PA Songwriters'/Composers' Association

Gabes music is great. (Irrelevant) :) but not the literal meaning of the word. Gabe you keep making stuff please :) I can't wait to see how you expand.

I am a composer and play in a rock/Prog band.

I have written upwards of 800 pages of sheet music. my band, pseudo/sentai, is currently recording a 250 page album titled bansheeface.

We have 3 full lengths and 2 eps and 2 singles out and it's on prgarchives.

Wanna get real nerdy with it? We are based off Te power rangers.

Looks like there's a lot of cool stuff to check out here once I get some more time to listen closely.

Edited by N-sz - August 26 2013 at 23:43

i meak muzik 2 

When it comes to art and music, I find my creativity is most efficient when I begin more or less at random, just picking a cool song title and a bunch of lyrics that just sound good, never mind what they mean, and as I'm writing, I'll sometimes hear the tune in my head.  After I've gotten it started, I look at it, and think, "this looks like it's a song about ______ ." And then I'll continue from there, with that figure in mind.   It's similar to how I draw (and I'm no sketch artist, don't get me wrong), I'll just doodle a bit, then look at it and say "hey, that looks like a dragon".  And then I'll fill in the bits that don't yet look like a dragon.   It's probably a load of bullsh*t, but this approach has actually has probably yielded the quickest AND the best work I've done.  Any time I begin work with a set topic in mind ("I think I'll write a song about my political views!"  thpppppp)  it nearly always comes off stilted.  MANAGED RANDOMNESS is the way to go for me.

Edited by HolyMoly - August 25 2013 at 14:18

Sure, I don't pick up my guitar or saxophone when I'm "inspired" to do so, but when I force myself. My problem is that although I'd love to make a habit out of it, I simply can't. And this isn't only a music problem, I have the same issue with pretty much everything that I try.

The Pessimist wrote: Polymorphia wrote: The Pessimist wrote: Yay, another plugging opportunity!  Three of my compositions are here... https://soundcloud.com/zeitgeist-band I like the compositions and the playing very much. I have mixed feelings about the mix, though (pun not intended). It's doing a lot of new and interesting things that you don't normally find in Jazz, but I think it's a bit too compressed. Just my two cents.   Thanks for the input man I'm not really a production kinda guy but I know what you mean. I mean we were trying to go for the least jazzy sound due to the opening riff being not really a jazz riff... What sort of a mix would you suggest?

Try putting a bit more reverb on the drums and taking away some compression. It might sound like a more modern, more electric version of this:

Dean wrote: Pekka wrote: A while ago I was thinking about starting a thread called PA Musicians' Collective Journal where we all could ramble on about what we're up to and pat each other on the backs. This seems like at least somewhat close to the same idea, thanks  From time to time I've been thinking about pressing a small number of CDs of my album (burning the music myself to pre-printed CDrs, probably), and as I've lately been doing a bit of remixing to the material, I guess I'll wait until the mix is done and then I'll get on with it. It's going to be interesting to see what happens to them, I've been thinking around 20 copies at first, there might be a possibility that I could get rid of that amount. So what do you do? I would recommend using Amazon's CreateSpace for producing limited runs of CDs. For 20 copies you can do it yourself on a PC but CreateSpace produces a more professional looking product. Both these would be CDR but glass pressed CDs are only viable for quantities over 500.   Here's one of mine produced using CreateSpace.

Dayvenkirq wrote: Luna wrote: Dayvenkirq wrote: ^ I don't know how about you, but if I actually had any physical friends around me that could force me to write and record a handful, I probably would come up with something. I've recorded this and that for so and so, but it's mostly because the people know exactly what they want and I fill the role. I can really only write/make music on my own which is both my appeal and downfall. In other words, finding the right audience for ya is one of the main problems. Did I get that right? That's why I think trying to make a good singer-songwriter (assume it as a genre for a moment, think Leonard Cohen, Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen, and the like) is a good idea. All you have to do is just pick up a guitar and perform the song. It's not dressed into any style, be that metal, old school rock-n'-roll, or vocal-modal jazz, so I think that at this point your song is more accessible that way, i.e. if you keep it stripped down.

smartpatrol wrote: I can't help composing and recording, it's a habit I couldn't get out of if I tried

And that is a good habit. Don't be like me, ... all drowsy, with a head clogged with trash but not inspirational music. Keep playing your instruments - they will become a natural extension of you, and soon you'll be able to play that electric guitar better than me and Pete Hammill put together. I've recently read a post from a forum on a different website where the author explicitly stated that an effective way to get better at improvisation is knowing your instrument, all the ins and outs, knowing how each chord and note you know sounds and how to play it right away without thinking and going through trial and error.

I can't help composing and recording, it's a habit I couldn't get out of if I tried