Music

[Nodack]

I thought it might be cool to have a music thread to talk about music. Maybe some cool new music you love and want to share. Maybe some legendary musician that passed away and you want to give homage.

As a musician I listen to all kinds of music. My favorite instrument is the saxophone and my favorite music to listen to is instrumental jazz. I grew up on everything. Parents were country musicians so, I got my share of that. I grew up liking Styx, Journey, Boston, Genesis, Steely Dan, Pink Floyd and Peter Frampton because that’s what we all listened to then. Our first garage band would try to play all that stuff.

Then one day a musician buddy says, “Have you heard of the Dixie Dregs”. I said no. I went to one of their concerts and was blown away. No vocals, just music. The guitar player was so good I couldn’t believe it. I was almost devastated. I thought I was getting pretty good and could play Styx and Journey. I left that concert thinking I could practice every second of every day and not get that good. It almost made me want to quit. I didn’t because my love for it was too strong. They played country, rock, fusion, baroque and stuff I didn’t even know what to call it. I just knew they were badass.

That was a big wake up call to my ego and the fact that there were a whole lot of really good musicians out there that weren’t on the top 40 stations that made those pop hits seem super basic or cheesy. I have been playing so long that I am seriously bored with anything that is popular today. Some of these songs with a 2 second sample of some famous song from the 80’s that they just rap over for 3 minutes makes music so dumbed down it’s almost sad. School budgets for band seemed to have dried up in a lot of places. It makes me wonder what the next generation of musicians are going to be like. Are they all dumbed down?

I would say the answer is no. They aren’t all dumbed down. There some insanely good young musicians out there that most of you will never hear about. We all have our own music journey’s that are unique. I hated jazz when I was in high school. I was in the jazz band playing trumpet and was ok with that but wasn’t interested in jazz. It seems like just a bunch of weird notes. A jazz band played at our high school and they had a good guitar player that I could tell knew what he was doing even if I didn’t. I remember saying to my friends after the concert. “I hope I never get that good”. Now today I have a much deeper appreciation for jazz and even rock music.

I can remember growing up and hearing Led Zeppelin’s Whole lotta love and thinking it was devil music. It scared me. Not today. Today anything interesting or different appeals to me.

I recently came across a young guitar player named Matteo Mancuso from Spain who is ridiculously good. His dad was a classical guitar player and taught him everything he knew and pointed him to famous guitar players to listen to. He learned all styles but played them all classical style with his fingers, which nobody else does. Amazing.


Hirohito Uehara, a Japanese pianist that played the opening ceremony in the Japan Olympics. I cannot stress how in awe I am of this girl. She has to be from another planet. She is so good and you can just see the joy emanating from her. I just watched this and had to wipe my eyes. Some might find it boring.

[AmareIsGod]

The Story So Far has a new album, I Want To Disappear. First new album in years after the lead singers father died from a battle with throat cancer. White Shores is a great song, along with You're Still In My Way. Lyrics relating to his father. Most songs on the album relating to his father passing.





Genre leans pop punk so it may not fit the taste of most. As someone that grew up on Blink 182 in their early days and NFG (even sang in a band, a lot of covers of both bands), it brings me back to being a teenager.

[Kryptonic]

That's pretty cool 'Dack! That Mateo kid is pretty amazing.

My dad used to play 6 and 12 string guitars when I was growing up. I wish I would have had the patience to learn and took the time for him to teach me but gave up quickly when "my fingers hurt" (sigh). I still have some old tracks of his that were recorded and listen to them from time to time since he passed back in 2013. It took a few years before I could listen to them but glad that I have them as I can show my boys since they were pretty young when he passed.

AIG.... Never heard of that band but they kind of remind me of Jimmy Eat World.

I listen to a lot of stuff... Just no country. Just something about it triggers me. Depending on what I'm doing, I vary in what I'm listening to.

[Superbone]

I recently discovered the guitar player and the piano player about a year or so ago. Both amazing players. I've loved horns (all brass instruments) and jazz since at least the 7th grade when I started playing trombone. I played classical violin from 5 years of age through the 8th grade (my parents were professional classical musicians) and while I enjoyed it, the music never grabbed me like jazz. I love the rich harmonies of jazz. I also love horn bands like Chicago and Blood, Sweat, and Tears. I've always loved contemporary big band jazz like Maynard Ferguson, Stan Kenton, Buddy Rich. Nothing like playing in a big band.

My high school buddy turned my on to the Dregs and I dug that too. Great musicianship and fusion of various styles. I try to keep my horizons open. I dig some Queen. Will check out The Story So Far above.

Love jazz guitar too. Joe Pass, Barney Kessel, Herb Ellis, Django Reinhardt, Mike Stern to name a few.

[Nodack]

Nice guys! I have some recordings of my mother playing and singing her originals and haven’t felt like listening to them after she passed. I don’t know why.

My musical tastes have definitely evolved over the years. Stuff I grew up with and loved now seems not as good as it did in high school. I hated jazz. Now I love jazz. Music like jazz seems so mysterious to people that aren’t musicians. How do they know which notes to play improvising. How do they come up with the chords they play? Do they just have a knack for it where others don’t?

Some guys just figure it out by playing and listening to others play. I had to figure out my favorite guitar songs using my ear for the most part. I played trumpet starting in fifth grade and that taught me to read notes and play them with a group. I went to Scottsdale Community College as a music major and they taught all kinds of useless things like figured bass. The guitar program was a joke. I went on the road in a band.

It wasn’t until years later after quitting playing on the road that I decided I wanted to go back to school at GIT in Hollywood. They had all kinds of famous instructors there and it was a great learning experience. The one thing they taught me that my grade school, junior high, high school and college failed to do was the Harmonized Diatonic Scale. It is the building blocks to Western music. It’s like adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing is to math. Considering playing music? The Harmonized Diatonic Scale is basically a regular old major scale like you hear on that song doe a dear, a female dear. That song spells out the different modes of the diatonic scale. We get the chords by spelling out the scale and then skipping every other note in the scale and playing them together. The first chord is a Major 7th chord. It’s a little complicated but, once you figure it out it makes music not nearly as scary. This is probably TMI. I think anyone wanting pursue music should make learning the harmonized diatonic scale a priority.

[Nodack]

For Superbone

1984 Wisconsin
First Class Band
Spinning Wheel

[In2ition]

I had no idea there was this explosion of Mongolian Metal bands lately. Ngl, this is pretty good. I wish I knew what they were saying, but it's sort of an upper Asian Viking feel to it.




The first song's lyrics are a little...haha.

[Kryptonic]

I had no idea there was this explosion of Mongolian Metal bands lately. Ngl, this is pretty good. I wish I knew what they were saying, but it's sort of an upper Asian Viking feel to it.




The first song's lyrics are a little...haha.

It's pretty solid... Can't say I'd listen to it every day but it's cool stuff. I do suddenly have an urge to go watch game of thrones though

[In2ition]

I had no idea there was this explosion of Mongolian Metal bands lately. Ngl, this is pretty good. I wish I knew what they were saying, but it's sort of an upper Asian Viking feel to it.




The first song's lyrics are a little...haha.

It's pretty solid... Can't say I'd listen to it every day but it's cool stuff. I do suddenly have an urge to go watch game of thrones though

Could fire you up before a Suns game...if the Suns start out dominating teams(of course, my wish in a Revenge Tour).

[Nodack]

That is very cool! I’m sharing it.

[Kryptonic]

Probably one of my favorite bands of all time…. Glad to see they’re coming back and dig the new singers sound.

[Kryptonic]

Probably one of my favorite bands of all time…. Glad to see they’re coming back and dig the new singers sound.

Now here's something that's a total trip.... Chester Bennington singing a song he NEVER sang using A.I. Pretty crazy...

[Superbone]

This not my normal music (no trombones! ) but the groove is pretty great and there is a high level of musicianship and fantastic drumming.

[Nodack]

That’s the normal music I listen to when I want to just listen to music. I think it was a Zildjian spot, so of course lots of drums. Lots of bad ass drums.