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Ham_authority95

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BonsaiK said:
Ham_authority95 said:
BonsaiK said:
Ham_authority95 said:
College music programs usually offer majors in "Performance" and "Composition", but I'm fuzzy about what each of those actually mean.

What do you study in each of those?
Performance means you specialise in a particular instrument and you need to be able to play it like a ************, you'll do performances which will be marked.

Composition means you may or may not be able to play an instrument and you specialise in writing pieces for other people to play. Instead of a performance you need to hand up a folio of compositions.

There is some crossover in these courses. Both will study music theory for example. You should be able to make inquiries and get a (rough) list of modules for each course. You'll see that they're about 50% the same.
What kind of performances? Classical, usually?
Generally yes. Although "classical" is only in the broad sense, you can do pretty modern stuff if you want.

Some Universities also do Jazz degrees but I don't advise them.
So, for Composition it's more or less like a student film project where the instructor tells you: "Okay, your assignment is to write a piece for gunfight in a western movie. You need to use theory that you took notes on this week."?
 

BonsaiK

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Ham_authority95 said:
BonsaiK said:
Ham_authority95 said:
BonsaiK said:
Ham_authority95 said:
College music programs usually offer majors in "Performance" and "Composition", but I'm fuzzy about what each of those actually mean.

What do you study in each of those?
Performance means you specialise in a particular instrument and you need to be able to play it like a ************, you'll do performances which will be marked.

Composition means you may or may not be able to play an instrument and you specialise in writing pieces for other people to play. Instead of a performance you need to hand up a folio of compositions.

There is some crossover in these courses. Both will study music theory for example. You should be able to make inquiries and get a (rough) list of modules for each course. You'll see that they're about 50% the same.
What kind of performances? Classical, usually?
Generally yes. Although "classical" is only in the broad sense, you can do pretty modern stuff if you want.

Some Universities also do Jazz degrees but I don't advise them.
So, for Composition it's more or less like a student film project where the instructor tells you: "Okay, your assignment is to write a piece for gunfight in a western movie. You need to use theory that you took notes on this week."?
Yes, that could be a good example of a composition assignment. They teach you to arrange for orchestras of all sizes, solo performers, TV/film, most of the Universities will also cross over a little into Audio Engineering territory and teach you recording, analog synths, ProTools, acoustics, sound physics, how to use microphones etc...
 

BonsaiK

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Shivarage said:
any advice on what to look for in a musical partner or what to look out for?
A musical partner doesn't have to be a perfect musician. What they need to do is fill whatever area you might be lacking in. Good at writing songs but terrible at executing them, get someone who can play better than you. Good at operating a mixing desk but half-deaf, get an "ideas" kind of person. Good at creating concepts but shitty at image and self-promotion, get someone with a big style and big personality who isn't afraid to push the product a little. Whoever you get though, absolute #1 priority is that you can get along on a personal level. And under no circumstances start a musical project with someone who you'd like to fuck, if you're looking at a long-term career - "don't shit where you eat", in other words.

What to look out for - well, at the risk of sounding like your Mum, extremely heavy drug or alcohol use is a red flag. I know what you're thinking - "but... half of the people in my MP3 collection were ripped off their tits when they recorded that stuff!". True, but those people generally all started the downward spiral after they established the foundation of a career, thanks to industry-savvy drug dealers who cling to the music business like moths to a flame. Amateurs think they need to be as drunk and wasted as their idols and "fake it till they make it", so they'll think nothing of excess substance use, in the meantime ignoring the fact that there is actually a lot of unglamourous work involved in getting anywhere, not just parties, rocking out and fun times. There's a slim change that they'll OD and end up as a cripple or a vegetable in a hospital ward somewhere (I've seen both) but it's far more likely that they'll just become a self-centred asshole.

The main other category to avoid is people with unrealistic expectations and no ability to be self-critical or step back from their own work and eat a bit of humble pie. These people absolutely fucking abound in the music industry, and they are dangerous primarily to themselves, but also to anyone they work with musically. They are dangerous because their ability to lose all sense of perspective and thus waste inordinate amounts of money on unnecessary things because "fame is just around the corner" is staggering, but not quite as staggering as their refusal to then learn from their mistakes, instead putting their failure down to simply bad luck. They're also prime targets for scam operators, such as "band competitions" etc. You absolutely must go and see a film called "Bigger Than Tina" if you haven't already. It's very hard to find so good luck tracking it down, but it's worth it because it's the perfect portrait of what I'm talking about: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0240377/
 

RhombusHatesYou

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BonsaiK said:
There's a slim change that they'll OD and end up as a cripple or a vegetable in a hospital ward somewhere (I've seen both) but it's far more likely that they'll just become a self-centred asshole.
I think it's important to point out that 'self-centred' in this case isn't just being an arrogant fuckhead. It's the fun of dealing with people who show up to 3 hrs late to practice, dragging some trashed whore behind them, and they'll both immediately excuse themselves to go do more drugs... expect a crisis about every 2 months when either the bandmate or his hanger-on OD. It's the fun of having to blow off practice because the bandmate has put his gear into hock. It's the fun of having to blow off practice because the bandmate has put YOUR gear into hock. It's the fun of the bandmate promising X, Y and fucking Z to some rather shady and ill tempered individuals who will then start making semi-regular appearances in your life. It's the fun of your gig fees disappearing. It's the fun of dealing with a walking liability that's convinced it's a creative fucking genius.
 

Shivarage

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BonsaiK said:
Shivarage said:
any advice on what to look for in a musical partner or what to look out for?
A musical partner doesn't have to be a perfect musician. What they need to do is fill whatever area you might be lacking in. Good at writing songs but terrible at executing them, get someone who can play better than you. Good at operating a mixing desk but half-deaf, get an "ideas" kind of person. Good at creating concepts but shitty at image and self-promotion, get someone with a big style and big personality who isn't afraid to push the product a little. Whoever you get though, absolute #1 priority is that you can get along on a personal level. And under no circumstances start a musical project with someone who you'd like to fuck, if you're looking at a long-term career - "don't shit where you eat", in other words.

What to look out for - well, at the risk of sounding like your Mum, extremely heavy drug or alcohol use is a red flag. I know what you're thinking - "but... half of the people in my MP3 collection were ripped off their tits when they recorded that stuff!". True, but those people generally all started the downward spiral after they established the foundation of a career, thanks to industry-savvy drug dealers who cling to the music business like moths to a flame. Amateurs think they need to be as drunk and wasted as their idols and "fake it till they make it", so they'll think nothing of excess substance use, in the meantime ignoring the fact that there is actually a lot of unglamourous work involved in getting anywhere, not just parties, rocking out and fun times. There's a slim change that they'll OD and end up as a cripple or a vegetable in a hospital ward somewhere (I've seen both) but it's far more likely that they'll just become a self-centred asshole.

The main other category to avoid is people with unrealistic expectations and no ability to be self-critical or step back from their own work and eat a bit of humble pie. These people absolutely fucking abound in the music industry, and they are dangerous primarily to themselves, but also to anyone they work with musically. They are dangerous because their ability to lose all sense of perspective and thus waste inordinate amounts of money on unnecessary things because "fame is just around the corner" is staggering, but not quite as staggering as their refusal to then learn from their mistakes, instead putting their failure down to simply bad luck. They're also prime targets for scam operators, such as "band competitions" etc. You absolutely must go and see a film called "Bigger Than Tina" if you haven't already. It's very hard to find so good luck tracking it down, but it's worth it because it's the perfect portrait of what I'm talking about: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0240377/
I'd say I'm more of an ideas man, good at the performance side of things and not so good at the technical side...

I totally agree with you on the druggies, fame-seekers and plain self-absorbed arsewipes (I never got along well with them anyway...)

I'm willing to work for my success in the idea of spending as little as possible, concentrating on my ideas and the skill to execute them so that I can make music worth remembering... although i'm nowhere near good enough to quite achieve that ^^'

When I listen to music in the mainstream and find the majority of the music isn't that complex or particularly hard to learn, is it really that hard to write? or is it just because its not complex that it appeals to more people?
 

BonsaiK

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Nov 14, 2007
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Shivarage said:
When I listen to music in the mainstream and find the majority of the music isn't that complex or particularly hard to learn, is it really that hard to write? or is it just because its not complex that it appeals to more people?
It's not hard to write in the sense that it's not hard to conceptualise three or four chords, a beat and a melody, which is about all that your average pop song is, if even that. It's hard to write pop music in the sense that most people who write music and try their hand at a pop song tend to over-write, and have no idea what's actually going to grab the listener in that context. To the dismay of prog-rock enthusiasts everywhere, the average person in western society doesn't really want to listen to anything wildly complicated or too much over 4 minutes long, and they don't want too much melodic or harmonic variation either (they can cope with quite dense and/or abrasive textures within that framework though). It's also quite hard to write pop from an engineering perspective, all that glossy high production that goes into pop songs requires a practiced hand and skill to get exactly right, and it's the reason why recording stuff like this can take weeks or months whereas a rock band with a work ethic can bang out their shit in a few days. In fact I'd say from the perspective of the control booth pop is the hardest style of music to deal with of them all - there's so many things one could get wrong, and stuffing up just one of them means that the record might not be "popular" so essentially you've failed to make a "pop" record.
 

Shivarage

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BonsaiK said:
Shivarage said:
When I listen to music in the mainstream and find the majority of the music isn't that complex or particularly hard to learn, is it really that hard to write? or is it just because its not complex that it appeals to more people?
It's not hard to write in the sense that it's not hard to conceptualise three or four chords, a beat and a melody, which is about all that your average pop song is, if even that. It's hard to write pop music in the sense that most people who write music and try their hand at a pop song tend to over-write, and have no idea what's actually going to grab the listener in that context. To the dismay of prog-rock enthusiasts everywhere, the average person in western society doesn't really want to listen to anything wildly complicated or too much over 4 minutes long, and they don't want too much melodic or harmonic variation either (they can cope with quite dense and/or abrasive textures within that framework though). It's also quite hard to write pop from an engineering perspective, all that glossy high production that goes into pop songs requires a practiced hand and skill to get exactly right, and it's the reason why recording stuff like this can take weeks or months whereas a rock band with a work ethic can bang out their shit in a few days. In fact I'd say from the perspective of the control booth pop is the hardest style of music to deal with of them all - there's so many things one could get wrong, and stuffing up just one of them means that the record might not be "popular" so essentially you've failed to make a "pop" record.
Ahh yes, that explains a lot :)

thank you for all your help ^_^
 

Ham_authority95

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Okay, so my friend/bandmate is writing a bunch of material that she isn't showing to the band. The manager of our rehearsal spot has offered her a chance to record these if she sends him a rough demo(which I found out about through her blog)

I sort of REALLY want to get involved in this recording, so how should I go about this?
 

BonsaiK

Music Industry Corporate Whore
Nov 14, 2007
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Ham_authority95 said:
Okay, so my friend/bandmate is writing a bunch of material that she isn't showing to the band. The manager of our rehearsal spot has offered her a chance to record these if she sends him a rough demo(which I found out about through her blog)

I sort of REALLY want to get involved in this recording, so how should I go about this?
She'll probably need help to put the rough demo together. Offer to help her with that (privately - if she senses the other members are in on it she'll say no immediately). Chances are that you'll then be invited to the studio session too.

EDIT: Oh I forgot one thing. Make it crystal clear to her that you're not interested in wrestling creative control from her and that you're just there to facilitate what she wants. Very important, this.
 

Ham_authority95

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BonsaiK said:
Ham_authority95 said:
Okay, so my friend/bandmate is writing a bunch of material that she isn't showing to the band. The manager of our rehearsal spot has offered her a chance to record these if she sends him a rough demo(which I found out about through her blog)

I sort of REALLY want to get involved in this recording, so how should I go about this?
She'll probably need help to put the rough demo together. Offer to help her with that (privately - if she senses the other members are in on it she'll say no immediately). Chances are that you'll then be invited to the studio session too.

EDIT: Oh I forgot one thing. Make it crystal clear to her that you're not interested in wrestling creative control from her and that you're just there to facilitate what she wants. Very important, this.
Okay, thanks. One of the reasons why I think she hasn't showed her songs to the band yet is because she thinks we'll try to alter her work, so I'll keep that last part in mind.
 

Ham_authority95

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So this summer I'll be going across the country to Boston for a Music program. What I'm wondering is: how should I go about taking my bass with me?

I'm a little hesitant to put it underneath with the luggage because it might get lost or get seriously banged up.
 

BonsaiK

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Nov 14, 2007
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Ham_authority95 said:
So this summer I'll be going across the country to Boston for a Music program. What I'm wondering is: how should I go about taking my bass with me?

I'm a little hesitant to put it underneath with the luggage because it might get lost or get seriously banged up.
I'll assume you're going by plane here, but most of these things apply even if you're going by bus.

If you don't have one, get a hard case. Soft cases are for travelling on your person, hard cases or for travelling as luggage or in any other environment where it might experience undue weight or movement. A good one is expensive but will last you a lifetime. Instruments in soft cases taken on planes or public transport will get destroyed. Unless you have something with a non-standard shape like a Thunderbird, one of the B.C. Rich varieties, Mosrite etc, most bases will fit most cases, but always take your bass with you when case-shopping.

Depending on the airline, bass guitars will usually qualify as "oversize" luggage on a plane journey. This means that when you go to check in, rather than just popping it on the belt with everything else, you'll probably be directed to a special baggage handler who only deals with oversize stuff, they'll individually tag your item, whisk it away and then you don't have to think about it. When you arrive at your destination look for "oversize baggage claim" which is usually just a door, and they'll bring your instrument out to you.

Be aware that the nitrocellulose lacquer used in some guitar finishes will sometimes come up as "traces of explosive" in overzealous luggage chemical safety checks. It's unlikely, but it did happen to a guy in my band who spent ages with the luggage handlers while they went over his Gibson SG with a fine-toothed comb looking for the "bomb". Nitro lacquer is most commonly found on Fender and Gibson, custom guitar makers often use it too, it's considered a "high-end" lacquer because it's thinner so it supposedly lets the wood resonate more (utter bollocks when we're talking electric instruments if you ask me but that's another discussion) and it's also more difficult to work with, so cheaper guitars are probably using polyurethane or polyester finishes which won't give you problems. Helps to know about this so you can explain it to airport security if it comes up, but don't confuse them with it unless they ask you about it. If you're not sure what lacquer your instrument has, either post the details here or ask your local guitar repair shop.

Some people get really intense and will actually book their instrument a seat. I think that's overkill, I've never had an airline lose my instrument. They're much more likely to lose a medium sized bag than some huge box that looks like the monolith from 2001, because the huge box sticks out whereas bags all look more or less the same. However you get what you pay for so don't fly one of those cheap shitty budget airlines, I've never flown them but I've heard horror stories from friends about people losing luggage, being given the run-around by clueless underpaid staff and even losing their flights altogether.

Slacken the strings a bit before you take your instrument on a plane - changes in air pressure during flight can mess with the string tension and warp the neck.
 

Ham_authority95

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BonsaiK said:
Ham_authority95 said:
So this summer I'll be going across the country to Boston for a Music program. What I'm wondering is: how should I go about taking my bass with me?

I'm a little hesitant to put it underneath with the luggage because it might get lost or get seriously banged up.
I'll assume you're going by plane here, but most of these things apply even if you're going by bus.

If you don't have one, get a hard case. Soft cases are for travelling on your person, hard cases or for travelling as luggage or in any other environment where it might experience undue weight or movement. A good one is expensive but will last you a lifetime. Instruments in soft cases taken on planes or public transport will get destroyed. Unless you have something with a non-standard shape like a Thunderbird, one of the B.C. Rich varieties, Mosrite etc, most bases will fit most cases, but always take your bass with you when case-shopping.

Depending on the airline, bass guitars will usually qualify as "oversize" luggage on a plane journey. This means that when you go to check in, rather than just popping it on the belt with everything else, you'll probably be directed to a special baggage handler who only deals with oversize stuff, they'll individually tag your item, whisk it away and then you don't have to think about it. When you arrive at your destination look for "oversize baggage claim" which is usually just a door, and they'll bring your instrument out to you.

Be aware that the nitrocellulose lacquer used in some guitar finishes will sometimes come up as "traces of explosive" in overzealous luggage chemical safety checks. It's unlikely, but it did happen to a guy in my band who spent ages with the luggage handlers while they went over his Gibson SG with a fine-toothed comb looking for the "bomb". Nitro lacquer is most commonly found on Fender and Gibson, custom guitar makers often use it too, it's considered a "high-end" lacquer because it's thinner so it supposedly lets the wood resonate more (utter bollocks when we're talking electric instruments if you ask me but that's another discussion) and it's also more difficult to work with, so cheaper guitars are probably using polyurethane or polyester finishes which won't give you problems. Helps to know about this so you can explain it to airport security if it comes up, but don't confuse them with it unless they ask you about it. If you're not sure what lacquer your instrument has, either post the details here or ask your local guitar repair shop.

Some people get really intense and will actually book their instrument a seat. I think that's overkill, I've never had an airline lose my instrument. They're much more likely to lose a medium sized bag than some huge box that looks like the monolith from 2001, because the huge box sticks out whereas bags all look more or less the same. However you get what you pay for so don't fly one of those cheap shitty budget airlines, I've never flown them but I've heard horror stories from friends about people losing luggage, being given the run-around by clueless underpaid staff and even losing their flights altogether.

Slacken the strings a bit before you take your instrument on a plane - changes in air pressure during flight can mess with the string tension and warp the neck.
I'm bringing a lower-end Ibanez SG, so they shouldn't give me any problems for the lacquer.

And I'll remind my parents(who are booking the flight) to make sure the Airline doesn't suck.

Thanks a lot.
 

Ironic Pirate

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This is an odd question, but for your radio station, how do you choose what music to play(if that's your job)? Is it just stuff you like, stuff you think the stations demographic would like, or do you have a system for determining whether it's good or not, excusing your own taste? If that's not clear, let's say for example you don't like country, but your station play country. Are you able to tell if it's good or not, even if you don't like it? Or do you not play it if you don't like it, regardless of quality.

Forgive me if this doesn't make sense, I don't really know how radio station's work.
 

BonsaiK

Music Industry Corporate Whore
Nov 14, 2007
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Ham_authority95 said:
I'm bringing a lower-end Ibanez SG, so they shouldn't give me any problems for the lacquer.

And I'll remind my parents(who are booking the flight) to make sure the Airline doesn't suck.

Thanks a lot.
Yeah you'll be fine. Ibanez use poly for everything these days. It's better-wearing and more environmentally friendly.

Bring ID on the flight.
 

BonsaiK

Music Industry Corporate Whore
Nov 14, 2007
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Ironic Pirate said:
This is an odd question, but for your radio station, how do you choose what music to play(if that's your job)? Is it just stuff you like, stuff you think the stations demographic would like, or do you have a system for determining whether it's good or not, excusing your own taste? If that's not clear, let's say for example you don't like country, but your station play country. Are you able to tell if it's good or not, even if you don't like it? Or do you not play it if you don't like it, regardless of quality.

Forgive me if this doesn't make sense, I don't really know how radio station's work.
Different radio stations work differently. Commercial radio stations tend to have a defined playlist which is decided by a programming director, or a programming committee. If you want airplay that means getting on their playlist. This is sometimes a very small collection of music, especially on rock-oriented and middle-of-the-road stations. Most DJs on commercial stations have absolutely no say whatsoever in what gets played. If you're ever wondering why commercial stations have a habit of playing the same shit all the time, now you know.

On community radio stations, the DJs almost always get to choose the music. Therefore these type of radio stations always have far more interesting content and less repetition.

If I'm programming a show, I'll program it partly according to what I like and partly according to what I think people listening to it might want to listen to. Of course, this would involve me having some decent knowledge of the genre that I'm playing - if I didn't know anything about country music I wouldn't do the country music shift, for example, I'd offload that to someone else with the skills to deal with it. If it's a genre I do like, I'll often play stuff that I'm not personally into simply because I think someone else might be. I don't think it's fair to exclude something purely based on my personal taste, otherwise that artist may never get any air at all. However I think my attitude is rare for DJs generally.
 

Ham_authority95

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So I'm thinking of studying composition in college, and I need some tips on how to get a head start.

Piano is the number one composing tool, so I'm hoping to start some lessons for that soon. Composing on my own time is also something that I know I should do(and already do, to an extent).
 

BonsaiK

Music Industry Corporate Whore
Nov 14, 2007
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Ham_authority95 said:
So I'm thinking of studying composition in college, and I need some tips on how to get a head start.

Piano is the number one composing tool, so I'm hoping to start some lessons for that soon. Composing on my own time is also something that I know I should do(and already do, to an extent).
Piano is useful to know. You don't have to be a brilliant player (because it's other people who will be playing your compositions, not you) but knowing all your basic major and minor chords and how to play them should be a priority.

Other than that, do two things:

1. Learn music theory, all the way up. You don't have to take exams, just know as much as you can. It'll make college so much easier when you get there.

2. Start writing songs now so you already have a portfolio by the time you apply to college. They'll likely want to see it, it's basically your resume that will help get you in.
 

Ham_authority95

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BonsaiK said:
Ham_authority95 said:
So I'm thinking of studying composition in college, and I need some tips on how to get a head start.

Piano is the number one composing tool, so I'm hoping to start some lessons for that soon. Composing on my own time is also something that I know I should do(and already do, to an extent).
Piano is useful to know. You don't have to be a brilliant player (because it's other people who will be playing your compositions, not you) but knowing all your basic major and minor chords and how to play them should be a priority.

Other than that, do two things:

1. Learn music theory, all the way up. You don't have to take exams, just know as much as you can. It'll make college so much easier when you get there.

2. Start writing songs now so you already have a portfolio by the time you apply to college. They'll likely want to see it, it's basically your resume that will help get you in.
Sounds straight forward enough. Thanks.