Musician Talk

[Clayres]

😱I'm shook! that's sO cool!!!!!! I love the, is that bongos?, percussion!! and the strings and flute melody!!!! aaAH!!!!!! Don't hide, I want more 

Heeeh, thank you!

(It's labelled "Conga" on my sheet, however the soundfonts I used (I made this with Musescore) don't really have a diverse percussion section, hence it's "Standard 1". I'm glad you like it though! )

What Alkia said! That is lovely!

Aaaah thank you!

It's a really lovely piece of music!

And you too aaaaaaah~

I hereby promise to come back and listen to these after the "live" streaming of the Australian brass band championship is over.

Sure, take your time!

*proceeds to impatiently await a response*

[Jitter]

I am no musician so I can only comment as a listener: very beautiful!

[Clayres]

I am no musician so I can only comment as a listener: very beautiful!

Thanks a ton!

[Auxivele]

I, uh, hello...

I never know how to start posts...

Anyway: I managed to finish my first complete song today/yesterday technically, shh/ - a feet I am actually really proud of:

>>> https://www.dropbox.com/s/we81eg2f5y3p0kd/Life.mp3?dl=0 <<<

[snip]

This is so pretty??? I think I fell in love with the song???

I've been taking advantage of being stuck at home to reteach myself guitar. Though I suppose "reteaching" might be generous, since I only knew the most basic of songs and about 4 chords. I've been planning on practicing piano more, but since I used to practice at around 9pm and that's around when my mother goes to bed, that's sort of not exactly gone as planned. I also finally got my hands on a(n incredibly cheap but decent sounding!) bass clarinet, but who knows when I'll have space to play it in. The struggles of living with so many people in the house is that there's no good time to practice instruments.

[Alkia]

I've been taking advantage of being stuck at home to reteach myself guitar. Though I suppose "reteaching" might be generous, since I only knew the most basic of songs and about 4 chords. I've been planning on practicing piano more, but since I used to practice at around 9pm and that's around when my mother goes to bed, that's sort of not exactly gone as planned. I also finally got my hands on a(n incredibly cheap but decent sounding!) bass clarinet, but who knows when I'll have space to play it in. The struggles of living with so many people in the house is that there's no good time to practice instruments.

i can commiserate with wanting to practice late at night, but not being able to because your family is asleep (why must musical inspiration strike just before i want to go to bed?!)! that's exciting with the bass clarinet, though!! yay new instrument acquisitions

I'm basically just going to this thread to complain about how much I miss the percussion instruments, which are all at school and so have been inaccessible for the last 4 months or so. I haven't been near the timpani (or bass drum, or any snares, or chimes) in so long and it makes me saaad (and I can't just go get them and then wheel them home to practice with). woeful sigh
Seriously, it's not that bad (there are way worse things to be deprived of xD), and I'm mostly joking, but I do miss those big drums, as well as the other equipment. The only percussion I have at home is a tambourine and this little metal drum which I'm not sure what to call (it looks vaguely African, but is made of metal? no idea), both of which have been fun to play with but aren't the same.

On less complain-y news, I've been doing a lot more with my Ukulele lately, which has been tons of fun!! I kind of dropped it for a while during the school year, but quarantine and summer have made me practice a lot more. I've been using it lately to make background music for some speed paints i've been working on. Oh, that reminds me! Maybe this should go in the more song music thread, but I made a song with my friend! I wrote it and did the ukulele, and she used her beautiful voice to sing it:

/>
oops, sorry for the long post, I've just missed this thread

[Mirasol]

Oh, this is a thread that exists! Great!

Alkia, that song is so beautiful and calming! Your friend´s voice truly is beautiful, and the ukulele-strumming fits to it very well!

I too play the ukulele, I started to teach myself about a year ago, but never really got to any complicated strumming-patterns. I still enjoy it very much though, and will play it at any possible and impossible time. What that brought me so far was being officialy forbidden to play past 11pm on a weekday and past midnight on a weekend by my parents. Whoops...

And let me join you in the more or less serious complaining:
I can luckily play all the instruments I play at home (ukulele and violin), but especially with the violin I really miss playing with other people. I can with my dad, but I personally think it´s the most fun to play in really big groups. I´m not much of a solist, I prefer it when multiple people are able to play the same voice and sort of keep each other on track, while still having the experience of many different voices and instruments to be heard without the pressure of having to get everything totally right. That´s why I was playing in two orchestras before the entire pandemic-thing started. At this point, one of them is allowed to practice again at least (but without wind instruments), and a friend of mine from the other orchestra (who I´ve been playing together with in various orchestras since primary school) joined this one now too so we can play together again!
Just the one (occasionally for specific projects two) choir(s) I´m in are not allowed to practice anymore and probably won´t for a good while longer.
Of course there are much worse things to be missing, but music is and has always been a big part of my life, so I do miss it quite a bit.

Anyway, may you have access to your percussion instruments very soon again!

[Alkia]

Oh, this is a thread that exists! Great!

Alkia, that song is so beautiful and calming! Your friend´s voice truly is beautiful, and the ukulele-strumming fits to it very well!

I too play the ukulele, I started to teach myself about a year ago, but never really got to any complicated strumming-patterns. I still enjoy it very much though, and will play it at any possible and impossible time. What that brought me so far was being officialy forbidden to play past 11pm on a weekday and past midnight on a weekend by my parents. Whoops...

thank you!! and yayy, fellow ukulele player!! (i guess it is a fairly common instrument to learn)

And let me join you in the more or less serious complaining:
I can luckily play all the instruments I play at home (ukulele and violin), but especially with the violin I really miss playing with other people. I can with my dad, but I personally think it´s the most fun to play in really big groups. I´m not much of a solist, I prefer it when multiple people are able to play the same voice and sort of keep each other on track, while still having the experience of many different voices and instruments to be heard without the pressure of having to get everything totally right.

yes, i do miss that too!! playing in groups, being able to follow what other are doing in the music, having a conductor-- though I think the thing I miss most about playing in a big group is being surrounded by live music. It's so cool to be in the middle of all those beautiful sounds, and to contribute to the piece of music they make together.

That´s why I was playing in two orchestras before the entire pandemic-thing started. At this point, one of them is allowed to practice again at least (but without wind instruments), and a friend of mine from the other orchestra (who I´ve been playing together with in various orchestras since primary school) joined this one now too so we can play together again!
Just the one (occasionally for specific projects two) choir(s) I´m in are not allowed to practice anymore and probably won´t for a good while longer.
Of course there are much worse things to be missing, but music is and has always been a big part of my life, so I do miss it quite a bit.

Anyway, may you have access to your percussion instruments very soon again!

yay, orchestra!! i guess the upside of stringed instruments is that you can play them without spewing air all over the place (not that there's anything wrong with that, it's just that wind instruments are not suited for a pandemic)
that's too bad about the choir, though. I hope that that will be resolved somehow and you can get back to singing!

oh, and thank you-- school will be starting again in about a month, and I've heard plans about some sort of hybrid schedule, so hopefully I will get access to them soon

[Mirasol]

yes, i do miss that too!! playing in groups, being able to follow what other are doing in the music, having a conductor-- though I think the thing I miss most about playing in a big group is being surrounded by live music. It's so cool to be in the middle of all those beautiful sounds, and to contribute to the piece of music they make together.

Yes indeed! It´s like you are in the middle of a concert whenever you practice! That is definitly one of my favourite parts too.

yay, orchestra!! i guess the upside of stringed instruments is that you can play them without spewing air all over the place (not that there's anything wrong with that, it's just that wind instruments are not suited for a pandemic)
that's too bad about the choir, though. I hope that that will be resolved somehow and you can get back to singing!

It is really an upside. A shame though that I probably won´t see the members of my orchestras who usually play the wind instruments´ solos for the forseeable future.

And thank you!
(I do totally understand that singing is very unfit for trying not to spread a virus, but I do hope that the situation will have calmed down enough sooner or later to start again.) Right now nobody can settle on a single set of rules where I live, so some choirs can practice again, some can´t. The choir I am only occasionally singing in just moved the project to the next year (which is actually really good, because now the practices aren´t while I´m graduating school and I can participate after all). The other one is at the mercy of our education-minister, since it´s from my school. Let´s hope for the best...

[Róisín]

I so much miss singing! Especially with friends. I love to sing.

[Mebediel]

I so much miss singing! Especially with friends. I love to sing.

It's a pity that singing over video/audio chat doesn't work very well. My friends and I have tried it and it always ends in chaos (and laughter).

[Róisín]

A friend who sings in several choirs has been recording her parts for their choirmasters to arrange with the parts of other singers. And when Damh the Bard does his online concerts he sets them up so people can sing along.

[noonnoommoon]

...at this point I'm just necro'ing threads left and right, huh.
Anyway! Does anyone here have advice as to how to get a better sound quality on flute or viola? I wouldn't say I'm all too bad, but I'm definitely a beginner and Need Some Tips dbndmsakbekqkl
(also, any...piano teachers here? I need to help my sister and I. Cannot. Any teaching tips for like. Intermediate beginners?)

[wavewright62]

My daughter plays viola. She flailed a bit but then said if you were used to playing violin, you have to apply more pressure on a viola, with your index (and maybe middle) finger.  She also mentioned making sure you bang out the rosin to make sure you don't have *too* much.

For flute? Most of my usual advice for brass and wind playing probably does not apply, as the mechanism is quite different (I'm told, I can't actually play a flute properly).  But for most wind instruments, your air flow is crucial, affected by posture.  A good lesson is getting someone to sing their part, paying attention to how to get a good sound with the voice. The air is similarly full.

[Keep Looking]

Unfortunately I am a clarinet player, not a flute player, so I can't really give flute-specific advice, but in terms of wind instruments generally Wave is right that posture and airflow are really important. Doing really basic exercises can be helpful too: see how long you can hold a note while keeping a constant volume, for example. Getting control over your breath / embrochure is really important.

[noonnoommoon]

Thank you both, thats very helpful