GRcade

That's very kind of you mate. Might have a chat with him later. I mean, he's a typical ten year old, he changes his mind about this stuff all the time. Last year he wanted to be a footballer, last month he wanted to play guitar, the other day he wanted to be an astronaut.

Some teachers will lend out a student guitar too, or know some on the market.

You can find really nice guitars b-stock as well - this one down to £170 by £60 because of a ding on the back https://www.andertons.co.uk/clearance-a ... cal-guitar

You can probably find something like a Spanish Admira for around the same money second hand if not a lot less than that?

Here's an Admira albeit made in China for £99. Sure a pine top isn't going to win any awards but the neck is mahogany and rosewood fingerboard which is probably the more important part of a guitar especially when it comes to learning. https://www.andertons.co.uk/acoustic-de ... cal-guitar

There are quite a few guitars around that price point that look much better than the Argos sort of multipacks, I'm quite surprised. I would ignore the Valencia ones around the £50-60 mark definitely. And I'm not sure you're really getting all that more for your money for the £110-£120 priced Epiphone and Fender guitars either (the Epiphone looks better, but is laden with loads of bullshit registered trademarks). Although one does come with a humidifier for some reason...

Like I said, the Joan Cashimira which is a guitar most accomplished players would be happy with, wasn't my first instrument, I can't remember the old one. It was around £150 I think? I played that for at least 4 years and certainly never had any problems with it.

I started at age 10 on a full size guitar and never had lessons. Just got a good tab site and started playing riffs here and there. If he's really into it, I think that's a good start rather than making it a 'chore' or something you have to 'learn' rather than just play and get better. If that makes any sense.

Maybe let them "choose" a teacher on YouTube and find out what their learning style is before fitting them with a teacher.

There are a lot of rote teachers out there, egoistic teachers, teachers who prefer specific styles, etc etc. Mine just taught me whatever I wanted to play out of a vast library of diverse music.

I enjoyed traditional Spanish guitar music. But like my brother for example, he preferred blues, learnt what he needed to learnt, and then just got on with playing and making up his own compositions. Her certainly never gave up as as a consequence.

I've spent the past few days 'finishing off' my studio setup. So happy with how I have it set up - My partner is a bit handy with woodwork and she's made a kind of 'up and over' unit in chunky Sapele wood, to act as a desk over the top of my keyboard. The Laptop, ipad and Scarlett sit on top, with monitor speakers either side. Underneath is the guitar pedal board that can be whipped out at a moment notice. The cables, oh my God the cables are neatly run and cable tied (temporary for now, I need some different lengths to tidy even more, but I've spent the day on it), all instruments connected to the rear of the Scarlett, and I'm running 3 stereo pairs round the room under the carpet for 'future expansion' - one pair runs into a PA so I can check how a mix sounds over that. The others could be used for keyboards or alternatively headphone monitoring. They're just 'spare' at the moment.

So good, and for relatively little money in the end, rather than buying a dedicated desk.

Before I put the carpet down permanently, any possible other cabling I should run under it across the room? I'll kick myself for not asking!

Pictures please!

Here ya go - just some levelling of the keyboard to do.





Don't worry, I won't mix with the Bose speakers, that'll be done on my desktop PC with a more neutral audio setup.

They do make the Ravenscroft piano app sound just perfect though!

Edit: Just noticed the cable plugged into the front of the Scarlett - they're just there to make sure I leave enough cable free as I run it all under the carpet. Urgh! So messy!

Very nice

I'm in position to judge with mixing, I went back to remix one of my tunes today with some of the stuff I've learned recently, and I can't decide if I greatly improved it, or totally ruined it, having spent half the day on it.

If you're really struggling to determine if a mix is actually better or not, after mixing on monitors obviously, try playing it on something gooseberry fool like phone or smart speaker and A/B with the old mix.

It's counter intuitive but by actually removing fidelity it's sometime's easier to tell if a mix is "better" on something most people will listen to it on.

Also listen to it with or without a bass speaker or with or without headphones (or even both at the same time, just take the headphones on and off).

Green Gecko wrote:If you're really struggling to determine if a mix is actually better or not, after mixing on monitors obviously, try playing it on something gooseberry fool like phone or smart speaker and A/B with the old mix.

It's counter intuitive but by actually removing fidelity it's sometime's easier to tell if a mix is "better" on something most people will listen to it on.

Also listen to it with or without a bass speaker or with or without headphones (or even both at the same time, just take the headphones on and off).

All good suggestions. I listen on my phone through the single external speaker and while they sound ok, they're always quiet compared to other music, even though I use compression and put the master volume as close as I can get to the top before it starts clipping. I'm still learning a lot anyway.

I record and mix on headphones all the time. I'm too self conscious to have it playing over my speakers.

That might be problematic because headphones inherently sound louder due to the closed sound stage so on speakers it might be quieter. Your ears just adjust no matter what the volume is. Less prone to that with speakers, so. I see people saying "play on headphones" and it's like, well, no, that's not how it works...

There is a plugin that might be really useful to you that models a full reference speaker set up, but tuned to specific models of headphones, so you can actually mix with them. I'll try and find it, I don't think it's expensive.

Or just download Waves MultiMaxmiser plugin and set it to 16-bit Hi-Res CD Master on the master channel.

(I'm pretty sure those couple of plugins alone - coming in packs of plugins costing about two grand - are partly responsible for the loudness war.)

Finally obtained a 'proper' book of Chopin sheet music and what can I say other than that man had zero respect for the limitations of a human hand . And why does everything have to be in keys like Db or F# major?! Keeping track of advanced key signatures while dealing with double sharps etc every other bar and trying to force your hand into inhuman shapes is not good for the blood pressure!

I'm just going with the easy part of Fantaisie-Impromptu for now, which is testing enough as it is. I've got an extremely slow and clunky version of the opening few bars on the go, which is at least better than nothing at all.

Oblomov Boblomov wrote:Finally obtained a 'proper' book of Chopin sheet music and what can I say other than that man had zero respect for the limitations of a human hand . And why does everything have to be in keys like Db or F# major?! Keeping track of advanced key signatures while dealing with double sharps etc every other bar and trying to force your hand into inhuman shapes is not good for the blood pressure!

I'm just going with the easy part of Fantaisie-Impromptu for now, which is testing enough as it is. I've got an extremely slow and clunky version of the opening few bars on the go, which is at least better than nothing at all.

Congratulations! Just take it all steady and it'll be fine!

There are a lot of patterns in there, look for those and it becomes much less of a memory marathon.

I prefer playing in the 'flat' keys as generally you have more points of reference - at speed it's easier to find Bb than a G for example, it being the right hand of a cluster of 3 black notes! Sounds obvious, but with this kind of music you need every bit of help you can get!

Also, arpeggios! Finally there's a point to them after enduring them week after week in piano lessons years ago!

Lime wrote:

Oblomov Boblomov wrote:Finally obtained a 'proper' book of Chopin sheet music and what can I say other than that man had zero respect for the limitations of a human hand . And why does everything have to be in keys like Db or F# major?! Keeping track of advanced key signatures while dealing with double sharps etc every other bar and trying to force your hand into inhuman shapes is not good for the blood pressure!

I'm just going with the easy part of Fantaisie-Impromptu for now, which is testing enough as it is. I've got an extremely slow and clunky version of the opening few bars on the go, which is at least better than nothing at all.

Congratulations! Just take it all steady and it'll be fine!

There are a lot of patterns in there, look for those and it becomes much less of a memory marathon.

I prefer playing in the 'flat' keys as generally you have more points of reference - at speed it's easier to find Bb than a G for example, it being the right hand of a cluster of 3 black notes! Sounds obvious, but with this kind of music you need every bit of help you can get!

Also, arpeggios! Finally there's a point to them after enduring them week after week in piano lessons years ago!

Yep, it definitely helps to be hot on your practical theory!

I feel more comfortable in flat keys in general, I think, although that could just be a result of having spent so long with Beethoven in C minor.

Oblomov Boblomov wrote:I feel more comfortable in flat keys in general, I think, although that could just be a result of having spent so long with Beethoven in C minor.

Just a hint if you haven't worked it out- if you prefer natural keys, you could think of Fantasie Impromptu having the same sharps as E major, as C# is the relative minor of E major.
Although the middle section is in Db major, so that doesn't help you right now (the relative minor being Bb ) !

My wife has bought me a half day in a proper recording studio

Victor Mildew wrote:My wife has bought me a half day in a proper recording studio

Excellent, so we can expect a full studio sound for the GRcade Christmas single this year then?

Jenuall wrote:

Victor Mildew wrote:My wife has bought me a half day in a proper recording studio

Excellent, so we can expect a full studio sound for the GRcade Christmas single this year then?

It already was a studio sound

Also:

Victor Mildew wrote:

Jenuall wrote:

Victor Mildew wrote:My wife has bought me a half day in a proper recording studio

Excellent, so we can expect a full studio sound for the GRcade Christmas single this year then?

It already was a studio sound

Also:

Sure it was mate.

Either way make sure you go full Super Hans whilst you are there

The longer the note, the more powerful the dread.