Random Talks and Thoughts

[admin]

Here I post some random thoughs and talks all around .... well whatever.

Quote

 

You are free to make this too

 

 

[admin]

Checking the stats of the current tutorial " Old Love ( Eric Clapton ) makes me really happy. For once I hit one again which goes a bit viral. Already on 2.8K views after less then 24 hours. It has been a while since I had such a video.... :-) You are not seeing the acutall numbers - that one is only visible in the YouTube analyics. It looks like this tutorial has been posted somewhere in a larger guitar community which creates all these views. Lets see how long it will last.
 

 

[admin]

With the HPCrazy Guitar Night on Sept. 22th I will start a new journey in my artistic and educational work which I have been doing over many years now. I have been focused mainly on the educational part of my guitar journey and the creatic part, especially the life playing part, has always been neglected due to being too busy with too many different things. This will change now - I will take the live-playing from the last place in the priority list to the first place and the second one will be the education of course. But this shift in priorities will have an impact in the education part as well. I also want to share in random video's my thoughts, findings, tips and tricks which I am working on during my journey which is starting now. So beside the regular educational content you will find some random talking out of the box video's which might also be in your interest. My goal is to get a small guitar community rolling and having a space for people who just love guitars and guitar music. Every journey starts with a first step and so it will be on Sept. 22th.

 

[admin]

Tomorrow is my first Guitar Night after a long break. I have been preparing intensively. This included getting to know my new concert guitar and adapting my playing technique to the sound characteristics of this instrument, but also a new interpretation of pieces from the jazz and blues genres. The theme of this first Guitar Night is :

Pure Jazz & Blues.

For guitar freaks among you. I plan to do most of the program with a simple sound ( Fender Deluxe Amp with and without analog delay and spring reverb ) without any other technical aids ( backing tracks or loopers ). It's an experiment, because I don't know if such a program is entertaining at all. Since I'm still in the experimental phase, the concert will only take place as a livestream.

 

[admin]

Yesterday was now the first full color music concert with complete concept and the now mature new guitar sounds. I am especially pleased that even people who do not play guitar notice that this guitar has an extremely emotional and deep sound. That was the goal and now we are working on improving the organization and promotion and now new pieces and sounds will be added.

 

[admin]

SUISA foreign royalties settlement. My music was used a lot on TikTok without my knowledge. How this got there I do not know, but is nice. Otherwise there are over 60 pages with uses on Amazon and Deezer. The winner are my 2 brands " color music " and " color music ". 
It is indeed planned to compose new music and distribute accordingly digitally through my digital record company. Gives a lot to do....

[admin]

I worked hard today to open up my new department of the Guitar Academy for Swiss locals.  So check out the description in german. It's called " Gitarren Sound Lab "

https://gitarrist.ch/gitarren-sound-lab.html

In general the whole german website is polished and updated. I want to give more energy to the local students which I neglated for quite a while.

[admin]

Feedback from the AI Front regarding music and creative professionals.

The fact is that the first platforms and tools are there that can quickly compose music according to the relevant specifications and make it available for download. I tested one platform and it usually takes 2-3 minutes and you have 60 seconds of music according to the relevant templates you entered. As you would expect, the results are quite usable across all genres of electronic music, if still a bit vague and undefined. In other genres, the weaknesses become even more visible. But that cannot hide the fact that if someone needs sound for a presentation for little money, such files are sufficient, as the sound is only intended to achieve ambience. However, one must not forget that AI is self-learning and improvements can therefore be expected in the coming years. There was recently a strike by creative workers in Hollywood over this very issue. Wage dumping due to the use of AI. It was then agreed that they would like to implement a "human" solution here and the one agency I am contracted to also writes today that they will not accept music that has been produced with AI. What is of course also clear is that when it comes to really "big" music with a real emotional effect, it doesn't work without talented artists. This was also stated in the agency briefing. That's the current situation - the development is indeed threatening, but there is still a place for people who practice composition with the utmost professionalism. Personally, I will continue to use my current product “Farbmusik”. An AI cannot capture the emotional connection between music and color because it has no emotions.

[admin]

I reactivated my soundcloud account. You find it here :

Please check out my new recording " Black Hole ". A dark ambient track with some guitar and great effects.

 

[admin]

Bodo of http://www.moon-music.ch was in the studio and brought me 2 guitars to check them out for him if they sound cool. Here you can hear the first check of the Duesenberg Paloma Catalina Blue. I just pluged it in and played what you can see in this video.

If you want to buy this one here and you are located in Switzerland and you are a member of this community here. Send me a PM and let me know - I think Bodo can make you a special price.

 

[admin]

I have been overworking my entire playing with the new guitar. The general idea to get a new concert guitar was that my old guitar the GODIN LGX did not match my expections of the sound of the guitar itself anymore with new playing technique. I have the new guitar since July and in fact it took me till now to really get used to it and to adapt the great features of this new guitar in my playing. Now with the last concert on Dec 27th and played all tasks also life on a concert so that I can say that I am on a new spot in my guitar journey and it's great to continue from there :

and this leads to the 2nd part. I did not check the guitar scene so much in the last 3 years and I did not notice what kind of incredible young and new players are out there and these guys really redefine the art of guitar playing a amazing and modern way. I will name 3 of them which really caught my attention :

Ichita Niko - he has a really amazing way of creating sound with a lot of harmonics, tapping additions in chords.

Tim Henson - I would say he was influenced by Ichita Niko or opposite. A similar way of playing rhythmics, chords and breaking songs appart in different rhythm patterns. But he is more the metal and metal core guy with his band Polyphia :

and last but not least the really outstanding new guitar star on the stage of guitar players. Matteo Mancuso - well you find so many video's of him, or reaction videos. And all pro players give this guy a big " WOW " - me too. This guy is really on a new level of gutiar playing and in fact he is encouraging me to work more on my finger picking stuff. This guy gave me some really serious thoughts which direction I want to go next - and I came to the finding that the individual music and composing makes every artist unique and special - so I continue my path with the Farbmusik Concerts. But you check Matteo Mancuso - this guy really plays the biggest technical difficulties total effortless and perfect.

[admin]

and just discovered an other guy - Max Ostro

 

[Slo Bones]

Wow... Amazing stuff! 

[Slo Bones]

2 minutes ago, admin said:

and just discovered an other guy - Max Ostro

 

Genius meets hard work. 

[admin]

1 hour ago, Slo Bones said:

Genius meets hard work. 

in fact this was hard work... of all those guys. We will see how it develops - I remember Frank Gambale. In his really crazy times he was absolutly amazing and precise and fast but there was a lot of hard work behind it - later in his career he did not work so much anymore and the small little mistakes came which " normal " pro's have came back but you hardly hear them. You really need to practice like 8 hours daily to play on such a level... I can tell I practiced up to 16 hours daily during my studies - but later I could not keep this high level up - just because I needed to make some money and had other things to do as well but also because the motivation for such extrem practicing times is hard to keep up permanently. The worst what can happen is when you have a girlfriend - then one is not so driven anymore to practice non-stop. I can tell - the past years I put my relation first for once in my life. Now I want to get back to higher practicing levels but still having a life beside music. 

[admin]

Here's another guy - Greg Howe

He has amazing and similar skills like Max Ostro and Matteo Mancuso ... but not so overwhelming perfection like the young players. Well it's still great and professional ... but the difference is what I was just talking about in the post before. Well maybe to compare that with 100m sprint - the winner makes it in 9.76 and the 4th one in 9.85 ....

 

[Slo Bones]

34 minutes ago, admin said:

in fact this was hard work... of all those guys. We will see how it develops - I remember Frank Gambale. In his really crazy times he was absolutly amazing and precise and fast but there was a lot of hard work behind it - later in his career he did not work so much anymore and the small little mistakes came which " normal " pro's have came back but you hardly hear them. You really need to practice like 8 hours daily to play on such a level... I can tell I practiced up to 16 hours daily during my studies - but later I could not keep this high level up - just because I needed to make some money and had other things to do as well but also because the motivation for such extrem practicing times is hard to keep up permanently. The worst what can happen is when you have a girlfriend - then one is not so driven anymore to practice non-stop. I can tell - the past years I put my relation first for once in my life. Now I want to get back to higher practicing levels but still having a life beside music. 

Life balance is so important for me. Also, strategic breaks seems to help me with whatever I am studying... Half hour to two hours of intense study... Go away and do something different...then when I come back I feel I have internalized more than if I would have gone hard for four straight hours. 

Also, yeah... Girlfriends, work and other obligations and be a distraction to improvement. But, I think we can have it all if we learn to take everything in moderation. 

[admin]

Yes what I learned over the years is, that life balance is more important. I can tell because I also went the other way with extrem practicing.

[Volker]

Hi all,
let me share my mean 50cent on the next generation high speed picking guys: would you enjoy a 1hrs concert with a guitarist playing at 250bpm 16th (and faster) notes nonstop?
For me a clear "nope". While I'm marveling the technical skill and the effortlessness, too much shredding is not transporting emotions for me.
What do you think about it?

[admin]

4 hours ago, Volker said:

For me a clear "nope". While I'm marveling the technical skill and the effortlessness, too much shredding is not transporting emotions for me.
What do you think about it?

Thats in fact the question - what is music all about ? Can not one note played at the right spot with the right emotion have a bigger value then meaningless runs and chops ? I personally found out the hard way after years of extrem practicing where I suddenly got cut off music standing on the big stages and could not play at all anymore. The way to music has to be the opposite - start with one perfect note at the perfect spot. And that's what I try to teach my students - thats the way to music and happiness in music and maybe one day such fast runs come but then they fit perfect in the moment they are played. In fact music is more then just playing notes - it's a way of life. Maybe for some guys it's the right thing to do to play always as fast as possible and for others not - it's a personal choice and a personal way of living.

[admin]

I took this little discussion here to start my first really personal blog here :

 

[Slo Bones]

12 hours ago, Volker said:

Hi all,
let me share my mean 50cent on the next generation high speed picking guys: would you enjoy a 1hrs concert with a guitarist playing at 250bpm 16th (and faster) notes nonstop?
For me a clear "nope". While I'm marveling the technical skill and the effortlessness, too much shredding is not transporting emotions for me.
What do you think about it?

I am often impressed with people who can play really fast, but speed without musical context can quickly get boring for me. For me, I prefer music with feeling. Sped can be part of the emotion, but it needs to fit in with the music to hold my attention. 

[admin]

Slowly the holiday season is over and I will be starting with the full scale work by monday 8th january.

I have used the holiday time to make a full analysis of my entire artistic and educational work. This also included a study of the competion. Normaly I don't really check what others are doing because I believe in the power of the own creativity which should not be influeced by others but for some reason it was the time to really check what the world and the guitar world in specific is doing out there. It was the right time because I noticed 2 things. There are in fact some really great young players out there which challenge the entire professional guitar scene. They pushed guitar playing to a really new level which is exciting and inspiring for me. And there are a lot of other great players out there who present themselves pretty well on the social media platforms.

On the other hand - I have been in internet buisness and internet strategies since 1999 and I always had the right intuition in which direction the future goes. One thing is clear. The big times of social media plattforms is over. Facebook as an example has become a platform which in not trendy and not hip anymore. And the entire platform is way too complicated, user-unfriendly and slow. Instagram is part of facebook - so this is the same story and it's really hard to get new followers there. There is no strategie which really works in an economic way. I made some really good succes on Tik Tok with no followers : https://www.tiktok.com/@hpcrazy73?_t=8ipMCnGL4Ft&_r=1

The main problem is that you can spend hours and hours in social media strategies and you only get a very little payback for that and this does not work anymore - at least when you are an independant artist as I am. So the strategy has to get back to the core buisness and this is in fact CREATIVITY.

And here comes an other problem. Spotify is now making a cut to all content which does not reach 1000 streams at the moment and gives all money from those streams to the artists which have reached more then 1000 streams. I guess the other platforms will follow or there will be new platforms which offer a fair service to artists and producers. With digital music distribution the best strategy would be to get your own fanbase and build up your brand to make yourself independent from any changements in user policies or royality payouts - but on the other hand you also need to be present on the trending platforms. So here the strategy must be to play your cards in both worlds at the moment and focus on your brand. The brand is what makes an independent artist truely independent - having an own platform is also a key feature in this whole strategy. Why having your own platform ? On a own platform you make yourself indepentent from alogerithms which cut off most of the creativity.

The AI discussion in the musician and creative works world is really big at the moment. Can AI replace creative workers ? It is a challenge I must say but it's is also a great tool to save a lot of time which helps to fullfill the tasks in this " digital mess ".

The solution at the end of the day is again the question what is artistic work all about ? It's about emotions and to transport emotions to people. Thats what it is all about - in any creative art. So the focus has to be on this - the creativity and to make yourself free from the bounderies of alogerithms and platforms but still using them as a tool. And that's the way to go - focus on the core, the emotions of music and the people who enjoy the result of all this.

My brands which I will give all my energy are :

HPCrazy Guitar Academy - Make this a source for all players out there who really love guitar playing want to learn guitar because they love guitar so much and don't go for flashy promises of learning guitar in 2 months.

Farbmusik - This is my invention back from 2006. I restarted the concerts in 2022 and I will continue this work. Farbmusik is a new way of seeing music above the only 2 dimensional view of genres. The genres are the colors which are expressed with music. There I will start to work on new music now. I will send parts of it to the digital music distribution platforms but I will also share exclusive content only here on this platform.

 

[Greg]

2 hours ago, admin said:

Slowly the holiday season is over and I will be starting with the full scale work by monday 8th january.

I have used the holiday time to make a full analysis of my entire artistic and educational work. This also included a study of the competion. Normaly I don't really check what others are doing because I believe in the power of the own creativity which should not be influeced by others but for some reason it was the time to really check what the world and the guitar world in specific is doing out there. It was the right time because I noticed 2 things. There are in fact some really great young players out there which challenge the entire professional guitar scene. They pushed guitar playing to a really new level which is exciting and inspiring for me. And there are a lot of other great players out there who present themselves pretty well on the social media platforms.

On the other hand - I have been in internet buisness and internet strategies since 1999 and I always had the right intuition in which direction the future goes. One thing is clear. The big times of social media plattforms is over. Facebook as an example has become a platform which in not trendy and not hip anymore. And the entire platform is way too complicated, user-unfriendly and slow. Instagram is part of facebook - so this is the same story and it's really hard to get new followers there. There is no strategie which really works in an economic way. I made some really good succes on Tik Tok with no followers : https://www.tiktok.com/@hpcrazy73?_t=8ipMCnGL4Ft&_r=1

The main problem is that you can spend hours and hours in social media strategies and you only get a very little payback for that and this does not work anymore - at least when you are an independant artist as I am. So the strategy has to get back to the core buisness and this is in fact CREATIVITY.

And here comes an other problem. Spotify is now making a cut to all content which does not reach 1000 streams at the moment and gives all money from those streams to the artists which have reached more then 1000 streams. I guess the other platforms will follow or there will be new platforms which offer a fair service to artists and producers. With digital music distribution the best strategy would be to get your own fanbase and build up your brand to make yourself independent from any changements in user policies or royality payouts - but on the other hand you also need to be present on the trending platforms. So here the strategy must be to play your cards in both worlds at the moment and focus on your brand. The brand is what makes an independent artist truely independent - having an own platform is also a key feature in this whole strategy. Why having your own platform ? On a own platform you make yourself indepentent from alogerithms which cut off most of the creativity.

The AI discussion in the musician and creative works world is really big at the moment. Can AI replace creative workers ? It is a challenge I must say but it's is also a great tool to save a lot of time which helps to fullfill the tasks in this " digital mess ".

The solution at the end of the day is again the question what is artistic work all about ? It's about emotions and to transport emotions to people. Thats what it is all about - in any creative art. So the focus has to be on this - the creativity and to make yourself free from the bounderies of alogerithms and platforms but still using them as a tool. And that's the way to go - focus on the core, the emotions of music and the people who enjoy the result of all this.

My brands which I will give all my energy are :

HPCrazy Guitar Academy - Make this a source for all players out there who really love guitar playing want to learn guitar because they love guitar so much and don't go for flashy promises of learning guitar in 2 months.

Farbmusik - This is my invention back from 2006. I restarted the concerts in 2022 and I will continue this work. Farbmusik is a new way of seeing music above the only 2 dimensional view of genres. The genres are the colors which are expressed with music. There I will start to work on new music now. I will send parts of it to the digital music distribution platforms but I will also share exclusive content only here on this platform.

 

 

[Greg]

Well written and I completely agree with your approach as I am also becoming more and more disinterested in what social media has to offer.  I always look forward to your emails and the challenges you present….keep up your excellent work!
 

king regards

Greg