for those who can play instruments...
 

what songs do you know how to play?

mine are: Disorder (by Joy Division) on bass
Transmission (by JD) on bass
She's Lost Control on bass
Love will Tear us apart on keyboard
Gigantic (by Pixies) on bass
Girl Named Sandoz on bass

too many to bother listing. i've been writing lots lately though, so not doing too much learning songs. i recently figured out Love wil tear us apart on keys....

Kill Yr. Idols and Stereo Sanctity.
Those are the only songs I know in that tuning (whatever it may be).

A few riffs here and there.

hundreds and hundreds. i used to sit around learning whole records at a time.

poser

learning entire hole and nirvana records when you're 11 really qualifies for that.

i don't even remember how to play most of them.

Teen Age Riot - Sonic Youth
Range Life - Pavement
HANDS DOWN - DASHBOARD CONFESSIONAL
Quite a few Nirvana Songs
Some beatles songs
some other songs
I mostly write my own songs though

how long have you guys been playing for?

4 years, but it doesn't show.

2 years, and it doesn't show either.

Guitar: 1982-present
Saxomophone: 1980-1985, never again.

I played trombone for like 6 months. I hated the music teacher.

"Make an 'E' noise when you buzz"

*tries*

"No! No! No! And 'EEEEE' noise, not F!"

Worst teacher ever. I left after that.

i only know let's dance (as covered by the ramones), i wanna be your dog,
and about a girl by nirvana. i've learned others but i forget them.

Let's see (these are just the covers, I usually do original tunes or improvisation):

Astronomy Domine, Vegetable Man - Pink Floyd
Magic Potion - The Open Mind
Many songs by Spacemen 3 and Loop
Guru In The Echo - Ghost
A few Overhang Party tunes
Dreamin' Demon - The Birdmen Of Alkatraz
Death Is The Martyr Of Beauty, Fall Apart - Death In June
Ghost Riders In The Sky - Stan Jones
One Eye - Current 93
See How We Fall - Sol Invictus
King Volcano - Bauhaus
Saudade - Love And Rockets
Snow Queen - Tom Rapp
Sleep At The Bottom - Low/Transient Waves/Piano Magic
Blue Skies - Irving Berlin (I fucking hate that song)
Tom Of Bedlam - trad.


several others I'm sure I'm forgetting.

7 but it doesnt show.

5, but it doesn't show.

i have been playing the guitar for abt 10 years...

I can play pretty much every punk rock song in existence... ;) Most Radiohead songs, a couple of Jimi Hendirx tunes, mostly the slower ones, like Hey Joe, slayer and metallica songs, nirvana songs, some deep purple,
some pixies, some soundgarden, some sepultura and of course sonic youth songs, but not all of course... the CIS+KYI and SY EP and some off Dirty and Murray Street.

I have also only recently been fooling around with some 303 emulators... and some rudimentary production techniques.
EDIT: I've been meaning to learn some Rollins Band tunes, man, those are really kick-ass...

i think it's more fun to write your own songs.

I learned guitar by just playing Sonic Youth songs, but then I got bored with that and began to write my own stuff. I still can't play guitar in standard EADGBE. Well. I know two chords.

I don't bother with other stuff anymore.

I used to hate standard tuning because I didn't know anything. But now it's quite nice.

it doesn't really matter to me what tuning i'm in.

I learned everything in standard tuning... So somtimes I'll even transpose SY songs into standard tuning... They're way harder to play that way... The beauty of alternate tunings is the sheer torrent of ideas they can unleash upon an unsuspecting musician. Your fingers will light up at all the new possibilites and combinations... ;) But of course, standard tuning is tuning. It's the way the guitar was meant to be played... And yes, Saturnine, making your own songs is much more fun, by far...

I rarely play others songs, if I do I usually forget them within a few weeks, or even days. I play instruments to create. I used to love when I was younger learning others songs and getting bits down that I'd be trying to get for days. But then you get to the point where you can play mostly anything by any band you own, and the bands you can't, you're beyond the stage of caring to play Hendrix solos. There's nothing much more rewarding than writing your own music, especially if people dig it.

the problem i've had with alternate tunings the couple of times i've tried them is that everything starts to sound the same after a few minutes.

especially if you're in something like GGDDEbEb like for Trilogy, you can only play the riff from hyperstation so many times before getting bored with it. it's more fun to forget playing and completely detune the guitar and play with a screwdriver or something but that completely rips up the fretboard after awhile.

i like using wire coathangers, or a blunt knife. or loosening all the strings till they are slack and using a violin bow. though violin bows are very unrock.

violin bows are very jimmy page. they make some very nice sounds.

My old bandmate uses a violin bow and glissando bar to great effect.

they make me thing of sigur ros or classical students trying to branch out

i saw sigur ros twice, and i was not particularly impressed either time.

The glissando thing makes me think of Gong or Acid Mothers.

I saw an ebow being used in an REM video once.... It gave a creepy, theremin-like effect... Ultra cool.

what is a glissando bar anyway?

Ebow:
I had one of those for a long time; it got lost at a show.
Fun things.

Glissando is just when you rub a thin metal bar on the neck to vibrate the string.

i've tried using ebows but i can't get to grips with them, but then i'm useless at playing music

i like playing bass, you don't have to think about those things.

The thing is, most of the techniques and tricks that guitar players use, can be replicated well enough, if you have a fair understanding of the use of effects and sound manipulation. A little delay and some tremolo can actually approximate the sound of an ebow fairly well...

if you have a line 6 pod, there's a swell/delay setting that replicates a violin bow pretty well for wires in a box.

Ouh I love that effect... You can use the volume knob on your guitar, if your hand-eye coordination is good enough... :) Just turn down and turn up, turn down and turn up...