your own musicianship

oops. Make that "some of us..."

ok i admit it. i either play guitar in a capt.beefheart / derek bailey / randy rhoads kinda way or i plug my little sampley thing into itself & set up a bunch of loops see what happens. very very rarely these days though.

What kinda sampley thing do you use? Lately I've become more conscious of the more productioney side of making music. Meaning the samplers and all. Can sampling gear actually be used all alone to make music? I'm so ignorant. Big shot artists make it sound so easy: "Oh I just popped into Pro-tools and slapped the song together", but when I try to use even the most remedial music creation programs on my PC it always ends in miserable failure. Does having a piece of hardware make it easier in some way? I'm beginning to lean towards the I'm-just-stupid answer.

See Shameless Publicity Bids by me. BTW I'm technically brilliant but I don't play so's you'd notice, which makes me close to perfect, I'd say.

The nearest I come to making music is my occasional karaoke caterwaul. Other than that, nothing, and no interest. I used to play piano at school and it was so boring. I think this is the root of my complete disinterest in musicians - I can't empathise.

i can play a guitar in a fashion that only impresses idiots.

but it really impresses them. i could play 'street spirit' and tell them i wrote it. or 'norwegian wood'.

not the hard bits though.

I merely Record. I don't Play.

I play drums. but I'm semi-retired. I came down to Dunedin & I kind of didn't ever get around to trying to start a band or meet new people or whatever & i dunno, now i've been here about a year & i still haven't got a band. does anyone wanna start one?

what i used to do tho' -
* early/mid-80s wacky ass 4-track diddling, psychodelphic garage folk (Picnic Boys/Say Yes To Apes)
* mid-late '80s - bogan harmolodics (Bill Fosby Assassins) & basic Exploitation Rock (Axel Grinders)
* 90s - refined Exploitation Rock (King Loser), stoner drag-out continuum (Space Dust, Brother Love combos)

I play piano, drums, and trumpet. I majored in classical performance (trumpet), and record my own music whenever I have any time at all. I used to play in the symphony and teach, but now I mostly just amuse myself.

I can play some guitar, but it's been a looong time since I've attempted to do so. I can play a few songs, but I wouldn't really say I have a style per se because that would imply I can play enough to really develop one.

I'm a semi-professional chorister. (Actually, if anyone's looking for a bass-baritone and a high soprano for a duet/trio/quartet, my wife and I are available...) Right now, I'm singing with Tanglewood Festival Chorus (and many apologies if that link doesn't work) and Seraphim Singers. When I was a lot younger, I took piano and saxaphone lessons, but didn't keep up with either of them to gain more than a rudimentary grasp of either instrument.

Think Calvin Johnston meets Elton John. Then add in a setlist of all covers. Except that I don't do that anymore.

I play bass sort of decently, guitar badly, and drums very badly indeed, and I sing characteristically. I also used to play drums and electronics in Dymaxion, and occasionally do some remixing as DJ Skip. I put out a 7" and a double-LP a few years ago under a pseudonym I'm not about to reveal, both in very limited editions. I also played bass very briefly in Cobalt, and played percussion in a weird little band called Customer Service (sometimes Customer Service Representatives) that also put out a super-limited-edition LP.

These days, I play bass and a little guitar and sing some in The Media--warning, page not updated in a good long while. I'm also the guest bass player with < a href=http://www.crownson45.com>Crowns On 45 for their tour this month.

I smack a guitar every so often. For some reason, it always comes out sounding wrong. I need to practice. A lot.

I actually posted some MP3s of my "work" on my website - I don't have enough of an ego to actually post a direct link; I make ye work for it. My "songs" (with singing & stuff) have too many words and not enough melodic excitement. My "non-songs" (without singing - that's the stuff on my site) are experimental free-form excursions into ennui. Yes, I have very little visible confidence in my musical abilities. (Ain't that always the way, though?)

I can say, however, that I'm a few good hours away from sort of playing "Blackbird" well. Singing it is another issue.

Well, dunno. I've done one or two thingies.

Well, I started off attempting to do a simple jangly guitar pop thing, but instead it turned into an elaborate Brian Wilson-ish "Wall of Sound" project. You can check out the web site here. Right now, there's only one song online (and it's admittedly not very normal) but I'm having a blast putting stuff together. :-)

In my dreams I am a charismatic and beloved singer who fills arenas. Reality has not yet brought itself on board with this situation.

I really wanted to sing in high school, and had a couple really crummy garage bands. I remember hanging out with some friends who were practicing; my best buddy was singing, and I was like, "damn, I can do better than that", so I just grabbed the mike and sang, and the rest of the guys were like, "ok, you're out, he's in!" But that didn't mean I was good. I sometimes sing in the shower, that kind of thing, but the best I can manage is sorta like Iggy in crooner mode, which, as much as I love Iggy, is pretty dire. Actually, I'm not even that good.

I play casiotone keyboards and casio Sk-1, can strum on guitar, toy instruments, percussion, oh and singing. Style = lo-tech toy noise. My one review compared me to a "lesser-fi lali puna" and "hum'n'space, perhaps". I play in two bands the Various Artists and Buglebear Senior.

Drums for about 15 yrs, most successful band a post-punk Dag Nasty/Wire/Descendents-like group called "Poets and Murder". Bass guitar for 2+ years, mainly funk, blues and Eric Claridge-like stuff. Various computer-related projects mainly using Sonic Foundry's Acid Pro, Steinberg's Rebirth and various sound editors tho mostly Goldwave. Lately, as a full-time Law student I haven't done much but play bass frequently, mainly solo, to keep up my chops for that imaginary future when I can conflate spare time and willing musicians with good taste.

I can play and sing a bunch of old country songs that I know. SOmetimes I get together w/friends for this. Otherwise I've been having fun mixing records together tho I am getting a little bored and burnt-out on it recently.

I don't really count as a musician. I sing a lot, practice guitar and piano sometimes, and do not make up my own songs for any of them. I write lyrics, sure, but can I ever remember the melody? Does one melody or another make the difference to me? Absolutely not. They're pretty shitty lyrics anyway. If a poem's bad enough you can set it to music and hopefully people won't notice.

I do various things.

I play guitar (badly) in a deliberately simplistic, derivative garage rock group. It is fun.

I used to play horrible rhythm guitar for the lousy songs I wrote. Then I realized I was kidding myself and that what I really wanted to do was write criticism. I wish I was making this up.

I play drums semi-professionally. Mostly jazz, though I've played in all kinds of bands, and I'm starting a hiphop band here in Madison, WI.

I play guitar in a workmanlike fashion. I can squeeze out a good vibrato, and I'm pretty good at improvising solos, but they're not that flashy or impressive. I used to play keyboard decently well, but I'm out of practice. I can still play chords and melodies to flesh out my stuff.

All in all, pretty unimpressive. My voice is another thing entirely; it's quite good, though my range could use some definite improvement. My songwriting is really good, except for the words. I have a hard time writing real words so I try to be weird and funny and it ends up not TOO retarded. I still try to cop lyrics from my sister whenever possible. As for what style of music i write, it's generally pop/rock with odd chords and open-ended structure -- a relic from my prog-rock tastes, I guess, though my music definitely isn't prog.

All in all, I'm a decent musician, good songwriter, but I'm a _great_ rapper. Really. My rap productions are mushy and indistinct, like they were created with low-quality samples (which, of course, they were) but my MC-ing is quite excellent. But I don't know if that is included in the realm of "musicianship" ; I guess so, but it's also a verbal skill and a narrative skill as well as a musical one.

i can sing and play the piano really well. i can play guitar a little bit. i have been in two bands, Murdering Monsters where i played keyboards. we were kinda like a cross between the fall and the birthday party. at the moment i'm in LD50 and we're kick ass punkrock, i play guitar in a bass-esque kinda way and do some vocals too. LD50 are about to split so...what happens next? maybe i will learn how to play the drums, i kinda want to.

I've got a degree in composition with additional work in performance, recording and electronic music. I've played bass and trumpet professionally, and have also played in bands and shows on keyboards, guitar and even drums/percussion, though I don't really play any of those last few instruments (especially guitar and drums -- keyboards I can fake reasonably well, but my technique is execrable). I've also played euphonium/baritone horn, but it's been years since I picked one up.

I've been playing jazz off and on since 1990 or so, and have played in several bands, one of which made a little headway in the New England indie scene (and cut two very-limited-release albums and a comp track) before we petered out. In another one I sang lead vocals and wrote about half of the songs. I've written a ridiculous number of jazz songs, most of which are primitive (i.e. not very exciting) and date back to my early high school years, but a few of which are pretty good. I've been commissioned twice in the classical music world, most recently for a piece I wrote that was premiered in May of this year. If I were an RPG trading card, my strengths would be my ear, my background in improvisation, and my knowledge of music theory; my weaknesses would probably be my slipshod instrumental technique, poor practice habits, and tone production.

The music I make often involves the quiet/ambient end of the spectrum, though I've done lots of other sorts of things too and try to keep an open mind. A lot of the quiet stuff I've done has been electronic, but some of it's been done with physical instruments. I also have a penchant for writing ridiculous pop songs (which generally seem to go over rather well). I have a very hard time writing "serious" lyrics of any sort, but can reel off humorous ones pretty easily. I like harmonically and timbrally interesting music, and music with a lot of space and silence or with a liquid quality; most of what I write, when I'm writing in seriousness, reflects that.

I play guitar every day and make wildly divergent stabs at harmonica, keyboard, and banjo.

And, not to start up the mostly needless debate over critics who are/aren't musicians, but: If you play, do you find your demands increase in different ways as you play more and more? I've been obsessed with shifting tastes as they relate to the need for more musically "interesting" features--i.e., song structures, chord structures, alien sounds, etc., that you could barely conceive of making yourself--and the stuff that's inspiring to would-be musicians vs. stuff that's just plain inspiring.

My CV. Not exactly impressive!

1976/7 : Mercury Skull Damage. I played Guitar. Unspeakably bad skool punk-metal

1978 : The Vice Principles : Guitar. Psyche-punk.

1978/9 : Eastern Blok : Guitar/Vocals. Punk - awful.

1981 : Futile Existence : Guitar. Grinding post-punk racket. Got banned from rehearsal room for being too loud. No gigs

1982/3 : Nearest Passers-By : Guitar. Punk/Funk/Factoryish with trumpet. A few gigs, including the legendary Reading Grim Festival.

1983-6 : A Nation Mourns : Guitar, a bit of keyboards, bass at one gig. A mix of Factory gloominess and garage pop. Lots of gigs. Supported Primitives, Orange Juice and others. A few records, NME review and even fan mail! Got through 8 drummers in 3 years.

1984 : Derek Bowie : Drums. 12-piece noise merchants. I gig

1985 : JD Holmes Experience. Vocals. One gig. Were chased from venue by audience.

1986/87 : Emotional Jacuzzi. Rhythm Guitar. U2 style big-rock with a Factory tinge. I replaced Keith Girdler, later of Sarah band Blueboy in this group.

1989/90 : The Adventure Playground. Guitar, keyboards, drum programming. Gloomy psyche-pop. No gigs.

1994-6 : Electric Rembrandt : Guitar, backing vocals. Wonderful gargage/kraut/psyche pop. Played Dublin Castle, Mean Fiddler, Monarch, Garage etc. Recorded a couple of ace CDs which I damn well ought to release sometime.

2002 : The return of A Nation Mourns?

Strictly selecta-I

For many years i take singing-lessons, I always liked the falsetto male voice, so I wanted to sing like countertenor Andreas Scholl.

In reality it could be more up the Andreas Dorau strasse.

Or maybe a mag that REALLY speaks to the lad demographic with snazzy pull quotes like "how to please yourself in bed" or "which sky-blue shirt to wear to work"

heh. just move along folks. another skill I've got comes the fore - being a TOTAL SPACE CADET

space is the place!

Dr C: whaddya mean, 'not exactly impressive'?? (The idea of you playing 'big U2 rock' is tremendous...)

As one who hasn't been trained for 12 years (and has forgotten all that I learned up to that point), I've found that my high-water mark in attempting to write unusual chord structures, etc, was the mid- 90s, late 94 or so. Nowadays I just use the same old basics over and over - the most useful melodies, from my POV, seem to coexist best with them.

But I haven't written a song for 5 months.

"I replaced Keith Girdler, later of Sarah band Blueboy in this group."

Amazing Dr C/Pinefox pop connection alert!

Well I think Pinefox and I have made many pop connections in the past, although not in the most obvious ways ;)

Big Rock - I felt I ought to try it. There was enough of a Magazine/Factory influence to keep me interested and they had some VERY good songs. We did end the set with an ACR type percussion jam where everyone played drums of some kind. I've never knowingly heard Blueboy as I have tended to shun anything which might resemble 'twee', but in Emotional Jacuzzi Keith was a prancing, striding Jim Kerr-like front man. A recording exists too! It's on a mid-80's compilation called "Too Loud To Scream".

blueboy aren't particularly twee actually, at least not on their last album...

anyways, anyone who might want to form a pop band in Philly, please contact me. I play guitar and etc. and might even sing a bit.

Popmusic, that song was exquisite. Really great, but I just don't understand why you insist on mono. Maybe you should do two versions, one mono and one stereo one for us plebians. But the song was really great. I can't wait to hear more.

I play in/am 1/2 of VIETGROVE, an instrumental prog-rock/space musick hybrid thing. I also play in a prog rock covers band. I can play thee harpsichord break from yes' "Siberian Khatru", the mellotron break from "In The Court of the Crimson King" as well as "My Tulpa" by magazine. In two weeks time I will own a double-neck guitar. PH33R MY PROG-ROCK 31337|\|355!!!!

BTW, Dr.C's resume is very impressive. Also, I briefly played in a band w/ t!|\|y from |_||_+|2450|_||\|D earlier this year. He was very nice, if quiet. That's an anti-google measure BTW, 'cuz I don't talk about it usually.

I used to play piano as a child mainly because my mother mixed in certain circles, even though we weren't really part of them. I also played the recorder, for shame. Later had a succession of cheap keyboards, one of which had the exact rhythm used on Momus's "Breathless": presumably Nick had the same model or something similar?

These days I write lyrics, come up with rough melody lines, sing them reasonably well, and occasionally consider collaborations with lapsed contributors to this forum. My "artist name", as I mentioned some months ago, is Captain Swing.

Oh, forgot to answer this. Just finished a B. A. Hons in Music this year, mostly did composition and culture studies/popular music studies. Have some tapes of drones, prepared guitars, and electronic stuff. Play shows when I can. Played in Branca's 13th symphony this year. Study classical guitar though I haven't had a teacher since I moved to Montreal. Play a bit of clarinet. Played in some rock bands you don't need to bother yourself about once upon a time.

in Branca's 13th symphony this year.

very cool indeed, sundar.

my own cv:

1993-1996 - many, many well forgotten noise/hardcore combos, a few quite okay, most terrible. many demos recorded - some still extant - and shows here and there.

1996-98 - self-produced noise and dronverks, all thankfully destroyed.

1998-99 - opened for then gilfriends band several times as dj bacteria spinning sandpaper, prepared instruments, and noise. banned from at least one club in nyc "for life and possibly after" for clearing 250 people in 7:35.

2000-present - i record as around the sea and computer scared, mostly by myself with occasional collaborators. a mix of isolationist ambient, fractured non-pop, instrumental soundscapery. think piano magic, early post-rock, etc. i hope to release a cd sooner or later. always looking for more collaborators.

In the 6th grade I sang in front of my class. Everyone laughed. Including the teacher. I should have pursued a career in music, maybe a Shaggs trib band or something?

2004 UPDATE :

1976/7 : Mercury Skull Damage. I played Guitar. Unspeakably bad skool punk-metal

1978 : The Vice Principles : Guitar. Psyche-punk.

1978/9 : Eastern Blok : Guitar/Vocals. Punk - awful.

1981 : Futile Existence : Guitar. Grinding post-punk racket. Got banned from rehearsal room for being too loud. No gigs

1982/3 : Nearest Passers-By : Guitar. Punk/Funk/Factoryish with trumpet. A few gigs, including the legendary Reading Grim Festival.

1983-6 : A Nation Mourns : Guitar, a bit of keyboards, bass at one gig. A mix of Factory gloominess and garage pop. Lots of gigs. Supported Primitives, Orange Juice and others. A few records, NME review and even fan mail! Got through 8 drummers in 3 years.

1984 : Derek Bowie : Drums. 12-piece noise merchants. 1 gig

1985 : JD Holmes Experience. Vocals. One gig. Were chased from venue by audience.

1986/87 : Emotional Jacuzzi. Rhythm Guitar. U2 style big-rock with a Factory tinge. I replaced Keith Girdler, later of Sarah band Blueboy in this group.

1989/90 : The Adventure Playground. Guitar, keyboards, drum programming. Gloomy psyche-pop. No gigs.

1994-6 : Electric Rembrandt : Guitar, backing vocals. Wonderful gargage/kraut/psyche pop. Played Dublin Castle, Mean Fiddler, Monarch, Garage etc. Recorded a couple of ace CDs which I damn well ought to release sometime.

2003 : The return of A Nation Mourns! Played first gig for 16 years - Sat Night in June at The Bull and Gate

2004 : Fractured : keyboards. Joined old mates to add a trash-organ to their grimy (post-)punk rawk. Gigs coming up in London and Brighton!