Nick

My inability to understand how to use the reply and quote stuff RTFM as they say

I first used Cakewalk Guitar Tracks. Then bought Reaper - I tried it and bought and use it for all sorts of stuff now. It's the one I know most about - though I don't know very much! I have actually bought Reaper twice as my deal only saw it through two version numbers (3 and 4) so I bought 5 when doing a potential project with a friend and there was some functionality that I wanted I have copies of Garageband - which I have occasionally used for drums but very rarely Ableton Live 8 - which I have never really got round to using Sonar Home Studio - which again I haven't really used Tracktion 6 - which I have but have never really looked at For me Reaper does what I currently need but like people who acquire guitars I tend to grab good offers on DAWs if I see them (like FREE) - just in case Mostly I use Reaper as part of a practice workflow rather than using it as a DAW for recording "proper projects". I play and sing with two friends. We meet up and I record on my (old) Zoom H2. Download into Reaper and edit, normalise and tweak bits and bobs in there and then send back to other members. Occasionally add extra tracks in etc but I just find it easy to use and do things like that in it and then create and export a bunch of mp3s And I use it to record keyboard ideas and (very) occasionally do things with drums (this is a cover that shouldn't probably be on reverbnation but hasn't been taken off yet - https://www.reverbnation.com/nickblair/song/28856761-harvest-for-the-world - if the links a problem delete it) and that's probably as complicated as I do these days The intention is to do a more 'proper' project and I'll use it then

I'm using it at work at the moment to test some things on and my initial reaction is very positive. I find it very simple to use with no need yet for any instruction. I installed the test version from download and just started running software on it. Easy to navigate with many of the nice features of both 7 and 8 - traditional start menu but easily accessible programs by just typing and searching from the desktop. I'll see if I can try a bit of music on it. We have a 64bit and 32bit version at work and both seem to be very straightforward - though I doubt there will be many who run the 32bit version (we have an older piece of software I am testing and it runs very well which came as something of a surprise!) And - yes - every indication that it will be the last Windows with constant additions and modifications. Edge the new browser works well and so far is less clunky than IE So far so good

Haven't quite worked out the font sizes on this site - I just increased the small post to 18pt and that is NOT 18pt type. Anyway... I am meeting up with someone tomorrow night who would like me to play some of his fiddle tunes for some gigs that he has written and work out some accompaniments. He is a guitarist/banjo/mandolin etc player so will no doubt have his idea of what he wants. Also quite keen that I use a DADGAD like sound etc Which is well and good. So my aim is to as quickly as possible get to know those tunes so that I can add to them hopefully. I have decent ears for fiddle tune accompaniment and have sat in quite a lot of sessions so I reckon tomorrow will probably go like this (with one BIG proviso which I'll put further down). For each tune I'll ask him to play through it and just try to get a feel of playing along as I hear it to get some thought of how I think it might go At the same time I'll record what we do on my little Zoom H2 recorder so that I can take it to bits at my leisure If he has the dots too I'll grab a copy of them to save me time working them out. If he hasn't no problem I'll also ask him how he hears it and whether there is a chord progression that he has I will want to know the structure and whether or where it repeats I probably also want to know how much he is prepared for me to do it my way That tends to be the way that I'd work with something new. But in short my aim is to find out as much about it as quickly as possible so that I can make a positive contribution. If it is an Am - Em - G thing we'll get there quite quickly and I can then go away and really get to know it. If it has lots of precise and important changes then I'll need something more precise. if it doesn't work out that way I'm quite happy for us to work out how we get to the point where I can play it with him so that we are both happy and satisfied so that we can make it better and better until we really 'know' it. But my way isn't everyone else's. If someone hasn't got great ears for chord structures or whatever there is no point, in my view, in letting it get in the way of a decent result in a short period. The few things that I have written and the songs that I play often exist in little books (if I'm organised) or scraps of paper. And if someone else wants a three bars of C and two bars of D and then three of F etc approach I probably already have it to offer. As I say in my mind the aim is to get to playing as quick as possible with as few barriers as possible. We had a young fiddle player who was going to come and play who wasn't sure what we wanted. So to help I sent along a recording of the song, a midi file, and a suggestion of the sort of thing that I heard in my head. BUT with lots of things saying 'you bring what you want - it doesn't need to be like this'. It seemed easier than spending hours of time potentially wasting four or five people's time in person. And once you have done it once you always have it to give to someone else. Just my view I wonder what size the font will be this time...

Everyone you play with will be different. It's important to get on with people generally. I don't think you could play very long with someone you genuinely can't stand. Personally I've fallen out with lots of people in bands mostly though my propensity to drink lots. Don't do that these days so hopefully that will make it easier for others! How quickly people pick things up is such a range. I am lucky to have played with some people who are VERY quick to pick things up and have wonderful ears and musical abilities. I've also played with people who relatively take ages to pick things up. And then would take eons working on every nuance of light and shade on the song. Only to play it completely different when we played it live so it was a bit of a frustration. I'm off to Scotland in a couple of weeks to meet up with a friend who is a very able professional musician. I'm the lucky one in that he will put up with me. When we used to play a few gigs he used to launch into fiddle tunes or songs that I had never heard or played and he trusted that I'd probably be ok - and I probably was. But later in the year I am supposed to be playing at a public gig in quite a big venue with someone who I only know a bit and for that one you can bet that I will want to be much better prepared. Best thing is probably to ask. And if the music is worth it and it sounds good and doesn't drive you mad then it is worth the initial (relatively small) pain.

I play chords with my thumb

I haven't played in a band for the last couple of years which I miss. I love playing in decent sessions when people let me and am currently working on a thing with Alistair for a charity thing he is doing. Sing in singarounds and the odd open mic which sometimes work well but that is the limit. Was up in Arran not so long back and had the most fun I'd had for probably 4 years. Summer day. Beautiful view. Nice harmonies. Smiles. As it happened with no practice - usual stuff for me and pinching the best songs in life because I can't write The first I love because I love the song even though everything went wrong The second I think Nickey's harmonies towards the end are lovely The last one is just fun http://dl.dropbox.com/u/83110759/Nickey/caseof.mp3 http://dl.dropbox.com/u/83110759/Nickey/sweetheart.mp3 http://dl.dropbox.com/u/83110759/Nickey/sweetman.mp3 End of the year we'll do it again together. I feel a huge pressure to write. If I do you'll be the first to hear

When my son started playing he used to post his instrumental tunes here and people used to comment - (example: http://www.soundlift.com/band/music.php?song_id=208731) and be supportive and positive (not sure about the mad father comments though they may be right - and he'll kill me for posting that) So I thought I'd return and give you a wee progress report because there was a post I read earlier of 'does anyone know anyone' / 'is there any hope out there' / etc etc Zander went off to college to play guitar and is on track to get his degree next year but still gets the chance to support bands like Malefice, have an EP produced by Justin Hill (ex Sikth) and last night won a competition with his band that will take them to play in Quebec - http://www.envoletmacadam.com/en/planetrox/canada-est/ Hi John - glad the site is well Still trying to sneak a little local gig when he visits in a few weeks http://whenourtimecomes.bandcamp.com/ (my favourite is Test the Waters) Nick

My son bought a Diezel Einstein recently - beats me how a few electrical component can be that expensive. I should hear it in about a month's time when he comes home so I'll see. Quite a loud beast I believe

Sing the solo you want to play - either out loud or in your head - and play it. Likely to be a lot more musical too and more enjoyable. The other thing is to improvise based on the tune you are playing rather than 'just improvise'. One of the thing that really makes me want to go home is to be sitting in an informal jam and people start playing 'blues'. Usually by the second one you realise that a lot of people improvise by playing the same thing over everything! A good blues to improvise over is 'Nobody Loves You When You're Down and Out' - absolutely knackers the '5 note blues pentatonic with a quarter bend here and there' mechants because it sounds crap. If you start with the tune and branch out from there and can make something that sounds good you are on the way. I sat in another thing recently and was baffled by the fluent, but depressing guitarist who couldn't work out why a major and a minor blues sound different. The tune is a good starting point though. Even just playing the tune on an instrument rather than a voice sounds different. If you then amend emphasis and start to move away from the tune - but still being aware of it - it's a good place to be. Oh the other thing that I remember someone pointing out is that a lot of blues playing is about creating tension and then (at some point) resolving it. Much great playing lives in that idea. Lazz once pointed to a Victor Wooten book (the first chapter is on line I think) which was about feel for music rather than necessrily technique (though he is an awesome player himself)

I cam across this in Computer Music and thought it an interesting thing - though I have to say I'm sceptical as to how it could work well. Also my cmputer is not a high enough spec to cope - you need quite a beast so I might ry a track at work. Be interested as it has some interesting possibilities. Hit n Mix site.

All three. A slide on a string gives a different effect to a bend. A slide goes between notes in semi tones and depending on how swiftly you slide as to how noticeable it is. A bend is much smoother and covers everything between the two note if that makes sense. A bend is more like the MOD knob on my midi keyboard. Some people push and some people pull when they bend - Albert King was a puller and Clapton is a pusher (oo err can I get arrested for libel for that?)

I should have bought it but didn't but such is life. Just need a band to play with at the moment

Or check out Annie Briggs or Bert Jansch's versions of Blackwater Side... Not suggesting that Jimmy Page nicked it or anything Middle bit is different

Wonderful stuff He plays beautifully when he's not soloing. He's a very very good soloist but his ability to lay off and accompany is wonderful I hope he enjoys his playing

>>I work alone, so I end up writing & playing all the bass tracks for my songs, but I'm not a bass player I LOVE playing bass but I'm not sure that that makes one a bass player. I had enormous fun making bass parts to Alistair's stuff - sometimes what he wanted and sometimes not. I loved getting involved in Donna's Xmas song a few years ago who was very clear about what didn't work (my first effort was MUCH to fussy - but that's how I played then) but - I think - appreciated the bits I did that she, as a bass player too, wouldn't have done that way. I've watched a load of Steely Dan videos over Xmas and wow! so so good. So practiced so tight so clever but with a lot of room within that. If you have access to the 'making of AJA' classic album DVD it's fascinating. Fagen and Becker were VERY sure what they wanted and wrote a lot of parts; AND Walter Becker was a bass player so that must have made it even harder. There's a bit though where Chuck Rainey goes - 'I know what they wanted but I know what would work. So I did it anyway. Just cheated a bit to get it through.' The drummers and bassists in the various Steely Dan performing bands are astonishing. Listen to the bass lines and learn so much for each is a consummate pro. Sometimes they play a root note first time and when you expect they'll do the same again they do - and sometimes they don't. So much going on that is probably unnoticed but without which it would be pedestrian and less good. So much bass playing as I see it is a balance between several things - being solid; playing with the drummer; playing syncopated with the drummer; playing with the lead player as an equal; many others especially just 'being right' whatever that might be. I played with a fiddle player a while back who opined that he thought I was just a bassist who was really a repressed lead guitarist. I dare say that because my bass heroes were in no particular order and missing out many Jack Bruce, Jaco Pastorius, Ray Brown, Stanley Clarke, Stu Hamm etc Each in their own way is quite up front in what they play and has a part in the whole. Jaco through his sound and style is perhaps the most recognisable? They are soloists secondary to their role in being a part of the music they are a part of. From memory (though I'm just listening to it now) Cotton Avenue on Joni Mitchell's Don Juan's Reckless Daughter is an interesting mix of Jaco playing in all sorts of ways. After his solo bits at the beginning and those noises, when he comes in in the main bit he is solid as a rock but hell makes it move and still has time to growl and play harmonics etc And leaves lots of space when it's right. And he doesn't bore. (Haven't heard this for a long time and gosh!!) You have so many choices as a bassist to tweak harmony and rhythm if you are so allowed and if it's appropriate. It's why people who don't play bass rarely have the lines they've written played.

Why is a guitar tuned EADGBE traditionally? Or a mandolin or violin GDAE? If you then look at the size of your hand... And then think which notes you want to play together. That's one part of tunings. The other part is the sound - like DADGAD for instance which works off drones, speed of playing across the top three strings and the ambiguity of a world without thirds That's a bit of it. I can explain why I tune my guitar to CGDGAD for a tune. Most of the time it's because the tune works in that tuning with the fingers you have and what gives you the sound you want. Dougie Maclean is a wonderful Scottish writer and a famous song of his is 'Ready for the Storm' - once you know it's in open Fm (CGCGCEb cpaoed at 5th) tuning it's easy to play and sounds 'right' because it's natural and works. Doesn't sound the same in 'normal' tuning

I have been lucky enough to meet various people who write and perform and give an example - Linda Kelly writes WONDERFUL songs with wonderful tunes and plays nothing at all. She writes from her soul and finds the tunes in her head. Most of them she performs unaccompanied with her friend Hazel (check out Hissyfit - Northern Tide is one of my favourite songs in the world) People can harmonise the songs after but she has the knack of writing great words and strong tunes - the unadorned power of the tune is just there. Is Imagine by John Lennon the piano bit (how he wrote it apparently because he didn't know what you were supposed to do so did something different) or is it the words - or the melody line? You can harmonise a good tune loads of ways. Melody is king and you can play those in your head with no instrument. If you don't play an instrument I'd suggest it might get in the way as your ideas could well outrun your ideas faster than you can become technically competent. Hum in your head. When it works hum it to someone else. There are lots of people who can take that and go with it. The words and the tune are it for me

My range Not sure whether this is helpful but it might be. You got 85% in a pitch test which could be a different thing - I presume that you weren't 15% off on every note - if so you just need retuning and you'll be perfect. My guess is it could be a 'singing across the breaks in your voice thing' which I could give you lots of examples of me doing. You might want to try this but I would guess that you could sing each note by themselves in as close to pitch that it would matter not to anyone but you. Sing intervals across bits of your voice and you'll soon work out where the pitch is going wrong. Often you can just change the key you sing the song in. If you are interested I could post some examples of songs that I would rather sing in a key but don't because of dealing with those transitions. I have three at the moment. Some can have the same range but how the note are grouped make them a hugely different thing to sing. If I could breathe AND sing equally across my range then I would be hugely better as a singer. Listen above and notice how my pitch struggles at the bottom of my voice. It then goes flat when I run out of breath towards the end of the first octave. Notice also where it goes wrong as I cross the bit in the second octave where I go from chest voice to middle (A - E) and towards head voice. Once I get to the other bit of my voice it's consistentish though it's struggling at the top. I think I have a baritone voice which I can push down towards bass and try to extend into the range that is the tenorish and gets all the fun. I recorded the above with a midi keyboard playing in my headphones and me keeping in thereish The problem bit (for me and others) is singing across the breaks in my voice. It's also the bit where it sounds SO different to me in my head You might play and write songs with ranges of notes that make it hard - or write songs where the note you need most breath on to float that note out is precisely at the moment where you can't. Just some thoughts. I did the thing above some while back so must try it again! I'll post another and see if it's worse. If it is then you are right about getting older

Strangely I know very few people who sing sharp consistently. I sing on the flat side when I am unsure of songs or words or am nervous. I agree with the headphone thing when I've tried recording and multitracking. I haven't done that for ages though but will be doing it again soon. I find my little Zoom recorder great and that has helped my pitch and singing in tune. It's no fuss to set up (I have recorded in the car at lunch at work) and I can listen straight back and spot the crap bits I do and try and do something about it. The better I breathe the better I sing. My pitch wanders as I run out of puff. Could it be performance anxiety? Recording something that you have worked on hard puts a pressure that doesn't help. As an odd thought do you find some sounds harder to sing in tune than others - I definitely do. But as a general thing I reckon I sing more in tune now than I did five years ago. I'm 56 and think my singing is improving not getting worse - though I may be wrong Your latency problem is something else though. You have a hugely higher spec machine than me (slow processor 750mb RAM Windows XP Asio4all driver and Reaper and have no real problems that put me off)