their prices--$20/mo., or $60 for 3 months, or $180 for 12 months. Yeesh! But, having fiddled around with the free version a year or so ago, it's a pretty good product, and now having premium songs unlocked makes it even better, I am really enjoying playing their little cover versions of popular tunes. I have been thinking about picking up a keyboard/piano to start learning that during the quarantine, so maybe I should do that sooner rather than later while my 30 days are running.

staygold wrote:

3) While my musical note knowledge has largely faded, the fingering patterns and knowing which notes are which on the saxophone is strangely still there! Must be the combination of visual, audio, and tactile learning that makes it stick for so long

I played alto sax from 5th grade through 10th grade as well. I know what you mean about remembering finger patterns. I can still play a G Major scale from memory, and I haven’t played in over 30 years. Not only that, when I’m singing in choir I use my memory of playing a G and D note on alto sax as a tone reference since I’m not yet able to sight read vocals at tempo. Musical memory is a trip. Sometimes when I hear the beginning of Let’s Dance by David Bowie I become a 13 year old boy sitting on the floor in front of the TV watching the video for that song. It can be an incredibly vivid memory trigger.

Yousician update:
I’m halfway through level 5 which is mostly putting more complex melodies and chords together with both hands. I’m finding myself to be even more challenged than earlier levels. Their pacing is damn near perfect, for me anyway. It hasn’t been too easy or too hard, just a nice steady progression.

I’m pretty sure I paid $110.00 for the 1 year subscription that unlocks everything. But that’s in USD.

Rawk, did that price unlock just piano content, or all instrument content? I'm in USD too, but googling suggests maybe there are different versions of premium depending on the level of access you want.

I’m pretty sure I unlocked it all. But now you have me thinking that I saw the piano only price of $110.00 and then unlocked it all without noticing the price difference. I still don’t regret it. I plan to use every aspect of the app. I’ve messed around with the vocal trainer and I’m impressed with how it processes the vocal input. It will be interesting to see what benefits I might gain from the vocal trainer. Maybe I can learn to sight read vocals with it. Even if it turns out to be just a fancy karaoke game, I’m sure that I’ll enjoy it.

Learning to Sax(TM) | Update 1:
Most of this weekend was just messing around with my saxophone and not actually aiming for anything specific.

Today, I began working on training my embouchure to come back starting with 15 minutes of scales. I've never been particularly good at scales but thought this would be as good a time as any to get back in to the habit. The strange thing was I remembered every single one of my basic scales and fingerings. I couldn't tell you which the G-major from the C-minor scales if you asked me to play them, but without even really remembering how to read note "names" I could read all the scales through muscle and audio memory.

My C# sounds really out of tune and I'm not sure if that's a "me" problem or a quirk of my sax. From what I recall there's alternate fingering for Bb, C#, and F# that help if they're out of tune so will have to look those up. Going to continue with my scales practice and work in a metronome for the rest of the week and see if I can re-learn how to read notes (and what they actually are!) in addition to hitting both pace and style (staccato/legato)