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Talented Bantams

Discussion in 'General Chat' started by Ozbantam, May 12, 2022.

  1. Ozbantam

    Ozbantam Emergency Backup

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    G'day,

    After seeing offcomedun's cracking version of 'Going to California' on another thread, it got me genuinely thinking, how many fellow forumites dabble or have dabbled in music production/recording (professional/semi professional)?

    Feel free to post any recordings or videos here. Noty sure about others, but I would love to hear em'.

    If memory serves me right there was a touring DJ, whose name escapes me, who posted quite often a while back. Any others?

    I'll get the ball rolling... About 15 years ago I played in an Aussie band called 'Dirty York'. We released 3 studio albums, travelled around a bit, played a couple festivals in Europe, met some of our musical idols but nothing really became of it all. I soon realised that I had to knuckle down, grow up and get job.
     
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  2. king karl

    king karl Administrator
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    Could be a short thread this one :eyes::unsure:
     
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  3. Offcomedun

    Offcomedun Important Player
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    Thanks for the kind words @Ozbantam@Ozbantam

    This is a link to my You Tube channel with fifteen videos I made over the past two years. They started out as simple guitar/vocal recordings shot straight onto my laptop. As I got more adept with using Shotcut video editor and Cubase recording software the videos became more complex and ambitious. Hope you enjoy some of them.

    https://youtube.com/channel/UC-v52tn3p_LEK4cQ8NK5fLQ
     
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  4. River_City_Bantam

    River_City_Bantam Squad Player
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    Just old enough to be in on the punk movement from the start, though really a post-punk by nature and music. First band in 1981, at the age of 18; lasted til 85. I was a keyboardist in those days; the singer and I listened to just about everything, the guitarist was a Mod, the drummer more punk than anything else, and the bassist a skinhead. Mostly originals, mostly the singer's words and my music, with some select covers: Bauhaus, Joy Division, the Cure, Siouxsie, Lou Reed... Played a few gigs here and there; recorded a few songs for a local college's "new music" radio show; had the, um, how shall we put it?, interesting experience of being behind our bassist when he decided to rip a bandage off his arm -- it was annoying him -- and thus spurt blood all over the stage...he'd slashed his arm with a beer glass earlier in the evening, in good punk fashion. By all accounts the club's loo where he had been patched up was an even bloodier mess than the stage... We changed names on a regular basis; think it was one gig as Konspiratsia, then a few years as Psychic Response, and finally a few more years as Beyond the Pale. Brushes with greatness -- opening a few times for Chalk Circle, who went on to be big.

    The guitarist and I then joined up with one of the drummers we'd had, for a keys-guitar-vocals outfit called The Backward Eternal. Don't ask; even I don't know what I meant by that name anymore! All originals; all of us wrote lyrics and music. The drummer actually didn't drum, but was the lead vocalist; I added drum programming to playing the synths. Again a few gigs, another tape that never got further than a few master copies, and another brush with greatness: first on a bill that had the Cowboy Junkies after us, and A Neon Rome as the headliners. This was just before the Junkies made it big with the Trinity Session lp.

    Real life then got in the way; never got out of the rehearsal hall with the next band. Still on keys.

    More real life, now including the joys of grad school. But, one of my fellow students and office-mates was a guitarist, and we hit it off. I was by now a bassist; at first we'd rehearse in our office, later in proper rehearsal spaces, but most of all in various clubs, where he'd pick up gigs or residencies. There was a weekly 2200-0100 at one club that went on for a year or so; never many people around, but a great chance to work on songs. It was a mix of his originals and covers; it was usually just the two of us, guitar and bass, but sometimes we had a second guitarist and sometimes a live drummer. We did record a CD, basically a very high-class demo, as Vile Richard. He went on to record a few more CDs under that name; I moved a thousand miles away to be a professor. Real life getting in the way again!

    But eventually, alas, government funding was cut, and so the university's budget was cut, and so my department's funding was cut, and...goodbye career, hello early retirement. My field is rather small and specialised, and there were just no jobs available in this country. So, I moved a thousand miles back, hooked up again in 2017 with the singer from that first band, and am now working on various projects that should result in CDs at the least. All originals. I can produce broadcast-quality material at home, so I lay down all the musical tracks -- now a guitarist as well as bassist, keyboardist, and drum programmer -- Rob comes over and does the lead vox, and we get the backing vox in whenever the singers are available. For the CDs proper we'll make use of various old musical colleagues and friends and connexions to have a more formal studio, a live drummer for most of the songs, and a much better guitarist than I.

    It is a nice way to spend retirement -- growing old disgracefully with my guitars and other assorted instruments! One of the best things my parents ever did for me was get me started in music; piano lessons from an early age onwards.

    Hopefully there will someday be something to post here; you can save your rotten tomatoes and eggs for then!

    RCB
     
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  5. Fuzzy

    Fuzzy Impact Sub

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    My band supported a band who supported a band who supported a band who supported Radiohead so we were very obviously nearly massive.

    Actually, I did beat Noel to the main riff of Wonderwall which meant that I subjected my mates to quite a bit of swearing when I first heard What's The Story...
     
  6. Offcomedun

    Offcomedun Important Player
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    Absolutely. I have a music room in my basement fully of acoustic and electric guitars, basses, mandolins, banjos, various lap side instruments, harmonicas, plus a good computer, interface, mics etc to allow me to record myself.

    I really do wish I'd had proper music lessons when I was young. Most of my playing is self taught. I understand some music theory - chord construction etc - but I can't sight read music. I'm very much an 'ear' musician, which has certain advantages but also many downsides. I keep telling myself I must apply myself learn more scales, modes etc and to sight read, but I never have the patience for it. Lockdown was my big opportunity to do it, but I spent it down a deep video and audio recording rabbit hole instead. Oh well.
     
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  7. bantam65

    bantam65 Important Player
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    I'm tone deaf and can't hold a tune so therefore wasting my time in this thread .
    **so funny**so funny
     
  8. Fuzzy

    Fuzzy Impact Sub

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    I'm the other way around, I learnt classical guitar from age 7 and kept it up all the way through school doing all the nerdy grades and getting a job teaching for a music school so I was totally immersed in the theory side of things and reproducing exactly what was written on the sheet music in front of me. I then heard Smells Like Teen Spirit and went to Uni where I blew my grant on an electric guitar and amp and realised that the way I'd learnt music left me totally unprepared for playing in a band and writing music so I had to "unlearn" what I knew and teach myself how to play by ear, read tab and follow the drummer.
     
  9. River_City_Bantam

    River_City_Bantam Squad Player
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    May your basement remain dry! I shudder to think of the damage if I had had my gear downstairs when my basement flooded last October...

    I have a foot in both camps. I started with formal piano lessons and all the theory that entailed, through Grade 7 in the Royal Conservatory's system. One more grade and I could have then taught piano, but I had had enough -- Classical piano just wasn't for me. But, piano had got me started. Synths, and that first band soon followed. No tabs in those days, so everything was learnt by ear. A lot easier nowadays with all the tabs available!

    Nothing like playing in a band though, when you get a moment when you're all on the same wavelength and feeling like you could go on forever, even if it's just some silly riff you're repeating. But indeed, make sure you have a good drummer and follow him/her. For all the jokes we make about drummers, they are vital.

    RCB
     
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  10. Offcomedun

    Offcomedun Important Player
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    So now you have the best of both worlds, which I wish I did. I'm sure it's so much easier to learn all the theory when you're a kid than when you're 65!
     
  11. Nottsy

    Nottsy Squad Player

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    I’m a dab hand at reverse parking.
     
  12. Offcomedun

    Offcomedun Important Player
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    It's very unlikely to flood where I live - it would have to be be a flash flood from an extreme downpour because we're well above river level. When the Aire flooded Esholt in 2016 it came nowhere near us. I have had some water ingress from below in the past but it now has floorboards raised on 3x2 bearers and lots of damproof membrane underneath. I also have very good house insurance which would cover me if the worst happened.

    Certainly no tabs or YouTube instructional videos when I started learning. Bert Weedon's Play in a Day was about all there was for guitar learning in the early 70s. I'd be a massively better player if I'd had today's resources when I was 16.

    Yes, playing in a band is magical, when it all comes together. I've been in a covers band - The Reverbs - for the past 22 years. We don't play many gigs, because the band members live all over the country, but we all love it.

    A drummer walks into a library.

    Drummer (in very loud voice): "Excuse me. I'd like to buy some drumsticks please!"

    Librarian (in annoyed, whispered tones): "Can't you see, this is a library!"

    Drummer: "Oh sorry".

    Drummer (whispers): "Excuse me, I'd like to buy some drumsticks please".
     
  13. Fuzzy

    Fuzzy Impact Sub

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    Always be careful taking the mick out of drummers. They hit things for fun and a flight case of cymbal stands makes lifting a 4x12 cab feel like picking up a portable radio.

    We had a singer came and rehearsed with us a few times without being great and the drummer had already taken a bit of a dislike to him when he tried to crack the joke "what do you call a guy who hangs around with musicians?", the drummer's response was "madly violent". The singer didn't come back.
     
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  14. Salty

    Salty Impact Sub

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    Did clarinet lessons for 3 years at school mainly to avoid Latin lessons. The last 18 months on the insistence of the teacher I agreed not to take my clarinet. I can view your skills with wonder and wish...
     
  15. Offcomedun

    Offcomedun Important Player
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    Ha ha ha.

    I'm well aware that good drummers are worth their weight in gold. I've also helped carry our drummer's stand case on many occasions!
    But I do still like the library joke.

    Q. How many guitarists does it take to play the riff from Smoke on the Water?

    A. All of them. (I realise this dates me badly)


    Q. How long does it take to tune a banjo?

    A. No one knows.
     
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  16. Fuzzy

    Fuzzy Impact Sub

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    If it was easy, everyone would be a musician and then we wouldn't be the cool ones!

    With regard to the formal music education and then switching disciplines (so to speak) I wouldn't say it's the best of both worlds, it's just a different approach not better or worse, just different.
     
  17. Offcomedun

    Offcomedun Important Player
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    Sure. I wasn't saying that either approach is better than the other. But if you can do both that's got to be a bonus, hasn't it? Surely having a good theory grounding must help in working stuff out on the fly.
    For example, I can improvise by ear over basic chord structures (1 4 5 etc) using major or minor pentatonics and stick in a few blue notes etc to fancy it up. But once the chords get more complex, eg in swing or jazzy stuff, I get lost because I don't have a good enough knowledge of scales, modes etc to keep switching scales with the chord changes.
     
  18. Fuzzy

    Fuzzy Impact Sub

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    For me, no. I'm rubbish at the improvisational stuff, I guess I'm quite good at copying (although I usually prefer to do my own thing) but I generally just work stuff out through repetition. I don't have perfect pitch so I'm not very good at following what someone is playing by sound but weirdly I can follow visually so if I can see their hands on a fretboard or keyboard then I'm OK.
     
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  19. River_City_Bantam

    River_City_Bantam Squad Player
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    That describes perfectly the relationship between myself and singing...except any teacher would have made that request much much sooner! I regret it, but I am incapable even of some kind of endearing Mark E. Smith-ish warbling. Alas.

    RCB
     
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  20. Craven Cottager

    Craven Cottager Squad Player

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    The quickest way to get a band to split up is for the drummer to announce that he’s written a song.
     

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