Challenge me

FruitarGeek

Hey

So, ive never really entered into a guitar competition, but I would like to. A lot of my friends have all achieved something musically, i.e. friend made the Grahams town jazz band, and another made finals in a singing competition, ive never really done a guitar thing, but would like something to my name (sounds vain I know, but I assure you my intentions are clean) haha

So does anyone know of a competition or something that happens annually in Cape Town. I have a need to challenge myself.

Let it by anything, lay them thick. The only one that vaguely comes to my mind is Paul Bothners Fastest Pentatonic's competition, but I dont know when that is.

singemonkey

I'm prepared to help organise a 100m dash in which the contestants must carry a '70s Les Paul in one hand and a Fender Twin Reverb in the other.

Does that sound like the kind of thing you're after?

Conrad

Why don't you start entering the weekly competitions here?

Bob-Dubery

FruitarGeek wrote: Hey

So, ive never really entered into a guitar competition, but I would like to. A lot of my friends have all achieved something musically, i.e. friend made the Grahams town jazz band, and another made finals in a singing competition, ive never really done a guitar thing, but would like something to my name (sounds vain I know, but I assure you my intentions are clean) haha

So does anyone know of a competition or something that happens annually in Cape Town. I have a need to challenge myself.

IMO it's playing live rather than competition that brings on the improvement. So I'd look for almost any kind of gig as long as it involves playing to an audience. Is there any kind of open mic session you can get to?

OK... competitions CAN have benefits. Especially the one run on GFSA, because it addresses a different style or aspect of playing each time. I've found this beneficial in terms of getting me to think outside of my box.

For generally sharpening your playing and building confidence live gigs are the thing.

Annually isn't often enough IMO. If you could get to an open mic night once a month and if you entered (on average) every 2nd competition on GFSA that, I think, would do quite a lot for all aspects of your playing and creativity.

FruitarGeek

Haha Singemonkey - Supply the guitars, and perhaps you will have a contender

Ive considered trying the GFSA comps, they look rather interesting, but I thought of perhaps something more 'official' kinda like a idols but for guitar, and hopefully less dramatic.

Jack-Flash-Jr

singemonkey wrote: I'm prepared to help organise a 100m dash in which the contestants must carry a '70s Les Paul in one hand and a Fender Twin Reverb in the other.

Does that sound like the kind of thing you're after?

I'll bring my own gear: 1/4 size classical and pignose. That do ok?

Keira-WitherKay

+1 to what Bob said................... play live gigs............ better still play paying gigs............ cos lets be honest if you can work paying gigs........ you then pitting yourself up against the other pro muso's who all want those same gigs and if you succeed at that you should see your playing improve dramatically .........

singemonkey

Jack Flash Jr wrote: I'll bring my own gear: 1/4 size classical and pignose. That do ok?

Not even close man... not even close. I will let you substitute a double-neck guitar of your choice and a 2x12 marshall combo though.

FruitarGeek

So I think I wanna try this GFSA comps, but how do you guys record your stuff? I have no home studio here.

Some of them I hear the use of VST (virtual instruments) so what progs do you use?

guitarboy2828

FruitarGeek wrote: So I think I wanna try this GFSA comps, but how do you guys record your stuff? I have no home studio here.

Some of them I hear the use of VST (virtual instruments) so what progs do you use?

Me.. Mic into little mini mic socket in computer into audacity.. and that it's.. Free software, can get a cheap mic to use.. And you're sorted! ?

mity88

@guitarboy, u mic straight into audacity? if i do that it sounds crappy,u must hav a pretty decent sound card...i use a small amp for the mic

Bob-Dubery

mity88 wrote: @guitarboy, u mic straight into audacity? if i do that it sounds crappy,u must hav a pretty decent sound card...i use a small amp for the mic

I record using audacity. No mike - I plug straight into the soundcard. I play acoustic so this works well for me, if you are an electric player you might try using something like a line6 pod or some kind of practice amp.

With audacity you can make multitrack recordings and then mix down to a stereo wav or mp3.

Ray

Well, I've had this Micro BR thing for a while and I still just look at it mostly. It seems to be able to do quite a bit and each time I think I'm gonna put something together for the compos it jsut intimidates me. Now what I've been told is that to merge tracks I need to download to pc and use audacity. is this right? I've jsut got laptop with no decent soundcar stuff so I dont want to go straight into pc. bye

Conrad

Amen to what Keira posted. Few things will challenge you more.

guitarboy2828

mity88 wrote: @guitarboy, u mic straight into audacity? if i do that it sounds crappy,u must hav a pretty decent sound card...i use a small amp for the mic

No ways dude, I'm using my laptops built in sound card, trust me, this thing sucks! ?

Mic is also a super cheap behringer... I have recorded electric parts too, the two competitions i entered were both with this set up. With electric I stuck it in front of my amp, about half a meter away so it didn't distort. and for my guitar I had it like 30cm's away from the sound hole. Trust me, it's not Tommy Emanuel's set up, but it gets the basic just of what I'm wanting to do across. If you have a semi acoustic (like bob does) you can plug straight in and get amazing sounds..

Ray

OK so I am still struggling with this micro BR thing and get quite emotional sometimes but I swear I believe that the little microphone is better than when I plug into it. But heck, I dont know really just what I seem to imagine.

DonovanB

Ray if you get onto a different record mode, you can "Bounce" the tracks to another track. Then you can export the final mixed product to your pc.