Any Musicians?

[JonXL]

... And what do you play?

I've been thinking of getting a guitjo as I enjoy playing my dad's from time to time, like the sound of the banjo, and don't really care to learn a new instrument while I am still learning guitar.

I now see there are varieties like closed body or open back... I'd put $300 as a max for now since I am not 100% committed to this instrument, but I'd still like to get something decent.

My GF plays clarinet and is working on learning what she calls a violin (and what I call a fiddle ).

 

[The_Doc_Man]

A few years ago - like, late 1960s - I played organ on Bourbon Street in New Orleans. I also played accordion (piano, not button) and trumpet, but my main instrument was organ. By the way, I'm not talking about a single keyboard instrument, though I had one of those for some out-of-town gigs with the band I was with. Today, I still play sometimes.

You can look up the model I have. It is a Technics SX F5, a full console model - which for electronic home organs means 2 x 61-note keyboards and a 25-note pedalboard. It is MIDI compatible and that means it has over 100 distinct voices. It also has a killer built-in electronic drum set with over 20 pre-defined rhythms and the ability to program 3 special-case rhythms.

It is a "pops" style instrument as opposed to Theater style or Baroque style. For a while I had a Lowrey theater model but it was something I decided was wrong for me and I eventually traded it in to get the Technics model. I can play the kind of music that goes with theater organ styling but I grew up with pop music. There's a long story there because over the years I've had eight different organs (ending with the SX F5).

 

[Isaac]

I was force-taught piano lessons for about 7 years when I was young as my Mom was a piano teacher/professional pianist.
Switched to drums when I was about 15 and never looked back. It's been a while since I played though, the last thing was a backyard-band that played covers to rich people's kids' high school graduation parties. They always had really good hors d'oeuvres

I absolutely love rhythm and music in general. My Pandora stations range from Five Finger Death Punch to Alan Jackson to Linkin Park to classical piano.

 

[SachAccess]

A few years ago - like, late 1960s

Sir your few years ago is, couple of decades before my birth year, couple of years before birth year of my mother.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

I was born in 1948 so that makes me 77 now. I'm old enough that I once recorded a music track in the same studio used by Fats Domino. It was called "Cosimo Recording Studio" and was run by Cosimo Matassa, a New Orleans native and sound engineer who also worked with Ernie K-Doe, Dr. John, Ray Charles, Lee Dorsey, ... He worked with a lot of people whose music hit the pop charts. The little band I played with, Kenny's Nomads, didn't do so well. I think we sold 45 copies out of the 100 that got pressed. But hey, we tried. And for the record, Cosimo Matassa passed away in 2014. Many people remembered him fondly, as do I. He was a friendly fellow and understood inexperienced musicians.

BTW - you can look up Cosimo Matassa in Wikipedia.

 

[Cotswold]

Last year I started to play the guitar. The intention has drifted in and out of my mind for years. So I thought as I was 80 I'd better be getting on with it. I've had an acoustic guitar for years and hardly ever picked it up. I've given it to various family members but they kept giving it back!

I have my son's Les Paul but bought a new EastCoast Stratocaster and amp rather than use that. Plenty of training on the internet some of it suits me and some doesn't. The American guys are always very cheerful, probably Shane Simpson the most amusing and one of the less serious. So his way suits me. Justin Guitar and some of Jez Quayle I find helpful. Only problem I've got is stretching the fingers on the left hand. I don't think I'll ever span four frets. So I'll make up my own chords to get around that and it still sounds Ok. Although still the odd problem if I do some power chords. So I'll amend those as well.
I'm locked back in the 2oth century. So only Rock & Roll exists. Can do a few from Del Shannon, some Rockabilly, just finished Proud Mary. Always enjoy playing Bo Diddley stuff and usually play that to warm up when I pick up the guitar.
Some of the Everly's stuff has been harder than it sounded though. Maybe not that proficient at counting through the 12bar, changing chords and strumming all at the same time. But I'm happy enough with the results, so who cares!

Since starting I've noticed that when I see a group playing on TV, very few of the guitarists appear to be playing the actual chords to the song. So I must be doing it right, because neither do I.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

Since starting I've noticed that when I see a group playing on TV, very few of the guitarists appear to be playing the actual chords to the song.

On several music videos I noticed that the keyboards guy (if they had one visible) wasn't always playing notes that would match the sound track. But then again, video sessions don't always do that anyway. One case in point is Eric Burdon and the Animals performing "House of the Rising Sun", and the organist in that video is using an authentic looking organ (single) keyboard for that era but when he "takes a ride" (gets to play the lead track and improvise a little), his hands aren't moving correctly for those notes. Other parts of the same video look credible.

On the other hand, some videos were shot in a way that you can believe they were really recording a "live" session. For instance, "Journey to the Center of the Mind" by the Amboy Dukes (featuring Ted Nugent with a well-known guitar riff). That was recorded live from some show and became the video that folks remember.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

Found this when browsing for something else. For the musicians out there...

 

[JonXL]

A few years ago - like, late 1960s - I played organ on Bourbon Street in New Orleans. I also played accordion (piano, not button) and trumpet, but my main instrument was organ. By the way, I'm not talking about a single keyboard instrument, though I had one of those for some out-of-town gigs with the band I was with. Today, I still play sometimes.

You can look up the model I have. It is a Technics SX F5, a full console model - which for electronic home organs means 2 x 61-note keyboards and a 25-note pedalboard. It is MIDI compatible and that means it has over 100 distinct voices. It also has a killer built-in electronic drum set with over 20 pre-defined rhythms and the ability to program 3 special-case rhythms.

It is a "pops" style instrument as opposed to Theater style or Baroque style. For a while I had a Lowrey theater model but it was something I decided was wrong for me and I eventually traded it in to get the Technics model. I can play the kind of music that goes with theater organ styling but I grew up with pop music. There's a long story there because over the years I've had eight different organs (ending with the SX F5).

So I forgot about this thread for a while. I ended up getting a guitjo off Amazon for a couple hundred bucks. Been real fun putting a different sound to things.

Now I looked up that organ you mentioned and my first thought was just how many controls there are... I'd honestly have thought it played by a few people at once with all the pieces involved. I don't know about modern Technics but I know they were top notch for musical stuff back in the day. Used to have an SL-23 record player from them that I haven't been able to beat with anything newer at even ten times what I picked that thing up for at Goodwill.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

Since the organ is fully MIDI compatible, that standard says it has to have 127 distinct sounds - some of which are like a single strike on a drum or a single hand-clap. Looking at it, not as a MIDI device but as an organ, it has 10 pedal voices (25 pedals), 11 dedicated voices on the lower keyboard (61 keys), 17 dedicated voices on the upper keyboard (61 keys), and four sets of assignable voices (i.e. can be selected to either keyboard). The selectables are 2 x vox (a throaty sound that resembles a vocal chorus humming), 7 x various brass/reed voices, 9 x percussion/piano-like sounds, and 15 solo voices that are monophonic and that stand out nicely for dedicated melodic pieces. Some of the

The organ sound system is 50 watts/channel in stereo and has connectors if you wanted to extend it to more powerful speakers. It has two sets of programmable presets. One is for the upper with four slots for flute-family sounds only; one with seven slots that can preset the entire instrument for the full range of organ voices; and one preset is available for lower keyboard.

It also has 30 built-in basic rhythms with 3 variations for each plus 3 more slots for programmable rhythms. The rhythm speed ranges from 40 beats per minute to 208 per minute. The unit has six speaker effects including a mode that resembles the Leslie sound (rotating speakers, in this case simulated) and several cathedral-like styles.

Finally, it is programmable with the ability to record a played selection digitally, but since I bought it used, the correct kind of disks were not included and I don't usually do that kind of recording anyway.

As I understand it, the audio is generated by synthesizers based on pulse-code modulation, and they were billed to have been defined by having someone play a particular instrument and digitally record the single notes. For instance, the electric piano is based on a Fender Rhodes model. The trumpet is a brass King trumpet. The non-jazz guitar is based on a Gibson model, and so on.

I don't have the ability to record anything that I could post on the forum, and only Dick7Access has actually seen or heard it. But with his hearing aids, he can't hear the full range of the instrument. (Not his fault.)