An assemblage of blather

I am sooooo sorry for not posting in over a month! College starts on Thursday and I'm excited. I got department approval to take a private lesson class even though I'm not a music major, but that would exceed the credit hours allowed by my scholarship. I'm primarily at this community college to get free liberal arts credits for transfer to Berklee in two years. I'm pretty excited about my Audio Production class. Yes, DT's attendance to B3z3rkl33 may have been the back-breaking straw.
Anyway, I haven't updated in a while. It's not because I don't think about music, because it's almost all I think and talk about, much to my sister's chagrin.
So James LaBrie can hit an F#5 in "Learning to Live", right? but my dad despises his voice above an E4. Like in "Solitary Shell", his voice starts getting bad when he sings the F#4 in the middle of the chorus. Great song, it influenced a little organ rhythm I wrote alternating between 13/8 and 12/8. Of course, it's based off of "Solsbury Hill" by Peter Gabriel.
Stu Block of Into Eternity is now my favorite vocalist, because he can death growl and he has a Bb5. Myles Kennedy can do at least a D5 and played guitar for Sadus on the road, so he's way better than his work with Alter Bridge indicates. (I also like his voice a lot)
Will Shaw is a YouTube singer of the band Athem, who is pretty awesome. We sings on this cover of Metropolis, and hits a G here.
"Beyond this life", "Home" (a song by dad reviles because of the singing...I love the composition) and "The Test that Stumped Them All" have majorly influenced this song I'm writing that starts in 9/8 with a metal feel (I'm picturing "Awake"-style vocals for this part) and then does some other stuff. I often write away from my instrument because a notebook is more portable, so that results in rhythmic ideas being jotted down. When I'm with the instrument I often write out tab and such, for riffs. But unless I get a dash of inspiration, my music is composed with a more cerebral process. Thinking rather than feeling. But I'm working on it. And playing with the instrument (ok, we'll call it "my bass", shall we?) isn't really inspiration, either, just what comes naturally. But that can be a better vehicle of emotion than a pencil. Listen to me, I'm incoherent and I don't care! I'm thinking about doing "The Test that Stumped Them All" as an audition to Berklee It's hard to find one that's the ideal length.
But Ian Gillan has been recorded singing a G#5! Okay, stop and watch this video now. The description is what's really important.
Andy Kuntz of Vanden Plas was in Jesus Christ Superstar also, and can sing an F#5 like LaBrie. He's involved in all kinds of theater stuff.
Gyorgy Szomor did a great job in the Hungarian version, and the lead singer of Khallice was in the Mexican and Brasilian one. Portuguese and Spanish are very related. I can get an F#4 if I'm lucky. My bottom note is usually a D2, which is as low as Gillan has been recorded. His range might be larger than that. Actually I've tried pretty hard to find the extremes of my singing. One day I could do a shaky B1 and a squeaky D5. I'm just saying I produced the pitch, not that it sounded good. Alfred Romero of Dark Moor hits a high G#5 at the end of "The Silver Key," which is incredible. He doesn't do it live though, at least in the two videos I could find that doesn't cut off the end. I'm starting to think that John Myung is a drag on Dream Theater, like a robot: sure he can play those shredding unison lines, and rock those octaves with his weird tone, but what does he do for the band creatively? His lyrics are cool as poetry, but they aren't accepted by the other members because they don't fit the prearranged melodies (which seem to be getting suckier of late). I find that writing lyrics first is easier. You can tell most of his compositional contributions because he plays them solo. The beginning of "The Glass Prison" and "A Rite of Passage", and "Lifting Shadows off a Dream" are just are just effects-drenched lameness; the riffs aren't even cool! He tries to be harmonic with his harmonics i.e. adding 11s to the chord- he never cares about anything but the root and the octave most of the time! His solo part (an introduction of a riff) later on in "The Glass Prison" is a flurry of pentatonic drivel, and his solo in "Dance of Eternity" is laughable! No musical value. His solo in Metropolis Pt 1 is bland; once again it consists of roots, octaves of roots, and a 11th, just for fun. Oh, then he moves is up! How inspiring. Whenever Mike Portnoy does one of his crazy behind-the-scenes videos, Myung is in a secluded background, practicing diligently. He doesn't contribute that much to Dream Theater's music at all- he says he focuses on mastering his instrument....why? So he can feel happy and not release anything worthwhile to the general public? Sure, he can play faster and cleaner then he could back in Berklee, but his parts have actually gotten worse- and they weren't much to speak of then! His tone is still reliably weird, when he's actually audible. He doesn't have a solo career or anything to showcase his "mastery" attained by a fanatical devotion to practicing- even going so far as to warm-down after a performance! Chris Squire was inspirational to bassists for being a musical equal among his band members, and Geddy Lee is obviously a huge contributor to Rush. I think the verse part for "Learning to Live" is his finest moment: odd rhythms, interesting harmonic structure....the line he uses to introduce the final section is kind of cool, but it seems like he improvises his parts because, they aren't developed at all. And his intro to "Medicate" in the song "Octavarium"? (That song is a must-listen) Ungood! Not only is it pentatonic, it's minor pentatonic! While we're at it, shall we hit every bass moment? The beginning of "Panic Attack": cool, even if it uses the ultimate polyrhythm a little extensively. Sure, he can keep up with Petrucci's riffs....but what does he do to harmonize them? Boring. I can't remember hearing him on the new record very muchl....the bass instrumental track must be laughable! He has mad endurance- check out Dark Eternal Night, Constant Motion, or In the Prescence of Enemies Pt - but he doesn't give the music any personality, he just doubles the guitar forever. He plays like a session musician. But Dave LaRue's playing is way more creative! Listen to "New Millenium": here we have an odd-time bass part with a not-too-unusual tone, but harmonically it consists of...a root...its octave...and the minor seventh below the root. Interesting. He should trade places with Nathan East. The "Home" line is okay, but not ideal. In all these songs, John Petrucci and Mike Portnoy make the lame bass thing awesome, like the the beginnings of "The Glass Prison" and "Voices." Plus Petrucci just completely dominates that "Home" riff. I think Petrucci is the best in that band, followed by Mike. I like Jordan's piano, as in "One Last Time" and other songs. He plays like a musician during piano solos, not a baboon brandishing a stick. "Burning My Soul" is cool because he outlines the diminished scale, even though the rhythm is sad. His tone is reminiscent of Alex Webster, a far better bass player. John Myung just does too much supporting and not enough thinking on his own.
Disclaimer: I don't actually think the part in "Lifting Shadows Off a Dream" is dumb; just the choice of the 11th. His grasp of harmonics is inspiring. I have an unfortunate habit, you may have noticed, of viciously cutting at any part of something I don't like. All in all, John Myung is a great bassist (although overrated by association) and I admire his dedication, choice of basses, and overall appearance. I heard that the band's battle with EastWest Records in the mid-nineties affected Myung's stage presence severely. His video Progressive Bass Concepts helped me with playing huge continuous scales, but I think the whole arpeggiation ordeal was droll. I wonder why he doesn't talk very much. Quick side note: I find it doubtful that Geddy Lee could keep up with Blotted Science's experimental technicality, so why would Ron Jarzombek want to work with him? Ron Jarzombek seriously might be my musical hero. We think so alike- he's just got more knowledge and experience. I can't wait for his DVDs- I may buy them even though I don't play guitar. I need to learn how to write twelve-tone music- I still need to listen to more. There are 479, 001, 600 different ways to arrange the chromatic scale. I should be like Ron and turn that into a riff. I wonder how many Schoenberg and Bartok and those guys have used already. It seems that I have a bad habit of linking to things the second time they are mentioned.
So now I forgot about why I originally posted. Oh, cool band. I've been looking for Christian Deathgrind, but the musicality just doesn't compete with, say, Origin. But death metal lyrics are just so satanic and disgusting, I can't be associated with that evil even if nobody can understand the lyrics. Christian deathgrind bands have good lyrics, but where is technicality! Yes, that is important to me, and it's important to properly execute the genre. Living Sacrifice has a lot of odd-meters, and their vocalist is sweet. He reminds me of the dude from Demon Hunter, my first Christian metal band. The dude from Arsis is an acquired taste. I'm happy at Spencer Chamberlain's improvement. Wow I am a rambler. Check this and this and this out.
Spiral Architect is sweet. They remind me of Spastic Ink, only they have a regular singer. I think you have to be a little bit crazy to regularly sing for one of these bands when you don't play any instruments. Well their first singer didn't, but I guess they fired him for being too insane before recording their only album. Like Blotted Science and Outworld, they have one album but many lineup changes. Their recording quality isn't too good, but the bass is actually audible. (Like Spastic Ink or Between the Buried and Me (which is a great band, their new album comes out soon (it features Google Earth album art (I edited this post on October 14th because it was really mean))))
I want to make an album named "Ecstasy of the Hideous", named after a phrase said by a critic of the revolutionary atonal composer Schoenberg. Maybe quote one of his melodies, make it conform to a tonality, add a thirteenth note. Which would be a C. Guess how long the song would be?
I could start a prog metal band named EOTH (as an acronym), but how would you pronounce? "Oth" sounds too much like Dååth, and I'm not sure if I like "ee-oth." Maybe "yoth."Plus, whenever I do something creative I imagine trying to explain it to a certain elderly woman at my church: could I explain it to her satisfaction? Does "Ecstasy of the Hideous" make for a good band name, with its possibly inferred drug reference and uncalled-for adjective?
Because of my dumb computer and wavering Internet connection, I redid all the links for this post like three times. I want to check out the Gigantour and Summer Slaughter DVDs. Man, I wish death metal was not all evil & stuff, because I love the music! My new favorite: Cephalic Carnage. I guess I'll try Extol.
Check out this dude named Trevor T- he's full of sweet links and advice for aspiring independent musicians. Click on a bunch of them. They are cool.
See you later, h0mes.