PG Music Band-in-a-Box 2018 Build 520 (April 17, 2018) WiN

Wow! So sorry you viewed my differing opinion/method as an attack. Fortunately, music, whether composition, performance, or production, is not a competition for me. That would completely ruin it for me as I "came" to music to GET AWAY from the stress and trauma of strict, over-achieving parents who were very competitive and filled our home with that vibe.

Just so you know, being a virtuoso is relatively easy because just about anybody can be one if they turn off the damn tv and practice scales and arpeggios INSTEAD. The things that I can do that make ME special are things that I could always do even without much or any practice. Things like being able to instantly harmonize any melody or identify pretty much any chord right away. I KNOW that I'm blessed by the Divine Creator and I give thanks to Him EVERYDAY without fail. But I NEVER throw it in other people's faces so I'm kinda shocked by your response. While I'm a fairly well known producer/musician in the industry, I'd rather stay unknown here.

You sound more like a producer than a musician and that's cool. I'm a musician who LATER learned how to produce so we're coming from two different places. Mine is not any better than yours, just different. Using loops or other "tools" actually takes longer for me than to just play what I'm hearing or asked to play. I can email you some of my songs if you want to hear some of my music from a place of love, but I'm not gonna return your competitive vibe because I just don't use my gift like that, Brother.

Many thanks for the suggestions Aesop, and it's not so easy to find someone giving them without any competitive background but just to share his own experience. Let's try.....

yea man thx a lot aesop...no mind...nowadays ppl you kno

With no competition meant in my heart or words (I left playing professionally some time ago, because it was impossible to escape the ridiculous, bloated egos, and the competitive 'climb over everyone to get to the top' - which never works anyway, attitudes that seem ubiquitous in the Industry, from musicians, to producers, and everyone below and above) - I, also, was blessed with perfect pitch, and the ability to play nearly any song (except the chords in ones like "Killing Me Softly" sung by Roberta Flack - which killed me softly many times), after hearing it once. Something just clicked - and it was the same with instruments - something in my soul just seemed to put my breath and fingers where they needed to go, on whatever instrument, to get what I needed from it to express my feeling. Some required more practice, but many hardly any, to master - I have always seen 'through' the instrument, understood its properties, and was able to use it, including drums, stringed instruments, brass, woodwinds, keyboards,etc., focusing on what I knew would come from it - as though I had played it before, many times. I thought that everyone was this way, because I grew up in a family in which there were no musicians - but had been filled with them in generations past. Three cousins went to Julliard, but my father was a drunken psychopath, and the 'black sheep' of the family. The only time I had true peace was in the band room of every school I went to - I was not allowed to play at home, and would be beaten for it. I settled on, and played for more than 40 years, the electric guitar - it just felt like singing. Music - and that ability - saved my life, many times over, and carried me through A.L.S., which should have killed me - except for my overwhelming desire to play again. "The Music of the Spheres" is playing all around us, all of the time (we are notes, ourselves, within it), and we only have to be still to hear it. People hearing you say that it was easy for you to learn a song don't understand that that is only a tiny fraction of actual musical skill, creativity, and the joy that comes with it. I do believe in Reincarnation, and that people who have been musicians through many lifetimes, and on many instruments, are born with an advantage over those who aren't born with it. But, just as I taught my son, while teaching him to read at a 5th grade level by the time he entered 1st grade, if nothing is done with the ability and knowledge, then nothing comes of it - and others willing to work harder (even if less gifted) will, determinedly, move ahead, and surpass those born with these gifts. My son learned the hard way. Thank you for your obvious excellent work in the field, and I am certain that you accepted the gifts, and combined them with drive and determination to contribute to the moving forward of the Music field. And thanks for telling your story. Your advice is very sound, and instead of arguing with it, people should just listen, and learn - or not. Long live the spirit of Music, those who love playing it, and the joy and beauty it brings to this often drab, 3D world of struggle, ego and competition...