General Music Chat

Sometimes, in recording, a mistake (or accidental) note can ad to the dynamics of the song. Make the song colorful and less sterile.

I would leave it to the artist discretion on taking it out or leaving it.

Can you imagine when the first blues recordings came out to the public.... "Wuts with all these wrong notes" (blue notes)

IMHO, many thingies in music occur because of mistakes. A finger slip here, a twitch there can lend some interesting affects to music that were not planned. I believe that is why trills, grace notes, mordants etc. exist in classical music. Instead of recifying the blurb, the early composer would write the mistake in the music ( I meant for that to happen ). I composed a piece in college for piano and trombone. I am no pianist at all which was why I composed the piece...less chances of making a mistake. Well my finger slipped and added the 7th and/or 9th note which sounded good to me so I left it in.

Mistakes in a performance cannot be treated as mistakes. The mistake has to become part of the performance and do not share the mistake with anyone. If someone comes up to you and says "Wow, what a performance! Don't reply back with "Yeah, but I missed the g in the 5555th bar, I couldn't believe it". No matter how hard and how perfectly we practice and rehears, there most likely will be a mistake...Yo Yo Ma makes mistakes but that doesn't take away from a beautiful performance. That won't take away his "soul" in the performance.

Worrying about mistakes invokes a fearful performance. Don't be skerd. Remember Babe Ruth did not hit every freakin' ball out of the ball park. He even missed a ball or two. But with every ball he swung at, he swung with all of his might...no fear.
Oh BTW, lookie here. Can you figure out which on is me
http://www.iusd.k12.ca.us/EmployeesOfTh ... -2009.html

Thanks for that post Mary.
I have gotten better with my poker face while playing. But I still run my mouth too much after the fact. Your right, I should accept praise graciously and not play it down by talking about how poorly "I" felt we or I did.
As for criticisms. The boys made me stop shooting hecklers. We were running out of space in the back of the trailer.

Hey, Congradulations on being honored for your teaching!!

Perhaps when you have a free year you can teach me to spell.

CHIPPY , I LOVE MY MISTAKES.
Getting married....
Having kids....
Playin guit.....
Being able to do nice things , from the heart.....
Not knowing the answer to any of your questions....
RGM , I did a little research into your 60hz drop and 84 bump, very interesting.
O.K. MUSICIANS!!!!!

Very tough question... Should I go back and remove all the little live playing feeling and fix little things that aren't " PERFECT" on the main guitar.
I recorded this almost after I wrote it. I was using 2week old strings on my guit,and I didn't expect the feeling to come across as strong as it did to me.
NEW STRINGS AND REHEARSED , I CAN MAKE THIS SOUND REALLY "POLISHED" . I dont know if I can duplicate the feeling....PS I am talking about "SPRING BREEZE"
PS BASS TRAX FIXED JUST WAITING FOR LIVE DRUMMERS.

For some reason the re re mix of "SPRING BREEZE" was hung up like a dog at 0:09.
I let my wife hear the original cut which she (and I ) like a lot.

THANX SANS, Something going on with this site. Maybe they dont like mac. still cant upload photos, support told me they might know what the problem is.
told me to send them hard copies.. I,m not gonna do that,these are simple fun pictures I want to share. Music wise I have had the same problems with other sites as well as this one too. I' m not a comp guy.
Been going through state by state, much good music, time consuming.....ONE OUT OF THIRTY HAS ANY MUSIC POSTED!!!

DO APPRECIATE YOU AND YOUR INPUT

THANX Glen

Thanks for that post Mary.
I have gotten better with my poker face while playing. But I still run my mouth too much after the fact. Your right, I should accept praise graciously and not play it down by talking about how poorly "I" felt we or I did.
As for criticisms. The boys made me stop shooting hecklers. We were running out of space in the back of the trailer.

Hey, Congradulations on being honored for your teaching!!

Perhaps when you have a free year you can teach me to spell.

Hey, you need hecklers...afterall, they are a part of the audience. Sometimes they ARE the audience.

With the way the school district is going, that free year may be a lot closer than what you think. Sharpen that #2 pencil and stop talking!!!

Ugh, It was such a shock. I was working hard and I was hot and sweaty. I had no makeup on and when they came into the room with the flowers. When they made the announcement, it was the most helpless feeling I ever had. I just began crying in from of all of the students. The vocal teacher gave me a hug and made me turn around and face the class. Then I had to take pictures. I was asked if I had known that I was going to get it. Heck no, if I had known, I would have asked a sub to work for me that day. So that I could walk in the room stylin'. I would have done something to my hair. I would have had on makeup. It was priceless.

WOW! Teaching in Cali has got to be one tough gig lady.
I will stop talking, if you promise to hit me with that ruler.

WOW! Teaching in Cali has got to be one tough gig lady.
I will stop talking, if you promise to hit me with that ruler.

Sure I'll hit yah, but I won't hurt ya

Imperfection is a beautiful thing. To hear someone struggling with parts of a song is a beautiful thing. "Perfection" in music is too sterile. Did you ever see Willie Nelson's beat up guitar? At times it sounds like he's struggling and banging away at the thing. Nothing is more pleasing to me than somebody who sounds good when they are making mistakes. A "virtuoso" who never makes mistakes is boring to me.

In a word - yes. They count in a very big way. Mistakes have no place in recorded pieces, imho.

Live, they can't be helped, but if you leave that blue note on your CD, it's gonna detract from the experience.

I'm the guy that spent 3 hours one time trying to find that one snare hit that sounded off, & move it into the perfect spot in one of my songs. It just drove me a lil nutso like it was. The drummer couldn't even tell where I'd changed it when I was done, so I guess I did all right.

When I go into a studio, it's with the expectation that I'm gonna produce as perfect a rendition of my music as possible, & that is what I work toward with every fiber of my being. I will use any means possible to get that perfection, be it multiple takes, punch ins, or mechanical tweaking with software. I just want it the way I want it, & am willing to take the time to get it.

Sometimes that means dumbing the thing down to use the available musicians, & I really hate when that happens, but can usually get something good out of the work, if I take the right amount of time & energy to do so.

I have never used the software that retunes the vocals & such, but I wouldn't put it past me to use it if I felt it necessary. Recorded means forever, in my mind, so if it's broke, fix it already!

Yeah, I drive ppl crazy with this stuff, but it makes good music.

Sorry Colors this is a late reply.

No mate I wasn't suggesting anyone thought they were a master in music because I don't believe there is one. I do however in talent and mastering an instrument which is something different.

Motzart was a guy among an age who in fact had a recording studio made up of people just like us but in this modern age we use virtual symphonies to test our theory and environment do we not?

My take on this was that if something sounded good would you tamper with it? Not timing essentially related.

Sorry again Colors. (Colours in the British Isles)

Hi Colors.

Yeah I know your right. I was more talking about timing I suppose, differences in technique on guitar, a shade lower in tone than were you thought it would be? How far would you go?

I generally like to get things right. I wouldn't call myself a perfectionist, but I lean that way. If I was making a record I'd want to get it as close as possible to what I consider perfect. But like all things, you reach a point of diminishing returns. If I can spend 15 minutes tweaking tone and get myself 90% of the way to what I think is right, that's time well spent. But if I spend an hour tweaking tone and only make a 2% improvement, that's not time well spent. There's a balance there.

As far as timing - that's what metronomes are for. There's really no excuse, on a non-live recording to have bad timing.

MOTZART!
Gee I hope I'm wrong in saying this because I love classical music.

From what I've heard and including myself there are no Motzarts here on this forum. Perhaps that will change, I hope so too so they can come tell us where the main beam is?

Talented musicians yes. But when you listen to someone's else's music are you looking at talent or what they did in the studio? For me? I'm trying to emulate a live scene on a virtual canvas. May work, may not. This includes mistakes just so I qualify that.

Thanks Colors!

I wasn't using Motzart as an analogy to the talent of the people on this board. I was using it as a measurement of endurance. Motzart's music has endured since he wrote it. That's a long time to retain a "mistake" if you make one.

These days you press an album - and that becomes your lasting, permanent mark. Once it hits the shelves that's it - it's there for all time. So I think you have to take that into consideration. An album is your permanent record; best to get the mistakes removed one way or another.

I think Philby said it best.

Mistake that sounds good while playing live = no one knows it's a mistake except maybe your band mates. (no blood = no foul)

Mistake that sounds good while recording = no place for that in a good musicians' environment. (the studio is not the place you write material)

If you liked the mistake you made while recording, maybe that song should be rewritten and not exactly how you wanted it to be arranged?

LOL Dance type beats mistake during your magnum opus = your new dance version.. (eewwwwwkkk)

I think Philby said it best.

Mistake that sounds good while playing live = no one knows it's a mistake except maybe your band mates. (no blood = no foul)

Mistake that sounds good while recording = no place for that in a good musicians' environment. (the studio is not the place you write material)

If you liked the mistake you made while recording, maybe that song should be rewritten and not exactly how you wanted it to be arranged?

LOL Dance type beats mistake during your magnum opus = your new dance version.. (eewwwwwkkk)

Recording sessions is the best place to make a mistake or two. They can easily be kept or erased on those magical computers. A mistake isn't the same as rewriting music. A mistake is a finger slip here or there. A wrong note is when you play something outside of the key signature such as a Bb natural when you indended that not to be a B flat. But, if you catch the mistake soon enough and switch to the proper note it will sound like you meant to do that. Plus if you completely ruin something in a recording, it can be easily patched. But it will cost yah.

If you layer your music and punch out the material you like/dislike, you mean.

No, I disagree. I prefer a LIVE take.

Know your music or don't waste time while you are paying by the hour.

An amateur goes into the studio not knowing exActly how the music goes.

If you are prepared, you already wrote your music and your band has practiced it as well. Don't dumb it down by taking whatever crap slipped out of your head, down your fingers and onto the recording. I prefer to do it again, rather than chop it all up.

If you're making mistakes while doing studio work, I would contend that you don't know your own tune well enough to play it consistently and get a good recording.

I want live music, thus what gets recorded is the same copy that gets played. If I have to patch, edit and layer, it's not to be a copy that can be reproduced live in a faithful fashion, thus not true...

If you were to create a copy that can be played accurately and yet you had to alter significantly, it is not just plain sloppy work not to rerecord it?

Any producer can lay 75 layers etc., but just how do they perform that live and accurately? No, be able to play it from top to bottom, no surprises and you'll get copy you can be proud of instead of being surprised if it's good.

You don't have to do it all at once, but make sure the meat and potatoes of it is done. (You want to go in later and drop a solo over it, no problem)