1 Reply by jimmiesandgennies

(17 replies, posted in Bands and artists)

Its a very naive to group all drugs together. There's a whole lot of difference between pot and heroin for example. Recent studies show that alcohol and nicotine are more harmful than pot, e and acid.

Many great cultures in this world believe that drugs are an important part of spiritual development. Don't blame the drugs. Blame the loss of ritual.

As a songwriter, I have written my best songs sober but I usually formulate the ideas better while intoxicated. Most of the best songs I've written have come from times when I was into drugs and alcohol way over my head or when I was trying to sober up. The important lesson for any drug user is that soberity is also important. Sober moments are when you can put to use what you have learned from drugs. I believe that exploration of drugs can be a period of amazing growth in anyone's life but they have to be smart about it--make sure that some sort of spiritual exploration is involved in your drug use and make sure you pure stuff.

I once attended a Navajo peyote ritual and it is still one of the defining moments of my life. The ritual is important. Most drugs are plants and they were put here for us as tools. That said, you gotta use the right tool---you don't hammer nails with screwdrivers.

As for sex, its always better with someone you care about but a one night stand here and there can be a lot of fun.

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2 Reply by jimmiesandgennies

(9 replies, posted in Electric)

It just takes some time. Keep your fingers closer to the strings when your changing chords. If you get the buzzing sound while you are playing chords make sure your fingers are right behind the fret. If you play in the middle of the frets stuff will buzz and sound awful.

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3 Reply by jimmiesandgennies

(3 replies, posted in Guitars and accessories)

soft case is a lot easier if you want to walk places with your guitar. I've got a soft case that I can carry liek a backpack and it really convenient for going places with a guitar. Hard cases are really heavy and not really necessary unless your putting your guitar in a vehicle with a bunch of other gear or flying on plane. I switch to a hardcase when I fly places but the rest of the time the soft case is sufficient (and cheaper).

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4 Reply by jimmiesandgennies

(231 replies, posted in Chordie's Chat Corner)

Best bands ever and why (in no particular order)

The Beatles--most of their recordings were done live on one take. That's almost unheard of today.

Ten Thousand Creatures (Toronto indie band 2003-2007)--you can't help but dance and the lyrics have a new meaning everytime you hear them.

Sonic Youth--some of the most innovative use of tunings ever.

Smashing Pumpkins--okay the last two albums sucked but the first four were awesome. Mainly because of the drums.

CSNY--getting four guitar parts all working together is pretty difficult.

The Pixies--without the Pixies hair metal would still be popular.

Nirvana--mainly for the ability to combine genres and for being able to keep sych heavy music so melodic.

The Falling Trees (Toronto indie band 2005-present) this band is awesome because I get to play in it.

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5 Reply by jimmiesandgennies

(19 replies, posted in Acoustic)

Yahama makes a smaller version of guitar called a guitalele. Sounds like a guitar but its a bit higher. Just a bit bigger than a violin and in Canada they are about $100. You should be able to find one in most large music stores. I have one and it works well. I got it because I was walking across Canada. Use nylons string though and use a g string instead of the d string.  <img src="images/smiley_icons/icon_cool.gif" border=0 alt="Cool">

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6 Topic by jimmiesandgennies

(1 replies, posted in Bands and artists)

The Falling Trees new album entitled HIATUS is up on myspace in its entirety at www.myspace.com/thefallingtrees (since myspace will only let us upload four songs you will have to follow the links to find the other eight songs).

downloading, burning, sharing of this album is highly encouraged.

I sing,play guitar and harmonica in this band.

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7 Reply by jimmiesandgennies

(4 replies, posted in Bands and artists)

johnny cash, waylon jennings, willie nelson and kris kristophereson (spellings wrong) all used to be in a band called the highwaymen. i heard waylon jennings (in walk the line he's the lead guiatrist in cash's band) spent a lot of time kicking around central/south america pretending to be cowboy. johnny cash spun a lot of crazy stories not all of which are true. willie nelson owns a biodiesel gas station in texas. he did a lot to bring teh country crowd and the hippies together. merle haggard was too drunk to get out bed for years. all of those guys did time for fighting, drugs, general uproar. most of them were drug addicts/alcoholics at some point. check out townes van zandt if you like that kind of stuff.

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8 Reply by jimmiesandgennies

(9 replies, posted in Bands and artists)

no one likes a singer who isn't playing an instrument--especially the rest of the band. singers who don't play an instrument miss out on a lot aspects of the experience of being in the band because the singer can't really jam per se. it gets easier to sing and play guitar--you just have to know to play the guitar first. my friend once told me about singing and palying bass (which is even harder) that you have to convince you hands that they know how to play the songs and convince your mouth that it has something worth saying.

also, most singers who play guitar in bands only play rhythm guitar. someone else plays the lead parts. rhythm guitar is a whole lot easier.

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9 Reply by jimmiesandgennies

(5 replies, posted in Acoustic)

www/myspace.com/thefallingtrees

a toronto based band. i don't know exactly how to describe the music just go listen to it.

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10 Reply by jimmiesandgennies

(9 replies, posted in My local band and me)

a good way to meet other musicians is to go to open mics. bands will work a lot better if the other people in the band are the people you hang out with anyways. i'm kinda sceptical of the ad for band members thing because it assumes that band chemistry can happen between any random musicians and i'm not sure it can. also part of the problem of being a singer/songwriter looking for a band is that there are way more singer songwriters than bassists and drummers. good luck...

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11 Topic by jimmiesandgennies

(1 replies, posted in Other string instruments)

does anyone know anything about a chinese instrument called 'liu qin'. it is a smaller version of the 'pipa' and is a four string version of the western lute. if anyone knows where to find some info on tuning/chords/etc. it would be greatly appreciated. most of the info on this instrument is in chinese but i would really like to figure out how to play the one i have.

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12 Reply by jimmiesandgennies

(231 replies, posted in Chordie's Chat Corner)

Its the mindset of competition is the problem though learning how great musicians did things and try to do better is a good way to learn. I don't think that's competition. The first thing I do when I learn a new riff is try to figure out all the variations of it sound good and one will always sound better. Some people are better musicians than others and you are right in that it is so fun to be able to play a really great muscians song better than they can.

peaces

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13 Reply by jimmiesandgennies

(231 replies, posted in Chordie's Chat Corner)

Music shouldn't be a competition. Save that for sports. What's is beautiful about music is that different music has different values to it and different things to be appreciated. True, some music is better than other music but that kind of value judgement can only really be made based on technical skill and the integrity with which the musician goes about it. To identify any band as the best band would destroy everything that made them good. Such competitiveness makes us forget that music is supposed to bring people together.

peaces

a(J)

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