Fighting Discouragement

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totah
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Fighting Discouragement

Post by totah » Fri Jun 27, 2014 12:09 pm

Have you ever heard a recording so bad that you wanted to sell all your gear and hide in your apartment until you die?

I should have been motivated by it. I should have heard it and thought of all the ways I could have done it better. But I'm just so discouraged at how easy it is for knuckleheads to buy a microphone and make some garbage. Then I realize, I am a knucklehead. Maybe all my work is garbage.

So what's the point?

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ubertar
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Post by ubertar » Fri Jun 27, 2014 1:56 pm

Hmm... so hearing someone else's bad recording makes you question your own skills. I get it. If someone can be so oblivious to how bad what they did is, then how do you know that you're not doing the same thing?

There's a guy who posts his music to a messageboard I also post on, and his guitar playing is consistently out of tune and off-time. No matter what anyone says, it has no effect; he's just clueless. The music I do is microtonal-- deliberately "out-of-tune", sort of. And I wonder sometimes if people hear my stuff the same way as his.

The difference between you and the person who made the bad recording, and between me and that guitar player, is that we think about these things. We ask the question. And we're open to feedback and criticism (that doesn't mean assenting to it all the time). I have no doubt, without having even heard anything you've recorded, that you make at least reasonably good recordings, and that your skills will continue to improve. Because you worry about these things. That's a good thing. But don't worry so much that it cripples you.

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Post by vvv » Fri Jun 27, 2014 2:47 pm

I don't know what's the point, but I apologize and hope you'll recognize my name before you ever click on my stuff again. :twisted:
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Post by Bro Shark » Fri Jun 27, 2014 4:53 pm

Nope.

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Post by ubertar » Fri Jun 27, 2014 5:34 pm

vvv wrote:I don't know what's the point, but I apologize and hope you'll recognize my name before you ever click on my stuff again. :twisted:
Heh. Not you VVV. I think you know the guy I'm talking about. :wink:

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Post by Gregg Juke » Fri Jun 27, 2014 6:10 pm

To the OP: I can't think of a better way to say it than Ubertar did... Stick with it. Experiment, read, listen, and learn. Things will get better.

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"He's about to learn the most important lesson in the music business-- 'Never trust people in the music business.' "

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Post by totah » Mon Jun 30, 2014 7:41 am

Thanks for the uplifting words. I sometimes analyze way too much and get overwhelmed. Anyway, I'm new to the board. My name is Eric and I'm from New Mexico. I found this place through the Electrical Audio forum, but I don't post there because it's such a circle jerk.

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Post by vvv » Mon Jun 30, 2014 7:48 am

Yeah, over here we prefer reacharounds.

Wait?

Did I say that?

It's not even true!

At least, mebbe, not for everyone ...

:twisted:

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totah
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Post by totah » Mon Jun 30, 2014 9:59 am

vvv wrote:Yeah, over here we prefer reacharounds.
I noticed, that's why I signed up.

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Re: Fighting Discouragement

Post by lyman » Mon Jun 30, 2014 10:10 am

totah wrote:Then I realize, I am a knucklehead. Maybe all my work is garbage.

So what's the point?
I think you should evaluate what your goals are. If you're trying to "make it" in the music business and you feel that your product is not up to snuff, then that's one thing. If you're just making music for your own enjoyment then who cares how it stacks up against what else is out there. If you enjoy the process then have at it. Just my opinion.

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Post by WillMorgan » Mon Jun 30, 2014 5:32 pm

I had a really manic time downstairs this past few days.

Friday I decided to record the traditional hill country blues song "Shake 'em on Down" as a project for the weekend, it'll be great, I loove that song and can so rock it on my porch with the acoustic.

Saturday I tried to get going by picking up the guitar in front of my rig and quickly thought... woah this is impossible, I can't even play the basic guitar part in time and there are at least three of them. Then I need to do drums and bass and vocals on top of that? On top of what? I'm one guy, without even a start at an arrangement... what do I do next?

But, I didn't despair and turn the TV on... I spent a good amount of time alternating some youtube watching of a great country fingerstyle lesson on the song, and working on my own guitar parts. An intro fell out and I started to get a simple rhythm part down.

Sunday I took the intro part and practiced 'it some more to a metronome and recorded it. I then went back and forth practicing and trying to record 4 bars of rhythm till I got that down in reasonable time to the click. Then more quickly, a simpler 4 bars of an alternate rhythm that leaves space for vocals. I then copied and pasted those three parts into a rough arrangement that didn't give me where to put the lyrics, but at least it gave me something to sing to so I could figure out what to add or subtract measure wise there to massage a song into shape.... pretty late last night I played drums and tried singing to that rough draft and was stoked!

I still have _a lot_ to do to get into the tasty meat that I know exists there past the original bright, perfect and pretty much vapid vision of what I conceptualized early on. Hah, thinking I could do it all in one weekend..

The moral of the story is I got excited, I crashed, I made some simple progress, I did a lot of learning, and I had some fun.

Most happily, I know what to do next... break it on down!
Last edited by WillMorgan on Mon Jun 30, 2014 5:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by drumsound » Mon Jun 30, 2014 5:34 pm

Its a lack of public interest in music of quality that makes me question my role as cog in this particular machine.

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Post by vvv » Mon Jun 30, 2014 8:41 pm

So I've posted before I been in this band - we're all in our 50's - a cuppla cops, a cuppla professionals.

The guys are fairly cool (if awful straight-edge), the music is aiight - original rock based on folk with decent lyrics and progressions and riffs and some great playing and good vox.

I wrote the bass lines, did mebbe 85% of the arrangements, wrote the BV's, showed these guys how to set up their practice space, set their amps, fixed some of their equipment, transcribed the songs, and recorded 25 of 'em with my gear (about to complete the second collection - "Bustouts" on bandcamp - after 6.5 hours of finishing recording yesterday).

I quit the band two Friday nites ago, mid-practice; first time I ever quit a band of the 10 or so I've been in over 30 years.

Before, except the first couple, I was the leader.

Here, I wrote 3 of the 25 songs but 21 were the main singer's (1 the guitarist's) that he already had when I joined. I felt like I was doing all the work of being leader, but not on my songs, and I was playing my second instrument, instead of my first (guitar), and not singing any leads. It was too much work to just "be the bassist".

I thought this would be a cool project as they weren't (initially) interested in bar gigs. I been a "cog" of "the machine" in that sense before, the grind and competition and hustling for a record deal and gigs and sometimes players ...

Now I revel in being a hobbyist, with kids and a day job.

The moral of my story? "Morals, we don't need no steenking morals", I say, but just get on with it if it's fun, and if not, then it's a job and ya just do yer best and, eh, get on with it.

Or quit. :twisted:
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Post by Nick Sevilla » Mon Jun 30, 2014 11:00 pm

John Mooy.

For when it does end up breaking.
Howling at the neighbors. Hoping they have more mic cables.

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Post by vvv » Tue Jul 01, 2014 4:27 am

In Santa Barbara? (Miracle of googlin'.)

Hopefully, I'll get it addressed before it does "snap", my ex-band leader gave me a more local luthier name.

It's just a "cheapish" Martin, so local is prob'ly indicated.
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