pskains

I like to think there are no "rules" to this kind of thing, but harmonizing thirds is extremely common. I'll admit right out of the gate, I'm not certain I fully understand your question, so forgive me if this is not applicable. I wanted to offer this little bit, based on what I think you are saying: If you are harmonizing a melody, let's say it's in the key of D. Taking that melody exactly as it is and transposing it will not generally work. Some notes will be correct, but others will be out of key. What should be done instead, is to harmonize within that same scale. For example, let's say you want to harmonize up a third for every consecutive scale degree in D: D E F# G A B C# D For the 1st scale degree, F# is the 3rd, so we use that same scale (D) but starting on F#, so it would look like this: D E F# G A B C# D F# G A B C# D E F# This ensures that all of your harmonizations stay within the proper key. If you transpose the exact melody as it is, in this case, you would end up with a D major scale with an F# major scale on top of it. Again, I'm sorry if this doesn't apply to your question. Having a hell of a time getting these things to line up right.

My pick for the day:

Dunlop Jazz III. I almost want to leave my post at that as that is nearly all I use or will use. However, there are times that if I'm doing an acoustic rhythm track, I will use a lighter nylon pick because a hard pick doesn't always sound as nice for that. Unintentionally, in the past several years, I've moved more towards playing with my fingers. Somehow, the technique began to develop and progress naturally. I didn't make any real attempt in that direction, except maybe not wanting to get up and walk across the room to grab a pick. One of the great things about fingerstyle is the various different ways you can attack a note. It can add a lot to your lead playing. But yeah, Jim Dunlop Jazz III is simply the best pick ever.

Twenty-thousand leagues beneath the sea, Would not be far enough away from me. - oh, wait, I did write these lyrics for an ex.

My wife continually joins these" pyramid" schemes regardless of my warnings, but maybe we can get this one tiny thing from it. Suppose an organization was formed based loosely on multilevel marketing, in which the members are musicians. Say, each month, a different artist or album would be the product, and everyone in said organization is to try their best to bring it exposure or sell it. The next month, a different artist or album would be featured. Maybe it's a flawed idea, I don't know, but I guess I was just thinking instead of joe blow pushing his album by himself all the time, perhaps a hundred people in various places push it for a straight month.

John, I agree with you in regards to musicians working as a collective to solve this problem, and we stand in a better place to do it now more than ever with the internet undermining the big dogs. Most musicians work against each other which makes no sense. I used to get frustrated with the lack of support towards local musicians. Radio stations don't even help promote their own, but that all goes back to payola and all that (and don't think for a second that isn't still happening). As for internet sales, any one of us can open an tunes or cdbaby or whatever store and make albums right now. The hard part is driving business to it. I've had difficulty in getting people to even take the time to listen to a track at all because, well, people just do not support independent artists. I do not care about getting sloppy filthy stinking rich. I would just like to bring in a little money to enable me to buy a little freedom from a" job" to make more (and better) music. As it is, I struggle for time to create between working, wife, kids, etc... and my wife doesn't try to help me make the time because she doesn't take it seriously simply because I don't do it for money. If I could make a little, then id have the" right" to do it. I sometimes give lessons, but I do that for free as well. I think there needs to be a collective of independent and online musicians to create an awareness campaign for the public to support their local and independent artists. Music isn't on the radio because its popular, its popular because its on the radio. People have the illusion that they make choices about what music they like, but most people are conditioned to swallow up anything the radio says is good. I don't want riches, I just want to buy my freedom. /rant

Cool, guys. Glad some people got something useful!

Gijs, that is probably the best way to go. "Band" sites generally only attract bands and musicians. The sites do nothing to draw in the listener. Youtube is a great idea because let's face it, everyone is there. I think that would be good advice for anyone.

John, I really like it here at songstuff, otherwise i wouldnt be here. My comments above were in regards to facebook and reverbnation. They were in no way meant to speak poorly on this site. When I spoke of soundlantern, it was not meant to imply that sharing doesn't happen here. It does to a great extent. I was speaking only of sites that host music. Sorry if you took it the wrong way.

I used to post revernations flash player on facebook when I would do a new song, but it seems that my" friends" on facebook were just too busy playing farmville and posting about how long the line at wal-mart is to listen. It might have taken me 5 days to do the song, but no one could be bothered to listen to the 3 minute track. I left facebook. Useless. Also, reverbnation is full of people promoting their stuff. That's it. Not many actually listen to others music. There is a little game they play on there. Sometimes I get a message that I got a new fan. Instinctually, you want to go to the persons page, see what they are about, listen to their tunes.... they are usually ranked #1 in their area. But then you notice that when they fanned you, they also fanned virtually everyone in your area, upon further inspection, when you check listeners, they never even listened to your tracks at all. This is what they do to keep a high rank. This has happened over and over. This is the rant section, right? There used to be a website called" soundlantern". It was a true community where everyone was really sharing and listening to tracks. It was very cool and I miss it.

I don't have any experience with these, but I am interested in how it turns out. Keep us posted.

Personally, the music comes first for me. I listen to how it sounds well before I start trying to figure out what they are saying or why. One reason for that is I love music. I love sound. Another reason, though, is that most lyrics just aren't very good. And even those that aren't bad aren't very original or different. At least not in popular music. There are a few exceptions, but for the most part, it's all formulaic, typical, and overdone.

That's some interesting information and I was not entirely aware of that. On the other hand, I'm not too worried about theft. I'm not exactly making money from anything I do myself and doubt I will anytime in the future. As it stands, I can hardly give the stuff away, which is ok. I do it to please myself. I read about something a few years ago, where the RIAA was trying to push a bill in which even if an artist owned their own copyright, "x" amount of years after their death, it would revert to "work for hire" status and the record Company would then own the copyright, essentially stealing it from the deceased artists family. Does anyone know if they succeeded in passing that? Even if they didn't, really shows them for the thieves they are.

I once read (or saw?) an interview with B.B. King. He talked about this one time when a young songwriter approached him and said that he really wants to write blues like B.B. King, but every time he's feeling blue, he's not able to write anything. B.B. King told the guy that he had it all wrong. He said he never writes about the blues while he has the blues. He writes about those experiences when he's feeling inspired. Long story short, it might not always be the best time to write about a situation when you are currently in it. If you can't get it together right now, just write down all of your thoughts and feelings about the situation and write it when you are inspired. Just my thoughts for what it's worth.

I didn't. I just want to live vicariously through someone else.

Never quite being satisfied with my own mixes, I had thought of tracking my songs as I do now, but instead of mixing them down, maybe take the individual tracks to a local studio and let them take it from there. The reason I consider such a thing is as a way to try and get a better sound for less money, since I wouldn't pay for the ridiculous time it would take me to do everything myself in the studio. Have any of you ever tried something like this? Would a studio reject such an idea insisting you track with them? Is there some other reason that this is a bad idea? While I realize the outcome might not be as good as tracking in the studio, I think it could produce something comfortably in between that I could be happy with. Anyone have any ideas or thoughts about this?

Exactly. I've often wished there were no "giants" like exist today. Music is one of those things where you can either have a LOT of success, or you can pretty much call it a hobby (and if you don't, someone else will do it for you). There is not much in between. I would rather see a world in which musicians could earn an average living rather than having a few who are given the whole enchilada. And when you think about it, this would have the result of more musical choices for listeners. Oh, well. That's not the world we live in.