Slapchop,

I'd love to check out your music. You seem so knowledgeable. Do you have anything on the web? Band site? MySpace? YouTube?

Here's my stuff. You can critique me and give me advise on how to improve:

http://www.myspace.com/heustis

http://www.myspace.com/barnyardnewton

http://www.youtube.com/user/BarnyardNewton

I second this... I've been curious, but too diffident to ask! No pressure, of course...

Seriously Slapchop. I would really enjoy hearing you play. All of your super honest criticism has helped me so much.

Here is a link to a movie soundtrack I worked on:

http://www.rp63.com/sky_falling.html

Your input would be uber helpful.

Just bumping this thread: not out to cajole anyone (though I'm highly curious). But I just like the name Doctor SlapChop.

Unless you object you are the Doctor from here on in, far as I'm concerned, SC!

Or maybe Doktor (a la Hunter S Thompson), to avoid confusion with the great ZZDoc...

Cheers - C

Cheeses K. Reist. Why call me out, Black Bart? Several other guys told you the same thing I did. But let me get this straight…

You posted these videos of yourself and they were pretty much ignored, until this one, where a few of us told you what we thought. Even though you're a survivor of the "rough and tumble" LA music scene, you took deep affront, and defended your work with some standard fallacies of reasoning:

1. What I’m playing is avant-garde… too advanced for your ears.

2. Here’s a video by a musician I admire. I’m just like that.

3. Oh, yeah? Well… let’s hear YOU play.

None of these arguments are relevant to your playing (I could cite the fallacies but why bother?) And I still don't know why you focused on me. Maybe you’re afraid of BigJay because he’s, well… I dunno. Big.

I hate Internet pissing matches like this; there’s no way to win. If I post samples of my work, you will ridicule them (groundlessly, but you will.) But, if I don’t post samples, then I look like I’m somehow afraid of you. But, since Ceri is curious... what the hell.

I started playing guitar and piano at 10, started gigging in coffee houses at 14, joined the AFM at 15 so I could start playing lounge gigs (I still have my first contract in a file), joined my first rock band at 16, and was accepted to Butler University’s prestigious Jordan College of Music solely on the strength of my audition. Dropped out to hit the road, toured the upper Midwest playing a solo act in Holiday Inns for about five years.

I got sick of traveling , got married and became an agency copywriter. I won a couple of national Addy awards for commercial music, started moonlighting as a scoring composer for corporate video, quit my job to go freelance dba Gravity Music in January of 1996. Since then, I’ve written a long string of musical IDs (jingles, that is), scored TV and radio spots, written special songs for corporate shows, scored documentaries and video games (if any of you are playing the hit game for iPhone Zombieville USA, that’s my music.

I play guitar, bass, piano, and electronic keys. I write songs and compose instrumental music, design sound and do Foley work, and I record my work in my own home-based studio. ). Here are some samples of my work. Unless otherwise noted, I played all the parts, and all of this material is © 2005-2009 Gravity Music/.Jim Bordner (ASCAP), all rights reserved.

This was a jazz/blues I did to demonstrate a new amplifier. Drums by David Seyboldt.

http://www.gravitymusic.com/audio/MinorBlues.mp3

This is an experiment in making something from bits and pieces of audio. A friend on another forum recorded the voice, drums by Discrete Drummer Vol. 1. The ratchety lead guitar is one take.

http://www.gravitymusic.com/audio/Gate24.mp3

This is an acoustic piece I wrote while studying Snuffy Walden’s material.

http://www.gravitymusic.com/audio/Snuffles.mp3

I wrote and arranged this jazz vocal piece – a fresh arrangement of a jingle I wrote for a national sporting goods chain - and sang baritone in the group.

http://www.gravitymusic.com/audio/MCSportsXmas.mp3

This track is for a video game that will be coming out later this month. Rick Brown on flute, Deborah Nitka-Hicks on cello, drum programming by me. The abrupt ending indicates that piece is deisnged to loop.

http://www.gravitymusic.com/audio/Level3.mp3

This is what I have stashed online at the moment. You can hear more at www.gravitymusic.com, along with my client list (needs updating again). ALso, the description of the studio gear REALLY needs updating. But my IT guy (my oldest son) works for an international ad agency now and doesn't have time to do my site. I guess I'l have to learn another skill.

Now, I expect the response will be, “Well, I sure didn’t hear anything avant-garde there!” And you’re right… I don’t write like that. But that doesn’t mean I don’t have the musical knowledge to criticize your work.

But as a commercial music producer, I deal with rejection every day of the week. I have the challenge of making music I find interesting and satisfying that will still wrench a check out of the Philistines you revile on your MySpace page. You put your stuff online and ask for critiques, then people are going to say they don’t like it. Just saying, "I'm an artist and you have cloth ears" doesn't cut it. You asked, and I (along with others) told you.

The Doctor is out.

Very impressive.

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No no and no

Well there you go. We've got a lot in common. Similar age. Both musician/guitarist/composers. I'm in Los Angeles. You're in Fort Wayne Indiana. Easily could be friends, except for the distance.

I listened to all your clips and liked them. I guess we can assume you listened to (all?) mine and didn't like them. I'm ok with that.

I have close friends that I love dearly who have different tastes in music. Different religions too. Politics etc.

I think we have a misunderstanding. I've read our posts over again. Can we be friends?

Is there some history here I'm unaware of?

_________________
No no and no

Bigjay,

That goes for you too. The thing that got me about your previous post, you didn't like my music, but you told me it was ok to keep playing it.

Cool.

Friends? Ok?

Thanks for posting your work, SlapChop — I really enjoyed what I've heard so far, and will be back to listen some more after I've slept. I had no idea there was a pissing match going on, although I should have worked out that the tone of the original post was suggesting that some beef or other was being aired in a slightly new venue. Ah, well. I've been wanting to experience some of your work, that's all, and figured that it would all happen in good time... so I'm grateful that it has. I'm sure others will feel the same way.

Going to be quite a while before anybody on this forum hears anything of mine, though — the bar's looking a bit high just now!

huestis - no problem on the friendliness. Heck , some of my best friends play Southern rock! If there was any hatchet, it be buried.

BigJay, I don't think of you as a dueling enemy... more like a sparring partner.

Thanks for the kind words, ya'll. I know my work isn't art. But I take it seriously, and I love doing it. (I also love my Egnater Rebel 20, which I've had for about a year and is all over these samples.)

- The Doktor formerly known as SlapChop

PS: There's nothing wrong with Southern rock! That was a joke! Just kidding! No offense!