Looking to branch out musically

[Name_Plate]

I have been playing strictly classical and traditional band music for a while now. It has gotten boring and dulled my enthusiasm for practice. I have been wanting to branch out from these styles and see what else is out there but I don't know where to start. Any suggestions on where to start?

[bloke]

Do any of these seem interesting...??
- European traditional music (ie. "polka band")
- early 20th century jazz (ie. "dixieland")
- NOLA brass band music (ie. "funky bass lines")

To COMPLETELY "get away from" that to which you're accustomed (and IF one or more of these seem interesting) do research, get some names of some great groups, play recordings on youtube, AMPLIFY them (so your own playing doesn't drown them out on your little computer speakers), and STUMBLE ALONG with them - with NOTHING written down and NOT EVEN any "chord changes" written down. Keep "stumbling" (day-after-day) until it sounds less-and-less like "stumbling" and more-and-more like "playing along".

You'll learn a lot...EVEN IF you don't completely "get" what you're learning...and (I'd wager) you'll have fun.

If you get to where you can "play along with" several dozen of (seemingly) the most common (of a given genre's/style's) repertoire tunes, don't be afraid to say "yes!" if asked to play with a live group of [whatever] genre. You'll learn even more, and will NOT be the "worst ever" to have played that style of music "live".

Though the attack/release styles may be totally different from those most commonly used in band/orchestral/quintet music, "attention to detail" remains JUST as important...and "time" (arguably) becomes EVEN MORE important.

[jtm]

To COMPLETELY "get away from" that to which you're accustomed (and IF one or more of these seem interesting) do research, get some names of some great groups, play recordings on youtube, AMPLIFY them (so your own playing doesn't drown them out on your little computer speakers), and STUMBLE ALONG with them - with NOTHING written down and NOT EVEN any "chord changes" written down. Keep "stumbling" (day-after-day) until it sounds less-and-less like "stumbling" and more-and-more like "playing along".
...

I love doing this. And it really does get easier with repetition; I need to think a lot less about actual notes after a while -- the fingers just do the right things.

[Kirley]

This is excellent advice from Bloke.

Depending on your strengths, I'd suggest starting with the NOLA brass band stuff as for the most part, you've got one bass line to figure out and then you can spend the rest of the song just trying to get it locked in rhythmically. If you're new to playing by ear, this will be a little easier than trying to chase down chord changes.

There are a lot to choose from but I'd suggest starting with Rebirth Brass Band as Tuba Phil's lines are relatively simple and easy to hear. Also, their tunes (or versions of other's tunes) have become "standards" a lot more than any other band. So, you might actually get called to play some of them.

[bloke]

clarification:
I didn’t “thank“ for the previous post because the person thought that I gave good advice.

Rather, I “thanked“ because I believe THEY gave good advice.

[acemorgan]

Something I have really enjoyed (your results may vary) is going to Musescore, and finding solo pieces for other instruments. With a subscription (it cost me $29), I can change clefs, transpose, edit those cello solos that cover 5 octaves, etc. Many of them have a piano accompaniment, and with a willing partner, it can be fun. And if you are seeking new areas for exploration and growth, it is certainly there. Among various other works, I am playing stuff originally written for flute and violin.

And no, I don't work for, nor own stock in, Musescore.

[Doc]

To add on to already-excellent advice...

Playing along with polka, dixie, NOLA, hot jazz, standards, etc. can indeed be lots of fun. Within each of those categories are tons of different styles, so you're bound to find something you like. My encouragement to you is to not only play bass lines, but also play the tune. And you might start improvising the tune (think of it as paraphrasing the melody). My wife plays piano, and we will sometimes play hymns - I'll play the written bass line, or I'll make up what I think would be a tuba line in an accompanying quintet. Then I'll play the melody (I'll read it if it's not a hymn I already know). We take turns, and it is fun. You could do this play-along thing with almost any style of music (classic country, reggae, pop, rock, ragtime, bluegrass, old-time spirituals, folk music of every nation/culture/proclivity, etc.). How about piano or vocal songbooks? They've been printing all sorts of music du jour for piano and/or singers for well over a century.

[royjohn]

So how does this musescore thing work? I'm interested in selecting and printing out some duets and small group music from the literature, but the musescore site promotes it as a score writing program...is there a way to import files and then transpose as needed and print? Where do I find the instructions for that?

[acemorgan]

Musescore is technically a music writing program. Every score you see on their site has been put there by members using the writing tools. Some are transcriptions, some are painstaking aural dictation, some are original, etc.

When you click on a score, on the right-hand side of the screen you will see an array of options including download. If you click that, it will give you further options, like, open in Musescore, open as pdf, and so forth. If you have downloaded the free Musescore option to your computer, you can try opening the score in the program. Some will open with no problem, some will say you need to have the paid version--I don't know what the criteria are. But if you do have the paid version, everything will open.

Once you open it in the program, you can edit it, print it, whatever. You can even do this with the free version, if that particular score opened for you. But again, every score is available if you get the paid version. It is normally $49, but when I finally said sure, fine, I'll buy it, the site asked if I wanted to apply the discount. It was reduced to $29 for the year.

Now you can, of course, use features like "print screen" or the snipping tool to grab scores, but that is an awkward pain, and the paid version is really pretty cheap for what you get in return.

I hope this helps. If you have further questions, you can PM me and I will wax verbose.