what is going on in your musical life

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KZj3WdtbBU

Nice

great job!

I'll be playing three pieces for electric guitar and live digital processing at MacEwan University in Edmonton on Wednesday at around 2:45 MDT (4:45 EDT). The event will be livestreamed here: https://www.facebook.com/MusCanSoc/

We're releasing out first album (~6 years after an EP) on Friday week.

Yo, Liz and I just moved and our new place is on the third story of a house. We have plenty of space and are excited about playing in our living room. Does anyone have some inexpensive sound proofing options that don’t look like shit since this is a living room? Heavy rug?

Depends on what you wish to accomplish.

You can control some frequencies, but the only true soundproofing is a room-within-a-room. A lot of what you do with foam or rugs or whatever changes what you will hear, but it won't keep the neighbors from hearing loud music.

Getting amps off the floor helps avoid transfer. Some people do a tennis-ball riser for drums (plywood, tennis balls, plywood. Helps keep low vibrations from going through the floor.

Alas you may just need to be nice to whoever lives downstairs and/or figure out their schedule.

Big moving blankets are supposed to be good for cheap sound deadening (but not isolation as YPM' says) - put grommets in for eyes and hang them then take them down afterward.

Short Youtube playlist of live videos of some guitar/laptop performances from the spring, from a small event at a library at University of Ottawa and a conference in Edmonton. This is the most recent piece. Planning to do proper recordings of the latter two soonish, hopefully get an album together, maybe for physical release.

We're releasing out first album (~6 years after an EP) on Friday week.

― in twelve parts (lamonti), Wednesday, May 30, 2018 7:25 PM (two weeks ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

And here it is! http://lamontbaileywall.com/

first live performance of a new tape collage, "Sipper of Tea," a work in progress. it'll be the B side for the physical release of The Streets Are Hot Tonight, trying to get that out in September. https://soundcloud.com/narcstudies/sipper-of-tea-brothers-music-7202018

I got to play bass with a drummer and guitarist last week and boy oh boy I'd forgotten how fun it was. We were really running through a few half-constructed songs written by the guitarist, but I really enjoyed having a drummer to play along with, especially since she had a very different, almost textural style of playing compared to the guy I was used to playing with (for whom louder = better).

my guess is the drummer probably also enjoyed having people to play music with
everyone wins :)

As a drummer I aspire to being "textural," and would consider it the highest compliment btw

used to be a guitar player in high school. was a competent rhythm player, could do simple leads, fell out of love with right as I was getting into metal (mostly due to not being able to have my amp in my dorm) and gave it up at 23. picked it back up at 28, only to barely touch the guitar and amp I bought the entire year I had it, and sold it a year later.

had an itch the last two years and bought myself a Dean (Dave Mustaine brand) and an amp and feared the same would happen but I've been hacking at it for hours a day and it's almost like being 18 again.

weirdly, despite having not played an electric since 2009, being terrible at acoustic now, and being rusty af, I've regained most of my skills in the last week and am stronger in some areas than I ever used to be. I mean, my picking needs improvement, my speed as well, but stuff like tapping that I used to be awful at, I'm picking up rather quickly. My pinky finger used to be so terrible at everything and it is suddenly able to do the things it couldn't do at 18.

I suspect I had shitty instruments too back then (Fender Squier with neck warp) but this is a fucking blast.

so...I don't plan to be a recording musician or a gigging musician. this is strictly for hobbyism and fun. but any suggestions as to exercises to improve speed, particularly with tremolo? I've watched a ton of internet videos and they've helped, but curious what anybody here has used.

I think most of my trem issue isn't as much the speed, but the accuracy. I tend to 'jump' the rhythm if that makes sense.

tremolo picking or whammy bar or vibrato/bends?

it's so true what you said about skills coming back better somehow after time away. there's this riff I taught myself 3 years ago that I hadn't played since and when I went to look it up last week I could play it better than I ever could before in about 10 minutes.

the thread where we discover we are x-men

Going to give a recital along with my friend who has been taking voice lessons this year and invite some people over and actually play something and try to do a good job, and then also accompany her which is a whole other thing that we’ve only partially figured out so far.

xxxpost tremolo picking

Practice really slowly, play whatever the part or "move" is really slow over and over.

Use a metronome if you're having tempo issues

^^Metronome is U&K. You'll also want to practise the transitions into and out of the part. If you're mainly just concerned about the right hand picking aspect, you can even practise with open strings so you don't fatigue your left hand with repeated practice.

Are you mostly looking to do tremolo picking with chords for a rhythm guitar part (with palm-muting?)? In a lead context? Tremolo on a single note or do you mean rapid even picking while playing a melody? (The above advice will working with anything, of course.)

does anyone have any recommendations for portable lights or places to shop for them? i am not looking to light up individual drums, just to create some sort of light element. i have googled and haven't found much that i like.

idk but there's a DJ gear place on Lawrence that I always think about stopping at when I drive by. :) I have one of these, maybe it's corny but it works when the only other options are lights on or off in a diy space.

DJ gear place -- good idea! Your link didn't work...

Oh well, I think it's this
https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/EZLaserRGFX--chauvet-dj-ez-laser-rgfx-red-green-battery-powered-laser-effect

thanks -- that is sort of the situation i am facing, not immediately but long term
doesn't seem corny from the video i watched but i wondered if it was easy to program or to choose one effect to repeat
i have neither owned nor operated a light like this so I am unsure of what to google for -- like what the search terms are. the ones i have tried have yielded much cornier results than this one!!

this is the one i watched
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wiwqB3ptmg

xp back to Neanderthal’s post - quality of gear is something I used to dismiss when I was younger, a guitar’s a guitar and all that, buuut last summer I bought an actual Fender bass and the difference in comfort playing that vs the Cort I’d been playing for years and liked was really noticable!

I’ve really slipped with practicing and playing, I just don’t have room to keep gear set up at the moment. I do actually have at least one musical project on the horizon so should be pushing myself to get in with it.

managed to learn the first part of the solo to Hell Bent for Leather. basic tapping and pulling off, yeah, but I couldn't do it when I was 18. am noticing my speed improving.

i should probably stop just playing my favorite songs and do some exercises now and then but hey

Always learning other peoples' songs is great & helps my playing & writing just as much if not more than exercises

I find i like the shit that tears up my fingers right now. Getting the callouses back

I had my first experience with publicly performing a straight jazz standard with jazz players on Monday. A friend who's a pro jazz pianist is leaving town and had a goodbye jam with a band at a jazz bar. I practised and led a version of "Take Five" with them. I had fun and got some invitations to play more so I'm thinking of doing more of this. I'd been wanting to try this revolutionary idea of playing with other human beings; also playing tunes that don't take months to learn.

That is awesome! Any recordings of it?

Ha, that's great Sund4r.

I've been enjoying playing drums more than I have in awhile. I feel like I'm playing better than ever, but not by actually being any better. I still have pretty poor technique but the continuing process of embracing my limitations and trying to be relaxed at all times goes a long way. I have a gig backing up a pretty legendary New Orleans trumpet player in a couple months, so I've been doing a lot of mental practicing for that.

(but really I'd rather be getting DJ gigs, lol)

Here's a video that someone took at a recent show with a New Orleans jazz group (not the brass band, this is the indoors version, some of the same musicians though)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oN43JLwCPDc

Thanks, guys. I don't have a recording of the jam.

embracing my limitations and trying to be relaxed at all times goes a long way.

Something I've been learning for a while. Your upcoming gig sounds really cool; hope it goes well. The video looks like a really fun gig.

Been trying to play more guitar lately. Coming up with some new chord progressions, and also figuring out "Knives Out" by Radiohead and some bits of a Bill Frisell track.

I guess this counts:

My wife and I taped an episode of Beat Shazam that airs on Tuesday, Aug 14 at 8 ET/7 CT on Fox.

So stoked!!

!!!

Ayyyyyy!!!

hope you won a million dolloars!!

embracing my limitations and trying to be relaxed at all times goes a long way.
my mantra!! stay cool, fool ;)

Don’t forget!

Working towards having my first 'band' space in my own house, which is pretty cool. I'm getting my music computer setup in the new space this weekend and will start mixing the record we got in the can. I got a few vocals to cut but held off as this space has a nice high ceiling, which I am curious to see how it sounds recorded.

I'm really psyched as for the first time I will have a drum kit in my house that I can play whenever I want (within reason). I'm also psyched to have space to finally get the whole MIDI rig up and setup for the first time in years.

Guitarist is back in town for a few months, so we are probably going to play a few more gigs and do a a bit more recording. Could be cool, we will see.

Bought a used Squier J Mascis Jazzmaster because I wanted something to practice on with setting up and soldering and etc. - this is a seriously nice guitar for $300.

nice. that's a great price, I didn't know they made a Squier model

Yeah, I got one of the J Mascis Jazzmasters when they were new. It's a rad guitar, though kind of spendy for a Squier. I didn't end up keeping it because the tones I was getting out of it were just too similar to my Telecaster.

going through my SD cards and making ruff mixes, may interest the lovers of messy electronics

power ambient

a nastier one