Trying to teach myself modular synthesis using some Softube modular plugins that I have at the moment.
Every time I close it I think “I’ve learned something new!”
Then I come back the next day and I’m like
dude if you want to actually make music, and have a partner or a family or i can kind of a life, i would seriously advise against that
i know so many people that have lost themselves to it, just stuck in a room of patch cables forever
#lifegoals
I mainly want to understand a bit more about it so I can get my head around the general principles of synthesis and build more of my own patches rather than just loading presets and tweaking slightly.
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anyone know any videos / exercises for getting good at hand independence on the piano?
I’ve taught myself bits and pieces of piano over the years so what I do between left and right hand is fairly instinctual and kinda restrictive. Been trying to learn some rock n roll and boogie woogie using Youtube videos recently and I’m basically trying to run before I can walk. Can do basslines with my left and chords with my right, or I can do melodies/licks on their own with my right, but can’t do a bassline and melody/lick independently at the same time. The stuff I’m trying to do is probably too advanced, got any tips?
Here’s where I’m at. Wait for the bit where it all falls apart.
Suggestions from someone who has struggled with exactly this for many many years: simplify what you’re playing, in both hands. A few ideas:
Rather than playing a full swung boogie bassline and all those grace notes on the chords in the right hand, play a simple walking bass in the left and straight chords in the right. Play it slowly, perhaps to a metronome, until you’ve got it locked in and don’t need to think about it.
Then go for syncopated chords. Get that locked in with the walking bass, so you can play it, and feel the groove without consciously thinking about what your hands are doing. Then do it in a different key - several different keys, scale drills are a thing for a reason, yo. And once you’re feeling confident with that, then add a small melodic element in the right hand - some passing notes between chords, perhaps. Add some funk to the left-hand bass! Go wild!
But at every step: always focus on slow progression, consistency and solid timing. Practise is a real thing. Just because you can play a thing once, doesn’t mean you can play it again. Play it over and over until you can.
(also, if it’s not happening - step away, take a breather. Try again later, no need to rush - but also don’t expect to master this overnight.)
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this is exactly the excellent sensible advice I didn’t want to hear!
no seriously though thank you this is useful. I could apply this advice to many areas of my life:
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I think in a way this is harder than when you start playing guitar, you’ve got all this muscle memory which means there’s the temptation (almost compulsion) to start playing the way you’re used to.
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Whenever I try to play flail stuff or rhythmic slappy fingerpicking I run into this problem - I learned a couple of basic patterns about a decade ago and my mind defaults to them really hard. Muscle memory is powerful stuff
As above, Mississippi John Hurt songs is a great place to learn this kind of stuff.
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Made a bit of a breakthrough
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YEAH!
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I’ve been trying to learn a song every couple of days on the piano in the last week or so
So far I’ve got;
REM - So. Central Rain
Lou Reed - Satellite of Love
Frank Ocean - Super Rich Kids
and about 85% of Life on Mars
What should I do next?
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how do you make bongo noises without a computer or bongo?
low pass gate
I’ve been playing both of these a lot recently
^lots of lovely maj 7 chords
^just such incredible use of harmony
Yeah, was thinking maybe Elton next
Gonna try Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, ta
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Benny and the Jets would be a cool song to be able to play on the piano
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But that’s just
