A Song

[Rik]

Well my band has finally recorded it's 1st song, it's far too long (6:39 in fact) and far too large (7,813 MB) and will take approx. 37 minutes to download...oh and it's not mixed yet and not of great quality...oh well. If you have broadband or spend far too much time on the net then go here and download our 1st song, My Alibi. And don't laugh, it's not finished yet :P

(Oh and one more thing...I play bass in it, that's not me singing , you think I'm that stupid? :P)

[Top_Cat]

Are we allowed to give opinions on it yet?

I can hear you playing a D minor blues riff over the D major/D Major sus4 guitar arpeggio riff with the occasional change to C and G and it reminds me very much of Hawkwind. They specialised in 'mood swing' music with light and shade, but playing over the same motif. It's an interesting approach but there needs to subtle changes to keep the interest of the listener whether it be an over-dubbed counter-point to the melody or maybe a minimalist solo, just to break it up. Call it 'ear candy'. Right now it's mainly the vocal line providing melodic variation over a D minor blues scale and it does tend to get monotonous, always a danger with music which specialises in melodic variation over a simple chord motif.

If I was invoved in something like this, I'd add either a keyboard or guitar line after the first distorted chordal section playing out of scale 'blue notes' or maybe a mix of modes like the mixolydian or lydian modes or for a really dreamy effect, a simple melody based around the dorian mode of the D major scale (E F# G A B C# D).

Just my thoughts, of course.

[krkode]

MY EARS!! They burns us! They burns us! Nasty hobbitses! :o

Actually, it wasn't bad. Being one of the non-musically inclined, all I can give you is my first impression.

Not bad

[Paid The Umpire]

Originally posted by Top_Cat
Are we allowed to give opinions on it yet?

I can hear you playing a D minor blues riff over the D major/D Major sus4 guitar arpeggio riff with the occasional change to C and G and it reminds me very much of Hawkwind. They specialised in 'mood swing' music with light and shade, but playing over the same motif. It's an interesting approach but there needs to subtle changes to keep the interest of the listener whether it be an over-dubbed counter-point to the melody or maybe a minimalist solo, just to break it up. Call it 'ear candy'. Right now it's mainly the vocal line providing melodic variation over a D minor blues scale and it does tend to get monotonous, always a danger with music which specialises in melodic variation over a simple chord motif.

If I was invoved in something like this, I'd add either a keyboard or guitar line after the first distorted chordal section playing out of scale 'blue notes' or maybe a mix of modes like the mixolydian or lydian modes or for a really dreamy effect, a simple melody based around the dorian mode of the D major scale (E F# G A B C# D).

Just my thoughts, of course.

Hmmm, right....
Haven't heard it, but i'll get it soon maybe?

[Rik]

Originally posted by Top_Cat
Are we allowed to give opinions on it yet?

I can hear you playing a D minor blues riff over the D major/D Major sus4 guitar arpeggio riff with the occasional change to C and G and it reminds me very much of Hawkwind. They specialised in 'mood swing' music with light and shade, but playing over the same motif. It's an interesting approach but there needs to subtle changes to keep the interest of the listener whether it be an over-dubbed counter-point to the melody or maybe a minimalist solo, just to break it up. Call it 'ear candy'. Right now it's mainly the vocal line providing melodic variation over a D minor blues scale and it does tend to get monotonous, always a danger with music which specialises in melodic variation over a simple chord motif.

If I was invoved in something like this, I'd add either a keyboard or guitar line after the first distorted chordal section playing out of scale 'blue notes' or maybe a mix of modes like the mixolydian or lydian modes or for a really dreamy effect, a simple melody based around the dorian mode of the D major scale (E F# G A B C# D).

Just my thoughts, of course.

Most our bass parts (or mine :P) are different to the guitar part. This is just our demo recording and I'm not really happy about my bass part in the chorus as I seem to fall away after the 2nd part of it.

I think the problem with the song is that it was about 4:30 long but somehow we turned it into a 6:39 song and I'm not sure how. Needless to say it sounds totally different live when I throw in a load of variations. Another problem is that because we have not much idea about vocals we just tried to turn his vocals into an instrument and we didn't use them much, there's plenty of improvement on this and remember it's not properly mixed. I find it a little long sometimes which can make it boring. If I could I think I would kick out one of the choruses and the C-G Bridge and go into the end at around 4 mins. I'll see what I can come up with on Keyboard but remember this is just a 1st recording and a demo really .

[Rik]

There's one thing though T_C...did you like it? :P

[Paid The Umpire]

what is the NAME of your band?

[Rik]

Originally posted by Paid The Umpire
what is the NAME of your band?

I don't know we couldn't think of one.

I just left it yesterday as it was getting too serious and they wanted to make it as pro. The guitarist is saying he would do anything to get me back but I just don't want to go pro...

[marc71178]

Erm, I guess you'd need some recognition before you can even contemplate going pro - and unless you start to get that, i don't see how you'd make any cash to live on and justify being pro?

[Rik]

Originally posted by marc71178
Erm, I guess you'd need some recognition before you can even contemplate going pro - and unless you start to get that, i don't see how you'd make any cash to live on and justify being pro?

Yeah it was 20 quid a week for the flat/recording studio/practise place. The guitarist had some contacts in places where people go and watch unsigned bands with a view to looking out for them. I haven't got a job and the cost of going in all the time (4 days a week) and the cost of the flat as well as trying to run a car was a problem. They wanted to make it and they didn't want me to have a job. Also playing 4 days a week and recording and just playing the same songs over and over got to me and I realised that if I want to make it then I'll do it another way, all we did was practise, he was too intense. In a month and a bit we wrote 10 songs, that tells you how much pressure I felt under. He still wants me back though, he keeps phoning up saying if I change my mind he'll take me back, but I've decided for now I'll just keep playing for fun. He wants full-time commitment though.

Sorry if that bored anyone to tears

[marc71178]

He sounds a bit deluded if you ask me - there's hundreds and thousands of unsigned bands out there, so going professional is suicidal unless you have some really good breaks/

[Top_Cat]

He sounds a bit deluded if you ask me - there's hundreds and thousands of unsigned bands out there, so going professional is suicidal unless you have some really good breaks

Absolutely. I know people who are regularly selling many CD's who aren't pro because to be pro, you need to be earning enough money from your music to support yourself which is difficult, particularly for an unsigned band.

Even I couldn't bring myself to go fully pro and I was playing $1000+ gigs every fortnight and was about to embark upon study at the Berkelee School of Music on a $100 000 scholarship. I just couldn't commit myself to that which is probably a reason I'm not playing regularly anymore. Music requires a committment which goes above and beyond what seems safe at the time and I just couldn't do it.

[marc71178]

Which is why I'll always remain a very keen amature musician who has been able to play some big gigs (up to and over 5000 in attendance), but has also played some very small ones (5 in the audience of which 3 came with the band!)

On average I play 4 times a week, and enjoy it!

[Paid The Umpire]

Speaking of songs...

What happened to CricketWeb PIE?

[Top_Cat]

Well my mate who I was to record with selfishly went to study overseas for a few months, plus the guy who I wanted to sing the song went to China for 3 months. And you can imagine I don't want to actually pay for some recording time so I will wait until both come back and get a few other recording jobs out of the way before I think about that stuff.