Making Music. Tunes by Idle Thumbsters

[Ozzie]

The reason there are addons like DownThemAll!

[chummer]

I've been playing my melodica at my job lately which is interesting and nice. Mostly what I do is play major and minor chords in variating keys and paying attention to how they share notes. So for instance, Cminor shares C and E flat with Gsharp major. I am having fun moving around the keyboard and mixing chords this way.

Have you looked into the "circle of fifths"? I think it is related to modulation, but I'm not sure.

 

i guess i'm specifically interested in how to use that stuff. conceptually, i understand what the different modes are, just not quite how to implement them in interesting ways when creating chord progressions or writing out melodies. i've messed a little with the IV-iv progression and using the sharp from a IVmaj7 and can hear how it adds a lot of flavor, but it always feels like an accident.

[clyde]

My first reaction is "Keep doing it until it doesn't sound like an accident."
I tend to enjoy musical pieces that sound a bit strange at first, but which I eventually become desensitized to the dissonance of. I suspect that musicians can get pretty far with me by just being able to express a little bit of dissonance confidentally.

I'm sure there is a more technical approach too though. I'd like it if you uploaded a recording of your performance of the progression you described.

My feelings in this remind me of a particular song that stuck with me, I have to find it and post it though it may be a little distracting and barely relevant

 

 

 sharp from a IVmaj7 and can hear how it adds a lot of flavor, but it always feels like an accident.

 

more like "it always feels like an accidental" amirite?

[dibs]

more like "it always feels like an accidental" amirite?

 

:tup: :tup: :tup: :tup:

[clyde]

I think I just had a break-through. Basically, it is fun to start with the Cmaj scale and then chose the 5th's major for the next scale; this way you can watch the accidentals accumulate as each 5thMajor will take on the former's fourth# as its seventh.

Example:

Play Cmajor.

Cmajor's perfect fifth is G

Play Gmajor

Gmajor has one accidental (Cmajor's fourth# which is F# takes on the role of Gmajor's seventh note.

Gmajor's fifth is D.

Play Dmajor

Dmajor keeps F# as its major3rd and takes on Gmajor's fourth# (C#) as its seventh. And so on. It's pretty cool to figure out as you go along playing the scales.

Btw, I didn't figure this out, I read about it, but now I get it.

[dibs]

I did music theory and studied it for my Leaving Cert (high school exams) when i was young and what you have described above is just instinct to me.

[clyde]

It's going to make remembering major scales on the keyboard way easier, but also I can feel it making my hearing more flexible to augmentation (I think that's the right word for throwing in sharps).

[Dreg]

A little late but here is a big symphony sample library:

 

http://sso.mattiaswestlund.net/

[Problem Machine]

Boy it's been a while since I posted a track here! Here's a brand new one fresh out of my musickal synthesizer:

Amidst Her Glorious Device

 

Also, I apparently never actually posted my album here once I finished it, which is very silly. Actually, I thought it was a bit unwieldy as an album, so I ended up releasing it as a 50-minute long album with eight tracks alongside a 20-minute mini-album with four. Here those are too.

From Spare Parts and Parts Unknown

Please Don't Make Me Leave

 

If you like any of these, it would of course help me out a lot if you a ) told friends, for word of mouth b ) told me, for invaluable moral support, or even c ) actually bought the albums on bandcamp. That's all gravy though, I appreciate just listens too

[miffy495]

Dear Thumb musicians:

 

I have played guitar on and off since I was about 10 (this means a little over 10 years total, as there was a long 8-ish year gap of not playing in university/gap years). I love doing so, and am reasonably skilled at it. Not great, but not bad. I like to mess around and I know my way around things. A while back, I bought a bass as it seemed close enough that skills I have would translate and I love the sound. I started to play it, realized that (despite the similar look and identical fretboards) the mechanics of actually playing the instruments are very different, and put it aside as a novelty to goof around with now and then rather than "a thing I play". 

 

Last month, another teacher on my grade team voluntold me to play my guitar along with the school's choir for our spring concert. It was not something I was super comfortable doing, but it went fine and the kids loved it so whatever. This meant that my guitars lived behind my desk in my classroom for a month while we practiced and performed. During that time, I decided that I actually want to get decent with this bass that I have in my bedroom and have started playing a lot more of it. Turns out I totally love it and want to get much better. Now the guitars are home again, but I'm still playing a tonne of bass.

 

Why I come to you today is this: thanks to all my guitar, I have zero difficulty picking out complex bass lines with a heavy pick. Said bass lines sound so much better when they are fingered however, and my right hand's fingers just don't have the strength or rhythm to keep up. It drives me crazy. I'm not an idiot and I realize that the solution is to just do it a lot until I'm better at it, so I'm not looking for shortcuts, but direction. Are there any Thumb bassists out there who could recommend drills and/or warmups that they use to get that strength? Particularly in my middle finger, as it just gives up on me so quickly when I try to do anything fast. Any tips would be much appreciated.

[TheLastBaron]

This isn't specific to the right hand, but this is what I used to do to try and build strength and dexterity when I started playing bass and what I still do to warm up. Hopefully this is clear enough to make some sort of sense. What I used to do to warm up was just play patterns up and down the neck, so something simple would be play frets 1-2-3-4 on the E string then the A string, continuing up to the G string then back down. Then I'd move up a fret so 2-3-4-5 and repeat. Do this all the way up to frets 12-13-14-15 and then do it back down the neck. You can then change the pattern so it's frets 2-3-4-1 or 4-3-1-2 or whatever and do the same thing. Then you can do stuff on different strings, what I usually do now is something like 2-(4)-3-(1)-4-(2)-1-(3) where the numbers in parentheses are a string or two above the other notes, so 2-(4) would be either a 5th or an octave. This would be a lot easier with a tab or something, I hope this is at least somewhat intelligible. These exercises are obviously pretty repetitive so I would do it while listening to a song or something because that's a lot less boring than playing to a metronome. Basically just do something along those lines until your fingers/hands/arms get tired (and then stop, definitely don't overdo it) and you'll build up strength and endurance in both hands.

[miffy495]

No, makes sense to me. The biggest thing for me is keeping up a rhythm between my index and middle fingers when things move across strings, so the second half of that would be good. Thanks!

[Problem Machine]

I did a new music.

 

They Only Remember Silhouettes

[Problem Machine]

Another new one already? Wow!

The Incandescence of Your Filaments

[Dosed]

Me and my friend did a music too. I'm really happy with it and super proud of us for it! It's also weird that my favourite track is the last one which was improvised and recorded on my phone. However, I can't wait to get a keyboard and a mic to record my own stuff with.

 

Btw does anyone know of a decent keyboard I can get for around 200 quid/240 euros/260 dollars? I feel like learning a new instrument this year and have fancied a keyboard for a while but I have no idea about them. I don't want anything crazy but a one that make it sound like a laser blasta would be sweet

[Problem Machine]

I made a more kinda piano type thing. I think it's pretty good.

Every Scratch in the Wood

[gamesthatexist]

hey friends,

 

lookin for a place to share & discuss music. I'll start workin back thru this thread and listening to stuff that's already been posted.

 

I made this tonight: https://soundcloud.com/apieschel/fall-remix001

 

I took a track that I made with a Yamaha DX7 synthesizer and a cheap Boss loop pedal, then loaded it into Reason 4.0 as a sample. I ran the sample thru one of the echo reverbs in Reason and recorded myself messing with the echo effect settings while the sample was playing. the result is......a lot of delay

[gamesthatexist]

Me and my friend did a music too. I'm really happy with it and super proud of us for it! It's also weird that my favourite track is the last one which was improvised and recorded on my phone. However, I can't wait to get a keyboard and a mic to record my own stuff with.

 

Btw does anyone know of a decent keyboard I can get for around 200 quid/240 euros/260 dollars? I feel like learning a new instrument this year and have fancied a keyboard for a while but I have no idea about them. I don't want anything crazy but a one that make it sound like a laser blasta would be sweet

 

I like the irreverent vibe of this album, and I like the sound of the guitars. 

 

For that price range (or any price range actually) I would get somethin old school. The Yamaha DX7 is rly cool even though it's from like 1983. It's got midi connections too. I'm a big fan. http://www.vintagesynth.com/yamaha/dx7ii.php. It has really nice piano sounds and can also sound like a laser and also has a very supportive online community with tons of sample packs and some tools for making sounds for it on the computer. Depending on where you are, you might be able to find one for 250-300ish dollars on craigslist. Because I don't live near any music hubs I found one online for like 300 and got it shipped to me. I just started learning keyboards too; it's my first synth and I love it.  

[Problem Machine]

I made this tonight: https://soundcloud.com/apieschel/fall-remix001

 

I took a track that I made with a Yamaha DX7 synthesizer and a cheap Boss loop pedal, then loaded it into Reason 4.0 as a sample. I ran the sample thru one of the echo reverbs in Reason and recorded myself messing with the echo effect settings while the sample was playing. the result is......a lot of delay

Very atmospheric, though there's some clipping. You might try playing around with a compressor in Reason if you haven't already to see if that can improve the overall sound quality. I could see building something really nice on top of a sound like this.

[gamesthatexist]

Very atmospheric, though there's some clipping. You might try playing around with a compressor in Reason if you haven't already to see if that can improve the overall sound quality. I could see building something really nice on top of a sound like this.

 

Yeah, I'm gonna try to compress it some. At first I kinda liked how the clips got caught in the delay loop, but now they seem kinda much, and I think they might be more intense on some speaker systems.

[gamesthatexist]

I made a more kinda piano type thing. I think it's pretty good.

Every Scratch in the Wood

 

This is very pretty & soothing! I like the transition to eighth notes around 1:30. How did you record this?

[Problem Machine]

I just manually sequenced it all in Reason

[gamesthatexist]

Will post more ambient stuff as it comes, but this is probly a better representation of what I do & how I perform live: https://alexpieschel.bandcamp.com/album/waitin-around-ep

 

It's an EP I recorded with friends on a four-track cassette. Hope to expand to a full-length album by the end of this year!

[Dosed]

gamesthatexist your album was weirdly relevant to me in a couple of ways today. One the name as I was literally waitin' around for people to come visit the spare room in my flat. And some lyrics really stuck with me (in particular the "i'm not gonna wish it was yesterday" stuff) as I'm kind of going through a weird shift in my dealing with anxiety where I can almost ignore it but in a super healthy way. Like I feel like I might actually be getting over it a bit in a more permanent way.  Btw "Warning" is the bomb. 

 

Also is the devil town bit a reference to Daniel Johnston?  

[gamesthatexist]

gamesthatexist your album was weirdly relevant to me in a couple of ways today. One the name as I was literally waitin' around for people to come visit the spare room in my flat. And some lyrics really stuck with me (in particular the "i'm not gonna wish it was yesterday" stuff) as I'm kind of going through a weird shift in my dealing with anxiety where I can almost ignore it but in a super healthy way. Like I feel like I might actually be getting over it a bit in a more permanent way.  Btw "Warning" is the bomb. 

 

Also is the devil town bit a reference to Daniel Johnston?  

 

oh my god thank you for listening & for posting. it means everything. and YES IT IS A DIRECT REFERENCE TO DANIEL JOHNSTON.