Realization - (I'm getting old)

[guitarcomet]

I'm a 47 year old, old school rock guitar player.
I'm very picky about tone (always have been) and I have a good ear. (perfect pitch)
I've kept my guitar tone mildly distorted and always kept the foundation of the "guitar" tone as paramount.
In today's musical scene, extravagance and excess are the norm. Rock music has branched out into heavy forms that frankly, I don't see the attraction.
Guitars that sound so distorted, it sounds more like a chainsaw than a musical instrument (Jackal, anyone?)
Vocals that sound more like a gorilla roaring than a human voice singing.
Double bass kicking drummers that plays so fast, it doesn't even have a groove. (makes me feel sorry for the bass player) :lol:

I just listened to my first "Mudvayne" song. I had heard of them but couldn't identify their music.
After listening (watching on YouTube) it made me think.
This "music" (if you will) is much less music and more precussive sounds.
When you tune a guitar down to C (way below the designed pitch) it loses it's tone (somewhat).
To my ear, a guitar tuned down to D or below sounds out of tune (strings not ringing in harmony with each other).
But with the amount of gain (distortion) used...AND tuned down, make the tone much more percussive.
So, if this is the sound of today's rock/metal music...my ideas and opinions about tone and sound quality can be tossed out the window.
My opinion is only valid if you're playing OLDER ROCK.

So now...this will be my signature! 8)

 

[GtrGeorge!]

having an opinion is a GOOD thing. How else can you excel?
Just do what you like and nail it. Jeff beck LOVES playing old Cliff Gallup songs from the 1950s and he still does great work.
Its just whats hip...what catches peoples fancy for a moment..not nescessarily what matters most to them..or what is the best music available..in every era we have The Beatles and right along side them the Mike Curb Congregation. You pick, you decide what matters and get on with playing and doing..
Im still learning and Ive been at this a while,too. I love it.

 

[80's metal]

I can still hear my parents telling me led zep was noise and not music! LOL
Keep on rockin to what rocks ya!!!!

 

[kc2eeb]

I'm 60. I guess I'm old. So, now I just do as I **** please, and play only music I like. And guess what? We're playing tomorrow night to what I can tell will be a packed house. Do what you do best and love the most, and chances are people will like it, too! And if they don't, who cares!

 

[Acatalepsy]

''music'' in inverted comas, unflattering comparisons...

You are not getting old, you are getting bitter. Thanks for the unwarranted condescending comments...

 

[slashnstrings]

I just want to point out that I play in C and sometimes even dropped A.. it's slide blues, delta style, guitars tone sounds amazing to me even in those low tunings.

but i do see what you are saying about new"er" styles of hard rock and metal, true guitar tone leaves "cracks" in its sound and that give's it the character we all love, but the new styles of music brought on by studio perfection tried to make a guitar sound so even and think it has left us with a generic toneless thick distortion. I still love the chainsaw sounds when im playing metal, but I love the sweet tone that i allow when playing other things. it's all personal taste and perception

 

[Julia]

I'm getting older too.

* I've joined the neck pickup and clean channel crowd.
* I think a JTM45 + SG on the neck + tubescreamer sound awesome.
* I think a Fender stratocaster on the neck+middle and a Fender amp sounds awesome
* I really would listen to more metal if I could understand the vocals.
* Melodic Death and Power metal bands like Ensiferum, CoB, Opeth, and In Flames are pretty good, but they don't bury the vocals, although I wish they'd actually sing them rather than scream them -- just personal preference. I like melody, but then tonality is not that important (look up Harrison Birtwistle, Conlon Nancarrow, and Olivier Messaien on Youtube and you'll hear what other stuff I listen to).
* I wish the metal bands would throw a ballad in every now and then to relieve the tension -- an entire CD at one volume level and intensity is exhausting. Sound texture changes make things more interesting.
* I don't like thrash metal. Not at all.
* Rammstein rules them all.

I do downtune to D. With a proper setup my instruments sound good (except for the Stratocaster which prefers standard tuning unless I change the pickups which I'm loathe to do). I downtune my acoustic to D because I cannot move the capo lower but I can always add a capo up.

But art in music or anywhere isn't about whether someone likes it or not. It's about provoking an emotional response. If it doesn't provoke any emotional response it is not art. The better the art, the more intense the emotional response. Art has to speak to you as a viewer or listener.

I watched a DVD of RATM Live at the Democratic Convention the other night. I had goosebumps during the performance. It was that intense. Was it art? Yes.

I listened to a performance of Messaien's Visions de L'Amen a while back. It also gave me goosebumps. Was it art? Yes.

I listened to Gorecki's Symphony #3. I was in tears. Was it art? Yes.

Ensiferum's From Afar CD is art.

I do try to keep up whether I like the stuff or not.

99% of pop music created today is not art. It is commercial crap. I may hear one song out of 100 that provokes an emotional response.

 

[speedemon]

yes,

clinging to what was new and cool when you were a youngster, all of us do it. Cookie monster vocals are the "it" thing in America, but around the world they enjoy classic rock and singing too. Last year my band played in Germany with Paul DiAnno, Haggard and Ensiferum. In 2004 Tygers of Pan Tang opened for the band I was in, the seminal thrash metal "crossover" band. The crowd loved all of it. Music "fans" are only 1 dimensional here in "I go with whatever they say on TV" world.

Cheers!

 

[eedude]

look for what is being communicated... Sometime we get stuck in time, it's easy to do it's hard to keep moving, they are young we are old.

It was only in the past five years that I broke the shekels of the 80's I can listen to anything.... well anything new and interesting... DIMMU BORGIR anyone?

 

[Daryl]

I think that some musical styles require a bit of a learning curve to get what it is that is being communicated. Sometimes spending a little time listening to new styles and then coming back to it later helps. I take some music in bites. I like Dimmu, Disturbed, Opeth etc...I agree that a lot of the downtuned stuff is more percussive in nature, but that is just what it is. I dig it. On my laptop I can have Zeppelin play then Burzum, then Andre Segovia, then Jeff Beck, then Soundgarden, then Transiberian Orchestra, then Alice in Chains, etc... I like to keep variety in my playlist. It helps me to not get burnt out on any one type of music that I like. Let's face it. Some of the new metal and rock is some very powerful stuff and I don't want to miss out on something that might be cool. Getting the latest albums was what I was into when I was a teenager and I don't want to lose my passion for exploring the unknown. :twisted: :shock: :twisted:

 

[Hamner1]

1st I'm amazed that I didn't see the opinion stated we're artists & it's art so I have to appreciate it. I've always hated that arguement it sounds like a copout. My opinion on that arguement is BS. If I think it sucks then I'm ok with that.

With all that being said, Who doesn't hang on to the music of there youth. My parents still listen to the stuff they grew up with. For dad it's country & mom it's Elvis. I grew up 70s-80s & I suppose mid 90s (I probably didn't fully mature until about 25 :lol: ). Vocally some of the music still creates an emotion, some it not so much anymore, but the guitar tone & playing regardless gets the juices flowing.

I would also say that everyone of us that has hit our late 20s+ have evolved & expanded our palettes. When I was a kid it was nonstop Hard Rock/Metal. Now days that still is the corner stone of the music I listen to (mostly still the bands from that time frame), but I have also expanded my palette to include Blues, some new stuff, I even have come across some Johnny Cash that I like (but in general I still say Country sucks).

Downtuning... It has it's place. I would say most of us tune 1/2 step or drop D regularly (for some that means drop D flat), but I think there is a point of tuning too low & it just sounds like garbage. A guitar is a midrange instrument, which tends to be why the mid range voicing has such a big effect on tone.

Downtuning to far, maxed distortion, scooped mids = **** tone. Now layer that on an album & it is even worse. In my opinion downtuning sounds better when the distortion isn't maxed or you are playing a clean passage.

 

[walshinator666]

I find alot of kids are just listening to stuff that's force fed to them especially pop music by the radio, t.v ect(I have a 15 year old daughter,so I know of this music).Not very many of whom can do it live unless they use auto-tune.
I grew up as a teenager in the 80's,where they had to be able to play it in order to record it.Friends at work say metal now and then are just banging away on their instruments and not really music.They don't realize how technical this stuff really is,these guys go out and learn theory and play for hours.I've learnt a few pop songs for my daughter and find it simple ,easy and only takes me a few minutes to learn them.God bless the solo,METAL RULES!!!