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Dou you compose the genres you listen to?


Logan_4600

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Hi everyone! A topic I always wanted to ask musicians/producers. I usually listen to prog rock, hard-rock, alt-rock, heavy (something that can range from good ol', Gabriel days Genesis, to Alter Bridge or Stone Sour), and then, even with the most distorted guitar, I end up with a Train like Rock/Pop song (a very distorted and dense rock/pop track), maybe, a Stone Temple Pilots esque type song at most.

So, do you end up composing in the veins and style of genres you listen to? Or when you take your instrument, it goes unintentionally to other places?

Edited by Logan_4600
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We heard so many different kinds of music as we grew up in the '60s and '70s.

I mostly chose rock albums when I bought music, but my mother loved country, so I heard a lot of that. My father loved 'beautiful music' so that was on the radio when he was home from work.

The songs I've recorded have been mostly pop/rock, but I've got a jazzy thing, a couple of countryish  and folky songs, a short classical piano concerto, and a nonsense song. Plus a Christmas song.

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I'm genre-tarded. No brag, just fact. Good music is good music to me. I have everything from old Edison cylinder and diamond disc recordings of pop songs from the late 19th century to the modern London Philharmonic, with Dizz, Trane, and Hendrix in-between. Why wouldn't I play and compose it all? When in doubt, I ask myself, "What would Chet do?"

 

chet.jpg

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41 minutes ago, 57Gregy said:

We heard so many different kinds of music as we grew up in the '60s and '70s.

Ain't that the truth. I was born in '59. Radio stations when I was a kid would play an Elvis song followed by the Beatles, and then maybe a country-ish song (Bobby Goldsboro and John Denver were big back then for instance) or even a jazzy instrumental by Herb Alpert. Now the stations are all so divided into specific genres that it's a bit mind numbing to listen to any particular one of them for very long.

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3 hours ago, msmcleod said:

I listen to similar stuff - mainly prog rock, hard rock and jazz fusion.

I try to compose in the veins and styles of the genres I listen to... then it goes unintentionally to other places!

Places near? or places far? :P

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2 hours ago, 57Gregy said:

We heard so many different kinds of music as we grew up in the '60s and '70s.

I mostly chose rock albums when I bought music, but my mother loved country, so I heard a lot of that. My father loved 'beautiful music' so that was on the radio when he was home from work.

The songs I've recorded have been mostly pop/rock, but I've got a jazzy thing, a couple of countryish  and folky songs, a short classical piano concerto, and a nonsense song. Plus a Christmas song.

(The 'nonsense' song caught my curiosity!)

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1 hour ago, Will Hackett said:

Ain't that the truth. I was born in '59. Radio stations when I was a kid would play an Elvis song followed by the Beatles, and then maybe a country-ish song (Bobby Goldsboro and John Denver were big back then for instance) or even a jazzy instrumental by Herb Alpert. Now the stations are all so divided into specific genres that it's a bit mind numbing to listen to any particular one of them for very long.

I remember, back when I was a kid, mainstream 'hits heavy' radio stations in my country (even MTVLA) had so much genres diversity in it's top 40. You know, you had GnRs sharin spots with New Kids on the Block; Aerosmith or Seal; Lenny Kravitz and Ace of Base... (you get the idea) And I could add a TON of great Rock-Pop Latin American bands in to that mix, wich makes it even bigger, better, and diverse. Nowadays, mainstream here feels like a one-24hrs-samey reggaeton song... :/

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12 minutes ago, synkrotron said:

Nice to see Peeps revealing their perceived limitations here :)

 

We each have our own "skills" and sometimes it is good to put them out there in some kind of collaborative works from time to time...

I very much enjoyed that 'Bright Carvers' collab we did Andy, good fun.

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4 minutes ago, James G said:

I very much enjoyed that 'Bright Carvers' collab we did Andy, good fun.

Exactly James, and is what I was kind of referring to...

Also, when band members work together they are, in effect, "collaborating." When those band members go "solo" the outcome isn't always that great :)

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2 hours ago, 57Gregy said:

I bought this singing program  (Vocaloid Miriam) and did a short song to try it out with her singing along with me.

Vocaloid! Jeez! I remember seeing videos of it! I thoguht it was painfully difficult at the time (never got back to it)

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2 hours ago, 57Gregy said:

I bought this singing program  (Vocaloid Miriam) and did a short song to try it out with her singing along with me.

 

12 minutes ago, Logan_4600 said:

Vocaloid! Jeez! I remember seeing videos of it! I thoguht it was painfully difficult at the time (never got back to it)

Plogue Alter/Ego is a pretty good free alternative to Vocaloid: https://www.plogue.com/products/alter-ego.html

I wouldn't say the voice is of the same quality, but it's easy to use and great for getting ideas down. And it's free.

I use it occasionally when I've already got a good idea of vocal melody and lyrics. You just type (or cut/paste) the lyrics into the VSTi, then it "sings" the syllables as you play the notes. It'll even hold on to the same syllable if you play legato.

 

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I compose whatever comes out of me which could be anything sometimes. Tends to be meandering unless I stop myself and make it into a structure people might recognize. I'm sure I'm the odd man out here. No problem. I'm accustomed to that role. I don't listen to much music. Do you want music going in or coming out? If you want music coming out you need to stop putting so much music in unless your intention is to play the stuff you hear. That's already been played. Why not play something different?

Edited by Starise
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I know what you're saying Star Man, and I sort of agree on one hand, but on the other I also think that we get many, if not most, of our ideas from listening to others play and building on it, especially when we're younger (musically speaking). I was never one to try to copy licks on guitar. I would just listen to what was being done and then try to do something similar but not the same. And I would take ideas I got from one song and apply them to an entirely different kind of song. Like I might take the way Jerry Donahue could bend three strings at once in different directions or one of them slightly before or after the beat in a country song and see if I could do something along the same lines in a rock or jazz song. I agree that just doing other people's songs note for note is not particularly productive (although I guess most people do it when they're first starting), but I do still listen for inspiration, though not nearly as much as I used to. More often than not, I just sit and noddle until I come up with something on my own. I guess that comes with age and experience.

Edited by Will Hackett
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I think stuff gets caught up in our grey matter without us realizing it, even though I wasn't fully absorbed in the listening experience, like say, maybe I heard it on someone's radio at work. When it gets there our brains are chewing on it in the background. I don't intentionally do this but it seems to happen with me at least.

So I guess I have unintentionally done that . I don't immerse myself in music for hours like some do though. I'll hear something and it's just sort of floating around doing things in the background.

 

 

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