Hello Everyone!

What was the best musical advice you ever got that lifted and carried your tracks ? Do You think the best way in which to liven a track with ordinary unimaginative chords structure's and melodies is mostly down to the quality of the mixing and mastering engineer ?

Thanks in advance

Simplest is best.



--------------------
Music is it's own reward .

I think making great music requires so many different skills in areas like;

- melody lines
- lyrics
- harmony
- arrangement
- performance
- mixing

so my advise would be something like "learn as much as you can, and find great collaborators for the rest"

--------------------
All the best,
Knut Skaarberg

"Funk is what you leave out"

Yes, it was worded to me as "what you _don't_ play is as important as what you _do_ play".

Also in an improvisation group I used to be part of, it was pointed out that "there's no such thing as a wrong note, just how you get out of it"

--------------------
* Soundcloud *
* Bandcamp *

"That doesn't sound quite right..."

If you're not playing the right line for the song, it doesn't matter what mics you're using.

The song you're performing is your favourite song in the world.

It works so well, and can make even a shitty piece sound convincing to an audience.

--------------------
Composer;
www.ogonline.org

Quote oggyb:

---

The song you're performing is your favourite song in the world.

It works so well, and can make even a shitty piece sound convincing to an audience.

---

Similar to what my piano teacher said when I was very small, and had just rattled off my homework piece.
"If you don't care about what you are playing, neither will anyone else."

--------------------
It wasn't me!
(Well, actually, it probably was)

Quote Hairy Ears:

---

Yes, it was worded to me as "what you _don't_ play is as important as what you _do_ play".

Also in an improvisation group I used to be part of, it was pointed out that "there's no such thing as a wrong note, just how you get out of it"

---

Years ago I recorded a song and made what I initially thought was a mistake. Playing the song back I realised the mistake was the best bit of the track

Edited by Ojustaboo (13/11/11 05:30 AM)

This was from a crap musician but came up with this one superb comment - think of it like cooking, don't put all the spices in every time, otherwise it ends up tasting the same every time. Cos I tended to add all the tricks up my sleeve all the time to try and be flamboyant and busy, but actually it ended up all sounding the same.

...slightly similar to "simplest is best" - though that depends what you're expressing, and what you mean by simplest. "Only as complicated as necessary" might be my take on that. Complicated is fine if you can keep a hold on it - I often get tangled up in knots and have reams of pieces I've never finished. I often split them up into smaller tracks that work perfectly well.

Quote Ojustaboo:

---

Years ago I recorded a song and made what I initially thought was a mistake. Playing the song back I realised the mistake was the best bit of the track

---

Again a few years ago I was finishing off a track with some lead guitar. I made a mistake but carried on recording anyway thinking I'd just continue to the end and consider it practice. When I listened back to it I really liked it - it was far from being technically perfect (very loose to the point of being sloppy) but it fitted the song so perfectly that I kept it. A happy accident!

I guess the moral is that just cause you _think_ you have made a mistake, doesn't mean you _have_ made a mistake.

--------------------
* Soundcloud *
* Bandcamp *

Quote zingerzingz:

---

Hello Everyone!

What was the best musical advice you ever got that lifted and carried your tracks ? Do You think the best way in which to liven a track with ordinary unimaginative chords structure's and melodies is mostly down to the quality of the mixing and mastering engineer ?

---

Absolutely not! Gold takes a polish. Turds don't.

Apart from that, I think everyone else has come up with the same advice. Don't add things - leave things out. Certainly don't fall into that sad old routine - 4 bars of a beat, add something else, layer something else...

Only one in a hundred songs are any good. You have to finish the other 99 before you get to it.

Quote zingerzingz:

---

What was the best musical advice you ever got ?

---

Big George Webley (God rest him) once said to me, on the topic of getting into the music business generally, "Mate, don't f**king bother! It's not the dream you think it is, there are plenty of people other there that will do it cheaper, better and faster than you, and their name is already on the lips of the people that make the decisions. If that doesn't put you off then go for it."

great thread guys

the great bit of advise i ever got was actually from another field but it tranlsates to music perfectly - i was working in adsa several years ago (facing up and shelf stacking and so forth) and i was working with this other guy - an older bloke called gaz - big beard sweaty hippy liked a fag you know the type

anyway i worked really hard and tried to get all the shelfs done in like 2 hours - i really wanted to do a good job and worked quickly and concientiously carefully aranging the products (butter and cheese) so that their was an inpeccable display with all lables facing to the front - perfectly alined and standing proud like soliders on parade - it looked that good it was like a cheese tercotta army

however after a week gaz took me to one side and said (in no uncretin terms) -

'never work at 100% col otherwise youve got no spare gears'

that has kind of stuck with me since then - yeah leave some in the tank especially when composing because basically if you give it you're all and abolsutely everything then your gonna literally have nothing left to put the icing on the cake

at the end of the day its the icing on the cake that puts the bums on the seats

--------------------
www.colinskuttler.com

Quote colin s:

---

great thread guys

the great bit of advise i ever got was actually from another field but it tranlsates to music perfectly - i was working in adsa several years ago (facing up and shelf stacking and so forth) and i was working with this other guy - an older bloke called gaz - big beard sweaty hippy liked a fag you know the type

anyway i worked really hard and tried to get all the shelfs done in like 2 hours - i really wanted to do a good job and worked quickly and concientiously carefully aranging the products (butter and cheese) so that their was an inpeccable display with all lables facing to the front - perfectly alined and standing proud like soliders on parade - it looked that good it was like a cheese tercotta army

however after a week gaz took me to one side and said (in no uncretin terms) -

'never work at 100% col otherwise youve got no spare gears'

that has kind of stuck with me since then - yeah leave some in the tank especially when composing because basically if you give it you're all and abolsutely everything then your gonna literally have nothing left to put the icing on the cake

at the end of the day its the icing on the cake that puts the bums on the seats

---

So how does that work with composing? Send in a first draft knowing you could do better, so that when the men in suits come back with their idiotic comments you can add the final 10%? I suppose it COULD work - unless the guy who offered 100% first time gets the job instead of you!

Thanks for sharing all these advices with the community, therefore we can all benefit from it!
"If you don't care about what you are playing, neither will anyone else." => This is true. If you like your work and if you are satisfied with it, then it could be that it will also be liked by others. If not, you have to overwork it.

EW, do you realize that the person you're arguing with is Colin S?

"If you're gonna play when you're drunk, practice when your drunk" Eamon Carr, drummer with Horslips, Golden Grill Hotel, Letterkenny circa 1982.

At the time I took his words at face value. It was years later that I worked out that what he was really saying was "You can't hold your whiskey".

Wise man.

--------------------
Ohm's Law states, "Your PA isn't as powerful as you think it is".

Quote shufflebeat:

---

"If you're gonna play when you're drunk, practice when your drunk" Eamon Carr, drummer with Horslips, Golden Grill Hotel, Letterkenny circa 1982.

At the time I took his words at face value. It was years later that I worked out that what he was really saying was "You can't hold your whiskey".

Wise man.

---

Love this one!

Probably the best one I can think of was when assisting (badly) for Tony Platt years ago. He said something along the lines of "if you're working on what the session needs now, you're too late -- concentrate on what the session is going to need next". That bit of advice probably got me more work than anything else in the early days.

On a musical level, though, I'd say that the best advice I ever got was "look for patterns".

--------------------
Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio
A complete mixing method based around the techniques of the world's most famous producers.

Best advice I got was...

"You can't polish a turd, but by all means, roll it in glitter."

It's good advice 'cause sometimes, you get handed a "turd", and you HAVE to do something with it, simple as.

Other advice being...

"Never let good taste get in the way of good music".

Both are worth remembering.

--------------------
www.thediplomatz.com

If you make a mistake, repeat it and make it look like you mean it.
-Jimmy Page

Really works well when improvising.

--------------------
www.descentintomadness.com

Breath.

--------------------
Strictly project and just for fun

"Your music is [ ****** ]."

--------------------
I'm All Ears.

One of my favourite quotes comes from Richard Branson, the boss of Virgin

Quote:

---

You don't learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing, and by falling over.

---

It certainly applies to music. Don't just do what you're told in books - experiment, improvise, and find things out for yourself.

I'm sure that Ricard Branson knows perfectly well what the rules of the games are in his areas of business, but the trick is check them out and then be prepared to bend the old ones or make up some new ones.

Develop your own style, whether it's playing or engineering.

My favourite Branson quote: Ridiculous yachts and private planes and big limousines won't make people enjoy life more, and it sends out terrible messages to the people who work for them. It would be so much better if that money was spent in Africa - and it's about getting a balance.

--------------------
I'm All Ears.

Edited by ken long (12/01/12 12:24 AM)

Quote ken long:

---

My favourite Branson quote: Ridiculous yachts and private planes and big limousines won't make people enjoy life more, and it sends out terrible messages to the people who work for them. It would be so much better if that money was spent in Africa - and it's about getting a balance.

---

Yes, that is a particularly hard one to swallow, considering all the money he's spent on chasing records in balloons, power boats, yachts, etc... But perhaps he thinks that it doesn't really apply to him because, as he also said:

Quote:

---

I believe in benevolent dictatorship provided I am the dictator.

---

I definitely enjoy being a benevolent dictator in my own little kingdom..... when my wife lets me, of course ..

My primary school music teacher walked along a line of children encouraging them all to 'Sing Up!' When she got to me, she crouched down and whispered 'sing softly...'

It still hurts to think of it.

DM

--------------------
Not much in life worth running for. Or from.

Handwritten notes by Thelonious Monk ;



" Make the drummer sound good "

--------------------
Music is it's own reward .

Quote DaveFry:

---

Handwritten notes by Thelonious Monk ;



" Make the drummer sound good "

---

I got a warm glow when I saw those notes! The hand of The Master himself. (incidentally, I came late to this thread because the "breath' advice was dispensed only on Wednesday, during a drumming lesson...).

--------------------
Strictly project and just for fun

"use your pinkie"

Keep your day job.



mikko

--------------------
Is this on?

Either "keep taking the pills" or " use your ears"....probably the latter. Dave

--------------------
My head hurts!

"Learn to play the guitar by ear, like you can whistle" - Hank Marvin, walking his dog in the park, when I was about 12.

"I am playing all the right notes, but not necessarily in the right order.” - Eric Morecambe

Has provided much comfort in dark times.

--------------------

best musical advice was to listen. Simple and easy to forget.

--------------------
17ft here! Too deep for non divers.

"Practise with a metronome".

--------------------
Do you need real drum tracks? http://www.drumtracksdirect.co.uk/