blabbermouth123

[blabbermouth123]

My return to music: Recording my first piano piece in 3 years

Hi,

I’ve not posted much on Tumblr, neither do I have a following here, but I was faced with a situation recently, and I hope this reaches and helps someone who needs it.

A little bit of a backstory: It’s been 3 years since I left the music industry, failed. 

I left as a blues guitarist, but soon after, the piano became my favourite instrument. I played both - the piano and the guitar - as a hobby, nothing more. I started off in business, still there.

Ever since I became a pianist, I’ve worked on some beautiful pieces, but none that I wanted to record. I played it for myself, and myself only. However, about a month ago, I came across this piece that I felt like learning. A week after getting all 9 pages of sheet music, I was quite ready with the piece. Yeah, I played it for hours. This one piece took up so much of my time in this lockdown, you’d pretty much find me at my piano at any given time during those 7 days.

For some reason, I had a sudden urge to record this piece, and I don’t know why. I decided to get the finer details of the piece right.

About a week after that, I got some of my old equipment out, got it all connected to my macbook, camera set up as well, but I had a few malfunctions (you know how it is, old equipment). A little bit of tingling with the wires did the trick and I was ready to record.

The piece I spent hours and hours practicing and perfecting over two weeks, just didn’t come out right the first time, because my finger slipped off the black key whilst I was playing. That had never happened to me before, not even during practice. I tried a second cut of the song, and alas! another mistake!

I’ll tell you why this is such a big deal for me.

I’ve performed in front of audiences of 2000 people before without any stage fright, recording a simple piece in the comfort of my own home should be nothing for me, but here I was, conscious because whatever I was playing was being recorded. 3 years can really make a difference.

If you’ve come across any of my articles on other platforms, I’ve written them all from a position where I was confident, and camera and audience consciousness was something I had no trouble dealing with. This post is different, this comes from a man who is conscious.

To deal with this, here’s what I did (yes, here’s where the real knowledge begins):

#Unplugged: I disconnected my entire setup and put it back in the drawer it came from. This is because I needed to prepare for this in a different way.

Changed my mindset: It’s important to note that there’s a huge difference when you’re practicing alone at home, for your own ears, when you’re completely involved in your music without a care in the world, and when you’re preparing for a performance or a recording. When you have a performance coming, the way you practice is very different. Don’t ignore those small mistakes you make while playing, they could catch up with you when you’re recording/performing.

#Simulation: Every time I played the piece, I played it as if the camera was recording, as if the computer was recording, as if the microphone was on. I played it with that mindset, I made my mind believe that I was in the situation where I’d be conscious about every single thing I do on the piano. This worked wonders for me, it brought about so many mistakes I’d never make otherwise, and I could correct it then. Please note that to add to this realism, you could just leave your setup as is, instead of disassembling it like I did in step 1. I just can’t stand a mess, or else I’d have left it there as well.

Go slow: Look, usually, as a musician, you’d start playing any new piece slow until you learn it, and you then pick up on the speed. However, what we don’t realize is that sometimes we need to take a step back and go slow again, because there are things, that if we don’t correct, are going to show in a stage performance or a recording. People and systems often pick up on the details that you miss out on, so this is crucial for your success. Go slow, go slow even if you can go fast. I can’t stress on this enough.

Just these 4 should do the trick for you. This is what I did, and after 3 years of being out of the game, it sure helped me!

i hope you could get something out of this, and I could assist you in some way. Leaving one of those likes (they call it notes here on tumblr?) will surely motivate me to write some more! Thank you for your time, and I appreciate you reading this all the way through :) Take care, and stay safe during this pandemic!

[blabbermouth123]

PENTATONIC MINOR AND BLUES SCALES

Now, we all are aware of what a scale is. We play scales mainly because the notes in the scale sound good when played one after the other during a solo, and anything which is outside the scale sounds odd or as others would call it, “bad”.

A PENTATONIC SCALE

The first thing we have to understand, before we go into a pentatonic minor scale, is what a pentatonic scale is. If you break up the word into two parts, ‘penta’ means five, and 'tonic’ means notes. So if your teacher makes you play a pentatonic scale, it will not sound like a normal major scale we play. 

Where are such scales used?

A pentatonic scale may be used in blues, rock and pop music. I personally, love this scale and I love to use it in almost every key. I don’t dislike other scales or anything, but pentatonic scales are one of my favourites.

A PENTATONIC MINOR SCALE

A pentatonic minor scale is basically a pentatonic scale played in a minor key. For example, a minor pentatonic, b minor pentatonic, d minor pentatonic, etc.

BLUES SCALE

Here, we come to something interesting. As the name suggests, the blues scales are most frequently used by blues musicians. It consists of the five notes of a pentatonic scale, plus one additional note, which some would like to call an “accidental”. However, in blues, it’s not an accidental. The way blues music is played altogether, it sounds just like a part of the scale. 

I am, personally, not that good at blues scales. I can play the scales perfectly, I can improvise on a track, but I just don't sound up to the mark on a blues scale, unless I go crazy when I’m playing. That doesn’t happen much.

Anyways, thank you for taking out time to read this post! I hope you learnt something, and if I missed out on anything, please tell me. Thank you, again!

[blabbermouth123]

WHAT'S UNIQUE ABOUT GIBSON GUITARS?

This is a question that many people have to ask is that when they use the exact same pedals/amplifiers/other such things, but different guitars (one Gibson), why does the Gibson sound different/heavier?

This post will explain why. 

The answer is simple: the guitar has more wood.

You might have noticed Gibson guitars are quite fat, comparatively, and heavier weight-wise. This is because it has more quantity of wood. Wood makes the guitar sound much heavier.

Let’s go back in time and see how this happened.

When Gibson guitars were introduced, they were really really heavy. However, the sound was what attracted guitarists. Gibson still thought it was necessary to reduce the weight, so they came up with a lighter one. However, that affected the sound and the sales reduced.

In this case, Gibson wanted to make their guitars lighter, but still wanted to maintain the sound. Can you guess what they did?

I bet you can’t think of what they did. Even if you did, I doubt it will be correct. 

Here is what they did: they drilled holes in the wood, which reduced the weight, and then they refilled the holes with wood. This made it lighter, and it also maintained the heavy sounds. 

Now, I hope this answered your question. Gibson is really good, specially the Les Paul collection. However, the heavy sound may or may not suit you, so choose wisely, if you’re thinking of buying a Gibson. Thank you for taking out time to read this. I really appreciate it.

[blabbermouth123]

How to read western notation easily

Since you were a kid, you have been reading and writing and doing various things with your language. Similarly, even western notation is a language. It is indeed something you can read, write and speak. This post will make it easier for you to understand and come up with some new creative ways to improve your reading and writing skills in western notation. 1)Practice: People say practice makes a man perfect. Even though nobody is perfect, you have to practice, and work towards perfection. Only then will you really become good. So pick up random pieces and start reading them, and if you can, play them too.  2)Question: If you don't understand something, you can always seek help from a friend or anyone in the field of music. Questioning helps you understand western notation better and develops your mind in a way that cannot be done without clearing doubts. 3)Basic: If you construct a building with a weak base, and a heavy top, it will collapse. Therefore, you need to build your foundation strong. Then, it will become easier for you to understand the rest. It will be a piece of cake for you. 4)Compose: Understanding and reading skills are one part of it. Composing songs and writing them in western notation is essential. This will prevent one-sided development and will only make you stronger, in the subject. 5)Course-time: You may take courses, if needed, for your better understanding of this method of writing. There is not much to explain here. 6)Watch and learn: Watch other people teaching western notation over the internet, look at the comments/FAQs and you may find the answer to a question, or maybe more information. If you can't find an answer there, you can send a question yourself. 7)Legitimate chat-rooms: I am not promoting internet chatting here, but if you're taking an internet course, lets say from 'A' school of music, then there will be a chat room for discussions among other people who are taking the same course. In this way, if you did not understand a concept, then others may make it clear for you.