Tom, Why Don’t You Play Your Guitar Right?

HEY TOM, WHY DON’T. YOUR SONGS SOUND LIKE THEY ARE SUPPOSED TO SOUND?
Here are some differences that are on purpose!
For me songs should be at 2 minutes, 3 minutes for Ballads, that forces the song to have just the essentials and no excess repeats. Motto: stop playing before they stop listening!
The other thing is my guitar playing. This is what I call combo guitar style, not a singer songwriter, not a band something in between something new, where I play bass, rhythm, and lead, at the same time on one guitar. This single guitar leads to a more direct, passionate, and personal song. Though I will add that in my studio recordings I expand this to background vocals, and sometimes a 2nd standard guitar for a fuller sound.
Besides playing a lot of maj7, diminish, and suspended chords, I often play these with ringing open notes, such as an open A on a Bflat chord. I also often make up chords to enhance the melody.
So I encourage you to take these things as new ideas.
Those that like the older style are certainly welcome to do covers of my songs, some have already.

Music That Challenges

MUSIC THAT CHALLENGES:

Part of what I’m doing has challenged the thinking of many:

1. Get back to basics – don’t over produce your music – let the song through, don’t muddy it with technical clutter.
2. D-Pop where the song is what counts. What doesn’t count is the promotional budget or the fame. Then all are on a level playing field with every new recording.
3. Don’t do videos – Videos are a trick that only about 9 ever promoted pop stars can afford with minimum budgets of $100,000 to make (at least) That is a trick to let money count, not quality, and block out all indie musicians that can’t afford it.
4. Support pennies for play – where everywhere you post your song, you get a penny per play. Customers pay to hear music, like a jukebox online. Works for all content.
5. Fair, no ad revue sites – open to all. Where EVERYONE gets a professional review for a fair processing fee per song.
6. The Music Revolution – that would change every aspect of music and get you a chance at a career by ending the monopoly of the Big 3 Labels that block out new music and prop up the same 9 pop stars you see promoted year after year.
7. Take a break from bands for awhile ( the usual electric guitars, bass, drums). This will force musicians to be innovative instead of fit a 60 year old formula done so well by thousands of others from last century.
8. No corporate radio station will play a protest song. Take away their licenses.
9. New type of Combo guitar playing where I try to play bass, rhythm, and lead all on one guitar. Style that is half way between band and singer songwriter.

You may agree or disagree with a point or two – but they are new ideas, progressive ideas, challenging ideas that will help make music exciting, fun, and out side of corporate hands!

Tom

Why is My Music so Simple?

WHY IS MY MUSIC SO SIMPLE?

WHY is my music so simple, must be something wrong – right?
No!I’m trying something new. This is a back to basics sound that even with full production would be like my 15 studio albums – streaming everywhere online.

What works for this is one or two standard guitars, lead voice and two background voices. This simple style is not a mistake, but a way to make these songs more personable, and intimate!

My guitar playing is somewhat unusual too in that it’s a combo style, where Its not a singer songwriter sound, it’s not a combo sound, but something in between, something new, where I play bass lead and rhythm all at once.

I’ve pared down my music to a less convoluted, and more streamlined sound that I’ve grown so used to, that everyone else’s work sounds way way over produced to me!

My Style of Music , a letter to a music friend.

My Style of Music
Let me add this thought. I did traditional rock recordings in the eighties; guitars, bass, drums, keyboards, but then evolved to a simpler style, back to basics that I really like. So, should I studio record this or any of my songs, it would not be a retro band attempt from the style of 60 years ago, but a new more simple arrangement, in the new style that most don’t seem to like much, or at best are bewildered that it doesn’t sound like it “should”, in the old style.
At most any studio recording of mine now would involve a lead singer, 2 background singers and one or two standard guitars, and the comments would still be: I want to hear the old style, don’t you? No, not anymore. There were the Beatles and 60 years of imitators in my opinion. We don’t need me to be another. Yes many here are doing original and fine work in this style, and it suits them. Your work is a fine example, but it is not for me anymore.

Tom Hendricks
(musician, painter, writer, and editor of Musea, a zine covering the arts and media revolution, social issues, and science for 25 years.)

MAIN Website
http://tomhendricks.us/

Connects to all the following:

ZINE, MUSEA, Named one of the best ZINES by UTNE magazine. Featured on ROCKETBOOM) MUSIC, HUNKASARUS, 9 full CD’s of free Postism Music)
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BOOK PAGES (all 6 of my books + author info. )
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YOUTUBE CHANNEL, features all my 73 videos)
BIG MUSIC LIST, 200+ Song – First Worldwide Best Music, List) MUSEA’s 200th Issue / Underground History of Dallas 1992-2017

World’s First Singalong Song

Dear Readers,

Today I posted my new video, the world’s first, online, singalong, song. See lyrics and sing the ‘lalalala chorus.” Join the world.

For this and all my channel of youtube videos see this url and give it a thumbs up or comment. Thanks!

YOUTUBE CHANNEL
https://www.youtube.com/user/TomHendricksMusea