Bedroom Musician's club? - 2008/02/07 21:48so on the way to work today I had the idea of forming a bedroom musician's club. The way I conceive it is:
-Meet once every 2 weeks -Spend 2 or 3 hours critiqing each other's songs and discussing making music -Everyone takes turns playing a song -like fight club: first night, play a song. (recorded probably) -No politics during song critique time (RIAA sucks, NIN is great, filesharing sucks, filesharing is great, genre/famous band sucks, blah blah blah) -Possibly use as a springboard for gigs, etc -Maybe have T shirts eventually -Genre neutral
I guess RPM inspired this idea because a lot of the value of it is making music, getting people to listen to it, getting feedback, getting advice, talking with other musicians, etc.
Do you guys see yourselves joining a club like that if it were in your city?
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tuesday
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Re:Bedroom Musician's club? - 2008/02/07 21:58oh god i would. i don't have a band right now, and hardly anyone to get unbiased opinions from about what i write....which makes staying motivated really difficult for me, even though i love making music so much.
if there was something like that around here i'd definitely be down. and bring cookies.
.... or beer.
whichever.
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tfrooney
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Re:Bedroom Musician's club? - 2008/02/07 22:05Yeah, I'd join too. Everything comes slower in isolation. Cross pollination of ideas and techniques and tools is way better.
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Kemmler
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Re:Bedroom Musician's club? - 2008/02/07 23:03as far as TNMC, I think the club would emphasize the individual nature of the work. Collabs would be encouraged but in my opinion, everyone is responsible for making sure it's clear who did what. It would not be designed as a songwriting collective or collab thing, mostly a critique thing.
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The Amazing Matt
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Re:Bedroom Musician's club? - 2008/02/07 23:19I think it's a wonderful idea! I'm sure there are plenty of people who can't/ don't want to find other people to play with but would like someone to share their music with. Do it!
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to some extent you can get feedback, crits, etc on various online forums. Examples, Song Exchange on the Image-line site, KVRaudio, etc.
I think a real-life club might provide something valuable that those clubs can't, but on the other hand, people get a lot out of forums sometimes. Do you think that people will get enough MORE out of a club to make the effort to schlep out twice a month?
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Centrifugal Governors
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Re:Bedroom Musician's club? - 2008/02/07 23:30It could be as simple as just people posting in this thread or in another with a link to their new sketchbook-thing upload asking for comments. Once we start getting stuff up I know we're going to want some detailed intellectual loving and hating. Here it would be the convention to announce your new upload and demand attention and not conceited. It would also leave a record of all that's been posted for critique along with the comments for the normal people who aren't on here every other hour.
-the left left ball, D
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Monopoli
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Re:Bedroom Musician's club? - 2008/02/08 00:32I like the idea of a bedroom musicians club, but to me RPM is very much like that.
I don't know about meeting in reallife; that would mean I'd be limited to the people in the Amsterdam area and as far as I know I'm the only one on RPM from Amsterdam. Ofcourse there must be more bedroom-musicians here but, having hosted a radioshow and a website about the local scene, I think I already know the interesting ones and they're rare. (If you are an RPMer from Amsterdam and reading this let me know!)
I'd like to have this communityfeel of RPM in some form through the whole year. With internet the chance that you find compatable souls to talk and collaborate with is just bigger than in the "real life" that is limited by distance.
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Kemmler
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Re:Bedroom Musician's club? - 2008/02/08 00:54Monopoli I think you might be right. Here on RPM it seems like everyone is involved in this stuff.
However, I personally know 2 or 3 people who are "bedroom musicians" and I've known others who were interested in doing it. I think if a group like this had more than 5 people in attendence most of the time, it would be worthwhile. What do you guys think, is population density too big of an obstacle?
edit: to be clear these 2 or 3 people live in the area - ie accessible by public transportation...
Also, the group wouldn't be limited to "interesting" musicians - just anyone who was ready and able to play some of their music and make useful comments about others'.
edit2: it might even make sense to invite interested DJs, a way to possibly get exposure for people's music and get alternate opinions.
Post edited by: Kemmler, at: 2008/02/08 00:57
Post edited by: Kemmler, at: 2008/02/08 01:02
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Monopoli
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Re:Bedroom Musician's club? - 2008/02/08 01:04Well, if I were you I'd just go for it. It might just work in your area.
I'm thinking of getting a group of people together here that are interested in making films; some actors, writers maybe, some technical people. I'd really like to direct, shoot and edit (short) movies (and make music for them), so this is something I'd like to try out. But I might run into the same limitations as with music (not enough seriously motivated people with good ideas etc.) We'll see.
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Gumbo
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Re:Bedroom Musician's club? - 2008/02/08 01:23I know a bunch of musicians locally, and there's a couple of regular "get together and play, down the pub on a quiet night" sessions, but this is mostly old trad tunes, covers and a rare few self written songs.
Where i go for my musicians club is MacIDOL.com, where I've been a contributor for three years or so, and there's a bunch of folks in the forum who know me, know my stuff, and my likes and limitations, and we share songs and support and critiques.
I never would have got my music up to where I'm confident in it if it hadn't been for these two groups (firstly MacIDOL and later the gang at the sessions), and I thoroughly recommend floating the idea and then making it happen.
Worth the effort.
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product80876
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Re:Bedroom Musician's club? - 2008/02/08 04:46If there were a group in my area that got together in such a fashion, I would absolutely love to be a part of it. Sadly, though, that's not happening here and I won't be around long enough to try and start something up myself ('be around' in this area that is, not 'be around' as far as living.)
Although I think that such meetings would be much more rewarding in person, there is a similar place that exists online. At http://www.songfight.org there is a new song title posted approximately every week and a half. Anyone who is interested can write a song based around said title and submit their work. Members of the community will review all of the songs submitted with blatent honesty and vote on a winner for each title. Like RPM, there are no material rewards, only the rewards of bettering yourself as an artist and interacting with your peers. I think that other similar sites may exist but most seem to be based around people trying to win prizes or the sites are littered with ads. Thankfully (and again, like RPM) SongFight! is just run by volunteers and a community that's a bit more pure.
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Samuel
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Re:Bedroom Musician's club? - 2008/02/08 11:54I would love something like this. As others have already mentioned, it's hard to get good feedback from people and it's easy to get stuck on a song when you are working alone.
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I don't think I could go for more than fifteen minutes without establishing that I think the RIAA sucks. (I think the longest I've managed to last to date is about seven minutes and fifty-three seconds..)
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urt
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Re:Bedroom Musician's club? - 2008/02/08 14:31It would be a cool way for people to share hints and tips, meet future musical partners and get honest feedback from other musicians. I think it's a great idea.
I'm based in London, Uk.
Urt :o)
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ilovejen
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Re:Bedroom Musician's club? - 2008/02/08 18:21You're that guy on Digg and Slashdot only posts "RIAA SUCKLS!!" on every god damn thread, aren't you?
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Lunarsight
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Re:Bedroom Musician's club? - 2008/02/09 02:23You're that guy on Digg and Slashdot only posts "RIAA SUCKLS!!" on every god damn thread, aren't you?
Nah - I agree with his general sentiment, but I think you can be more eloquent about all the various ways they suck. I mean, they've generated enough bad publicity for themselves to fill a dictionary, pretty much.
Just shouting out that they suck kind of undersells it.
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Gary Fox
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Re:Bedroom Musician's club? - 2008/02/11 20:15product80876 wrote: If there were a group in my area that got together in such a fashion, I would absolutely love to be a part of it.
We don't have to do this face to face, there are plenty of services for virtual meeting places. We could all meet together, talk (via VoIP) or chat in real time and do this. That would enable Ireland to meet Texas and Singapore, all at once. Even New Hampshire could make it.
Thoughts?
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I would also like the in-person aspect if it were possible, but for many it would not be. There could be city-based real life clubs and virtual satellite meetings for those stuck in the far corners of the planet.
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thel1195
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Re:Bedroom Musician's club? - 2008/02/11 20:42Yeah the distance thing is a situation. I only found about 5 or 6 RPM people here in the Dallas / Fort Worth metroplex area. We are about 5 million people here covering 120 sq miles. There may be more, but I didn't find them on the list.
But I do like the name Bedroom Musicians Club. We may have to hold an open house kind of thing at a coffee house and just see who shows up. Personally, I like Waffle house. Its like the last bit of Americana that remains unchanged in the last few decades, but its not really a meet-and-greet kind of place.
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templaar
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Re:Bedroom Musician's club? - 2008/02/14 00:14I like the idea. I'm an appalling musician, but love making stuff up - enjoy the idea of like minded people out there - particularly keen to swap stuff with people who class themselves as beginners at music and song writing.
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homemadehitshow
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Re:Bedroom Musician's club? - 2008/02/20 19:03Hi all, I'm a hobby songwriter and I'd love to have a couple of people to play with informally once or twice a month.
There are songwriting forums out there that can be great for critiques. I highly recommend a small but friendly one at http://www.2090.org/zoom/bbs/index.php
As a bit of shameless self promotion please check out my web show The Home Made Hit Show at www.homemadehitshow.com It's a podcast focused on songwriting and playing home recorded songs.
I decided to RPM an acoustic CD cause I've never done acoustic stuff. Made a good start and now have 7 songs done but I'm struggling for the last 3.
Tony
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