You really should change but?

Off-Topic
#1

What should you clearly address as far as guitar goes but for whatever reason you don’t.

Mine is horrible and it is that I play on my bed laying back against the headboard.

It makes string tracking next to impossible. I tell myself I’m going to start at least sitting and playing a little each day but I almost never do.

The other is that I need to play amplified more often
But again, Its clearly something I don’t care enough about to do it.
But I think about it allot. Lol
In fact often when I wake up i vaguely remember dreaming about it.

I’m sure there are others but those are my major sins.

What are you not doing that you know is holding you back?

My reasons are laziness, comfort and I hate fiddling with knobs

#2

One thing that comes to mind, and this is just a suggestion, is maybe you could keep your guitar in a room of your home other than your bedroom. When I’m practicing at home I play in my family room. I don’t know if that’s practical for you or not, but it would be one possible way of overcoming the temptation to play guitar on your bed.

As for not using your amplifier, could it be that you don’t like the sound of your amp? If volume is an issue, maybe you could get a practice amp. They’ve improved a lot in quality over the years. If you get an amp you like the sound of, it may turn out that it will be too tempting not to use it.

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#3

Good suggestions for sure.
I don’t hang out anywhere in the home besides my room.

I have thought about setting up a practice room and that could very well help both situations.

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#4

sometimes I just laying on my bed and playing something on my guitar ) though I don’t consider it as a practice. More like ‘I want to sleep but still can’t get enough of these sweet chords/melody’ )

My sins are lazyness, absence of plan, total randomness of what I’m doing with my guitar today, and certain lack of patience to finish at least one song among hundreds of sketches on my harddrive )

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#5

this is me exactly

right now my singing and playing is better than ever…but im too lazy to write and record songs lol

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#6

We should cooperate and start a band called ‘Lazy-Asses’ )) First release in 2038 )

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#7

yeah, and to be honest, we’d still get our album out before John Sykes next one lol

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#8

I love writing riffs. I’m not much of a lyricist or a singer, so I have a lot more riffs and ideas for songs than complete songs. Does that apply to you at all?

Does anyone here have any suggestions for becoming better at writing lyrics?

Savatage worked in a way where Criss Oliva would record a bunch of riffs on a tape and then give the tape to his brother Jon, the vocalist, who would take the riffs and turn them into complete songs. That way of working would be ideal for me.

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#9

well its funny because I hear people talk about ‘talent’ and how “gifted” someone is. I have a different take on it. The Prince’s and Paul McCartney’s of the world were also workaholics and/or they just had massive drive to finish projects etc

As I speak right now I KNOW I have the ‘talent’ to put a decent album together…but other ingredients are missing, because its simply not getting done.

Im sure its a classical mental trap that i fall into it but its along these lines. Since i dont know the FINAL step, Im not motivated to take ANY steps.

In other words because I have NO clue about how to sell or market music online…why should I bother to go thru the MASSIVE work required to put together an album???

I know its a type of false logic but there we are.

Im off work right now for 3 days…am I working on an album?? no, im doing scales etc lol

As far as the individual parts. Writing, singing, guitar playing, even mixing…I can do all of those things to some degree or another.

But I just cant motivate myself to get going since I have no clue how to market/sell.

Its quite depressing really. When I die, what did I leave behind? What is there to show for the thousands of hours or work? Nada

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#10

I absolutely, positively need to stop doing insanely long practice sessions that go 2-3 hours straight. It’s funny, I listened to @Troy 's advice about doing 40 minute sessions a few times a day and saw some pretty great results (I should do a post on what I learned), but now I am back to my absolutely over-the-top mega sessions. Can’t break the habit.

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#11

I watched my uncle spend his whole life playing and then watched it all erased with his stroke.

The reality is your legacy whatever that is at some point will be gone.

I wouldn’t let the future where I don’t exist dictate what I do while Im here.
Well to the best of my ability anyway.
As I get older I do think about it from time to time.

Also If you are waiting for a cash deal,
Good luck.

I do understand your sentiment that a great commitment is required and it may not be that important to you is all.

But it sounds like you do have a desire to record.
But.
My wife tells me Im wrong all the time so there is that

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#12

Ever since the collapse of the industry, everyone has felt that to some degree or another. The rock bands that are doing well now are the ones who had made their name already. They made their debut back when record contracts included artist development.

If you release an album today and you’re basically unknown, how do you make people aware that your album even exists? If you don’t have financial support behind you willing to pay to get your music on the radio, or to pay to get you an opening spot for a well known band, then I don’t know what you do.

#13

I already have recorded dozens of demo songs etc…just here myself working with Reaper and Ez Drummer etc. I have literally dozens upon dozens of riffs written that I dont even remember. Some decent stuff. Like Ive done stuff on worknights when i was tired and forget it the next day. I see these song names in Reaper and im clueless so i click on them and its some decent stuff that I only vaguely remember doing lol

I probably have demos enough for 2 albums as I speak. But, i want it to sound better lol. Perfectionist I guess. Getting nowhere though

I dont even care about making loads of cash, its more just being ignorant even of simple things like sites such as CDBaby etc etc. It just seems like the hurdles are too big and I cant really get going.

How many thousands of people put together albums, put them for sale online and thats that?..they sell maybe 50 to friends etc lol. So theres that.

Yet the Bible warns pretty strongly about burying your talents and therefore losing them etc.

Lastly, I think about all the bands I like. For instance Van Halen. I listen to that stuff all the time still. I got the DLR era 6pk in the car. I put on VH2 and hear DLR doing his screams etc and it simply makes the day better. So in that regard id like to contribute whatever is inside me for the enjoyment of others

But like I said, so far it aint happening lol.

The only ray of hope is that my singing and guitar playing continue to improve (its all subjective of course.) I only starting actually studying singing 3 years ago but its went pretty well.

But at this point I think its like someone with a PHD trying to get a job as a grocery bagboy. there are people with WAY less overall talent than me who are making a living at music. cest la vie

Sorry, didnt mean to drag the board down with my troubles lol

Peace, JJ

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#14

Are there nightclubs in your area where you could perform, even if it’s for 100 people? Do you have a band together with a rehearsal space so that you’re ready if you have that opportunity arise?

I’d think that would be the first step. You say that you’re not doing it for the money, so if you just want to perform for the enjoyment of it, you can still do that if there are clubs in your area that have rock bands.

#15

omg, thats even a worse nightmare. trying to put together a band? It doesnt even cross my mind lol. I just mainly want to record great songs

There are a decent number of open mics and such around here for sure

#16

I’m curious, is that because it would be hard to find motivated people who are good musicians, or something else?

Does anyone know of some good sites on the internet for finding musicians looking to form a band? I’ve relied on word of mouth generally, but if someone has some sites they could recommend, that would be interesting

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#17

If you get to the point where you are actually prepping to record an album, give me a shout. I can offer some advice.

Allow me one piece, unsolicited: You don’t need to release an entire album. In fact I would erase that notion entirely for now. Focus on “singles” or possibly an EP with 3-5 songs. If you’re doing everything yourself then you have the ability to release stuff as you create it, which is honestly a better way of doing things right now.

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#18

yeah, its just too much to even deal with. No real music scene here of course but then again everyone and their cousin can do home recording. So there are probably hundreds of ok musicians but its just beyond hope to think id find 3 or 4 other people who want to write and record. I aint really out to go around a bunch of drunks and do Mustang Sally

Dude i work with, he sings and plays blues. He is a bit younger than me. I cant tell you how I bent over backwards to try to get something going with him. I like blues but not too interested in doing traditional roots blues stuff. That being said our influences still could have worked ok together for some cool original stuff. We actually did do 2 songs together with me doing alllllll the legwork. Then we were going to get together another time…again with me loading up my laptop etc and making that 30 minute drive. He had verified that Fri at work that we were still going to get together. So i call him Saturday and never could get in touch with him. Im like WTF? So Monday at work he gives me some lame excuse about us not being able to use his brothers house cuz he had company etc.

That was that. Life’s too short

Another guy played drums and I let him hear some of my demos and he was all excited to jam. So I go up and we jammed. First time id jammed live like that in 4ever lol. I thought it went ok etc. So we set up another time to jam and I got my car all loaded up and I text him to make sure we are good and he says he forgot he and his wife had planned to go shopping etc. I said “ouch”. I never got back in touch with him and he never got back with me (I think he is slightly shy or insecure maybe, dunno). Maybe he just didnt dig what I played lol

again, life’s too short. I think dude was actually being honest but I just dont have time for that kind of thing. If ya cant even make the 2nd jam together, what kind of future would it have??

Now, believe it or not, those 2 dudes are in a band together lol. But you can kind of do the math. I dont think they actually DO much lol (thought they are both ok talented.) Goes back to what i said earlier…“talent” is ok but hard work and commitment is even better

I am supposed to keep going thru those scenarios over and over? nah. folks got to at LEAST meet me halfway…I done got too old to go out of my way to waste time

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#19

yeah, I obviously need to start with something like a 3 song ep or even just ONE SONG FINISHED to pro standards lol.

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#20

Having been in your exact same situation, and done it anyway…

…the feeling of opening up a big cardboard box and pulling out a professionally duplicated, shrinkwrapped copy of your own album is, forgive the language, fucking awesome. Ten years of my life went into that first album, and in that moment, every single second was worth it.

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