Untruthful: piano

Showing posts with label piano. Show all posts

Finally, an absorbing hobby
Monday, April 09, 2007

So I've decided on a very time consuming hobby. Digital music production. I know I've talked about it before, but I'm prettttty sure I'm sticking with it now, so I thought I'd explain it. I'm aort of happy about it, but I'm also starting to dread getting sucked into this as a pastime.

Anyway, digital music is no simple thing. You need to make use of tons of software, and invest in boatloads of hardware to make it work, and even after that, you need to muster the creative energy to crank out a few tunes. I think I have plenty of the creative juices to squeeze out, unfortunately I've never been one to enjoy spending vast amounts of money, nor do I enjoy reading manuals and learning very very task-specific technical knowledge. I am, however, quite handy with electronics, so I'm not too worried.

I've been browsing the world of production software off and on for about 4 months now, and just tonight I finally found exactly what I'm looking for. I found out what programs and hardware, specifically, that Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails' frontman and creative force) used to produce both With Teeth, and my new favorite album ever, Year Zero: Native Instruments. Native Instruments is one of the leaders in digital production. I used their website to find the basic info on what I need to do what I want, and where to get it, and how to use it, etc. Anyway, after gathering all that info, I found that all of these programs are extremely complex, and I was going to need an in-depth tutorial, rather than an overview to figure them all out. So it was off to my good friend the Wiki. Gotta love piles of information.

So essentially, I'm in the learning stages of digitally producing my own unique sound. In the meantime, I'm also teaching myself piano, and making sure not to slouch in my guitar and singing skills.

Whats my goal? I want to express my opinions and emotions in a large, evergrowing body of musical compositions. I've already got a growing stack of lyrics, and once I get down this computer shit, I'll have a medium. Then what? Then I'm gonna share it with everyone! And maybe if lots of people like it, I'll get a couple fans. Can never have too many of those. I'll keep posting my progress on piano, vocals, guitar, and this computer stuff so you'll all know when to expect some music. And hey, if you wanna help, let me know, I'm sure theres something you could do.

Posted byJoe at 10:58 PM 0 comments

Labels: digital, guitar, hobby, instruments, learn, music, native, piano, production, sing, vocals, wikipedia

I'm teaching myself piano!
Tuesday, February 27, 2007

I tried to do it once before, and failed miserably, but I'm back to try my second hand at piano thanks to a few new learning tools I have. Why learn piano? Everybody says its so helpful with music theory, plus it goes well with guitar, and its just nice to have another creative outlet at my disposal.

Anyway, as I was saying, I have a few new tools:
1. Chewing Tobacco - Key to helping mind-numbing tasks go just a little bit faster. Actually, its a little-known fact that nicotine sharpens your mind while in your system, it helps you focus. Its true, look it up.
2. Baby's First Keyboard - It may not be much. But it didn't cost much either. And it gets the job done... sort of. I can pretty much only play one hand at a time, but I'm trying to improve on my note-reading too, so it isn't that big of a deal. I'll upgrade when I know I'm for real on this.
3. Internet Sheet Music, accompanied by The Pencil - After learning the basics of reading sheet music, I downloaded a few songs, long ones, to practice. Practice how? Write all the notes in. It sounds tedious, but if you have a passion for music, you really won't mind it much. I don't, anyway.
4. Computer and Internet - The internet rocks. Use a site like Musictheory.net to learn how to read, and then just google some sheet music. Its that simple :)

Have a look at my classroom: