Howdy. I'm Mike. I'm 22, and have been playing guitar for 10+ years. The first song I learned was House of the Rising Sun (the Animals) from my dad. I have traditionally played metal and nu-metal, and I learned most of my guitar by copying System of a Down's guitarist, so I'm great at rhythm (at least when using drop-D as a crutch). I have an open chord fetish, and I play them so much that bar chords are almost foreign to me (but not completely). I have played mostly metal when in a band or stage setting, but I recently joined an indie-rock band named Sylar (no relation to the phenomenal show Heroes, which I incidentally love to death) and I'm trying to song-write and play softer music. I've taken the distortion off for the first time in my life (lol?) and really learning to listen to the music (wooooaaahhhh, all the time). That's what brings me here! When you play metal, there aren't really any rules except downtune, play fast, and be brutal. "Real" music, or more mainstream stuff, I think requires a leetle bit more patience, perspective, and musical ability. I look forward to the next few years as I really start to get serious about my craft, and hope that this community and website will help me along the way. Greetings =D
Stuff:
Custom Fender Strat (Cherry red, gold plated hardware, Mexican)
1979 25th Anniv. Fender Strat
Ibanez Somelongcodehere Electric-Acoustic
Crate 120W combo amp
Crate 15W practice amp
Marshall 15W practice amp
Line 6 Pod x3 Live
Mapex Mars 5-piece Drum Kit
Some badass midi keyboard
Mixcraft 5
FL Studio
I also had a really old Yamaha acoustic and my first guitar was a BC Rich Warlock, but those were both stolen by a crackhead. Bummer.
Thanks for the read =D
Welcome to the forums Mike. That is my dad's name too! There is a really solid community here and the forum is an amazing information resource. Make sure to search around because just about anything you could possibly think of relating to guitar has probably been discussed before!
Well, welcome to Guitarnoise, Mike! You've come a long way already, got a lot of guitar playing hours under your belt - and now you're trying to expand your musical horizons. Good for you!
One suggestion I can make as to starting to write songs - drop in on the Sunday Songwriters Group. A different suggestion every week to write lyrics around - great practise for writing, even if you don't get a "keeper" out of it every week. I have seen some really good songs start life there, though....
All the best!
:D :D :D
Vic
"Sometimes the beauty of music can help us all find strength to deal with all the curves life can throw us." (D. Hodge.)
