Castle Paradox

[Valkyrie]

Okay, I haven't found another thread about this, and seeing how this board is about music in all forms, I'm gonna post this here anyway.

Do any of you play a musical instrument, or wish you did? If so, who are your influences?

I play the guitar - my main influence is Alexi Laiho from the awesome band Children of Bodom. My influences are mostly metal - recently I've been quite into Jeff Loomis' guitar wizardry, that guy can shred likeWOAH!!

My favourite scale is the Phrygian dominant, cause it just sounds so cool - Locrian is alright as well, but not as awesome sounding as Phrygian dominant. I mean, why settle for the Phrygian, when you can have the DOMINIANT version!! And it's also the fifth mode of the harmonic minor, which is also a pretty ace scale. For all you musicians on here - what's your favourite scale?
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Ollan hiljaa, saadaan kaloja.

[Setu_Firestorm]

I find it strange that mostly guitarists are familiar with the modal scales considering that in my years of piano training, we never really dug that deep into the application of most of them, although I've noticed an overusage of the Dorian scale in a lot of Drop-D alternative rock (yes, I classify that type of alternative as "Drop-D" because I wish they would actually do something OUTSIDE of that key for once).

I began taking piano lessons at age 4 and have been playing for 20 years since. My lessons spanned across 13 years before I quit once I realized that my heart was more set on composing than playing someone else's music. I have been composing for the past 10 years, learning from all sorts of composers/bands by listening to their techniques.

Some of my influences include John Williams, James Newton Howard, Hans Zimmer, Noriyuki Iwadare (composer of Lunar, Grandia, and others), and others.

I have no particularly favorite scale, since each piece composed usually has a key that suits it better than any other.
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Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/georgerpowell
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[mamoru]

i'm a guitarrist too. my personal favorite is the gypsy major scale. it's a major scale technically but it sounds like a boss version of harmonic minor. say u are in A... the scale would be A, Bb, C#, D, E, F, G#, A. try it out sometime. it works really well for the piano cause it's just a variation of a regular tonal scale. ^_^
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"My dearest friend if you don't mind, I'd like to join you by your side, where we can gaze into the stars, and sit together now and forever"

[Valkyrie]

Dude, that's just the Phrygian Dominant... the tone and a half "gap" is like, exclusive to the harmonic minor... It's a pretty gnarly scale, but working out the chords for the first time did my brain in!!

And Setu, it's nice to see that someone else takes music seriously. I hate all these guitarists who don't know note from note and just curse the music by being so lame... I love the piano, I play some myself, but nowhere near as well as I guess you can, although I wish I could. But the guitar is more my instrument, although the piano is extremely awesome.

Drop-D... Gahh, I try not to use that if I can help it. It's overused and everything. It's like they only know one key, and it's all so damn boring... Lots of people do great things in drop-d, but normal tuning is good enough for me!!

I don't know why guitarists cherish their precious modes... I guess it's because the guitar scales fit in "boxes" on the fret board, and with the piano, all the notes are layed out in front of you - you don't have to be "taught" how to use them, you just pick them up, cause the notes are more easily accessable. But I really don't know - maybe it depends on the teacher.
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Ollan hiljaa, saadaan kaloja.

[Moogle1]

[Artimus Bena]

Ok let's just get this out of the way. We're almost all of us guitarists and pianists.



And we snap on-beat with particularly suave-sounding music.


Influences: everything. I let random things, inluding visuals, emotions or objects, inspire musically. But if you're talking strictly musical, I also love the John Williams. Pink Floyd's strange song structures (and wonderful ability to keep a sort of suspense working on you - in some parts) also intrigue and inspire, especially to be different and such, which I think should be done a lot more in this day and age.... But shit... absolutely anything and everything music-wise, has the same influence. I have a few favorites, yeah, but I listen to so many genres...

Scales? (yes I know what scales are, I'm just leading into the rest of the reply)

I tend not to study theory too heavily. I have the scales on my wall, I utilize them when I think it will help. Which is almost never. I donno, maybe I'm lazy, or, hah, trust my creativity to express what I wanted to express!
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SACRE BLEU!

|||Compositions!
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[jabbercat]

Well, since the last thread in on this topic, I've studied music alot deeper and made it my profession, and learnt alot of new instruments, at the moment I'm counting over 16, I'll make a short list of the more major ones:

Guitar
Piano
Organ (they are different instruments thankyou)
Viola
Violin
Cello
Double Bass
Bass Guitar
Flute
Oboe
Tuba
Tumpet
Harp

The violin family are quite similar in playing theory, although the difference between each instrument in the family is very distinct. Probably the biggest difference between two of the instruments in that family is the Double Bass and the Cello.
And various others.

My biggest influences are Bach (J.S, Naturally) and L.V.Beethoven, probably the two most important men in music. Fun.

Favourite scale? I can't say I really have one, but C# Major is pretty fun, it's awesome to see the looks on people's faces when you present them a score with it.
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Moogle no longer owes prizes.

[LongeBane]

[Valkyrie]

[jabbercat]

I hate guitarists. I hate how they approach modes. Learn the Church Modes. Once you've learnt that, learn Chromatism. It's pointless leaning thousands of scale formulas.
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Moogle no longer owes prizes.

[Artimus Bena]

What "sounds right" is a socially accepted system and standard. And the "best results" you're describing are the ones that others want to hear, on that same accepted standard. There are basically two kinds of music: music you want to hear, and music other people want to hear. Music for me is my personal expression, not always what others want to hear, unless we're talking game\film music, which usually has responsibilities other than being an expression.

This is why I've been lax on studying theory. It eventually tells your brain that there are boundries to music. That there are things you just can't do. I don't personally believe in that.
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SACRE BLEU!

|||Compositions!
|||Eldardeen Soundtrack!
|||Red Mercury!

[jabbercat]

Thats 100% incorrect. Music Theory is just a volcabulary. It's like trying to describe a colour to someone, except not know how to say it's a mix of green and blue. It doesn't tell you what to do, it just tells you what what you're doing is called. Theory doesn't limit anything, your own creativity limits you.
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Moogle no longer owes prizes.

[Moogle1]

[Artimus Bena]

I've studied enough. I'm not a total idiot.


[edit] I should clear up that I wasn't speaking at all against theory as a vocabulary. My last post was a response to longe's argument concerning what will "sound right". So basically: I agree with you jabs and moogs. So there shouldn't be any further misunderstanding on that part.
_________________
SACRE BLEU!

|||Compositions!
|||Eldardeen Soundtrack!
|||Red Mercury!

[LongeBane]

I perhaps have worded my thoughts incorrectly. In no means do I think music theory creates boundaries of any sorts, such as limiting one to a scale. But I believe that you should know the scale first, before you try to work outside of it.