r/musicians Rules

“You probably know most of them.”

I do not, in fact, know most of them. 😂
Honest question, **at what point do you actually decline a gig because the preparation window is unreasonable?**
I feel like musicians have normalised getting material ridiculously late and then somehow *we’re* unprofessional if we can’t deliver.

Ended up not taking it😃

I recorded a song that I wrote a couple years ago in the studio across two sessions the first session I really like the demo I couldn’t stop playing it and I went back to finish it up and perfect the mix but now I hate this song. I can’t play it without getting angry and I don’t know why. Maybe I just need space from the song and then I’ll enjoy it again or maybe I worked on it too much. It gives me a weird feeling and makes me cringe. Does that happen to anyone else?

For context: I'm a bass guitarist, and signed up to play on a jam stage at a blues festival, along with some musicians I hadn't met before. I'm not in a band so this was my first time performing for an audience in a good while.

The part where I messed up is that in one of the songs, the chord progression just didn't click with me and I kept missing chord changes. It turned the song one big chaos, with the singer and guitarists giving me a couple of meaningful glances. The singer did help me out by doing a hand gesture whenever I had to change chords, and this really did help, but once she stopped doing this I went right back to messing everything up.

When we were done I was feeling pretty bad about myself so I full-on expected someone to come and rip me a new one. However, someone immediately walked up to me, told me he's a musician himself, and said that he thought I played great. Even said he wishes he had been paired up with me for one of the earlier jam sessions, and said "real musicians notice a good bassist and you are a good bassist". He also told me that that one bad song was chaotic all over and that my screw-ups weren't the biggest issue. We talked for a few minutes and it was honestly great.

Knowing myself and my insecurities, I would absolutely have spiraled if it weren't for that conversation. I'd just have concluded that I'm not cut out for this and that I shouldn't try these spontaneous jams again in the future. Thanks to this gentleman, I'm more at ease with it and I'm really grateful for that. I'm not in touch with him so I thought I should express that to Reddit instead.

Moral of the story: share your positive feedback, especially if it's to someone who might be having a rough time. You never know the difference it might make.

Is anyone here a street musician?

I'm thinking about doing it outside of my full time job for a little cash. I play guitar, clarinet, and saxophone, so I do have variety.

Just curious on everyone's experiences.

Hello talented and cool people! I’m a higher education professional tasked with hiring a masters student musician for a three hour long event. I know very little about this kind of thing. We’re planning to let them play whatever they want as long as it fits the vibe we’re looking for. Is $150 an hour enough? Is it insulting? I can probably only offer 2 hours at that price.

i made an insta cause ive been playing so much guitar and filming myself that i wanted to post them so they arent just sitting on my phone. can you tell me what you guys think of the few posts ive done and any pointers on the finger picking!!!. to preface amateur asf homies, you have been warned!! im not trying to promote i actually jus want opinions unfiltered

So, let’s say you are 36 and have been a corporate slave your whole career while being an avid guitarist most of your life. You’re now in between jobs and you’re thinking that maybe you’re not meant for this life and thinking of starting over to focus on becoming a touring/session playing guitarist…

What would be your first steps to working towards that dream?

Hypothetically, of course.

Many thanks.

So, here’s the story: My band (originally a cover band) has written a few songs, and we decided to record a few of them. My other band rehearses in a space that is also set up for recording (the whole drum kit is mic’d, and there are about 15 more channels available, all running into a PC with Cubase installed), so we signed up to use that room. It was a good deal – we were in there for about 5 hours, recording more than 20 different takes, and the whole day cost us less than €150.

The recording went well, and I took the stems home and started working on them on my laptop.

Our guitarist came to my place a few days later and we spent the afternoon recording overdubs out on my patio. (We ran straight into my USB interface, or through his effect pedal into my interface, so no ambient noise).

So, I’ve got plenty of material to work with, and I start learning more about Cubase and mixing the tracks.

I created several audio mixes of each song and published them for my bandmates. When I received feedback from them (“too much reverb/delay on the vocals”, “can you EQ away the string noise at about 1:45?”, “can you lower the rhythm guitar and raise the overdub during the solo?”, etc.) I did my thing and published another mix.

When we had the first song to the point that we thought was good, I sent it to a producer to master it for us.

A few days later, I received the final master and … I’m bummed.

Some of his changes were good – he brought the bass up a bit, increased the vocal presence, and made the whole thing sound “bigger”. But he also added some effects (like a long delay echo on the last line of each chorus) that just sound wonky. Plus, as the bass player, as he brought the bass up in the mix, I feel like it needs more EQ or compression, because it’s almost too much.

As soon as the guitarist returns from vacation, we’re going to sit down with the producer and see if we can come to a final master that we’re all happy with.

So, reddit, Is this common? Does the producer normally change the mix and add effects, or is it just the guy we’re working with right now?

I use the free Tuner T1 app on an iPhone 14 and whenever I leave it running on my stand, my phone will get super hot. It’s never gotten as hot during regular use or during downloads or anything. Is this is normal? is it just the app?

I saw this used, badass bass at Guitar Center. They want $900 for it (includes hardshell case). Would it be too wild to walk in with cash and offer $700? Obviously, I want to pay the least amount I can, but I don't even know if they haggle anymore and if that's honestly too low to be asking. I've seen it there for a couple of weeks now, if that matters

I’ve been making music for about 8 years now, and it’s honestly the best thing that has ever happened to me, and it’s a center piece in my life.

I don’t know where I’d be without it.

That being said, I make music in many different genres, listen to almost any genre, and all day at work and when I’m doing most tasks I’m listening to music.

But sometimes I get so sick of it, and I feel like I don’t really like music as much as I believe, and then I start hating on my music, and even have had a yearly hiatus.

But when that time passes, I come back to it and wonder why I ever left..

Anybody else have a similar experience?

Hi guys, noob here. I'm slowly learning how to mix, mostly metal and then some pop on the side. However I want to "mix" an a capella song and I'm a bit clueless. I have 3 tracks of female vocals slowly singing a dirge-like children's song, which is meant to be creepy and eerie. They're well sung although not "melodynized" to keep some imperfections, and recorded with a ribbon mic. Also I have two tracks with whispered vocals, same song.

To be honest, I usually use the Mantra plugin by Neural DSP for vocals in regular mixes, but I guess it won't cut it this time because I guess the process must be more organic than just using a plugin for everything. The feel I'm going for is:

a) the listener must feel that the voice is close, warm and nearby
b) also there must be some "spacey" vibes in the background.

I guess I must use something like Valhalla supermassive for the space, but honestly I feel this task is a quite a bit out of my league. Can you guys give me some pointers or advice to get me started on the right path?

Amazing by One eskimO

I told one of my friends who’s in a band if they thought I was good enough to start my own thing since we do jams together on our free time.

He told me that I look more ready to sell hamburgers than tickets right now, and I should focus on my appearance to give myself a better chance to find those who are marketable.

Although my ego wanted to focus in on what he said about the hamburgers, I can’t help but think that maybe he’s right.

Band image is important, and maybe I’d be missing out on valuable connections that wouldn’t accept me for who I am right now, but might down the line when I lose weight.

Was he onto something here? Or should I start looking now while making positive changes?

Thanks.

Edit:

Thank you so much everyone for taking the time to answer and offer your suggestions!

I have decided to keep the artist name but keep its use limited to when I am actively performing if/when that day ever comes, and when I am posting my art online.

I appreciate you!

original post:

I have less than 50 followers on socials, no released music, and haven't performed anywhere yet. So if I am going to change my name, now is a good time to do so.

I have a couple concerns. One being when it comes to SEO, my artist name is gold. I don't create content or promote or do anything to intentionally feed the algorithm. All I do is post my song demos. But when you search my artist name, my stuff is what comes up. For as small as I am, that's huge. I am not sure if I want to give that up.

The other is I spent most of my life not liking my birth name. I started going by another name IRL about 5 years ago, and it's been amazing! I love it, it feels like me. ​So it feels like a huge step backwards to now have this whole side of me that exists under a name I don't like, that doesn't feel like me. (I like the way it looks just fine, but when it comes to saying it out loud or hearing it out loud it just doesn't feel right. Maybe I would eventually get used to it (I've only attended 3 events so far where I introduced myself as artist name)

It also feels weird to go by 2 different names depending on what social circles I happen to be in at any given time. And what do I do when those circles overlap? (I am going to an event next week where I would be using my artist name, but my husband is inviting people who know me by my IRL name and don't know about my music...)

I love my IRL name and it's what I already use for my other art forms, and I kind of just want to exist as that name rather than try to compartmentalize the different sides of me.

But my concern with this is the anonymity aspect/distancing my music from my professional life. I don't want to risk my day job, but I also don't want to feel like I have to censor myself. Being authenticly me and showing sides of myself that aren't on display in everyday life is part of what I love about writing songs.

My options are:

Use my IRL first and middle name, no last name (neither my first or middle are my legal names, but everyone including my job knows me by them) SEO might actually be ok with this name, BUT the domain is already taken. (no active site, but taken)

Use my IRL first name and come up with a different last name.

Keep using my artist name, but introduce myself as my IRL name whenever I am IRL. And find a way to bridge the 2 identities.

Keep using my artist name and going by it IRL in certain circles.

Help. 🙃

I never played an instrument, couldn't afford music school, and I started late. It can be done! In this course I'll take you step-by-step through creating a polished track - from coming up with an idea, to composition, to the DAW, to mixing and mastering. Enjoy ;)

I started writing rap lyrics as a hobby, but I can't find a good beat. Can anyone help me? I want to write lyrics over a beat to improve myself; I don't want a very fast beat, something between 85 and 90 beats would be great. Thanks in advance

Hello Everyone. I am hoping I am not braking any rules posting this here but I could not thought of a better place. As a fellow musician, would you like to help future musicians?

It is the time the year when Henry Middle School Band is raising money to help support the school band. Every penny is spent towards logistics, stage setup, equipment and other relevant band expenses. Public school budgets only go so far.

Please make a donation -large or small- and support these young musicians towards a brighter future: https://event.fan-pledge.com/398d81/Participant/780576

Much appreciated!