I'm into advanced bass techniques. I'm learning from victor wooten and marcus miller two of the best bassists in the world. I've been experimenting on artificial harmonics but my amp is not powerful enough. But so far so good. I play improvised chords on my bass guitar, and being a vocalist too, I perform, me and my bass guitar.

Infact this thread is open to musicians, skilled or not-too-skilled. Just post how far you are into music making. Maybe we could encourage and also help up-comers (if there's any such thing in music-- everyone is upcoming); But then we all could learn something invaluable.

The official musicians blog

Dude,

I believe you're already somewhere in the musical field. Do you also play the keyboard? Anyway, I can only boost of a few things in music. In order words, I'm yet to wake up from the the grasses. I would lead a fufilled life, if I ever see myself gracing and colouring occasions with my wonderful yet-to-come never-found-land kind of music, though would have it bases on the classical world. Do you have sheet musics that you can share or got a link real free stuffs. I'll be so greatful to have stuffs like CANON by J. PALCHELBEL.

Cheers.

Dude,

I believe you're already somewhere in the musical field. Do you also play the keyboard? Anyway, I can only boost of a few things in music. In order words, I'm yet to wake up from the the grasses. I would lead a fufilled life, if I ever see myself gracing and colouring occasions with my wonderful yet-to-come never-found-land kind of music, though would have it bases on the classical world. Do you have sheet musics that you can share or got a link real free stuffs. I'll be so greatful to have stuffs like CANON by J. PALCHELBEL.

Cheers.

Ok, me i am only interested in training my voice to sing ooo. I runa youth forum and we sometimes do musical presentation. We are trying to produce a two track demo Cd before september. Does anyone have an idea how i can make my voice a better one( i dont want to be professional, i only want to sing and sing beautifully, lol)

@natur

I'll check to see if I have that piece by "Palchelbel". I dont know if I'd be able to find anything but anyways, y'never know. nice to finally have someone say something.

@gbenga

yeah singing beautifully-- it requires time. You need something like a semi-intensive vocal training. It requires listening to your favorite artists songs, extensively. Extensively boring too. However, when it becomes routine, it wont be as torturous.
The aim of listening to songs over and over is to develop an ear for it. The brain deals in logic. For you to understand the difference between what you sing like, and what they sing like, your brain has to deduce the differences. . . most times, this happens sub-consciously. So yeah do that, you'll notice the difference, and funnily enough, this might just be all you need to sing alot better than you already do.

--retort--

I guess i have always done that. And sometimes i sing wildly on my own. I was learning the guitar sometimes ago, but i dropped it due to lack of time. But i still prefer to sing. I sing to myself wherever i go.


Someone once told me to stop drinking cold water so as to avoid my voice been husky or something, any advice?

There is a wide range of possibilities as to why people that drink cold water sing funny. It however doesn't hold true for me. I can eat anything I want and still sing good.

The sound of your voice can however be affected by whether conditions, like say, if the whether is dry, you will be coarse. Not like you wont be able to sing, but you will need to drink lots of water (doesn't matter cold or hot).

Now, If you can sing, you can sing. It doesn't matter what you eat. However there are times your vocal cords aren't ready, immediately you wake up from sleep-- in the morning; it takes a special miracle to even talk right without sounding like a corpse. Times also when your're fatigued, hungry, or dis-illusioned (pissed-off or sorts), or belly-full, you can't sing well.

Some people naturally have the high pitch tendency in the genes, which is most times random. He might tell you he licks pepper-mint or sugar or vegetable oil (which very well might work, just like a habbit of blowing the mic before one sings!) but most of that is all in the mind. So my simple advice is: go with whatever works for you!!

everything macalurs has said is sooo true. for me, cold water affects my voice a lot. (Just cant seem to stop though). singers should be very conscious of what they eat and drink and also the environment. A/C affects me for example. You can also try breath control exercises. Take a vocalist you like and score all their songs and see how u sound like.

isnt it a good idea to sing alongside to a keyboardist, or guitar?,


Thanks all for your advice.

Thanks for the effort relating back, macalurs. But, how can I get to train myself with sight reading?It seems to me that this is the biggest challenge one has to face before identifying his/herself as a pianist, or keyboardist [so to say].

Still hoping for the sheet.
Bless you, bro.

Mr. Nature here you go. I checked but no I didn't have them in my "collection". But you can get them online.

You can find a free audio sample here (Quick-time player):

http://www.classical.net/music/comp.lst/pachelbel.html

And you can get Pachelbel's Cannon in D major (sheet music) here. However, you cannot save it to a disket, you have to print out, I wonder if it helps?:

http://www2.free-scores.com/PUBLIC/pachelbel_kanon_e.pdf

So about your sight reading thing. I'm assuming you can already read sheet music, but you want to get confident to look only at the page while playing. I don't read music and I don't know exactly how that works. But I can memorize tunes and play everything I hear. So to me, it's all about learning the song till I can hum to it's every tune, then I can play it. And of course, this means I can play almost everything I hear.
Some of the greatest modern classical pianists I know do not read from sheets while on stage. They must have played the tunes so many times that they know it in all it's speed and accuracy. But not to undermine sheet music, I'm just saying that one trains himself on a more sophisticated plane if he learns to play by the heart, and from the heart.

it's all about practice. I know you've heard this before-- but if you really want it, you'll get it.

nice to see a musician thread on the nairaland, i play bass professionally i'll be replying later in the day, got a myspace page u can checkout my stuffs on www.myspace.com/darlingbass

Okay Macalurs, you've really tried the best you can. It's just quite unfortunate for me. But, anyway, if you ever stumbled on the stuff, let me in. The link you gave did nothing to get worked out. That's by the way, How you living, brother?

natur,
I could not attach a .zip file. What's your contact info lemme mail it to you?

darlinbas,

I check't your stuff out. It's because of guys like you I flee from my bass guitar. You're very good. You play a little something like John Patitucci. I never ventured a six string guitar even. Most of the things you do can be done on a four-string (wooten plays like that too) but it's one hell of a feat.

I wish I had guys like you around here to play with. I live in a white neighborhood and pretty much all they understand is Rock. So I try to incorporate a few funky riffs here and there, which is leading me to create my own style of play: Jazzy-Rock. Not that it hasn't been done before, but it's kind'a like my version, all improvised on a four-string guitar. It's hard doing it alone tho'.

Again, I admire your talent greatly (I know you heard that b4). Keep it up.

Thanks macalurs, i strongly agree with you there's nothing you do on a six strings that can not be done on a 5 or 4 strings bass, i choose six strings because it is easier to play than the lesser strings bass, this may sound ridiculous but it's true, six strings actually saves you the stress of moving up and down the fret board, you can play almost whatever you wana play on the six strings within a range of four frets, especially if you are a solo freak like me

Yes, this mainly discourages me from solos. I play mostly chords.

Also, 6 strings sounds different. So being that I play by ear, I almost have to be able to replicate exactly what I hear, otherwise, the muse dies. so it's easier replicating chords.

How long have you been playin'? (you look in your 30's.)

i've been playing for 11 years, professionally for 5 years, and i'm not in my thirties i'm just 28, but u see there is no level of playing u wana archieve thats not possible, it takes dedication and most importantly playing and listening to the right people.
i used to listen to Victor wooten, marcus miller, and i find slap and tap technics extreemly too easy to play, i've even the develop my own slap tech, and thats one of the reason why i stopped playing 5 strings, it tempts me alot to slap and most of the time i ruined peoples songs with overplaying, six strings actually reduce your enthusiasm to slap, but then you see i've found soloing a big adventure that i'm exploring, i listen to Jeff corallini you can him on www.myspace.com/jeffcorallini

you're right.

I don't think I'm going into it professionally. I wish I could do it on a professional basis, but it's not necessarily a road I wanna walk. well dogs say "them that got but-cheeks don't know how to sit". Maybe I need some push.

I barely slap. There's this fascination with steve bailey's style improvisional chords. He uses lots of artificial harmonics, it's not even funny. I also love victor's 1 man show.

Okay Macalurs bro,

You can hit me anywhen: occeeeaan@yahoo.com, that's it. How do I suppose to develope this hear-and-play stuff. I guess it will be much really good for one to learn the tricks. At least, I don't have to look up for sheets before I can ding out the notes of a particular piece.

Cheers and ta-ta.

I've been into music for 14 years. I'm a professional Jazz Pianist, been playing piano for 14 years, bass guitar and drums for 6 years. I'm currently learning to play the Saxophone. I was born into a music family. My Dad used to produce music as a hobby. Macalurs, what genre of music are currently into?

Olu,

I play contemporary jazz most often, and funk. I also am into old school jazz but not that much. RnB/rock are very simple genres I play, so I incorporate some unusual twists to it. I guess most instrumentals are considered jazz, or classical.

I started playing keyboards at age 11, but I drifted into bass. I've been in music for about nine yrs now. I wasn't taught a single note in music; I learnt everything by just messing around, accounting for my ardent inability to read music.

When our church bought a keyboard, I wasn't allowed near it. I would sneak into where it was stored still in plastic and all, and play something with my hand in the box. I was young.

pls im planning to go into music fulltime as a pro. artiste can get any help as touching relevant sites were i can do an online study of music theory, voice training and keyboard lessons?

Macalurs, I'd like to foremost thank you for the sheet music. I really appreciate it. I'd like to hear more about you and music. You started all by yourself? I guess you were born to do it in music. Keep your head up brother. And, once again, thank you a great deal.