what is going on in your musical life

or, tell them you're overscheduled and can't make them a priority

complain that someone appears to have unacceptably tampered with your gear and then say you will quit unless whoever's responsible confesses

oh also we have a concert coming up this Sunday of 20th century British choral music, some of which is terrible and some of which is holy shit amazing

for example, here is Paul Mealor's setting of "Ubi caritas", a song which apparently was also performed at the Prince William/Kate Middleton wedding:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTrMIJKBwRU

fucking love this shit

i'm torn between saying that I'm just really depressed and don't really feel like being in any bands right now until I get my head sorted, which is kinda true,
or saying that I am not getting any creative input or gratification from being in this band.

the latter is most germane for my wanting to quit, but my bandmates are also personal friends, and I don't want to hurt their feelings more than I "have" to

will they try to get you to stay if you say you're not getting input/gratification?

the dynamic is that there are 3 of us in the band, and the singer is the leader, and she generally is open and appreciative of the contributions of the other two of us, but based on the "concept" of the band and the material she wants to do, there are very limited options for what I can do. For example, there isn't an option for "hey, what if I sang on this song?" because she can't play an instrument, so she would have nothing to do.

it is a cover band, and while we don't do the songs "straight," we don't experiment/fuck with the material as much as we could/as I would like. A few years back, I did express opinions that were at odds with what the singer/leader thought, and she kicked me out of the band, and then the band did nothing.

can you tell them that -- you'd like to stretch yourself a little more
i mean i don't understand "band dynamics" specifically but they're the same as human dynamics so considerate candor seems the best approach as long as it's not like an abusive or dire situation

considerate candor is definitely the way I want to go, and my friends/bandmates aren't stupid and can probably sense there's something going on. But, what I'd want to do, what would make me enjoy the band creatively, would entail a major revamp of what we've been doing, and that's not my call. It's the singer's band, and I'm just the bass player.

trying to guess what kind of cover band is comprised of a singer, a bass player and... a drummer (I assume)?

Morphine cover band

that's what I thought too lol but no saxophone?

Young Marble Giants?

we cover a variety of songs: singer, bass player, electronics is the line-up

sounds like you should just say that maybe you're not the right person for this job anymore, which is totally ok and a healthy thing to assert imo
i'm sure they can find another straight ahead bass player and you can do the things that make you happy and everyone can still be friends, no?

hopefully!

I put up a "single" for Halloween of two grim instrumentals:

(A side)
https://soundcloud.com/jon-lewis-37/stairway-nightmare

(B side)
https://soundcloud.com/jon-lewis-37/a-scratch-gives-away-the-lie

As with all the things on my soundcloud, written and recorded entirely in iOS using a mix of sample based instruments and synths.

(Idk if I have to remove the 'https' for soundcloud links like we do with YouTube links?)

Those links work, Jon. Great stuff!

My wife is singing the Pie Jesu from the Faurè Requiem tomorrow in church. I plan to record it. She doesn't know this yet.

I sang a solo last night from Mendelssohn's Elijah. It went pretty well, I think; one dude in the congregation asked me which conservatory I'd gone to because he wanted to know if I had ties to his, lol (in a roundabout way I do, since the guy who has been my primary private voice teacher is the head of vocal pedagogy at the place he had worked, but I was never a student there)

Also I've been watching the Facebook group of one of my former choirs work itself into a tizzy over how much they hate the auditioning conductor working with them on an 8 minute Bach motet because they feel he's talking down to them and belittling them and going super slowly with them... when a large number of them showed up at the first rehearsal not knowing how the piece went and being unable to sightread it. They are even now complaining about how he is workshopping notes with them and not letting them sing words when there are still sections where they are admitting that people are still making egregious note mistakes. Maybe I'm being snobby here but... it's kind of pathetic.

no that is indeed pathetic

rehearsal is work, the end

The backstory is that the incredibly beloved dude who founded the group retired this summer and they are auditioning his replacement; right now half the group is not in a mindset to appreciate anyone new, let alone anyone with a radically different rehearsal method, plus this is a group that fucking sings with a major symphony (oops spoilers) and they can't get through one of Bach's easier motets without note-bashing? Also, there were complaints of creepiness on the conductor's part because he said something about "stroking the notes as if you were stroking a baby's bottom" and it took every bit of restraint for me not to write "I know I haven't sung with you in over a decade but doesn't anyone else remember the old conductor getting frustrated with the sopranos during a tour and telling them to sing like they had some pubic hair?"

Basically, I'm glad I left that group when I did.

Lol I love the pubes speech!

There are so many bizarro conductor quotes out there, I remember Eugene Ormandy had some really strange ones

the two most recent complaints (paraphrased):

- "He's concerned about unified cutoffs but we've been singing everything on doo; how are we supposed to know where the cutoffs are without singing the words?"

... Why don't you trying singing the note values as notated? Does that seem like a reasonable starting point?

- "He never said anything about it before but NOW he wants us to sing with a unified vowel sound!"

AREN'T YOU SUPPOSED TO BE AN INTERNATIONAL-CALIBER ENSEMBLE HOW ARE YOU NOT DOING THIS FROM THE BEGINNING WITHOUT PROMPTING THIS IS BASIC CHOIR 101 STUFF THAT EVERY SINGLE GODDAMNED ENSEMBLE THAT WANTS TO BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY KNOWS TO WORRY ABOUT

booked a show! 2015 calendar year goal achieved. next year i would like to book more shows. maybe travel!

Awesome!

Woohoo!

actually i had two goals and i reached both of them. feels good! really good tbh!

way to go LL!!

what is going on in your musical lives? how was your year?

I just picked up music for our annual lessons and carols service. I have no idea when I'm going to have a chance to look at it before our first rehearsal on Sunday.

have recorded quite a few tracks with one of my friends for our rap duo Skiv3n & Pi5 (he's the dj, I'm the mc) - very happy with the results, hope to do some live gigs and release an ep in 2016.

still trying to figure out how to make our presence known, not very good with social media yet, and not sure how important it is - was recently dissapointed my hotline bling cover did not instantly go viral (now realize this to have been a somewhat naive/megalomaniac expectation) but it got us a few new followers, and my friends were really into it so that's nice

the last six months have been a bit quiet. i moved, my computer died, i thought i'd lost everything but i got it back.

recording recording recording. also dealing with a string session that turned into a disappointing fiasco. The cello player was nearly a quarter tone flat on every take, and when I pointed this out to the engineer his response was "we can fix it in the mix". guess what it was not fixable in the mix. Another session booked in January will probably be the last one for this "album", assuming people are still into buying albums when we're done...

Ugh, that sounds awful.

Got a new classical guitar last week, a Larrivée spruce top from 1976. I love it. Also, recently cranked out a trio piece for flute/tuba/piano (seriously) that will be played in Ottawa in April. I'm not really sure how it will come out but am curious. Working on some new effects in Max for Live.

Btw, this one is a 660 mm scale, which they apparently don't make as much anymore. For my longer fingers, it feels like a godsend. I've never felt so comfortable with a classical instrument before.

it took a few hours, but I finally figured out (with help from my bandmate) how to use my electronic drum set as a midi input in ableton. it was really amazing how little (basically none) documentation there was online.

Sang a really great Xmas eve service where my wife sang I Wonder As I Wander as a solo. Unfortunately I didn't get the chance to record it. Still need to edit the Messiah excerpt recital we did.

Got three paid caroling gigs in this year. Every year keep trying to improve little things re: harmonizing, regulating vibrato to improve blend.

Feel like this year was a success in that regard!

being screened (approved by the hippie musician collective that run it) for a slot at a sweet jamspace very close to my house

I busted out my 'new weird America' falsetto at family singalong yesterday, it was a hit

(Sadly I can't project it for much and my regular tenor is v boring)

I picked up the guitar for the first time in months and played a few grateful dead songs. Felt good!

Still trundling through my songs from ~6 years ago, remixing, remastering.

I recorded an album with a huge hero of mine three years ago, which is always an edgy thing to do; validating on the one hand, and on the other, your internal editors kick into high gear in a way that can be kind of unhealthy. at one point he said 'if an album takes more than six days to finish, it's usually not a very good album' and I responded 'unless it takes more than a year, I think', and he just gave me this shaken look and then said 'I wouldn't know about that'. but then he smiled and said 'I know for you editing is the same thing as playing, so go ahead'

I waited six months before even doing anything and the word came he had cancer, so the next nine months was this bizarre race torn between the most pressure I've ever been under to try a record that ranks with some of my all time favorite records -- which is completely impossible -- and to finish something he could enjoy. His last email was simply 'it's been finished' and I am completely haunted this morning about how poisonous perfectionism can be and how in this case it conflicted with basically being a good collaborator and friend

Assuming this is the album I think it is, consider it downloaded by me when my next emusic refresh comes along. Not to diminish what you just wrote but it sounds amazing from the description I just read

this one's not out yet, that's the sadness. just needed to vent obscurely online somewhere, listening to blackstar it hit me what a huge difference it makes when an album is not posthumous, even if only by two days.

I was just reminded that I'm supposed to sing tomorrow night. Oops

Xpost haha sorry! Well I'm still going to get the album I wrongly thought was the one in question.