From f5aa45c7ac538ae3d28dcdb0c9a1af3972681fac Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Frederick Yin Date: Thu, 23 May 2024 19:22:09 +0800 Subject: New post: music/how_i_got_into_music --- docs/music/how_i_got_into_music.md | 100 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 100 insertions(+) create mode 100644 docs/music/how_i_got_into_music.md (limited to 'docs/music/how_i_got_into_music.md') diff --git a/docs/music/how_i_got_into_music.md b/docs/music/how_i_got_into_music.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..03b24d2 --- /dev/null +++ b/docs/music/how_i_got_into_music.md @@ -0,0 +1,100 @@ +# How I got into music + +I used to play: + +- drums + +Now I play: + +- bass +- ukulele +- a midi keyboard, if you even consider it an instrument + +## Early childhood + +I was not raised a music person. As a young kid I had near zero exposure +to formal music education. We would listen to Mandopop and Cantopop, and +mom would hum tunes while she did dishes, but that was it. + +There was once my parents picked up a 88-key keyboard for me at our local +supermarket in hope I might amount to something. I never did. Sorry mom +and dad :( + +## Drums & percussion + +In sixth grade I joined a brass and woodwind band as a percussionist (that +was before I wore braces; the conductor looked at my teeth and said +"nyeh"). For most of my band career I was in charge of the bass drum and +the drum kit, but I did learn the timpani a lil bit. My favorite +performance however was Takarajima, where I played the agogo (the soul of +this musical number, despite being just one bar over and over again). + +As a side effect, a disadvantage I had to all the other band kids was that +I can't really read pitch, only rhythm. I did not know what a Bb minor +was. + +## Ukulele + +Fast forward to 2021. The summer I graduated high school, I decided to +challenge myself to learn ukulele. My father got one secondhand for me. It +turned out you only need a tiny set of "easy" chords to get started. You +can sing in other keys with a capo. And if that doesn't work, the song +probably isn't made for the ukulele anyway. + +On my mom's birthday I sang her "House Of Gold". It remains my favorite +song to play on ukulele. + +## Bass + +The uke sounds pretty, sure, but I'm afraid my hands are too fat to press +adjacent frets (like D and Dm), and especially bar chords (B, Bm, etc). My +setlist effectively stopped expanding as of 2022. + +So near the end of winter break, early 2023, I took the other extreme and +invested in a bass (known in guitar world as long boi). It is a red Ibanez +GSR200 PJ bass, the only model that'll ship in 3 days. The date of arrival +is 2023-02-02. + +![Body of a red bass with stickers of Konqi, twenty one pilots, "Blåhaj +Simp" and "This Machine Kills +Homophobes"](img/how_i_got_into_music/ibanez.jpg) + +I learned most of my songs from [Rod +Nieder](https://www.youtube.com/@rodnieder). + +However only less than a week later I found out I was somehow admitted +into UMich. Afraid that the airline might wreck it, I decided not to take +it with me across the ocean. Instead, I bought a Squier that costs about +the same. (I know it makes no real difference, but I kinda prefer the +Telecaster-style headstock that has all pegs on one side.) + +!["Charcoal frost metallic" (grey and black) PJ bass in mint +condition](img/how_i_got_into_music/squier.jpg) + +## Keyboard + +Without a ukulele I couldn't record melodic sections. So I turned to +synths and samples in a DAW, such as LMMS and Ardour. At first I drew +notes with the mouse, but it soon proved slow and tiresome. It was also +too determinstic to be artistic. So in the final days of winter break, +January 2024, I looked on ebay for a MIDI keyboard. + +There were six keyboards on sale, and I placed a bid on probably three of +them. All of them were outbid soon. I was especially eyeing on an AKAI MPK +mini, a two-octave keyboard with eight drumpads and four knobs, and +I don't want the price to go crazy high. So I waited. + +Five minutes before the auction closed, I checked back on the price tag, +and it was $16.50. Tentatively, I bid 17. Moments later some bot bid 17.5. + +One minute before closing, I bid 18. Same bot outbid me again. + +Five _seconds_ before closing, I bid something like 19, and the next thing +I know is I won. But when I checked, my bid was 21.5. ebay apparently +helped me outbid the one who bid 21 by two seconds. It was only one second +before the auction closed. + +![MIDI keyboard next to a regular +keyboard](img/how_i_got_into_music/akai_mpk_mini_play.jpg) + +With a bit of channel/note mapping, it works flawlessly with Linux. -- cgit v1.2.3