General Music Chat

I jammed with a bass player (I was doing six string for one of my own songs) who I found to be a rather boring cat. (I wasted him in a book later on)

But the guy had a great idea for his gear - he had four or more 12" speakers but each one was separate so he could use as few as one up to all of them and easy to carry. I'd be baffled by that (electrically) but he pulled it off.

Talbot

I agree with you 100 %. The reason I started playing music is to play original music. Had to learn covers to play out. Didn't really enjoy it much. So now I am recording original music. Have been for about 3 years. Have a lot of tunes . You can hear them on my profile page a few aren't to horrible. Use recording software and email, and collaborate with a vocalist in Tulsa OK. He is a pretty good vocalist. Has a great natural tone to his voice. Sounds fairly unique. Generally do rock and roll. Step off the path from time to time. Looking for like minded folks to come on board. MEATHEAD510493. Have 8 or 9 tunes on there.

Downsizing might bring your joy back, Dylan. Why don't you open a music store and sell anything more than 20 lbs?

I've got 3 Bose towers. Rarely need more than one, sometimes two. Don't need or want a sound man jacking with the knobs. They serve as mains, power, monitors, and mixer....weighing less than 30 lbs each.

Makes set up and break down much faster, easier.

'Putting out singles' - definitely quicker way to get music out, however to get it on all the usual sites for sale/listening, it's usually about the same cost (or very little less) than putting out a whole album at one time - this includes CDBaby or Tunecore. I know a number of people who released EPs in the last year or 2 - the cost to release/distribute a 5 song EP is exactly the same as a full album (up to 79 minutes of tunes), but what was cheaper for them was the studio time they were paying for.

Yes, playing originals is mentally more satisfying, but can you get paying gigs doing it? If so, great, go for it.

Can you 'burn out' playing cover songs on a regular basis? Of course, but you can get burned out doing anything repeatedly.

The songwriting part has got to be the hardest part of playing music, if it was easy everything everybody wrote would be out there played on the radio, but it's not.

I should say writing good financially successful songs, if not by financial success, how would you measure if a song was good or not?

I should say writing good financially successful songs, if not by financial success, how would you measure if a song was good or not?

DO people like it? Does it touch something in their soul?

How are you going to measure if people like it?

By the number of people who, being nice, say they like it?

Or by people putting down there hard earned cash?

How do you measure if it touches your soul? Sure it touches your soul you wrote it.

We know all the great songwriters for the last 1000 years have written great music:
1. By the money they made....ie The Beatles or any group along those lines who were commercially successful.
2. Or by longevity Bach, and Pachabel and others of this ilks songs are still played today.

I venture to say there are millions, maybe billions, ah hell, trillions of songs out there that weren't commercially successful, or able to stand the test of time. Tho their writers probably thought these songs were good and "soul touching", so which ones out of the trillions of songs are you gonna pick as good? These are the only 2 ways I see you can determine if a song is good, earnings, and time.

I sure would be interested to know how you can judge a song as good, other than you liked it, doesn't mean everybody likes it! I mean come on I don't like to eat animals or watch people eat animals, doesn't mean everybody likes that.

Just saying you've got to be able to measure it, do you here any cover bands covering your songs?

And Yod I do plan on selling off most of my stuff to a music store, but my Les Paul in its case comes close to 20lbs, as does my piano and case and synthesizer. I'm going to keep three guitar amps, one big amp, one pre amp, and one little Marshall backpacker, and of course my recorder and mikes and cords.

I'm just done hanging out in bars till all hours of the morning, and not into churches that emphasis anything but preaching about Jesus. So I'll be happy to play and record at home and haul my stuff out to record bands. When you run a big show you have a lot of equipment and I'm fixing to lighten my load.

How are you going to measure if people like it?

By the number of people who, being nice, say they like it?

ahhh, it's easy enough to tell when what you're playing is moving someone. (to tears...or just moving their bowels).

PJAZZ gig the other night, we played our last song of the set and someone got up from their table to ask what that last song was that we played.....it was one of mine. and when i told him it was one of our originals, he couldn't believe it, and was even MORE impressed. btw....guy is a musician. no mistaking the fact that he thought it was a great song.

...Or by people putting down there hard earned cash?

i suppose if they DIDN'T like it, they wouldn't spend money on it. but that yardstick certainly comes up short as any measure for whether the "songwriting" is "good"...people have always spent money on trash, no? just means someone was able to come up w a product for mass consumption. that's not "good songwriting" as i see it...that's churning out marketable PRODUCT.

look at all the new mindless nascar pop w these guys trying to rap! singing about how "my momma raised me right cos' that's how we do it in the country" over, and over again, and again.....and people buy that stuff likes it's the best thing ever.

How do you measure if it touches your soul? Sure it touches your soul you wrote it.

my stuff.....meh, it doesn't "touch my soul"...some of it is ok, some not. but i can measure someone ELSE'S music that way...if THEIR music touches my soul.

We know all the great songwriters for the last 1000 years have written great music:
1. By the money they made....ie The Beatles or any group along those lines who were commercially successful.
2. Or by longevity Bach, and Pachabel and others of this ilks songs are still played today.

one of my favorite songwriters is Nick Lowe......not many are familar with him, but those that are.....most acknowledge him to be GREAT songwriter. the fact that he hasn't made a lot of money or that 20 yrs from now even fewer will be familiar with him in no way diminishes his abilities, the songs he's written, or his stature as a great songwriter (among those familiar w his work)

How do you measure if a song is good?

Cause some guy in a bar liked it?

This so called mindless NASCAR crap as you call it has a audience so it has earning potential. These guys hire musicians who can write these songs down on paper (ie standard notation), so these songs have a chance of staying around for many years. How many of your songs have been wrote down on the great clef?

I'm just saying that the songwriting is the hard part of music, if it wasn't they'd be playing everyone's songs all over the radio, tv , internet or "any place else it was commercially viable"

I think Nick Lowe is a good songwriter, (better then any of us), but he would be considered a one hit wonder, and has probably made a bigger name for his self in the recording studio with other bands.

Not up there with The Beatles, Harold Arlen, Stephan Foster, Chopin, Bach, even Van Zant

by your measure...yes.

by my measure.... no.

at a certain point, if you choose to look beyond record sales it all becomes a "who is better" game ....is bach "better" than beethoven....mccartney "better" than lennon. at a certain level it's beyond who is "better" (unless your yardstick is simply popularity and record sales).

by record sales, popularity, and "hits" alone....we'd have to say that a lot of trash is "better" than much stuff that we can all agree really IS "better".

This so called mindless NASCAR crap as you call it has a audience so it has earning potential. These guys hire musicians who can write these songs down on paper (ie standard notation), so these songs have a chance of staying around for many years. How many of your songs have been wrote down on the great clef?

you place value on the fact that someone was able to notate a three chord sing song melody song???? I was able to do that before i graduated HS! and trust me...i'm not bragging because anyone can learn to do that and i don't think it's all that.

sorry, the fact that a song has "earning potential" does not make it a "great song". not in my book. it's good PRODUCT that has earning potential. not necessirly a "great song".

How do you measure if a song is good?

Cause some guy in a bar liked it?

you missed my point entirely. I don't think it's great "Cause some guy in a bar liked it?"

the point is HE thought it was great! and that's w/o any of the criteria YOU are suggesting we measure great songs by.... the song he thought was great ISN'T popular...hasn't been around for years and won't be around 50 or 100 yrs from now.. it DOES have a lead sheet w the music fully notated but so what....that had nothing to do with HIS assessment of the song.

How are you going to measure if people like it?

By the number of people who, being nice, say they like it?

Or by people putting down there hard earned cash?

How do you measure if it touches your soul? Sure it touches your soul you wrote it.

Lynard, I'm not sure that maybe you should just sell off ALL your gear and go retire somewhere. It really seems like you have lost the inspiration to make music.

Like PG says, you see heads nodding when you play a song. Or (in my case) I get messages/emails - out of the blue, total strangers - that say one song or another really affected them, or like one I got last week, from a woman whose boyfriend was listening to one of my songs over and over again.

'putting down there(sic) hard earned cash' - shows you're still looking at things like in the old (i.e. 20th century) days. People listen to music online now - streaming from Spotify, Pandora, Apple Music, Youtube and a ton of other places. They can do it for free, and when the commercials come up, they can just skim over to their next free listening site. They're not buying CDs, or even downloads anymore - because they don't have to! And if they're under 30, and really want to have a song/album on a portable drive/stick/device, they know how to quickly record/download it for free, too.
The only people buying music (albums or downloads) these days are 'superfans' (fans who literally buy anything from an artist) and musicians and friends. So don't be judging the quality of songwriting by 'sales'.

The mindless team-written formula country/pop appeals to the masses who don't really care WHAT the music is, they just like it for the 'moment they are in' - whether it be in a large crowd at a concert or a dance club. 5 years from that 'moment' will they still be listening to that same music? NO! They'll be listening to the 'music of the moment' at that time. Is the 'earning potential' you're talking about, that ability to pack a club or concert venue? If that's your ideal, then hang up the guitar, because guitar rock/country/blues has been long dead that way. Yes, there are still people out playing it, but not for the big bucks that it once was. 'The Times They Are A-Changing' as some songwriter wrote 55 years ago!

As to songwriters - Nick Lowe - 'one hit wonder' - guessing you've listened to old classic rock/top 40 radio too long that you only know 'Cruel To Be Kind'. He's had a number of other songs on the radio, and wrote Elvis Costello's hit song "What's So Funny 'Bout Peace Love and Understanding" too.