Have you ever had to go back and learn something of your own?

PorterhouseMusic

PorterhouseMusic

Mitakuye Oyasin
So I'm working on another tune for a (very) amateur song contest and I decided to re-record an old unfinished song idea. So things are humming along and I've got all the drums, bass, and rhythm gtrs done. Lead gtr part and vocals still to be done. I had this gtr solo part worked out at one point but it's been a long time. Like 4-5 years. I couldn't remember what I had done. Kinda frustrated because I remember that I liked what I had done. So I found I had a rough recording of the solo idea. Like a phone audio clip. Seems like a made a video clip of it as well. So I listen to this... and what I played is a bit of a departure of what I might normally play. Stepping outside my comfort zone a little bit. Which is probably why I liked it. But I found I had to really listen closely to recall it and figure out what I had played. It felt almost like learning someone else's part. Trippy.
 
I’ve had to re-learn old songs at times and the solos are always tough.
It amazes me that something that flew out of my fingers so effortlessly at the time has become hard. Guess I was a much better player back in the day. :D
 
PorterhouseMusic said:
So I'm working on another tune for a (very) amateur song contest and I decided to re-record an old unfinished song idea. So things are humming along and I've got all the drums, bass, and rhythm gtrs done. Lead gtr part and vocals still to be done. I had this gtr solo part worked out at one point but it's been a long time. Like 4-5 years. I couldn't remember what I had done. Kinda frustrated because I remember that I liked what I had done. So I found I had a rough recording of the solo idea. Like a phone audio clip. Seems like a made a video clip of it as well. So I listen to this... and what I played is a bit of a departure of what I might normally play. Stepping outside my comfort zone a little bit. Which is probably why I liked it. But I found I had to really listen closely to recall it and figure out what I had played. It felt almost like learning someone else's part. Trippy.
Click to expand...
Yah I comp my guitar parts from several takes so I always have to relearn them. Also I’m kinda a crappy guitar player so it’s double hard.
 
I'm a pretty prolific writer, writing far more melodies, harmonies and instrument parts for loads of songs over the years - way more than I've had the time to record and keep up with. I hum them into my dictaphone and every so often transfer the files to the computer, the thinking being "Well at least I have the idea down."
Thing is, it may take me anything from a week to 15 years to get back to a piece. So many times, I've gone to an instrument section or vocal melody or something and I cannot for the life of me see what I was getting at when I hummed the part. Much of the time it's quite straightforward but many times it's been a mystery. So I've either just scrapped the part or cannibalized it, using it as the basis for something new. I think to myself that I must have had some idea at some point, but sometimes, I'll be darned if I can work out what the idea was.
Of course sometimes, listening to the idea, it's so lame that I refuse to breathe any life into it !
 
I did this when I wanted to register the copyrights for all my songs from 1974 to 2015. I hadn't played them in. . . forever, so I relearned and practiced for about a month, then recorded them on a DP-03SD Porta Studio - just a single acoustic and single vocal using the internal mics. Then I put them away and now I'm relearning them again one at a time so I can fill them out in Reaper with full band instrumentation.
 
Yes, I wing solos all the time. If I want it to sound like the recording I have to sit down and copy what I played. It is getting to the point if I ever were to go back on stage I might have to write out lyric sheets which I have never had to do.
 
Many of my songs I write at the computer and I record as I go. Once the song is done I move on to the next song so if I want to play the song at a later time I have to try to remember what chords and scales I used. There is a chance that I will play original songs live so that will be interesting.
 
spantini said:
I did this when I wanted to register the copyrights for all my songs from 1974 to 2015
Click to expand...
Oh Great Spantini.....🙌🧎🏽‍♂️𓀀

When you registered your songs, did you include both the words and music and put them on a memory stick ?
How many songs did you register ?

👍🏿
 
markmann said:
Once the song is done I move on to the next song so if I want to play the song at a later time I have to try to remember what chords and scales I used
Click to expand...
That's the situation I'm in for the most part. I don't think I could tell you the chords or chord structures of most of my pieces ! I do have the rough chords of a few of them written down somewhere but I'm not going to play them once recorded, so there's no point in having them around.
 
My ‘80s original band played The Whisky last July and I had to relearn my solos and some of the chord variations. They eventually came back to me but it took some noodling to remember how I did a couple of things. It was frustrating at first but fun after re-learning
 
grimtraveller said:
Oh Great Spantini.....🙌🧎🏽‍♂️𓀀

When you registered your songs, did you include both the words and music and put them on a memory stick ?
How many songs did you register ?

👍🏿
Click to expand...
I submitted 10 recordings (songs) as a collection, one file at a time. I submitted no sheet music, lyrics or other documents. I was asked if it was intended to be a CD for resale - I replied no, just for copyright and personal use. I took screenshots of the whole online procedure, then filed them away along with mp3 files of each song in my PC's Music Folder. I've made several copies of that folder and scattered them all over for recovery purposes. None on a USB stick, but they are on the external SSD I'm using for backup storage.
 
spantini said:
I did this when I wanted to register the copyrights for all my songs from 1974 to 2015. I hadn't played them in. . . forever, so I relearned and practiced for about a month, then recorded them on a DP-03SD Porta Studio - just a single acoustic and single vocal using the internal mics. Then I put them away and now I'm relearning them again one at a time so I can fill them out in Reaper with full band instrumentation.
Click to expand...
My band copyrighted our tunes the same way…recordings except we maybe submitted lyric sheets with the cassettes. My buddy showed me an app he found that actually transposes the music he plays and populations sheet music notations digitally. I don’t know it’s limitations because I don’t give a rat’s ass about notating or reading sheet music but cool concept
 
dogooder said:
I just wish someone would steal mine, but alas, no one steals songs or buy there rights anymore
Click to expand...
They actually do though. Plenty of song writers sell songs to artists and also sell licenses to sync music. Also, once music is released most people have no idea it's been stolen unless it becomes a hit. Lots of copyrights are being violated all the time
 
Yep. A few times.

A metal band I was in back in '92 has had a few reunion type of shows. Strangely, after a while of rehearsal, muscle memory just kind of comes back and strange riffs just come back to us. It didn't come as quick as I would have liked the first time.
 
I've been doing this crap so long... sometimes I don't even recognize my own voice ;)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top