Gamers who play musical instruments

polypusher wrote:

I got an Alesis Surge electronic drum kit 2 weeks ago. [...]

Fortunately, I got the kit weeks before I'll have all the pieces I need to plug the kit into the Xbox and Im not just going to let it collect dust, so I signed up for a year of Drumeo[...]

I'm curious what you think about Drumeo. I am a life-long "I'm hitting everything I can reach and banging a rhythm" person with a very little bit of musical training on the trumpet from approximately a billion years ago. I bought a practice pad and some sticks, but haven't started doing very much with it. I've watched a few videos, including I think some from Drumeo, about strengthening my off-hand (my left), using--as was mentioned--paradiddles and similar exercises. I've liked a few Rob Brown videos, too.

I'm going to do that but I'm also tempted to jump into something even slightly more formal like a Drumeo. It's probably premature because I don't yet have anything like a drum set, but on the other hand, I don't want to buy into something before I've proven to myself I'm gonna stick with it.

RawkGWJ wrote:

Out of curiosity, what are some of your regular etudes?

Études is probably a strong word given my current level (mediocre campfire guitarist) and tolerance for practicing a riff over and over until I can't get it wrong (almost nil).

But, I practice scales, I sometimes practice learning the fretboard by heart, I play rhythm guitar and simple improv solos for these songs: https://mixolyde.net/chordbook.html.

Sometimes I practice classic Led Zeppelin and RATM riffs because I like them.

Best thing I ever did to keep me motivated to play is to make that chordbook page and a matching youtube playlist. I bring them both up on separate screens and try to play a few every day.

I don't practice or memorize solos because it's just not fun for me, and getting paid to play isn't my goal.

It's not organized or methodical, but it is fun and I am getting better without burnout or frustration.

muraii wrote:
polypusher wrote:

I got an Alesis Surge electronic drum kit 2 weeks ago. [...]

Fortunately, I got the kit weeks before I'll have all the pieces I need to plug the kit into the Xbox and Im not just going to let it collect dust, so I signed up for a year of Drumeo[...]

I'm curious what you think about Drumeo. I am a life-long "I'm hitting everything I can reach and banging a rhythm" person with a very little bit of musical training on the trumpet from approximately a billion years ago. I bought a practice pad and some sticks, but haven't started doing very much with it. I've watched a few videos, including I think some from Drumeo, about strengthening my off-hand (my left), using--as was mentioned--paradiddles and similar exercises. I've liked a few Rob Brown videos, too.

I'm going to do that but I'm also tempted to jump into something even slightly more formal like a Drumeo. It's probably premature because I don't yet have anything like a drum set, but on the other hand, I don't want to buy into something before I've proven to myself I'm gonna stick with it.

I'm really appreciating what Drumeo gives. Its not cheap, I think $250 for a year, but for one thing there's a ton of their high quality content on Youtube for free, even full 1hour lessons. For another, they've structured a very gradual and logical progression for learning how to get better and how to do more. They give you fun stuff to play right off the bat with the sort of 'lets worry about the boring stuff later and have some fun for now, even if its sloppy' and gradually layer in some proper technique and some harder lessons.

With only a practice pad and sticks, you'll probably be mostly limited to following along with the rudiment and basic rhythm exercises, which isnt the fun stuff. Its hard to imagine you'll take that experience and push that right through into getting a proper kit to play with (This Alesis Surge is working out great, highly recommended and a big enough upgrade over the cheaper Nitro to be worthwhile).

All that said, I dont follow along with new lessons that often after getting through about 2.5 tiers of lessons. I'm having the most fun putting on Youtube videos of excellent Expert Pro players and playing along. I have gotten my moneys worth already, I think, and I have like 10 months left to get into some better practice, but playing along with Youtube is the fun and the workout I was looking for.

There are a handful of other value adds: Transcribed drum parts set to their respective youtube video with a mechanic that moves a line across the sheet music as it goes, some fun live events, almost daily coach chats with various amazing drummers who do a lot of different styles, some play-along tracks that let you subtract the drum track and play your own thing or put it back in with sheet music to get comfortable with something that sounds good first.... and still other features I've not really looked at.

So in conclusion, yes Drumeo is pretty great. Look for a trial or something to give it a shot, see if it can basically convince you to go from practice pad to a kit.

Mixolyde wrote:
RawkGWJ wrote:

Out of curiosity, what are some of your regular etudes?

But, I practice scales, I sometimes practice learning the fretboard by heart, I play rhythm guitar and simple improv solos for these songs: https://mixolyde.net/chordbook.html.

Sometimes I practice classic Led Zeppelin and RATM riffs because I like them.

I don't practice or memorize solos because it's just not fun for me, and getting paid to play isn't my goal.

Do you have any desire to move towards improvisational rock? Do you like jam bands? You could loop the vamp of your favorite songs and noodle over them. That way you’re playing solos that were never meant to be memorized. That’s fun to do with a friend. Trade solos while the other vamps. That way when you play something good you’re not the only one to hear it.

Vamp? Do I need to get my wooden stakes out?

RawkGWJ wrote:

Do you have any desire to move towards improvisational rock? Do you like jam bands? You could loop the vamp of your favorite songs and noodle over them. That way you’re playing solos that were never meant to be memorized. That’s fun to do with a friend. Trade solos while the other vamps. That way when you play something good you’re not the only one to hear it.

Yes, that actually is the goal. To play rhythm guitar and improv solos in the jam sessions with my friends (see pictures above). That's why I am spending more time practicing scales and boxes now than I used to.

If I can give you a recommendation - pick a key, and memorize a CAGED pentatonic scale so that you can go up and down the neck(remember, each pentatonic is both a major and minor scale - i.e. G major scale is also E minor). Once you are comfortable with the straight pentatonic CAGED, add in the blue notes. Then learn another:) I have been working on this for a month or so and have seen a huge advance in my soloing.

I am by no means ready to shred, but i can definitely drop some licks without embarrassing myself - finally.

Now just to find a local jam group! So jealous of you, Mix.

Yeah, I probably should focus on learning one scale completely up and down the fretboard instead of the bare minimum of major, minor and pentatonic and changing all the time for each song. It's not very productive.

I should just line up all the G major songs I like, and go with just them for a while and practice pentatonic.

There are a bunch of groups on meetup.com in my area, that might be a good place to start.

I've got my CAGED boxes pretty much down. I started with the Am Pentatonic in the G shape, once I got that smooth I went both up and down from there and spent some time learning to transition between positions. Then finished out the rest of the progression.

I still need to internalise properly what the notes in the shapes mean, but I like to sit and noodle over backing tracks. Speaking of which, does anyone have a good source of downloadable backing tracks? Especially blues ones.

YouTube is full of them, but I play with Guitar Rig and YouTube doesn't play nice with ASIO drivers, so I need actual MP3s to load into the 'tape deck.'

Fredrik_S wrote:

Vamp? Do I need to get my wooden stakes out?

Am I getting that term wrong? Or misspelling it? :embarrassed:

MrDeVil909 wrote:

I still need to internalise properly what the notes in the shapes mean, but I like to sit and noodle over backing tracks. Speaking of which, does anyone have a good source of downloadable backing tracks? Especially blues ones.

YouTube is full of them, but I play with Guitar Rig and YouTube doesn't play nice with ASIO drivers, so I need actual MP3s to load into the 'tape deck.'

This would be the perfect application for the YouTube to MP3 sites. You simply copy-paste the YouTube link and then download the MP3 file from the site.

But also, Mix, get comfortable (at least a little) with noodling on scales before you play with friends. The pentatonic caged scales should absolutely be your main focus.

Once you have that under your belt you can start adding diatonic notes and chromatic runs to your improvisations. Think of them as passing tones to chain pentatonic notes together. You’ll be noodling with the best in no time.

RawkGWJ wrote:
Fredrik_S wrote:

Vamp? Do I need to get my wooden stakes out?

Am I getting that term wrong? Or misspelling it? :embarrassed:

No, that's exactly how it's written in scores for musicals. To the uninitiated, vamping is just repeating a section or chord progression, here for someone to solo over. In musicals it's used to let the orchestra wait and respond to action or dialogue on the stage before moving to the next part of a song.

RawkGWJ wrote:

This would be the perfect application for the YouTube to MP3 sites. You simply copy-paste the YouTube link and then download the MP3 file from the site.

O.O

I knew this was a thing and it just never occurred to me! o/\o

MrDeVil909 wrote:
RawkGWJ wrote:

This would be the perfect application for the YouTube to MP3 sites. You simply copy-paste the YouTube link and then download the MP3 file from the site.

O.O

I knew this was a thing and it just never occurred to me! o/\o

I mostly use it to turn my favorite songs into ringtones. I loop my favorite section of the song. Usually dope ass hip-hop breaks.

RawkGWJ wrote:
MrDeVil909 wrote:
RawkGWJ wrote:

This would be the perfect application for the YouTube to MP3 sites. You simply copy-paste the YouTube link and then download the MP3 file from the site.

O.O

I knew this was a thing and it just never occurred to me! o/\o

I mostly use it to turn my favorite songs into ringtones. I loop my favorite section of the song. Usually dope ass hip-hop breaks.

Huh, finally a good use of technology.

ActualDragon wrote:
RawkGWJ wrote:
Fredrik_S wrote:

Vamp? Do I need to get my wooden stakes out?

Am I getting that term wrong? Or misspelling it? :embarrassed:

No, that's exactly how it's written in scores for musicals. To the uninitiated, vamping is just repeating a section or chord progression, here for someone to solo over. In musicals it's used to let the orchestra wait and respond to action or dialogue on the stage before moving to the next part of a song.

I learned something new today! Thanks, Dragon!

It's how a singer can tell a story or talk to the audience while music is still playing. There's not an official transcription of the song that says "do X 32 times," just "repeat this section with minor variations until you are ready to move on." With enough practice the musicians will seamlessly transition into the next part of the song based on queues from the leader, like starting to sing the next verse over the right chord, or ending their monologue with a key phrase.

That reminds me. If you are looking for backing tracks, the JHS pedal show puts all their music into band lab for you to use for free. https://www.bandlab.com/jhspedals

Mixolyde wrote:

It's how a singer can tell a story or talk to the audience while music is still playing. There's not an official transcription of the song that says "do X 32 times," just "repeat this section with minor variations until you are ready to move on." With enough practice the musicians will seamlessly transition into the next part of the song based on queues from the leader, like starting to sing the next verse over the right chord, or ending their monologue with a key phrase.

I went to a Counting Crows concert and they were incredibly in sync, and Adam Duritz would take these storytelling breaks that would seamlessly blend into song. It was really amazing.

SallyNasty wrote:

I went to a Counting Crows concert and they were incredibly in sync, and Adam Duritz would take these storytelling breaks that would seamlessly blend into song. It was really amazing.

Harry Chapin was really good at it, too. Greatest Stories Live is, IMHO, the greatest live album of all time.

My guitar build is complete!

After a busy morning soldering the wiring together, assembling all the bits, cutting a chunk off the scratchplate to make it fit around the control plate (I think the body routing might be a bit off center, also just as likely I put something in a bit wrong). I also managed to slightly burn my thumb on the soldering iron which I guess is my tithe for not having used one for at least a couple of decades.

Then after lunch, I strung it up, added the few remaining bits, and spent a while setting it up. Now playable, and plays and sounds pretty good to me.

Final look:
IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/mYhollu.jpg)

It's not perfect (the bridge and scratchplate don't line up properly) but I'm still pretty happy with it. A fun project all up.

Nice work! Looks great. Fingers crossed mine turns out anywhere near that well. I've finished the neck and it looks pretty good but have to start the more intimidating part, painting the body. Only I just discovered that the finishing paint set I purchased from StewMac was missing the can of vinyl sealer that goes on first, but fortunately their customer service was good and they're shipping a can right out to me. Hoping I can get a few coats on the guitar before leaving for vacation next weekend.

I found colouring and finishing the body wasn't too hard. You can take your time, and sand back and redo any spots that need it.

That tele turned out gorgeous. Very nice.

I just discovered that my tremolo block is full of cracks, so I'm going to need to attend to that some time in the next few months. :/

It doesn't seem that replacement blocks are available locally, so I may need to replace the whole trem.

That turned out really nice! How does it play?

Fredrik_S wrote:

That turned out really nice! How does it play?

Surprisingly good. I'm still tweaking the action and setup, which I assume will continue for a while. And the slightly off-square bridge position is annoying me. I'm currently deciding if I take it off in a few weeks, fill and re-drill the holes, and square it... or buy a much nicer bridge (with individual saddles: I don't think I'm a fan of the traditional ones) and put that on instead.

The pickups are also very good. I was expecting that I would be unsatisfied and want to replace them with something fancier, but they're great. More on the jangly than twangy side of tele tones, which is what I prefer.

The band I'm in that's an offshoot of another band I'm in that's an offshoot of a game has a new album coming out today.

You can preorder it on Bandcamp (and it's Bandcamp Friday!) -- it unlocks in about 3 hours. We're also doing a live stream of the album at the same time.

My song is called Upon the Unlikely Discovery of a Ghost, Please Do Not Panic (Immediately) and it looks like it's about 25 minutes into the stream.

If I ever play Blades in the Dark, this will be the soundtrack.

Cross-posting from the GWJ Slack, 'cause I figured y'all would find this amusing too:

So I've started a music project where I'm remastering a bunch of old music I made 25 years ago that had only been released as MOD/S3M/IT music, and then I'm going to write a new song for each track remastered, using the same set of instruments/samples. (They don't have to sound anything like their "matching" track, just use the same sounds.)

I've remastered one particular track that, uhh, is not going to make the cut for the album, but I posted it to SoundCloud 'cause it still makes me laugh:

Sharp Boogers

This is a really fun one y'all.