Music – exercises and scales, voice

I'm continuing to study music. My musical journey continues. I practice bass guitar, electric guitar, and synthesizer. I've also added scales for voice. I've started again. Again, from scratch. I'm used to it, as they say. I'll write about it. My own music blog, so to speak.

I've been making definite progress. I tried to play something almost every day. Well, I'd pick up songs from bands I like. For example, space rock – Hawkwind. Or gothic rock – Sisters of Mercy, Siouxsie, Cure. That's about bass guitar and electric guitar. I practiced synthesizer from a textbook. And from a blogger, I started playing synthesizer from scratch.

I think I've achieved something in my own progression. But it's clear that I'm having a hard time following such professional musicians. I'm following them crookedly. And I spend a long time learning each bar. It's like a wake-up call. That, let's say, I'm not practicing quite right. I needed some kind of technical foundation. Scales and exercises.

Then I got sick, a cold. With some elements of COVID. A kind of mixture and mutation. Eight weeks. And I played poorly or was unable to play. Then, when I started coming back, I started watching musicians online. Bloggers. How they teach. What exercises they show.

And then I was back. Week after week, I was coming back. Right day by day. First week. Monday, I played bass guitar for 50 minutes. Second week. I added Tuesday, 50 minutes on electric guitar. Then the third week. Wednesday, I added synthesizer for 50 minutes. Then the next week. Thursday, I added voice, scales for about 20 minutes with breaks. Maybe two minutes nonstop. Or five minutes, maximum.

That's what I have now. And now I play exercises, scales. All sorts of things like that. To train the technical side. That's what concerns the instruments. Bass guitar, electric guitar, synthesizer. So, I'm starting from the beginning. After a break. Now technique. Exercises. It's just that I couldn't start right away with scales and exercises. Because I'm a music listener. And I want to play like such-and-such a band, in such-and-such a genre. Let's say, smash space rock like Hawkwind. Or shed tears like Sisters of Mercy.

I've already seen some smart advice. Exercises and technique—yes, that's it. But you also need to try to start playing pieces that interest you. Now I'm on that path. Exercises and technique. I'm already doing that. And I need to add more pieces. The same ones I learned before the break. Maybe something else. Something simpler. Maybe some instructional pieces by genre. Whichever ones are interesting.

I also started adding voice. I won't call it singing or vocals. I just added voice. That is, I launch the piano plugin in the LMMS program. And I sing from the notes. Do, Re, E. As much as I can. I take breaks. Voice exercises. So that later you can simply say something, hum something. Sing, even if you're lucky. Simple. From notes. Rhythmically. I started preparing.

I even accidentally started singing on the bass guitar. When I was sitting on the 1st and 2nd strings. And I played the notes. The arrangement of the notes on the fretboard. 12 notes on each string. I started singing! It seemed fun to me, So, sing. C! C! C! D! D! D! Fun!

Now I play connected musical instruments. That is, I connect them via a wire to an external sound card. Black multimedia-grade headphones. I play bass guitar and electric guitar this way. And the synthesizer is actually a MIDI keyboard. Well, everything with a keyboard is either a piano or a synthesizer. The MIDI keyboard is connected to the computer via a USB cable. And the sound comes from the LMMS sound program. I sing in that program. It has a convenient keyboard like a piano. I click a button with the mouse. The note is such and such. And I sing. So, I keep making music!