The most frustrating thing for all musicians is not the annoying crowd crying out your name, it is not the ear ringing after your drummer bashes the snare like John Bonham or Travis Barker, it is not outrageous parties that you invite thousands of people and no one does anything. It is finding the perfect sound.
Dimebag Darrell from the metal groove band Pantera was depressed for a long time to find the amount of heavy raw power pounding through his heart. He went through volumes and volumes of guitar pedal catalogs, played hundreds of guitars, only to find the tone inside his head. His sound deemed music companies to produce the Dimebag crybaby wah-pedal and Dean guitars branded Dimebag’s guitar with his custom floyd rose whammy with custom ruptured humbuckers.
Not just metal in general. Classical music has a long history of composers reaching a song’s potential with unbounding tone and perfect dynamic percussions . Beethoven written concertos, and sonatas for days without eating. His plates will be stacked on top of his piano sliding up and down the piano strings in grease. Hitting the right soft and hard accents to distinguish the correct ambient sounds and to decide to not consume any food is nuts. Of course it is. Musicians will risk a part of their live to achieve the greatest high of all: the right sound
While musicians are obsessed with the power of tone to the point of destruction, spending hours end to find the perfect pitch, and dynamic to the music and write the greatest song crafted like Guinness beer, the secret is to manner in and take out specific things to distress the creative mind
One is to get keep searching the sound. Beck would have never reached his studio albums without consulting into different genres, combining them like a crazy scientist. The rap lyrics inside Loser with a lo fi chorus hook captured a sound and birthed Beck’s image. Drake now started to rip the same hip hop cardiograph about being the top notch mother in the business but he takes his roots down. His mind is running through vaporware influence to a touch of reggae. Don't think it is necessary to mix an accent in his lie but who cares honestly. He is changing his style and it did spark a separate voice from ‘Never Mind’.
Two is ignore what others say. How did Bob Dylan claim the Nobel Prize for Literature? Rebel against the standards. Of course Bob Dylan went electric but his later works brought down songwriting format. Most cases you would go from verse and chorus but songs like All Along the Watchtower and The Hurricane, Bob Dylan stopped the folk rock and put into just a story with lines that hold as a merit. An ingenious way to present a specific theme which Bob Dylan from the beginning of his career was finding. Everyone enjoyed Tambourine Man and Hard Rain are Gonna Fall. But Dylan has many shades of mystery to how these lyrics mean to many people. Bob Dylan after the John Wrooks Project album began to birth the next chapter continuing his legacy as a legend.
Three is read on the latest equipment. I can’t stress this enough! Search until your eyes are bleeding. Read every detail the ad gives about the product and figure out those words speak to you like a hammer hitting a nail. Stay fresh in mind though to browse at every possible equipment you can see from different catalogues. For instance, the perfect acoustic guitar sound depends on the wood and the shape of the circle under the steel strings. Oak is very light which will give a bright tone but not a lot of echo and resonating sound. The vibrations inside the guitar will disappear very quickly. However, mahogany is very heavy and will deepen the guitar’s tone, vibrating with bold waves that can hold longer notes. Drums depends on the width of the drum circle. A wider drum will give out a deeper tone while a thinner drum will give out a higher tone.
Just keep in this mind if you are musician that keep finding the sound and don't hesitate to find the sound in your head. Surely it can make you depressed but don’t waste anytime to try to find it
