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Just expressing my frustration at the fact that I don't post much of my music because my guitar skills are not up to snuff.  I have two songs in particular that I have practiced and practiced on guitar to the exclusion of other songs I've done (falling behind with where I was with those) and to the exclusion of putting guitar to other songs hoping to get to the point that I can post something decently played, but to no avail...circumstances have affected these skills and I'm still not ready.  

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I know how you feel. Work something good out and then it all goes pear shaped at recording. Have you considered using 2 tracks for guitar?

 

How about using your regular accompaniment (that is failing) just as a guide track (I assume you are also using a click track?). Then add other simpler guitar accompaniment, with an optional further guitar track to flesh it out?

 

Delete the guide track before saving out.

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Good advice from Rudi but I'm not sure if you are recording live straight to a stereo digital recorder or multitrack?

 

If you are limited by live to stereo recorder it makes things more difficult.

 

If you are that frustrated and want to get the guitar recording done I'm sure that you can ask a guitarist here to play it for you. I believe that some on this site would be only too happy to help you out.

 

I don't play any instrument apart from my voice so am reliant on musicians to sort that side of things.

 

 

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Practice Recording....

 

If your playing is under par it might be that you simply need to allot special time in your day to practicing with a metronome (it works) and building yourself up from there.  An old teacher of mine use to always stress playing scales before all else even if you feel you've mastered them and don't see the point of going through the route/rut process.  Mostly because it builds confidence.  If you play something simple but well it can offer confidence to play more.   

 

Practice the songs you are learning or want to record   after you've practiced  and record your scales.  Not fast just at a medium tempo.  Don't dive in to recording practice before you attempt to perform.  Do this every day for at least a month.  You'll gain confidence with your technique and comfort with your recordings.

 

Listen to your recording each day but don't be too critical of your recorded performance.  Don't expect overnight improvement.  Understand that everyone goes through up slopes and down slopes when advancing technique.  Mostly stick to it.  Don't give up on yourself.  It's extremely hard to maintain effort when you don't see immediate reward and are trying to do it all alone.  If you can find a jam buddy,  If not find a teacher.  It's hard to judge your own development by yourself and maintain inspiration.  Try to play out in front of others.  Relatives, friends, co-workers anywhere you can get an audience.  If they aren't throwing rotten food at you consider it progress and success.  This will lead to confidence in general with your playing and help you to stay motivated. 

 

Often times it's confidence and concentration which are the real issues with performance.  It can be hard to stay focused.  There is a very good book which is intended for all musicians of all musical styles called

https://www.amazon.com/Inner-Game-Music-Barry-Green/dp/0385231261  The inner game of music.

In it the book discusses various internal issues which can stymie skills and creativity and how to overcome them.  Me I'm not the greatest extrovert in the world and when I read it many many years back it helped me deal with internal conflicts which were working against my musical abilities.  It's not just a bunch of hocus pocus "You can do it!" rhetoric.  It contains strategies for success that anyone can use to release the "Inner mozart" within us all.

Edited by TapperMike
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I have to agree with David. I have no music training, but tons of ideas come to me everyday. I use a DAW and VST's to get my ideas down. As a result I have become a bit more competent on the piano, but having a DAW means I can layer and don't need to worry about playing 2 handed if it is going to be a complicated piece of music. You can also play it slower than you need and speed up to the BPM you desire.

 

The amount of options out there for sounds is staggering and I started 3 tracks in one night after downloading Analog Strings as the ideas just flowed as I was playing around with the presets.

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@TapperMikeI need to do exactly what you suggested.  When I was getting regular practice time, I was getting better and using a metronome was helping.  I took up guitar to support my songwriting.  I didn't/don't read music (minimal), but the guy who was showing me how to play wasn't concerned about that.  He just showed me chord shapes--enough to put chords with a song.  I use a capo.  I may just check out that book you suggested.  I haven't checked out the link yet, though. @Rudi  If by using two tracks, you mean record guitar on one and vocals on the other, I did think of that, but I've discovered I play differently--with less intonation when I don't sing with it. @HoboSage you hit a sore spot with your comments about technology. I do need to "get with the program".  I am so not tech savvy.  Its been even more an area of frustration for me than the guitar playing.  I know enough to get me in trouble and working with Audacity has thoroughly frustrated me, so though I have thought of doing separate tracks--I put it off because I have to use Audacity.  I once had a taste of Garageband and I think I'd like that (more user friendly for non-techies), but I don't own a Mac.  Little at a time....I may head that route as resources allow.  @Ray888, I've considered what you mentioned, but I don't know what I have to offer a guitarist except possibly my vocals on their track but I don't really want to agree to something like that until I know what I'm getting into or I could provide some help with lyrics if they struggle with that (which they can get here anyway),  @Richard Tracey, Your comment are encouraging to me because I also have no music training.  I go by ear.  

Edited by Pahchisme Plaid
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2 hours ago, Ray888 said:

Good advice from Rudi but I'm not sure if you are recording live straight to a stereo digital recorder or multitrack?

 

If you are limited by live to stereo recorder it makes things more difficult.

 

If you are that frustrated and want to get the guitar recording done I'm sure that you can ask a guitarist here to play it for you. I believe that some on this site would be only too happy to help you out.

 

I don't play any instrument apart from my voice so am reliant on musicians to sort that side of things.

 

 

I did purchase a microphone, but I tend to use my Sony handheld recorder when I record.  I don't have much for recording set up on account that writing is really my thing.  I happen to be able to sing my songs, but I'm not really in it for that.  I do like to sing, but I wouldn't make a profession of it. I'm not a born performer-type and I have energy issues, so a one-time recording is about my pace, or however many times it takes to get a good recording.   I started to learn how to write in 2014.  It was slow going--like one song a month at that time.  I would like to be able to play well enough to share my songs comfortably with locals.  I'm not there yet.

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Funny you should give those two bits of advice, @tunesmithth, because I think just yesterday I wrote out five goals I want to aim for (3 out of 5 are music related, the others not). What I need to do now is to get specific on what steps I need to take to achieve those goals, list them out and keep them in a visible place where I see them every day and set a reasonable timeline 

I'm usually patient, except for those times I'm not :P.  I don't like losing skill I previously had.  Life just got really crazy for a chunk of time which affected my availability, energy and focus to practice.  Plus, believe it or not, when I changed my guitar strings, which needed to be done, it sort of changed the tone on my guitar a bit.  I loved the way it sounded with the original strings and that was a great motivator for me. I'd play even when I was tired just because I loved the sounds from my guitar.   I researched what my guitar had for original strings and I think I'm going to order those and change my perfectly good strings for a set like the original ones.   The local guitar shop doesn't have the brand I need on hand.

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Plaid - do you mind me asking what phone you use?

 

I have an app for my iPhone which I can sing into, or hum or just make noises.... what it does is shows you which note or chord you are making when you record into it. I have written out a whole song idea on this app several times (although I'm yet to do anything with them!!), but it might help you understand which notes/chords you need to play to compose your tracks. If you sing out your lyrics with the melody in mind, then this could help.

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26 minutes ago, Jenn said:

woah woah woah what's this app? 

 

It's the Apple one - Music Memos - it's free. You also have the option to add a drum/bass background to assist you with your composition as well, really handy little app.

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9 hours ago, tunesmithth said:

The good news is, slow progress is perfectly fine.

You'll get there when you get there.

The best advice I can offer is...

  • decide on a specific direction
  • be patient (baby steps)

Without having specific goals, it's damn near impossible to get where you want to go. 

Good luck and try to enjoy the process ;)

 

Tom

Decide on a specific direction has been my greatest undoing because I can never stay there for long.  I find that I'm good for maybe a few months and then I move on.  For the last year I've been working out fingerstyle + tapping jazz standards.  Its been challenging as I have to do all my arrangements for myself and they are constantly chagrining.   Now I want to go back to sing and strum (so to speak) classic pop/rock folk rock.  Mostly because that's how I feel most comfortable with busking.  I've promised myself I'd start busking for years but never got my tail into gear and actually did street/park performances.  I just started doing it and I have to get more organized.  I hope I stick it out.

 

 

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PP,

 

I had wrongly assumed you were already laying a guitar track separately. So my suggestion was to create 2 simpler guitar tracks instead of 1 harder one.

 

However, if you need the performance vibe of playing & singing together as the 'one take', I understand that completely. Just be aware that there are always other options as posters have pointed out here.

 

In this case, I have an idea that may help.

 

I know what its like to focus on one song exclusively. It can become consuming; maddening even.

You could try to put another song into work and work on both in tandem. Yes I know you have been working on two already but it should be a different kind of song with a different feel. The idea is to get a break from one emotional state by replacing it with another different one.

 

Now, it could make life more difficult if you are trying to juggle with too much in your head. Or, it could have the desired effect by 'snapping you out' of the rut that's constraining you. If you can return to your original song with fresher impetus, you might find it easier to work with.

 

Whats that got to do with getting the guitar part right? Its hard to explain, but a complete break can reorder and focus your thinking wonderfully.  Just a suggestion.

 

Good luck

Edited by Rudi
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20 hours ago, Jenn said:

Sweetheart Sage gave me this advice when I started too.... And it really made me mad! :angry2: Cause I was trying my best with what I had and it didn't seem to be getting me anywhere. But then I tried something even harder... I stopped caring entirely.. To just make music in whatever way I can. Hell, I'm getting into the habit of just banging out rhythms and singing along to them.. I haven't been able to apply much to my songs, but I like to say that I'm "practicing" all the time.. with different mediums and ideas and everything..

Also, I can read music rather well... I've played the trumpet for a decade and I've always had a knack for sight reading.. However, when I'm making music, I hardly know what key I'm in or what notes I'm trying to play. Again, it's just about letting go and letting whatever wants to come out, come out.

If it means smashing pots and pans, then at least, I guess use cheap ones!

And as you go, you'll start to learn not by the book, but in your own way.. and I think that will help develop your own style more than any tutorial could..

So yeah.. Just start messing around and see what comes out..
 

My first experience learning to play an instrument was through an adult ed. Class at the age of 43 using a borrowed fiddle.  I had to stop playing because I was having neck trouble, but also, it wasn't my fiddle and I had to return it to its owner.  I was thrilled that I COULD play and it was what eventually encouraged me to try guitar.  Pretty cool that you can play the trumpet.  I heard somewhere (maybe saw it here) that playing a wind or a brass instrument helps with good breathing technique, so in turn might be helpful with singing too!  I wasn't/ am not upset with HoboSage at all.  His perception is completely accurate.  He states what I already know, but ahhhhhrrrrggg!  I have this irrational technology phobia!!  It's something I need to overcome.  I do somewhat, in the smallest increments.  I think its fabulous that you're enjoying the process.  I do too for the most part.  Occasionally I get frustrated with my limitations.  Good things have happened out of it this time.  I got a lot of great suggestions and supportive feedback. :)  

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These are the challenges of a one man band.  To be honest drumming skills will always help not hinder you.   The problems of working with prefabricated drum tracks are many.  If you have short loops they may either be to stagnate or too busy.  It's hard to get manageable ones that work well together and have the proper variation over the course of the song.  Most breaks and fills from loops don't always apply to the guitar or other performances you have worked up.  It can be a hair pulling experience and you'll have to expect some rewrite along the way for your performances to coincide with the tracks you have to work with.  You need to be well practiced, pragmatic and patient.  A soloist recording life can be the loneliest place on earth.  Self-doubt will show itself on every turn when you go through set back after setback.   

 

Rarely as adults do we have the opportunity for a buddy system / band situation to arise where the pure focus is writing and recording. Very rarely.  Even then   For a long time I would pay proffessional teachers for "lessons" of which they would help me recording parts.  These were also full time gigging musicians at the top of their game.  They (especially one) would also add a lot of encouragement along the way.  Sure there were sacrifices I'd have to make such as not being able to play every lead and not getting the exact bass line I wanted.   But the end result would come closer to the "truth" of my initial desire than I could get using technology.  It also made me think harder about arrangement and committing ideas to paper (chord charts etc)   Eventually I would make compromises and score in Band In A Box http://www.pgmusic.com/bbwin.htm  then flesh the parts out rewriting them all afterwards.   It seems like more work but it actually streamlines the process. 

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12 hours ago, TapperMike said:

Decide on a specific direction has been my greatest undoing because I can never stay there for long.  I find that I'm good for maybe a few months and then I move on.  For the last year I've been working out fingerstyle + tapping jazz standards.  Its been challenging as I have to do all my arrangements for myself and they are constantly chagrining.   Now I want to go back to sing and strum (so to speak) classic pop/rock folk rock.  Mostly because that's how I feel most comfortable with busking.  I've promised myself I'd start busking for years but never got my tail into gear and actually did street/park performances.  I just started doing it and I have to get more organized.  I hope I stick it out.

 

 

I love listening to buskers!  I have to travel a bit to encounter them though--only a few times a year, though with HOPES we'll happen upon some.  In recent years a local music store works with the city for businesses to host buskers in their place of business 1x/year --a whole street of businesses participate.  

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For a short time busking kept me alive.  I had gotten a job at an island resort which offered employee housing. I was homeless but had a car.  The problem was they wouldn't provide it for the first three months, and... vagrancy is an arrest-able offense in Florida.  

Every day I'd busk in Downtown Fort Meyers.  I'd get enough money to pay for gas, pay the toll to get on the island.  Eat at work and drive back to the mainland find a place to hide and do it all over again.   Once the checks started flowing in I was able to get hotel rooms twice a week so I wouldn't have to sleep in a hospital parking lot.  

 

I went back to Florida for a "one day vacation" visited all the old haunts and saw street performers working the same corner I did way back when.

 

 

Edited by TapperMike
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11 hours ago, Rudi said:

PP,

 

I had wrongly assumed you were already laying a guitar track separately. So my suggestion was to create 2 simpler guitar tracks instead of 1 harder one.

 

However, if you need the performance vibe of playing & singing together as the 'one take', I understand that completely. Just be aware that there are always other options as posters have pointed out here.

 

In this case, I have an idea that may help.

 

I know what its like to focus on one song exclusively. It can become consuming; maddening even.

You could try to put another song into work and work on both in tandem. Yes I know you have been working on two already but it should be a different kind of song with a different feel. The idea is to get a break from one emotional state by replacing it with another different one.

 

Now, it could make life more difficult if you are trying to juggle with too much in your head. Or, it could have the desired effect by 'snapping you out' of the rut that's constraining you. If you can return to your original song with fresher impetus, you might find it easier to work with.

 

Whats that got to do with getting the guitar part right? Its hard to explain, but a complete break can reorder and focus your thinking wonderfully.  Just a suggestion.

 

Good luck

I have been feeling like I want to revisit some of the other songs I was working on before these two came along.  I think it might be good for me to mix them up a bit since they're all styled differently and work different areas of my learning.  I think I need to rebuild my confidence with playing.  Also playing "for" someone or "with" someone as suggested earlier  does help.  When I say "with" I'm talking a nonperformance thing.  I think I will work on some other stuff for awhile.

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24 minutes ago, TapperMike said:

For a short time busking kept me alive.  I had gotten a job at an island resort which offered employee housing. I was homeless but had a car.  The problem was they wouldn't provide it for the first three months, and... vagrancy is an arrest-able offense in Florida.  

Every day I'd busk in Downtown Fort Meyers.  I'd get enough money to pay for gas, pay the toll to get on the island.  Eat at work and drive back to the mainland find a place to hide and do it all over again.   Once the checks started flowing in I was able to get hotel rooms twice a week so I wouldn't have to sleep in a hospital parking lot.  

 

I went back to Florida for a "one day vacation" visited all the old haunts and saw street performers working the same corner I did way back when.

 

 

You should write your story  in novel form.  I'd read it!

Edited by Pahchisme Plaid
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15 hours ago, TapperMike said:

For a short time busking kept me alive.  I had gotten a job at an island resort which offered employee housing. I was homeless but had a car.  The problem was they wouldn't provide it for the first three months, and... vagrancy is an arrest-able offense in Florida.  

Every day I'd busk in Downtown Fort Meyers.  I'd get enough money to pay for gas, pay the toll to get on the island.  Eat at work and drive back to the mainland find a place to hide and do it all over again.   Once the checks started flowing in I was able to get hotel rooms twice a week so I wouldn't have to sleep in a hospital parking lot.  

 

I went back to Florida for a "one day vacation" visited all the old haunts and saw street performers working the same corner I did way back when.

 

 

Loads of experiences in there for you to draw on for writing songs Mike. Sometimes even bad experiences are a Godsend for songwriters.

 

There was a guy named Boxcar Willy who wrote a hit song (King of the road) that went something like this....

 

Trailers for sale or rent

Rooms to let 50 cents

No phone no pool no pets

Ain't got no cigarettes

 

Ah but two hours of pushin broom

buys an 8 X 12 four bit room

I'm a man of means by no means

King of the road.

Edited by Ray888
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On 6/10/2017 at 4:42 PM, Richard Tracey said:

Plaid - do you mind me asking what phone you use?

 

I have an app for my iPhone which I can sing into, or hum or just make noises.... what it does is shows you which note or chord you are making when you record into it. I have written out a whole song idea on this app several times (although I'm yet to do anything with them!!), but it might help you understand which notes/chords you need to play to compose your tracks. If you sing out your lyrics with the melody in mind, then this could help.

Mine isn't a phone.  It's an iPod (iOS 6, -I think- by apple).

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