EDF MUSICIANS THREAD (Guitar/Piano/Singers/etc...)

[SL__72]

Played piano from age 7 until I was about 15. Started to miss it and recently started playing (acoustic) guitar (probably around May). I still suck, but I really enjoy it.

[ua1176]

i'm a professional musician. guitarist/keyboardist/engineer/producer/whatever else someone wants to pay me for.

i have a degree in classical composition. i play in this rock band:

www.myspace.com/paperandsand

we have a distribution deal with a small label. i assist a couple producers with platinum records and i do my own sessions with my own clientele. a record that i edited/mixed has a decent shot at coming up for a classical grammy this year.

[Azizal]

Cool thread, I've enjoyed reading about everyone's backgrounds and experiences. One interesting thing about musicians is that all musicians have lots in common, yet frequently there are massive differences at the same time.

I have a degree in classical guitar from FSU. I started playing at 12 and fell in love with riff rock/metal. I studied classical because it was a way to stay with music and still get a degree. My mother is the viola professor at FSU and she had me when she was very young. What this means is that from womb until I moved out to attend college, I was hearing her play 6-10 hours a day, which has given me a fantastic ear. Also played drums for a semester, which I highly recommend to any aspiring musician. Kind of like how every musician is well served to learn a small amount of piano, I'd say. I've played bass and sung for a few college/shortly post-college bands and would love to get into a band again in the near future. I'd say I'm strong with the creative side of music and mediocre chops-wise.

(is hoping this thread finds other people from Atlanta who want to jam or start a hard rock band).

[ZenMusician]

I have been composing since I was very young, I
wrote my first orchestral score around 14. I went
from classical to more progressive, including some
new age and jazz influences.

I now mostly do electronic/ambient/experimental.
I am a huge sucker for, and collect and program
analog and vintage modular synthesizers. I can
zone out with patch cables and knobs for hours.

Oh, and I LOVE to e-collab, feel free to PM!

-ZEN

[JaBlue]

I have been a musician since I was in the womb, bangin' on the walls.

Took up guitar about 5 years ago, got lessons from the local dude my friends were taking lessons from, learned some rock riffs, played in a few bands in high school that were fun but very frustrating. Decided to play jazz 3 years ago, didn't practice much, didn't jam as much as I should have, etc.

Got to UCSD, got lessons from head of guitar department, Colin McAllister, and then decided to switch to classical to develop my right hand and musicality and to learn cool Brouwer, Takemitsu, etc. pieces. Burned out doing exercises for the right hand and not learning enough songs because my right hand was so far behind my left when learning classical. Now back to jazz since a few weeks ago, just getting my bearings back and its tough. My work is going to consist mostly of transcribing whatever turns me on as well as some theory.

My goal is first and foremost to come to a point where I am comfortable calling myself a musician; to be less white and more hip, lose the habit of getting stuck in phrase patterns (i.e. in a blues, playing a 4-measure phrase, then another, then another, then another, repeat!), incorporate more funky rhythms, and so on.

Some of my favorite players: Freddie Hubbard, 'Trane, John Scofield, Miles, Wynton Marsalis, sometimes Joshua Redman (especially Momentum), the list goes on.

I'd love suggestions for players, groups, songs to listen to, anything. Especially if you know of a really cool arrangement for a standard or something, as I'm trying to relearn them mostly by transcription and the real book only for reference.

Also, I love that the thread is called MUSICIANS THREAD and lists guitarists first! L-O-L

[burningyen]

I've been playing music since I was 4, 17 years on violin, 18 years on guitar. I studied at Juilliard and various music festivals when I was young. I've played in a bunch of bands, my latest being a Pink Floyd tribute band in NYC in which I sing and play the David Gilmour parts. I'm always up for a jam, if anyone wants to PM me, although I'm not much of a jazz player. I've been thinking lately it might be fun to do some Police tunes.

[basementproject]

[ QUOTE ]
I studied at Juilliard and various music festivals when I was young...

... I've been thinking lately it might be fun to do some Police tunes.

[/ QUOTE ]


I think this is the only time in my life I will ever hear these two sentences used in the same paragraph and context. Awesome!

[turnipmonster]

ja, my two favorite jazz guitarists are peter bernstein and bill frisell. peter has worked a lot with josh redman, and is on his record "freedom in the groove". it's not his best playing though, my favorite pete record is "earth tones" on criss cross (a relatively obscure but extremely high quality jazz label).

[turnipmonster]

cool thread. I started playing guitar in junior high, got into playing jazz late in high school via a very cool guitar teacher, started playing jazz gigs in college and haven't really stopped since. after a few semesters of college I quit to play in a touring band, then got sick of that and went back to studying jazz with a great piano player and gigging around town. after college I moved to nyc to try and play with the best people, and went to the new school for jazz performance and started playing gigs around town. I've toured europe several times, once with a very popular swing band and a couple of times just playing gigs here and there with a trio.

I always wrote jazz tunes but started taking composing more seriously in school and have written a lot of original music, arranged for small group, septet as well as big band. in the past few years I've gotten into string writing and wrote several string quartets. I also studied classical for 2.5 years not too long ago, but eventually decided it wasn't for me.

I play with several groups now and have a regular tuesday trio gig which is fun. there have been rare occasions when I haven't gigged regularly over the past 12 years, and I always feel really weird about it. I really need to play with other people regularly. I feel lucky to have been able to play gigs all these years, and hope to continue until the bitter end.

whew, that was long. sorry for the emo bio.

[JaBlue]

Can you say more about New School, turnip? I have a friend there and another applying, and by all accounts it sounds like just about the best place to study jazz. Also thanks for the recs. I like frisell but haven't heard of bernstein. Will check him out for sure.