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| Thread: Rage08's Music Tavern |  This thread is pages long: 1 2 3 4 5 6 · «PREV / NEXT» |
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Guitarguy
Responsible
Supreme Hero
Rockoon.
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posted October 30, 2005 09:22 AM |
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October 31, 2004:
I Miss You - (Blink 182)
When I Come Around - (Green Day)
She's Got A Problem - (Fountains of Wayne)
What's My Age Again? - (Blink 182)
Broken - (Seether & Amy Lee)
I Can't Love You (Like I Want To) - (Guitarguy)
Always There - (Guitarguy)
Forever And A Day - (Guitarguy)
Halcyon Days - (Guitarguy)
Classical Gas - (Mason Williams)
That's My Story - (Paul Simon)
<encore>
Yours And Mine - (Fountains of Wayne)
The Senator's Daughter - (Fountains of Wayne)
Please Don't Rock Me Tonight - (Fountains of Wayne)
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October 31, 2005:
California - Phantom Planet
What's The Frequency, Kenneth? - R.E.M.
Always On My Mind - Phantom Planet
Superman - R.E.M.
Kryptonite - Three Doors Down
Whatsername - Green Day
Secret Agent Man - Johnny Rivers
Crush With Eyeliner - R.E.M.
<encore>
One Last Breath - Creed
Hanging By A Moment - Lifehouse
We still need to come up with a band name. We have one day in which to do it!
-Guitarguy
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Rage08
Famous Hero
Making it in the real world
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posted October 31, 2005 01:02 AM |
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Edited By: Rage08 on 30 Oct 2005
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So the second list is the show you are doing this year I assume... and the first one was the one you did last year? I was just looking at the dates and that's what I'm guessing...
As for your band name... try not to worry about it too much. I mean, we've changed our name quite a few times...
And I also noticed you have some original material in the first list...
Now I must speak of the show we did last night...
It was pretty awesome. Everybody that was there cheered like crazy and people were jumping up and down singing the lyrics to our songs.
We introduced a couple new songs. One of them was requested to be played again. The song is around nine minutes long too...
We had some cool lights for the show and we had fun playing around with the crowd for a bit.
We also pulled off our various instrument solos fairly well. Some of our solos really got the crowd going crazy...
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Guitarguy
Responsible
Supreme Hero
Rockoon.
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posted October 31, 2005 10:41 AM |
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We had our one and only rehearsal today, and it was pretty shaky. We dropped two songs; I couldn't sing the songs by Creed and 3 Doors Down. So we're going to do only eight songs tomorrow night. I was planning to play keyboards and a 12-string electric for several songs, but that idea got scrapped as well.
-Guitarguy
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Rage08
Famous Hero
Making it in the real world
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posted October 31, 2005 06:20 PM |
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Guitarguy, what's happening to your show? Why couldn't you sing those two songs... aren't they easy?
And tell me more about your original material. So you aren't going to do any of your own songs this year?
That's pretty cool that you were going to play the keyboard. It's not so cool that you aren't going to now though. And 12-strings are amazing... you shouldn't have scrapped it man.
I hope your show still rocks though... but fill me in on the deatails...
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Guitarguy
Responsible
Supreme Hero
Rockoon.
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posted October 31, 2005 08:05 PM |
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Quote:
Guitarguy, what's happening to your show? Why couldn't you sing those two songs... aren't they easy?
And tell me more about your original material. So you aren't going to do any of your own songs this year?
That's pretty cool that you were going to play the keyboard. It's not so cool that you aren't going to now though. And 12-strings are amazing... you shouldn't have scrapped it man.
I hope your show still rocks though... but fill me in on the deatails...
Yeah, I might as well elaborate.
The gig is taking place at an event for little kids on Halloween night, so it's not exactly a serious show. People will probably be more involved in playing games and eating than listening to us, as was the case last year. We're mostly playing for fun, using this opportunity to hone our performing skills for the future.
Because we're very busy with school and work nowadays, yesterday was our only time to practice. We asked our church to allow us two hours after service ended so we could plug in and rehearse. It was okayed, but that was still only two hours to cover nine or ten songs.
Between the three of us in the band, I'm the only one who's been regularly practicing to sing. There's a problem though: I'm a baritone. Because my range is low, I cannot sing very many of my favorite songs without missing the high notes. That was the case with the two songs on tonight's set; I was left out of breath and would often lose it at certain important points. The results weren't passable, overall, so we agreed to skip the songs. The other songs went much better, by contrast. We're looking forward to finding vocalists to join our band.
Instead of keyboards, I'm going use an amped acoustic guitar on the song in question. We tried several times with the keyboard and drums together, but we couldn't get the rhythm right. We were totally off, actually. I picked up the guitar the third time through, and we nailed the rhythm. It was a keeper, even though I'm kind of sad that the keyboards didn't work out.
Even though I brought my Rick to the rehearsal yesterday, we were so in a rush to practice each song in those two hours that I didn't really touch it. In the end, I figured I'll do fine on a Stratocaster and my 12-string can rest at home. I hope to play it a lot in the future, though.
There are no original compositions in this year's set because I've been going through a really long dry patch. I'm trying to write good songs and leave behind my juvenile attempts in the past. In 2004, I would feel content just having a bunch of songs to my credit, regardless of how they sounded. Now I'm embracing the realistic questions of having original songs. Are they well-written? Is there much depth to the lyrics? Am I using the same old rhyming words in each song? Is the melody too similar to something I might've heard on the radio this morning? These factors are important to me now, so I'm looking into ways that I can improve. Until then, it'll mostly be covers.
-Guitarguy
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Rage08
Famous Hero
Making it in the real world
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posted October 31, 2005 08:36 PM |
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Don't worry man, I know what you mean by dry patch...
As I was reading your post I could understand all that you were saying. First of all, I love just having original songs that I can take complete credit for. For example, Breaking Away was completely written by me. All instruments and lyrics and everything. It feels good to be able to say that. I feel like I have accomplished something.
But I am also constantly asking myself if what I write is good enough. Clearly from the opinions of our listeners we are doing very well, but I always doubt my ability. I wonder if a song is worth spending the time and energy to write. I ask myself if my lyrics are written well enough. I always worry way too much if our songs sound like someone else's work. One thing you must realize, is that with all the music in the world these days, it is with great diffictulty to even write a tune that hasn't been used before. I found out the hard way that it is best not to worry about it too much. For the record, people hardly ever notice. However, I know, it may also be for personal reasons that you don't want to sound like another artist's song. Or you may fear people will ridicule you for "copying" what somebody else has done.
As for singing... I know how hard it can be. So many times I have wrecked my vocals from stressing too much over a show. Or trying too hard. You just have to get in your zone and give it your best shot. People will be impressed. Remember to practise singing to songs that challenge you every night. That's how I became better. Personally, I like to drink lots of water and try and clear my throat the best I can. Ginger root tea is also excellent for singing. Put some lemon juice and honey in there and it can be magic. And I've been told proper posture and proper breathing helps a lot. I would agree with this statement. And close your eyes if you have to. It will help you to forget about the crowd. If you be yourself up there and look inspired then people will take note of it. The thing about singing that I noticed is that it takes a lot of practise initially in order for you to find your voice...
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Guitarguy
Responsible
Supreme Hero
Rockoon.
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posted November 01, 2005 10:17 AM |
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Rage, thanks for your words of encouragement. I will certainly remember what you said and try to improve as best as I can. Perhaps we can talk more about it as we go along? In the meantime, I have a brief summary of our performance below:
"What's The Frequency, Kenneth?" - R.E.M.
"Superman" - R.E.M.
"American Idiot" - Green Day
"Always On My Mind" - Phantom Planet
"Holiday" - Green Day
"Whatsername" - Green Day
"Secret Agent Man" - Johnny Rivers
"Crush With Eyeliner" - R.E.M.
"Hanging By A Moment" - Lifehouse
My bassist requested that we drop "California" because it was going to be a rather weak instrumental. The drummer and I okayed the plan, so we opened with the upbeat R.E.M. song instead. It went well; it felt good to be able to rock (something we haven't been able to do too often). I wish I could say similar things about our version of "Superman", but I can't because my vocals could've been a lot better. A whole lot better, in all honesty. I'm glad it wasn't recorded.
Collectively, the songs that we still had left to play formed a really abridged set. That problem was sort of fixed with the help of a chance meeting. We played the first few songs intermittently, so we had five to ten minute breaks in between those opening songs. After doing "Kenneth", we met this young kid in the crowd who expressed his desire to play with us on stage. He wanted to do two Green Day songs that we were already familiar with, so we decided to give it a try. I let the new guy play my guitar. My bass player didn't know how to play either song, so I played improv bass instead. The new kid totally rocked on the guitar; I think he's a more technically gifted player than I am! Our clean version of "American Idiot" was awesome. I was jumping around with the bass the whole time as we jammed up a storm. The kid provided vocals for that song. "Holiday" wasn't as good, though, since I had to sing it. I gave up after forgetting most of the words, so we just played the rest instrumental. Dang, that guy's got potential. He wasn't perfect, but he nailed "American Idiot" better than I ever could. We agreed to communicate via phone for possible future jam sessions.
After that, we ended with a mostly solid set of songs. "Secret Agent Man" was particularly cool with some of the older people there; they're normally too busy playing games with their kids to show much interest in our performing. I saw a lot of folks grooving to the music; I suppose that was the one song on our set that they were definitely familiar with. I did the guitar solo, which was super cool. I never get to play guitar solos. "Crush With Eyeliner" followed, which turned out mostly good. Our final song, "Hanging", ended nicely as well. I was putting out all the falsetto that my baritone voice could muster and I ended the song quite winded. I was wise to have made that the last song; I was tired and my voice couldn't sing another note.
There's no doubt in my mind that tonight's performance whopped the crappage we put on last year. Heavens, last year was awful sloppy. Our drummer could only stay to play the first four songs that year, so I played an impromptu acoustic set that I now find embarrassing. That show didn't rock at all. Thank God we got our act together tonight. I couldn't thank my drummer, bassist, and the new guy for this awesome night. I hope next year will be even better, and maybe we can add some original songs too.
-Guitarguy
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Rage08
Famous Hero
Making it in the real world
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posted November 03, 2005 07:22 PM |
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Well I want to say it's nice to hear that you had a good show...
I really hope that you'll be able to get together with that guitarist. He sounds like he could prove to be an important addition to your band. Sometimes that's all it takes. To find someone who really helps the band get off it's feet. I've been through a fair amount of different people before I found the group of guys I have today. It's important, when you start performing with original material, to have your own style. People really like to hear something unique and interesting.
Also, after a while, you will get used to being in front of crowds and you'll start becoming more of the person that you were meant to be on stage. I think you can be a totally different person in the spotlight. You're true inspiration comes out. I think a lot of artists just live for this feeling alone.
Also, it's good that you can see your band is improving. I notice that my band just continues to get better practise after practise. After a while it's not so overwhelming how professional bands become so talented...
Another thing I like in bands is good background vocals. If you are lead vocals, then maybe you should try and get the other guys to work on background. This also lets you get a taste of how vocal your band really is. You never know, maybe one of you guys just hasn't found his voice yet.
I'm curious to know what kind of music your original material is. Do you guys like to have solos and that sort of thing?
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Jebus
Promising
Supreme Hero
TheJester akaJeebs akaJebfoo
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posted November 03, 2005 08:30 PM |
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sorry to intrude but...
GG
you played "broken"...
just wondering if you guys played the full finger picking or just the chords?
and where did you pick up the tabs for it (or did you just play it by ear?)
let me know,
thanks
J
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"You went over my helmet??"
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Guitarguy
Responsible
Supreme Hero
Rockoon.
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posted November 05, 2005 08:36 AM |
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Rage:
Quote:
I'm curious to know what kind of music your original material is. Do you guys like to have solos and that sort of thing?
My songs are dreadfully simple; nothing special, flashy, or the like. It's mostly verse, chorus, verse, chorus, maybe a bridge, and then a double chorus. I am inspired by songwriters such as Paul Simon and Michael Stipe, but my songwriting itself is not influenced by them at the time being. I'm still at the beginner's stage, where whatever comes out looks and sounds like a failed juvenile attempt. I hope I'll get better soon. I often worry that I might actually lack writing ability, and that it'll disappoint my bandmates and friends alike.
I'm capable of doing really, really simple solos, but not those blazing wild solos by your generic long-haired rock guitarists. Either I'm not technically talented enough to play those, or I just haven't practiced long enough. I'm actually better at classical picking on acoustic guitar than solos on an electric. If you've heard of Simon & Garfunkel's "The Boxer" or Kansas' "Dust In The Wind", you'll know the kind of rolling picking I can do. It's called Travis style picking. I don't have a lot of other tricks, other than some simple hammer-ons, pull-offs, and sliding. I also like the 12-string picking The Byrds and early R.E.M. did; I'm trying those styles quite often now.
It's not very often that I get to play solos while performing with my new band. In fact, Monday night's show was the first and only time I did a solo as a full band. I'm the only guitarist in the band, so switching from playing solid rhythm to bare picking creates a huge gap in sound. You know what I mean? I think it's more ideal to have two guitarists: one to play rhythm while the other stops to solo. That way, the overall guitar sound does not need to be sacrificed when the solos are played.
I'm sure that if we could practice more often (and if we had more members), we'd sound a lot better. Our drummer is good, although she sometimes loses track of where we are in the song. Our bass player only plays root notes; any root notes that he remembers. I mess up quite often as well, so it's not just them. We rarely have the time to set up our equipment and practice. Also, my two bandmate often play with partial familiarity of the songs. That's why we make most of our mistakes.
Overall, most of the people in my area are more into going to college and studying than becoming serious in joining bands. I agree that studying is very important, but it's kind of lacking when everybody's too busy to come out every once in a while to rehearse or even to jam. This lack of interest or time is very crippling, since I'd like to form a successful band.
Jebus:
Quote:
GG
you played "broken"...
just wondering if you guys played the full finger picking or just the chords?
and where did you pick up the tabs for it (or did you just play it by ear?)
I sniffed out the picking by ear and found the lyrics on a website. The tabs on the Internet are often very messy with chords spread out unevenly and have interpretations that sound nothing like the recorded version. For those reasons, I did my best to type out our own version to work with. Here is a snippet of it:
That's part of the sheet I made for last Halloween's performance. The guitar strings in the recording are tuned down half a step, but I played it in standard tuning. I'd say my picking was adequate, but my singing sucked. This other girl sang with me, so she probably saved the performance for both of us.
-Guitarguy
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Rage08
Famous Hero
Making it in the real world
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posted November 05, 2005 09:21 AM |
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My first few songs were super simple as well. Probably the only reason I ever evolved in my writing was because I spent literally endless hours by myself trying to understand music. I wanted to learn how to become a better writer. My desire to be a musician was strong enough for me to continue spending all my time at the keyboard until I knew I had learned enough to start a band of original music. My vocals started to evolve after quite a long time. It took me a while to get a grasp on how to sing properly. I don't want to say that the music I write now is very complex anyway... I know it isn't.
And don't worry, I used to always worry that my songwriting wasn't good enough, but I just kept going. And your solos will come along as well if you are practising them. Acoustic picking is really nice anyway. It sounds so beautiful, I think.
And you're asking me if I know "Dust In The Wind" by Kansas? That music is where I live. I really enjoy them. Now Kansas has some complex music...
And about the double guitar thing... our songs sound fine with only one guitarist. When we have a guitar solo, the bass covers up the gap pretty good. And the keyboard helps a lot too. There's a certain way you can go about it and people won't think it sounds bad. Although rhythm sometimes really helps a lot.
I know what it's like trying to find people that are into the music as much as you are. Most people like to do it for fun. It's hard to get a group together where everybody is really into it. I would like to mention that writing your own songs and playing shows seems to help everybody stay inspired.
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Guitarguy
Responsible
Supreme Hero
Rockoon.
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posted November 05, 2005 09:31 AM |
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Quote:
And about the double guitar thing... our songs sound fine with only one guitarist. When we have a guitar solo, the bass covers up the gap pretty good. And the keyboard helps a lot too. There's a certain way you can go about it and people won't think it sounds bad. Although rhythm sometimes really helps a lot.
Yeah, keyboards and bass can cover the rhythm part well. Of course, we lack a keyboard player and the bass player isn't experienced enough to carry on strongly through the songs. If the bass can play the melody while I do the picking, I think that would suffice in most instances. I guess we're going through the limitations most three-piece bands face.
Sadly, I think I'm the most inspired musician in my band, followed by the drummer and lastly the bassist. I feel very uncomfortable leading the others because I'm not really a natural band leader. At the same time, the other two (the bassist in particular) wouldn't get very far without my prodding. As a whole, we're a very conservative bunch who aren't really aggressive or ambitious.
-Guitarguy
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Jebus
Promising
Supreme Hero
TheJester akaJeebs akaJebfoo
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posted November 05, 2005 03:48 PM |
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thanks bud.
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"You went over my helmet??"
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Rage08
Famous Hero
Making it in the real world
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posted November 05, 2005 09:39 PM |
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Well I'm sure if you want something bad enough... you will try your hardest to achieve your goal.
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Guitarguy
Responsible
Supreme Hero
Rockoon.
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posted November 06, 2005 12:22 PM |
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I came up with the beginnings of a song this afternoon. I have this week to finish the lyrics so that I can perform the song next Sunday. It's such a frustrating process: constantly re-writing lines and eventually realizing that it was a bad idea to begin with. Argh.
-Guitarguy
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Rage08
Famous Hero
Making it in the real world
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posted November 07, 2005 04:28 AM |
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Well I'm the perfect person to understand what you're saying man...
I have the same problem when writing songs. I'm very critical about it. A lot of songs I'll just start and then completely throw away or abandon.
I still want to hear some of your original material though...
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Guitarguy
Responsible
Supreme Hero
Rockoon.
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posted November 12, 2005 01:20 AM |
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Rage, when you come up with a good song idea, about how long does it take you to complete it?
-Guitarguy
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Rage08
Famous Hero
Making it in the real world
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posted November 15, 2005 07:26 AM |
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That is a hard question to answer my friend...
Sometimes songs will come to me quickly. Sometimes I will slowly put together a piece of music. What I can say with honesty, is that for me to fully complete a song (all tiny little minor details included) it can take me a long long time...
When it's all said and done though, I feel it was worth it...
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azure5
Tavern Dweller
Mysterios Hero
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posted November 21, 2005 04:04 AM |
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Its actually pretty intense how some people are just musically talented, and you realize how much that isent bullsnow... for example i cant write a song worth snow, i've tried
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Rage08
Famous Hero
Making it in the real world
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posted November 22, 2005 06:02 PM |
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Edited By: Rage08 on 22 Nov 2005
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Well it is hard to actually write a half decent song...
Not only is it with great difficulty to initially start putting together a piece of music, but it is also hard to try and create something unique and interesting.
Even after a song has been produced, there are still many small details that must be figured out to make it flow smoothly and sound as professional as possible...
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