Any active musicians and here? let's talk

[John Benson]

Hi. I'm a new member looking for some music buddies to talk shop with. I  saw an order thread titled " sex drugs and rock and roll "   but it doesn't seem to active. Basically I'm looking for music pals and new friends and I figured that compared to other music specific forums folks who reply here will most likely have other things in common if you know what I mean.

About me. Guitar for about 33 years.i m 44 now.pretty serious about it except the few years I took off when my wife got cancer and we  then went through a painful divorce and I succumbed to some pretty heavy h and alcohol abuse.  I still listened though during those times and wrote sporadically but my chops went to shit.

I would consider myself a rock player but attempt to play classical and other styles. I am primarily self taught except when I went to Berklee for 1 semester but dropped out cause I was also busy drinking doing blow and chasing college girls around Boston. Also I was gigging regularly so thought I was all set. Young and dumb.i wish I would have taken it more seriously because I could have learned a lot. 

My influences are really all over the place but at this point I an just inspired by anyone who plays or creates art.

But some of my key peeps are hendrix, the doors stevie wonder  early slayer and metalica joni michel  p funk...the family stone...Roy Clark  yngwie malmsteen...Florence  and the machine. .led fucking zeppelin..and classical guys bach  Vivaldi and the like.  Allman bro too and I'm a big dead head. Millions of influences really 

Currently I play a strat and my classicsl. Have had to let a lot of my babies go though over the years due to being broke when younger and when I got divorced I had to dump a lot of gear and split the cash with my wife. Such is life I guess. 

Tell me about you. 

Peace 

JB

 

[John Benson]

Hey if any one replies. I'm going to be offline for a while so I may not respond. Right away. Also I found some reason I don't get email notifications when someone replies to me so talk amongst your selve.

Peace. 

JB

 

[sociopathicbombshell]

Hi. I'm a new member looking for some music buddies to talk shop with. I  saw an order thread titled " sex drugs and rock and roll "   but it doesn't seem to active. Basically I'm looking for music pals and new friends and I figured that compared to other music specific forums folks who reply here will most likely have other things in common if you know what I mean.

About me. Guitar for about 33 years.i m 44 now.pretty serious about it except the few years I took off when my wife got cancer and we  then went through a painful divorce and I succumbed to some pretty heavy h and alcohol abuse.  I still listened though during those times and wrote sporadically but my chops went to shit.

I would consider myself a rock player but attempt to play classical and other styles. I am primarily self taught except when I went to Berklee for 1 semester but dropped out cause I was also busy drinking doing blow and chasing college girls around Boston. Also I was gigging regularly so thought I was all set. Young and dumb.i wish I would have taken it more seriously because I could have learned a lot. 

My influences are really all over the place but at this point I an just inspired by anyone who plays or creates art.

But some of my key peeps are hendrix, the doors stevie wonder  early slayer and metalica joni michel  p funk...the family stone...Roy Clark  yngwie malmsteen...Florence  and the machine. .led fucking zeppelin..and classical guys bach  Vivaldi and the like.  Allman bro too and I'm a big dead head. Millions of influences really 

Currently I play a strat and my classicsl. Have had to let a lot of my babies go though over the years due to being broke when younger and when I got divorced I had to dump a lot of gear and split the cash with my wife. Such is life I guess. 

Tell me about you. 

Peace 

JB

Had a bf that went to Berklee. Close enough. They have some pretentious little musical prodigy parties. U kno what I mean. Howie Day went there when he did..hes an ok guy. 

 

[bunnies]

i play bass & piano.  currently saving up to buy a chapman stick.

my influences are yes, king crimson, rush, between the buried and me, dillinger escape plan, and blue note era stuff to name but a few.

am also a dance music DJ, i use actual vinyl, none of that knob-twiddling computer bullshit.

 

[John Benson]

That's cool yeah . I'm still here ready about some vendor I'm interested in. But glad to see some replies to this thread.  Bombshell, you're right some folks can be a bit pretentiousness from betklee. But not all. Like I said I got into through a music production major whom I meet through the circuit. We became good buds but he needed to record 4 songs for various final projects. I quickly wrote 4 songs and we scrambled for vocalist bassist and whatnot. It was much fun he would book studio time  late at night and we would smuggle cases of beer into our sessions in duffle bags.

Back in those days you could smoke cigs inside the halls too.  I was like "yeah this is the place "for me but when I got accepted  and was placed into many second year level classes which quickly got hard it was. I realized it would interfere with my drinking too much. 

 

[John Benson]

i play bass & piano.  currently saving up to buy a chapman stick.

my influences are yes, king crimson, rush, between the buried and me, dillinger escape plan, and blue note era stuff to name but a few.

am also a dance music DJ, i use actual vinyl, none of that knob-twiddling computer bullshit.

His bunnies. I love yes,king crimson, and rush

.I love dance music too. Mom always was cranking stevie Ohio players and such. I love anything with a good beat and a phat bass. I play bass to but not much these days. I've always dreamed of being a pianist but just dont have the time or natural ability. I do use it though for writing as a tool for coming up with chord inversions and such 

I used to be a big Dave brubeck fan

 

[John Benson]

Hi everyone. 

Sorry I haven't been that much of a participant in my own thread. Trying to dedicate more time to actual practice than Internet use.But I'm still checking in and want to hear about you. 

Thanks

JB

 

[Smoka90]

I do wish I could play better than I can, I have two guitars, a nice Tanglewood acoustic and a pretty rubbish knock off SG, by Vintage. I can't afford anything much better. I'm self taught and have been playing for about 10 years or so, mostly focusing on it for the last 5-6 years. I've never recorded or played live; I'm simply not good, I can't really barre chord on my acoustic and my left thumb gets strained and hurts easily. But I would love to make music, music is my passion, I always have music on in the background, I like depressive music, anything depressive, bedroom black metal is good, that's what I aspire to, haha. Music that is made by someone at 1am when they're off their head on booze and crying into a pillow on their own, that's art to me. Hiya, I'm weird and I like weird things. Another problem is I can only write decent-ish stuff when I feel terrible, I just sit there strumming and squinting making weird noises, don't have it in me to sync my guitar up to a program in those states, the one time I tried that there were severe latency problems.

I remember listening to King Crimson when I was about 12. My dad used to play it when I was a kid, and I loved and still like their debut album, I can remember 'I talk to the wind' being very pretty. But a lot of Progressive Rock I find a little pretentious.

 

[Phrenicz]

Unfortunately Smoka, the only time I write anything decent is when I'm in the grips of darkness & despair.. Goes with the territory I'm afraid : )... Inspiration rarely comes from a happy event?.. It's all those darker times which provide the juicy good stuff!.. 

I think our musical tastes may be very similar!.. 

~P~

 

[John Benson]

Shmoka and Phoenician

Just wanted to say thanks for your contributions. I  can definitely relate to some things each of you have written. I will contribute more myself, when time premitts as I have recently been amping up the practice routine and songwriting for one more stab at this thing. Having 2 autisic kids doesn't afford me much free time for the Internet , but this is a good discussion. I'll be back. 

Thanks 

JB 

 

[Smoka90]

Unfortunately Smoka, the only time I write anything decent is when I'm in the grips of darkness & despair.. Goes with the territory I'm afraid : )... Inspiration rarely comes from a happy event?.. It's all those darker times which provide the juicy good stuff!.. 

I think our musical tastes may be very similar!.. 

~P~

​I love my electric guitar when I feel terrible...distortion, delay, power chords and harmonics...I never have it in me to do vocals, really anguished ones, I can't even cry out, let alone vocalise pure anguish, I tend to let it out in different ways, I can't scream and shout, but I respect the musicians that can vocalise such emotions into a microphone.

We might like similar types of music...but it's pretty extreme Black Metal I like. Peste Noire, Lifelover and Trist are probably my favourites.

 

[John Benson]

My 2 cents 

I'm a little older, at least imo; 44, consider myself a serious musician for the past 33 years, and I fan for even longer. I don't have many memories before the age of 4, but I can still recall being enthralled by music I heard on the radio at that time,  "roundabout " by Yes,  "Ramblin man " by the Allmans, and "Angie " by the stones  are three songs I remember really captivating me when I heard them on the radio when I heard them at that young age.

I was fortunate to grow up always surrounded by music, mom was always cranking the radio in the car, and Stevie Wonder, Ohio Players, and other early funk at home. Dad wasn't around at this time. I spent a lot of my early youth with my grandparents who were hard core boozers but always had old school country music playing although I did not appreciate that music as I would come to later in life. And through my older cousins, I was exposed to rock of the time, mainly Kiss. And when I saw the cover of the 8 track of alive II, something inside me told me that whatever Ace was, that's what I needed to be even though I didn't understand what a bass, lead, or rhythm guitar was until a bit later. 

Personal history background over for now. 

As far as darkness and despair inspiring creativity, I can totally relate, in the original bands I was in, we wrote about numerous dark topics. Part of my job as a song writer and arranger was to compose these songs in such a way that melodically speaking, when people came to see us , they would sing along even if they didn't really know what they were singing along too. I always liked that juxtaposition. 

I am attracted to darker music. I remember when aic came out with "dirt", and I listened to it non stop. Well that and the beasties "Pauls Boutique ".

Not to say I do not enjoy beautiful music but as an example, Mozart, despite his genius, is one of my least favorite classical composers because I personally find much of his work too happy sounding. Yet Bach also writes pieces in major keys that I quite enjoy. 

I had one period in my life where I reached such a low point of despair, I didn't even pick up a guitar for a year. But I wrote lyrics. Because those feelings have to be released. Whether or not, I need to share my dark moments with others is something I ponder these days. Although in the past,  I have appreciated it when others have shared theirs with me, it helped me see I wasn't alone in my despair, longing, etc.

That's enough for now. 

Thanks all for your contributions 

Peace 

JB 

 

[Phrenicz]

I am quite partial to the works of Prokofiev... I think he was a masterful composer... Never have I heard such luscious darkness, juxtaposed with such glacial beauty, come from one man's mind... 

 

[John Benson]

I am quite partial to the works of Prokofiev... I think he was a masterful composer... Never have I heard such luscious darkness, juxtaposed with such glacial beauty, come from one man's mind... 

I am not familiar with Prokofiev's work so thank you for sharing that because I am a fan of musical juxtaposition in general. I will check him out.