I had a reflective session tonight. I sang about my days in NYC with buddy bowzer the horn player for the ny dolls, when we played at one of the biggest dealers in the city's house every wed night, partying with hunter thompson and john belushi, growing up and living in violent cities, life with the hells angels, crack house living, and other songs about my musical journies. Walter
nyc always left me blue I lived from communes to crack house my parents only saw what they wanted to see life ain't so easy funny where life will end you up 4 lost souls found a home
---------- walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing. I record about 300 full length cds a year. " life is a daring adventure or nothing at all" - helen keller
Autobiographical singing/songs are the easiest way to tap into spontobeat. All of us have stories to tell and to weave them into a song can paint an intense experience for both the performer and listener. Try remembering something that is/was intense in your memory and sing about it. It can be something very simple/mundane all the way up to something that was so intense it changed your life. Let the words come out without thought and the images of the memory will vividly flow through you without forcing you to think. All you need to do is paint that story with your playing which you need to apply the same above concept to.
This is a very easy thing to do. On some level we do it everytime we retell a story. The secret is to not be afraid of anything. Enjoy letting that story run and let it be so free that it becomes reality again. Our society has labeled these things negatively via words like flashbacks, nightmare, and positively with words like fond memories, daydreams. Both are just as easy to tap into and the more you do this while playing the easier it is to get to spontaneously created music. Eventually you will not have to remember things to sing about. They will magically appear everytime you pick up your instrument. Then you will literally walk into the song that you have no idea of what will unfold and enjoy the journey the same as you do seeing a movie/reading something for the first time. You become a living participant in memories both known and unknown to the concious mind, and stories that are not of your life that need a person to channel through.
It hit me this morning when I got up this may help to learning how to do spontobeat! Walter ---------- walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing. I record about 300 full length cds a year. " life is a daring adventure or nothing at all" - helen keller
@walter: "...and stories that are not of your life that need a person to channel through."
Such would be the _implications_ of one's life, discovered by your subconscious, which may very well be more significant than the actual life limited as it has been by physical and emotional necessity.
lor: I am able to sing about others lives. I have been doing spontaneously created art, poetry, music, for over 50 years and feel more comfortable with it than thinking through things. I was playing on the Columbia Univ radio station one night and a song came out about a home birth going on. It was so vivid and I sang about it all. When the song ended a call came to the station. It was the couple that was having the homebirth in their apt. They named their kid after me. I have countless stories like this that have happened over the years. Walter ---------- walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing. I record about 300 full length cds a year. " life is a daring adventure or nothing at all" - helen keller
nosaj (a song that came to me about a member here. I scrambled the title to keep it fairly obscure) young people the good times are gone young people think they will never die young people unplug today ---------- walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing. I record about 300 full length cds a year. " life is a daring adventure or nothing at all" - helen keller
Honkin: Maybe you have a career in decoding :-) I did it mainly for the masses that have access to my songs and never heard of him most likely. Walter ---------- walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing. I record about 300 full length cds a year. " life is a daring adventure or nothing at all" - helen keller
Ive learned to accept a solitary life I thought money would cure my blues coming to peace with the scene missing childhood friends ---------- walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing. I record about 300 full length cds a year. " life is a daring adventure or nothing at all" - helen keller
Hi lor: thanks. I just do what drives me. We left sonoma county Ca in 2006. It is a different place Ohio compared to Ca. We have lived in lots of places around the world and each has its pros and cons. Overall I really like it. We live in a village of 5,000 people. It is safe, quiet, affordable, friendly, and no traffic. We never could touch a place like this in Ca. You loose diversity, and good food here, especially Mexican food. I have to say also we never lived in a city smaller than Santa Rosa and spent most of our lives in the food/music capitals of the world. People have told us ohio is very typical of the midwest. I am making my own sourdough as I type cause there is noplace to buy it here. Hopefully we will meet someday. Walter
---------- walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing. I record about 300 full length cds a year. " life is a daring adventure or nothing at all" - helen keller
Here is a jumping one and dark one from this afternoon. I was tripping back down texas louisiana way. that energy was here this afternoon. I continue my world tour without leaving my studio! I rekon having traveled as much as I have in the flesh, it now carries over to my dreams. Walter
how to learn the real groove gonna rock my babe around the world trapped in my fears blues ---------- walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing. I record about 300 full length cds a year. " life is a daring adventure or nothing at all" - helen keller
walter, how do i get to your most recent expressions. When I follow that link and always get to the same bushman award video, but i wanna see the recent number you mention..
Nice 1 Walter,I had to stop in and study the 1man band sound You have,I like how you can throw in harp fills in between your vocals,Im trying to learn that but thats hard,I ususally play the harp part 12 barrs after a vocal chorus,But Im running out of things to do to keep it from getting boring ,I feel like the fills between lyricks could help with making my songs better but that tricky its harder to keep time on those quick fills,And I notice your using a hi hat and with the bass pedal,I would like to maybe try a hi hat later on,right now im just doing the bass,but Ive mounted a tamberine on the suitcase and it gives a rattle to it that aint to bad with the bass thump,I might try the hi hat though I like how it makes your footdrums sound more like a regular drummer on a kit,Nice playing as always ---------- Hobostubs
Hi HoboStubs: Thanks for the compliment! I actually play a ride cymbal with a stick attached to a bass drum beater pedal and snare with a stick attached to a double bass pedal. I have let go of the high hat and bass drum. For recording the high hat is too close to the vocals and bleeds all into the vocal/harp mic. I have the ride cymbal sitting real low to the ground and it doesn't bleed much into the vocal/harp mic. The bass drum also bleeds too much into the mics. Plus the bass drum/high hat cymbal sounds like a 1 man band. Like you said, I feel like the ride cymbal/snare combo sounds more like a real kit. That is my goal. I guess you just have to keep practicing the rack with everything. I have been at it a solid 40 years and feel like I am just getting the hang of things yet I made a living playing for many years. People settle for most anything that has good energy behind it which is just what it should be but I am always hearing my sound get better. I when I die I am still reaching for more. To have it all figured would be boring enough to quit playing and find something else to do that challenbed me.
Here are a couple from this evening. I did some wierd time with the harp on the rack. Keeping the drums, guitar, and harp going with this beat was a lot of fun. If I thought about it I would fall completely apart. I visualize a complete band behind my harp playing and it works. The other one is a guitar instrumental, again a challenge in visualizing a real band behind to be able to pull it off. Most 1 man band sound much too 1 deminsional. I visualize a real band behind me. I can see the drummer (my feet) the bassist(my thumb on the bass guitar strings) a guitarist (my other fingers on the middle and high end strings) amd me singing and blowing harp. Walter
lor: You just have to go right below the video and there are songs listed. You can listen to them and or click on "go to music page" I have about 3,000+ songs there. Or you can click on the "continuous streaming of my most recent 200 songs" link below my picture. That is a myspace thing with a streaming player on it. I am uploading a few from this evening with some wierd rack harp and a guitar 1 man band instrumental. Thanks for checking my tunes! Walter
---------- walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing. I record about 300 full length cds a year. " life is a daring adventure or nothing at all" - helen keller
im starting to understand about the working it as a whole band,I sometimes might stop the guitar a second and have the harp do something I normally dont do or oposite or Its cool cause you can do things on the fly that might throw a band that wasnt exspecting the sudden change,It allows me to be able to just improvise a song that started the way it allways does but all sudden you change something,but the whole band knows and feels it cause its Me and I can go with the flow(well sometimes),maybe change the whole feel of a song or Not,I havent got the variations worked out allways but they flow good most times,as long as I keep the beat going I can mess up alittle and just work it into the song like I was going there anyways,;-)well sort of Im still working on that but I really like how that is,I understand completly what you mean on treating everything seperate,Its like when you been playing with a band awhile you can go with the flow,The 1 man band has that potential and in a way seems like a very strong point to explore with it ---------- Hobostubs
Hobostubs: The 1 man band thing is a very intriquing thing for me. I started as one as a little kid without knowing it. I played garbage cans and hung the lids from the garage ceiling for cymbals. I had a small comb that I put wax paper over and played it with the drums and sang. I dreamed of a guitar but that would not happen for many years after that. Most 1 man bands do like most trios- they make a wall of sound trying to compensate for the lack of a big band and the average person is real impressed with that. People in general go for flash. What I like about the blues is when it is played like Muhamad Ali boxed in his later days. He would lay easy and then explode at just the right moments. Most every 1 man band that does blues stuff is more about continuous explosions. For me, it lose its effect after a minute or so.
For me, the 1 man band is all about grooove and space. You are challenged to play several instruments at once and the brain can only do so much at once. This is where the sparseness comes in and the groove really takes front stage. With a great sense of time and groove, the sparseness soon becomes a much deeper sound than that wall of sound most put out. Much like a SBWII solo song does. Also a great sense of time has nothing to do with a metrodome. Anybody can tick tock to one. But to let your own musical clock tick inside you and be able to follow it with you voice and instruments is what deep groove time is about IMO. Anyway, keep at it and you will keep getting better! Walter ---------- walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing. I record about 300 full length cds a year. " life is a daring adventure or nothing at all" - helen keller
tonight a life long criminal and an addict that fell off the wagon came through me, memories of driving around the country after gigs with my various band members, my address book that is full of phone numbers and addresses of musicians that have passed, and other stuff. Walter link to the songs
driving all night after the gig the call me lone some falling back on my ways I got no phone line to heaven ---------- walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing. I record about 300 full length cds a year. " life is a daring adventure or nothing at all" - helen keller
