Music Goals 2018

[actual]

Figure out what kind of music I actually want to focus on, what elements I want to use from where, polish off my "sound".
Get at least a 4-track EP done by like late fall.
Continue to make an effort to get better at playing, composing, arranging and mixing.
Learn the guitar, some percussion.
Get started on my home-studio upgrade.

Also, register my company and get a website up and running, though this might get pushed to 2019.

[ognoy]

Wrap up the Solstorm-album we've been working since March last year(90% done), find someone to release it and tour after release.

And I want to record and release a new solo album.

And I just started a new project with a trumpet player.
So I want to work with that and make some sweet music and play live. We might add a drummer. We'll see.

[voerking]

i left the full time band i had been in for the past six years as of the end of 2017.
i'm actually looking forward to playing live *less* this year.
i'm also hoping to get some less formal (as in, not necessarily practicing multiple times a week) projects in motion.
I like the idea of being more selective & more adaptable, musically.

basically, i'm sick of doing the same thing all the time & want some new musical adventures (as long as they don't take over my life).

Being in a band for 6 years and only putting out 5 songs has got to be pretty taxing, but at least those 5 songs were fucking killer

thanks. i am really proud of the record we made!
i'm just very ready to do other things & not have that very work-intensive band be the only musical outlet i have time for.

[Jwar]

I want to learn a classical instrument. I'm leaning toward the cello, but have also toyed with the idea of a violin. Really, I'd love to play both, but you can't learn everything at once. That's my main goal. Playing a different instrument.

[coldbrightsunlight]

In my experience violin is trickier to learn because of the smaller scale, and because most music written for strings increases in complexity with instrument pitch from double bass to violin playing the hard bits. I took lessons for years but never got that far and was better at double bass within a few weeks of picking it up. Why not double bass? aka the best bass.

Cello is a nice middle ground though, lots of lovely melodic music for the cello, it sits in a nice pitch range where you can do bass sounds to competing with the lower end of a violin. Plus they're smaller than a double bass and I suppose also more different from an electric bass.

That said violins are great, I wish I could play one well and I keep meaning to pick it back up and learn properly again.


What I would recommend if you're seriously thinking of picking up a string instrument is lessons. You can absolutely teach yourself but there's a bit more scope for going wrong with technique than with fretted instruments so even a bit of formal teaching is advisable. Depends what you want out of the experience though!

[phantasmagorovich]

Record a new album over the course of the year.

Play with my buddy from OWWL at least 3 times, find something we might want to do with ourselves, now that drone bores us.

Play / practice more often. I've had something like two years of a mild rut, where I didn't play at home, just at the Dazzle Ships band practice once a week. I have been trying to remedy that and so far it's been a success. fingers have already gotten more nimble and overall I feel I might not have lost "it" after all. I just need to focus on the songs I start writing in the process instead of fantasizing about recording the whole thing and who to feature on string and horn sections. More simple, more "for me" music is the goal of this.

Also: maybe find some music that inspires and excites me. 2017 was a lot of crap in that respect.

Bonus: I would love to play the drums more. Being shit at it is so exciting!

[Dungus]

I really want to release this new fuzzy indie rock album i made, but the dude who seemed to be pretty excited to start providing vocals a month ago for me won't return my messages, so yeah, doesn't look like it will happen any time soon. Not going to release it without vocals.

Going to start working on recording this other new set of songs I have too. Instrumental ones. Hopefully I can release one album this year. LOL / CRY

[coldbrightsunlight]

Can you do your own vocals? Maybe they won't be how you imagined but it might end up cool?

[Dungus]

Can you do your own vocals? Maybe they won't be how you imagined but it might end up cool?

I wish, but I can't really sing with any confidence and I'd probably only end up ruining the songs. I most certainly don't want to do anything just for the sake of it being there. I've wanted to record something with this dude for 10 years and I was so happy he was up for it. Bogus.

[Benn Roe]

For the band that's been slowly getting its shit together over the last two and a half years:
1) Find a cellist.
2) Write lyrics/vocals for otherwise written songs.
3) Start playing shows.
4) Record something.

[Blackened Soul]

In my experience violin is trickier to learn because of the smaller scale, and because most music written for strings increases in complexity with instrument pitch from double bass to violin playing the hard bits. I took lessons for years but never got that far and was better at double bass within a few weeks of picking it up. Why not double bass? aka the best bass.

Cello is a nice middle ground though, lots of lovely melodic music for the cello, it sits in a nice pitch range where you can do bass sounds to competing with the lower end of a violin. Plus they're smaller than a double bass and I suppose also more different from an electric bass.

Going from double bass to a cello is easy from a physical aspect in that it is smaller and easier to play, what will throw you is the 5ths vs 4th tuning if you don't switch between the two enough.. To me cello doesn't equate to a bass guitar feelwise compared to a double bass really if you look at a double bass you can see where the bass guitar came from: the nut width is the same and the spacing of the strings is about the same ratiowise to length. Which makes sense in that the idea for the bass guitar was to replace the double bass in non arco situations and if you get good.. you can play cello-y stuff on a bass.. and be a total badass like Francois Rabbath..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWzG-pVuZK0

[karmablock]

1) Play more (the last few years there were times when I didn't touch an instrument for months)
2) Study more (brushing on theory I know and learning new theory. I've always want to learn to compose)
3) Overcome some of my anxiety/depression (I have a lot of half finished songs I've abandoned and I've deleted stuff because I hated that I made it. Sorry to get so serious)
4) Find a musical partner
5) Play out for the first time in years.

[coldbrightsunlight]

In my experience violin is trickier to learn because of the smaller scale, and because most music written for strings increases in complexity with instrument pitch from double bass to violin playing the hard bits. I took lessons for years but never got that far and was better at double bass within a few weeks of picking it up. Why not double bass? aka the best bass.

Cello is a nice middle ground though, lots of lovely melodic music for the cello, it sits in a nice pitch range where you can do bass sounds to competing with the lower end of a violin. Plus they're smaller than a double bass and I suppose also more different from an electric bass.

Going from double bass to a cello is easy from a physical aspect in that it is smaller and easier to play, what will throw you is the 5ths vs 4th tuning if you don't switch between the two enough.. To me cello doesn't equate to a bass guitar feelwise compared to a double bass really if you look at a double bass you can see where the bass guitar came from: the nut width is the same and the spacing of the strings is about the same ratiowise to length. Which makes sense in that the idea for the bass guitar was to replace the double bass in non arco situations and if you get good.. you can play cello-y stuff on a bass.. and be a total badass like Francois Rabbath..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWzG-pVuZK0

Yes absolutely. I'm a double bass player but have played cello a handful of times and found it very easy to adapt to and super fun to play. I enjoy playing cello-type tunes on my bass a lot, I'm nowhere near that guy's level though wow! Nice video.

You're right that bass guitar to (pizzicato) double bass just means toughening up your fingers a bit, learning a little new technique and where the notes are and hey presto!

[Paul_C]

I'm aiming to continue making strange recordings, possibly under different names, and putting them out on YouTube without really bothering to tell anyone - nobody's that bothered and it means that all I have to worry about is pleasing myself

More pedals (CT5 #2 on the way) more understanding of the pedals I have, more Miku (of course), more rhythms.

2018 might be the year of making a bit more effort to construct something, but it's quite likely I'll carry on recording on my Tascam DR-07 in one take and apart from removing the noises at beginning and end, no mixing, no overdubs, no polishing.

[the raytownian]

I want to find a soulmate who has the same ambitions as I have to become a co-dependent harsh noise hermit living in the wastelands of rural MS. I want to be the Jenny to his Masami. I want us to have a house together. Somewhere far away from people, with an army of cats and a room full of gear in which we have hideous noise-sex on the regular. I want us to design and build pedals together. I want us to plant a garden and forage wild berries and eat cow shit-infused pond fish. I want us to raise goats and chickens and drink homemade sugar-booze and make trips every month or so into the city to see a shitty movie or eat some shitty Chinese food, because doing things together is how relationships stay strong.

I want this all to happen before the year is up.