Music related stuff on eBay/Aliexpress/anywhere else - instruments, equipment, etc

[thominhose]

Glad to see that someone joined the party! Any ideas on simple exercises to improve one's ear skills? Thing is, I don't have a problem in understanding rhythms and building the muscle memory but I am an utter failure when it comes to automatically decipher the interval I am confronted with (not even a chord). Of course the comparative hearing is no problem, but give me a melody and ask me what relative sequence of notes that was or to instantly write down what I hum in my head appears pointless. It's always try & error on the fretboard (but at least I know exactly what I'm hitting there, thus it's nice to have the music theory incorporated, even if its only the second best thing).

[thominhose]

A good bass structures the sound on the lower end and a missing bass is often easier to hear than a well played one.
. . .

A good contemporary example that comes into mind are Khruangbin. You got a shredder with a very unique style on guitar, a non-nonsense swiss clockwork on drums and a minimalistic bass, that is played precisely.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4xKvHANqjk

[Like Ra]

A good contemporary example that comes into mind are Khruangbin. You got a shredder with a very unique style on guitar, a non-nonsense swiss clockwork on drums and a minimalistic bass, that is played precisely.

Please post on the "Girls with bass/guitar" thread! 😊

https://www.likera.com/forum/mybb/showth...p?tid=2643

[Like Ra]

Any ideas on simple exercises to improve one's ear skills?

I use Android apps: MyEarTraining, Complete Ear Trainer, Complete Rhythm trainer, and Rhythm Trainer.
And Rick Beato's ear training (too expensive even with 50% discount, and requires Internet connection).

[Strappado]

Glad to see that someone joined the party! Any ideas on simple exercises to improve one's ear skills? Thing is, I don't have a problem in understanding rhythms and building the muscle memory but I am an utter failure when it comes to automatically decipher the interval I am confronted with (not even a chord). Of course the comparative hearing is no problem, but give me a melody and ask me what relative sequence of notes that was or to instantly write down what I hum in my head appears pointless. It's always try & error on the fretboard (but at least I know exactly what I'm hitting there, thus it's nice to have the music theory incorporated, even if its only the second best thing).

Well, if you want to name intervals or do hear-writing (I derived that from "sight-reading", which should really be called "sight-playing"), some software might be the right thing (see likera for that). You do need a method to find tell, if you got it right or not.

If you want to instantly play what you hear:

A good start is to play stuff that is on your mind rather than replicate from recordings. Why? Because you can keep it as simple as you like and slowly increase the difficulty and length of the ideas.
Also do simple stuff with small alterations, like "C E F", then "C Eb F", then "C Eb F# Ab" etc. It doesn't need to make sense musically all the time, because then you are skipping the odd intervals, which might be needed eventually. When playing it on your instrument, don't bother about timing but take your time to get every pitch rightbefore you play the note.This is not only training but also learning because your brain has to learn the math to get the intervals right.

I find chords much harder and I am not even talking complicated jazz, where I find myself lost quite often. It helps a lot to find the root note of the chord in question. Then you have to analyse: Minor, major, does it have a 7 (large or small), perhaps an extra note like a 6th, or perhaps it isn't a 6th but a 2nd, because the root note is not what you thought... That is a matter of practice and understanding, so you definitely need music theory for that (well, it is very helpful at least).

For both, melodies and chords, it helps to improvise a lot. Improvise melodies on a given chord progression. For chords, start with one, then figure out, where you can go from there and eventually try to get a conclusive ending (i.e. end on the first chord and make it sound right).

Generally, play around a lot with your instrument. Playing is what instruments are made for 😉

[Strappado]

A good contemporary example that comes into mind are Khruangbin. You got a shredder with a very unique style on guitar, a non-nonsense swiss clockwork on drums and a minimalistic bass, that is played precisely.

that reminds me of Dead Combo, except the bass there is usually extremely skillful up to virtuosity.
not this one though:

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-isYBLIC_0

... fado muito desperado

[Like Ra]

I have 4 of them that came with some guitar hangers. Total crap.

I have a eBay: KORG TM-60 that I use the most, it has a lot of fine tuning options etc and not too expensive

TM-60 is cool! But I want something more compact. After hours of investigation, I finally (ok, almost ... ) decided on eBay: Korg AW-LT100B It takes an AAA battery, unlike 99% of other clip-on tuners. A bit on the expensive site, though...

[vanessa_fetish]

I have 4 of them that came with some guitar hangers. Total crap.

I have a eBay: KORG TM-60 that I use the most, it has a lot of fine tuning options etc and not too expensive

TM-60 is cool! But I want something more compact. After hours of investigation, I  finally (ok, almost ... ) decided on eBay: Korg AW-LT100B It takes an AAA battery, unlike 99% of other clip-on tuners. A bit on the expensive site, though...

The price will likely be worth it in the end. Yesterday I put one of those Joyo tuners to the test against my Korg and my app for tuning. Joyo was off quite a bit. The app only a little different than the Korg (a teeeeeeeny bit low)

[Strappado]

I have a Korg CA-40 and a Seiko SAT500. They are a bit old (20 years or so) but still working perfectly. Built in mike, in and out for guitar (bass) cable and you can tune the tuning as well (not limited to 442 hz).
I suppose, they are both quite similar to the Korg TM-60 except they don't have a metronome built in. one of them was a bit iffy with the bass because ot the level, but I have an active bass which can blast the standard "instrument-in".

The clip-on (Korg) seems to have a much better readability, which is a plus of course. But these things tend to fall off.

[Like Ra]

I have a Korg CA-40 and a Seiko SAT500. They are a bit old (20 years or so) but still working perfectly.

I've got Korean ELTO GT-303 from 22 years ago 😁 It has got a mike and XLR in/out too. No fancy displays, just a row of LEDs. Still works!