Any Musicians Out There?

Heyo!

Inspired by the current mammoth of an initially underestimated countdown presented by @Camo, I thought I'd throw this net out. Who of you play musical instruments? I don't care if you're classically trained or just plucking a tuning fork to relieve headaches. I would like to know who you are and what you do.

I was a high school band geek playing alto saxophone. That was 5th grade through 12th, then took two more years in college under a jazz program before changing majors. I did the theory classes in college and loved it, but damn I hated piano. I picked up my uncles old acoustic guitar that was buried in one of my grandparent's forgotten back rooms around age 14 or so. Whenever Blood Sugar Sex Magik was released. I enjoyed the guitar and decided NOT to learn scales or theory or whatever simply because I burned out on the math of it all. I could pluck a string and find a note that I could hum along with and be absolutely happy.

High school was peppered with half-assed attempts at cover bands here and there but nothing lasted. When I moved to college I abandoned the saxophone to not piss off my apartment neighbors. Guitar was about all I could do. I picked up a drum kit back around that time when I found a more secluded place to live, but it was stolen one Christmas break.

Now, I pull out the guitar from time to time to try to write something or to work through emotional baggage or high-anxiety stretches of life. I still can't play a scale to save my life, but I'm content with what I do with it all: crap covers if I get the coordination and my own stuff.

I fantasize of formalizing some of my thumbnails to create some sort of online album one day before I die. One day. Before I die.

Pretty heavily influenced musically and vocally by Chris Cornell and Jeff Buckley (helluva hybrid, I know!). If I only had Cornell's range....

...

So what do you play and what got you into it? Do you play locally? With friends? On the toilet (for the acoustics, of course)? Covers? Do you write? Do you not play, but wish you did?

I would really love to know who does what out there. We're all anonymous for the most part anyway, so lay it on me!


(gah, I hope I've not already posted this question before)

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"My Dionne Warwick understanding of your dream indicates that you are ambivalent on how you want life to eventually screw you." - Joel

"Ever try to forcibly pin down a house cat? It's not easy." - Captain Steel

"I just can't get pass sticking a finger up a dog's butt." - John Dumbear

Hi.

I play stuff. I do most instruments, more recently adding in trumpet and cello. I have a couple tunes IA am currently working on and trying to get proper. I'll post them below.



This one is an adaption of Bill Wyman's score for the 1981 film opening - Green Ice..still not done but it may be a sizzler
https://drooble.com/joel.booska/music

@Joel
Thanks for sharing. I love the song in the first video link. Still having troubles registering at your second link to view it tho. Sent you PM.

So is that you singing? REALLY dig the voice and song. How long have you been playing everything?

FWIW: I enjoy your posts and Shout Box ramblings. Not sure why I've not directed more posts your way. Maybe just timing? Because of you, I patched my thumb avatar's eye. So you do have a silent fan out here in the intertube wasteland.

I was a musician, but I haven't done anything musically (save for some dabbling for old-times sake) since mid-January of this year. I think I got burnt out or something.

Hey man thanks!
Ive been playing on and off since 2000, recoring anyway. The youtube tune is all me yes. I wrote a 3 act film in 30 mins that runs about 3 mins. My first ever tune with vocals that I whipped out a few months ago. Thanks for the compliments!

The drooblevthing is the only online source i have. I can try uploading it to youtube when im done? Its totally different. Its an adaption of a cue by Bill Wyman, back when he was green scoring films after the rolling stones big albums

My first DAW.

Well I cant stress enough how much I enjoyed the vocals. For whatever reason I've always been particular about voices.

I'll try to register again tomorrow from work. I feel like it as probably my phone creating the issue. You should record more vocals.

Hm. Are you the guy that does video work for bands?

Thanks bro! Ive always been scared if my voice so ur comment has me reconsidering lol. If u check my experimental thread, i did a live improv i filmed/cut. I do music vids for bands but am just starting to do them for myself. I figured out a way to light em like suspiria on the cheap! Lol

You have a good voice Joel. I think the main thing people who want to or try to sing have to get over is just the fear. There are a lot of bad singers out there who get by because they own it and are vocally confident. Honestly, if you sing powerfully, you don't have to be that great. So the fact that you can hold a note is already to your advantage.

Ha! I know that player well matter of fact I was JUST on my old dusty Windows NT pc looking for an image.

Mind me asking what instrument you played? Style?

Thanks for the replies

P.S. I wrote you a letter in yesterday's shout box. It was in response to your mail joke in the 'is MOFO dying thread'. Felt more appropriate to drop into shout given how mail gets lost too. Yeah. Doesn't take much to make me laugh and the run down tangents.

I started playing guitar when I was 12, and it became kind of a light hobby in my teens (I was using Audacity then). Got back into it late 2014, which is when I picked up Ableton and was obsessed with making music. I also personally consider the computer, in this day and age, an instrument. You can do a lot with just a computer.

I dabbled in piano but never had the discipline to get really good at that.

Oh! And I saw your shout. I would have repped it if I could, it made me laugh.

Totally agree with Swan on your voice. And on how so many singers get by on confidence without really hearing how good (or not so good) they actually are. You definitely need to sing more.

Please tell me you listen to the bassist from soundgarden Ben Shepherd's voice? Or even maybe Morphine?

Very cool. Thanks for the added details. I guess my first real DAW was a bootleg of one of the early Cakewalk apps. Now I'm trying to relearn with Studio One. Recorded tons of ideas over the years, but never developed anything. Short attention some. Mostly lazy. I'm trying to get back into piano, hoping it will guide me into some formal structure again.

Light hobby. That's sums me up perfectly. Trying to learn more discipline now that I'm getting older. We'll see I guess.

I mostly play guitar. Have been in a few bands. I have a Gibson 335 and a Fender telecaster. More recently I released a single (just to tick it off my bucket list) and put it on Spotify. It's a minimalist instrumental tune recorded and constructed solely on a qwerty keyboard.

You can hear it here:

https://open.spotify.com/track/6O7V66kVBMAATYFvUs9bX8

^ That is mightily impressive.

Sounds kinda like the opening scene to an epic Western. Channeling Moriconne with bits of Jay Munly in. Great job.

Singer.

Also bad guitar and penny whistle player.

Going to guest on an album to be recorded in otober/November.

Guitar. I only play for fun and very little. I also sing a tiny little bit, but I'm bad. I sent some of my singing to @Swan and he said it's cool, but I don't believe this cygnet!

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San Franciscan lesbian dwarves and their tomato orgies.

I have played music on and off since childhood. My mother bought me a drum set when I was five years old, and also taught me some chords on acoustic guitar. I stuck with the drums up through high school, playing in crappy cover bands and as well as on the drum line in marching band. After high school I moved across the country, and was unable to continue with drums due to noise and space restrictions. I bought an old Kramer electric guitar and started taking lessons locally. As I became more focused on guitar, I started a band and upgraded all my gear and started gigging around the Boston area.

Sometime around the mid-90s, I sort of fell off from the whole band/guitar thing and started spinning trance in the Boston rave scene. The crew I worked with (Changmian Productions/Sonic Beating) threw events for several years up until about 2004, after which the long nights/weekends/parties/drugs wore me out and I discontinued raving. I still have my turntables set up and I still mix now and then, but I am mostly back into rock/metal at this point, so it's few and far between these days.

As time wore on I bought a couple more guitars, and around 2015 or so, decided to start taking lessons again in an effort to expand my knowledge and improve my technique a bit more. I landed an opportunity to take lessons from Angel Vivaldi:



I took lessons from Angel for about 1.5 years, which was a complete blast. An increasingly busy schedule for Angel and life changes on my end made it difficult to continue taking lessons, so eventually I had to stop. I don't play anywhere near as much as I did a couple of years ago, but I still grab the guitar and jam out from time to time, usually jamming over backing tracks or playing along with tunes that I like.

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I sing, play piano, and trombone. I have a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Musical theater.