Making Music, how do you do it? Options

[tacoboy]

There seems to be a lot of o topics about the technical side of music production. I'd like to know more about the methods.

What effects has it had on your life and way of thinking?

How did you start out?

How have you progressed and where you would like to see yourself in the future?

[azkid]

Making music with an instrument is such a personal thing, and once past childhood (if we do mature), we tend to take advise or feedback personally. The ego rules.

That being said, your friend may need to hear that he's not keeping tempo from more than one person, and you being his friend may not count at all. Can he jam with others? Does he ever play along with a rhythm guitarist? Does he record his playing so that he can hear it second hand? What kind of difficulty does his playing cause?

Before he will make any changes, he's got to see the benefit. That's human nature. I dunno that cookies will work, but my piano teacher used to tell me a story about a pony she had as a kid, and how it would never come to her unless she had hay or grain in her hand. And then she'd ask me, "what is your bale of hay"? LOL

So as his friend, find out what he really wants out of his music and help him get there gently.

I used to play with a great lead guitarist, G'bless her soul. While we'd be jamming, she'd put me in awe so badly that I'd lose my place! She'd never had a minute of lesson and couldn't read a note. There was no "theory" what so ever in her musical experience. But she made that 1968 Gibson cry the blues like somethin' I'd never heard. She just passed away last week.

I've noticed over the years that folks who sing or play blues have a tendency to lag the beat. It's in their soul and can't be unlearned. If that's where your friend is at, then maybe you'd be better off to chalk up his untempo'd playing to artistic license.

Good luck with this, and make sure this friendship is at least as valuable as your need to fix his playing.

This post has been edited by azkid: Thu 11 Mar 2010, 15:29