God-tier

chill

Adam: Just give me 5 words you'd say Nate: 7? Adam: what no

"5 words *or less*"?? Can't you read?

@@bordershader he might not be able to read, but at least he has a sense of humour. Also you must be shite at parties.

Perfect always takes so long because it don’t exist

for me it's "perfect doesn't exist, that shouldn't stop you from trying" 9 words cuz there are no rules edit: here's another one cuz i'm high, "perfect may not exist to everyone, but it may exist to you if you work for it", just for the crazy dedicated.

But why doesnt it exist? I know an answer to that is humans make mistakes, etc. BUT why deny the possibility that there is a way to make perfectly what you want? Maybe there is a way. I respect the opinion that perfect cant be made, but i just want to start a conversation around this.

@@dreway4102 it certainly is possible to play what you want to play or write what you want to write but i think perfect in this context means that there is no objectively correct, superior way to do things

Hell yeah!

This. If nothing else, this. Tinnitus is hell.

This is so, so true…thanks for this!

This is cool! Thx, gonna brush dust off my old-school metronome :-)

I believe the quote was good pay, good people, good music. I appreciate you bringing it up, I love this quote and this matra

@@submh0938 indeed, I abstracted Adam's wisdom to apply to any gig, not just music. Here is the note I typed in .txt back in 2016: Does it pay? Is it with people that you like being around? Is it musically rewarding? Adam Neely - Q+A #15 - A Bassist's Inferiority Complex, Gig Requirements, and Extreme Metal is Boring - Aug 15, 2016 kzfaq.info/get/bejne/rZeUY5aq18Wycpc.html

Even snappier would be "Pay, People, Purpose" or "Pay, People, Passion" or something else starting with P. Even "Fulfillment" is a bit high-minded. Unpaid lolz with friends is 2/3.

Rhett Shull put it like this: The music, the money, the hang. The hang is non-negotiable, but you can get by with one of the other two; good people CAN make bad things worthwhile.

@@Dave-bo8ry for me the hang is negotiable, but we better be making GOLD and I better be making BANK

I feel this. I can't play bass, total layman. Friend of mine riffs guitar to my cover song singing. I've tried somehow filling up his play with chords and it sounds garbage. Turns out if I only pluck the bass notes on like 1 and 3, it sounds dope and sexy and groovy. KISS + BASS

ive heard so many people send music on discord going "heres my music" and i always felt like it was shallow. i figured out that they werent adding fucking basslines. Add Fucking Basslines, holy shit

People don’t add basslines to their music? I thought it was like an unwritten rule that you just wrote a bassline for almost everything

A variant on the punk-rawk motto, "Give no f***s". Do what you do for you, then it doesn't matter what anybody else thinks.

@Michael Lochlann that's the thing about performing music though, it never goes as expected and as the performer your standards are probably the some of the highest in the room. If you let yourself noticing flaws get you down you'll almost never feel good about performing because you always make a few mistakes. The point is just to focus on the fun of the act of making music

I mean, you have to make shitty music before you can make good music. And performing is a part of that. You don't get good right away. But I've been a sound tech for regular open mics and seeing people who sound terrible come back over and over without ever improving is unfortunate.

Serious question: what do you do if this goes too far? I have a drummer friend that I jam with sometimes. The only kind of music he listens to is like grindcore and similar stuff. I find it makes me anxious so it's not really for me, but it's not like I HATE it or anything. The problem is, when we get together with people and jam, we tend to end up in kind of an indie-jazz sort of zone... and this this guy jumps in with the most abrasive and aggressive stuff and starts screaming and growling and just totally drowning out everything else. He doesn't even care about timing that much, he just wants to pump the bass drum as much as possible. And because all of the stuff he listens to sounds like a pitched-down Furby put through a garbage disposal, he genuinely thinks he sounds good. Like, he doesn't even practice drums really, and because he thinks he's so good already that he never watches videos or listens to other drummers or anything. His timing is the worst of anyone I've ever heard who calls themselves a drummer. He's the type of person to think they are amazing at everything they do the first time they try it and really minimizes all the work other people put into their instruments and styles. He thinks he can play any instrument when hes really just doing random crap because again, thats all he listens to. And he doesn't understand why people get annoyed when he joins the jam. He doesn't seem to understand that we like playing in different genres and don't want everything to be a fucking grindcore death noise track. We only let him join because he said he could play jazz drums, which is what we were looking for. Turns out his idea of "jazz" was Primus, which... I guess an argument COULD be made there...but not by him lol. He wants to jam with people, but doesn't try to vibe at all, just totally dominates and then is like "great jam! :D" afterwards and we all just smile and nod but are dying inside. It's hard, because he's otherwise a very nice guy and it's hard to dislike him, but when it comes to music his confidence is WAY too high. He thinks he knows about every kind of music like it's all "easy". It's like how they say when all you have is a hammer everything looks like a nail, except with him he THINKS he has a full toolbox when all he has is a single, rusty, unmaintained hammer. This is why the guy in the video saying confidence was key left a sour taste in my mouth, because in my decades of playing, the confident people the worst to deal with, and usually nowhere as good as they think they are. Humility and receptiveness and critical self-analysis are much better qualities to have as a musician, and a person.

jake the dog said "being really bad at something is the first step to being kinda ok at something" FIFY

this

Thats very pretty.

ABSOLUTELY!

Great one

Fundamentally, it'd be seeing and *hearing* respectively. To actually learn, you need to *observe* and *listen.*

Who intimidated Art?

Honestly that's just good life advice. You shouldn't compare yourself to others, just do what you're satisfied with (to a reasonable degree)

@@herculesrockefeller8969 I think James P Johnson, Fats Waller and Earl Hines. But perhaps he took my advice and became inspired rather than remain intimidated.

@@herculesrockefeller8969 Life intimidates Art

Yep. Good martial artists believe that as well.

Thank you for putting it into words, that’s such an important thing to keep in mind

I always had that dicothomy where I questioned if I wanted to be seen and applauded by "other people" or if I simply wanted to play interesting music for myself. I don't condome wishing to be admired by the "general public", but yeah I think one's self enjoyment should be the priority.

1. I agree. 2. There are caveats though: a. What looks cool to you and what is easiest to learn on is not always the same. ( plenty of examples here but I'll keep this short ) b. This could degenerate into a gear-addiction downward spiral, where you spend more time looking for the next piece of gear instead of practicing. This is particularly important for adult beginners ( sic ). c. This could spiral into a downwards ego trap. Where you know you've spent 3 grand on something you are really bad at ( as you should be as a beginner ) instead of something you might have actually needed/ used.

lol the look of gear is what got me into the idea of owning a cassette portastudio one day

Those two points stand on there own to me and are both true. "gear doesn't matter" doesn't necessarily mean keep playing that valencia nylon string and be happy with it forever, I think it was more towards, you like what you bought, it looks cool, stop chasing more amplifiers and pedals and string gauges, don't follow the rabbit hole and just get down to it. It's a good way to be a "guitar guy" and not actually a player.

I personally went away from the look thing a little bit. I mean it has to look good but if it doesnt look perfect but instead it feels and plays perfect then thats better than if it looks incredible but feels and plays like crap

@@azzogathor Oh I absolutely agree with you on this. I favor the idea that gear doesn't matter much more but it is also impossible to deny that within rationality a really good looking and fun feeling instrument will just change everything. I also think that displaying instruments are also really important.

This resonated with me. I want to soak up a lot of knowledge and while that instinct isn’t wrong, if I try to cram so much knowledge and music into my brain in a short period I’ll get overwhelmed and I won’t even retain it. There’s always time to learn things, as long as you’re always learning in some way, you don’t need to put so much pressure on it.

That's so true, actually. It also applies to any instrument as well, taking guitar for example - it's not about how you shred in your solo or what gimmicks you make in the given part, but is about what you SAY. What emotion you express, the way you do it - a good piece of music (of any genre) is about a story and a journey. And I'm absolutely not talking about lyrics right now. Most of my favourite guitarists are not virtuosos technique-wise, but are amazing musicians because they know how to express their idea and passion through music. John Frusciante, for example, or J Mascis. It literally feels as if they tell you a story in the context of a piece.

Just start playing again, the fun will reappear I believe - that is how it was in my case.

never to old! picked up the bass again at 32 and almost on a full year of consistent play now. keep having fun!

Started clarinet at 37... But how do you find others to play with? Playing with my teacher is sooooo valuable but it's only 1 hour a week... I need morrrre

@@russelljazzbeck I don't think I'm at a stage where I can play with others yet, but I've realised I'll have a problem when I eventually do want to. I'm not sure there's a global community of older beginners eager to form beginner practice bands 😅

As another 30-something starting a piano journey, 100%! Best of luck to us both

good luck dude

This, This, and This. I started keeping my bass on a stand right next to my bed for about 3 months now so that all that needs to be done is plugging in the bass and turning on the amp (since I have an active eq and don't want to drain the battery). I decided to do this when I first got my upright and I noticed that I played it so much because all I had to do to play was just pick it up. I play so much more now and my progress has been so much faster and more tangible.

I can relate to this as a piano player. Even the minor inconvenience of having to turn on my electronic keyboard and pop on the headphones is enough to keep me away from the keys, compared to how often I used to play when I had a real piano in the room, where all you needed to do was sit down.

Unfortunately my active bass will drain the battery if I let the cord plugged in. Ask me how I know...

@@NicolaLarosa lol, been there

Doesn’t it drain the battery?

I used to keep my guitars on a 4-slot rack on the far edge of my room, but then I figured keeping my most-used axe beside my desk on a single stand would make me play more lol.

U can come back to the video 😋

Bass

We live in a society

I forget who originally came up with it but my jazz teacher always told me the 3 steps of learning to improvise were to imitate, assimilate, and innovate. You start by imitating musicians you admire, then you assimilate their ideas into your vocabulary, then you create your own ideas/innovations based on that vocabulary.

This is a good one. “Good artists borrow, great artists steal” or whatever that saying is

Agreed. Im the same age and am studying music theory now more than ever. And learning to read music. Making lots of progress.

I feel the same. Being a lone producer, I've basically honed my craft with all instruments I could get my hands on (mostly guitar, bass, and keys), and honestly... It sucks. The real joy is being able to jam with others. I need more musicians in my life lmao

Then I guess I don't want to be a composer but rather a band player 😅

After many years… including taking extremely long “breaks” (longer than I care to admit), going back to those rudiments is what has made me fall in love again with my instruments. I’m able to enjoy sitting down to discover and my instruments from the very basics and then zoom out and apply those brush strokes to the bigger picture.

even traditionally "bad" rhythms (like the drunken swing etc.) are perceived as good because they're INTENTIONAL

@@caseymclane1972 yeah, and even in cases where it seems like rhythm is omitted like free time music, you’ll still notice that the good and clear phrases have a defined start and end and that’s the rhythm

Isn't it so interesting how different things go in the mind of the performer compared to the mind of the audience? 99 percent of the time the audience doesn't know what the music is "supposed to sound like". (to an extent of course) Yet the performer does know what its "supposed to sound like" from hours of practice. I recently had a performance where I was doing vocal percussion for the first time. I lost the beat 2 times throughout the song but quickly got it back within a few beats. I felt like I had totally bombed it but when I spoke to my friends in the audience they were like "what? I couldn't tell." If I had made a face or something then the audience can tell like "oh he fucked up" but with confidence and continuing to push through it wasn't even noticeable to the audience. It's totally wack to me

As an aspiring artist whose favourite genre is Darksynth, I absolutely feel you. I also looked up tutorials for Ableton, tried the things that work, but fortunately, it was mostly from EDM musicians and so it never really sounded _right_ to me. Now, though, I've realized that I don't _need_ to make Darksynth just because I love that genre. I realized that I can follow my own path and do whatever feels right in the moment. Even if it's not that concise and not very well-produced, I am now confident enough to genuinely be proud of what I made so far, and I'm always daring to try something new I haven't considered yet.

Trying to get signed does feel like a race though.

@Funky Monk They started the entire paragraph with the TLDR. It was 4 words.

@Funky Monk But you could be arsed typing a reply?

@Funky Monk so true king, we were all waiting

Ugh spam