Q+A #29 - Imitate, assimilate, innovate
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 1 ต.ค. 2024
- Thanks to Marcus Vinicius Marchiori, Aizen Marn, Wyat Rydlewski, TheAndersops, Tyler Abbott, MrRockandroll12345, annoythefish, Oscar Tadlock, Joachim Ihned, Leon Sibum, Houston Hilburn, Parker Knapp, LeipleipMusic, Jan, Ugene12, dm21865 and Astrolincoln for your questions!
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0:14 The Norton Lectures
CHECK THESE OUT IF YOU HAVE A CHANCE
• The Unanswered Questio...
1:13 I faked playing fast with image masking
1:39 Band dynamics (Democracy, permanent band members, band leaders, etc)
4:01 The danger of hearing loss
5:01 “Technical” music for the sake of being “technical”
6:46 Berklee Ensemble Auditions
8:31 Where you can find my music
8:51 Turning my videos into academic papers
9:26 Nails and switching between bass and guitar
10:07 Having a cheap instrument that you connect with
11:07 All about the Cajon
12:15 Imitate, assimiliate, innovate
13:56 Other music education channels you should check out
15:12 Artfully including political statements in music
16:54 Having a personal life as a performing musician
17:38 A holistic view on music
19:57 Using more than 2 fingers on bass guitar
Follow me on the interwebs:
/ adamneely
/ its_adamneely
My band/background music
sungazermusic.b...
massextinctione...
Peace,
Adam
![Vectors & Dot Product • Math for Game Devs [Part 1]](/img/n.gif)
Hey guys, let me know if you've been getting ads that you can't skip on this video (and other videos of mine). This has been happening all of a sudden, and I'm not quite sure what to do since I definitely did NOT allow TH-cam to do non-skippable ads.
From what I've just looked at, it seems TH-cam has put them up without permission as every website and forum I've looked at says you have to request to put in non-skippable ads on videos, i would suggest contacting TH-cam to remove the feature (i am not TH-cam expert i just googled different questions so i have no idea if im right but i hope it helps and figured you put time into your videos and have helped me out i would research for a couple minutes to try and help you) Love everything you do, keep up the great work and cant wait to see more video's in the future hope i helped.
Adam Neely you the MAN Adam, hope to jam with you one day
Hey Adam, I'm a bassist based in northern colorado. I play in a few bands and I make most of my money off of live shows and teaching private lessons. I really want to be a session musician but I have no idea how to get in that business. I ask my peers and they usually say I need to have an "in" with the person that runs the studio. How do I get my foot in the door?
P.S. I'm only 16, so I'm usually not allowed to play at bars. I play music venues and restaurants no problem, but bars are always tricky. Do you know of any workarounds to this problem? Or will I just have to wait 5 years?
yes, a 5 second one.
AdAm, por que está em portugues a descrição? Fiqueu curioso
Wow, thanks for the shout-out, Adam! Love your work, and I'm glad you appreciate ours too!
Hey Adam thanks for the shoutout!! Rick
Rick Beato no prob bra
hey Rick u probs don't need to sign off with ur name in a TH-cam comment regards strabi
Rick Be8o
@@strabisamus5428 Us old people have a tough time losing what we were taught was polite and good etiquette ;)
Not that you're wrong, but cut an old dog some slack :)
I love that you signed off ur comment 😂😂😂
"Everything is a remix. The basic elements of creation are: Copy, Transform, Combine." - Kirby Ferguson, 2010.
"Nothing you've done is original. The creative process is: Imitate, Assimilate, Innovate". - Adam Neely, 2017.
I stole it from Clark Terry!
"Good artists copy, great artists steal." - some dude on 4chan
Mojito underrated comment
my philosophy is if i'm going to steal, steal from a bunch of different things. then it's no longer stealing
Don't want to be rude, but I'm hella curious to know what Adam's ensemble rating was at Berklee.
6 ensemble intelligence, 2 ensemble rebellion
bass/8
That ensemble rating system is such a terrible idea. My college did something similar (not officially, but it was pretty obvious when looking at the bands), and as such the weaker musicians, myself included, were always paired with the weaker musicians, resulting in all of us collectively not improving as much as other groups, due to consistently not playing with anyone stronger than us. We didn't know how to improve, because we weren't exposed to what improved playing was supposed to be like.
Please don't read this out on a video in the future.
Awesome promotional placement on the "your music is shit" comment.
I'll remember that.
"Sucking the fun out of music"? Quite the opposite, mate. Always fascinating, engaging and inspirational. Keep it coming.
Hey Adam,
In response to the "sucking fun out of music" quip, the more in-depth scientific and academic approach you take with these videos, along with still making them kinda silly and fun, is really the reason I started watching your videos every day. It's always really interesting to see these concepts put together in a more accessible but still very intellectual way, and I just wanted to say how much of an inspiration these videos have been to me as not only a new bass player, but also as a musician overall.
So thanks for these videos, and keep up the awesome work man.
God i spent so long trying to create original stuff by ignoring theory and other works, was cool later on finding that I'd worked out things naturally but in the end I found had just slowed myself down and limited my creative arsenal. You might get some interesting insights kids but listen to Adam, get over your ego and save yourself a few years learning what those who came before did. Reading a book by Kenny Werner helped me a lot, in it he quoted someone, I forget, but they basically said if your sound is so fragile that it can't take a bit of theory or imitation, then maybe it is not much of a sound at all.
Hi Adam,
Do you have any experience working with incredibly shy or closed-off musicians? A drummer who I work with is rather timid and has a hard time making eye contact with me and our bassist while playing, and as a result, it's been difficult to develop dynamics during solos, setup different sections of a song, or signal cues to him. Any advice on how to improve musical communication between him and the rest of the group? Is there something I could be doing differently as a pianist to better convey musical signals to our drummer?
Hey Patrick, not Adam but I hope I can help. How is the relationship with your drummer outside of the rehearsals? Do you often go to grab a beer, eat and chat around or is it strictly a "professional" relationship? Usually building a bond outside of music helps to communicate on stage too. One of my best friends and I would do stuff without even looking or talking beforehand while jamming, I'd raise a hand and we would do the same thing just because we understood each other outside of the rehearsal room. Not always this kind of thing is possible and I won't lie and say that with every close friend this happened, but having the confidence to talk with musicians not only as working partners, but criticize, joke, and even fight and then continue to be friends like nothing, the closer the relationship, the easier it is to communicate your ideas and understand each other.
I said all that just to tell this, if that doesn't work, then you need to have a serious talk about communication with him, and if that doesn't work, then you need a new drummer.
"Sharp sign Blessed" that one had me cracking up!!
Can't believe you didn't mention Ben Levin in the question about other music theory/education channels!
Troubletcat FAKE DOCTOR Ben Levin
Troubletcat I was thinking the same thing!
i love your attitude towards everything. how you carry yourself, your professionalism, and how you deal with your haters.
Hi Adam,
It might not be a popular topic but being you're into advanced jazz harmony, would it be possible for you to make a video about Coltrane changes?
Love you and your channel. Binge watching never felt so good!
rnrdesigner Hi! the channel Adam mentions in this video (12tone) actually has a vid on Trane changes! It's a good one too. peace
Checked it out! Thanks a lot! :)
Yes please Adam k thanks bye
Yeah please explain the amazing progression on Giant Steps!
rnrdesigner great idea! Also any thoughts on coltranes mandala would be great!
I don't want you to think this is my only take away from the video but I must inform you that I in fact died when I heard "Sharp sign Blessed" from across my room.
same here !
Hey Adam,
NIGHTMARE SITUATION ALERT!!!!
I recently broke my left arm and as a result I have permanently lost some essential wrist dexterity for fretting bass. I’ve been looking for bass related advice on this but can’t find anything first hand (no pun intended).
Do you know any bass players who have encountered something like this or do you have any advice?
ps. your vids have been an absolute game changer for me so thank you for the content.
Buy a synth bass!
8:31 That was some serious Aikido reversal, using the adversary's strength to your advantage
Eh, I disagree with your stance on "technical" music. I do think complexity for complexity's sake is important for boundary pushing. Who knows, in all their noodling they might find something amazing. Sure, the music might not be instantly appealing at a visceral level but it is appealing in a different, intellectual "oh that's clever" kinda way (not necessarily better, mind you).
EDIT: Also, genres like tech death and tech thrash were initially called technical by the fans, not by the bands, so I guess the pretentiousness of the name is their fault, really.
Your comment @12:15 reminded me of the short story "Unaccompanied Sonata" by Orson Scott Card. In the story, a prodigal musician is isolated from all existing forms of music so that he can compose without any prior influence. It makes some very interesting commentary about the nature of inspiration and the drive to create.
burning1rr Did you by chance read songmaster by Card? (if thats its name)- is it any good? I've read a lot of Care, he's my favorite author, but I've never heard of that one.
I haven't read Songmaster. The Unaccompanied Sonata is a short story. I hadn't thought about the it in a long time, but it's stuck with me. Adam's comment reminded me of it. :)
I hear Unaccompanied Sonata is really good, but I've never read it. Doesn't the musician eventually get to hear Bach and then he's punished and forbidden from making music? Also, have you read Ender's Game?
I don't know about America, but here in the UK it's the law that they provide hearing protection for free at the bar if it's going to be loud.
I learned about that one from a couple dudes on a park bench 👌🏼
Yep you are sucking the joy out of music alright, and packaging it up in nice little bite size packages for us all to enjoy! Only recently found your channel but it is already my #1 fave and nearly every vid takes me down the rabbit hole of musical understanding! This channel is like the Vsauce of Music for me, cheers! :)
"I'm more inclined to make TH-cam videos." Academia is a bit ridiculous right now. Good choice.
I managed to avoid doing my doctorate in music 6 years ago because I heard how ridiculous academia has become.
Hey Adam,
how do you define a "dry" tone? a "fat" tone??
I feel like I know what they sound like, and I can make my drums sound dry, or round/fat, but is there some sort of formal definition for these type of tone terminologies?
Thanks,
Shaurya
Shaurya Salwan "dry" is free of reverb and usually any other effects.
"Fat" is if you remove all treble, and max out mids and bass
hey Adam. Elder School of Music at Adelaide University in South Australia does ensemble ratings and posts them on the wall so everyone walks past them every fucking day. Made for a pretty toxic environment.
'Sharp sign' Bless haha
"Having a cheap instrument that you connect with"; after being with a post-CBS Fender Jazz Bass for 43 years, I can relate. Great stuff; wish we had folks like you 40 years ago, it would have been so much easier.
dude shoving tissues in yours ears does hardly anything I hear, you gotta get some ear buds dog
I keep two sets of them in my wallet all the time, as for a while I would forget them half the time.
I'm not sure about in the state, but here in the UK I'm pretty sure it's the law for music venues to provide free ear buds.
You wet the tissue and wah-lah viola.
This is not a music question but... Could you make a video about making these videos? Like a "making of" one of your episodes. Like how you research stuff, how you write this stuff etc. I'd like to do a sort of similar channel but for visual arts stuff. You know. "How commander Keen might look if it were done today". Shit like that. I love your coherent way of representing everything you're talking about and the way you manage to keep all this "jazz" entertaining. Anyways. One of mah favorite channels. Keep up the good work dawggghhh... Also how tall are you?
Oh and just to add to that. I'm not talking about the technical stuff. Nobody wants a video called "Adam Neely talks about video codecs for TH-cam" (And I'm willing to bet you wouldn't be willing to do a video like that either). I'm talking about the research, your output and overall process. Do you ask other people for help etc. Stuff like that...
in most venues you can just ask at the bar for some ear plugs they most likely have spares for the bar staff. LIFE HACK
ask at the bar for ear plugs.
ADAM SHOW US YOUR VINYL SETUP
Adam
What would you if your main Bass broke down or had to go to the luthier? do you have a spare one?
Rest assured Adam, your stuff is making it into academic journals. I know I have cited you a few times already.
Great video altogether - especially appreciate the title section (beginning at 12:15), as I once had a friend who had a similar mindset as Parker Knapp. Your response is succinct, understandable, and thought-provoking. Thanks man!
1:00 - Those lectures are amazing! It's one of the very few videos that I'll re-watch within a year :)
I have that book too! :)
Hey Adam, I'm 22 years old, and I've been playing the violin for 17 years. I have a bachelor's degree in graphic design, and I've been lucky enough to find a good job in the field. No real complaints about my career thus far.
However, I can't shake an urge to go back to school and study music. It's not that I want to switch careers, but I feel that I'm simply too interested in music not to study it at a more rigorous level. I imagine a day when I could be both a designer and professional musician-maybe as violinist in my hometown Omaha Symphony, or another professional orchestra. Or maybe a side gig teaching music as an adjunct at the university level while maintaining a parallel career in graphic design.
My knowledge of theory and overall ability as a performer is pretty advanced for someone without an undergrad music degree, so I'm wondering, would you recommend looking into an undergraduate program or a master's program? Are people ever admitted to master's programs without a bachelor's degree in music? Would it be worth going back to school if I'm not necessarily going to make it my full time career?
Thanks!
Thanks for answering my question, Adam. I definitely agree with you! I play a Mexican Telecaster myself because I love it and it sounds really good. Only it doesn't seem so cool to play such a 'boring' instrument. In the music scene in The Netherlands, where I am, it's hip to play old guitars. From Fenders to Gibson to cheap 70's Japanese or European guitars. I myself do not like to board that hype train. I think that this is how you feel also.
Keep on doing these vids! Love them!
And Adam; don't feed the trolls ;)
Hello Adam ! First, thank you for the vids : it really "widen" my mind (well, I stop music since about 20 years, but I'm looking to grab my bass, guitars now ).
So, here is the question : I saw on your FB page a picture of Satie. Can we expect -one day- a gymnopédies bass transcription ? (If you record that, I buy without a single thoughts :) )
Yo Adam,
Long time viewer, first time commenter. I'm curious about your practice and warm up routine; what do you do to warm up before a gig? How do you keep track of all the various techniques and such that you practice? Or in a more general sense, what do you practice currently?
Thanks for all the great content!
Hello Adam, just a suggestion topic for future videos: the process of audio _production_ (e.g. getting into production at home, working with DAWs, mastering, all that jazz). I think it's something that isn't necessarily obvious to even us academically trained musicians, and I think it would do a great service to some who want to start producing on their own.
Also, how do you come up with ideas for your videos?
What do you think of video game music ? People study classical/popular music but many I know have low esteem of vgm. They're overlooking great composers (Disasterpeace, Danny Baranowsky, Motoi Sakuraba and many more)
Did you experience vgm composition ? Do you have any sort of advice to actually compose music for a game ?
BASS!!
Hey Adam.
I'm currently a music undergrad, and I want to start getting wedding and party gigs in my local area. There really isn't a big music scene in the city I live, so do you have any recommendations on how to get the word out about me and any band/combo I might want to gig with? I know it takes a lot of networking and a lot of dead ends before things will take off, but I'm wondering if there are certain ways (business cards, a website, etc) that would help people know that I'm available for these kinds of gigs?
Sharp sign bless
i laughed at the sharp sign 😂 rock on👌
You seem like such a likeable person.
might be a small thing but i do like that you said "romantic partner" when talking about relationships :)
For a moment I felt in disagreement with you on the use of technical or progressive as being pretentious. I had to give myself a moment to remember your background. With the formal education you come across many of those types, I cant explain them because I haven't put enough thought into it. With private lessons and self taught it tends to be more gatekeepers that I give that label to.
Also thanks for 12 tone and Early Music Sources! Really interesting stuff!
I'm not saying stuffing napkins in your ear is bad advice, but always bring ear plugs to a concert. Even if you don't need them, it's better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it. Especially if you're bringing someone along.
I'm a classical guitarist who also plays upright bass, and I've developed a style where I use the middle knuckle on my pointer finger, most of the time, to pluck. It makes a really fun, meaty sound. It's difficult to play quickly, but that's not really what I'm interested in with bass.
I"ve also found a few other ways of doing things, although they're often more dependent on my nails being relatively short. You can make it work if you practice.
Hey Adam,
Wondering if you've ever listened to the band of Montreal. I'd like to know what you think of the album Paralytic Stalks. One of my favorite albums of theirs/his (sort of fits into your idea of "band leader" as Kevin brought in new people for this sound). How do you find this approach to integrating avantgarde with pop/rock? I'd love to hear your opinion.
17:05 "Sharp sign, bless"
BRUH
Haha I thought you were playing that scale for real. I wasn't even that impressed by it because I thought that's just what you get up to in your practice routine
Have you ever listened to Death Grips?
some places a mexican p-bass is a luxury. :'(
Yall should check out Ben Levin Music for guitar!!!
Not sure if you already answered of this but you mentioned 3 criterion for whether or not to take a gig, but how do you judge a gig playing music you would enjoy?
I know you double (triple?) on other instruments so I was wondering if you only play pop piano, and stop short of anything in the realm of baroque or whatever (not that many gigs playing baroque would come up anyways).
Does the amount of effort you would have to put in to learn these skills a factor? Or is it purely the type of music you would enjoy to play?
Thanks.
Lel, thanks.
Dddrummer
Do you think playing with some bit of nail in bass is a good way to get a "pick" sound when you don't want to use a pick but desire that kind of attack?
Hi Adam,
(do you find that starting every question with "Hi Adam" makes you feel like an Agony Aunt?)
What did it take for you to think of yourself as a multi-instrumentalist? Was there a moment where you decided for yourself that you could do it? Or was it down to people asking you to do gigs; or otherwise complimenting your skills? I'm a drummer primarily, and would describe myself as such, but I also play guitar and bass. I'm actually pretty good at my "secondary" instruments, but I struggle to think of myself as being a true multi-instrumentalist. Do you think there's some tangible line to cross here before I can say it, or is it entirely in my head?
i challenge you to write a tuba Jazz quartet in cb major
Mel Martin "cb major" lol
Noah What?
Mexican Fenders are great. Especially in a “for the money” context.
Hey Adam, have you ever done any work involving microtones or scales that are divided differently from the western 12 semitone system? I expressed an interest in this while studying composition at university and was told by my professor (who used a lot of 'modern' techniques in his work) that I shouldn't use them because they sound 'out of tune'. I'd be interested to know your thoughts. I think your content is excellent by the way.
Any tips on how I can play bass better while driving?
... and then it happened ...
and then it got taken down :-)
Before i ask my question i'd just like to say that you're really inspiring man. I've listened to sungazer and the overall vibe of that project is so interesting. I would love to start working on some projects like that.
My question is: what is your opinion on flat wound versus round wound strings? Have you ever used flat wounds? I use flats on my bass because, in my experience, they are a lot less "buzzy" and noisy than rounds. Additionally, i like flats better because my plucking finger blisters a lot easier with rounds. I'd love to hear your opinion on this, thanks!
9:37 tell that to murdoch niccals
Would you mind including links to the three music education channels in the show-notes? Thanks!
complexity for the sake of complexity doesn't have to be pretentious. I love making complex stuff for the sake of absurdity, kind of like the musical equivalent of dadaism or reactionism.
But that's an aesthetic statement. Complexity can have that effect, and you can channel it to that end. Late period Frank Zappa certainly has that vibe.
true i suppose. i just feel like it doesn't have to be intellectually minded. it's fun to just make a mess of different tuplets that sounds like throwing a bucket of tennis balls at a drum set.
Ah, really glad you've checked out early music sources ^_^ Another recommendation: Alan Belkin's channel
If you want to look into band leadership, this issue is brought up on the Red Hot Chili Peppers lead singer Anthony Kiedis' autobiography Scar Tissue. Although they had a drugs, they had a very strong enthusiasm and put their life around music. Sadly they lost their lead guitarist Hillel Slovak to drugs and they kept to producing ever since. Worth a read/listen.
i very much admire your ability to take condescending, negative, and blatantly wrong comments and, rather than blasting them to high hell, taking their ideas and molding them into a great discussion
Is "Sungazer" a Simpsons reference?
Will we still get the Q+A episodes as podcasts? Would be great for roaming around. Thanks, bro!
Norton Series might be because there's a jazz Norton book online (and in print). Here's the link:
www.wwnorton.com/college/music/jazz-essentials/
I feel like you're showing the fun in music, not sucking the fun out of it. This kind of study gives us understanding, and finding more understanding is what makes stuff so interesting.
Dude. You inspire the hell out of all of us! Thank you.
19:16 - Back in Jr. High in the 60's it was referred by the vague term "Music Appreciation" :)
Your answer to the title question is spot on. Definitely something I didn't understand when I was younger and that I stress to all my students. Also Rick Beato is the man!
About the technical/prog music thing... I, for example, write music in all sorts of weird time signatures (9/8, 13/8, 15/16, ... you get it), but in most cases, it's actually not on purpose - I just play and come up with something I like, write it down and "oh crap, not 4/4 again". I used to try and change it so that it fits in some common time signature, but it just didn't feel the way I intended, so I stopped. Different time signatures (maybe more importantly the way accents are organized) have different feel, I'd say.
However, a lot of my musicians friends look at me as if I was crazy for creating something that's not 3/4 or 4/4. On one occasion, a friend told me that I probably "can't count to four". A funny thing to hear from someone who gets lost in anything that's not 3/4 or 4/4. There's nothing wrong with those signatures, but I feel like using only those means you're restricting yourself a lot, something like using just one key all the time.
Adam,
I'm casually performing musician of that "half-time job + gigs" model, and after graduating my musical high school (which was already 6 years ago) i didn't start any academia-level school [context - i live in Europe when public collages are free but you have to be really good to be admitted, and people basically treat you like a man in your field if you have a public's collage degree]. And last years I started to think that I actually should give it a try despite the fact I'll be 25 soon. On the other hand I am aware that you can do well without music collage and what matters the most is your portfolio and professional network - and this should be the thing I should focus on. Your thoughts? Maybe I just want to cure my under-achiever's syndrom? Greets from Warsaw.
Hey Adam, how does one find a vocalist for one's musical group?
#PapaBless
Yay! Nothing useful to watch and HERE YOU ARE
Thank you!
Thanks for taking about playing the instrument you have a connection with over an expensive “better” one. I get the same thing said about a particular beat up Mexican Strat I play where some people say I should “trade up” to an American or custom shop...but when I play literally any other Strat, it just doesn’t click or sound/feel right to the point where I almost hate the “better” instrument. Maybe instrument mojo is real...
Hey Adam, Love your channel. There is a really good grouping of books by W.W. Norton, they are titled Counterpoint, Harmony, and Melody. In lieu of a sketchy internet link I would just recommend you look them up. It's a great series of books and I imagine they have to do with the Norton lectures you mentioned in the beginning.
re: your MIM P bass - Adam, don't you know that _better gear = better chops_ ?
You totally need to buy one of those uglyass basses that bassists normally have, y'know, those ones that look like HR Giger made a coffeetable out of wooden vomit
as a classical guitarist that just so happens to be a bass player;
instead of picking one or the other, i more or less sort of adapted my bass sound to work with the nails needed for classical guitar. for classical guitar playing, the picking technique isn't only nail, its a mixture of both flesh and nail. You use both equally when hitting the string. My nails are filed in a curve-like way so that it's more ergonomic when plucking the string; i use the most out of my nail. When playing bass, i turn my wrist ever so slightly to the left to get more flesh and less nail. That way, I get the flesh sound for the bass, while the little bit of nail that inevitably hits the string helps gives the bass a bit of extra punch. The wrist shouldn't be turned too much, however; This would cause some discomfort.
What are your thoughts on this?
is it better to seek feedback on your work from another musician or from a "consumer"?
i understand getting more valuable theoretical and production advice on a piece from someone else familiar with the craft, but i also find that other musicians are more concerned with the complexity of works (be it complexity in chord progressions and sound design the like or in the actual structure and layers) than someone who simply listens to the end result. it also seems much more difficult to reach out to musicians whose opinions i value (no disrespect to my friends and peers who produce, it's just that our skill levels are generally too similar to get a whole lot out of sharing feedback), be it because of ego or just not being capable whilst dealing with everything else.
meanwhile, consumers will tell me what ultimately matters most to me: if my music is fun to listen to. however, they're generally quite auraly xenophobic; asking the general public about my at-times niche music seems like a bad move when they can recoil from even slight deviation from what's currently popular in edm (read some of the comments on some of kayzo's stuff on soundcloud, people go nuts just because their hard trap is four-on-the-floor). it just doesn't feel good and isn't helpful at all if someone doesn't like the absolute base foundations of your work. and while entertainment is worth more to me than intricacy, it doesn't help me grow as a musician.
its written as Leonard Bearenstain
The Maria effect
Adam! como va? I'm thinking about studying film/tv scoring abroad after I get my composition degree here in Argentina. Any institution you recommend? Gracias!
berklee auditionee: does very well
berklee auditioners: gr8 m8 i r8 8/8
I just checked "annoythefish"'s channel. He has turned off his page tabs/links, including the "Discuss" tab. He's even turned off his PM tab. I wonder why that is, haha! "dm21865" also cannot be found upon searching. Mmmmm
P.S. Just a little gripe: It's not "fall", it's "Autumn". You don't say "Rise" meaning "Spring". Urgh...
I thought the clock was for real...just got the fingers part wrong. Damn, I'd trusted you totally..!!
Yep...keep going with the videos now. Probably better for you...and DEFINITELY BETTER FOR US!
Holy Flying Spaghetti, Batman! If you're gonna shove stuff in your ears do your self a favor just get a pair of custom moulded ear buds done! You can get them for $150 a pair and they last forever. If you're a professional musician or even just an amateur concertgoer you have no excuse. (And no right to complain about the price. If you had to stare at very bright surfaces regularly you wouldn't think twice about getting a good pair of sunglasses.)
They will sound way better than cheaper non custom ones, since custom moulding (and better construction in general) allows for a much flatter frequency response curve. You only get one set of ears, protect them!
If you ever get tinnitus after a show, GO IMMEDIATELY SEE A DOC. If it's treated within 48h (usually with corticosteroids + maybe some other stuff) you can severely reduce the tinnitus down to basically what it was before. If you wait too long, it'll be permanent, and there's no cure for tinnitus yet (although the science is progressing, but our best hope involves shocking the brain with electricity so...). If your doctor brushes you off, go see another one or an ear specialist. THAT STUFF CAN BE TREATED WITHIN 48 HOURS OF THE SHOCK.
I had the thing happen to me twice (first when I was young and foolish, and another time when I forgot my earbuds and was still foolish) - both times I had my ass saved. I now carry two pairs of custom moulded ear buds - one at -15dB and the other at -25dB and they work great.
You're great man. love your work please never stop
Hey Adam,
What is your opinion of free jazz/free imprvisation/non-idmatic music? You seem to appreciate some very atonal and adventurous harmonic techniques(?) but is totally improvised music a step too far for you?
I've been reading a biography of Derek Bailey (Derek Bailey and the Story of Free Improvisation) and he had some similar things to say about the "Cult of the Written Score" after spending a lot of time working with avant garde composers in the 50s and 60s.
All the best,
Eric
A little heads up for Parker Knapp and other (usually young) musicians who think like that. Back in the 70's, when I was living in Cape Town, I was visited by a young guy from Texas, who was a guitar nut. He played for me solos by Clapton, Hendrix, Blackmore, SRV, in fact, all the leading guitarists of the day.He didn't seem to have an original idea of his own, though his copies were note perfect. It was only about 25 years later that I found out that the young dude was Eric Johnson- one of the most innovative players around. What he'd been doing was building up a toolbox of licks and techniques, and bending them to his own purpose. Adam's advice is good.
Hey Adam,
What do you think about music with lyrics that the audience doesn't understand? When I was younger, lots of people would ask me why I listened to Japanese music when I didn't understand the lyrics, but some musicians intentionally obscure any meaning of the lyrics, for example the song Crowds by WHITE ASH, and the languages Yoko Kanno and Kajiura Yuki use their in soundtracks ("Kajiurago" in the case of the latter). Thoughts?
Hey Adam. You are the man in case you didn't know :)
I had a question about functional harmony and how it applies to each mode. I understand the concept of Tonic (resolution), Subdominant (movement), and Dominant (tension) chord groups and how it applies to the major scale but what about the functional harmony of Phrygian for example? Is there a way to organize the 7 chords of a mode into these 3 groups of resolution, movement, and tension. It sounds to me like the chords build off each scale degrees fit into the same groups as the major scale. (illustrated below) I was wondering what your thoughts were. Thanks!
Phrygian Functional Harmony -
Resolution: i, III, VI
Movement: bII, iv
Tension: v(diminished), vii
Mr. Neely, my question is rather odd...
When I write songs, as crude as it may be, it always comes out as weird.
I don't seem to be able to write a sensible song.
Last song I wrote, the first verse was about a rabbit, second was about a weird uncle (not my uncle, a character that would be an uncle), establishing a thematic parallel between both, and all this put in a sort of folky, airy vibe, slightly "Of Monsters And Men meets Passenger via Lumineers". To put it simple, this song would come alive with a 12-string and a small choir of 3-4 feminine voices doing back vocals.
Objectively, how do I make songs that won't make me go "WTH did I just wrote?"
Hey, Adam, excellent videos and channel! My question is if double bass LH technique transfers appropriately to electric bass? I started playing electric self-thought, then moved to double bass (classically trained). I have applied a bit of LH movements but I don't know if it might be restrictive. At the moment, it works for me. Any thoughts? Best!
Speaking of science and linguistics, are you familiar with computer science at all? I think you'd like an episode of Radio Lab called "Musical Language" which shows some interesting relationships between these fields. They cover David Cope's work in algorithmically generated music that imitates famous composers like Bach, Chopin, and Mahler.
I studied linguistics, music, and CS in college, and thought I was crazy jumping between these three fields. Then I listened to that Radio Lab episode and thought to myself "omg, these DO go together!"