J
Jak Angelescu
Guest
BOOOYYYYY…. I’ve been learning a lot this last week. Mostly just how truly amazing this community really is. Before I begin with this, I just want to thank you ALL again for those who came to my live feed thing. I wanted to tell you all, that you gave a BIG amount of encouragement for my singer and I. For 15 years we pushed through SO much bullshit with music. We never could even get anyone stick because (literally, these are the reasons): I was too fat, she was too ugly to be the frontwoman, her voice was too rough, her attitude sucked, I couldn’t shred, we didn’t have enough money, I didn’t have the right gear, etc. I mean I could GO ON.
For 15 years we thought we were the only ones who cared about our own music. Then in my live feed someone said, “Let me hear one of your originals.” The whole room LIT UP with praise saying things like, “YES! Please! Share it with us!” I proceeded to play a ROUGH recording of a recorded intro of one of our songs, and the room loved it. We got so confident for once, my singer actually was excited to sing because people WANTED to hear her sing. They embraced her rawness. They recognized it was HER style. I’ll talk about why this is important to mention in a second.
The link with the tutorials was amazing. Along the way I’ve developed nicknames like “The Synner Girl”, “Syster Syn” and a few random others. And they’re all very flattering. But I don’t want to be a YouTube guitarist who’s known by walking in Synyster Gates’ footsteps. I firmly believe that when I first really got into his playing, the light came on and a door was open to a new path I was suppose to take. And there before me, laid his footprints. I wasn’t suppose to walk IN them, but beside them.
I really want to encourage all of you to do the same. In these sessions of #teachingsyn I learned something. It wasn’t about theory. It wasn’t about harmonizing. It wasn’t about solo structures at all. It was this…
You ALL have such a unique way of showcasing YOUR talent, and YOUR art.
Sometimes in the riffs section, covers dominate the field. And that’s okay. But when I listen to them, I realized I was critiquing the guitarist’s performance and technique based off of what I already KNOW the cover sounds like. I would say things like, “More vibrato, harder attack, get into it” etc.
And just today, I really watched one of Ids and Ekrem’s videos and realized something. Normally I would have wanted Ekrem to really pull that vibrato. And he didn’t. But it worked. His touch, his approach, was SOOOO soft. Effortless, really. Almost to a point where someone could call it ‘lazy’ had it been originally played by Malmsteen. But it was an original improv by Ekrem, and Ekrem’s dreamy touch of gentleness showed through. HIS STYLE SHOWED THROUGH. The same with Ids.
I hope this makes sense.
Sometimes we can get lost in comparing ourselves and the works of others to those we’ve already heard before. Ekrem and Ids (and myself) may never sound like Synyster Gates. And that’s ok. But they bring about a certain melodious feel to the guitar that is just truly…so…them. And I love it. I really do.
Also, stop criticizing your own work. I don’t believe in prodigies. I really don’t. I believe in passion and hard work. You take people like Mozart and Beethoven who all grew up in musical families and had the support of their fathers who were already musicians (with the exception that Beethoven’s dad was a harsh lunatic, he still supported his son). Mozart completed his first piece, Andante in C major at age 5. Beethoven at age 12 published his first work which was in C Minor. Both had supportive starts and families that had lineage in music.
Johann Strauss II wasn’t so lucky. His father was a composer of course, but utterly scolded and even beat the child for trying to learn that Strauss didn’t even really get to study music seriously until he was 19. And that was only because his father left.
So think of it this way. How did you start in music? I too had a father that taught me my first chords but I actually quit the guitar for 3 years because I couldn’t even practice without him coming into my room and tuning it as I was trying to play, telling me what I should and shouldn’t play, etc. Hell, he even does it to this day.
Support is really what can help make or break you. And that’s why I love this community. Hope you all enjoyed my ramble. I love you all very VERY much.
For 15 years we thought we were the only ones who cared about our own music. Then in my live feed someone said, “Let me hear one of your originals.” The whole room LIT UP with praise saying things like, “YES! Please! Share it with us!” I proceeded to play a ROUGH recording of a recorded intro of one of our songs, and the room loved it. We got so confident for once, my singer actually was excited to sing because people WANTED to hear her sing. They embraced her rawness. They recognized it was HER style. I’ll talk about why this is important to mention in a second.
The link with the tutorials was amazing. Along the way I’ve developed nicknames like “The Synner Girl”, “Syster Syn” and a few random others. And they’re all very flattering. But I don’t want to be a YouTube guitarist who’s known by walking in Synyster Gates’ footsteps. I firmly believe that when I first really got into his playing, the light came on and a door was open to a new path I was suppose to take. And there before me, laid his footprints. I wasn’t suppose to walk IN them, but beside them.
I really want to encourage all of you to do the same. In these sessions of #teachingsyn I learned something. It wasn’t about theory. It wasn’t about harmonizing. It wasn’t about solo structures at all. It was this…
You ALL have such a unique way of showcasing YOUR talent, and YOUR art.
Sometimes in the riffs section, covers dominate the field. And that’s okay. But when I listen to them, I realized I was critiquing the guitarist’s performance and technique based off of what I already KNOW the cover sounds like. I would say things like, “More vibrato, harder attack, get into it” etc.
And just today, I really watched one of Ids and Ekrem’s videos and realized something. Normally I would have wanted Ekrem to really pull that vibrato. And he didn’t. But it worked. His touch, his approach, was SOOOO soft. Effortless, really. Almost to a point where someone could call it ‘lazy’ had it been originally played by Malmsteen. But it was an original improv by Ekrem, and Ekrem’s dreamy touch of gentleness showed through. HIS STYLE SHOWED THROUGH. The same with Ids.
I hope this makes sense.
Sometimes we can get lost in comparing ourselves and the works of others to those we’ve already heard before. Ekrem and Ids (and myself) may never sound like Synyster Gates. And that’s ok. But they bring about a certain melodious feel to the guitar that is just truly…so…them. And I love it. I really do.
Also, stop criticizing your own work. I don’t believe in prodigies. I really don’t. I believe in passion and hard work. You take people like Mozart and Beethoven who all grew up in musical families and had the support of their fathers who were already musicians (with the exception that Beethoven’s dad was a harsh lunatic, he still supported his son). Mozart completed his first piece, Andante in C major at age 5. Beethoven at age 12 published his first work which was in C Minor. Both had supportive starts and families that had lineage in music.
Johann Strauss II wasn’t so lucky. His father was a composer of course, but utterly scolded and even beat the child for trying to learn that Strauss didn’t even really get to study music seriously until he was 19. And that was only because his father left.
So think of it this way. How did you start in music? I too had a father that taught me my first chords but I actually quit the guitar for 3 years because I couldn’t even practice without him coming into my room and tuning it as I was trying to play, telling me what I should and shouldn’t play, etc. Hell, he even does it to this day.
Support is really what can help make or break you. And that’s why I love this community. Hope you all enjoyed my ramble. I love you all very VERY much.
and Dan, I have noticed that about you. You really should stop being so hard on yourself. When your hard on yourself, you stop the creative process right dead in its tracks and you don’t know what you really can do because You don’t give yourself the chance to try
