Gamers who play musical instruments

RawkGWJ wrote:
halfwaywrong wrote:

max-grip jazz III's

Hobear wrote:

Nothing like being rusty and wishing your fingers did what they are supposed to.

I hate this feeling. "Fingers, I know you know how to do this!". But it comes back pretty quickly. Just 20 minutes every day or two and it's not too bad.

There’s also that delicious pain that lingers at the tips of your fingers for a few weeks.

-

I’m going to check out those grip jazz III

Yeah last time I restarted 3 months ago the same week I got a metal sliver in my index finger right where I was needing it to place strings on the fret board. It SUCKED!

As for picks, I'll have to take a look at some of these as I've never found the perfect one. Some are too bendy, some are too firm, waiting for my goldylocks pick!

RawkGWJ wrote:

I went down the plectrum rabbit hole about ten years ago.

When I started out playing a long time ago, I needed a pick so I reached into a jar and grabbed a green one. Turns out anything harder or softer feels wrong to me after a bit, so I went back and bought 50 of them. I still have a dozen or so, but I can't read the markings on them anymore. Dunlop something something and it has a turtle on it. The best ones are completely chewed up and jaggy and I can get some wicked harmonics using them.

Edit. Oh, I found them with a quick google search. It's these:

IMAGE(https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thebrpage.net%2Fimg%2Fcollectibles%2F635_cat67_Guitar%2520Pick%2520BR%2520Turtle2.JPG&f=1&nofb=1)

Fredrik_S wrote:
RawkGWJ wrote:

I went down the plectrum rabbit hole about ten years ago.

When I started out playing a long time ago, I needed a pick so I reached into a jar and grabbed a green one. Turns out anything harder or softer feels wrong to me after a bit, so I went back and bought 50 of them. I still have a dozen or so, but I can't read the markings on them anymore. Dunlop something something and it has a turtle on it. The best ones are completely chewed up and jaggy and I can get some wicked harmonics using them.

Edit. Oh, I found them with a quick google search. It's these:

IMAGE(https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thebrpage.net%2Fimg%2Fcollectibles%2F635_cat67_Guitar%2520Pick%2520BR%2520Turtle2.JPG&f=1&nofb=1)

On my quest to find my favorite pick I did give those a try. I think my issue with the Dunlop tortex is that it’s rough texture spans the entire surface of the pick and I was sensing an exaggerated attack when striking the string.

My intention isn’t to tell you you’re wrong. On the contrary, I think it’s super interesting that something as seemingly insignificant as pick choice can be so personal.

My teacher told me that I will get the most control and response from a pick that has zero flex. He then showed me his favorite picks. They were like nothing I’d ever seen and I haven’t seen anything like them since. They were massive in comparison to any pick I’d ever seen before. I’ll try to link a few images rather than try to describe them.

His picks are hand made out of tortoise shell. They cost about $20.00 per pick. He had five of them. He also had two sturdy leather holders for the picks. One stayed on his key chain and the other on his wallet chain. I was in disbelief. He told me that those are the only picks he ever plays with. If any other guitarist tried to convince me that those were their favorite picks, I would have dismissed them as a lunatic.

He let me try the pick out and it was too awkward for me. I took his advice on the non flex aspect though, which is how I landed on the 1.5 thickness of the max grip. Anything thinner gave me flex, and anything thicker started to feel awkward.

But seriously!! To each their own. It’s an incredibly personal decision with no right answer.

Found it!!

IMAGE(https://guitargear.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/wegen_fatone.jpg)

It’s made by a company named Wegen. This pick is called Fatone. They make other variations. Weird, right?

It also juliens fries!

[quote="RawkGWJ"]Found it!!/quote]

Holy cow... you might as well pick up a rock and play with it. That's some crazy stuff.

Yea, I really like hearing other people talk about their choices when it comes to instruments. It's like strings.. some people swear by one brand and others by another brand but when it comes down to how they are made, it's all pretty much the same. I am absolutely in that category, and I think that if you find something that makes you feel good playing, then your playing will be better and you swear it's that new piece of thing that you are trying. So yea.. picks and strings and thickness and all those small idiosyncrasies do matter.

After quite a break due to work, I've picked up my cello semi seriously again, and I've started to get involved in an online symphonic orchestra.
While most of the pieces are above my skill level, even in the short time I've been playing regularly I've noticed an improvement in my skill level, less wolf notes, more consistent sounding voice, etc.

I've found it really enjoyable to have a purpose to playing, and it's been amazing to hear a song come together, even just recording a couple of parts on my own and joining them together.
I know for the people here who have been in a band this is probably nothing new, but to me this has been quite the learning experience.

Alyosius wrote:

I've found it really enjoyable to have a purpose to playing, and it's been amazing to hear a song come together, even just recording a couple of parts on my own and joining them together.
I know for the people here who have been in a band this is probably nothing new, but to me this has been quite the learning experience.

That’s really cool.

My general understanding is that most people in this thread aren’t in a band. I’m not. I sing in a choir, but the choir has been on hold since February for obvious reasons.

I love that so many people are discovering and rediscovering the joy of making music.

I have been using Studio One for awhile now and they just released something called Sphere which is a subscription based model where you get their new version (Studio One 5) together with ALL their plugins and extensions and loops and stuff. Gigs of content. You also get an online learning center with lots of videos on music production as well as a sharing platform where you can send stems back and forth between collaborators. As long as you subscribe you'll get all the updates and new plugins they develop. For this you pay 15 bucks / month.

I really like it because 1. I don't have to plunk down 100's of dollars to update Studio One. 2. I get dedicated space to share files with my brothers back in Sweden without having to resort to dropbox or emailing large files back and forth. 3. The learning content they produce has been top notch so far.

I can heartily recommend it if you have been looking at Studio One.

Alyosius wrote:

After quite a break due to work, I've picked up my cello semi seriously again, and I've started to get involved in an online symphonic orchestra.
While most of the pieces are above my skill level, even in the short time I've been playing regularly I've noticed an improvement in my skill level, less wolf notes, more consistent sounding voice, etc.

I've found it really enjoyable to have a purpose to playing, and it's been amazing to hear a song come together, even just recording a couple of parts on my own and joining them together.
I know for the people here who have been in a band this is probably nothing new, but to me this has been quite the learning experience.

Having done this for years in my late teens and early 20s to no real point I can also testify that creating music you like in a group you like is one of the most amazing experiences to have. I still miss it so badly. We broke up hard core at the end over growing up basically. We all got girlfriends and families. Our old fun time wasn't compatible with our new reality. That was the beginning of my 10 years if not more of not playing.

I still love guitar and music, that has never changed, but I want to do it the old way again and no clue who to start this with.

Hobear wrote:

I still love guitar and music, that has never changed, but I want to do it the old way again and no clue who to start this with.

We could do a virtual GWJ recording? It would depend on the interest we had and the mix of instruments we got as to what music we could do.

Would people be interested in something like that?

Oh heck yea. I would love to try something like this.

Fredrik_S wrote:

Oh heck yea. I would love to try something like this.

I could record some piano parts maybe if they turned out...

Suggested band name: Orchestra Simulator 2020.

Mixolyde wrote:

Suggested band name: Orchestra Simulator 2020.

Bill & Shred

Zoomtown

I could do vocals and/or bass.

Mixolyde, I reakon you're on point, Orchestra (or Band) Simulator 2020 seems somehow appropriate for us.

Updated below
So what have we got:
Vocals - RawkGWJ
Paino - tuffalobuffalo
Cello - Alyosius
Bass Guitar - RawkGWJ (correct me if I'm wrong here, I made the assumption your talking bass guitar and not double bass)

Fredrik_S, what instrument(s)?

Mixolyde, Hobear, were you keen, if so what instrument(s) do you have in your arsonal?

Anyone else keen?

I was talking about electric bass, but I would prefer to focus on vocals and composition. Is anyone game to take bass duties?

Edit: I would like to suggest that Fredrik should get his pick of whatever instruments he would like to play... and would Fredrik also please take on the producer/mixer/masterer duties?

Edit2: I have a half written song that we could try to finish together. It’s kind of weird, because I am weird. The song explores what might happen if Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, John Watson, and Sherlock Holmes formed a crime fighting team. The song also assumes that all four of them are punk rockers. Naturally.

I’ve only gotten half of the chorus written. The part I have goes, “Watson and Holmes, Vincent and Paul, science and art will save us all” I have a couple of rough verses as well.

Alyosius wrote:

Mixolyde, I reakon you're on point, Orchestra (or Band) Simulator 2020 seems somehow appropriate for us.

So what have we got:
Vocals - RawkGWJ
Paino - tuffalobuffalo
Cello - Alyosius
Bass Guitar - RawkGWJ (correct me if I'm wrong here, I made the assumption your talking bass guitar and not double bass)

Fredrik_S, what instrument(s)?

Mixolyde, Hobear, were you keen, if so what instrument(s) do you have in your arsonal?

Anyone else keen?

Guitar is my main instrument. I would also be happy to mix and produce the song as that is something I am learning to do and enjoy quite a bit!

Any suggestions on how to best share the files? Do we all use dropbox? If you want to, I can setup a shared thing in my presonus sphere account. It would cost you nothing and we get a shared space to share files and have conversations. You would need to setup a presonus account, but it's free.

I'd be happy to take part, throwing in my late-starter guitar skills to the extent they exist.

I can manage a punk-rock rhythm part at least!

--------------------------------------------------
Updated list of participants:
Vocals - RawkGWJ
Paino - tuffalobuffalo
Cello - Alyosius
Guitar - Fredrik_S, MikeSands

Audio Mixing - Fredrik_S
--------------------------------------------------

I've got no issues with multiple people playing the same instrument, seems to help even out any issues with the recordings. So the more the merrier, if anyone isn't on this list and wants to, throw a post below and get involved.

Rawk, that sounds good, how long until your piece will be ready to go? Is it worth doing something while you work on it as well? And I suppose the other question is what 'level' is your piece going to end up being?

As to managing it, doing this with the RSO, sheet music is usually shared on google drive and dropbox is used to submit the recordings too. Though if there is a better way, I'm not opposed - especially if someone else is doing the mixing
Though I do suggest we use either these forums or discord for organising this, just to keep visibility in the community.

Fun! It's worth attempting!

I'm a drummer and could help with the percussion side of things.

fuzzyslug wrote:

I'm a drummer and could help with the percussion side of things.

Yessssssss

Alyosius wrote:

...how long until your piece will be ready to go? Is it worth doing something while you work on it as well? And I suppose the other question is what 'level' is your piece going to end up being?

I can make a demo with vocals and and a quick and dirty rhythm section to serve as a template. The style of this song is inspired by The Clash, which in my opinion means that cello will fit in nicely. I picture the cello being part of the rhythm section and also taking a melodic lead during a vocal break.

I can commit to getting the demo done within the next seven days. It would be awesome to be working on several pieces at once, so please, if anyone else has the gumption, please don’t hold back. We should get started on something as a group ASAP.

RawkGWJ wrote:

I can commit to getting the demo done within the next seven days. It would be awesome to be working on several pieces at once, so please, if anyone else has the gumption, please don’t hold back. We should get started on something as a group ASAP.

I have a half finished, half done, half written blues-rock track that I can throw into the ring. You can grab the files here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/5riiqt39q453jrv/GWJ%20blues.zip?dl=0

It's in 105bpm, in E. The structure is: Intro, Verse, V, Chorus, C, V, V, C, C, Break, C, C, C. It's pretty much standard chord changes with verses in E (accent G), Chorus in A, E, A, N, A#, A.

There's also a half attempt at an outro solo, but you can ignore it. The drums are EZ drummer, feel free to throw them away for real drums instead.

This all sounds very cool. I don't have the time right now to commit, but I can play a few band instruments (flute, trombone, a bit of trumpet, and I also own an alto sax :-P) as well as tin whistle. I'm pretty rusty though and it's hard to make space to play in an apartment. I'm excited to see what you all do, and maybe I can contribute in the future! Would love to have a reason to pick up the horns again.

That’s very cool. All of those winds and brass are awesome. TROMBONE SOLOOOOOO!!

I did realize this morning that I could be a one-woman horn line! I don't really have the range for top trumpet parts though, haha. I'm a solid 3rd trumpet and I used to march bass trombone, though all I own now is a tenor.

How are people typically recording? Miking an amp, interface to a PC? I'd think about getting in as yet another guitar player and I know I'd bought a crappy USB interface years ago but sure if I still have it.