I've had a guitar since I was probably 8 years old. I never learned how to tune or play it so I would often tune every open string into a chord so that I could simply use one finger and play a chord each fret I went to. This in most ways is like drop-d tuning but I also fiddled with the last two strings to make it sound better.
I played a good number of years this way until I had a friend in a band show me how to tune his guitar and play some of the basic chords (Dane, thank you). I've been playing the right way ever since. Lucky for me he taught me harmonics early on too so that I could easily tune my guitar now by ear even though I still use a tuner (because I don't change my strings often and by ear doesn't necessarily produce the right sound).
Now I play every couple of days for a decent amount of time. My left hand tends to cramp very easily so I'm either not holding it right or not fingering things correctly. I really don't care at this point because I simply play songs by ear and have grown to get pretty decent over the years. Now that I'm somewhat good I've been thinking of getting some of the music out of my head and into a song so that others may enjoy it. This isn't easy being alone but it's never stopped me before.
I own two important pieces of my band: a guitar and a bass. I could produce them electronically but there's something about having the ability to play these that make this entirely worth doing. I have no drum machine or kit so I'll most likely use samples or electronic samples produced by some popular software. If anyone out there can produce a library of drum sounds for cheap (free) then give me a buzz because I'm looking for some good clean sound that I can manipulate into sounding heavy rock because that's the type of music I plan on playing mostly. I will have some slower songs (because I can't scream all the time) but for the most part I'm into heavier rock like Tool, Creed, (they're not that heavy but they're not Nirvana or something), 12 Stones, Spoken, Chevelle, System of a Down, P.O.D., 311, and a couple of others I can't seem to think about right now. I know you may not think 311 is heavy rock and they really aren't but they do play some good clean music that anyone can listen to, which is my goal as well.
I plan on using samples and loops heavily as I've just learned to play bass somewhat. I can tune it, I can play some of the notes but that's about it. What I'll probably do is come up with patterns and record those as cleanly as I can and then simply manipulate those into entire songs so that it sounds like I can really play well when I can only really play a particular pattern well. I can also lay on multiple tracks this way, extending the instruments I play so that I can have 2 guitars going at once (even though I'm the only one playing) or multiple bass parts that fit together nicely (as A Perfect Circle did on their latest CD). I like to think I can sing so I also have the vocals part down in which I can play a whole song in its entirety. My voice is my greatest instrument as I've had it in tune and been practicing on it ever since I first heard Michael Jackson's “Thriller” album on record (don't laugh, I'm still a fan and I probably still have the album somewhere).
I plan on making clean music that anyone can listen to. I realized relatively early on that whenever I hear vulgar language that I tend to repeat it whether its in movies, television or music. Music is probably the worst because the music itself seems to open up a door into your soul. The lyrics are then deposited there and possibly are never forgotten because they are truly that powerful. My grandmother heard a song the other day she probably hasn't heard in about 25-30 years yet she could almost sing every word of that song. Imagine us in 20 or 30 years hearing the first few lines of Naughty by Nature's OPP and then us spouting out the lyrics as if we were the ones singing it (I should know, I've done it before and I haven't heard the song in a good 5-8 years).
I'll make sure all of my lyrics are structurally sound as to not invoke any kind of negativity because we already have enough of that in music. I don't want to make music for one group of people but I'll have ways of including as many people as possible so that they can enjoy it as well. I know I will never fail though because I will always adore any music I decide to make into a song. I'm an extreme perfectionist so if I think that something is worthy of being in a song or an album then its definitely worth me listening to as much as possible.
I love the way computers have progressed for musicians because just about anyone can make good quality music now which was at one time seemingly impossible. I'd rather learn and play my own instruments but I realize that I often don't have the time to learn at the pace I want to. I'll be using some tricks and techniques to make me sound good when I can really only play mediocre. I'll do my best to break down the techniques I use in my songs as I post here so that others may learn from my success and failures. I figure if I can do this, practically anyone can if they have enough desire to do so. It's not about the money to me simply because music seems more natural. My current job seems too much like work and not enough like play time yet when I play music, I simply don't want to stop. If I can get paid to do something like that and make decent money why would I ever want to do something that seems like work? I realized pretty recently that the reason I know this technology is to simply better my career musically. Sure I could make good money as a SalesLogix admin, DBA, CCNA (I got certified in May 2000) or any other acronym positions but it would seem too much like work. I just hope the business of music doesn't make me want to slap the crap out of people involved in it. I have a feeling it might at first until I can start to produce my own music but I plan on doing that very early on because I can't stand someone trying to control any kind of content I put out, period.