Post here what you are currently working on as a musician. Just finished recording the drums for the new song? Experimenting with unconventional scales? Did it go as you wanted or did it fail badly?

Yesterday I began to decrypt those nasty Gorguts songs, starting from Obscura. I got the first two riffs down. They are in natural F minor, minor second and major sixth against the tonic appear couple of times but otherwise they're quite strictly in the key. The harmonization is what makes the music sound the way it sounds. You couldn't know how much dissonance lies within a such tame sounding scale if you didn't know how to harness it. These are the harmonized scale degrees in the opening riff, there are no chords so this isn't really a chord progression. Voice leading is a more suitable term.

I
flat VII
V
II
flat VII
IV
V
flat III

Second thing I observed is that the harmony spreads out a lot. Once you invert the dyads and collapse the riffs down you'll be like "Oh I found some minor triads" The tapping lead and the monster riff are a whole new thing to tackle. I already know the latter utilizes quartal harmony but chromatic leads with a backing riff like the one in the song are crazy.

Your turn!

Well that Gorguts song must be a tough job to tackle haha. I'm currently working on improvising on the jazz/blues form, learning every chord and arpegio to use that form in the F key. This is very complicated since you change chords on every measure and there are some measures where you have two chords. But well since I study music almost everything I do is related to music

Asides from my studies, tomorrow will be my first proper recording, if everything goes well. I will be recording with some other musicians from my university, it's a project one of them did so we will be recording his music, in the university's studio I think these are the most important things for now

great topic!

I should probably look into some more music theory myself, and havent really learned another band song for a long time. some gorguts may be the way back into both


as for my own stuff
The bassist from my band "waking the dead" (here on archives somewhere, DRI worship) and me recorded some weird crust-like stuff for fun one night

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymqmeGGmU9Y

thats me on drums, though I mostly play guitar in "real" bands.

also, not really musicianship but related, recording another EP for this GREAT powerviolence band from holland next week.
This will be the second time I'll be recording them
http://www.myspace.com/axsxhxgrind


as always, sorry for bad english

Writing lyrics for Space Vikings, mainly.

I just finished mixing the debut single of my doom metal band Innzmouth took me so long and the result isn't very good but I don't feel like mixing it again because I'm so tired)

My band is releasing a remix ep to go along with a new music video, so right now I’m working on that. Going to do one dub remix and one ambient.

I’ve also been working on some new patches for one of my older synths- a Korg DS-8. It’s a quirky FM synth produced in the early 80s. Its presets are utter crap and editing is fairly tedious, but with a bit of patience and love I’ve coaxed some unexpectedly rich and unique tones out of it. Unfortunately it’s a bit temperamental, so I can’t rely on it as part of my live rig, but it’s nice to have in the studio.

Currently recording drums for my new full length album that's coming out in a while. Also, writing various other tracks for multiple splits I'm participating in (with Foreskin and ABSOLUTETERROR, for those of you who know MegaHassan/WetPussy and fetalfeast).

Improving classical keyboard techniques, through piano books.
Improving sound synthesis techniques, by reading on internet and experiment it on sof synth.
Studying a book in audio engineering, to have better and better mixing techniques.
Edit: But, with a person like me it'll be impossible to do all of this with studying, cuz I have nothing to do with organizing time.

Deadnight: Andy LaRocque has just finished mastering our new EP. We are shopping around for a label to put it out.

Terminate: A side project I formed in the vein of Dismember, Entombed, Grave, Asphyx, etc. We just put out a 3 song demo and are working on new songs and getting our live lineup together.

well i'm just going with this week alone and thus far I have recorded some vocals for this song challenge thing and wrote a couple of ideas out guitar wise for one of my grind bands.

tmwr I hope to finish up vocals or get pretty damn close to completion and start mixing.

I'm doing some album art and logo tonight since I didn't bring my laptop home from my shed where i record.

I'm working on everything. Mainly speed and endurance, which have been coming slowly but surely. Creativity is another big thing, everything I play is kind of like "cool, but it's been done" kinda stuff.

Joined a thrash band a while ago, and hopefully will join a friend's death metal act soon.

I've just started up a band/project with a friend and I'm trying to write some songs to hopefully record a demo sometime soon. It's thrash, basically. Atleast so far.

I just wrote a song with my friend. Sounds something like the Pixies/Sonic Youth. He used his acoustic guitar and added distortion sounded really sweet. I've been dabbling in atmospheric music and strange tunings like

B G B F B flat D
which is weird I want to use Ostrich tuning as well sounds crazy.

I'm also playing bass in a hardcore punk band similar to Negative Approach. Our third practice is tomorrow and we are looking really good so far.

Currently I'm writing the final song for my EP "Hope Bleeds Eternal" which has been in the works forever. I'm also working on the first EP (I consider my first album a demo) for The Fall of the Heretic.

Promoting my second album, which you can hear at the link in my signature, recording a record with an indie rock band, writing music and lyrics for my future releases, practicing with my school based band, working on my rudiments and hand technique, expanding my jazz independence, etc.

Lots on my plate these days.

I once tuned my guitar in fifths, like a violin. The highest strings were not in fifths though, because they would snap if I tried to tune them like that. They weren't in fourths either. Anyway, it was so complicated I stopped doing so. I know King Crimson used this tuning occasionally.

At last I managed to adjust the sound on my recorder Micro Br so that I am satisfy with it. Now I am going to record guitar tracks (drum and bass lines are already done) of songs which I have chosen for the first Bequest's demo.

Just got my custom built guitar intoned. I love this thing more than anything in the world!

trying to resurect my current band, joining a technical hardcore band on bass, starting two death metal( althought one looks liek it's gonna turn out to be death core judging by the members we got) and one alternative like 90's style group. So yeah, 5 open projects at the moment!

sent some tapes off for review. about to record a couple tracks for a comp and writing a couple more jams before we record everything for a 7" and various other bullshit. booking a bunch of shows... it never ends.

Auditioned for Berklee yesterday, right now just working on writing better songs and technique and shit.

recorded vocals for a couple of projects, fucked around on drums... have to go replace the bottom head on my snare.

got a few tracks back in from the vocalist doing his shit on them and it's cum worthy. will be making a bandcamp for it soon.

As, always I'm recording ambient music. Me and my friend are attempting to make a demo. We're slowly learning...

As, always I'm recording ambient music. Me and my friend are attempting to make a demo. We're slowly learning. We play a mixture of thrash/rocknroll/doom.

here is the bandcamp to the project I spoke of a couple of posts ago:

http://shokushugoukan.bandcamp.com/album/tissisnalajrak

lately i've been taking a lot of influence from bands like meshuggah, confessor, and demilich, and just having fun incorporating weird shit into my playing. i just spent like half an hour playing just one riff, experimenting with shit until it sounded perfect, then playing the fuck out of it until it was in my muscle memory

i've been trying to write songs, but i'm too scatterbrained for that so i just get a bunch of riffs that go with each other. maybe i should just make a song out of them.

IDK if this is relevant since it's a noise release, but the Silence = Death Noise comp I was featured on just became available for purchase in the US...

It's also got tracks from Richard Ramirez (the Noise artist, not the Nightstalker ), Xiu Xiu, Paregorik, Where Is This, and plenty of others.

Also toying with reviving an old project for a split... One that was guitar-based, but largely ambient and textural with Black Metal and Shoegaze influences.

The recordings will probably be close to HNW and/or guitar Drone, but with added elements (textural guitar work, vocals).

Blackened HNW-gaze, I guess...

Band i play in (Among the Demons) just finished recording our demo and have been playing as many local shows as we can sink our teeth into. Also, started a more power/heavy metal band that for now is just cover tunes but been working on writing a couple songs.

Writing material for a tech thrash album I hope to release one day. Currently 2 out of around 11 songs are done. I am working on the closing 10+ minute track. It's been very difficult chaining the riffs together so they flow well. It's about 60% done, I suppose.

I'm just practicing guitar 20 mins every couple of days. Not really doing anything serious.

finished my vocals for this challenge and mixed it all. going to give it a couple of listens to see what needs to be tweaked.

Writing riffs. I've got a really cool one almost done at the moment, sort of an epic NWOBHM-ish feel to it.

The problem I have is more finding context for the riffs I write and finding ways to join them into coherent songs than in actually writing the riffs.

All those people telling they're writing stuff for their band makes me jealous. I wish I was in one.

Anyway, I'm learning Virgin Steele's ''The burning of Rome (Cry for Pompeli)''. It's a cool song; quite easy riffing and has a cool guitar solo which is easier than I expected. I'm expecting to this nail this song within a week or 2.

I've also finished transcribing the solo to Liege Lord's Master Control, but getting it up to speed is going to require a bit of work.

you can start as one man band you know

I'm just 17. Writing my own songs now would be hard. Right now I'm just looking for some people to play with. All the serious business will happend later.

Finishing up the first track, Loxodanta, for my black metal band Defecator.

I'm a little younger, yo. Just start out by making simple songs and once you've gotten the hang of things you can experiment a little more and make better music. Also, don't start songs, work on them and then never complete them. It's better to have a few okay, but finished songs than none at all. Also, I do stuff primarily by myself, but I have had a few friends contribute vocals and some guitar. If you don't have the resources to have a certain instrument or something, substitute and come back. I tap on shit with a ruler for drums and it actually sounds okay, considering it's black metal. Good luck!

I'm 18 and not in a band, and I still write some stuff. It figure that if I start writing now I'll have some material to already start working with if/when I join a band.

Do you write your own songs or just the riffs for a song? I write a riff once in a while but that's it basically. For now, I rather focus on songs I should learn to play on my audition. I might sign up for a musicschool, but am not too sure about it.

I write a bunch of riffs and then I'll jam out for awhile and if I play anything that sounds good with one of the riffs I'd previously written I experiment with some ideas of stuff that would go good with them.
I'm also 17 never recorded anything though due to lack of good equipment.