Working on some instrumental tunes...

Hi all,

Right now I'm working on some instrumental tunes and demos, I'm not thinking too much and just pick my guitar, keys and some riffs, in fact I'm beginning to practice my music production tricks and demoing some tracks. It's time consuming, b/c I have to spend too many hours in my studio to write, record, mix, etc. and, well...this can be good or bad... don't know...

So, this is a little teaser of a song that I've been working on these days, I want to record some real drums in the future, but I can't right now... I'm mic'ing real guitars thou!



Here it is! Take a listen and enjoy it, I will work on more tunes after this one, so stay in tune for that!!

I know that I haven't been very productive in a while, and I know that you all are expecting more guitar playing and more songwriting, yes, I know that my songwriter side is sleeping here, but I'm not sure yet if I'm doing vocal stuff now...my singing voice sucks!! haha!

Later!!
God Bless you all!
IRR

Focused in Music Production more than ever

Is a very difficult life that we're all live in, I surely don't have time for many things now, life change you know... Thanks God for everything thou, but I've encountered that I have less and less time for musical things than ever. In fact, I rarely pick an instrument now, have tons of months without playing a single lick or riff, haven't recorded anything, haven't upload a video of some sort, nothing...

However thou, my creative juices have been diminished for a while now, and this is bad!, I haven't wrote anything new since last year or so. I surely have been interested in other musical things like Music Production for example and making records, and it take AGES to be good at it by trial and error. As a Christian musician right now I know that God have something more epic prepared for me in the musical realm, but it's in God's time not in my own verdict.  I know that in this new way of life God will provide and will open new doors, boundaries and new experiences for me thou.

In fact, I have reached important milestones in my home studio now, thanks God for that!, I will post pictures of that later, it's not finished yet thou...but it will! sure, by God's will. I have been very chilled thou, and with time everything is getting complete little by little. I know that you haven't heard of me in a while, but there's so much going on in my life right now, some good stuff happening, can't be more grateful!

I'm still practicing and turning knobs you know, practicing a lot, mixing a lot, try to produce some good sounding demos myself and so on, still is musically the most important thing for me now, and believe me, it takes time and a lot of effort, it takes even YEARS to be good at this!

Well, later then!

God bless you all!

Music Theory Vs. The Real Deal

Hi all

In this post I'm going to talk about another topic that is bugging me for awhile, yeah, I know that recently my posts are just based on topics that bugs me LOL, but anyways I haven't wrote something for a while now so here we go.

Ok, right now I've encountered that a lot of musicians just focus on reading books of music theory, focus in being sort of a like a "music theorist" less than write music and create music on their own, and this for me is just ridiculous! think about it, they study hard, they always talk about complex harmony and theories, for what?? for nothing! because what they usually do is not using any of that at all in the writing of music (which is the main purpose of it I think) and this my friends, is lame, so lame.

This is what happens, they think that they are experts and master of harmony and theory, what you expect is that they become musical geniuses of some sort, but nothing happens, they just play their instrument, practice that, grab the real book or whatever and start to make covers and play them live for the sake of be outside playing, they are commonly teachers too (you know they have a lot of information in their heads so what better thing to do to pass out this info to a beginner and feel like a master of music). For me that doesn't make any sense to me, why? because there is really no artistic enervation, no artistic vision, nothing. You have to WRITE music, have a musical vision beyond what's available in you area or market, try to innovate above all things!

It's kind of rewarding when I encounter some dude on Youtube that writes awesome music, play the hell out of his instrument and he just say: "I don't even know the name of this chords, I don't even know what a melodic minor scale is, I don't know too much of that crap!" THIS my friends is talent, is vision, is passion for music.

And I will tell this one more time, don't get me wrong on this, music theory fundamentals are very important in terms of composition, playing, improvisation, and communication with other musicians, it is, I have read a lot of books and I for sure know my stuff, but why just focus on that?? Why get crazy with all the theories and concepts? is useless, think of it, try to do something else, focus on writing, on production, a vision, etc.

I tell you this, for me, what makes a good musician is not the theoretical background that he have, is the inner ear that he posses, and that is what makes us musicians from people who are not musicians, our EAR, I know a lot of musicians who know every single music theory book, every page of it, but have terrible ear and terrible metronomic precision, and that's for me is a rubbishy type of musician...you know those musicians who really doesn't know yet how to play real tight with a band or how to improvise freely or how to write a simple song!

For you musicians out there who can be identified with this, take this in consideration and begin to puts those books down for a while, focus on other musical stuff, try to think that the more theory that you eat, the more your music at the end will be a product of that, it will be a very mechanical music, dull, loaded with lots of forced time signatures with no sense of feeling at all and your music will be just like a licence card of "I know music theory" and believe me, that's not the goal, Who whats to create music that cannot communicate something? dull and crappy? remember, this is an art form like any other, is expression, is an extension of our souls, is music.

Later

Iros RR

The Songwriter Hat

It’s been like FOREVER since the last time I posted something, but still I’m here, don’t forget about me now people!

On the last post I mentioned that until this date I would be kind of absent and taken out my musician hat for a while. I just had others kind of things that I had to put my attention into. But the thing is that right now I have total attention to musical things and total attention on my musical projects.

Right now at this moment I putting my mind and efforts to a couple of things, first, is my home studio, yes, I’m planning to build one, and this takes a LOT of money, gear and time, I would begin to record some music with the little recording gear available, so I can practice mixing, overall production, ideas and so on, then I can maybe create some GOOD sounding demos.

Another thing that my mind is focused on is in the first project that would come out, there’s A LOT of things that I want to do musically, and I’m kind of undecided on what to embrace, you know a thing based around in the fact that I play a lot styles of music, and don’t really know what to do, so many things: There is a progressive rock band (70’s inspired), a more modern alternative/post-rock band with progressive elements, a jazz/rock (fusion) trio (instrumental music), songwriter thing (simple 4 chord songs, guitar/voice, or piano/voice), electronic-music experimentation very Krautrock inspired with lots of sampling, a very modern-edgy metal band, etc.

Believe me there’s a bunch of stuff, very different to each other, some musicians friends have told me that just do whatever I feel to do at this moment, and that embracing a lot of simultaneous projects will tend to provoke a backfire in which in my opinion they are absolutely right.

This is the briefcase of musical things in my mind right now, maybe in the future it can change, but this is what I got to present right now, and I tell you folks, I really don’t know how to begin, right now I’m writing and composing under the “Skies Of Mars” name, which it may be my main musical project right now. And I am throwing everything there.

But the thing is, that right now I’m taking my “songwriter hat” and taking this songwriter thing more and more seriously, I'm getting very inspired by artist like Nick Harper, Bernhoft, Ari Hest etc. you know forgetting about fancy riffs, Dorian licks, crazy unisons, big lengthy tunes and just be able to write a 4 chords songs you know.

Later

Iros RR

Musicians who drown in Music Theory

Hi all!

So long I haven't write an update! but anyways there's so much to talk about right now; Christmas, new gear, new projects, ideas, and so on. I will start with this interesting topic that's I've been focusing on.

Ok, let me start with a little story, when I was getting into music and learning guitar I feared music theory at the time, I just wanted to play, do finger exercises, focusing on technique and not wanting to get into anything that was theoretical, you know stuff like, formulas, scales, intervals, harmony and so on. Don't get me wrong I was a immature musician back then, now its the other way around, now I love music theory and overall music harmony. Now let me explain something, as a composer and songwriter I've found that the more I get music theory in my head, the more my head clouded with musical terms, note choices and extensive harmony, drifting me away from getting great moments of inspiration and muse, in other words, getting obsessed with musical theory killed most of my creative and unique writing. Let me put an example, this way you can understand me better: I wrote something in a mayor tonality, it was a melody and I was harmonizing it, I discovered that I was playing a minor 7th rather that a mayor 7th, evoking a Mixolydian type of sound, obviously as you may know, I didn't knew what was "Mixolydian", well, yeah but I didn't was focused on that at that time. The melody sounding in my head was with that minor 7th, I said to myself: "this is wrong, this is not the mayor scale, I'm hearing a bad clash of notes and the theory is telling me that this is wrong".

This is just a basic example, but there are a lot more! anyway, don't get me wrong, music theory is good, is the language that we as musicians speak in communicational terms and it is a good "presentation card" for us too. But, to much of it can close inspirational doors for you, so if you are looking for a unique, free and "out of the box" approach to your music, this will be bad. Yeah right, we know that all in excess is bad, even music theory and harmony, but think about it!

From my experience, I can tell you that the inspiration is important but the thing that you must focus on the most is your ear, your ear is the most important thing!! I know a lot of musicians who are just drowned by theory and musical harmony, they have blistering technique and all that, but they are people who tells you "hey, this chord cannot be in there, in page 132 of the "Music Harmony" book tells that this is wrong!" and believe me, it's totally stupid to say that, they are just theoretical robots and they're like religious people who live just citing things from the bible, so, I pretty much recommend that you focus on your ear, and listen the things in your head and try to do them with your instrument!

Later!

Implementing a new concept

As you may know and it have been said over and over, I'm conquering the solo thing in a very intense way, and it's for many reasons, but its decided I'm taking the approach of making an album in hibernation, and even producing it myself, there's no other way around for now, after that the hunting of musicians will begin, and that my friends is hard, but it will be good to play my music live one day!

So I'm into implementing the use of a diferent direction for my band, is normal that a band have politics and rules for a more democratic enviroment but this is in what I think: think that the band is a team the same as the one in an advertising agency! Yes! In a advertising agency you have: A creative director, a copywritter, art director, graphic designers you know they execute the idea of the creative director, and he just give direction of how he want things to be done, I think its the same way that my band will work, my job will be giving the main ideas and working as a musical director, nobody will stand in front of me saying and questioning musical direction and dumb stuff, that I think is the best way to put it to work.

Of course I want to have great and passonate musicians in the project and maximize what they can do best, depends of the talents that the musicians have of course. I'm not necessarily will be a musical Trujillo or a damn tyrant in what the music could be, I'm just doing that, directing, the same thing that a creative director do in a campaing, think about it, the album is the campaing, the songs the pieces and the theme is the strategy. Of course for me the musical product and the presentation will be important and those kind of things relate to me.

There's two ways of writing an album, me entering in hibernation and write material and even producing it, the other way is writing as a band, jamming, writing, trading ideas, ect. An album can be the mix of those, or maybe not, dont know right now...


Later!

Iros RR

Progressive Rock in Two Worlds now?

Hi there!

This is a topic that is bugging me for awhile now and I will just write my personal view and opinions. First let's break it down, as every good Prog Rocker know, Progressive Rock is a musical movement that started in the late 60's and emerged/flourished in the 70's, in my personal opinion is the most awesome moment in the history of rock and music in general, there was this flow of creativity which, in my case, I truly love. In that period bands like, Genesis, ELP, Gentle Giant, Van Der Graff Generator, YES, Camel, King Crimson, Jethro Tull etc. released wonderful albums and music, just a bomb of creativity exploded, unique music and it was wonderful, this musicians making this albums were more of a jazzy and classical background, I mean, they did rock music but inspired a lot in the jazzy and classical compositional templates, that are very free in terms of what you can do. The bad thing is they didn't get popularity, it was a very crazy music for the masses, it was very segmented in a way though.

Now, in our era, or in my era to be more precise, which is the 90's and the present time, bands like Spock's Beard, Porcupine Tree, Dream Theater, The Flower Kings, Transatlantic, were inspired by the 70's, but there's a trend that they are NOT truly the progressive rock of our age, that they are just "copying" the bands or progressive movements of the 70's and just writing music in that template and not making something "unique". However, is true that there are much similarity in that sound, but, is just influences! Some artists and musicians friends alike cite that the true progressive rock of our era and the true "music of the future" is bands like Radiohead, Mars Volta and Tool, don't get me wrong, these bands are great, sound modern and are truly unique, yes, UNIQUE, and that's important.

But, they lack that "essence" of musicality maybe, I mean, is wonderful music, very unique and full of experimentation, but is not that musical compared to the other kind of "modern" prog that is available now, is music more focused and done by instinct rather that true musicianship, and that's one of the definitions I have for Progressive Music, is music with high musicianship. So, now progressive rock or progressive music, it is divided in two worlds; The one that is "modern" and the one who sound more of the music of the 70's era. So let's put up a name to them for a better understanding now: Post-Prog (Radiohead, Tool, Mars Volta), and Neo-Prog (DT, Transatlantic, Flower Kings, The Tangent) Progressive Metal which is another great and popular kind of progressive music, will be included on the Neo thing, just to divide both worlds.

Both worlds are very different, and in fact, I don't think that Post-Prog has any kind of influence of the great prog bands of the 70's, it's just rock music with a lot of experimentation, and creative production, that's how it emerged I think... Neo-Prog in the other side tends to sound more Symphonic, and Eclectic, mixing jazzy elements and stuff, which for me have a greater value, I mean, some people see this kind of world as a very "pompous" one, but it's not, is just music with more musicianship, is music written by musicians, in the other hand Post-Rock it is NOT in that kind of stream, there are just a bunch of guys with great talent who picks up an instrument in their garage and experiment a lot making music, and the result is that.

I know that there has been a great arguing in all this, and it is quite a complicated topic to discuss, but I have my personal preference and taste and I go better with the Neo one, is more MUSICAL, and I'm a musician trained in harmony, trained in songwriting, trained in my instrument, and that have to be tested on music, and the music for that is that Neo-Prog thing.

Post-Prog, is more mainstream, is true, is more accessible to people, is very influenced on Space Rock and Ambient stuff, which is very cool, but you know, is very easy to write, very easy to perform... take Porcupine Tree for example, it is a great mix of Pink Floyd, Ambient and Tool, Space Rock emerged with Pink Floyd, and believe me Pink Floyd was a very, very popular band, in the package of prog band of the 70's Pink Floyd was without a doubt the more accessible and popular, so of course it will get more mainstream view, and that in a way is good of course! don't get me wrong, ambient stuff and space rock can be a very easy music to write and perform but those elements can add that touch of eclectic-ness to a band sound!

Conclusion, there are really two worlds and both of them have pros and cons, in my case I could release tomorrow an album with rock music mixed with ambient stuff and make a great mainstream "progressive" band, but I want more than that, I'd spent lot of time with music, writing it, and with my guitar on my leap, so why just make music with ambient and noise? it's not the case for me, the thing for me is that I have to feel challenged every day, if not, why do it? so, I truly don't know if my future band would fit in one of those two worlds, of maybe the two at the same time, I really don't know, the worst thing to really do is to be predestined.

Later!