The Music & Musicians Alliance *New and Improved Music Club*

[Tangeh]

Eh sure why not.

Username: Tangeh
What instruments you play? (If none put "none or N/A"): Piano (16 yrs, I can play at a grade 9 level but I prefer playing grade 6ish sheets because they're easier to memorize lol >_>), Bass Clarinet (8 years, I don't own one anymore though :/) ... and technically I therefore know how to play a clarinet I'm just bad at it
Why are you joining the club?: I used to do a lot of VG arranging, and this is a VG forum so hey. I have a couple of piano sheets on ninsheetmusic under the username Tangy - I think a few in the Pokemon section, even.
Would you be willing to collaborate?: On arrangements? Sure! I use Finale PrintMusic 2010. I don't have any good-quality way to record, though. On compositions? Not my thing, sorry.

What got you into music and or why did you chose your instruments over the rest? Parents signed me up for piano lessons as a kid and I actually stuck with it. I've done a few piano competitions and love performing. In 6th grade I got assigned clarinet in the school band and didn't like it. Tried to switch to sax, but I wasn't good enough. xD In junior high I tried out for bass clarinet - the first time I played the thing was the first time I ever achieved a full scale (yes I was that terrible at the clarinet... or maybe my clarinet just sucked, idk). My band teacher at the time told me right off the bat I have amazing sound on the bass clarinet, which is something I've heard a lot since the first time I played it. In high school I was the only bass instrument in a band filled with Bb clarinets, flutes, alto saxes, and trumpets. I think there were two trombones and me. It was kind of amazing being the entire bass line, and my teacher encouraged me to try out for the province's youth wind ensemble. Made that, they loved my sound and made the band play Blue Shades by Ticheli so I could play the solos. I took private lessons that year as well. I started doing sheets for ninsheetmusic in 9th or 10th grade, I think? I played in my university's band for a year but dropped out due to time conflicts and never bothered trying out again because I have too much on my plate now. :/ But I miss it!

I've never been in a band that had 1st chair, 2nd chair etc. - the band teachers I had thought it was too restricting for an educational environment, and I have to agree. It's more fun to switch it up!

 

[Kitt Geekazaru]

Eh sure why not.

Username: Tangeh
What instruments you play? (If none put "none or N/A"): Piano (16 yrs, I can play at a grade 9 level but I prefer playing grade 6ish sheets because they're easier to memorize lol >_>), Bass Clarinet (8 years, I don't own one anymore though :/) ... and technically I therefore know how to play a clarinet I'm just bad at it
Why are you joining the club?: I used to do a lot of VG arranging, and this is a VG forum so hey. I have a couple of piano sheets on ninsheetmusic under the username Tangy - I think a few in the Pokemon section, even.
Would you be willing to collaborate?: On arrangements? Sure! I use Finale PrintMusic 2010. I don't have any good-quality way to record, though. On compositions? Not my thing, sorry.

What got you into music and or why did you chose your instruments over the rest? Parents signed me up for piano lessons as a kid and I actually stuck with it. I've done a few piano competitions and love performing. In 6th grade I got assigned clarinet in the school band and didn't like it. Tried to switch to sax, but I wasn't good enough. xD In junior high I tried out for bass clarinet - the first time I played the thing was the first time I ever achieved a full scale (yes I was that terrible at the clarinet... or maybe my clarinet just sucked, idk). My band teacher at the time told me right off the bat I have amazing sound on the bass clarinet, which is something I've heard a lot since the first time I played it. In high school I was the only bass instrument in a band filled with Bb clarinets, flutes, alto saxes, and trumpets. I think there were two trombones and me. It was kind of amazing being the entire bass line, and my teacher encouraged me to try out for the province's youth wind ensemble. Made that, they loved my sound and made the band play Blue Shades by Ticheli so I could play the solos. I took private lessons that year as well. I started doing sheets for ninsheetmusic in 9th or 10th grade, I think? I played in my university's band for a year but dropped out due to time conflicts and never bothered trying out again because I have too much on my plate now. :/ But I miss it!

I've never been in a band that had 1st chair, 2nd chair etc. - the band teachers I had thought it was too restricting for an educational environment, and I have to agree. It's more fun to switch it up!

Bass clarinet, awesome! I remember having some of those in my 7th grade band. It's too bad you don't have enough time for it now.

 

[Tangeh]

Yeah, I love the bass clarinet. Such a rich beautiful sound. <3 I miss it. I considered minoring in music, but I don't know what the heck I'd do with an accounting degree and a minor in music LOL. Have employers tip their heads at me, I guess?

I've always heard the French horn is the hardest band instrument. I can barely make a noise come out of a trumpet, so. xD

 

[Kitt Geekazaru]

I've always heard the French horn is the hardest band instrument. I can barely make a noise come out of a trumpet, so. xD

You heard right. It took me half a year to get it right, and I was good! I thinkit's mostly just the insane range we have to play. Right now I can play the Bb above trable clef staff and the F more than 3 octaves down. And it's not good enough.

 

[Jazzy-Strings]

None of the people who played the french horn in the band I used to be in could play at the appropriate range and/or they were out of tune. They would always either blame it on someone else (eg Trumpets or Euphoniums) or tell me to play louder so I could drown them out. Still, both the Bass Clarinet and the French horn are beautiful instruments.

As for the hardest, I've always heard it was the Viola or the Violin : /

 

[Toyosatomimi no Miko]

I also heard that the French horn is the hardest. Or well, it looked hard, as I have to sit next to them and they are somewhat struggling to play. The rest of the band really does drown them out though, again, I sit next to them and I can't hear a thing. They're a lot less drowned out this year because we have fewer people but they're still pretty quiet. Well, it's not like the tuba isn't drowned out, but the guy just switched from flute to tuba a few months ago.

I don't think the violin/viola is that bad. I've tried a violin before. It may just be some techniques or something with the bow but I'm not sure. Our school has more than enough violins though (and one of them is a prodigy of sorts), so I'm probably not going to be switching to a string instrument anytime soon.

 

[Keysmash]

Wow, everyone's so good at their school band instruments. I'm kind of jealous... I, for one, can't play even three octaves on the clarinet... (after, what, two or three years?) So, I'm considering switching to flute for the upcoming year-- I was able to figure out a scale on it within a day or two (D major, maybe...?) but the tone quality was unbelievably airy and awkward. I don't know. There're two levels for music at my school in grade 9, 'beginner' and 'advanced', the former being those with a year or less of experience. I could technically join advanced with clarinet, but there're going to be students wayyy better than me. Seriously. Almost half my school is part of the IB program, a.k.a. 'amazing-at-everything-possible' kids. I think that most, if not almost all of us, will join the experienced class, and I'd totally get wrecked in there. Advice? :/

::

Since I'm pretty terrible at that, I mostly seek out pianists lol. The only thing I'm decent at, and even then, kids younger than me making me look like a beginner...

 

[Toyosatomimi no Miko]

Wow, everyone's so good at their school band instruments. I'm kind of jealous... I, for one, can't play even three octaves on the clarinet... (after, what, two or three years?) So, I'm considering switching to flute for the upcoming year-- I was able to figure out a scale on it within a day or two (D major, maybe...?) but the tone quality was unbelievably airy and awkward. I don't know. There're two levels for music at my school in grade 9, 'beginner' and 'advanced', the former being those with a year or less of experience. I could technically join advanced with clarinet, but there're going to be students wayyy better than me. Seriously. Almost half my school is part of the IB program, a.k.a. 'amazing-at-everything-possible' kids. I think that most, if not almost all of us, will join the experienced class, and I'd totally get wrecked in there. Advice? :/

::

Since I'm pretty terrible at that, I mostly seek out pianists lol. The only thing I'm decent at, and even then, kids younger than me making me look like a beginner...

I actually feel really awkward being first chair this year, cause I've spent most of my time in the background as a supporting role. I didn't need to play three octaves, and well...the only reason I ever played above the second one was to irritate friends (ah that beautiful squeaky noise). But now that I'm first chair I guess I have to step up my game a lot. There's one person in my section who's actually really good (probably better than me, haha) but gave up the section leader spot cause I was better suited for it. And the high school band program is...well, hardcore, I guess. The section leader has full control of you, and if you can't play something, they can force you to do anything they wish: run laps (a lot), do push-ups (a lot), etc.
I don't really have any specific advice but with music the answer most of the time is just to practice a lot. You can't really cram with music (my teacher has tried all the methods, or so she says), so if you want to get better and not be that one guy who sucks in the crowd of prodigies, those practice hours had better start racking up (same thing kind of happened last year to me, I kept squeaking after a summer of absolutely no practice at all).
If you think you can handle the pressure in the experienced one I would recommend joining that one, it might help you improve more, but if it's too much for you to handle then there's nothing wrong with going with the first one.
Personally I don't like playing the flute very much, I can barely get out a note and I get dizzy really fast ^_^''

 

[Kitt Geekazaru]

I actually played a note on a Piccolo once. It was pretty cool, our head *cough* only *cough* flutist had it to play The Hunger Games, playing the whistling part with Rue and all that. So, they played 4 notes. I played one that was lower than all of them.

 

[Keysmash]

I actually feel really awkward being first chair this year, cause I've spent most of my time in the background as a supporting role. I didn't need to play three octaves, and well...the only reason I ever played above the second one was to irritate friends (ah that beautiful squeaky noise). But now that I'm first chair I guess I have to step up my game a lot. There's one person in my section who's actually really good (probably better than me, haha) but gave up the section leader spot cause I was better suited for it. And the high school band program is...well, hardcore, I guess. The section leader has full control of you, and if you can't play something, they can force you to do anything they wish: run laps (a lot), do push-ups (a lot), etc.
I don't really have any specific advice but with music the answer most of the time is just to practice a lot. You can't really cram with music (my teacher has tried all the methods, or so she says), so if you want to get better and not be that one guy who sucks in the crowd of prodigies, those practice hours had better start racking up (same thing kind of happened last year to me, I kept squeaking after a summer of absolutely no practice at all).
If you think you can handle the pressure in the experienced one I would recommend joining that one, it might help you improve more, but if it's too much for you to handle then there's nothing wrong with going with the first one.
Personally I don't like playing the flute very much, I can barely get out a note and I get dizzy really fast ^_^''

Well, we'll see. I already chose the experienced class, and the course contract did say it wasn't guaranteed I could switch... :/

 

[Chalis]

Hi! I'd like to join.

Username: Machamp-X

What instruments do you play: Piano, Recorder, Composing of digital music and remixing VGM with software such as Anvil Studio, LMMS

Why are you joining the club: Mostly because I'd love to share my music and get tips to improve on it, and also to have people to talk to about it.

Would you be willing to collaborate?: I'm not expert, so I'm not yet sure.

Also what got me into music? Mostly listening to VGM, and wishing I could make my own remixes of it. I learnt LMMS, Anvil Studio, and Piano for these purposes.

 

[ShinyUmbreon189]

Don't worry I didn't abandon the club I've just been a little busy the last 3 days. Anyways welcome Tangeh and Machamp-X.

Machamp what are you trying to improve on? I mean if you're having difficulties with digital music I'm an engineer (mixing, composing, remastering) so I can most likely help you with just about anything DAW related.

 

[Chalis]

Yup, digital music. I want to just improve it in general, I'll link some songs here later to see what you think of it. I also find it hard to get inspiration at times.

 

[Keysmash]

Kind of a random question to just throw out there, but I was looking through Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier, and thought of this.

Does anyone 'see' specific colours when playing in specific keys? I think it's really neat to compare which ones you see with the ones that others see. (e.g. D major, for me, is a bright yellow, while A minor is a deep, passionate red)

 

[Chalis]

I've rarely seen keys in colors, but I remember seeing E as yellow and F as pink.

 

[Armando Payne]

Username: Armando Payne
What instruments you play? (If none put "none or N/A"): Keyboard? (I'm a lyricist and I like to fiddle with keyboards, I'm not a fully trained keyboard player or anything. Like I can play it but I can't like professionally play it.)
Why are you joining the club?: Because I adore music.
Would you be willing to collaborate?: As a lyricist, yes, as a musician maybe? (If you want a complete amateur yes.)

 

[Keysmash]

I've rarely seen keys in colors, but I remember seeing E as yellow and F as pink.

Do tell! I think this was associated with like... synesthesia or something...

I find it really interesting, is all. Shows people interpret things differently. Or something.

 

[ShinyUmbreon189]

Yup, digital music. I want to just improve it in general, I'll link some songs here later to see what you think of it. I also find it hard to get inspiration at times.

Yeah as a musician it's sometimes hard to get inspiration even for me whether it be writing lyrics or doing digital music. I think everybody has issues every now and then. But usually when I'm in my deep zone I just start writing and before I know it I'll have 3 verses done in like 2 hours if not faster.

Welcome Armando Payne! I play the keyboard too, but it's used as a MIDI controller so it's used for a DAW on my computer for digital music instead. It makes it so much easier to produce sounds with the virtual instruments in FL Studio. I also got a drum pad kit (a MIDI controller with pads which makes drum kit sounds) that I use as well. Yeah, I got a lot of stuff lol

 

[VampirateMace]

Keysmash: that does sound like a form of synesthesia (looked it up: Chromesthesia). From what I understand, people with synesthesia tend to interpret it differently, but it usual helps them remember.

So then, instruments I have sort of played:
bamboo flutes
theremin (this is where the UFO sounds in movies comes from)
electric strings
harmonica
Oregon organ (it's basically a small wooden pipe organ)
xylophone
tambourine
piano/keyboard

 

[Keysmash]

Development of events: my request for the course change to 'beginner' with flute didn't go through. Instead, I asked my music teacher (incidentally, homeroom) today if I could play flute even though I've only tried for a week. He said 'sure'.

Not sure if this is some kind of a trick, or what, but we're also allowed to play whatever instrument(s) we want throughout the year, as long as it's in the woodwind or brass family. You could theoretically play a bunch of instruments on and off... well, I'll take it with a grain of salt. We'll see how these arts credit (mis)adventures go.