Standard of music , is it going down the drain?

[shinobi]

DoubleBlade: the government or any other reputable body

it will affect the gig organisers when they look for venues. higher end venues will probably demand a gig organiser that is certified. this can be good and bad. you discriminate against bad organisers, but the problem is, not all uncertified gig organisers are bad.

and in the first place, what would be the criteria? alot of factors are subjective and intangible. youre talking about the personality of the fella

PatheinRaindropMoe: in that sense there already exists, a natural form of QC... which is the listener. believe that people will appreciate good music

 

[PatheinRaindropMoe]

heh, government?

If, we, are the goverment, we shud be more focused on the need to stay competitive in term of economical growth with other countries, need to increase more birth to counter the increase of aging pouplation, will ERP really solve the problem of crowded traffic on road, how to be more self sufficient following the light of indonesia banning sand export and later granite export to us for construction industry etc

Raising standard of "Band" music? Where got time...

 

[rottenramone]

..

why should we have that quality control? i say we should let all bands in, good or bad to play in gigs. equal opportunity. to have standards smacks of ellitism.

whether the gig organizer wishes to include a good or bad band, its their own preogrative mah. he's the curator of the show, so its pretty much left to him. whether its good or bad, its up to the audience. good? stay and watch, support, get their myspace addy and leave a nice comment. not good, then don't attend and tell your friends "oh man... they were sooo bad"

if there were standards to be included, won't it kill off potentially good bands? standards are subjective. who are we to say who's good and who's bad? it will kill spirit, and i personally do not encourage that.

it is the band's prerogative to improve themselves. soundwise, imagewise, musicwise. we shouldn't impose. its not really our right.

my 0.88 cents

 

[rottenramone]

..

as for the going music into fulltime. its all about your commitment. if you want to do it, just prioritise and make sure no one gets hurt in the process.

imho you don't really need to close up and practise 12 hours a day. you need to experience life to play music. otherwise there's no point at all isn't it?

 

[soft]

rottenramone, we can choose not to do anything.

but if we want to improve the standard of music, what do you suggest we can do?

 

[ShredPusssy]

wow..wonderful responces from every1.
[ in my humble but bias opinion, its more of a cycle going on. There will be up and down.]
this is my exact sentiments too..
its true abt wat rottenramone said abt QC issues n how it will demoralise ppl n prevent some from even taking tat 1st step.
however the issue i personally feel is that there isnt a proper line drawn in gigs,n it seems that its still a free for all thing..where most bands will probably get in..sub par bands tat dont sound tat gd but yet allocated a slot cause there are too many empty slots.

in regards to Mr Soft point of question here..which seriously needs to b answered is, 'what can the locals do to improve the scene'

my suggestion would b, to classify the event instead of the bands, cause a band will still b a band..a C grade band cld always change the band name n try again for a better grade, it will also create a somewhat inferiority complex in the community as well. i wld very much rather we classify events into gigs (in general) n open mic nite.
open mic nite wld obviously be the kind of venues for new bands to practice on n get some exposure. the organizers shld look out for such events..where they can filter out the much better bands n invite them for gigs..gigs in which there will definately b a cover charge, as usual no band gets big $ but mayb the organizers cld give some sort of allowance or somesort.

wld love to hear some local bands who made it to voice up n share their views n experiences..after all..they r the ones who got the right formula..
we r merely shooting in the dark

 

[PinkSpider]

soft : what can we do you say. hmm i might not be an awesome musician but what we can do is to start with ourselves. put more discipline in our playing etc. although by doing this it will have no immediate outcome. but if everyone of us ( of course there,ll will always be the latter group ) does so it would improve our sound.

Of course by putting more discipline into our playing/practice we also dont wanna become boring freaks.

But ya know nobody is gonna do a headbang at a jazz performance and it,d be dead boring if the performers at a rock n roll gig sat on a chair and play.

I dont want to go into genres cause its too diverse. but we could start from ourselves

 

[teraslasch]

i got an idea. start having "how to play in a band" lessons at jamming studios! and at affordable rates. get people with experience to come in and coach the bands personally . probably like maybe extra 10 bucks per hour on top of the jamming? etc etc, but of course we need to find people who are willing to :lol: . if we put such kind of services and posters up at jamming studios, many "new" bands would definitely be interested

 

[shinobi]

to me the avenues for one to take his skill to the next level are already available. ability could define a good musician. but a band takes much more, it also takes into account the chemistry of band members, the inter personal relationships of the band members, creative similarities and understanding one another's style. all this leading to playing to one anothers strengths.

i think it is beneficial for us to create a culture that appreciates effort, talent and ability. there also needs to be respect, musicians respecting music and people respecting good music. there has to be a balance of commitment and enjoyment. i would like to see the older, more experienced and more proficient musicians coming forward and showing the way. maybe they should just be more prominent. better that the new generation be inspired by these old timers than be misled by the media and what not

 

[teraslasch]

but seriously, many bands lack band ethnics. these can be taught and coached - what to do, and what not to do, balancing of their sound instead of all going JJAN GJAN GJ ANGg -_-', what to listen for when playing in a band, keeping in time. etc etc. yes there are avenues where one can improve his/her skill individually, but as a band, its a different thing altogether. there are one or two schools that offer " band lessons ", but if we bring that into the jamming studio - the affordability and convinience will help bands much more , and soon the standards of local bands will rise .

 

[ShredPusssy]

ya shinobi i see ur point abt respect from local musicians themselves..
honestly..how many of u switch channels or even turn off the radio when u hear the dj telling u that the next song is by a local band n etc..
we need to do something abt tat mindset.

teraslach dood..i think in ur context, perhaps the sound engineers or the ppl who manage the jamming studios can give their fair share of constructive critism. i m just quoting as an examplen not promoting this particular guy but ah boy from TNT studio at parklane is a very gd example of some1 the music scene needs. when u jam at his place..regardless of wether ur doing a recording or just jamming for fun, he will give his comments on ur bands performance, interms of timing, chord progressions and pitching.
if onli every studio owner,manager or engineer contributes in a tactful way, i m sure bands will improve, cause its not easy to spot mistakes or to hear ur band as a whole from the inside if u get wat i mean..some1 needs to hear it as an outsider

 

[Crawldaddy]

Hmm.

In that case, they could also read up the band etiquette stickie here on soft. There's loads of good pointers there which I believe are invaluable since so many of us have shared our views on that thread.

As for having a "band teacher", it's always a good thing for bands to have more experienced friends who can give them pointers after a gig or maybe let them sit in for a jam session to "assess" them. Personally I have a experienced friend or two whom I would invite to my gigs despite their sporadic and rare appearances.

I think what's lacking is the presence of constructive feedback. Jeering or hustling them when they finish a set is only going make negative feelings arise after all.

That said, bands must be willing to put their pride on the shelf whn people actually DO give them feedback... otherwise they'd be back at square on.

 

[rottenramone]

..

soft

in reply to your qn, what we can do is just organize more gigs, have more platforms for bands to play. everyone needs to start somewhere. and with enough practice, jamming, sorting things out internally, there's always room to improve. over time, we'll see who's better/cooler/worse off/dead.

if i were to take your pt a step up, i would say that you would like to introduce a spirit of healthy competition amongst bands. i also would like to encourage that, but without institionalizing it please.

how to create the competitive spirit? are bands willing to put in that extra effort to top their peers?

lemme think over that.

 

[AgingYouth]

Fwah, 8 pages and no DGOs came in and say anything?

All I can say is:













































"Talk does not cook rice..."

 

[rottenramone]

..

blood boiled?

 

[ShredPusssy]

i think the issue here is more like new bands who dont spend enough time playing together..getting tight and sounding gd enough..
with mayb less then 10 jam sessions together..they feel they r ready to take it to the stage.
no doubt its great to have to many available gigs to all..but its abit too easy for any1 to get a slot these days, without any pressure from the public, there wont b higher standards n expectations from the musicians themselves.
put it this way..its like u wanna go to a JC or poly or watever..u study hard to get the grades u need to get urself in..if there werent any o level point system to judge ur capabilities..y bother to study at all..make sense?
jc n poly = weeding out process..

 

[ShredPusssy]

wanna get DGOs to come in?
simple dood..






Lets talk abt getting paid for gigs!!

 

[DoubleBlade]

Just take a look at the muscian required/available forum and you'll see what Shredpussy is trying to propagate.

"XYZ band desperately seeks a vocalist to do (insert genre of music here) music as we have a gig coming up on a month's time...."

 

[AgingYouth]

bro RR bro, this type of run-of-the-mill topics? Never lah.

THIS made my blood boil... :twisted:

 

[rottenramone]

..

i kept on voting and voting.....