I’ve been thinking lately about the industrialization of music. Used to be before the gramophone you’d play music in your house. Sometimes you’d be bad. And everyone was fine with it. We just did it to enjoy it. Sometimes you and your neighbors would go to that one barn everyone was gathering in where the best musicians in town would play. They were your neighbors and friends. But now we don’t know our musicians. We don’t make music. We just consume it. I think we need to reclaim music. I think everyone should download DAWs and just… Fucking… Suck. And share their suck with friends and family. What you produce doesn’t have to be polished, or good, it just needs to be tour own.
I buy random instruments at thrift stores and I would HIGHLY recommend folks try it out. Pick up a shitty First Act guitar, or some bongos that were originally sold as a souvenir, or even just a cheapo plastic recorder. Just having a musical instrument or two around the house is a special thing, especially if it’s a cheap one you would let any random guest fuck around with.
I met this guy when I was a teenager and I’ll never forget the first time I saw his house. His living room was full of instruments. 8 and 12 string guitars, pan flutes, cedar flutes, loads of little percussion things, and the drums… That’s how I learned I’m a percussion guy!
He only “knew how” to play a few things, but he would noodle on anything. They were all there primarily for guests, and moreso for the ones who had never even played an instrument before.
Music is absolutely one of those things you can just fuck around with to have fun, and then accidentally end up being really good at.
Do you have an open community space nearby? Maybe you could grab some crappy instruments from reverb and invite walk-ons to just join in. I’ve been surprised in the past how much people who complain about something end up liking the thing they complain about once invited to join in
I’ve been thinking lately about the industrialization of music. Used to be before the gramophone you’d play music in your house. Sometimes you’d be bad. And everyone was fine with it. We just did it to enjoy it. Sometimes you and your neighbors would go to that one barn everyone was gathering in where the best musicians in town would play. They were your neighbors and friends. But now we don’t know our musicians. We don’t make music. We just consume it. I think we need to reclaim music. I think everyone should download DAWs and just… Fucking… Suck. And share their suck with friends and family. What you produce doesn’t have to be polished, or good, it just needs to be tour own.
I buy random instruments at thrift stores and I would HIGHLY recommend folks try it out. Pick up a shitty First Act guitar, or some bongos that were originally sold as a souvenir, or even just a cheapo plastic recorder. Just having a musical instrument or two around the house is a special thing, especially if it’s a cheap one you would let any random guest fuck around with.
I met this guy when I was a teenager and I’ll never forget the first time I saw his house. His living room was full of instruments. 8 and 12 string guitars, pan flutes, cedar flutes, loads of little percussion things, and the drums… That’s how I learned I’m a percussion guy!
He only “knew how” to play a few things, but he would noodle on anything. They were all there primarily for guests, and moreso for the ones who had never even played an instrument before.
Music is absolutely one of those things you can just fuck around with to have fun, and then accidentally end up being really good at.
That’s amazing, though I’m not sure people living on the other side of my walls would appreciate it.
Get a bunch of electric instruments and a shitty old analog mixer, then just distribute headphones 😂
Have 2 keyboards, but that just doesn’t do it. But if I somehow manage to get a more isolated home, I’ll fucking do it for real.
Do you have an open community space nearby? Maybe you could grab some crappy instruments from reverb and invite walk-ons to just join in. I’ve been surprised in the past how much people who complain about something end up liking the thing they complain about once invited to join in