General Music Chat

Song title: "Nothing in Life is Free," an older song: copyrighted in 2009.

Someone said that all my posted songs here seem like the same style of music. So I posted a song from my 3rd album, "FILABU," (Falling in Love and Breaking Up).
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It's a folk song . . . uhhh . . . I think: I've been wrong about song styles before . . .
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I hope it was worth posting this song here - I had to delete 2 other songs to put it on this site . . .
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Alan, your songs are SO interesting. Great listening as always...don't know if it's folk, why does any song have to be genre classified? It's just good music...

RM - This is way cool. Great use of harmony. Do you do that with your guitar work, too - overdub, doubled leads, & such?

No overdubs - one guitar: that's how I sound when I play - just the one guitar.
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However I'll admit that this song is pretty darn hard to play . . .
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And it's 510 times harder to sing at the same time I play this song, but I can usually pull it off.
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When I play this song (for an audience), usually what I have to do is lie the lyrics on the floor by my feet, and quickly glance at them while picking the song.
I sit while playing, so I can 'grab the guitar with my thigh and chest - or the guitar goes flying all over the place.
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With this song, though, I have to keep my eyes on the fretboard almost continually - there's no playing this song with your eyes closed . . . fast changes, from open to all over the neck, up to 12 frets . . .
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The hardest part of composing this song was
1) to remember how to PLAY it, and
2) to make it flow smoothly . . .
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Thanks for the comments.
Hey - can I quote you?
Truth be told - lately I've been feeling kind of like the emotions in this song . . .

The emotion shows.

Well done RM.

It does flow smoothly. I am a big fan of the waltz or anything that is waltz-like. I would like to heat fuller harmonies in the voicals.

Well it's not folk. But I do like the vocals, it reminds me of something...

The guitar needs tuning, could probably be fixed with Antares.

There are 2 higher female vocal harmonies which we now sing with this song.
At the time I recorded it, there was just me singing. (yeah: I sing every voice in this recording)
I had to work really hard to do falsetto without sounding like Miss Piggy.
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Regarding tuning: There's always a critic in the crowd. JD, when you perform, do people come up to you and criticize every song you play?
Look, the guitar was in perfect tune when I started the song. Not 'good tuning,' perfect tuning.
There are 3 things which would result in any chords seeming out of tune:
> the fact that my hand is moving at 90 MPH to play the sing (and I may bend a few strings while playing),
> the fact that sometimes plucking the string will result in one of them going minusculey flat, and . . .
> and the fact that I only afford $289 for the guitar.

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So, JD, give me a fricking break, man . . .

Excuses not withstanding, it sounds out of tune, and not just chords but open strings as well. I presumed that by posting this you wanted honest opinions. Obviously you just want your ego stroked.

( . . . sigh . . . )
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Yeah, JD - you presumed.
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This may come as a shock to you - but I don't need your approval.
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And I don't need my ego stroked; I was sharing a song with some friends.

RM, Why do you not take critizism? I dont get it, Jimmy points out an obvious flaw and then you want to slam him. Why even post something?

Actually I was watching some movie the other night and during the closing credits I swear I heard a song that had the exact melody and key of this song. I cant remember the name of it, but it was like Deja Vu to me.

Good Song

No biggie John, I was merely pointing out that it could be fixed if he wanted to. We have the new Antares for Pro Tools 9 and have fixed worse than this lol. That $289 guitar might need some work, or maybe it was tuned by ear. Who knows. Some people like jangly out of tune guitar, and some people think their poop doesn't smell. But there's no way you can grow if you think you're already perfect.

I've all but quit posting. I lurk occasionally.
For years I've kept my mouth shut. Now I'll let it go.
RhythmMan, the only reason I am finally letting it fly is your reaction to Jimmy.
He is the man. He man handles his guitar. He has experience and imparts wisdom with tact.

I'm going to cut to the chase. Your ego is extremely disproportionate to your talent.

If I had callouses like the ones on your fingers in your pic I would be a monster guitarist. I would actually be able to fret fully, clearly, and in time on complex chords unlike you.

On "Nothing in life is free"
the 3rd and 8th notes you hit aren't fretted fully. They don't ring properly. They sound totally amateur. That's 2 errors in the first 2 seconds of your song. When I make an error that early I start over. You maintain that inability to fret your own song throughout the song. Clumsy at :25, :29, :30 etc etc etc you get the idea. You brag about yourself non stop yet you have nothing to back it up.

The overall vocal feel (your vocal tone) is bizarre. It's kind of Jim Henson / Dark Crystal. You even said something about Miss Piggy. So you are aware of it. The harmonies are mostly on. You actually have some slightly pleasing melodies on this one. That's a first for one of your songs. And this song is less pretentious/annoying than most of your songs with its repeating chord progressions. You know those great songs? Ones that people can't let go of? Yeah they have repeating chord progressions. They don't have 23 chords. They have 6 - 10 carefully chosen APPROPRIATE chords. That is part of what makes them good.

It's like you think a 17 chord progression verse is good. Guess what. It sucks.

The ways you describe your music are insane. Guess what. Soft rock and you aren't on the same planet.

Tone down the ego.

And YES your guitar IS out of tune. Use a tuner amateur.

Have you ever heard me be this hard on anybody?
That's because your ego is WAY out of control.

This song is about twice as long as it needs to be.

All of your songs are seriously sloppy. I mean "cool, cool jazz." Dude! Sloppy! And you talk about playing all the time. And you talk about how challenging they are. How about trying to work within your skill level? Record stuff that you have mastered while stretching your talents off the mic.

And "jaunty boy" ?! Please may I never have to suffer through that pretentious slop fest
again.

My song "Jaunty Boy" (and similar songs) will wear out anybody's fingertips after playing stuff like that for 3 - 4 hours; I don't care how much callus one has . . . There's probably upward of 700 - 800 chord changes in that song . . . never counted . . .
I do a lot of sliding, and a lot of fast chord changes.

Arrogant much? More like a lot of sloppy attempts at fast chord changes.

Again if I had callouses like yours I would be THE MAN.

Learn how to accept tactful criticism like Jimmy gave or QUIT POSTING. Your defensiveness reminds me of some 17 year old amateur ego monsters that come on from time to time. They post, ask for it, get it, get their panties in a wad, and leave.

Get some humility and you won't suffer through this kind of spanking again.

I've all but quit posting. I lurk occasionally.
For years I've kept my mouth shut. Now I'll let it go.
RhythmMan, the only reason I am finally letting it fly is your reaction to Jimmy.
He is the man. He man handles his guitar. He has experience and imparts wisdom with tact.

I'm going to cut to the chase. Your ego is extremely disproportionate to your talent.

If I had callouses like the ones on your fingers in your pic I would be a monster guitarist. I would actually be able to fret fully, clearly, and in time on complex chords unlike you.

On "Nothing in life is free"
the 3rd and 8th notes you hit aren't fretted fully. They don't ring properly. They sound totally amateur. That's 2 errors in the first 2 seconds of your song. When I make an error that early I start over. You maintain that inability to fret your own song throughout the song. Clumsy at :25, :29, :30 etc etc etc you get the idea. You brag about yourself non stop yet you have nothing to back it up.

The overall vocal feel (your vocal tone) is bizarre. It's kind of Jim Henson / Dark Crystal. You even said something about Miss Piggy. So you are aware of it. The harmonies are mostly on. You actually have some slightly pleasing melodies on this one. That's a first for one of your songs. And this song is less pretentious/annoying than most of your songs with its repeating chord progressions. You know those great songs? Ones that people can't let go of? Yeah they have repeating chord progressions. They don't have 23 chords. They have 6 - 10 carefully chosen APPROPRIATE chords. That is part of what makes them good.

It's like you think a 17 chord progression verse is good. Guess what. It sucks.

The ways you describe your music are insane. Guess what. Soft rock and you aren't on the same planet.

Tone down the ego.

And YES your guitar IS out of tune. Use a tuner amateur.

Have you ever heard me be this hard on anybody?
That's because your ego is WAY out of control.

This song is about twice as long as it needs to be.

All of your songs are seriously sloppy. I mean "cool, cool jazz." Dude! Sloppy! And you talk about playing all the time. And you talk about how challenging they are. How about trying to work within your skill level? Record stuff that you have mastered while stretching your talents off the mic.

And "jaunty boy" ?! Please may I never have to suffer through that pretentious slop fest
again.

My song "Jaunty Boy" (and similar songs) will wear out anybody's fingertips after playing stuff like that for 3 - 4 hours; I don't care how much callus one has . . . There's probably upward of 700 - 800 chord changes in that song . . . never counted . . .
I do a lot of sliding, and a lot of fast chord changes.

Arrogant much? More like a lot of sloppy attempts at fast chord changes.

Again if I had callouses like yours I would be THE MAN.

Learn how to accept tactful criticism like Jimmy gave or QUIT POSTING. Your defensiveness reminds me of some 17 year old amateur ego monsters that come on from time to time. They post, ask for it, get it, get their panties in a wad, and leave.

Get some humility and you won't suffer through this kind of spanking again.

Oh come on Paul tell us how you realy feel ...

but I agree with you ... I've never been able to listen to RhythmMan music for more than 20 seconds. And you are not playing JAZZ ... it's far from it.

I think when Paul and Jimmy collaborate they put out some of the best tunes on this forum ... the sum is better that the parts ...

LOL

Some people cant take it!

I was expecting something super hard to play, but for my ears I didnt hear why this is so tough, theres just a couple of movements in it to begin with. From RMs description I was expecting something way harder sounding, maybe it is hard to play, but it doesnt sound that tough to me.

But I try not to slash into folks music too hard cause we are all at different levels of playing, and also have way different taste, but when someone makes a sound comment and the poster cant handle it.......

Rock On Bros!