Hey everyone!
So I've come to realize that most of the things I do as a musician and composer are separate (at least the way I looked at it they were).
Because of that I started to re examine all the things I do with music. This includes things like this blog, composing for production libraries, writing band songs, playing live, etc.
But the thing is all of those things can work together. Heck the probably should if I want to really make a long form career out of this music thing!
You see I've been trying to write different kinds of music for different purposes. But the truth is that there are one or two avenues of music creation that I am particularly good at. The main one is an electronic/cinematic rock sound. Basically think Evanescence, and bands that utilize multiple methods of making music in a hard rock context. I had been trying to write very specific things that are not in my wheelhouse for different end goals. This was really scattering my focus.
Being able to solidly produce a body of work that is in my main genre will probably not net me a lot of cash up front, but I feel like it will make for a better long term, and more emotionally fulfilling career ultimately.
You may or may not have noticed on my main Google + account, and my YouTube channel that's attached to it have been renamed from my actual name to "Adore the Red". This is because I intend on actually creating something with that name.
The name is something I've tooled around with for a while now, and my intention was to have a touring band by that name. Unfortunately I've not yet found a group of musicians that fit in well with that idea just yet, I'm still hoping it will happen someday though.
However Adore the Red is ultimately the pen name for all my Electronic Rock work. Whether that be placed in media, touring, YouTube videos, Websites, etc. This is the name I'm going with.
Adore the Red actually stands for something with me.
Red represents: fire, passion, humanity, blood, and life.
All those things that may or may not be readily apparent but are immediately recognizable as amazing things that we can and in my opinion should chase after.
Hence Adoring it.
I also really like writing fictional stories and building fictional worlds. It's my hope that full albums whether vocal, or instrumental will have an overarching story built into a fictional cinematic world. Obviously I am unable to immediately realize this goal. But to put it bluntly, I would like each album to eventually accompany a 3d film with each song representing some part of the stories.
These of course are long term goals that I would like to see happen someday. However if those things don't come to pass I hope that everyone can still enjoy the music I'll be making under this name.
As always I hope all is well and God Bless!
Saturday, December 3, 2016
Thursday, November 17, 2016
Martial Art and Music...
Picture it, a seasoned martial artist. He's training, going through his forms slow and steady, there's silence all around.
You could hear a feather drop it's so quiet in there. He's so focused and in the moment that the entire world melts away and it's just him, and his training.
That's how we picture traditional martial arts masters along with the long grey beard, and the huge bushy eyebrows.
What if I told you, music should be practiced the same way?
You're probably looking at me write now laughing.
"But Josh! You can't shred going slow, it makes no sense!"
True, a quarter note solo at 30 bpm would be painfully boring.
But here's the trick. How do you think Vai, Satriani, Johnson, and everyone else that can play at warp speed got that way?
They train slowly. Just like those old martial arts masters. There's an old saying my Kung Fu teacher kept pounding into my head (literally sometimes lol); "If you can't do it correctly slow, then you can't do it at all."
This is certainly true for music too. I remember when I was a teenager and I had written a slow ballad chord progression. It was really simple, 4/4 time, single key, in E Minor. I shown it to a bass player and drummer I knew from church and they liked it. Granted I wasn't much of a guitar player at the time but it was one of the few things I could play well at the time.
So the bassist found out what chords I was playing and we started working on it. Then something happened, the drummer couldn't drum to it.
I couldn't understand this at the time, because he was a talented drummer and specialized in punk which required the drummers to play blisteringly fast.
Well it turns out he had never practiced anything slowly to a metronome before, so he had no idea how to create drum beats that slow. It's been a long time since I've jammed with that particular musician, and I'm almost certain he could do it now if he's still playing. But that nicely demonstrates my point.
If you start practicing your technique slow and focused, making sure everything sounds perfect at a slow and steady click. You can get it up to warp speed and maintain clarity, articulation, rhythm, timing and all the other fun stuff.
I prescribe getting a metronome app on your phone, turning off distortion all together. Practice your scales, licks, patterns, progressions, all of it at a slow tempo when you're first learning something. Make sure you can play it slowly. Then ramp up the speed over time.
By the time you get up to the tempo you want to get at, you'll be shocked how much better you sound!
And always remember,
"If you can't do it correctly slow, then you can't do it at all."
You could hear a feather drop it's so quiet in there. He's so focused and in the moment that the entire world melts away and it's just him, and his training.
That's how we picture traditional martial arts masters along with the long grey beard, and the huge bushy eyebrows.
What if I told you, music should be practiced the same way?
You're probably looking at me write now laughing.
"But Josh! You can't shred going slow, it makes no sense!"
True, a quarter note solo at 30 bpm would be painfully boring.
But here's the trick. How do you think Vai, Satriani, Johnson, and everyone else that can play at warp speed got that way?
They train slowly. Just like those old martial arts masters. There's an old saying my Kung Fu teacher kept pounding into my head (literally sometimes lol); "If you can't do it correctly slow, then you can't do it at all."
This is certainly true for music too. I remember when I was a teenager and I had written a slow ballad chord progression. It was really simple, 4/4 time, single key, in E Minor. I shown it to a bass player and drummer I knew from church and they liked it. Granted I wasn't much of a guitar player at the time but it was one of the few things I could play well at the time.
So the bassist found out what chords I was playing and we started working on it. Then something happened, the drummer couldn't drum to it.
I couldn't understand this at the time, because he was a talented drummer and specialized in punk which required the drummers to play blisteringly fast.
Well it turns out he had never practiced anything slowly to a metronome before, so he had no idea how to create drum beats that slow. It's been a long time since I've jammed with that particular musician, and I'm almost certain he could do it now if he's still playing. But that nicely demonstrates my point.
If you start practicing your technique slow and focused, making sure everything sounds perfect at a slow and steady click. You can get it up to warp speed and maintain clarity, articulation, rhythm, timing and all the other fun stuff.
I prescribe getting a metronome app on your phone, turning off distortion all together. Practice your scales, licks, patterns, progressions, all of it at a slow tempo when you're first learning something. Make sure you can play it slowly. Then ramp up the speed over time.
By the time you get up to the tempo you want to get at, you'll be shocked how much better you sound!
And always remember,
"If you can't do it correctly slow, then you can't do it at all."
Monday, November 14, 2016
Melody Writing (and the Bane of one Rhythm Guitarist)
Melodies.
Ugh.
or YAYYYYY!
That all really depends on how you look at things I suppose. Since moving my primary focus from guitarist to composer a few years back, I've used my long (ish) history as a rhythm guitarist to leverage a sort of niche in my writing. Probably the main thing that got me through college honestly.
But after a while you learn that as a non musician the listener generally hears the sum of the whole, but remembers the melody.
This dramatically shifted my point of view from writing guitar riffs with relative ease, to trying really hard (in vain) to write catchy melodies. Of course being a musician means I'm generally my worst critic and due to this an my newness in melody writing I immediately thought I was a doomed failure, typical right?
I was scrolling through YouTube procrastinating (as is my right dang it!) and I stumbled onto an amazing guitar channel.
It's run by a guy named David Wallimann. Since he's probably never heard of me and chances are never will I'm certainly not getting paid to promote his page but he had videos that really helped me as a writer. I'll leave a link to his channel on this post so that you guys can check him out. Great stuff.
However back to this video I stumbled onto....
It was based on how to write effect melodies and guitar solos. At some point in the video he said something that clicked. You see I had heard all the typical "how to write a melody" Stuff in college. If you're not familiar I'll write it below.
1. Write an interesting rhythm before adding notes
2. Write based on the chord notes
3. Write in non chord tones for tension, and spice
4. ????????
5. PROFIT!
See I was missing something and what Mr. Wallimann said in this video seemed to be the key.
He said that as a composer you are the instrument, not your guitar.
He even told people when writing melodies to not have their instrument in hand. But to instead hum, sing, or otherwise make noises to develop the idea before taking it to your instrument.
THIS WAS IT! If any of the people that know me intimately view this blog, they will recognize that I'm CONSTANTLY doing things like this. Humming melodies, drumming with pencil's on drinking glasses, I'm constantly "composing" without realizing it...
But the missing link as it were, was for me to take those odd musical ramblings that I generally attribute to an acute case of ADHD, and flesh them out into musical works.
That's the secret I've been looking for all these years!
You see as a musician I'm very unstructured. Yes I've learned loads of theory over the years, and as a guitarist, I can come up with multi time signature based riffs on the fly, and so on and so on.
However just about everything I've done has been improvised in some sort or fashion. Which can be a great thing, but in my case over the years it has lead to many an unfinished song, or even music that sounds like a near carbon copy of each other.
As a professional procrastinator, I realized that putting those things to use requires a ton of work to sit down and focus. (GAHHHHH)
So I honestly found it easiest to sit down with a score writing program for an hour or so, and shut off the internet for at least a while. Shutting off data on my phone, and just going at it helped a lot. Knowing that I wouldn't be writing with an instrument in hand made it easier to sit down and either remember melodies and rhythms I came up with goofing off, or to start the process of melodic composition in the truest sense of the word.
Remember, you are the composer, the instrument is a tool. The music has to come from your mind, heart, and your body.
Hashtag Musicalzen.... (hehehe see I can make cheesy jokes too!)
Annnnd as promised a link to that amazing channel!
https://www.youtube.com/user/Wallimann
Ugh.
or YAYYYYY!
That all really depends on how you look at things I suppose. Since moving my primary focus from guitarist to composer a few years back, I've used my long (ish) history as a rhythm guitarist to leverage a sort of niche in my writing. Probably the main thing that got me through college honestly.
But after a while you learn that as a non musician the listener generally hears the sum of the whole, but remembers the melody.
This dramatically shifted my point of view from writing guitar riffs with relative ease, to trying really hard (in vain) to write catchy melodies. Of course being a musician means I'm generally my worst critic and due to this an my newness in melody writing I immediately thought I was a doomed failure, typical right?
I was scrolling through YouTube procrastinating (as is my right dang it!) and I stumbled onto an amazing guitar channel.
It's run by a guy named David Wallimann. Since he's probably never heard of me and chances are never will I'm certainly not getting paid to promote his page but he had videos that really helped me as a writer. I'll leave a link to his channel on this post so that you guys can check him out. Great stuff.
However back to this video I stumbled onto....
It was based on how to write effect melodies and guitar solos. At some point in the video he said something that clicked. You see I had heard all the typical "how to write a melody" Stuff in college. If you're not familiar I'll write it below.
1. Write an interesting rhythm before adding notes
2. Write based on the chord notes
3. Write in non chord tones for tension, and spice
4. ????????
5. PROFIT!
See I was missing something and what Mr. Wallimann said in this video seemed to be the key.
He said that as a composer you are the instrument, not your guitar.
He even told people when writing melodies to not have their instrument in hand. But to instead hum, sing, or otherwise make noises to develop the idea before taking it to your instrument.
THIS WAS IT! If any of the people that know me intimately view this blog, they will recognize that I'm CONSTANTLY doing things like this. Humming melodies, drumming with pencil's on drinking glasses, I'm constantly "composing" without realizing it...
But the missing link as it were, was for me to take those odd musical ramblings that I generally attribute to an acute case of ADHD, and flesh them out into musical works.
That's the secret I've been looking for all these years!
You see as a musician I'm very unstructured. Yes I've learned loads of theory over the years, and as a guitarist, I can come up with multi time signature based riffs on the fly, and so on and so on.
However just about everything I've done has been improvised in some sort or fashion. Which can be a great thing, but in my case over the years it has lead to many an unfinished song, or even music that sounds like a near carbon copy of each other.
As a professional procrastinator, I realized that putting those things to use requires a ton of work to sit down and focus. (GAHHHHH)
So I honestly found it easiest to sit down with a score writing program for an hour or so, and shut off the internet for at least a while. Shutting off data on my phone, and just going at it helped a lot. Knowing that I wouldn't be writing with an instrument in hand made it easier to sit down and either remember melodies and rhythms I came up with goofing off, or to start the process of melodic composition in the truest sense of the word.
Remember, you are the composer, the instrument is a tool. The music has to come from your mind, heart, and your body.
Hashtag Musicalzen.... (hehehe see I can make cheesy jokes too!)
Annnnd as promised a link to that amazing channel!
https://www.youtube.com/user/Wallimann
Sunday, November 13, 2016
What I've been up to (and what I've learned over the past two years)
Hey folks,
I really need to start posting on here more often....
My generalized laziness aside, these past couple of years have been pretty crazy! I've been in a touring band, gotten my first commissioned works, started the process of doing music as a career instead of a hobby, and started a few new projects as well!
First and most important I'm in a band called "The Fringe." It's an acoustic originated project that is surprisingly relevant even in this day and age of DJ based music monetization.
I work with one other person by the name of Erik Flesher who sings, and runs our sound system at the same time. (talk about multitasking!)
As you can already tell this project has a very grassroots oriented approach. We went into this thinking "If we have only 3 or 4 people who really get it, we'll consider ourselves blessed"
Well needless to say it was pretty rough starting out. Our first show was opening for a much more established local act and we were given an hour slot. I hadn't played in a band since my high school years playing in a semi traveling worship team. This was a completely different world to what I was used to. I was incredibly nervous, and I didn't think I could get through that short show. Fast forward to our last show, and we have played a festival, a few benefits concerts, and several local gigs. Our last show being what amounted to 6 hours of a show. 5 hours on stage and 1 hour set up and tear down. Not bad for a couple music nerds who have no social skills!
Goofing aside this has been and continues to be an incredible experience and I absolutely love our new friends and fans. Being able to connect with people at our shows in a communal way, sharing something so powerful, there's nothing quite like that moment when you hear the crowd singing over the crazy loud speakers.
Another thing that is incredible about this project I would have to place blame on Erik for. Every place we played (save for one country and western bar in central Illinois) has invited us back for multiple shows. That in itself is incredible and it shows just how much you guys understand what we do. I can't thank everyone enough for things like that.
Other than my band, I'm still pursuing my career as a composer, songwriter, and producer. When I first got into composing it was an incredible feeling. But it was completely daunting. You see modern composers write music, record the audio (or midi), mix, master, and find commissions all on their own.
It's taken a lot of time, and even more schooling. But over the last year I've started networking more and more. Meeting new people, and finding opportunities for work.
And as a result I received my first commission last Winter! In the process of learning more and more about the business side of composition, I've discovered a few more avenues in which to turn my passion into a bit of cash.
Between writing for production libraries, creating sample packs, and stock audio, I'm finding that my door into a full career of work may be in Indie Gaming.
Growing up with an Atari 2600 and the Original Nintendo, I was pretty intimate with games throughout most of my life and was easily able to recognize their value as a method of telling deep and powerful stories.
And now that love for games and the stories they tell may be my path in life. My career folding hand in hand with my favorite modern storytelling medium.
Though it is true I supplement my income currently with commissioned writing assignments, I'm happy to say that for the most part of two years, I've been a "professional" musician.
It's not at all what I thought it would be. But I absolutely love it!
I do hope the fact that someone as goofy and uncoordinated as myself being able to pursue my dreams and make headway towards building a legacy inspires anyone that might read this and have a dream of their own.
Don't give up, keep working, and don't settle!
I really need to start posting on here more often....
My generalized laziness aside, these past couple of years have been pretty crazy! I've been in a touring band, gotten my first commissioned works, started the process of doing music as a career instead of a hobby, and started a few new projects as well!
First and most important I'm in a band called "The Fringe." It's an acoustic originated project that is surprisingly relevant even in this day and age of DJ based music monetization.
I work with one other person by the name of Erik Flesher who sings, and runs our sound system at the same time. (talk about multitasking!)
As you can already tell this project has a very grassroots oriented approach. We went into this thinking "If we have only 3 or 4 people who really get it, we'll consider ourselves blessed"
Well needless to say it was pretty rough starting out. Our first show was opening for a much more established local act and we were given an hour slot. I hadn't played in a band since my high school years playing in a semi traveling worship team. This was a completely different world to what I was used to. I was incredibly nervous, and I didn't think I could get through that short show. Fast forward to our last show, and we have played a festival, a few benefits concerts, and several local gigs. Our last show being what amounted to 6 hours of a show. 5 hours on stage and 1 hour set up and tear down. Not bad for a couple music nerds who have no social skills!
Goofing aside this has been and continues to be an incredible experience and I absolutely love our new friends and fans. Being able to connect with people at our shows in a communal way, sharing something so powerful, there's nothing quite like that moment when you hear the crowd singing over the crazy loud speakers.
Another thing that is incredible about this project I would have to place blame on Erik for. Every place we played (save for one country and western bar in central Illinois) has invited us back for multiple shows. That in itself is incredible and it shows just how much you guys understand what we do. I can't thank everyone enough for things like that.
Other than my band, I'm still pursuing my career as a composer, songwriter, and producer. When I first got into composing it was an incredible feeling. But it was completely daunting. You see modern composers write music, record the audio (or midi), mix, master, and find commissions all on their own.
It's taken a lot of time, and even more schooling. But over the last year I've started networking more and more. Meeting new people, and finding opportunities for work.
And as a result I received my first commission last Winter! In the process of learning more and more about the business side of composition, I've discovered a few more avenues in which to turn my passion into a bit of cash.
Between writing for production libraries, creating sample packs, and stock audio, I'm finding that my door into a full career of work may be in Indie Gaming.
Growing up with an Atari 2600 and the Original Nintendo, I was pretty intimate with games throughout most of my life and was easily able to recognize their value as a method of telling deep and powerful stories.
And now that love for games and the stories they tell may be my path in life. My career folding hand in hand with my favorite modern storytelling medium.
Though it is true I supplement my income currently with commissioned writing assignments, I'm happy to say that for the most part of two years, I've been a "professional" musician.
It's not at all what I thought it would be. But I absolutely love it!
I do hope the fact that someone as goofy and uncoordinated as myself being able to pursue my dreams and make headway towards building a legacy inspires anyone that might read this and have a dream of their own.
Don't give up, keep working, and don't settle!
Sunday, August 2, 2015
Music as a Job
Hi folks,
There's something I've been wondering about for a long time. A stigma exists when it comes to creative jobs. I live in the Midwest and the lifestyle in my neck of the woods for people around my age is usually: Get up, go to work, get off, go to the bar, go home, repeat. Which is fine and all but what if you work as a musician?
Well then that's when things start to change.
For one working as a local musician means you work AT the bar. For some musicians this means an easy way to get free drinks. For others it means hanging out with friends easier after work ends. For people like me it's slightly awkward. I'm a very non judgmental person be nature. Some would even describe some of my personal life as rather libertine and free roaming in nature. That being said I also grew up in martial arts so I have a high value for being in complete control of my body. As such I generally avoid drinking and drugs as both a health and fitness choice as well as a self control point. I don't mind if others do it, just not my thing.
But because of that I never really had a chance to get comfortable in crowds especially at a bar. So playing at bars is actually work for someone like me. But we get paid half decent for the work and it's nice to be able to put smiles on people's faces for a living. I'm very passionate about making people happy and because of that I love my job.
The question tonight is about whether being a musician (or any other creative professional) is really work.
Here in the Midwest a job seems to be defined as "clock in, clock out, go home." Anything other than that is relatively considered a hobby or playing some sort of games.
Now we know in this society you can make a living doing just about anything, look at people who play video games on youtube for a living as a prime example. This is a great thing, because whatever you love can be your livelihood and anyone can truly have a career in anything if they work hard enough for it.
So if you only define "working" as clock in, clock out, go home; then you're really limiting yourself to the possibilities that exist. However among this kind of mindset is a very dangerous concept of "oh you play guitar, you must be broke" or "you're unemployed then?"
Well both of those things can be true but for a surprising amount of us that's not true.
The basic mindset seems to be that if you're not on tv then you aren't working.
I'd like to try and dispel that notion if I may.
Firstly creative people work mostly off the clock. Look at the singer who spends all their free time learning songs, practicing technique and getting ready for a 3 hour show.
Also look how many years it takes a musician (generally) to get to the level required to play full time? For me it took 15 years of consistent work on my instrument. No not all songs that I play require all that practice, but there's always that song that you HAVE to learn where you thank God for that time you spent running scales and learning theory. We train our skill sets for years before we can even start to get a paycheck.
I don't know any "normal job" that requires that much patience and stamina.
Not only that, but just to get to that first gig (and subsequent paychecks) is a barrage of cold calling, demo recording, auditioning, etc. You have to work the business side just as much if not more than the creative side.
Then once you finally get that coveted paid gig, you have to make sure you have all the equipment (your tools) ready in working condition, and that you perform like the employee of the month so that you can come back to work another day. Our work is the only one where our performance EVERY DAY is the decisive factor for future work.
You see we can't have an off day, and just coast through work like a regular job, we can't call in sick if we're not famous, we have to work our tails off and work like our lives depend on it each and every time we go on. You don't do that at a regular job.
Yes we are our own bosses but that means we have the responsibility of an entire company on our shoulders, we are responsible for the branding, the work scheduling, the materials, the tools, the transportation, and we have to hope we'll get paid the full amount our time was worth in the first place.
Most of all in a regular job, you have your schedule set up for you. We don't have that luxury. We have to claw tooth and nail to find our first set of working days, and after all that. After that heart attack inducing amount of work that we put in for YEARS just to get started, we have to make sure to keep going.
I think most folks around here are right, I don't have a job.
I have a career.
A career I've worked half of the entirety of my life to achieve.
And I'm humbled to have that opportunity, and damn proud to be a part of a select group of people willing to stray from the heard.
Wednesday, July 29, 2015
On Nerves, Precision, Guitar, and Super Mario 64
Hello Again,
I was watching some video game videos on Youtube with my Nephew earlier today. One of thing many things we watched was a Speed Run of Super Mario 64. If you don't know what a speed run is, it's basically people competing to complete a game under certain conditions as fast as possible.
Well we were watching a person beat the game in 5 minutes!
After my entire childhood was ruined by that experience it got me thinking about how precise the player must have been in his performance of the video presented.
And of course since I'm plagued with the sweet joys of ADHD, I immediately translated that to music performance.
It got me thinking about how different it is to perform in rehearsal or writing vs what it's like to perform music live.
I've been playing guitar for roughly 15 years no and every day that I play I'm more and more enamored with both the complexity and the inherent simplicity of music.
It's astonishing just how precise a person even at my mediocre level can get during songwriting. But even with that I've noticed a drastic change in my precision when writing when compared to what I play like live.
After a lot of thought and experimentation I've determined that the more nervous I am my playing precision is negatively effected.
I figure a lot of this is due to the fact I haven't been a live player for probably about 10 years or so. When I first started playing guitar I did nothing but play in front of people. However after high school graduation I spent a lot of years indoors practicing as well as learning a trade as a composer. So that meant I didn't get out on the road much.
Now that I'm out on the road more than not, I'm finding the concept of nerves an intriguing new experience.
What are your thoughts? Do nerves affect you positively, negatively, or not at all?
And if nerves have been an issue for you in the past as a live player what have you done to fix the issue?
I was watching some video game videos on Youtube with my Nephew earlier today. One of thing many things we watched was a Speed Run of Super Mario 64. If you don't know what a speed run is, it's basically people competing to complete a game under certain conditions as fast as possible.
Well we were watching a person beat the game in 5 minutes!
After my entire childhood was ruined by that experience it got me thinking about how precise the player must have been in his performance of the video presented.
And of course since I'm plagued with the sweet joys of ADHD, I immediately translated that to music performance.
It got me thinking about how different it is to perform in rehearsal or writing vs what it's like to perform music live.
I've been playing guitar for roughly 15 years no and every day that I play I'm more and more enamored with both the complexity and the inherent simplicity of music.
It's astonishing just how precise a person even at my mediocre level can get during songwriting. But even with that I've noticed a drastic change in my precision when writing when compared to what I play like live.
After a lot of thought and experimentation I've determined that the more nervous I am my playing precision is negatively effected.
I figure a lot of this is due to the fact I haven't been a live player for probably about 10 years or so. When I first started playing guitar I did nothing but play in front of people. However after high school graduation I spent a lot of years indoors practicing as well as learning a trade as a composer. So that meant I didn't get out on the road much.
Now that I'm out on the road more than not, I'm finding the concept of nerves an intriguing new experience.
What are your thoughts? Do nerves affect you positively, negatively, or not at all?
And if nerves have been an issue for you in the past as a live player what have you done to fix the issue?
Monday, July 27, 2015
Thank you, all of you.
To Whom it May Concern,
It's kind of strange when I think about the last few years. I've been away with this and that regarding that or this.
However I can safely report that sometimes life doesn't always seem to work out the way you would expect.
There's a lot to be said for willpower. There's also a lot to be said for malarkey as well. But one of my goals as a person was to be my own boss doing something I love.
Well as of right now I'm an entertainer. For the longest time I wanted to be a composer for orchestral works and various other things. However by happenstance I spent a few years without focus on that goal.
Because of that I felt I learned a lot of things about myself and about the world around me in that time. You see a few years back I was put in charge of a friend who was terminally ill. Over the few months my younger brother and I cared for this man I got my first tattoo, got engaged, broke it off, experimented with being a photographer and many other things in the course of knowing that man who I now call a friend and a surrogate brother. Sadly as we knew his life was cut off too early. But while I got a chance to know him he changed my life and my perspective on many things, God, joy, peace, selflessness, and yes even music.
Over the next year my Dad went through cancer and beat it. Soon after we moved to another town while Dad recovered, unfortunately while in that new (albeit smaller) town he gained a much faster acting cancer and a week after being diagnosed he passed away.
I'm generally a calloused person by nature, it's not necessarily a bad thing as I try to be kind to everyone I meet but that experience ripped the callouses off my heart and exposed a lot of mixed emotions I was unaware I was capable of. I stopped writing music again for a long time because of that.
However once I became engrossed in it again I felt like I had begun a new relationship with a first love.
I fell in love with guitar again and over the course of the next couple of years while taking care of another friend who happened to be very ill, I realized my potential as a guitarist and an entertainer was kind of shocking.
I never felt like I was particularly talented at one thing or the other, and even though my Father made me promise to never quit making music, I was at the time considering a job in health care considering I was growing rather used to being in a home care type of situation and I enjoyed the work.
It took a lot of people who gave a ton of concentrated effort to make me realize how much potential I have on a single instrument.
Thanks to that encouragement I've been working in a band called The Fringe now for a few months with an old friend who is an extremely talented singer and songwriter.
I've gotten to know and become friends with several of the most talented people in the areas where I work, and surprisingly enough I found a community of people where I fit in.
I'm extremely grateful to be a part of this community of extremely talented and creative people, as well as the fact I can play music and put smiles on people's faces as a career.
It's strange I initially wanted to make this post just to mention my band and say a quick thanks to the people that made it a reality.
But the truth is between God, a supportive family, and a great group of friends: I find myself extremely blessed to be a part of a local industry that is not only surviving but thriving regardless of billboard charts, record labels, and other things that aren't necessary.
There's nothing wrong with those things, but when I see so many talented people achieving a dream of making a living doing what you love, just because you love doing it; I'm in awe every day when I see astonishing things like this on a regular basis.
We're not billionaires, we don't drive Phantom's, but we do what we love, because we love it, and it pays the bills. That's my version of the American Dream, and I'm dang impressed by all the people that do it every day.
Of course I want to give credit where it's due, but thank you to all the people that believed in me once upon a time and still support me to this day.
Thank you, All of You,
Joshua Smith
Guitarist, The Fringe
It's kind of strange when I think about the last few years. I've been away with this and that regarding that or this.
However I can safely report that sometimes life doesn't always seem to work out the way you would expect.
There's a lot to be said for willpower. There's also a lot to be said for malarkey as well. But one of my goals as a person was to be my own boss doing something I love.
Well as of right now I'm an entertainer. For the longest time I wanted to be a composer for orchestral works and various other things. However by happenstance I spent a few years without focus on that goal.
Because of that I felt I learned a lot of things about myself and about the world around me in that time. You see a few years back I was put in charge of a friend who was terminally ill. Over the few months my younger brother and I cared for this man I got my first tattoo, got engaged, broke it off, experimented with being a photographer and many other things in the course of knowing that man who I now call a friend and a surrogate brother. Sadly as we knew his life was cut off too early. But while I got a chance to know him he changed my life and my perspective on many things, God, joy, peace, selflessness, and yes even music.
Over the next year my Dad went through cancer and beat it. Soon after we moved to another town while Dad recovered, unfortunately while in that new (albeit smaller) town he gained a much faster acting cancer and a week after being diagnosed he passed away.
I'm generally a calloused person by nature, it's not necessarily a bad thing as I try to be kind to everyone I meet but that experience ripped the callouses off my heart and exposed a lot of mixed emotions I was unaware I was capable of. I stopped writing music again for a long time because of that.
However once I became engrossed in it again I felt like I had begun a new relationship with a first love.
I fell in love with guitar again and over the course of the next couple of years while taking care of another friend who happened to be very ill, I realized my potential as a guitarist and an entertainer was kind of shocking.
I never felt like I was particularly talented at one thing or the other, and even though my Father made me promise to never quit making music, I was at the time considering a job in health care considering I was growing rather used to being in a home care type of situation and I enjoyed the work.
It took a lot of people who gave a ton of concentrated effort to make me realize how much potential I have on a single instrument.
Thanks to that encouragement I've been working in a band called The Fringe now for a few months with an old friend who is an extremely talented singer and songwriter.
I've gotten to know and become friends with several of the most talented people in the areas where I work, and surprisingly enough I found a community of people where I fit in.
I'm extremely grateful to be a part of this community of extremely talented and creative people, as well as the fact I can play music and put smiles on people's faces as a career.
It's strange I initially wanted to make this post just to mention my band and say a quick thanks to the people that made it a reality.
But the truth is between God, a supportive family, and a great group of friends: I find myself extremely blessed to be a part of a local industry that is not only surviving but thriving regardless of billboard charts, record labels, and other things that aren't necessary.
There's nothing wrong with those things, but when I see so many talented people achieving a dream of making a living doing what you love, just because you love doing it; I'm in awe every day when I see astonishing things like this on a regular basis.
We're not billionaires, we don't drive Phantom's, but we do what we love, because we love it, and it pays the bills. That's my version of the American Dream, and I'm dang impressed by all the people that do it every day.
Of course I want to give credit where it's due, but thank you to all the people that believed in me once upon a time and still support me to this day.
Thank you, All of You,
Joshua Smith
Guitarist, The Fringe
Tuesday, September 2, 2014
A bit of old school recording methodization for your brainization
Hey all,
I'm aware that I haven't been on in a while and with my current day job hopefully I'll be able to post more often.
However, I have a nice piece of information for you guys with regards to recording.
First off I've been exploring a lot of new (new to me) techniques when it comes to recording guitars. You see for the longest time I've been recording everything "in the box" including my guitars. I haven't had an actual amp in years since I've been using Guitar Rig from Native Instruments to do most of that.
Recently however I bought a half stack from Kustom and a few pedals, I did this because I wanted to try my hand at recording a cabinet with a cigar mic.
That's a photo of the stack itself and an old 7 String guitar I had from Douglas Guitars.
For any of you that have ever heard the tracks I've recorded in the past you know that they sound a bit grainy and unrealistic at times.
Here is a link to a song where I recorded the Chorus with that same generic 7 string and the verse guitars with a Mexican Made 1996 Fender Stratocaster.
New Song 3
As you can see the track came out quite well in comparison to previous attempts at recording.
The bass was recorded with the guitar cabinet as well. However I chose to keep the volume low during recording so I wouldn't blow the speakers.
The rest of the things you hear are midi including the drums.
Since my strong point was never mixing I was very surprised to find that a generic guitar like the Douglas would create such a great sound and would sit that well in my own mix.
Of course I did all the standard techniques of double tracking all my rhythm parts and hard panning them.
In fact once I got my gain staging correct I didn't have to do much to the mix at all, no drastic compression or EQ.
My regular job affords me a lot of free time so I like to write material while I'm at work too. For that I usually do my written scoring with a free product called MuseScore. It's a fantastic product an old friend of mine discovered while I was still working with Sibelius. The sounds included aren't good at all but let's face it, any serious songwriter isn't going to use Score Editor sounds anyway.
But for actually recording guitars while I'm at work I use a midi guitar and bass from Impact Soundworks called Shreddage 2.
As you will see from my lack of links I am not sponsored by them and I have no affiliate links so I'm not getting paid in anyway to promote these products. I do however sincerely believe in their quality and I use them very often to either produce blue prints for me to record full tracks later in my home studio or I use them for my music licensing work.
However bear in mind if you decide to go the midi route like I have, there's one thing you really need to know. If you are programming midi you need to work much harder on it than you would by playing the instrument.
Just clicking a note into the piano roll or trying to play a guitar with a keyboard isn't exactly intuitive, so you will need to spend some time getting the nuances of your performance just right to make it sound realistic. This can mean making sure the notes aren't perfectly on time (if you're piano rolling it) or making sure you make the right moves with your keyboard to emulate an actual stringed instrument (for the keyboardists out there)
However with enough patience and hard work you can create something amazing with much less money than going out and paying thousands for a high end guitar and tube amp.
That being said, if you have the actual gear, there's nothing like the feeling of a properly recorded guitar part done the old fashioned way.
I originally chose midi for convenience and portability, however I came to realize portability was very true, however convenience was a fantasy.
But it all depends on your budget and situation.
As my regular job allows me to record music, I still have to be quiet. So writing music for 8 hours a night gets a lot done but when you can't bring a giant amplifier and drums in to work, then it's much more logical to use midi and a pair of head phones for the recording.
On a side note, I've mentioned before that I am not that great at mixing yet, so I do send a lot of my stuff off to my mix engineer. He does a fantastic job and helps out a ton.
I do this so that I can still keep things moving while giving me a chance to practice mixing on my own.
I hope to have an update on my complete studio rig very soon! I also will be making a few more purchases in the near future.
I am buying an Alesis electronic drum kit so that I can track my midi notes more naturally, and a bass combo amp so that I can do some old school recording on my 6 string bass as well.
Like always I hope all is well with every one and I hope you get some inspiration from my trial and error!
I'm aware that I haven't been on in a while and with my current day job hopefully I'll be able to post more often.
However, I have a nice piece of information for you guys with regards to recording.
First off I've been exploring a lot of new (new to me) techniques when it comes to recording guitars. You see for the longest time I've been recording everything "in the box" including my guitars. I haven't had an actual amp in years since I've been using Guitar Rig from Native Instruments to do most of that.
Recently however I bought a half stack from Kustom and a few pedals, I did this because I wanted to try my hand at recording a cabinet with a cigar mic.
That's a photo of the stack itself and an old 7 String guitar I had from Douglas Guitars.
For any of you that have ever heard the tracks I've recorded in the past you know that they sound a bit grainy and unrealistic at times.
Here is a link to a song where I recorded the Chorus with that same generic 7 string and the verse guitars with a Mexican Made 1996 Fender Stratocaster.
New Song 3
As you can see the track came out quite well in comparison to previous attempts at recording.
The bass was recorded with the guitar cabinet as well. However I chose to keep the volume low during recording so I wouldn't blow the speakers.
The rest of the things you hear are midi including the drums.
Since my strong point was never mixing I was very surprised to find that a generic guitar like the Douglas would create such a great sound and would sit that well in my own mix.
Of course I did all the standard techniques of double tracking all my rhythm parts and hard panning them.
In fact once I got my gain staging correct I didn't have to do much to the mix at all, no drastic compression or EQ.
My regular job affords me a lot of free time so I like to write material while I'm at work too. For that I usually do my written scoring with a free product called MuseScore. It's a fantastic product an old friend of mine discovered while I was still working with Sibelius. The sounds included aren't good at all but let's face it, any serious songwriter isn't going to use Score Editor sounds anyway.
But for actually recording guitars while I'm at work I use a midi guitar and bass from Impact Soundworks called Shreddage 2.
As you will see from my lack of links I am not sponsored by them and I have no affiliate links so I'm not getting paid in anyway to promote these products. I do however sincerely believe in their quality and I use them very often to either produce blue prints for me to record full tracks later in my home studio or I use them for my music licensing work.
However bear in mind if you decide to go the midi route like I have, there's one thing you really need to know. If you are programming midi you need to work much harder on it than you would by playing the instrument.
Just clicking a note into the piano roll or trying to play a guitar with a keyboard isn't exactly intuitive, so you will need to spend some time getting the nuances of your performance just right to make it sound realistic. This can mean making sure the notes aren't perfectly on time (if you're piano rolling it) or making sure you make the right moves with your keyboard to emulate an actual stringed instrument (for the keyboardists out there)
However with enough patience and hard work you can create something amazing with much less money than going out and paying thousands for a high end guitar and tube amp.
That being said, if you have the actual gear, there's nothing like the feeling of a properly recorded guitar part done the old fashioned way.
I originally chose midi for convenience and portability, however I came to realize portability was very true, however convenience was a fantasy.
But it all depends on your budget and situation.
As my regular job allows me to record music, I still have to be quiet. So writing music for 8 hours a night gets a lot done but when you can't bring a giant amplifier and drums in to work, then it's much more logical to use midi and a pair of head phones for the recording.
On a side note, I've mentioned before that I am not that great at mixing yet, so I do send a lot of my stuff off to my mix engineer. He does a fantastic job and helps out a ton.
I do this so that I can still keep things moving while giving me a chance to practice mixing on my own.
I hope to have an update on my complete studio rig very soon! I also will be making a few more purchases in the near future.
I am buying an Alesis electronic drum kit so that I can track my midi notes more naturally, and a bass combo amp so that I can do some old school recording on my 6 string bass as well.
Like always I hope all is well with every one and I hope you get some inspiration from my trial and error!
Friday, March 1, 2013
My studio workflow.
It bugs me to death when my favorite producer's avoid talking about their production work. Specifically the things they use.
I'm more of the type to want to help rather than worry about someone using the same gear I do. I never want to be like that. EVER! So starting today I'm going to be doing a series on just about everything I use in my production. Today I'm going to do an overview of the things that I use. From there I'm going to be doing reviews based on how I do the music.
So without further delay, here's my gear.
I'm a huge Native Instruments junkie. So I have the following items
Kontakt 5
Maschine
Absynth 5
Massive
Reaktor 5
Guitar Rig 5
Battery 3
Driver
Kore 2
A special note on Kore 2; it's discontinued, however I suppose you might be able to find one used on the web.
The easiest way to get all that if you want it is to get the Komplete 8 Ultimate bundle. Which is what I did. I've been a Komplete user since the 6th version.
I got Driver as a special Christmas promotion and it was free for a limited time. Native instruments likes to do cool stuff like that.
Maschine you can't buy in a bundle but it's definitely worth it!
I run everything in Maschine, doing sound design and primary production in Maschine.
Then I take everything bounced out into stems then mix and master in Logic. Yes I master my own music. I know a lot of folks don't like that idea, including my College. However I have a sound in my head and I don't like the idea of paying hundreds of dollars to someone who doesn't know what I'm going for.
I also do a lot of my traditional recording (vocals, guitars, basses, etc.) in Logic for me it's much easier.
I do all my sheet music in Sibelius 6. They are currently on version 7 however I'm personally happy with the features of 6.
My music computer is a Macbook Pro, it's pretty stable and I like the Operating System, so I go with that.
If you like PC better more power to you.
My recording interface is an Mbox 3 Mini, I got it with Pro Tools 8 LE which I'm not a fan of. So I just use the interface. But the truth is when it comes to D.A.W. its what works for you.
I have 2 keyboard controllers, M-audio keystation 88 es and M-audio Oxygen 25.
I use two microphones both condensers MXL 990, and MXL 991.
It's a long list, but it's what I use. I'm not listing the physical instruments because all of my guitars and basses are relatively inexpensive, and again it's one of those things based on your own personal preference.
That's a huge thing about Music, it's not necessarily what you use but how you use it.
Keeping that in mind, this has been the most cost effective solution I've ever used. Well everything except the Mac. However it was part of my College requirements so it was provided for me. I still had to pay for it but I was given a huge school discount.
When I return for another blog in this series, I will start going over the items included in Komplete 8 Ultimate!
I hope this series helps with your music.
I'm more of the type to want to help rather than worry about someone using the same gear I do. I never want to be like that. EVER! So starting today I'm going to be doing a series on just about everything I use in my production. Today I'm going to do an overview of the things that I use. From there I'm going to be doing reviews based on how I do the music.
So without further delay, here's my gear.
I'm a huge Native Instruments junkie. So I have the following items
Kontakt 5
Maschine
Absynth 5
Massive
Reaktor 5
Guitar Rig 5
Battery 3
Driver
Kore 2
A special note on Kore 2; it's discontinued, however I suppose you might be able to find one used on the web.
The easiest way to get all that if you want it is to get the Komplete 8 Ultimate bundle. Which is what I did. I've been a Komplete user since the 6th version.
I got Driver as a special Christmas promotion and it was free for a limited time. Native instruments likes to do cool stuff like that.
Maschine you can't buy in a bundle but it's definitely worth it!
I run everything in Maschine, doing sound design and primary production in Maschine.
Then I take everything bounced out into stems then mix and master in Logic. Yes I master my own music. I know a lot of folks don't like that idea, including my College. However I have a sound in my head and I don't like the idea of paying hundreds of dollars to someone who doesn't know what I'm going for.
I also do a lot of my traditional recording (vocals, guitars, basses, etc.) in Logic for me it's much easier.
I do all my sheet music in Sibelius 6. They are currently on version 7 however I'm personally happy with the features of 6.
My music computer is a Macbook Pro, it's pretty stable and I like the Operating System, so I go with that.
If you like PC better more power to you.
My recording interface is an Mbox 3 Mini, I got it with Pro Tools 8 LE which I'm not a fan of. So I just use the interface. But the truth is when it comes to D.A.W. its what works for you.
I have 2 keyboard controllers, M-audio keystation 88 es and M-audio Oxygen 25.
I use two microphones both condensers MXL 990, and MXL 991.
It's a long list, but it's what I use. I'm not listing the physical instruments because all of my guitars and basses are relatively inexpensive, and again it's one of those things based on your own personal preference.
That's a huge thing about Music, it's not necessarily what you use but how you use it.
Keeping that in mind, this has been the most cost effective solution I've ever used. Well everything except the Mac. However it was part of my College requirements so it was provided for me. I still had to pay for it but I was given a huge school discount.
When I return for another blog in this series, I will start going over the items included in Komplete 8 Ultimate!
I hope this series helps with your music.
Finger Picking
Well folks there's something to be said about changing a routine. Though routines are pretty great, I have to say that I am happy with the results. As a musician or songwriter, we get used to doing things the old fashioned way. Doing things all the way we've done them for years on end.
As such I have never been good with finger picking a guitar. I started working on that today and I noticed something really cool. Turns out what when I focus on finger picking when I'm writing I come up with more interesting rhythms than if I would do it any other way.
It really opens me up and gets the juices flowing, and I'm looking forward to seeing the results of those efforts.
I can definitely suggest trying something different once in a while. Whether that be a new playing technique, or a new genre entirely. It may just inspire your current efforts.
Well even though this one was rather short today, I hope that it helps and you get something out of it.
Everyone have a great weekend!
As such I have never been good with finger picking a guitar. I started working on that today and I noticed something really cool. Turns out what when I focus on finger picking when I'm writing I come up with more interesting rhythms than if I would do it any other way.
It really opens me up and gets the juices flowing, and I'm looking forward to seeing the results of those efforts.
I can definitely suggest trying something different once in a while. Whether that be a new playing technique, or a new genre entirely. It may just inspire your current efforts.
Well even though this one was rather short today, I hope that it helps and you get something out of it.
Everyone have a great weekend!
Thursday, February 28, 2013
Music Theory and Alternate Dimensions
Well as you can see from the title this one's going to be kinda weird.
I have been poking around with this idea lately. It's more of a concept that I want to use in a story.
As you guys may know I'm also an amateur writer on type of being a songwriter. The reason I post about my writing in this music blog is simply due to the fact the entire concept revolves around music.
Basically the main character in the story is rather special, he can walk through songs as if they were a place.
It's a plane of existence where sound is a location, and he has the ability to go there and experience music like nobody else has.
Basically this character is able to listen to a song in headphones close his eyes and be transported into the song. As he walks around inside the song's dimension he can interact with the different musical parts in the songs.
I've been playing around with this idea for about a year, and even though I generally write horror, I would love to try this out if only in a short story.
What do you guys think? Worth a shot or a complete rubbish idea that I should throw away for all time?
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Concept of a Portable Recording Studio
Recording studios have always been thought of as these massive multi-million dollar structures with way more knobs, buttons, and faders than we can possibly count.
Ever since I was a teenager this never appealed to me. I never liked the thought of having to go to the ends of the earth to record an idea. This brings me to my next thought. I've never imagined a recording studio as being anything more than a sketchpad. I mean you can write your lyrics and chords down. You can even write out sheet music or tabs.
However to have audible feedback is an amazing concept. To be able to digitally document all of your musical works is amazing.
So why do we always think of music in such a stringent and sterile environment?
Isn't music suppose to be as imaginative and raw as we are?
Music in my opinion is the epitome of humanity. The absolute best language for conveying anything and everything about, God, love, hate, or any other thing involved in the concept of humanity. It's anything but sterile.
So I always liked the idea of being able to capture that passion and energy at a moments notice.
When I was about 19 I came up with an idea for a portable recording studio solution. The idea was to be able to fit all of the basic requirements of a composing and recording studio in a backpack.
Even if it was a slightly large backpack.
I realized that beyond all the insane outboard gear you can get yourself caught up in, there's not much to a recording studio at it's most primal level.
Computer
Audio Interface
Microphone
Microphone cable
That's it!
So if you want you can get a mic, a mic cable, a buss powered interface and a laptop.
This is super simple and great for doing basic things.
However over time my highly refined concept needed drastic expansion. But my primary requirement remained the same.
I want a recording studio in a backpack.
I like to fancy myself as a composer on top of being a singer/songwriter.
So as a composer I came across virtual instruments. It was stroke of genius for whoever thought these things up!
Nowadays a virtual instrument is as expansive as you want and much cheaper and more practical than the real thing.
A primary example of this is Native Instruments. They are a company that makes several virtual instruments.
Let's take Battery 3 for example. It's a product designed around drums. Any kind of drum you can imagine they probably have it in there. From electronic and weird, to orchestral, ethnic, rock, jazz, pop you name it they probably have it.
For a good rock drum set you can be set back thousands.
With Battery you are set back a couple hundred and you have access to thousands of drums!
As you can see from the above link it's not terribly expensive.
I use it almost every day in my work.
Now to run those instruments you can use the piano roll on your recording software.
You could also use a midi controller keyboard or pad controller. This is my personal favorite as far as options go, since you still play the instrument.
Neither way is wrong though and doing what ever works for you is perfect.
I have a M-audio keystation keyboard for my home studio.
I also have an M-audio Oxygen 25 for my backpack studio.
I unfortunately don't have a link for the Oxygen 25 but the keystation link is above.
I use the keystation for piano based things where I need to cover a lot of keys very quickly. I personally use the 88 key one.
However if I'm writing orchestra parts or anything other than full keyboard parts I jump for the 25 key.
The key restriction forces me to think about what I'm playing more and actually results in better music.
This 25 key controller fits in my backpack as well.
This means the list is as follows
-Computer
-Interface-
-Microphone
-Mic cable
-2 usb cables
-25 key controller
-Optional mixing headphones (not optional for me)
All fits in my slightly oversized backpack.
People are shocked and amazed when they see me recording from a backpack or coming up with a full orchestral piece with a tiny keyboard and a Macbook laptop.
Mac vs Pc
It doesn't matter leave it at that.
I have a Mac, because I prefer it. Not because one is better than the other.
If you have any other questions regarding portable recording studios feel free to comment! I will answer all questions to the best of my ability!
Ever since I was a teenager this never appealed to me. I never liked the thought of having to go to the ends of the earth to record an idea. This brings me to my next thought. I've never imagined a recording studio as being anything more than a sketchpad. I mean you can write your lyrics and chords down. You can even write out sheet music or tabs.
However to have audible feedback is an amazing concept. To be able to digitally document all of your musical works is amazing.
So why do we always think of music in such a stringent and sterile environment?
Isn't music suppose to be as imaginative and raw as we are?
Music in my opinion is the epitome of humanity. The absolute best language for conveying anything and everything about, God, love, hate, or any other thing involved in the concept of humanity. It's anything but sterile.
So I always liked the idea of being able to capture that passion and energy at a moments notice.
When I was about 19 I came up with an idea for a portable recording studio solution. The idea was to be able to fit all of the basic requirements of a composing and recording studio in a backpack.
Even if it was a slightly large backpack.
I realized that beyond all the insane outboard gear you can get yourself caught up in, there's not much to a recording studio at it's most primal level.
Computer
Audio Interface
Microphone
Microphone cable
That's it!
So if you want you can get a mic, a mic cable, a buss powered interface and a laptop.
This is super simple and great for doing basic things.
However over time my highly refined concept needed drastic expansion. But my primary requirement remained the same.
I want a recording studio in a backpack.
I like to fancy myself as a composer on top of being a singer/songwriter.
So as a composer I came across virtual instruments. It was stroke of genius for whoever thought these things up!
Nowadays a virtual instrument is as expansive as you want and much cheaper and more practical than the real thing.
A primary example of this is Native Instruments. They are a company that makes several virtual instruments.
Let's take Battery 3 for example. It's a product designed around drums. Any kind of drum you can imagine they probably have it in there. From electronic and weird, to orchestral, ethnic, rock, jazz, pop you name it they probably have it.
For a good rock drum set you can be set back thousands.
With Battery you are set back a couple hundred and you have access to thousands of drums!
As you can see from the above link it's not terribly expensive.
I use it almost every day in my work.
Now to run those instruments you can use the piano roll on your recording software.
You could also use a midi controller keyboard or pad controller. This is my personal favorite as far as options go, since you still play the instrument.
Neither way is wrong though and doing what ever works for you is perfect.
I have a M-audio keystation keyboard for my home studio.
I also have an M-audio Oxygen 25 for my backpack studio.
I unfortunately don't have a link for the Oxygen 25 but the keystation link is above.
I use the keystation for piano based things where I need to cover a lot of keys very quickly. I personally use the 88 key one.
However if I'm writing orchestra parts or anything other than full keyboard parts I jump for the 25 key.
The key restriction forces me to think about what I'm playing more and actually results in better music.
This 25 key controller fits in my backpack as well.
This means the list is as follows
-Computer
-Interface-
-Microphone
-Mic cable
-2 usb cables
-25 key controller
-Optional mixing headphones (not optional for me)
All fits in my slightly oversized backpack.
People are shocked and amazed when they see me recording from a backpack or coming up with a full orchestral piece with a tiny keyboard and a Macbook laptop.
Mac vs Pc
It doesn't matter leave it at that.
I have a Mac, because I prefer it. Not because one is better than the other.
If you have any other questions regarding portable recording studios feel free to comment! I will answer all questions to the best of my ability!
Saturday, February 23, 2013
Thoughts on music as a career
You know, we all do it. We say we're going to work on songs and we actually do. However there are those times when we really don't and every once in a while we allow that time with music to grow less and less. We spend tons of time on social media, watching tv, or doing anything really. But unfortunately we just don't work on music.
We call ourselves songwriters and composers right? Why don't we ever really get down into the depth's of our souls with music like we used to? Why don't we bleed for it anymore?
As time goes by we tend to forget how wonderful writing music really is. It's definitely unfortunate. However it takes time and discipline to get back into the groove.
Well I can't say that for all of the music world. However for us mere mortals we require time and patience.
It's an old concept of effort and reward. Most people like to be rewarded for their time. For some of us we only require a finished piece to feel satisfied. That sense of accomplishment if you will. For other's they feel the need for more external and non-holistic rewards. Some could desire payment for their work, others maybe praise. I think personally a lot of people would like to have both.
As you may or may not know my primary goal right now is to gain financially from my writing, enough so that I can make music full time.
This is not to say I'm doing it for the money. If I were doing that I would be in another career path. However I would like to make enough to pay the bills and have some extra for play. This way I don't have to hold down regular jobs in order to keep my house.
It's a struggle I believe most artist's or writer's go through in their lives. We want a ton of time to pursue our art without having to worry about where we are going to get food from.
Truth be told even though vast riches sounds nice I think I would be happy just doing music for a living and paying the bills.
What are your thoughts?
We call ourselves songwriters and composers right? Why don't we ever really get down into the depth's of our souls with music like we used to? Why don't we bleed for it anymore?
As time goes by we tend to forget how wonderful writing music really is. It's definitely unfortunate. However it takes time and discipline to get back into the groove.
Well I can't say that for all of the music world. However for us mere mortals we require time and patience.
It's an old concept of effort and reward. Most people like to be rewarded for their time. For some of us we only require a finished piece to feel satisfied. That sense of accomplishment if you will. For other's they feel the need for more external and non-holistic rewards. Some could desire payment for their work, others maybe praise. I think personally a lot of people would like to have both.
As you may or may not know my primary goal right now is to gain financially from my writing, enough so that I can make music full time.
This is not to say I'm doing it for the money. If I were doing that I would be in another career path. However I would like to make enough to pay the bills and have some extra for play. This way I don't have to hold down regular jobs in order to keep my house.
It's a struggle I believe most artist's or writer's go through in their lives. We want a ton of time to pursue our art without having to worry about where we are going to get food from.
Truth be told even though vast riches sounds nice I think I would be happy just doing music for a living and paying the bills.
What are your thoughts?
Monday, January 14, 2013
Alexander the Great can Teach You to Write Music!
Hello folks,
I've noticed something that most of the people I know in music don't seem to take into account when they work their craft.
A songwriter is an author.
What does this mean exactly? Well in my humble opinion a song writer is similar to a novel writer in some regards.
They are writing someone's story.
For most songwriter's they are writing their own story bit by bit song by song.
Religious songwriter's may write stories from whatever sacred text they follow and put it to a melody.
Other's however write the stories that other people go through. This is one area I like to delve into myself. One of my favorite things to do when writing lyrical music or thematic instrumentals even is to go to my local library and pick up a history book.
Keep in mind that most feel history is a very dry and (bad pun) dated subject. However I'm going to attempt to change your minds today.
The first thing you need to know about history is that it's the most human subject of study you can imagine. History for the most part deals with the actions and consequences of people. Okay most of us can agree with that on some kind of level, however it goes much deeper than that!
Take for example Alexander the Great. You can look at his historical biography and you can try and put yourself in his shoes in your imagination. The more you do this the more you can start to identify with that particular character in history. Because for the sheer fact human emotion is similar in every human being. We all feel love, passion, ambition, distress, confidence, pride, fear, all of it. Imagine the pride Alexander must have felt while conquering much of the known world. Imagine any part of his life and how he would have felt in that moment.
History isn't some kind of dusty old group of stories. It's humanity at it's finest and it's worst. You can literally find inspiration at a moments notice with a simple history book in your hands. After doing something like this I've found myself writing music I didn't even know I was capable of. Such a variety of sounds that can come from writing music based on a story is much more powerful than just playing notes that fit with music theory textbooks.
Music like History is an intimate, grand, passionate, emotional experience. Most of all it is a very human experience.
The combination of the two is a very powerful concept.
I hope everyone can enjoy their time with music and find inspiration daily!
I've noticed something that most of the people I know in music don't seem to take into account when they work their craft.
A songwriter is an author.
What does this mean exactly? Well in my humble opinion a song writer is similar to a novel writer in some regards.
They are writing someone's story.
For most songwriter's they are writing their own story bit by bit song by song.
Religious songwriter's may write stories from whatever sacred text they follow and put it to a melody.
Other's however write the stories that other people go through. This is one area I like to delve into myself. One of my favorite things to do when writing lyrical music or thematic instrumentals even is to go to my local library and pick up a history book.
Keep in mind that most feel history is a very dry and (bad pun) dated subject. However I'm going to attempt to change your minds today.
The first thing you need to know about history is that it's the most human subject of study you can imagine. History for the most part deals with the actions and consequences of people. Okay most of us can agree with that on some kind of level, however it goes much deeper than that!
Take for example Alexander the Great. You can look at his historical biography and you can try and put yourself in his shoes in your imagination. The more you do this the more you can start to identify with that particular character in history. Because for the sheer fact human emotion is similar in every human being. We all feel love, passion, ambition, distress, confidence, pride, fear, all of it. Imagine the pride Alexander must have felt while conquering much of the known world. Imagine any part of his life and how he would have felt in that moment.
History isn't some kind of dusty old group of stories. It's humanity at it's finest and it's worst. You can literally find inspiration at a moments notice with a simple history book in your hands. After doing something like this I've found myself writing music I didn't even know I was capable of. Such a variety of sounds that can come from writing music based on a story is much more powerful than just playing notes that fit with music theory textbooks.
Music like History is an intimate, grand, passionate, emotional experience. Most of all it is a very human experience.
The combination of the two is a very powerful concept.
I hope everyone can enjoy their time with music and find inspiration daily!
Tuesday, January 1, 2013
The Genre Debate?
Hello,
Today I wanted to talk about genre.
Specifically whether or not you should pay attention to what genre you're writing for or not.
For most of my musical career I've been writing for the rock and metal scene. I started out by learning guitar and the first accessory I bought was a distortion pedal.
That being said however there are several people that feel you don't need to distinguish genre preferences. I both agree and disagree with that statement. You might be asking yourself if I have lost my mind completely but hear me out!
When writing your music I feel that you should approach it from an emotional standpoint but when selling it or marketing it to other artists pick a genre group.
It does sound a bit confusing talking about music from an "emotional writing" standpoint. How do you write emotion? How does one even go about quantizing something that is intangible?
That's what music is all about. Unfortunately most people though they might say that they know this never try to write this way. It is severely possible and almost a requirement for great music, however if you try to write emotionally without good technique your chances of writing something useful will be severely limited.
Sad to say the greats that can pull it off without knowing music theory like Hendrix are few and far between. That's why they are legends and most of us are mere mortals.
So the first step is of course to know your music theory and know the instruments you are writing for. All that boring preliminary stuff.
But to write from an emotional standpoint you need to change the way you think first.
Don't think based on the standard instrumentation for your usual style of music. Try to open up your mind a bit, and think about what kind of "colors" to use to paint the sonic picture you want to create.
If you want something angry and aggressive, try some distortion on a guitar and palm muting. Or if you want something to imitate sheer beauty. Maybe a severely sparse high pitched piano doing slow solemn notes.
Once you're equipped with the techniques and the knowledge of the instruments you're writing for the possibilities are endless!
The second part of the equation is to market based on genre. I heard once that if you want to make it in music focus on the music first then the names after.
You can learn a good bit from that, focus on the music but then worry about branding later.
Remember you can love the music but if you actually want to make a living with music you also have to think of it as a product at a certain point. Keep in mind being the big fish in a small pond is much better than being the small fish in the big ocean!
So the 1000 fans rule definitely applies here!
However you choose to write your music, brand it when you're prepared to sell it! So just go with whatever matches your overall sound.
I will have more on both of these concepts later but this is just to get you thinking.
As usual I hope you leave inspired.
Get out and write some amazing music!
Today I wanted to talk about genre.
Specifically whether or not you should pay attention to what genre you're writing for or not.
For most of my musical career I've been writing for the rock and metal scene. I started out by learning guitar and the first accessory I bought was a distortion pedal.
That being said however there are several people that feel you don't need to distinguish genre preferences. I both agree and disagree with that statement. You might be asking yourself if I have lost my mind completely but hear me out!
When writing your music I feel that you should approach it from an emotional standpoint but when selling it or marketing it to other artists pick a genre group.
It does sound a bit confusing talking about music from an "emotional writing" standpoint. How do you write emotion? How does one even go about quantizing something that is intangible?
That's what music is all about. Unfortunately most people though they might say that they know this never try to write this way. It is severely possible and almost a requirement for great music, however if you try to write emotionally without good technique your chances of writing something useful will be severely limited.
Sad to say the greats that can pull it off without knowing music theory like Hendrix are few and far between. That's why they are legends and most of us are mere mortals.
So the first step is of course to know your music theory and know the instruments you are writing for. All that boring preliminary stuff.
But to write from an emotional standpoint you need to change the way you think first.
Don't think based on the standard instrumentation for your usual style of music. Try to open up your mind a bit, and think about what kind of "colors" to use to paint the sonic picture you want to create.
If you want something angry and aggressive, try some distortion on a guitar and palm muting. Or if you want something to imitate sheer beauty. Maybe a severely sparse high pitched piano doing slow solemn notes.
Once you're equipped with the techniques and the knowledge of the instruments you're writing for the possibilities are endless!
The second part of the equation is to market based on genre. I heard once that if you want to make it in music focus on the music first then the names after.
You can learn a good bit from that, focus on the music but then worry about branding later.
Remember you can love the music but if you actually want to make a living with music you also have to think of it as a product at a certain point. Keep in mind being the big fish in a small pond is much better than being the small fish in the big ocean!
So the 1000 fans rule definitely applies here!
However you choose to write your music, brand it when you're prepared to sell it! So just go with whatever matches your overall sound.
I will have more on both of these concepts later but this is just to get you thinking.
As usual I hope you leave inspired.
Get out and write some amazing music!
Saturday, December 29, 2012
Thoughts on the Music Process
Hello,
Lately I've been doing a lot of thinking on the process of music in a general. Most modern independent musicians and composers do 90% of the music process themselves.
That is to say that all of the things that used to be delegated to separate people is now all being done by one person.
1. Composition (songwriting)
2. Orchestrating (Arranging)
3. Recording
4. Performing on the Recording (midi or otherwise)
5. Producing
6. Editing
7. Mixing
8. Mastering
That's just the tip of the ice berg. However as you can see one person is now expected to be capable of doing the jobs normally designed for 8 separate people.
As such the whole process can sometimes jumble up into a huge mess that in actuality slows the whole process.
It turns out to be a better process to take each step in order and not move on until you have each step finished.
In the example of a one man band; the best way to go about creating an album for that person in the fastest and smoothest way possible is to do the songwriting for the entire album before you do anything else.
This means that if you read music; you would write lyrics, find chords, and then set up a lead sheet with the basic melodies for each section of each song before you move on to arranging.
From there you would take each song and write out scores arranging the lead sheet from earlier into several instruments. Again you would do this before moving onto other phases.
To save time I would just mention that you finish out the list from above in the same exact manner.
The first advantage to this method is a constant gauge of your progress in the project.
It's much easier than saying; "Welllll I have 6 songs started but nothing finished."
I've fallen into that trap more times than I can count.
The second huge advantage is a consistant sound throughout the project.
Can you imagine doing the process by song. You would do all the above for one song. Let's say it takes a couple of weeks. Well by the time you get to the second song and get to the mastering phase for that song it's going to have a completely different sound due to the change in several factors by the time you get to that song.
Doing it this way will get you to the point where you can have a consistant and smooth project both sonically and chronically.
Now I won't get into the debate as to whether you should have someone else do the mastering or doing it yourself.
I'm not backed by a record label, and I fund all my projects myself. As such, I choose to do my own mastering. It's my choice based on my current needs. If you feel you need to have another group do your mastering (or any phase of the project for that matter) that's up to you. But I'm rather stubborn and I have a specific sound in mind when I start and it drives me nuts when it doesn't sound like I wanted when I'm done. In my case the only person I can blame for those problems is myself.
As such I feel that this method will not only work for my future projects but my primary musical theme "SuccoLamia" will benefit from the change in work method.
You see before when I would do SuccoLamia material I would come at it from a sound design perspective. I think coming at a non traditional concept from a traditional standpoint will make everything more concise even though I'm working on a multi genre project with a single theme.
As always I hope the things I've written in this blog help you with your musical works.
Lately I've been doing a lot of thinking on the process of music in a general. Most modern independent musicians and composers do 90% of the music process themselves.
That is to say that all of the things that used to be delegated to separate people is now all being done by one person.
1. Composition (songwriting)
2. Orchestrating (Arranging)
3. Recording
4. Performing on the Recording (midi or otherwise)
5. Producing
6. Editing
7. Mixing
8. Mastering
That's just the tip of the ice berg. However as you can see one person is now expected to be capable of doing the jobs normally designed for 8 separate people.
As such the whole process can sometimes jumble up into a huge mess that in actuality slows the whole process.
It turns out to be a better process to take each step in order and not move on until you have each step finished.
In the example of a one man band; the best way to go about creating an album for that person in the fastest and smoothest way possible is to do the songwriting for the entire album before you do anything else.
This means that if you read music; you would write lyrics, find chords, and then set up a lead sheet with the basic melodies for each section of each song before you move on to arranging.
From there you would take each song and write out scores arranging the lead sheet from earlier into several instruments. Again you would do this before moving onto other phases.
To save time I would just mention that you finish out the list from above in the same exact manner.
The first advantage to this method is a constant gauge of your progress in the project.
It's much easier than saying; "Welllll I have 6 songs started but nothing finished."
I've fallen into that trap more times than I can count.
The second huge advantage is a consistant sound throughout the project.
Can you imagine doing the process by song. You would do all the above for one song. Let's say it takes a couple of weeks. Well by the time you get to the second song and get to the mastering phase for that song it's going to have a completely different sound due to the change in several factors by the time you get to that song.
Doing it this way will get you to the point where you can have a consistant and smooth project both sonically and chronically.
Now I won't get into the debate as to whether you should have someone else do the mastering or doing it yourself.
I'm not backed by a record label, and I fund all my projects myself. As such, I choose to do my own mastering. It's my choice based on my current needs. If you feel you need to have another group do your mastering (or any phase of the project for that matter) that's up to you. But I'm rather stubborn and I have a specific sound in mind when I start and it drives me nuts when it doesn't sound like I wanted when I'm done. In my case the only person I can blame for those problems is myself.
As such I feel that this method will not only work for my future projects but my primary musical theme "SuccoLamia" will benefit from the change in work method.
You see before when I would do SuccoLamia material I would come at it from a sound design perspective. I think coming at a non traditional concept from a traditional standpoint will make everything more concise even though I'm working on a multi genre project with a single theme.
As always I hope the things I've written in this blog help you with your musical works.
Hello Again!
Hello folks!
I'm re-publishing my songwriting and composing blog. However instead of just talking about songs that I have written or treating this as a sort of diary; I am also going to be linking to files that I have written for licensing opportunities and just songs in general to show examples of what I am talking about in my blogs.
Of course this week I have a couple of files to share with you.
http://audiojungle.net/item/somber-indecision/1681828
This first piece is a piano solo composed nearly on a whim after seeing a really somber movie hence the title "Somber Indecision"
The second is more of an agressive Trailer Score type piece.
http://audiojungle.net/item/it-was-a-firefight/1609084
These are both up for license on Audio Jungle if you would like to use them they are royalty free!
I'm re-publishing my songwriting and composing blog. However instead of just talking about songs that I have written or treating this as a sort of diary; I am also going to be linking to files that I have written for licensing opportunities and just songs in general to show examples of what I am talking about in my blogs.
Of course this week I have a couple of files to share with you.
http://audiojungle.net/item/somber-indecision/1681828
This first piece is a piano solo composed nearly on a whim after seeing a really somber movie hence the title "Somber Indecision"
The second is more of an agressive Trailer Score type piece.
http://audiojungle.net/item/it-was-a-firefight/1609084
These are both up for license on Audio Jungle if you would like to use them they are royalty free!
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