I wish I was musically talented enough to start a band.

Hey. I play music. I'm talented at it. I'm talented at a few things to be honest. I have a few passions, and they seem to have grown out of things that - at least to some extent - I have a natural gift for. Not like I'm gifted the way Mozart and Einstein were; but, I've always been talented at a few things. I'd like to think that creating music is one of those things; but, playing music is definitely not one of those things. Playing music, is a skill. Pure-and-simple. You can be talented at humor, intelligence, your poetic use of language...but skills take knowledge and practice, and that's it. Also, don't ever think you can't do something because you just don't have the talent for it. If that's how you think, you're creating your own negative reality. Talent is next to worthless with out hard work, but hard work is more valuable than anything else all-by-itself. One of my favorite quotes, which I think was said by Henry Ford, is, "whether you think you can or you think you can't, you're right."

That being said, I'm like you...I don't care about getting signed. I'm not expecting it, and it has zero to do with why I love to play music. Learning to make music is one of the most frustrating tasks I ever took on. I do everything myself - vocals, guitar, drums, bass, synths, production - on just my laptop a few instruments and a microphone. There were so many times that I thought I was finally ready, just to record a song and it was total shit. Before I finally finished my first song, I was on the verge of an emotional breakdown, because I thought I just couldn't do it. I had worked everything out before recording. On paper, the song should've worked, but it just didn't - because I still needed to learn more about tweaking things in post production. When I finally had a completed product, I thought it was awful. It was passable as music, but by no means did I think it was anything people would hear and think "this is awesome!" But I showed to a few of my friends anyway, making very clear that I needed honest feedback, or else they would be letting me go ahead and embarrass myself to everybody when I posted it; and everyone was stoked on it. There were a few criticisms, but nothing major. But the one thing everyone said was that they loved the vocals, which were by far the thing I thought was the worst, and something I feared might always hold me back. You're your own worst critic.

Anyway, do it. Once you get it, it's fucking awesome. Showing something that you created to people and having them be stoked on it...I don't know, it's just great. And playing shows is like...I don't understand why everyone doesn't do it...they don't know what they're missing out on.

And yeah, no, sorry. Bass doesn't count. A lot of people will get really pissy if you say that...but for reals, honestly, bass is stupid. Yeah, I know, there's some people who are amazing at it - but for the most part, everything you hear is just a way easier version of whats being played on the guitar. People will be like, "blah blah, no, 'cause the theories are different," but no, if you can play guitar, you can easily play bass. The White Stripes and The Black Keys are easily two of the most successful modern rock bands, and I've never once heard anyway say, "you really notice that there's no bass."

/r/CasualConversation Thread