A capella help!

RageDeltaz

New member
I have been playing instruments for almost 6 years now. I started off with stringed instruments and now I am playing woodwind and brass instruments.

Recently I was introduced to instrument acapella on YouTube. In case you don't know that that is, it is when people turn pop songs or any other type of songs into songs only using their instrument(s) (if that makes sense, I'll link a video of an acapella later on)

I have been trying to find out how to make an acapella but have had no luck so if someone could help me, that'd be great!

Bassoon acapella: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsiiWQEkuw4

(I play the bassoon, alto saxophone, keyboard (a little), and the trumpet at the moment)
 

John Watt

Member
RageDeltaz! I first looked because of your user name,
and for sure, I wasn't expecting a young man like you, also thinking teenager.

What you said about people turning pop songs, or any other songs,
into songs using their instruments, is just what musicians do, so I thought you were confused.
Not the love and confusion Jimi Hendrix sang and played about, just yours.

"Acapella" means just vocals, no instruments at all. That's not only traditional, it's historic.
"Acapella groups", as described by American media, was about people from a ghetto,
four or five guys, standing outside on a street corner, singing and harmonizing.
And if they could afford the same clothes, nice suits, that got more attention,
and could become a gig indoors with a band, even making it up onstage at the Apollo Theater.

That's not what I'm seeing here.
I used to date a bassoonist for the Ottawa Symphony and Ottawa Symphony Orchestra.
She was so beautiful, a Mennonite girl who never ever even tried to drink or smoke a cigarette,
Oh yeah, we got into the ice cream sundaes, with lots of bananas on the side.
She was so beautiful, even the conductor liked to conduct her around,
meeting two Prime Ministers at Ottawa functions. She liked me way better.

First of all, a bassoon can be a very expensive instrument.
Some symphonies already own one, and if you get the job, they let you use it.
My girlfriends' practice bassoon cost $18,000, her performance one cost over $40,000.
That's what you're looking at, as you progress on bassoon.
I've never seen one used onstage by any other kind of musical group.
Cellos were hot here for a while, for rock and folk and whatever alternatives there were.

If you're going to present something here that top level symphony and organist can enjoy,
you're going to not only have to write music and read music and compose music,
it's going to have to be good enough and your playing great enough, to keep any interest.

Watching your video, I wasn't sure what I was seeing.
One of you was playing the bassoon, that's for sure,
but were the other squares of you holding it the other parts I was hearing,
or was the one square what I was hearing, and the others were just waiting to be clicked.
I didn't look. Your playing is very basic, making me think you need lessons,
more than getting up and out, expecting other musicians to watch and listen to you.

But that's what these forums are about, communicating and sharing.
With a name like RageDeltaz, you need some distortion, phasing and flanging,
to make you sound like your name, unless,
I should have watched all the way, to when you take your bassoon and smash it,
and then light the splinters on fire, and stick them into your trumpet,
and aim that at the camera, blazing away... yeah, that might go viral.
That might be the only musical heat you can generate here.

I hope other musicians in your home town let you jam with them.
That will help you decide which instrument is best for you,
but I recommend keyboards, now doing it all, from computers to historic pianos.
I used to have a nice trumpet, that I took camping, sitting behind a waterfall,
with the trumpet sticking out. Lotsa percussion on the canteens too.

Where did you get your bassoon, and who made it?
Fretting fingers want to know. I just play semi-solid-body guitars I build myself.
 

RageDeltaz

New member
RageDeltaz! I first looked because of your user name,
and for sure, I wasn't expecting a young man like you, also thinking teenager.

What you said about people turning pop songs, or any other songs,
into songs using their instruments, is just what musicians do, so I thought you were confused.
Not the love and confusion Jimi Hendrix sang and played about, just yours.

"Acapella" means just vocals, no instruments at all. That's not only traditional, it's historic.
"Acapella groups", as described by American media, was about people from a ghetto,
four or five guys, standing outside on a street corner, singing and harmonizing.
And if they could afford the same clothes, nice suits, that got more attention,
and could become a gig indoors with a band, even making it up onstage at the Apollo Theater.

That's not what I'm seeing here.
I used to date a bassoonist for the Ottawa Symphony and Ottawa Symphony Orchestra.
She was so beautiful, a Mennonite girl who never ever even tried to drink or smoke a cigarette,
Oh yeah, we got into the ice cream sundaes, with lots of bananas on the side.
She was so beautiful, even the conductor liked to conduct her around,
meeting two Prime Ministers at Ottawa functions. She liked me way better.

First of all, a bassoon can be a very expensive instrument.
Some symphonies already own one, and if you get the job, they let you use it.
My girlfriends' practice bassoon cost $18,000, her performance one cost over $40,000.
That's what you're looking at, as you progress on bassoon.
I've never seen one used onstage by any other kind of musical group.
Cellos were hot here for a while, for rock and folk and whatever alternatives there were.

If you're going to present something here that top level symphony and organist can enjoy,
you're going to not only have to write music and read music and compose music,
it's going to have to be good enough and your playing great enough, to keep any interest.

Watching your video, I wasn't sure what I was seeing.
One of you was playing the bassoon, that's for sure,
but were the other squares of you holding it the other parts I was hearing,
or was the one square what I was hearing, and the others were just waiting to be clicked.
I didn't look. Your playing is very basic, making me think you need lessons,
more than getting up and out, expecting other musicians to watch and listen to you.

But that's what these forums are about, communicating and sharing.
With a name like RageDeltaz, you need some distortion, phasing and flanging,
to make you sound like your name, unless,
I should have watched all the way, to when you take your bassoon and smash it,
and then light the splinters on fire, and stick them into your trumpet,
and aim that at the camera, blazing away... yeah, that might go viral.
That might be the only musical heat you can generate here.

I hope other musicians in your home town let you jam with them.
That will help you decide which instrument is best for you,
but I recommend keyboards, now doing it all, from computers to historic pianos.
I used to have a nice trumpet, that I took camping, sitting behind a waterfall,
with the trumpet sticking out. Lotsa percussion on the canteens too.

Where did you get your bassoon, and who made it?
Fretting fingers want to know. I just play semi-solid-body guitars I build myself.

That made me laugh pretty hard to be honest but that video isn't of me, its just a video I found and really liked watching because it was acapella. I am in my high school band and I play the bassoon, I've been playing the bassoon for 4 years and I have had lessons for 2 years. The bassoon is my favorite instrument because of the range and just the sound in general. I think acapella is really cool and sounds awesome. I've seen so many videos on the internet of musicians making acapella using their instruments so I wanted to start but I don't know how to start. I have no idea how to write music and compose it haha. The closest I have got to writing music is guess how the viral video "Epic Sax Guy" goes on my trumpet. Thanks for your response haha.
 

John Watt

Member
All right! I was a little worried, thinking a young teen could be too, uh, sensitive.
How about saying solo instrument instead of acapella.
This new trend of acoustic guitarists playing solo, doing bass, tapping harmonics,
two-finger chiming, tweaking with it, seems to be the new trend for the next greatest guitarist.
That's musically wrong.
It's easy to become self-absorbed as a solo player, and try to heighten your playing,
by making it more complicated, or decorative.
Either way, you are stuck playing the same thing over and over again,
all by yourself, unless you make a mistake.
As a band instrument, acoustic guitars were built to accompany other instruments.
You can wire one up and make it sound like something all over the guitar,
but that's being wired up, and that's what it takes to play all over like that.
American statistics show that over 90% of the people in Ohio have used crystal meth.
That's the wired up I'm referring to, or strung up, not stringing along.

There is only one musician I went to visit to watch rehearsals,
and that was my Mennonite bassoonist girlfriend.
It's hard work, holding it tight, holding it upright, and blowing into it.
Her mother made sure we left the door open.

When I went to visit her in Ottawa, I went to a meeting with other symphony players.
They were part of a group that was organizing a new winter carnival for Ottawa.
Back then, when the Rideau Canal froze, you could ride horses and drive cars on it.
Now it doesn't freeze.
They were trying to think of a name, so I said I made a winter name up.
I wrote a "mini-symphony" in grade twelve, no good, and called it "Winterlude".
That's the name they used.
I am Clan Watt. Please, you didn't have to repeat what I said,
too much excess broadband.
I like the sound of a bassoon too, right up there with alto flute.

Do you know circular breathing? You can't be epic anything without doing that,
what sounds like playing without having to stop and take a breath.
I can blow a non-stop note on a harmonica,
and the harder the back pressure the easier it is.
There's nothing nicer than holding on, when everyone else lets go. Solo!
 

John Watt

Member
What's the difference between youth and old age?
Youth are just hot to trot, and seniors have geriatricks.
 
Top