The gift of music

McGooTheWise

McGooTheWise

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I wanted to make this thread because I just saw a bunch of videos of Collective soul playing in the streets of Morocco for the entertainment of the locals, and I thought it was a beautiful thing that they would give the gift of music to the people that have probably never heard their kind of music.

VIDEO:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiVXlAW8Ujw&feature=related

I don't care what you reply with, video, picture, story, as long as it keeps the general feel of the thread. (The coming together of different cultures to share their music. I think this song and video by Collective Soul said it better than I can.)

EDIT: At about 1:52 you can hear the kids singing along.
 
Of all the great accomplishments mankind has done over the centuries, I believe music is the single greatest creation.

Music brings people together, gives more hope than any religion, brings happiness worldwide. Its just amazing.

On our Uni trip to Uganda, we each as seperate cultures played music for each other. The locals played their song of choice, and we did an acoustic cover of Brown Eyed Girl by Van Morrison, and got an unbelievable response. They had obviously never heard the song before and were smiling and crying with disbelief and intrigue. Was SUCH an awesome feeling.
 
I bet your pants felt a little tight after that. ;)

Unless I'm the only one that gets a rise out of playing for a crowd that loves the shit out of it... Which I doubt.

For me there's nothing in the world that feels quite like learning a new song on guitar, or instrument, and pushing my limits, finding out I can do more than I previously thought. it's just so amazing to feel your musical talent grow, it's indescribable. I would have a hard time choosing between playing a sold out gig, and sex.
 
Well yeah, Ive been told I can sing, apparently I have the ''voice of an angel'', not like some choir kid but apparently its a great voice, but I dont know how to play the guitar and dont know if I could handle singing infront of people.

All those eyes and ears judging your every flinch or mistake, I guess its the rejection im scared of most, the fear of someone saying you suck.

But give me an iPod, an iPod dock and an empty house and I will sing the day away until I inevitably get a headache (I always do when I sing for long periods). I guess Im a professional in the shower.

My ideal goal would be to learn how to play a guitar and play acoustic versions of older songs people love while sitting around a huge fire. Like Here Comes The Sun by The Beetles.

I cant think of any situation cooler than that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZbiZxA9b5k

This is the kind of music I would LOVE to make.
 
Well, if you grab a guitar and learn some Alice in Chains songs, like Nutshell, and No Excuses, they're just 3 chords repeated over and over again, but they're easy to sing to. I play those at family gatherings and such, and everybody says how good I am. only I know that secretly the songs are easy as shit.

But also learning some Days of the new, and Over the Hills and Far Away by led Zeppelin will give people an impression that you're really good, while you can take that skill you learned from those songs and put it to your own use.

And apparently I sing well too. I've sang in the shower to the point that my voice was froggy the rest of the day. Thank god for Bose Computer speakers. :p

Here's another thing to remember, if you're at all good, the majority of people will want to like you. Those few assholes in the crowd that would heckle at you are simply that. Assholes.
 
Apparently the first month or so of learning the guitar is difficult, to the point where you want to give up as you think you're not getting anywhere.

And I feel if I got into it, I WOULD cave with frustration, and there would be some funny or wimsical local news story about a guitar going through a guy's windscreen and spearing a poodle.

Im the kind of learner that has to be shown how its done. Im usually pretty quick to pick stuff up, so knowing HOW to do it wont be hard, the act itslef may prove annoying.

But its a life skill at the end of the day. And women love a guy who can play a guitar, hell, even saying you're learning to play is hot enough for them.

Ive got languages behind me; French, Arabic in particular which Im thinking of going more advanced with tutoring, and Im also considering starting Latin, its just skills like that which make you stand out from the crowd. Not everyone can play the guitar, and you can always see people's eyes light up with excitement when someone says they can. And the requests follow shortly after, naturally.
 
Speaking of this.. when's the last time a new instrument was actually made? Not talking about synthesizer either.
 
I think Sea Sick Steve is inventing new ones every day.
 
There was some sort of string instrument I saw on youtube that a guy built in his garage, and it looked like a mixed up guitar.

Lets get some videos from Charity concerts, or stories of our first concerts...
 
Sigur Ros's Heima dvd is all free concerts, kinda like their gift to Iceland. Pretty nice. That's the only one coming to mind at the moment.

My first concert was pretty embarrassing. I was volunteering for an Earth Day Festival hosted by a Top 40 radio station. Jewel played (she is actually pretty good), and Melissa Branch or Melinda Branch or whatever her name was played last (she was really boring). I guess it kinda counts as charity since it was an Earth Day event, but the entire event pissed me off because the whole place was completely trashed with litter by the time all the idiots attending the event were through with it. And I was one of those people who volunteered for trash cleanups in high school, so it was like "Screw all you stupid littering people and your crappy music tastes."

A few years after that I attended 2 days straight of Explosions in the Sky concerts ending on my birthday, which I like to count as my first official concert. It was awesome.
 
My first concert experience was a Jackyl concert, about half way through the concert the singer came down off the stage. I was probably the youngest person in the crowd, I had a spot at the front, and the whole band was paying me a lot of attention, handing me picks and such. The singer, my lifelong idol to that point, (I was 13, chubby, just got into braces, was shy as a mouse, and had the confidence of one.) he got off the stage, came down into the audience and pointed a microphone in my face. The song was call You Want it Heavy. In concerts he would start it off by singing the opening line a few times with a little input from the crowd between each phrase.

"You want it heavy when, god damn... I weigh a ton, you know that I am... A ton of fun, you KNOW you want a piece of me... A piece of me... A piece of me..." Then a microphone in my face... I must have stood there silent for about 15 seconds, but to me it felt like 15 decades. Jesse dupree smiling at me, encouraging me to sing with him... I squeak out "A piece of me......" And I don't remember any of the concert after that.

Later in the show the drummer tried to throw me a drumstick, but a guy next to me reached in front of me and took it, so the drummer handed the guitarist, who I was standing in front of, a drumstick, and he just gave it to me. it was the best thing ever. After the show when everybody meets the band at a table (Which they stand at for hours getting photos, signing autographs for people.) they told me I really hit the note, though I'm certain it was a bit more humorous than that... I still don't like listening to that song...

Kinda made me leery of going to concerts, but hey, hasn't happened since.
 
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