Vintage Bach Club

Was it a good deal?

A case is the least of your worries…

I do not think that I have missed anything. It is a simple fact that our lives are far more public than we realise and that brings a bunch of opportunities - good and bad.
As far as someone "secretly" recording me and publishing, that would only be a (solvable) problem if my name or picture were attached somehow. Especially in Germany, there are very fast venues to take care of situations like this.

That being said, my practice sessions are generally purposeful and I think for the most part it is audibly very clear what I am working towards. I almost never "noodle around". This means if a recording was made without a picture or video of me or my name, I probably would not care. The chance of someone "stealing" my practice work and making money with it is so unlikely, I have never given it any thought.

The idea of a private detective digging dirt up about trumpet practice sessions reminds me of Guy Noir of "a Prairie Home Companion" fame. Garrison Keillor is my hero!

I would heartily disagree that "warts" are bad. Why can we not accept that we are human, fallible but capable of development? A recording of a live concert by a school band, symphony orchestra or church choir is a time document - showing various realities and triggering honest memories. That is far more "valuable" than pimped material where we would like to portray ourselves as superheros.
As far as the bar for putting stuff on YouTube, we are simply feeding the beast. Like with social Media in general, "weak content" prevails, not because of lack of talent, rather because of lack of humility. I have no trouble rubbing that in peoples noses years later. A CD passed around to friends and family would have been enough but wanting to be a movie star clouded our common sense.
It becomes even more problematic when we try to help the misguided by critiquing the posts. Then the excuses start and those in a position to help are attacked for misunderstanding the purpose behind publishing.
Nope, I say our recordings are what they are and bad decisions are no different. If our first posted recordings are weak but we show incredible growth, we are good model roles. If our performances stay weak but we continue to post, we learn something about that person. Also not a bad thing. Black and white lists are available for most forms of social media.
The choice has ALWAYS been ours but the results involve others whether we like it or not.

@administrator only considering a few aspects...
There is always a "cost of business". When the recording industry was in its infancy, the ensembles had to play an entire side of a record. The musicians did not have a "second chance". I believe in the beginning, that made them more interested in playing safe instead of "with abandon".
Fast forward to the recording to multichannel analog tape. Now we could splice out things less desirable, reality became something else.
Fast forward to digital recording (starting further developed perhaps in the late 1990s). Now we can manipulate with surgical precision pitch, rhythm, phrases or even individual notes. In addition we can add all sorts of "vitamin supplements" like reverb and instrumental effects, we can modify the size and directivity. We do not HAVE to, but we are FREE to.
In spite all of this real musicians have always been very selective about what influences affect their playing. The possibilities are also tempered by the physicality of their playing. How many "reference" recordings of major concertos have working symphonic players as the soloists?
Enter AI with a huge database of what has been (albeit a very incomplete database). How are the styles across centuries linked? How is the physicalities of the instruments implemented? Do we really need an even blonder Barbie with Botox lips for better embouchure, 100-20-100 hourglass figure for better breath control?
Of course we can maintain that the pop industry could produce ever more cheaply. I am also convinced that "serious" music could benefit from AI but not in ways that we currently consider. Just like the fact that it took the digital recording industry a decade to develop its own new face and voice, AI still has a long way to go. I can reference Googles Bach Doodle project which in my view is HORRIBLE! Experiments to finish various symphonies have also failed by not even sounding like the original composer - in spite of dedicated database training.

We also have an ethical issue when we "colorize" black and white photography or let dead musicians perform notes that they never played. Even more critical is when movies get soundtracks from samples and the musicians that created the samples as basis for AI get no credits or money!

I have recently found something else (the exact opposite): a young lady Alma Deutscher that composes and improvises as if she had been born in the early 18th century. This lady has unbelievable instrumental talent as well as ability to improvise.
https://www.almadeutscher.com/compositions. This is my next best thing.

....once in a while you discover the next best thing. AI-generated music is pretty damn wild.

https://app.suno.ai/song/4e6b1da9-b5b3-453d-a5df-aaafbe54b98d

Interesting. As I've been learning Czech lately, I now recognize that this is a Czech instrument, and I also know how to pronounce the name correctly!

I'm glad you are feeling even the least degree better. Keep it up!

Welcome, we are glad that you are here.

Happy Easter 2024 to all of you! Here is hoping to get to know more of you personally!