General Music Chat

Capt Scott started a post here about who is your favorite band or musician on this site. I have been listening to as much music as I can, but I havent found anything that is truelly unique. Dont get me wrong there are some great musicians and songwriters here but I havent found anything that just sounds like the next big thing or some totally new genre in music.

Ive been going thru my song catalog with the idea of recording a cd and really putting the time in to make it sound right, but most of my music when Im honest with myself sounds just like some other band that I was listening to at the time. From a money standpoint the only thing I ve ever done is play in a couple of pretty good cover groups. I never did well with my originals.

When I listen to music on this site, everyone sounds like someone else. Im not trying to be rude cause imitation is the ultimate flattery but Ive been searching for that band or musician that has something that sounds really new and fresh and Im not hearing it. Ive gone to a lot of other sites and havent found anything either so its just not here.

I just thought it might be a good subject to explore. How do you find what makes you unique? What is your musical identity? Have you gotten close to your potential?

I feel what we're doing is unique. Although it just sounds like grunge to most people. I feel its unique because were writing from the heart. Perhaps Individual would be more appropriate. It is Human nature to compare the present with our past. In a Zen thought pattern. If we were raised that roses stank and cat crap smelled good. Our women would put crap behind their ears. An extreme example to be sure but I think it tastes like chicken. Look instead for individualism perhaps instead of a new genre. I mean when rap first hit modern music they thought it was new. Yet this form of "singing" goes way back even past the medevil minstral.

Learn new chords which you never use.
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Learn 2 new chords every day.
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That's how I came up with "The 4th Emotion."
That's how I came up with "From Earth to Staion."
That's how I came up with some of the chords for "Jaunty Boy."
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Learn even some "crummy-sounding" chords; don't pre-judge: you'll eventually find a good spot for them.
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And - learn chords which are far apart on the neck. . . .
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Learn to play new variations of chords you already know. Learn how to play'A' on the 9th fret. Learn how to play A7 on the 10th fret . . .
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Learn an Am7, A5, A9, Asus6, Asus4 . . . .
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And be SURE to learn chords which take you a long time to finger.
Find some HARD chords, man.
String them together, and play them with a good tempo - you'll find that the amount of time it takes you to grab these new chords, IN TEMPO, will force you to new rhythms.
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Hmmmm . . . new chords, new rhythms; sounds like new music to me.
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Every experienced guitarist should be able to play hundreds and hundreds of different variations of chords.
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Here's a good exercise:
Play every chord you know, (use the entire neck) and play every variation you can think of, in every spot.
How many fingerings and flavors of "A" can you play?
Can you play A7 three different ways? 4 ways? 5? 6? 7? 8? More than 10? More than 15? Remember, use the whole neck . . . )
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Play every chord you can find, right now, and count.
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If you aren't over 200 chords - then you might have found one of your problems . . .
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Hey, if you didn't know, say F7, and you just learned it - slide it up one fret. That's F7#. Slide it up another fret (G7), and another . . . hmm, over a dozen new chords right there . . .
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It shouldn't take too much effort to get up over 300 chords.
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Learn 2 new chords every day, and I guarantee that you will be playing unique songs within a month.

Thanks for the advice I,ve kinda started doing that. Force myself to not practice the songs in our set but just string chords together from a chart I have on the wall. Its not much fun having to stop and look for finger placement and pick each note in the chord to see if I'm making it ring true. But I know I have to go there. Thanks again.

If you have to stop to try a chord one string at a time (to see if it sounds right), then you might need to practice more, my friend.
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Woudn't it help you immensely if you could play 25% more chords, freely, without looking?
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You might try scheduling every other practice session as a practice session with NO MUSIC.
Just practice fingering new chords.
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Eventually you won't have to look them up, and the 'new' chords will find their way into your songs . . .
Then they will no longer be new chords, eh?
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. . . and . . . you'll be a better guitar player.
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But, hopefully you will eventually move way beyond the chart, my friend.
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Hey, I'll bet you can probably fill up a whole chart yourself, with the various chords you already know. But it'll be a different chart than the one you're using. .
But - maybe neither of those charts are what you need, personally.
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Charts barely scratch the surface . . . and the charts will have a lot of chords you'll never use.
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But here's a suggestion:
Do what I did, and buy a copy of Ted Green's "Chord Chemistry."
I promise you that you will be glad you did.
He lists several thousand chords in it.
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Also - there is advanced music thory in it, but, for now, just breeze through the tab listings, and play around.
Imagine a whole page full of Em chords, or dominant sevenths.
I also guarentee that you'll be talking to yourself as you try out the new chords.

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You may say, I don't need that! I already know Em!"
Well, ok, sure. But what if you're working with a song on the 7th fret, and you need an Em faster than you can get to an open Em?
Well - you play an Em on the 7th fret, of course, because it's right there . . . no traveling required.
And, if you're on the 14th fret - Em is right there, too.
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I'm just saying learn more, and you'll be playing new stuff . . .

Learning new chords will certainly help you as a musician but will not necessarily help you create or define a new genre. Nirvana didn't really introduce anything new to the vocabulary, but was groundbreaking because of the attitude of the band. For me going out and seeing new bands playing is empowering; if you just stay home and practice you will close yourself off and become irrelevant.

Rythym Man,

Ted Greens stuff is awesome. I had a couple of his books in college and they got me thru jazz 101.

What I was writing about in this thread was not about being a better musician. I was curious how does a musician know when hes onto something more. I dont know how to put it into words. For myself I have a song posted called Funky Bee. Ive talked to a drummer and bassist about recording a cd of my best stuff. I have about 4 songs that fit in the vein of this song, that seem to be reaching for me. These songs are the ones they tell me to include for sure, cause they are different. Lately I have been writing a lot of new songs but they arent really new. They dont have that feeling of a breakthru. I guess I should just keep writing and write thru the wall Ive put up.

Thanks for the input on chords. Sometimes you need to turn your voicings inside and out to get to something fresh. I need to brush up on that. I just wrote a song with the big ole Em chord and for recording I dont really want to voice the low E string. I just need to invert it to get the sonic space Im after.

Jimmy,

When I go see local young bands play they all seem to fit in that same genre of new metal. I like the guitar riffs, I like the double bass drums, I like the alternate tunings, but I cant stand that growling vocal style.

I need another Soundgarden to come along.

Thanks again and yes I do need a lot more practice. Fortunately my weekend only work routine Gives me lots of time to do so. I am also fortunate as a new player to already have a band to play and grow with.
How many people, two years after picking up a guitar have the opportunity to play in public unless they are some kinda phenom. I think thats rare. I do not take my musical / band obligation lightly.

Jimmy,

When I go see local young bands play they all seem to fit in that same genre of new metal. I like the guitar riffs, I like the double bass drums, I like the alternate tunings, but I cant stand that growling vocal style.

I need another Soundgarden to come along.

Interesting that you mention Soundgarden, that's the band that is mentioned most when people hear my new originals. But finding a Chris Cornell ain't so easy.

There are a lot of bands that have a similar style as you mentioned, but the more bands you see the more variation is apparent. Once you adopt an "us and them" mentality you're pretty much done.

I just play whatever I like and I don't follow anything too closely. That makes me feel like it's different. lol

Personally, I don't think you should worry about whether you have an original sound or not. THe basic truth to music is that it has an alphabet of twelve letters (notes) that have previously been arranged in probably every possible way. I'm sure I will probably come under fire for my oversimplification of it, but that's just my theory. That being said, there's a not-so-fine line between plaguerism and creative "re-hashing".
I used to worry greatly about writing "something new." Nowadays, I find it more important to write something I believe in. Basically, what I'm saying is that my breakthrough feeling comes when I feel that I've made a genuine musical and lyrical statement. Every time someone hears one of my songs, they tell me it sounds like someone else. The funny thing is that I can play the same song for a dozen different people and have it compared to a dozen different artists. At this point, as long as they like the song, I take the comparison as a compliment.

Count me with Joseph.

Music is emotion, create emotion with music and you are doing it correctly.

Original? When it comes to genre I'm not sure there is such a thing. Everyone sounds like somebody. I try to mix it up but still it's nothing really new. I just finished a song that's a bluesy jazz piece but I'm sure someone has done something like it. When someone says to me hey, it's been done before or it's been done to death, I say so what! If I wanted to be truly different I suppose I could shove a harmonica up my arse and a kazoo up each nostril hang upside down in a tree and try to sneeze and fart some new sound out. Oh and HowlinJ, don't say you've already done that one!

I agree with Joseph, Capt., and Mikey

Some original things I've done "musically" in the last 57 years.

I was a welder-fitter in a streetlight factory,and I became proficient at playing very large tapered steel tubes with a pair of four pound hammers.

I built my theremin in such a way (flat triangular antennae) that I could control both volume and pitch with one hand, freeing up the other for keyboard.

When I was even more poor then I am now, I conjured up the "poor mans Leslie" by placing a variable speed house fan in front of my Super Reverb Amp and playing my Farfisa organ through it.

I can play The Star Spangled Banner on a Pneumatic rotary file.(used to get requests at work)

I've been known to play some screemin' solos on HALF of my clarinet.

My approach to the Hohner Clavinet was one utilizing lots of feedback and distortion (Stevie Wonder, If you can read this, eat your heart out)

I discovered that I could play "music" on the Super Reverb alone by plugging a guitar chord from the speaker output jack into the reverb channel! (don't try this one Chillin')

anyways... needles to say, I made my share of unorthodox noise.

KEEP ON ROCKIN CREATIVLY!
Howlin'