Gamers who play musical instruments

It's so exciting when you gain a new understanding or reach a new level of play. I am so glad I picked guitar back up. Wish I had a jamming buddy, but I am starting to sound pretty dang good on my own. CAGED finally has clicked and i am pretty comfortable(and getting good at!) going up and down the neck.

I cross-posted about this to the "something you created" thread, but it is wild to me that I am now on three physical releases of audio... a vinyl album that I do backing vocals on (that is sold out but hasn't shipped yet), and two cassettes, the latest of which just came out:

Putrid Shark 1+2, available on Bandcamp.

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Amazing! I don't even own a cassette player.

Mixolyde wrote:

Amazing! I don't even own a cassette player.

Psh! You probably don’t even own a turntable.

XD

RawkGWJ wrote:
Mixolyde wrote:

Amazing! I don't even own a cassette player.

Psh! You probably don’t even own a turntable.

XD

Personally, I've never needed anything more than my 8-track player.

RawkGWJ wrote:
Mixolyde wrote:

Amazing! I don't even own a cassette player.

Psh! You probably don’t even own a turntable.

XD

I own two (and a microphone)

sometimesdee wrote:
RawkGWJ wrote:
Mixolyde wrote:

Amazing! I don't even own a cassette player.

Psh! You probably don’t even own a turntable.

XD

I own two (and a microphone)

Ohh! Well played, madam. Well played.

I've embarked on a fun new experience: a local music shop has an annual program where they put some bands together and work up to friends & family gig at a nearby venue. I signed up this year, and we just had our first meeting & practice.

They seem like a decent group-I'm definitely the weak link in skills, but I figure I can play decent enough rhythm guitar to back up the other guitarist. We figured out a core set of covers to begin working on, and it's a fairly fun and varied collection.

Looking forward to next week and seeing how it all goes!

(Also, news to nobody, but having to practice in masks sucks... especially for a glasses-wearer like me, playing songs I don't know and needing to read the chord chart).

I feel you on the mask and glasses bit. Congratulations on taking that leap. I hope it’s super fun and rewarding. Keep us all updated.

If anyone is interested in joining, our label is doing a song jam starting next week. 4 songwriting prompts in 4 weeks, collaboration encouraged.

It's a very fun group of people to hang out with, and this should end up being a blast.

Here's the announcement, you can join the Discord and there's a bit more info there.

(You don't have to know anything about Blaseball -- that is one facet of this group, but Fourth Strike is a more general label that focuses on LGBTQ+ artists.)

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Is it LGBT+ exclusive?

If you enjoy mixing and making music digitally, then plugin alliance sale is worth a look.

RawkGWJ wrote:

Is it LGBT+ exclusive?

Not exclusive, no, but focused on that. As a boring white cis male, I feel welcome still, but like, when I work on my solo album, I'm not going to ask them to distribute it, for example.

Ranger Rick wrote:
RawkGWJ wrote:

Is it LGBT+ exclusive?

Not exclusive, no, but focused on that. As a boring white cis male, I feel welcome still, but like, when I work on my solo album, I'm not going to ask them to distribute it, for example.

You're not boring! You make music, that's awesome!

Band practice #2 was last night.

I have moved from "totally out of my depth" to "mostly out of my depth." With six more weeks, and six more practice sessions, I think I will reach "okay" by the time we play our gig. Fun, too, as I begin to get the feel of how to slot into my place.

MikeSands wrote:

Band practice #2 was last night.

I have moved from "totally out of my depth" to "mostly out of my depth." With six more weeks, and six more practice sessions, I think I will reach "okay" by the time we play our gig. Fun, too, as I begin to get the feel of how to slot into my place.

Good luck! That's kind of the point of these things. Some folks will work and get better. Some folks won't and will fall off the end. If you are having fun, that's plenty cool all by itself.

Hey folks, I play in a (mostly) 90's cover band called 39 North that plays in the Baltimore/DC/York area. If there any GWJ'ers that would want to check us out sometime, feel free to stop on by (be sure to say hi to the drummer who plays too many video games). Here's our schedule. We have a gig down near DC in November and we are playing between York and Lancaster (PA) this Friday.

We've been working on a couple of new songs this week, Learn to Fly by the Foo Fighters and Basket Case by Green Day, both of which are interesting for different reasons. I'm really starting to appreciate Taylor Hawkins. Medicine At Midnight, the new Foo Fighters album, is pretty great and rhythmically interesting all over the place. I can't remember the last time I saw a rock song mostly in 3/4 (Making A Fire). Learn to Fly is making appreciate his other stuff. Neat little rhythmic additions and lots of changes. It's hard not to overplay when doing a cover. The fills in there already fit just fine.

Basket Case is just quick and sports a fill I've heard a thousand times but never bothered to learn. Thank God for YouTube, which makes this really easy (it's wonderful when someone just breaks it down and provides sheet music). Looking forward to practicing it with the band for the first time tonight.

I’m embarrassed to even admit this. I need to lock myself in the shed and get my bass skills back. I’ve been focusing exclusively on vocals for several years. Now I’m not funky anymore. Well… that’s not true. I’m funky as EFF! But not on the bass. I must redeem myself.

Potomac, MD isn't far for me, I will try to make it out some time.
Everlong is a great song for drummers and pretty easy for guitarists.
The only 3/4 rock song that's popping into my head is Weezer's My Name is Jonas, and that's 27 years ago.

Mixolyde wrote:

The only 3/4 rock song that's popping into my head is Weezer's My Name is Jonas, and that's 27 years ago.

Off the top of my head I can’t think of any pop or rock songs in 3/4. That’s not true. Ben Folds’ song Boxing is in 3, but that’s pretty obscure and not well known. Still love that song though.

Rock and especially metal has many many songs in 6/8 which is sort of a fast 3/4. How many Maiden songs are in 6/8? Probably the entire Powerslave album. Joking. Tears for Fears’ Everybody Wants to Rule the World is in 6/8.

Many many rock songs are in 5/4 and 7/8. Pink Floyd’s Money is in 7/8.

Mixolyde wrote:

Potomac, MD isn't far for me, I will try to make it out some time.
Everlong is a great song for drummers and pretty easy for guitarists.
The only 3/4 rock song that's popping into my head is Weezer's My Name is Jonas, and that's 27 years ago.

We actually play Everlong. It's one of the hardest songs I play on drums for the band, mostly due to the relentless sixteen notes added to the speed.

Listening My Name is Jonas right now. It almost feels like a waltz.

RawkGWJ wrote:
Mixolyde wrote:

The only 3/4 rock song that's popping into my head is Weezer's My Name is Jonas, and that's 27 years ago.

Off the top of my head I can’t think of any pop or rock songs in 3/4. That’s not true. Ben Folds’ song Boxing is in 3, but that’s pretty obscure and not well known. Still love that song though.

Rock and especially metal has many many songs in 6/8 which is sort of a fast 3/4. How many Maiden songs are in 6/8? Probably the entire Powerslave album. Joking. Tears for Fears’ Everybody Wants to Rule the World is in 6/8.

Many many rock songs are in 5/4 and 7/8. Pink Floyd’s Money is in 7/8.

We actually play Everyone Wants to Rule the World as well, although it's the Weezer version. It's got a very cool every other eighth note rhythm on the drums that really provides its own unique feel. I really dig the guitar solo at the end.

I'm going to add some Powerslave to my playlist today. Haven't listened to them in a long while.

We played around with Times Like These for a bit. The intro is in 7/8.

3/4 in pop music is weird.. You'd think it'd really stand out, but then you hear a song for the thousandth time and suddenly realize it could practically be a waltz.

Manic Depression and Kiss from a Rose, come to mind?

For my birthday my wife gave me Cory Wong's master class lessons on teachable. I am very excited about it. https://cory-wong.teachable.com

fuzzyslug wrote:

Listening My Name is Jonas right now. It almost feels like a waltz.

I mean, aren't all 3/4 songs waltzes? It's just a really fast one.

Mixolyde wrote:
fuzzyslug wrote:

Listening My Name is Jonas right now. It almost feels like a waltz.

I mean, aren't all 3/4 songs waltzes? It's just a really fast one. ;-)

Well, kind of. It's more of that rise to 3 feel.

fuzzyslug wrote:
Mixolyde wrote:
fuzzyslug wrote:

Listening My Name is Jonas right now. It almost feels like a waltz.

I mean, aren't all 3/4 songs waltzes? It's just a really fast one. ;-)

Well, kind of. It's more of that rise to 3 feel.

Ok. Forgive me, please, for being pedantic and nerdy. Really I’m just trying to be accurate. But also I love this kind of sh*t! I literally just figured this out in my head. I didn’t do any outside sourcing or referencing. Whether I’m correct or not is completely on me.

My Name is Jonas has several different rhythmic feels. The intro part with the clean guitar melody is actually in 4/4 but each beat is a triplet. The part with the distortion guitars is in 3/4, but is not at all a waltz, because a traditional waltz feel is heavily accented on beats 2 and 3, whereas My Name is Jonas has NO accent dynamics in the 3/4 sections. It’s just the same three notes and chords for every measure with a homogeneous dynamic for every beat.

But wait! There’s more!! The vocal rhythm is in a 6/8 feel but that’s only apparent towards the end of each vocal line where there are a few eighth notes in the vocals. So I guess the distortion guitar rhythms are also in a 6/8 feel, but the notes and chords are consistently grouped in a pattern of three quarter notes, giving them more of a 3/4 feel.

I think the drum rhythms are also a clear giveaway of the 6/8 feel.

Please correct me if you feel I’ve gotten anything wrong.

fenomas wrote:

3/4 in pop music is weird.. You'd think it'd really stand out, but then you hear a song for the thousandth time and suddenly realize it could practically be a waltz.

Manic Depression and Kiss from a Rose, come to mind?

Similar to My Name is Jonas, Manic Depression is also in 6/8 which is apparent when you consider the swing feel of the eighth notes.

In 3/4 eighth notes are equal to half of a quarter note, so two eighth notes per quarter note. In 6/8 eighth notes are one third of a quarter note, so three eighth notes per quarter note.

As someone who doesn't use any musical notation, the difference between 3/4 and 6/8 has always seemed more or less fictional to me. But I checked before I posted and the internet seems to broadly agree that Manic Depression is in 3/4, with a minority arguing for 9/8.

(I don't really even pretend to follow why though!)

fenomas wrote:

As someone who doesn't use any musical notation, the difference between 3/4 and 6/8 has always seemed more or less fictional to me. But I checked before I posted and the internet seems to broadly agree that Manic Depression is in 3/4, with a minority arguing for 9/8.

(I don't really even pretend to follow why though!)

Ok. Yes. It’s totally 9/8.

So then My Name is Jonas must also be in 9/8. The clean part is in 12/8 and the distortion part is in 9/8.