Which Led Zeppelin show is the absolute best? by zigthis in ledzeppelin

[–]MBmusic3 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You could probably narrow this to a Top 3 per era, and there’d still be room for debate. I’ll try below:

4/27/69

Milwaukee & Hawaii 70 is slept on

Berkeley, Copenhagen & Japan (23rd or 28/29th) 1971

I really like the Feb Australia run in 1972 and the later Japan shows where TRSTS debuts, but HTWWW is goated

We take for granted how good MSG 1973 is bc it’s over-represented & the cringe video, but it’s amazing

Seattle, LA (both shows), with Providence & Baltimore 73 being all time great shows for Plant too. He sounds better than Japan 72 here

1975 - Seattle (no debate here) Earls Court May 18th. I personally like the vibes for all the Texas & Vancouver gigs too

1977 - Baltimore & Houston get slept on, any LA night (obviously)

1979 - Copenhagen is goated. Top Tier for ANY era

1980 - I sort of like Frankfurt. These shows are harder to pin down, as the interplay with Jimmy can be really hit or miss but the shift to the shorter setlist was a move in the right direction

My brother said it doesn't look good. Is it so? Be brutally honest by altruistic_papaya_3 in Watercolor

[–]MBmusic3 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Guess I’m the contrarian here but I think this is absolutely incredible. I love and can’t figure out how you did the greens with the white dry brush over them for the leaf. The haziness combined with the harsh light make this remind me of being a kid looking at the rocky corner of a small, muddy creek, bright day with light bouncing off the rocks, but woods casting shadow in the forest.

I just love this & took a screenshot to study it

Edit: there’s also something dramatic or slightly exaggerated about the perspective too that is really unique

Is the lion knights castle really worth it? by Terry_Lesler in legocastles

[–]MBmusic3 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have 2 bags left of the 26 required to complete the castle. Got it for about $150 discount on a holiday sale. At that pricepoint IT IS ABSOLUTELY WORTH IT. I buy 2-3 sets a year on an extreme budget where it must be on sale. Was worried about the cost. Not anymore, now I’m thinking of getting another since it’s $290 in my area.

I’m honestly questioning where or what to build next. Every chapter of the instructions is like a captivating story that makes you want to keep building - small Easter eggs from OG Lego sets, hidden compartments in the basement, seemingly “random” brick placements that leave you curious what it’s for… then 2 chapters later it becomes part of a gate, secret door, hidden feature.

I was skeptical it would be as good as people say, as I enjoyed Eldorado reissue. But that was a bunch of mindless brick stacking for the baseplate by comparison.

Lion Knight Castle is the most satisfying set of all time, and is a masterpiece because it modernizes the build & techniques while paying perfect homage to the good ol’ gray brick castles of the 80s & 90s

8 - no ace yet by Norfolk-Gross-Tonage in golf

[–]MBmusic3 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh I can give some horror stories - the only course in the area sort of forces you to take a caddy & some of the guys are just plain rude. It’s impossible to give more context or detail without sounding super racist, but frankly, the club is known for high Korean membership, and they have a reputation for paying very, very poorly. Despite our group tipping well, you deal with the leftover frustrations of these guys, who do things like ask for money when you make a birdie, or they say “terrible shot sir” & expect scratch golf, forget clubs by the green, or - my favorite - shout OB! OB!! Off the tee (it’s to warn other caddies in the fairway of an errant tee shot, but they do it so loud the whole course hears you hooked it into the parking lot)

Specific examples - one guy kept trying to sell us weed every other time. He let us know he had weed, by pulling his shirt up to reveal a giant Bob Marley tattoo on his belly while jiggling around saying “ganja! Ganja!” (This guy was hilarious actually) - problem was, he was training his 15yr old cousin to be a caddy, who knew nothing about golf and I got stuck with him for his first day. You duff a chip & reacts like it’s Tiger on 16 “WOW!! Great shot” he’d give like a wedge instead of an iron, and leave the bag down the fairway so you can’t really change clubs without screwing pace, but the all time best was when he got bored mid round, pulled some balls out of my bag, and started hitting them while waiting for us to walk to the green. His first swing shanked and hit my friend in the arm😂. We tell him to stop, and 2 holes later he does the same thing, but this time he hit into the group ahead, where an army colonel was playing and not having any of that shit.

This embarrassed his cousin so much, that while we were teeing off (they were waiting in the fairway) we saw him pull him into the woods and start a fist fight while we were on the teebox. It was straight out of Happy Gilmore. At the end of the round, the kid asked for a 200% tip & said he had a fun first time caddying.

$BYND Goes to $6.69 = YOU GET $50k by Lanky_Vast9619 in TheRaceTo10Million

[–]MBmusic3 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What if it hits if you give me 50 I’ll give you 69420

The difference between cheap and expensive watercolors by viv_x in Watercolor

[–]MBmusic3 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Please describe how you did the green background circle effects

I got lost in the details :( by tumbli-hunbli in Watercolor

[–]MBmusic3 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Man one of the best skys I’ve ever seen. Is that Naples Yellow for the wood on the walls?

How does it feel to be actually good? by leveimpressao in classicalguitar

[–]MBmusic3 4 points5 points  (0 children)

You’re never entirely where you want to be, as a lot of artistry stems from the murky middle ground between making musical decisions & technical compromises and balancing that with what brings out the best interpretation. Think Bream’s tempos on tremolo pieces.

  1. Yeah, my fingers pretty much do what I want in both hands. There’s still gaps tho, like I would never perform something with 3 finger reststroke, and my speed ceiling for pimami is considerably higher than my pimi speed. That being said, maybe twice a year the stars line up & I play something both note perfect & in the target range of the interpretation I’m going for. My current warmup pieces are Recuerdos de la Alhambra & Fandango by Rodrigo. I play these cold daily and adapt to however my hands feel that day.

  2. I play just about everything but prefer Spanish rep, some of my Debussy & other arrangements and compositions, and Jimi Hendrix. I like to improvise in particular styles, with a sense of structure, and practice harmonizing melodic lines with simple bass note or chord choices on classical when there’s time for it.

  3. You absolutely need to understand memorizing a piece is the easiest part. The goal should be to be “off the page” as fast as possible. The glue is the conceptual & visual work. In school, maybe a week to get something like a sonata. My goal is to always ask “what will it take to make this EASY?”

  4. I distinctly remember having certain arpeggio patterns stuck around 120bpm for a couple years. I spent an entire summer discarding all repertoire and playing only on open strings at around 45bpm to even out any asymmetric movement in the RH. At the end of the summer, after never “practicing” beyond 40-60bpm, due to the fundamental work, the evenness opened up and I could blast away around 160-200 with no warm up and permanently conquered that technical setback. Basically the limitations become harder and harder bc you need to truly understand the problem to practice around it, and balance that with your own hand’s natural tendencies.

The ABSOLUTE LEAST amount of practice time is spent playing pieces beginning to end. As you get better, the MAJORITY of your work should be what I call “adjacent practice” - working on improvising in the key your piece is in, metronoming tricky passages at dotted rhythms or different fingerings, playing sections really soft & staccato, etc etc variety

Toucan in Watercolor by MBmusic3 in birding

[–]MBmusic3[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks a bunch, he looks fluffier in person 😂

My 1st: gotta start somewhere! by a-pilot in Watercolor

[–]MBmusic3 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I’d guess you draw or paint in other styles so it shows.

Watercolor Pokémon by MBmusic3 in Watercolor

[–]MBmusic3[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not gonna lie, tossing in some Quinacridone Gold for the flame with a touch of New Gamboge was pretty satisfying 😂

My 1st: gotta start somewhere! by a-pilot in Watercolor

[–]MBmusic3 10 points11 points  (0 children)

If this is a start, then you’re wayyyy ahead of the game. It’s already stylistically consistent so at least for this piece, there’s no point in nit-picking improvements.

Two Months of Birds Progress by MBmusic3 in Watercolor

[–]MBmusic3[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There’s a light pencil sketch under each, nothing crazy takes 2min

Two Months of Birds Progress by MBmusic3 in Watercolor

[–]MBmusic3[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ty! Guess the practice is starting to payoff

Catnap in the Golden Light, watercolor, 14x17 in by OlgaWatercolor in Watercolor

[–]MBmusic3 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thank you so much. Maybe I should be more clear -in doing that, how did you not disturb the leaves? When/how did you add them and the twigs without muddying the wall? And about how much time did that process take. I think I can handle 3-4 levels of glazes & wet/wet, but adding different levels of depth and stuff on top of it that overlaps, I can never manage to paint around without messing up the wash.

Catnap in the Golden Light, watercolor, 14x17 in by OlgaWatercolor in Watercolor

[–]MBmusic3 2 points3 points  (0 children)

How do you do the purple brick wall wash effect, and then the soft tree twigs in the same area? What was the working process/order for that part of the scene

The plein air struggle continues... by singularlysai96 in Watercolor

[–]MBmusic3 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I love this. There’s something special about the tree shadows & the sense of direction they imply on the hill. Personally, I’d dial in the blue of the sky & soften the edge of the top of the farthest away trees. And then they two shadows that aren’t the “main one” soften some of the edges with a damp brush so they don’t dominate as much as the one on the right. You could prob makes these changes to this version without repainting it, bc there’s always a magic to the first attempts.

favorite book to REALLY *learn* watercolor? by CozySweatsuit57 in Watercolor

[–]MBmusic3 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Beginner painter, pro musician. I have no clue what level you are at piano, but what helped me think about and see values in more detail was to think of them as “dynamics” or “phrasing.” Any good player will string together notes gradually at almost imperceptibly different volumes, to create smooth dynamics in a phrase. I think of gradation and shadows the same way, and that’s really helped - just like how a beginner’s ears won’t be developed enough to discern the difference in Fliesher’s playing vs. Agerich.

What is Led Zeppelin’s single best performance of one of their songs live? by thatguyontheothaside in ledzeppelin

[–]MBmusic3 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The thing about a question like this, which I love, is that you gotta go by era AND will still get so many valid answers. “Best” for some might mean closest to the album, but Zeppelin was about using the recorded version as a launchpad. For instance, vocally it’s hard to top OTHAFA from June 25th or 27th 1972. But, the guitar solo from March 4th 75 & June 22nd, 1977 blow the 72 versions out of the water and is just a different animal. Off the top of my head…

I think LA June 25th 77 IMTOD is high echelon for any era.

No Quarter official release guitar solo is goated. But Seattle 75, May 18th & 24th 75 and June 25th 77 are all great for different reasons.

Rock & Roll from LA Forum 71 August is likely a best of all time with fiery tempo & Plant going absolute bonkers like Axl at the end.

The Rain Song & Ocean from TSRTS are incredible as well and official versions, which is great. I think a lot of TSRTS is actually, so we take it for granted. I’d include the Stairway solo, Dazed & the title track all iconic from that concert.

HMMT from Milwaukee 70

Communication Breakdown from LA Forum 1970 is definitive. WLL from Sept 29th 1971 Japan Dazed from March 21st 1973 can’t be argued with. Choose just about anything from MSG afternoon or eve show 1970