Let's get some inspiration!

[Liz]

It's Inspire Your Heart with Art day!

What kind of art do you enjoy? Music? Paintings? Movies? What makes your heart happy or even inspires you to be creative?

For the past couple years I've been into drawing and painting. Inspired by yesterday's croissant holiday, I painted some quick watercolor croissants this morning:

-Liz

[Jay]

I went to school for graphic design and in high school/college did a ton of different sketches, sculptures, paintings, digital drawings, designs, and even replicated a sneaker out of scotch tape (3D foundations was fun) 

Here's some sketches from wayyyyyyy back in the day circa 2011


Ignore the circle, it's only there to cover my signature


I won't share any of my finished digital drawings out of fear of being reverse Google searched 

As for other arts, I was in Jazz Band in highschool where I played tenor and alto saxophone, but recently I've been teaching myself bass.


-Jay

[maratsade]

Zero talent for art here.  I'm going to sit and wait for the next food related national day. 😉

[maratsade]

I'm told tomorrow is National Baked Alaska day.   Awesome. 

[Liz]

Ummm hello what??? This is news to me, Jay. Drop me your IG. XD

-Liz

[MarkJFine]

A budding Jim Lee.... that looks like his style of shading, etc.

And while we're talking guitars... I'll humble brag about my American Standard Strat and Studio Les Paul...

[GabeU]

@MarkJFine 

Love the Les Paul.  I friend of mine just got a Less Paul Studio a couple of months ago and he loves it.  I haven't seen it but he's gigged with it a few times with his band.  

I had a Gun Metal Blue Standard Strat (not American) that I had to sell due to neurological issues that prevent me from being able to play anymore, but I was able to sell it to that same friend and he's gigged a few times using that one, as well.  Very different sounds between the two, of course. 

[MarkJFine]

The Studio has a minor quirk where you have to be careful about winding the G string. Over time the bend where the string goes in the tuning peg breaks, so you end up retuning 50 million times as it just slips around the peg. At that point you just restring all of it with a new set. Unsure if it's due to the string thickness and how many times you bend it, but it's one of two longest strings on that kind of headstock so there's more tension. Plus, I know I bend a G more often than a D (don't think I ever bent a D, actually).

[GabeU]

@MarkJFine 

That's interesting.  I had a Cort when I was a teen that did that a few times.  Granted, I played mostly rhythm, so I wasn't putting more tension on the strings with bends or the tremolo very often, but it would still happen.

[Jay]

@GabeU @MarkJFine What kind of music did/do you play? I'm into funk and motown so I've been learning a bunch of James Jamerson bass lines.

-Jay

[MarkJFine]

For me: Mostly Classic Rock and Punk.

Although, when I played in high school in the early/mid 70's there was no 'classic' to it: Zepplin, Bad Company...

In fact, my current finger exercise is bascially the beginning to Over the Hills and Far Away.

[Jay]

I'm a big fan of classic rock as well, but for bass, I've found most songs are pretty uninteresting to play. With a large number of exceptions, of course.

I was planning on working on War Pigs soon because thay bass line is soooooooooooooooo good. 

As for finger excersices, these arpeggios are killing me! So boring. I usually put on a movie or documentary when I'm just repeating scales over and over and over and over and over to help mitigate the boredom.

-Jay

[MarkJFine]

Yeah, was gonna say, you need pretty strng fingers to play bass. I'd be double covering for sure.

[GabeU]

@Jay 

I primarily played 80's heavy metal, like Metallica, Megadeth and Slayer, plus a bit of Black Sabbath.  Some classic rock, too.  Don't get me wrong, I was never that good at it as I didn't dedicate the time to learning the proper techniques like I should have and I never took any lessons, but I could still get through a number of less complicated songs fairly well.  

I've never tried playing bass, though I imagine it would have been pretty fun, as well.  

[MarkJFine]

I wouldn't get hung up on technique. I still think I should take some proper lessons to get rid of the bad habits and shortcuts I've picked up - mostly because I'm left handed, but trying to play like a righty (aka Joe Strummer style). Bottom line: Left hand is too quick for the right, which has trouble some times even finding the correct strings. Leads to a lot of hammer on/offs when I should be picking (I cheat).

Some days you're on, some days not so much... lol

[Jay]

One of my friends here at HughesNet is a big metal guy and has an awesome collection of Kiesel guitars. Every time I go over to his place and he plays, it makes me want to give up. Crazy how good some people are, and sometimes it feels impossible to get there 

Then I watch a few tutorial videos and my motivation goes back up.

-Jay

[GabeU]

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@Jay wrote:

One of my friends here at HughesNet is a big metal guy and has an awesome collection of Kiesel guitars. Every time I go over to his place and he plays, it makes me want to give up. Crazy how good some people are, and sometimes it feels impossible to get there  

---

My friend with the Les Paul Studio is like that.  When he was thinking of buying my strat and came over to look at it, he plugged it in, turned it on and made music on that thing I can only dream of.  He's one of those guys who can change complicated chords really quickly.  It's amazing.  I just kind of sat slack jawed.  😛