Are you getting better (musically)?

[Nielzie]

Lately, no. I lost inspiration

[tapper mike]

I think if I had a band or at least one or more people to jam with regularly I would improve at a faster rate.

+1

For awhile when I was not gigging or had a buddy to jam with I went back to my old teacher. He taught me a few new tricks but the applied theory we'd already been there and done that. I'd bring Band in a Box with me and we'd either pull up a standard or scratch together a chord progression and work from there. He'd constantly ask me what I needed him for. It was the experience. When you play with a real human who can read you knows how to play behind you and trusts you to back them up things get real tight. For the most part we'd only use the drums in biab. Occasionally pull up a bass but we are both good at sight reading charts and scores. The price of a full hour lesson was well within my budget and I really enjoyed it. Unlike a blues or jazz jam where you have to wait and wait and wait till you can walk onstage and the band leader calls the tunes. Five songs and it's time for the next guy.

It was easy to pick up jammers way back when for me. Mostly because I was living the scene and everyone else was too.

[Sendy]

Overall, absolutely. I believe I achieve more of my objectives in terms of what I want my music to do now then I ever have done. There's un upward trend, but also there have been long periods of writers block, and here and there tracks which in my estimation transcend my abilities at the time - I have some old tracks that I feel are pretty good DESPITE how rubbish I was at the time

Even my mixing, which has been one of my weaker points, has improved somewhat and I'm developing tactics to pile on the layers without the harsh treble and muddy lower mids that have often plagued my music.

Note that when I speak of my music being good or bad, I'm not comparing it to anything external, it's simply a measure of how happy I am with the journey I've been on with each track, and whether I feel I'm communicating what I set out to.

[hibidy]

I'm with justin, I'm getting worse.

When I was a "professional" bass player, I knew music even though my job was just 4-6 strings. I knew grooves, I knew meter, I knew feel, and if I pick up a bass now I can muck around pretty good.......but my love lies in guitar.

I suck at guitar. I don't have the physical gifts, my meter/groove is awful and though I'd love to be a shredder, I just can't. CAN'T DO IT!

So now, I'm lost in a wasteland where I want to play guitar more than anything else, but I'm not even as good as 5 years ago. Plus I'm falling apart physically.

And my electronic music endeavors have gone completely south. I was making some fun stuff at one time now it's just BLEH!

[V0RT3X]

I would love to play piano and be able to sing songs. I think I am going to sell my music software stuff off and save up and buy a Korg SV-1 88 Key performance keyboard and learn how to do that. Why the Korg? Well i ended up playing one at the music store and wanted one ever since.

I don't want to pursue music production as deeply as I wanted before until i feel i have something worth producing if that makes any sense.

So far i've been teaching myself this and that over a course of 10 scattered years.

I've learned how to make basic beats, how to do certain sound design, how to program synthesizers on a basic level and how to create a very basic track structure from the ground up etc etc.

However I have not learned how to play a instrument "properly" and i think it's time to focus on that first and foremost. Right now I play and create stuff based on "feeling" which is a great starting point! However I want to learn how to structure that with theory etc.

All in all i think what i've done with music is learn things backwards..

Now it's time to just focus on the essentials and If i can't learn to write and perform my own songs at the basic level then maybe I shouldn't even bother continuing with music.

I mean the production stuff is basically the LAST bit of the journey and I need to get back to the beginning.

[tapper mike]

@hibidy - I too had a fascination with heavy metal and tried and tried. The best thing I ever did was walk away from it. Now I can simply admire from a distance. There are a number of things I tried and failed at. That doesn't make me a failure.


There are things that just aren't suited to my mindset....like ableton live. Yes it's fun, yes I can get around on it and play with all the stuff and build loops. But to my ears and mind it's a waste of energies. I hate locking down into loops.


@VORT3X

I would love to play piano and be able to sing songs.

That's the way I started (well guitar) The very first day playing guitar I learned three chords (D-G-Em) and learned "Cant' Always Get What You Want) From then on in I'd always learn chords in the context of a song and I'd always sing along. My singing wasn't great but I remember it bringing me a lot of joy. Back then everyone treated Beatles books as bibles. Everyone had at least one Beatles book. This was back in high school during the 70's. I had no problem laying down a rhythm but was scared stupid for singing in public. Before long I had singers who wanted me to accompany them and bands that wanted me to play rhythm guitar.

I never had fear of doing a cover (aside from maybe metal) in public even if I'd never done it before.

There are two schools of thought when it comes to playing music.
1. Play it like it is.
2. Play it how you feel it.

Both are valid. The later is more liberating and why I moved into Jazz. If you do get a set of keys... Please, please find a teacher. You'll learn more and faster and have greater confidence with the right teacher then on your own. When you do look for a teacher be specific about your goals. Some teachers just want to teach you "licks", some just want to teach theory and some want to teach stuff you may have no interest in learning. If you are not into classical music don't use a classical teacher.

[hibidy]

I find live great but TBH I'd rather gravitate towards S1, anyways that's OT.

I hear what you are saying and I do beat myself up but considering the time I've put into it, I feel I'm getting less and less musical.

[pljones]

Oh, I didn't even think about the production side of "making music". I guess I really have got a lot better with my mixing, even though my skills remain rudimentary. I'm getting better at listening to a mix and hearing when there are problems -- and isolating the problems. Fixing the problem... well, I'm learning, which is great! (Thanks to KVR Music Café.)

[robogone]

I think if I had a band or at least one or more people to jam with regularly I would improve at a faster rate.

+1

For awhile when I was not gigging or had a buddy to jam with I went back to my old teacher. He taught me a few new tricks but the applied theory we'd already been there and done that. I'd bring Band in a Box with me and we'd either pull up a standard or scratch together a chord progression and work from there. He'd constantly ask me what I needed him for. It was the experience. When you play with a real human who can read you knows how to play behind you and trusts you to back them up things get real tight. For the most part we'd only use the drums in biab. Occasionally pull up a bass but we are both good at sight reading charts and scores. The price of a full hour lesson was well within my budget and I really enjoyed it. Unlike a blues or jazz jam where you have to wait and wait and wait till you can walk onstage and the band leader calls the tunes. Five songs and it's time for the next guy.

It was easy to pick up jammers way back when for me. Mostly because I was living the scene and everyone else was too.

When I lived in the UK it was very easy to find like minded people, and even when I moved to the US it wasn't that hard in the New England area. What has made it much more difficult is being in the south where for whatever reason there seem to be far fewer musicians in the neighborhoods I have lived in, and those that I do know have a very narrow scope of music that they want to play.

For a while I was jamming with one guy who had no interest in anything other than southern rock and 90s music, and other guys who play bluegrass but weren't interested in deviating one note from the standards.

Maybe I need to try harder though. I'm sure there are people out there somewhere.

[rockstar_not]

Being in a band really helps. I play in our church's worship team; electric guitar, bass or keys - whichever is needed most. 4-5 new songs, every 2 weeks. In order not to be 'that guy that hasn't practiced', I do practice quite a bit, and we always have a recorded version of the song that we are shooting for in terms of style, feel, timbre, etc. so part of the practicing is selecting the right pickup and patch selection on my amp/effects, etc. But I'm practicing more now than ever and things are improving. I still need to get setup here at home so practicing is more convenient. It's a bunch of time to get all setup to be able to play along with the YouTube vids.

The free Berklee coursera courses are also expanding my horizons and understanding of melody. I just finished the Jazz Improvisation course - pretty deep for a newbie. The Songwriting course was outstanding and has helped my songwriting. Participating in the monthly contests here has also pushed and expanded my capabilities.

[Arglebargle]

I'm getting worse. I'm actually worse than when I started.

[tapper mike]

Maybe I need to try harder though. I'm sure there are people out there somewhere.

Sadly, not really.

Most of the guys I know who can play in a multi-faceted manner and still do are in three or more bands trying to make ends meet and really. Don't want to jam without getting paid.

[tapper mike]

Being in a band really helps. I play in our church's worship team; electric guitar, bass or keys - whichever is needed most. 4-5 new songs, every 2 weeks. In order not to be 'that guy that hasn't practiced', I do practice quite a bit, and we always have a recorded version of the song that we are shooting for in terms of style, feel, timbre, etc. so part of the practicing is selecting the right pickup and patch selection on my amp/effects, etc. But I'm practicing more now than ever and things are improving. I still need to get setup here at home so practicing is more convenient. It's a bunch of time to get all setup to be able to play along with the YouTube vids.

Don't be as exact in your concerns to matching your equipment to the performance. Start thinking of your current rig as "Your rig" Even if you are covering someone else you still want to sound like you.

Eric Clapton once commented on SRV... When Stevie Ray Vaughan stopped trying to play like Albert King and started playing like SRV that's when he fell in love with SRV's playing.

[DSmolken]

Maybe I need to try harder though. I'm sure there are people out there somewhere.

Sadly, not really.

Most of the guys I know who can play in a multi-faceted manner and still do are in three or more bands trying to make ends meet and really. Don't want to jam without getting paid.

Guys? Yeah, that's true. Fortunately, only about half of people are guys.

Girls are generally a lot less narrowly focused in their tastes. I know girls who like death metal and want to do electronic covers of the Divinyls or Christina Perri. Guys who like death metal probably wouldn't.

[Aleatoriac]

Yes.
In late December 2012 I started noticing I had tinnitus. By end of January I was having chest pains, was overweight and out of shape despite my weightlifting, and severely depressed. I had given up music. I spent January-June 2013 not touching music at all. The longest dearth of a musical funk I've had. I spent that time getting back into shape, got my blood pressure back to normal, and focused on health. Tinnitus got worse, not better, but I said to myself "I love music and will never stop again." I haven't missed a day of practice since June, and am achieving a level playing of ability I never had before.
It's as simple as refusing to quit, I think. Maybe. Dunno.