I know there will be some musically talented people reading this page. Just because this page is called "Michael the musician", that doesn't mean I think I'm a musician. I've never been good at music, but I've always been good at noise (ask me about my "tower of power" and the 20-some speakers I had in my room). Anyway, one sign that I am no musician is that I cannot sing. I really cannot hit any notes right. From time to time, I have a lucky day and I can sing an entire song or two without missing a note. It's quite scary when I do. But, most of the time, I don't even come close. I think I can attribute my poor singing abilities to various children's choirs at church. From time to time, they would put me on the spot, and I've always been very self conscience, so that scared me from singing. I learned to lipsynch and gave up on singing. But that's of little interest.
Well, when I was pretty young, maybe 6 or 7, I decided to take up playing the piano. Both my parents could play, and I wanted to be able to make the same noises. However, no one told me that the piano is pretty hard to play. Well, I started learning and soon it became a chore with required practice time, which is never fun. Also, I got a piano teacher, which was even less fun. Let me explain why. My family has a huge, old grand piano which was probably designed to be played in a huge concert hall without amplification (as there was no such thing as a speaker when the piano was made). So, this piano is quite loud. So, my teacher would always tell me to play quieter. Of course, she would play at full volume without knowing it. Well, I ended up spending all my time during the lesson concentrating on pressing the keys just hard enough to have the hammer hit the strings. So, needless to say, I quit piano as soon as I possibly could. I think I may have been 11 or 12 when my parents finally let me quit.
Well, later on, me and some of my church friends decided we wanted to start a ska band. There were a lot of us, so it was certainly possible. Since there was nothing else for me to do, I decided to take up guitar (at least, I think that's how it went). I still have my guitar, a black Gibson electric with a tiny amp (don't worry, I have way bigger amps, when I want to make noise). I have to say, I really enjoy playing guitar, but I'm not good at it. However, you don't need to be talented to play rhythm guitar in a teenage ska band (leave the mad solos to Ben). I'll probably comment more on guitar later, but now I have to move to the next important event. The band had never actually rehearsed, so we weren't technically a band. Well, some people in the band decided it was too hard being in a band that didn't practice, and our drummer moved away to North Carolina (he was really good). Well, it was pretty much down to 4 or 5 people and no drummer. Since I wasn't really good at guitar, I decided it would probably be simplest for me to take up drums. So, in August 2001, my parents got me a drum set - the cheapest one we could find. In retrospect, I'm surprised they even bought that, as it would seem that I should have given up quite quickly based on my past musical efforts.
Well, no one in my family had drummed before, except my uncle, but he (like our old drummer) was in North Carolina. I got some books and videos and started teaching myself. I was painfully bad, but I slowly started catching on. By this point, the remaining 4 or 5 members started "practicing". We were still technically ska at that point, as we had trumpet and, from time to time, trombone. However, we never actually worked out any real brass parts to any of songs. Our trombone player officially left, so all we had left was trumpet. The trumpet player decided to take up bass, and relieve our singer and former bassist of that position. So, now we were a band of 4 people, two of whom were very new to their respective instruments. Again, I don't need to say it, but we weren't very good. But hey, we sure were loud! Our guitarist, who is quite tallented, started writing some sick music. Meanwhile, both the bassist and I were getting better at the instruments that we played. Oddly enough, we played at a "talent" show. It was the first time in a long time that I had drummed in front of anyone else, and it was the first time in a long time that I had performed music, or anything for that matter. Despite the fact that everyone there wouldn't have cared if we hadn't hit a note right, I was pretty scared. However, I had a lot of fun playing.
The band managed to also get 3rd place out of about 8 bands in a battle of the bands. That show was a lot of fun to play. By that point, we had our collection of, count them, 4 songs that we wrote and performed. We didn't play other people's stuff, probably because we didn't sound good when we did. But of course, I think it's cool when a junk basement band plays their own stuff. Thankfully, I have my church's old sound system, so I can make super-high quality recordings of our music (of course, if the music is bad, there's only so much I can do to make it sound better, but at least the system doesn't make it sound worse).
In case anyone cares, the name of our band is 6 Feet To Go. I guess that's supposed to imply that weren't not dead yet, or something. We used to be The Randominiums (probably because were we more random than we were good). There are 4 members: myself, who you already. Our singer is Rob, our bassist is Calvin, and our guitarist is Ben. Well, since the guitarist and I moved off to college for fall 2002, the band had to pause for the school year. However, as I'm writing this, it's summer 2003 and we're back together. It seems that the band will not be able to get back together for summer 2004, however, as both Ben and I will not be around, if all goes as planned. Right now, I think the goal for the summer is to play some shows, and to record our album so that we have something to show for the band. We only have 1 song recorded with the lyrics recorded, the other 3 recorded songs were recorded when the singer was busy. I would be happy with an 8-10 track CD. Right now we're working on a new song by Calvin, which is really killer. As I'm writing this, I'm listening to yesterday's recording. I think we're almost ready to record the final version of that song. Also, Ben just wrote a new song, which is a nice mellower, almost dark sounding tune, which should be fun. I'm working on writing a parody and a joke song. I may record all parts of the joke song myself (except for singing), as the song isn't anything fancy, so it's hardly worth the trouble of getting the band together. The lyrics are awesome, however.
So, that's my story of "music". So, right now, I'm awful at piano (I sometimes play stuff I wrote for guitar on the piano), I'm bad at guitar (but, I could survive as a punker), and I'm decent at drums. I think my family wishes I played something quieter than drums, and that I play the drums with less passion (a.k.a loudness). In case you want to see me playing my guitar and drums, I made a video, which you can watch online. Before I give you a link, a little disclaimer. First, I'm not wearing a shirt. That is because the video was meant to be an experiment, and I was too lazy to put on a shirt after I got up. Next, I messed up a bit. Also, I wrote that little tune, so that's why it sounds so dumb. The reason for recording the video was an experiment in video editing and overlay. Well, now that you have been warned, I'll give you the links. Click here for the broadband version (2.95MB) (http://www.ftper.com/videos/MusicMix.wmv). Click here for the dial-up version (.37MB) (http://www.ftper.com/videos/MusicMixSmall.wmv). Also, I have decided to include a video of 6 Feet To Go practicing. Again, it's time for a disclaimer. This was only a practice - we weren't even doing studio recording. Also, the singer wasn't able to come that day, which was our last practice before Ben and I went off to college. There are plenty of mistakes in this recording, but overall, the song held together. The name of the song is either "Back Then" or "Johanna" and I'm really not sure which it is at the moment, but I'm leaning toward "Johanna". Click here for the broadband version (6.53MB) (http://www.ftper.com/videos/6FTG2.wmv). Click here for the dial-up version (1.2MB) (http://www.ftper.com/videos/6FTG1.wmv)
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