Drumming

Sunday 22 June 2014

The cost of keeping your hobby alive and my latest offering

Heh folks, I have struggled to find a name for my upcoming E.p. but it looks like I am settling on "Ready for Jammin", which I named after my website.  I am slowly building this site to help new people with guitar lessons to eventually helping more experienced musicians who still struggle to complete there songs.

I will also put forward some of my ways to keep the financial side of jamming and practicing and recording at home, down to a minimum, but still maintaining a reasonable standard of quality.

I feel this encompasses and conveys what I am trying to achieve, and that is to help others like myself, who have struggled at various stages in there musical journey "for what ever the reason", and need encouragement to continue there respective music journeys. 

I have placed a link here to my 4th song from this E.p. Seven colored rainbows, to show that with very little financial output, you can achieve results far beyond what money you put into it.

This song was originally recorded on my four track recorder some 15 years ago, I payed $300 for the machine.
My Yamaha acoustic guitar I bought at an auction, cost me $200, back in 1989. [I still think I payed to much].

I re-recorded it again about five years ago on my P.C. They were old computers people were throwing away, that weren't working, so I grabbed them and got them running again, another good way to save money. Another inportant point here is to learn how to be self-sufficient. It doesn't cost anything if you completely destroy a computer if it's already stuffed, but if you can get it running again, then that becomes priceless. The cost of PC repairs can quickly add up, so get tinkering on those golden oldies before dumping them. I have lashed out altogether on my computers over the past 7 yrs, is $125, which is that skeletal looking thing below in the pic. The one underneath it, is 15 yrs old and it spent 2 yrs by the seaside, and it still works. They don't make them like they used to.


I also did the Bass using my Yammy acoustic guitar, and dropping it one octave using "cool edit pro 2.0". [Most editing software including free ones "audacity" will have that option to drop or raise pitch]. It also allows you to remove unwanted noise hiss and clean your songs up.

Another thing I am doing is going through [Deal Extreme] to buy my guitar strings [$5], guitar winder and other accessories. They're cheap, but there is a wait involved. [about 3-4 weeks for shipping]. Worth checking out if money is a concern for you. I haven't received my guitar strings as yet, but the reviews indicate, that there not the greatest quality, but good enough to practice with and hopefully record. I will keep you posted on that one.

Though, doing everything on the cheap isn't for everyone, it is sometimes necessary if you don't have the initial finances to throw around. One thing it does do, is it makes you squeeze every bit of ability out of yourself to get the best possible results from your equipment.

What results have you been able to achieve from your equipment and do you have any other good money saving tips?

 http://www.readyforjammin.com/







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