walkingdecay
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Post by walkingdecay on Jul 9, 2014 8:10:13 GMT
Congrats on taking that most important step and having fun, Alex. Some people (such as, um, me) get wound up and don't draw pleasure from playing in public, and I'm certain it feeds back into the music. You've got off to exactly the right start. Power to you, mate.
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walkingdecay
C.O.G.
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Post by walkingdecay on Jul 3, 2014 8:52:49 GMT
It's absolutely worth it, Bernd. When you have the basics down thinking about how you're going to approach a new tune is akin to glancing at a map and feeling like you already know several ways to reach your destination.
The learning process seems daunting at first, but once you begin to get the logic of it all everything slots into place and progress accelerates. Before long you'll be able to recognise chord progressions and work out inversions and extensions based on what you already know. What I discovered was that while you can spend years delving into theory, the parts that actually work for the western ear and you really need to know can be picked up quite quickly. In the end there's not such gulf between the Ligetis, the Duke Ellingtons and the Bo Diddleys as we might think.
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walkingdecay
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Post by walkingdecay on Jul 2, 2014 7:52:32 GMT
Blimey. That last one sounds like a 33 played at 78, WD. Brilliant. Loved em both. When my late partner and I were following Bill around the country he was getting lots of requests for the tune, but the version he played was a medium-paced, fiddle-led affair. The fiddler was Kenny Baker, one of the very best, and it was a joy to hear, but it wasn't what people were expecting, so I dared to ask Mr Monroe about it. Fortunately he was in a good mood, and he told us that the take had been all but an accident. The banjo player, Rudy Lyle, had been playing it very fast but not that fast until the count-in was set at that ridiculous pace. When Lyle just went with it, Bill and the band followed on, somehow keeping it all together. Keith, I know what you mean about the loudness. It came from playing endless tent shows and halls around the South with poor or even a complete lack of amplification. Monroe's "high lonesome" voice was so practiced that he could inject emotion into it and somehow cut through that massive and complex sound. I think the only artist I've encountered outside bluegrass who could blast you so thoroughly with nothing but voice and an acoustic instrument was John Denver.
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walkingdecay
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Post by walkingdecay on Jul 1, 2014 17:17:11 GMT
A track from one of my favourite hardcore bluegrass albums. Monroe's mando break around the 1.40 mark is straight out of left field.
And another classic from the same album. Don't play if you have a heart condition. It's a little bit wild.
Bill was a meticulous man, even a little bit OCD. When I took my copy of this album to him for signing he so objected to the "For Export Only" sticker that was covering its sleevenotes that he sat down and spent a couple of minutes carefully teasing it off.
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walkingdecay
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Post by walkingdecay on Jul 1, 2014 10:42:32 GMT
Some bright and breezy country for y'all.
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walkingdecay
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Post by walkingdecay on Jun 30, 2014 17:23:37 GMT
Linux Wasn't he a character in the Peanuts cartoons? Keith Yes. He was a penguin. (Joke that only works if you're a nerd, and an undiscerning one at that.)
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walkingdecay
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Post by walkingdecay on Jun 26, 2014 16:25:53 GMT
Like Keith, I prefer to arrange a tune for myself, unless it's something set in stone, like particular Gershwin arrangements and Joplin rags on piano, or Chuck's licks in Johnny B. Goode. Those paradigms apart, I avoid listening to versions by other people when working on a piece as there's always a temptation to borrow.
Which is not to decry the importance of example. We're all the sum total of our influences and our moments of inspiration (plus, as John Hartford pointed out, our limitations). Among the first occasions when I sensed that I was in some way becoming a musician were those when I managed to work out pieces by artists I loved by ear, and I would have taken much longer to get so far without the models provided by notation and tab earlier on. I later had the advantage of working with a band that was often called upon to produce head arrangements, at best being handed faded xeroxed sheets for Bb instruments, with the chords penned in above the lyric and scrawled notes and stains left by previous users. That drove me to hit the books and delve deeper into the fundamentals of music, and eventually to recognise that things like scalewise and circle of fifths progressions are not only very common and recognisable but not as scary as they sound.
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walkingdecay
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Post by walkingdecay on Jun 20, 2014 12:04:24 GMT
Why do I hate them? Because there are far superior artistes on the folk scene, truly great songwriters and musicians, who have never been granted the airplay they deserve, while these bland twerps are hyped to the skies. but that's not exactly THEIR fault, is it? May as well hate the sea for being wet... I'm not sure. I don't know whether all bad artists know they produce crap, only that I know that I do.
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walkingdecay
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Post by walkingdecay on Jun 19, 2014 22:22:54 GMT
Have to say I have this album and I can appreciate the observations that a lot of it is contrite faux emotion/folk with lots of cliched sound bites and riffs, but I actually quite like it Why does everyone on here love to hate them, yes they've made a lot of money out of milking a faux clichéd sound, but at the end of the day they are capable of playing and entertaining huge crowds at least as good as most of us are capable of. It may not be the epitomey of technical guitar wizardy or compositional invention, but when I'm driving to work half dead in the morning and want to listen to something tuneful and with a melody I can easily follow, along with the rest of the uk, it does it for me more than most of the awfully sophisticated big name acoustic instrumentalists that often get worshiped on this forum. And it's a f--k site better than the cowel stuff that usually populates the radio! It reminds me of a hifi/music forum I'm on that loves to slag off people like Phil Collins, sting, U2 , Coldplay etc because they're not genuine or musically hip and indie/cool enough, yes all of these have been guilty of milking the system and chaining out crap,at some time, but let's face it in their time they've done some good stuff and are highly competent musicians/writers. Old guit rant over !!! Why do I hate them? Because there are far superior artistes on the folk scene, truly great songwriters and musicians, who have never been granted the airplay they deserve, while these bland twerps are hyped to the skies.
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walkingdecay
C.O.G.
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Post by walkingdecay on Jun 18, 2014 14:59:37 GMT
Mine's a bolt on as well. Maybe they are different then. The Eros Dakota I had was bolt-on as well. There's a pic of a couple near the bottom of this page. I actually chose one with a much darker stain so I could kid myself that I looked like John Lennon when I was playing it. link
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walkingdecay
C.O.G.
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Post by walkingdecay on Jun 18, 2014 11:32:22 GMT
I think they're the same. The Eros was more expensive than the Eko, I think because it was better appointed. I have an Eko (bought it in 1969 - couldn't afford an Eros - about a fiver more, if I recall) and the real problem with it is total lack of volume. The finish is really thick, like poured plastic and the neck block seems to stop the top vibrating properly. They're built like tanks and really heavy. They are the same, from the same luthier by all accounts, and the 12-er has the same body as the six string. As you say, no volume whatsover, but there are folks who love them. I gave mine to a mate who already had the 12 string version, and he still plays both with soundhole pickups.
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walkingdecay
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Post by walkingdecay on Jun 17, 2014 16:37:11 GMT
Having recently been told I'm being made redundant... Bugger. Sorry to hear that, Rodders. I wish you well in moving on to something better.
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walkingdecay
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Post by walkingdecay on Jun 17, 2014 14:34:58 GMT
Ah, judging by the label it's an Eros. I can't help you personally - what I know about lutherie could be written on the back of an ant with room to spare - but if it's any help they're Eko Ranger clones, so you may find some info on working on them round the web.
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walkingdecay
C.O.G.
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My main instrument is: brownish and rather small.
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Post by walkingdecay on Jun 6, 2014 21:18:55 GMT
Nice one, Dennis. One of the genuine geniuses of guitar. Even when he was making a bloody awful row - and he did some of the time - he seemed to be groping towards something unique.
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walkingdecay
C.O.G.
Posts: 1,676
My main instrument is: brownish and rather small.
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Post by walkingdecay on Jun 4, 2014 7:57:59 GMT
I don't dislike any of the above, as all reflect intimate and subtle muscle or breath control from the user, but I do think all electronic keyboards should be split into their component molecules and dumped in the depths of the Sun. After my old upright piano died I tried to persuade myself that the things had come on a long way and were actually alright, but they simply don't feel as expressive as they should.
I'm actually in a good mood this morning.
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