AW Musicians / Songwriters / Lyricists

althrasher

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I am a music education major.

My primary instrument is trumpet, which I just won a concerto competition with that I'm going to perform with my university's wind ensemble. I can play both lead trumpet in jazz and with a classical style, but I can't read lead sheets or improv :(.

I also play flute, horn, and can play a little piano (had to take Piano Proficiancy.) Oh and I sung soprano in my high school's chior and still sing a lot--my strength is with a Broadway style, but I can sing clasically or in a chorus as well.

My musical goals are to teach middle school band, become the best trumpet player I can, and learn to play the clarinet and saxophone (next semester!)

Sorry if I rambled--if I can be any help to anyone let me know!
 

sassy-oracle

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Hey all,

I'm a saxophonist, I currently play alto in a Big Band and tenor in a wind band. I also play piano, clarinet and flute so I'm defiantely a music geek.

I love writing my own music, so much so that I studied it at uni. I've had some sucess, one of my pieces was taken on as part of the Tendring Caprice Youth Orchestra's tour of Europe. I write for any ensemble from orchestra to big band to string quartet. I also write my own songs but haven't done that in a while.

My goal is to put together my own function band and to have some of my 'more serious' music published.

sassy-oracle x
 

ChunkyC

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Cool! We can play Chicago tunes at AWpalooza! I'll arm wrestle you to see who gets to play the guitar solo in 25 or 6 to 4, Jay. :D (if I win, can I borrow your crybaby?)
 

bluntforcetrauma

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OK. I've been a self-taught musician for 35 years. Have written thousands of songs. Made some records and cd's. Ran my own studio in the 80's. Played in several original bands. My kids are now in their own rock band and writing and recording their own songs. I've also done a few soundtracks for indie films.

I've run the gamut from rock to punk to folksy and back to rock again. My sig has a link to a sample of a few tunes I've written. Yes I play everything. They're all demo quality as I hate polished sounding music. Gimme Iggy over ABBA anyday. But I like ABBA.
 
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z10

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all ye musicians

we deserve a corner to ourselves, i'm sure
so, what instrument do you play? how long have you been playing for?
any musical acheivements of note?

i play an electric guitar, a gibson epiphone to be exact. Have been playing for a decade now but haven't done a gig for 6 years since my band broke up.
 

rtilryarms

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I play acoustic guitar.
I write music and songs for my own enjoyment and to drive my wife crazy.
I cannot read music but i can read tabs slowly. I play by ear.

because I don't read music I seem to be able to pick up the Croce, Taylor, Clapton etc and Classical chords because i am not satisfied until it sounds exactly the way i hear it. Seems sometime tab interpreters will compramise.

I play concerts on extreme rare occasion and I have total stage fright. But my voice sounds really cool quivering like that so I can do a mean Elvis. The fear leaves me after 3 songs.

I play a maximum of 3 songs at one sitting.

I love my Martin DX1. Don't listen to anyone saying that alternate woods are cheap. I'll put this baby ( I bought for $200) against any $2,000+ guitar. The base strings are the best on the market.

My mind wanders.

What was the original question?
 

pstudios

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:hi:
Stumbled on this, while trying to reconnect with another section of this forum.

A syncronicity let me to a songwriter's circle: my life was in peices so i said what the heck and went

I allways liked wrting lyrics on scraps of paper and i think i had something going, but someone took them all.

I tried music in high school at the time it seemed hopless-didn't learn much. Later i learned i had more going 4 me than i thought.

Writing scaps of lyrics and finishing them. they need work.

I've acquired 1000's of cds and love listening to them all. So it seems i shooud foww up on this. I have a keyboard - i have started to tinker w/ it consistantly and seem to be getting somewhere with it-I can't say enough 4 learning this way- what i call the "toddler method". Heck it worked 4 a lot of the greats-look at stevie wonder-i plan to take something more formal later.

I have a lesson book that i found listed in a healing resources book-this deals w/ voice and learning music by ear. Don't want to mess up the intuitive spirit here, so i'll see where this takes me

Got to start looking at "songwriting 4 dummies"-it may help.

Seems like all this junk will give me the foundation to do something more formal w/ music, but 4 now just go to go w/ flow.

Seems like there R all levels here

awesome

Nice to meet u guys!
 

Rabid Renaissance

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I was turned onto AW by some folks on another message board a few months back, and though I do like it here very much...I have been cheating with a couple of other sites.

My partner is a very talented musician, who is just starting to get her freelance composer career off the ground. She discovered a couple of music collaboration sites about the same time I found AW, and I admit to being distracted and envious of the short term gratification of feedback that comes with music compared to writing. She works on a song for a week or two, moving it from piano to software to full orchestration, then she posts it and within minutes people are giving her feedback about her song.

I've been singing my whole life in one way or the other, and do my best with very basic guitar skills. Like the rest of my writing, I have been afraid to try my hand at writing lyrics. Afraid that I'll like it too much. Afraid that I'll really like it but really suck.

But hanging out on those collaborative sites with my partner, I've sort of rediscovered my inner musician. I've recorded some covers and am starting to write some lyrics now. I'm posting the first song lyrics that I've written in many years elsewhere on AW.

Like everyone else, I don't have nearly enough free time to devote as much as I'd like to writing or to songwriting or to music, but I'm going to keep trying. It probably means there will be long stretches without posts from me, but there are only so many hours in a day.

My iCompositions site: http://www.icompositions.com/artists/KissMeKate

My partner's iCompositions site: http://www.icompositions.com/artists/kassia
My partner's Macjams site: http://www.macjams.com/artist/kassia

Nice meeting y'all!
 
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WordlyVision

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I've been very passionate about music since I was in my pre-teens, and still love to create a few tunes. I have been (and still am) playing the electric guitar, going on two years now. I'm more proficient with leads and solos than rhythm, but I can play a few chords (C, D, G, Dm, Am, Bm, Em, E5, D5). I can also dabble on the piano, but unless I have an arrangement in my mind to play, I simply just improvise.

Don't even ask me about drums; my limb separation is horrible, and if I really forced myself, my limbs probably would separate literally. I can keep a beat, but if it involves the pedal hihat, kick drum, and snare all at once in a typical rock/pop line, my chances of keeping up are slim to none.

Lyric-wise, I've written and finished one song in my entire life, and it's been lost to years of moving from place to place... go figure. I love thinking up ideas for lyrics, but when it comes to the actual writing, I can never find any content that's "on par" with my standard of writing.

Otherwise, I do all of my composition, arrangement, and recording using a Digital Audio Workstation (music software) called FL Studio.

I've created quite a few instrumentals over the past few years with the program, getting better and better, but still lacking in structure and flow I think ... never done anything with lyrics yet, but if someone asked me to put music to lyrics or to contribute in a simiilar way, I would be honored and eager to jump in.

A link to my ACIDplanet page: http://www.acidplanet.com/artist.asp?AID=468080&t=4593

I would do live recording with my guitar in the program, but unfortunately, even with the very nice and powerful laptop that I have, my audio chipset isn't supported, and thus won't allow me to record anything from any of my audio inputs or my speaker output -- so my chances of recording straight from my guitar are gone. Instead, if I want to do any kind of live recording, I either have to use my albeit very cheap micropohone (*shudder*), or I have to set up my MIDI keyboard and patch the instrument "sound-alike" in... not that I'm complaining, but it would be nice to get the real thing out of my guitar.
 

williemeikle

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I play the blues

I've got an Ozark dobro that is my main axe of choice, along with a Washburn 12 string that I open tune for bottleneck work.

Haven't played in front of an audience since I was in my twenties... more years ago than I care to think about :(
 

Rabid Renaissance

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I've been very passionate about music since I was in my pre-teens, and still love to create a few tunes. I have been (and still am) playing the electric guitar, going on two years now. I'm more proficient with leads and solos than rhythm, but I can play a few chords (C, D, G, Dm, Am, Bm, Em, E5, D5). I can also dabble on the piano, but unless I have an arrangement in my mind to play, I simply just improvise.

Don't even ask me about drums; my limb separation is horrible, and if I really forced myself, my limbs probably would separate literally. I can keep a beat, but if it involves the pedal hihat, kick drum, and snare all at once in a typical rock/pop line, my chances of keeping up are slim to none.

Lyric-wise, I've written and finished one song in my entire life, and it's been lost to years of moving from place to place... go figure. I love thinking up ideas for lyrics, but when it comes to the actual writing, I can never find any content that's "on par" with my standard of writing.

Otherwise, I do all of my composition, arrangement, and recording using a Digital Audio Workstation (music software) called FL Studio.

I've created quite a few instrumentals over the past few years with the program, getting better and better, but still lacking in structure and flow I think ... never done anything with lyrics yet, but if someone asked me to put music to lyrics or to contribute in a simiilar way, I would be honored and eager to jump in.

A link to my ACIDplanet page: http://www.acidplanet.com/artist.asp?AID=468080&t=4593

I would do live recording with my guitar in the program, but unfortunately, even with the very nice and powerful laptop that I have, my audio chipset isn't supported, and thus won't allow me to record anything from any of my audio inputs or my speaker output -- so my chances of recording straight from my guitar are gone. Instead, if I want to do any kind of live recording, I either have to use my albeit very cheap micropohone (*shudder*), or I have to set up my MIDI keyboard and patch the instrument "sound-alike" in... not that I'm complaining, but it would be nice to get the real thing out of my guitar.

Have you checked out the Snowball usb mic? I love mine.
 

moderan

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Greetings. I play the guitar and the bass chiefly and dabble in other instruments. Have been playing since the early 70s, have bar band experience. If you're so inclined you can find some of my music on the MySpace page listed in my sig. I had stopped the playing/making of music for some time before discovering Sony's (then Sonic Foundry's) Acid software, and was gratified to discover their acidplanet archive-I notice that some other folks here are AP brethren/sistren. If you are still so inclined my page is at ap moderan.
Nowadays I have a budget home studio and am working on cd releases...the instrumental version of my first is streamed at suite indigo-it's a concept work involving an invasion of Cthulhuspawn.
Worldyvision-I do some of my recording on a laptop using a Nady usb mic. The Snowball is quite good also...but the Nady is about 30 bucks at Musician's Friend. It can produce some pretty good results.
Nice to meetcha all:)
 
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Jo

Travelling the re-write road
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I've made a bit of noise over the years, playing...
Recorder
Xylophone
Piano and Keyboard
Organ
Bongos and Drums (I have a Pearl jazz kit)
Guitar (a few chords, not much else) and a kiddie ukulele. I smashed my first guitar over my older brother's head... Was I a heavy metal star in the making? Nah. He was a bully. :tongue
Bass guitar

(I get the feeling I've forgotten something... maracas? tambourine? triangle? :D)

Bass is my passion at the moment. I had a bass years ago, but sold it, and only took it up seriously last September when hubby bought me one for my 40th. I'm self-taught so far (I used to date, and work out songs with, a pretty good bass player in the 80s--his current stuff is here) and now have two guitars (a 4 and 5 string). I'm also teaching my youngest daughter how to play. My other daughter plays guitar (electric and acoustic), and drums, and both have learnt a bit of keyboard. Elder daughter (almost 16) is forming a band--and guess who's helping them? :)

I also sing (have done so in choir and musicals) and write music and lyrics. I can read music, but prefer tabs at the moment, or playing by ear.
 
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Leaf

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I'm a guitarist and a cellist, and I'm a member of three bands (none of which I can ever keep up with). An alternative hard rock band called Hellgate, a heavy metal band called Mechanos Dios (yay dark sounding literary devices!), and finally, my favorite group, an instrumental jazz/folk/post-metal acoustic trio, which still has no name (debating between Twelfth Protocol and Squid Factory Protocol).

I've been playing both instruments for 7 years, and I currently own 4 guitars: 2 acoustics (one semi-), 1 Univox, and 1 Dean. I also occasionally play bass.
 

John Ravenscroft

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I play acoustic guitar and sing stuff.

Did a lot of busking in my 20s and was pleasantly surprised at the generosity of the public. Still play a few clubs now and then, and have recently started posting songs on YouTube.

If anyone has some spare time, my YouTube page is here:

http://www.youtube.com/user/JohnMRavenscroft

All comments gratefully received!
 

K. Taylor

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I can sing anything you put in front of me written for a female voice. I wish I could write music.......learning to play any instrument that required my fingers to work independently of each other never went well, and my Music Theory class bored me to tears or confused me. I think my theory teacher had been a math teacher in another life (my bane). LOL

I've managed to write a few lines of a song for my book. Probably as far as I'll get on my own, lol. I am good at helping others find what sounds right, though. I come from a musical family on both sides and taught myself to since opera when I was 12. I learned a long time ago not to take my voice for granted, or I'd lose it. Literally, in one case, as tonsillitis left me mute for 2 weeks once, and I couldn't sing for a month. Scared the hell out of me!

I would LOVE to be on a stage again. I don't have a car right now, so the community choirs are too far away to be convenient, which SUCKS.

My ultimate dream was singer stardom. The untrained voices on the radio drive me nuts.