In search of a mentor/collaborator

Do you have a project proposal that should involve music? Looking for collaborations? See if the community would like to help you.
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In search of a mentor/collaborator

Postby Electric Velocity » 27 Jan 2014 06:23

I'm looking for someone to work with me and to learn from so I can improve my music making skills and get experience. I have done collaborations in the past, but haven't been able to learn much from them. I want learn everything from scratch and work my way up.

I'm a musician who is still waiting on the starting line. I've been making music for a year and a half now, and I can't actually say I know much about it. Most of my life I wasn't exposed to much diversity as far as genres or famous artists, so I never really developed a favorite type of music until recently. I've tried my best to listen and study the music I like, but as all musicians know, it's hard to figure out how to correctly produce the sound in your head. Basically, I'm looking for a way to build a foundation for my music so I can get to a point where I'll be able to decide the direction I want to go.

Some people have said my objectives and standards are too precise. I want to work on a specific type of music with a specific goal in mind. I'm aware that if anyone wants to help me or work with me, I'll have to broaden my scope, but in order to find the right type of person, I think it would be best to narrow down my search.

Here's some of the things I'm looking for. Not all criteria have to be met, I'm just trying to get across what I need.

-Someone who knows a fair amount about composition and song structure.

-Someone who knows how to play a musical instrument. (Guitar, piano, trumpet, drums)

-Someone either older than me who knows about older bands, or someone with experience such as college courses or just generally growing up in a musical environment.

-Someone who can spend time chatting on skype or elsewhere. Meeting in person is probably totally out of the question, but it would be very awesome if I could practice making music in the same room.

Most importantly, I want to find someone who enjoys or at least appreciates the same type of music I do. It's hard to work with someone who is totally focused on one sort of music which you only barely like or know about. I don't want to be the person who seems stubborn or selfish when doing a collaboration.

Here's the type of music I want to work on:

-Disco

-Nu Disco

-Funk

-House

-Jazz (Probably some form of electronic since I don't have a full band to work with)

-Anything resembling Daft Punk and their different albums.

I want to basically follow in their footsteps and go back to older disco tracks and imitate or revive them. I'm not saying I want to rip off anyone and claim to be the next big thing, I just want to make music that has soul and makes you want to dance.

I'll make a quick point here that I'm not looking to make much pony stuff, even though I'm posting this on a brony musicians site, and don't want to disappoint anyone who might want to throw in remixes from the show or something. I'm totally down for doing that as a side project, but right now I'm just trying to get a fix on how I make my music before I direct it towards a fandom.

I use FL Studio 11 currently and still have a lot to learn as far as synth making and mixing. Mastering is a pain, but I'm not too worried about it at the moment.

Here's the link to my soundcloud. https://soundcloud.com/electric-velocity

I don't have everything on there mostly because I ran out of minutes, but some of the songs represent the style I'm going for mostly. I'd say the songs that best get across what I want are, Music Takes Ahold of Me, Never Stop The Sound, Shining Through, and Get Down and Dance. They're far from perfect, but everyone has to have a start, right? I have a few other songs on there that I'm proud of, but are not at all what I'm asking for here. In the future I might focus more on electro house or more popular genres, but for now I want to learn what I can about the basics so that when I put what I know to the test, it doesn't require tons of tweaking to make it sound right.

If anyone sees this and decides they want to collaborate or just offer general advice, feel free to reply or send me a message. I may not post much on here, but I'm on fairly often. Thank you for reading this.
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Re: In search of a mentor/collaborator

Postby ClaviSound » 27 Jan 2014 09:05

Yo, jazz is awesome, man. I don't meet enough jazz people in my life.

-Been composing piano licks and ditties for years, nothing's recorded to show you unfortunately.

-Played piano for over ten years, guitar on and off for two. I'm learning bass guitar, and I can play basic rhythms on drumsets.

-Been in jazz bands or ensembles since middle school, so I would say I grew up with the genres you mention, jazz in particular.

-Unless you live in New Mexico, I doubt we'll ever meet face-to-face, but I do have a Skype, and I'm on it pretty regularly when I'm not attending college classes.

Honestly, listening to your uploads on Soundcloud, you seem to be doing very well even without help. Very funky stuff, man. I probably can't help you with the finer points of FL Studio, but if you want compositional or theoretical advice, I can do my best.

Anyway, if you want, you can hit me up on Skype. You can just search "Clavi Hopkins" and you'll probably find me, my avatar's the same as the one on MLR.
aka Scott Hopkins aka Swerve Keystyle aka Equestrian Threat: https://www.youtube.com/c/EquestrianThreat

I can't type cursive, so I don't know what's supposed to go in my signature.

Don't quote me.
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Re: In search of a mentor/collaborator

Postby Freewave » 27 Jan 2014 10:04

I just want to vouch for EV which is why i recommended the forum to him. I really i wish i had the time to work with another musician directly and help them more but my workload is obviously pretty full. He's off to a wonderful start and i hope that working with some more people he can gain even more skills and knowledge. I will say that the greatest teacher we have has to be ourselves; Reading, making music, learning from mistakes, and watching tutorials has to be a journey that we all accomplish to become better.

Here's a checklist i've made in the past if it helps
http://mlpfanart.wikia.com/wiki/User_bl ... _to_end%29
And if you want to make music for THIS fanbase here's another
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=9006
Links for my music: YouTube, Bandcamp, and Tumblr
Check out the Brony Music Directory and FimMusic. A portal for all pony music
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Re: In search of a mentor/collaborator

Postby Stu Beef » 02 Feb 2014 23:35

Gotta say, I went through your soundcloud and I'm diggin it. Obviously your visible output is pretty derivative, but you clearly have a solid ear. I guess I'm just automatically impressed whenever someone younger can make something that's enjoyable (especially when I consider what my attempts were just a few years ago), not to discredit you tho. The production isn't bad; you'll get better with time and guides and experimentation and all that. Your style is very simple. It's a nice ride but nothing really sticks with you. Again, you'll figure that out with time.

Your request is kind of interesting...in several ways. You seem to be communicating opposing things:
You don't really know where you're going, you just want to find a starting point

and

You have a specific style/sound you want to recreate, namely Daft Punk?

If it's the former, you can just keep doing what you're doing, man. Keep listening, creating and learning. Let ideas come to you. Let yourself be shaped by life. All that stuff Freewave said.
If it's the latter, what do you need help for? Keep trying to copy them (and I mean to a T) and maybe you'll veer off a bit and end up finding something you like...or maybe you'll just get really good at sounding like someone else, which isn't a bad skill to have.

Of course, it can be both. No one's asking you to sign a contract that anchors you to doing one thing for the rest of your life (not yet, anyway). I just find this an odd, and rather forward request. Asking to collab on something is one thing, but putting out there that you want a dedicated teacher (a mentor even; something fairly intimate) takes some stones...or something else. Seems like you'd do fine on your own, maybe some minimal guidance and advice, but you'll probably improve either way if you try.

I suppose I'm just unclear on your intentions. Not that I distrust your sincerity, I just wonder where your ambitions are. I think you have a better idea of what you need than anyone on here at the very least. If you're already following in someone's footsteps, how can anyone else guide you along them? If you did really want to work closely with someone I'd imagine you'd have to have some existing respect for them, as in you would have to decide that they are someone worth taking after y'know. It's not something you put the word out on, it's something you find for yourself.

But of course there's dudes on here who would be happy to show you the ropes: the basic ones. Again, I think you can learn all of that on your own; maybe pop in here every now and again to get some fresh ears on something you're working on, but otherwise just you. I dunno if any of this was helpful or not...there's really no need to spend a whole lot of time pondering all these words; just keep at it.
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Re: In search of a mentor/collaborator

Postby Stuntddude » 03 Feb 2014 23:43

Freewave wrote:Here's a checklist i've made in the past if it helps
http://mlpfanart.wikia.com/wiki/User_bl ... _to_end%29

Good god, I'm just sitting here reading through this entire checklist and answering "no" to almost every single question... how do I even get up in the morning and make music, ever? This list makes me feel like I need to re-evaluate my entire life.
Notebook Memories, the debut album from yours truly, is currently up on my bandcamp for free. Any feedback, encouragement, hate mail, etc. is highly appreciated! Even just listening is pretty cool of you tbh.
eery wrote:Next gen gaming: Just fucking get a dog.
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Re: In search of a mentor/collaborator

Postby S.P.P » 05 Feb 2014 02:37

Yo, grab me on Skype (pyr3light) and I'll try to help you out. A collab may be pushing it a little because in pressed for time as of late; but I study audio engineering and I've played guitar for 10 years, hopefully I can help. :3
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Re: In search of a mentor/collaborator

Postby Electric Velocity » 05 Feb 2014 20:23

Stu Beef wrote:
Your request is kind of interesting...in several ways. You seem to be communicating opposing things:
You don't really know where you're going, you just want to find a starting point

and

You have a specific style/sound you want to recreate, namely Daft Punk?



Well, I mostly want to imitate Daft Punk in my electronic music, but eventually move on to my own style once I find it. That's something I want to do just to get a hold on it. I want someone to teach me other things like chord progressions for specific genres I like and live recording with vocals and guitar and drums. I want to focus on older music because of two things. First, because I hear it less often than I'd like, and want to get other people to hear it. Second, because pretty soon I see Disco coming full circle, and it's good to be ahead of the times before they pass you by. Daft Punk didn't really do anything new to Disco, but they helped bring it back. I want to add my own twist on that era and hopefully get a system down for making that kind of music regularly.

I do mostly know what I want, and it's hard to find others who want the same. I'm willing to admit I don't know everything I should, so that's why I'm looking for someone who could teach me. I don't want to stick to the same thing forever, but I at least want to have something to stand on before I go and try to be super original.
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Re: In search of a mentor/collaborator

Postby Marshmelon » 06 Feb 2014 11:26

Chord progressions of different Genres: Wikipedia
Live recording with vocals, guitar, and drums: Youtube. Also, a really nice microphone would be nice, but I can't recall if dynamic or condenser is better for, like, guitar. You might just want to stick with synthesized drums unless you have a drumset and a ton of equiptment already at your disposal.

Thank god somebody is bringing back disco (which I actually really enjoy, despite it being a joke all my life). If you do make pony music, try hitting up Mallard and see if you can convince him to progress Equestrian Hype into funk and disco, and you can be the premier artist on that in-character "label".

Good luck finding a father figure, though. Might be a better idea to just hang around musician's forums-- not necessarily just this one-- and ask a question when you want it, and post wips every so often. The bronymusic chat here is good for that sometimes, too, depending on who's logged in.
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Re: In search of a mentor/collaborator

Postby Freewave » 07 Feb 2014 08:37

Sorry to chime in here as i feel like I've been dodging you a bit when I too love disco, we live in the same state and maybe the same city, and I know I really do admire what you've been able to do so far. It's always good to look for a collab partner and its natural for you to look for someone for guidance on filling in what you don't know. I wish i could be that guy but I'm just too busy and I'm afraid 90% of musicians have their own projects and tracks going on too. My advice is to be as self-sufficient as you can be; watch loads of youtube tutorials, know your daw and vst's, find the samples you need, and learn what artists do to get the sounds you want (daft punk did a ton of sampling before their current album and french house is notoriious for it). If you find a collab partner to handle vocal or guitar duties that could be your best bet but its going to be really hard for someone to give you the hands on help on production you're ideally looking for. You're luckily starting out with a great proficiency already. Definitely take full advantage of skype chats and mlr for feedback on what to improve but don't forget that making music is something with a steep learning curve and with mistakes that will be made. Don't let that stop you from making and putting out music.... ;)
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