Finishing things is good for the soul...

Almost finishing things is almost as good for the soul. I've recorded and mixed a song somewhat and I must say, it sounds pretty great. I played it for my friends and they were really into it. The only thing missing from the song that I didn't record was a vocal track. I think I have a melody hat I want to use but I have no lyrics, well no good ones anyway. I'm really self-concious about my lyrics for some reason. I always feel like they're not good enough. Maybe they are or maybe they're not but I can never tell.
 I really do consider myself lucky to even have an interest in a musical instrument, let alone be able to play more than one well enough to record and play with bands. If I didn't have music my life would be much more of an unhappy one to live. Thank god for music, eh?

Alright, it's time for some actual music, not fake, manufactured b.s. made for the sole sake of making a lot of money. Also some music that is actually just the basics (guitars, bass, drums, and vocals) but at the same time FANTASTIC! Here is some Oasis for you

Gotta get the ball rollin'

Sometimes you just need to sit down and make yourself do what you need to do. Procrastination is such a phenomena in my life as I'm sure it is in everyone else's, and it's not easy for me to overcome. I'll know that I have something extremely important to do thats due the next day, and I'll wait until nine o'clock the night before to do it, even though I had all day. With music, it's a bit different. I virtually have all the time in the world to record my songs. I have all the equipment there, all that I need to do is get it out of my drawer, set it up and record. Wanting to give it my all and really make it something good is whats difficult.
That is what I did today though, and what I've been trying to do for the last couple of days. I've ben recording bits and pieces of things but not an entire song. So, today I just said "alrite, that's it, I'm doing it" and I got it done.... for the most part. The song I recorded isn't what I would call spectacular but it's ok. Once I show it to my friends and we kick the s*@t out out it, it should sound pretty great.

Ok, I'll leave you with some more music you probably wont listen to and that you've never heard of, but its great, and here's Blur.

Writer's Block

Music can be a very fantastic thing, if you let it. If you're having a hard time communicating with your friends who are supposed to be in a band with you, it can be one of the most frustrating things in life. I've been coming up with songs in my room, and I'll play them and play them, and I'll think they're really great. Then I bring them to my friends and play them in another room and setting and they just don't feel right. I honestly don't know what it is. Is it the songs, or is it me? Am I just so self conscious about myself that I think nothing I do is any good? What makes it even more horrible is that when iI do play them for my friends,  I get no reaction. I guess maybe they don't share the same passion for it as I do. This is really stressing me out, seeing as how I'm trying to focus on that and school at the same time. I know what I need to do though. I need to start recording my songs myself again and not rely on them. It's hard work but I have the time. I need to stop being so lazy about my schoolwork and my music and I think good things will come of that.

On a lighter note I'll share with you a video of a band that I'm really into at the moment and one that you may have never heard of. I tend to like british bands more than american ones for some reason and here's one of them. It's Kasabian, and this video has an interview in the beginning so you can skip that if you're not interested and MIND BLOWING performance.

Learn Something New Every Day

Sometimes, when you stumble upon something you've never really understood before you don't even care. Other times, though, you get really excited and you use whatever you've learned to advance in the ranks of joy and happiness in your life. That's exactly what I've done now. I was messing about on the guitar just coming up with melodies, when i played a variation of a chord that I never knew how to actually use in a song. What it is, basically, is playing an arpeggiated chord (you probably have no idea what that is) but lower on the guitar. There's a Strokes song that I learned some time ago that used these chords called Whatever Happened, but I couldn't figure out how to use them in one of my songs. Well that day has come. I've written a couple tunes already using thee chords. There's so much more to do with them, I feel like I've opened up an entirely new world on the six strings instrument, that was right in front of my minds eyes this whole time. This is, in essence, the start of chapter 3 in my musical career. Now my songs are going to be much more diverse and better. This just proves that if you keep working at something, it eventually pays you back in the end.

The Age of the Understatement

Lately music hasn't been flowing to me as rapidly as it should. I'm pretty sure it's due to all of this school work that i need to be focused on, taking up most of my mental space. That's all well and good but i would much rather put all my focus into writing songs for my band but thats another story another day entirely.

The Arctic Monkeys' first album was the fastest selling debut album in british music history, their second album is even better in my opinion, and their third album is a departure into a harder direction. They're one of my favorite bands and I've been listening to them a lot lately. Yesterday I burned the lead singer of the Arctic Monkeys, Alex Turner and his friend and lead singer of The Rascals, Miles Kane's side project "The Last Shadow Puppets" album "The Age of the Understatement" on cd. I have to say, it's amazing. It's much more symphonic, but not cheesy. It sounds like a soundtrack for a really great 60's Bond film. If you listen to the album from beginning to end it's like going on a journey. Like I said it's much more symphonic than the Monkeys, and thats not really my style, so some of it gets a little overwhelming, but i definitely recommend downloading it or watching some of the stuff on youtube.

God I Love Grooveshark

Hello again fellow bloggers and bloggettes, time to discuss the topic of sweet sounds we like to to move our bodies in synchronization with. I know my last blog was a little all over the place so I'll try to keep future blogs focused on one subject at a time... hopefully.

Yesterday a friend of mine and I were hanging out at his house, jamming on guitar and keyboard, showing each other songs we'd recently written or started to work on, doing what we normally do. He then brought up a website that I had never heard of but is now definitely my new favorite site for music.

Grooveshark.com is the site he asked me about, and I told him I had no idea what it was so he pulled it up.
It's basically every song any artist or band has ever released. So theres tons of rare b-sides and live music on there that I've never really heard before. We sat there for half an hour looking up our favorite bands and searching for songs we hadn't heard and rocking out to them once we found them.

One song in particular by one of my favorite bands The Strokes, is one that I've heard before but I had a really bad recording of it from a different show, and you could only hear one guitar, but this recording of it on Grooveshark sounds so raw but you can actually hear all of the instruments and I felt like I was at the show hearing one of their brand new songs or something. It was amazing and now I'm obsessed with the song, I can't stop listening to it and I learned all the guitar/ bass parts. If you wanna check it out its here, and it's called "Sagganuts" (it was a working title) and it's awesome.
Use Grooveshark, listen to good music, and have a nice day.
                                                 Signing Off

That's Music To My Ears

Music really is something special, isn't it? Its something cosmic that we can't explain. Pythagoras and all of those guys way back in the day somehow figured out octaves and fifths and and the scales, and learned how to make music, and to me thats amazing.

You can obviously study music and get writing it down to a formula and a fool proof system, but, to me, the best music is made by just pulling it out of the air. Finding a pretty melody, writing some nice chords around it,  forming it into a great song that people will enjoy. Thats my main passion in life, it really makes me happy. Writing music and playing it for my friends, who usually say it's great. I believe them so hopefully they're not lying.

I never go into writing a song with a certain genre in mind that I want the song to be, which I think is a big mistake a lot of bands and song writers make. Bands will start, and they'll come together and say "what kind of music do we wanna play?", and the others say " well I like jazz music", and another will say "I like blues", then the drummer will go " I want to play experimental metal!". So they say the band is experimental jazz blues metal fusion, but they quickly realize they cant write a song and they break up after one practice because they don't have it in their soul. You have to play whats in your heart and what comes out comes out, you can't force it.

I know I went on a bit of a rant there but you see where I'm coming from. Ok, I want to leave you guys some music that I'm really into at the moment, and if you've never heard of this band you can give em' a listen and maybe you'll like what they have to offer.
                   Signing Off

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avPoDFfHtts