I started doing cover songs as my method for learning guitar. My efforts to 'thicken up' my recordings by learning and recording other instruments turned it into something more. After a couple of years I found myself performing and producing full cover versions of my favorite music. I don't have a band, and I don't have any live gigging experience. I would love to do that, but it is hard to find musicians who are precisely at my level. I am an amateur, and have no illusions about it. If my music is any good it is only because I work it to death. I am always interested in collaborations, but most musicians I've met are pro or semi-professionals who have live gig experience, and no time for my studio 'hobbyist' stuff. If there are any other studio geek hobbyists out there with some talent and skills, and are interested in collaborating long-distance, online, please do hit me up. I'm always on the look-out for a female vocalist. If you've got something going and need some help with it, I'm glad to give it a try.
Music is, to me, wings for my imagination, and rest for my soul. It is how I recharge my batteries and lift my spirits. I would have music accompanying everything I do, if I could. I work at lots of other art forms, and when I find the need for a break I immediately pick up a guitar.
My dream is to become a good enough musician that I can freestyle jam at any moment, with anyone. I want to be able to hear a potential song in my head the way I can imagine an illustration or sculpture I plan to create, and to understand music theory well enough that I could write a song on a cocktail napkin.
I would teach the children of the world to play an instrument or to sing from the moment a child is capable of enjoying music. They would then learn the magic of harmony and cooperation, the superiority of cooperation and harmony, and that there is room for everyone.
Uncle Albert / Admiral Halsey by Paul McCartney takes me right back to the age of five.
I am fairly eclectic in my musical tastes, but my top two favorite musicians/bands would be Mike Oldfield and Pink Floyd.
I hear something and enjoy it... and I can't help but try to reproduce it :)
I'm not so interested in telling anyone anything with music as I am in spreading joy and inspiration. The resonant qualities of a cello can give me goosebumps. The sounds of a choir can make me levitate. If I wanted to give anyone a message it is that they can participate in that activity and in that joy.
Terrified... I'm an amateur and I don't have a lot of confidence. I've never been formally trained, and I am not very good at freestyle jamming. If I do get up to play in public it is only when I've properly rehearsed the material. I do have the ability to learn music quite well, simply because I am the sort to work a thing to death till I master it. In my case the saying '1% inspiration, 99% perspiration' is the simple truth. Although, to be fair, that 1% of inspiration makes all the difference.
What I see is that music has been democratized, which is a double-edged sword... and the days of rock-gods trashing hotel rooms and flying around the planet on private jets is over... unless, of course, one is fortunate (or unfortunate) enough to have a contract with Disney or some major establishment studio.. That means that getting rich is no longer the prime motivator for musicians. I think it is a good thing and a bad thing, because musicians really should be able to earn a good living for producing their art, and great artists should be respected for it financially. But the days of getting rich from recorded music are finished. I think it is all about live performance at this point. The show is everything.
I think Drooble is great. There is some room for improvement and some changes I would make if I could. But I think that the premise of 'karma' via interaction is wonderful. Musicians live for it. All artists live for feedback.
Arthritis and the slow pace of being an autodidact.
I show up, pay my cover, drop tips in the hat... and I invite all my friends.. and I stay for the whole show..
I think they need to learn to love ALL kinds of music.
Mike Oldfield. Jerry Douglas. Ry Cooder. Angelo Badalementi. This Mortal Coil. Ott. A Perfect Circle. Sky Cries Mary. Bela Fleck. Cordelia's Dad. Jack White. T-Bone Burnett. The Be Good Tanyas. Flook. Kevin Burke. William Coulter. Silly Wizard. The Civil Wars. Timbuk 3. Curandero. Rodrigo y Gabriela. Tito & Tarantula. Hothouse Flowers. Susan Tedeschi. Ryan McGarvey. Derek Trucks. Sonia Dada. Deer Tick. Rickie Lee Jones. Tinariwen.