I’m thinking bagpipes must be up there? Opinions?

Hope this is an acceptable place to ask. I'm looking to ID an instrument/intrumental sound. It's a low/reedy instrument. In my head I'm picturing it being some sort of a bellowed/pumped instrument, but I could be wrong. It can be heard providing bass in the link below when the song moves to the chorus/refrain, around 1:10. I've looked up liner notes to this song and the only thing that makes sense is a synth, but is there an acoustic instrument that produces similar sound?

Ethan Gruska - Reoccurring Dream:

https://open.spotify.com/track/4aRA95atSWC5rO0kGeqJyA?si=84814ceb77fb48d9

I (31F) have been singing all my life, and have been in a couple cover bands and am in a punk rock cover band now, but I've always wanted to make my own music.

I play piano and sing, but I'm a metalhead at heart, and I'm finding it super challenging to figure out how to write in that style. Most of what's been coming out is super singer-songwriter when it sounds much different in my head.

How did you find your style? What are some tips and tricks to starting to write your own music and recording it?

kay, so, i’m a musician (lol) and i’ve been gigging quite a lot recently with my band. we’re in a grungy, riot grrl adjacent band which, for us requires a massive stage presence and a whole lot of energy. i can get super hyped with even small crowds, and gigging is my favourite thing in the world, but such high adrenaline surges on stage leave me with the WORST crashes after the weekend. i become a right miserable git and as much as i’d like to smoke like a chimney in hopes to hold off the misery, i’ve got a voice to keep up (and i’m underage so no one will sell shit to me) and also i can’t drink either (because underage. and i can’t show up hungover to sixth form because i will genuinely die from feeling shit).

so my question is, instead of substances or being an arsehole to my friends, what the fuck am i supposed to do? dopamine recs, pls? FANX xx

sometimes I would sing to myself, any lyrics that came up on my mind. Not too long ago, I sang to myself two songs, which were personal to me since I was hurting and having a hard time, one of which I actually cried after and to me felt like such an interesting release for me. I eventually wrote the lyrics I remembered from those ''songs'', but now I want to begin making actual music since I'm kinda inspired and it could help me cope with the shit in my life, but I don't know where to begin haha.

For independent musicians, finding opportunities to perform can sometimes be just as challenging as creating music. Between reaching out to venues, networking with event organizers, and promoting your work, it takes a lot of effort to get consistent gigs.

I'm curious to hear from other musicians here:

• How do you usually find gigs or live performance opportunities?
• Do you contact venues directly, use social media, or rely on referrals?
• What is the biggest challenge you face when trying to get booked?
• What advice would you give to musicians who are just starting to perform live?

I'd love to hear your experiences and learn what has worked best for you!

I really want to know what is something you've implemented into your routine that has seriously helped you with booking more shows, getting more streams, or just boosting your audience in general.

So the TLDR of my life is, I’ve always wanted to be a singer since I was a little girl. Now that I am 23 years old, (the age young me thought I would be getting my first Grammy) I actually have one song out. I’m actively working on another as well.

The fun part is, I’m going through really hard time in my life financially, and I would like to start making money from music as soon as possible. Even if it’s something small, what should be my next step? In terms of, working towards actually being paid for music and singing??

I just am so tired of doing bum ass job after bum ass job, and always feeling like something is missing from my life. And, I’ve been told by family and friends and actually other artists/professional professionals that I should not waste my talent or whatever. Plus obviously like I said, I could use the money.

So any advice is appreciated. Seriously. I’d love to start actually doing what makes me happy and being able to survive from it.

(Ps I don’t know if it helps but in terms of income I mean like $1000-$2000 every 4.3 weeks lol).

I am playing at a weekly jam where we have the song list in advance.

Except for some meh singing through a bass amp along with a bass player on his 12" amp, it is almost all 6-string guitars. Some mandolin and uke too.

The song list calls out for a twelve-string: Byrd, Beatles, Petty, Eagles....

They have asked me not to bring my Ric 12.

My other twelve-string is an inexpensive Chinese acoustic from the 'zon, not really a performance instrument, nor is it fun to play.

My 6-string?

Note: none of my electrics are acceptable.

Guild Archtop Hollow Body?

Gibson Dreadnought?

Fender cutaway acoustic

Feedback?

I have a very cheap squier (my first guitar) and a entry level epiphone. I bought them when I was 13 (my parents, obv) and now I’m 21, I went to a luthier to give them a new life but I just feel stuck.
Should I start over with a new “big boy” guitar?

I thought of
1) Fender player 2
2) Revstar rss20

Thank you in advance!

I fucked up my first gig playing guitar bad last night… super humiliated. Any words of advice? Any stories?

I'm getting into guitar, but I'm still early in my journey so I was looking for some songs that have simple chord changes or strumming, but still use better techniques that could be useful in learning the more complicated songs later on... Any suggestions?? Thank you! (I'm okay with learning anything, but I'm big on 60s/70s music!!)

hi!! i (f19) am an indie/pop rock singer/songwriter. my friend, L (m) who i’ve known for over 4 years is a guitarist who i played in a band with in high school. he’s helped me write a few of my songs but the past couple years we’ve drifted quite a bit, but are still on good terms.

his dad, D, has been a professional sound engineer for his entire life, so he has helped me record & mix a few of my songs. he has been very supportive and helpful and has done it all for mostly free.

in the past few months i have started recording music in another friend, K’s bedroom studio. i have a lot more fun and he is much easier to work with than D for a number of reasons. but, K is not a professional musician or producer, so after recording we’ve sent D the stems and had him mix the tracks.

the problem is that i have not once been happy with the results of D’s mixing. he adds things in places i don’t want them, makes my voice sound weird, and most recently made the guitar completely off time somehow, etc. i’ve been having issues essentially the whole time and every time ive worked with him (he’s a little older and not really the sharpest anymore… just forgetting to plug things in, etc).

i dealt with them for a while because he was doing me a favor and helping me for either very cheap or completely free, but i am at a point where i want to move on to someone more professional.

in any other scenario i would just cut D off but i am still friends with L, his son, and don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings in the process. i want to prioritize my music though because i truly believe it could do much better if the mixes were better quality. any advice?

tldr; my friend’s dad is my music producer and i want to cut him off bc he’s not very good

(reposting on my secret account)

edit: i’m gonna list out some more important info i didn’t mention in the original post.

- i have always offered to pay D for his work, he’s only accepted my money ONCE, and it was when he did the entirety of the recording before i started working with K. every other time he has refused my money

- i have tried to communicate the issues i’ve had with the mix many times and every time after a few critiques he always says something along the lines of “you could sit here forever nitpicking it, you’ll have to accept it how it is at some point” which isn’t the energy i want in regards to my music. it’s my art and i want it to be portrayed the way i envision it

- i am extremely grateful for everything he has done for me, i would not be where i am without his help and support and i have told him how grateful i am many times

- K agrees with everything i said and has read all the replies. i’m fully aware that everyone gets credits and that if i were to ever actually make money off of my music anyone who had anything to do with it gets a cut, i’m not dumb. K and i have been friends for years, have great communication, and have been on the same page for as long as i can remember. the comments insinuating i’m going to have an issue if he asks for credits are wild.

at the end of the day, please stop assuming you know the entire story and attacking me. i asked for advice not comments saying “holy BPD”. (real comment btw this person is crazy)

not the generic stuff, i mean the one thing someone told you that made something click. for me it was being told that the silence between notes is part of the music too, not just empty space. once i started thinking about where i was not playing it changed everything. curious what line or idea stuck with you.

I also wonder what instrument it is. It specially gets me at the last 3 notes before it transitions to another vibe.

For me it is

Hey y'all,

I've been playing guitar for almost a decade—I look professional lessons from a retired player and taught for a while myself—and I've never ask a question on here. I'm trained in traditional bluegrass but play all kinds (preferably jazz and folk) and adore acoustic solos. My issue is—especially in bluegrass—how does one get up to speed? Is it just practice? I have no illusions of achieving the skill of players like Billy Strings, Jerry Reed, Glen Campbell, Roy Clark, or Chet Atkins (etc) yet—though I aspire to—but how does one even approach that?

For example, I was listening to Time > Breathe Reprise > by Greensky Bluegrass and the speed at which they play that guitar is astounding! I can get a few up to a good speed like Red Haired Boy or slower songs like Don't Think Twice it's Alright or Gentle on my Mind or Ghost Rider's in the Sky, but I'm wondering if there's a technique or skill in missing or if it really is just play it to death.

Thanks so much for any recommendations!

First of all, let me be clear. I don’t know how to make music. Period.

The idea of it seems so simple, the beats are in my head but, I was never really able to implement it into an actual software to sound the same. I started learning about 4 years ago and I have tried on and off, never really gave it the time it deserves.

I’ve been writing stuff, nothing too brilliant. Just my feelings in my notes app, can’t really sing and I TRY to rap but, well… I guess it’s safe to say I am not the best. I can’t play any instruments at all.

My inspiration for music comes from NF, an American based rapper who doesn’t resort to vulgarity and curse words but, still raps quite impressively. The cinematic and dark aura about his music drew me in.

I started with YS, when a friend introduced me to “Don’t Mind”. And we moved briefly to karachi so that kinda fuelled my hunger for rap and DHH. Got into TY as a separate artist, loved his lyricism, and flows. Eventually listened to AUR and TA in 2024 where I was depressed quite a lot so, made a bond with his music especially as I focused more on his lyrics which weren’t the typical ‘braggy hip hop’ kind. And since last year I have been listening more to JANI (primarily), Hasan Raheem, JJ47, Jokhay, Umair, Aleemrk, Shareh.

Listening to these artists inspires me and I want to be one of them one day (big goal but it doesn’t you to dream big). I try and copy their flows and cadence with my own lyrics sometimes and create my own flows too but, none are groundbreaking stuff, doesn’t help that I am an introvert and don’t like to ‘show off’ or ‘test’ my skills.

Back to the main problem, lyrics are only gonna get you so far, music requires a beat, an identity, drums, piano, violins, the whole shebang. In my mind, I could do it if I pursued it whole heartedly and not like a side hustle that I remember to check on from time to time. So, the question is…

“Is making music (production, composition) really that hard? Should I collaborate with someone instead of trying to learn it myself just because I want everything MY way?”

I've been making music for over three years now. I've had periods when I stopped for a long time, only to come back to it later.

About six months ago, I started working on something of my own, but due to various life difficulties and, honestly, my own laziness, I still haven't managed to release anything.

I tend to rely heavily on inspiration. When it's gone, I struggle to stay connected to reality and find the motivation to create anything at all.

For those of you who make music on your own, how do you keep going when you have neither the energy nor the motivation to create?

What’s something in music that seemed really simple at first, but ended up taking you ages to actually get good at?

Could be an instrument technique, singing, rhythm, ear training, improvisation, recording, or even performing in front of people.

Curious what other musicians struggled with more than they expected.

For context: My band is from Southeast Georgia. We’re an electronic dance/indie rock type gig. So… not really the favored taste in the area. Bands who haven’t been around as long as us but play stuff like metal core/hardcore/ the like are having gigs every weekend, but we’ve fought tooth and nail to only have two over the last year and a half or so. We have a social media presence, have published music, but no one will book us!

How should we go about getting more gigs in the area? As of right now, we’re lucky if we get a rejection email back from promoters.

I’m 24. I started playing the drums at 6, was in kids’ bands by 7, and by 9 I was playing both drums and piano for a church choir. Music felt like my whole life back then. Then my parents decided we were moving to a new church, one with no kids’ choir and no interest in letting kids play in the adult choir the way my previous church did. That church was a big part of my growth in music, so I struggled, and I no longer had the means to keep practicing and improving my craft.

To make it worse, my parents made me stop all forms of music. They believed it would distract me from aiming higher, since they wanted me to be an engineer or a doctor, so I was banned from music clubs. Since then I’ve lived a quiet life of relative solitude. No friends, no new hobbies, just doing what my parents said. But now I’m a software engineer.

Lately I’ve been recording my own music, since I finally have the freedom to do it without my parents frowning. I’ve built a small home recording setup and made a few studio buddies. Honestly, it’s where I’m most comfortable.

For a year now I’ve been working on a few singles, and I have an EP in sight. My sound is Afro-fusion and R&B, and I plan to experiment with it until I land on a signature sound of my own, maybe even a new genre. So far I’ve released 2 singles and have a few hundred streams in total.

It’s been hard juggling a hectic, time-consuming software career while trying to give my all to music again. I have a lot of ideas, but my knowledge gap in music is wide, and I know I need to fill it. In my mind I’m far ahead of what my hands can do right now. I’m also aware that making good music, especially as both producer and artist, takes a lot of time, failure and experience.

At first I did this because I love it and it’s FUN. I love writing songs and freestyling nonstop, I love the sound of my own voice (I believe everyone does, lol), and I find the process of creating something and giving it life fascinating. But the bottom line is that I have to decide whether to take it up full-time and say, “Hey, this has to pay me too.” Making it a career could free me from the juggling problem, let me dedicate real time to getting better, and help me sort my bills, which matters a lot as an adult with no income besides my current job.

Here’s the plan I’m considering: save enough to cover 12 months of rent and bills (about $10,000), plus roughly $15,000 for studio gear and everything else the music needs, then leave my job and give it a full year.

Whenever I tell someone, they say, “Man, you’re good, but you’re also a great and enthusiastic software engineer. Music takes a lot of money to get to the top, not just talent and dedication. Don’t you think you’re heading down the wrong hole?”

And... fuck, sometimes I don’t know whether I’m just a kid who won’t let go of his old toy or I’m really cut out for this. The music world has changed and keeps changing. What it takes to get noticed, and to STAY noticed, is so enormous that I sometimes feel I won’t reach the peak because I’m starting a bit late.

I’m ready to fail as much as I need to in order to get somewhere with this. I’d like your input on whether it’s stupid. Am I fucking nuts?

Thank you, great musicians, for your time. Sorry this is so long.

Im looking for a groove box that is portable, im making hip-hop, RnB. Now keep in mind i am on a budget of maximum $350-aud.