Bruce

have no idea what to do. I am really good at singing-songwriting and I have a best friend who plays bass that really likes working with me, he's 18 and a drop-out, he lives with his friend and we practice in his basement. He is only living there temporarily, as he found a job and he's going to try to get financial aid and go to a college. He's finishing his GED. Now about me, I grew up in New York. My parents divorced when I was 6, and my mom died of cancer when I was 10. I went to live with my dad and we moved to Chicago. Now I'm 16, and my dad says he wants to go back to New York because he has a house back there with no tenants with which he has to pay mortgage and he can't find tenants nor sell it. He's unemployed. I told him I can't move with him because my bassist is so important to me, (we also have a lead guitarist and drummer but they're fairly new so I wouldn't be too dependent on them). My bassist wants to achieve the same things in life as me. I went to play music enough to make a living off of it. I suck at school anyway, not because I'm stupid, but because I go to a magnet school, and magnet schools expect you to put in incredible effort which I devote towards my music. They put you in Honors and AP courses even though you don't really qualify for them. You test to get in, but the test was so ridiculously easy, and now I'm failing because I can't keep up with their pace. I'd transfer to a local high school, but Chicago's high schools are not safe. My dad won't listen to me. I'd move with him if I didn't think music was where I belong. If you're not a musician, don't even bother answering, I've seen your ******* ignorant attitudes towards careers in music, you just don't understand what it's like to have a gift and let it rot in school. By the time I finish high school and go to "college", I'm going to give up the dream because the real world will take over too much of my time. It seems my only option is to go with my Dad, but I ******* hate him too. I've been contemplating suicide because I can't achieve what I genuinely feel I've been destined to do. I'd rather be homeless and a musician if it comes to that I guess. I don't know, help!

I have no idea what to do. I am really good at singing-songwriting and I have a best friend who plays bass that really likes working with me, he's 18 and a drop-out, he lives with his friend and we practice in his basement. He is only living there temporarily, as he found a job and he's going to try to get financial aid and go to a college. He's finishing his GED. Now about me, I grew up in New York. My parents divorced when I was 6, and my mom died of cancer when I was 10. I went to live with my dad and we moved to Chicago. Now I'm 16, and my dad says he wants to go back to New York because he has a house back there with no tenants with which he has to pay mortgage and he can't find tenants nor sell it. He's unemployed. I told him I can't move with him because my bassist is so important to me, (we also have a lead guitarist and drummer but they're fairly new so I wouldn't be too dependent on them). My bassist wants to achieve the same things in life as me. I went to play music enough to make a living off of it. I suck at school anyway, not because I'm stupid, but because I go to a magnet school, and magnet schools expect you to put in incredible effort which I devote towards my music. They put you in Honors and AP courses even though you don't really qualify for them. You test to get in, but the test was so ridiculously easy, and now I'm failing because I can't keep up with their pace. I'd transfer to a local high school, but Chicago's high schools are not safe. My dad won't listen to me. I'd move with him if I didn't think music was where I belong. If you're not a musician, don't even bother answering, I've seen your ******* ignorant attitudes towards careers in music, you just don't understand what it's like to have a gift and let it rot in school. By the time I finish high school and go to "college", I'm going to give up the dream because the real world will take over too much of my time. It seems my only option is to go with my Dad, but I ******* hate him too. I've been contemplating suicide because I can't achieve what I genuinely feel I've been destined to do. I'd rather be homeless and a musician if it comes to that I guess. I don't know, help!

Hi, I am in a band that is influenced mainly by the grunge era, I am the rhythm guitarist and vocalist. When I say the grunge era, some good examples of vocalists I try to mimic or relate my style to are

Chris Cornell (of Soundgarden, Audioslave and Temple of the Dog)

Eddie Vedder (Pearl Jam and Temple of the Dog)

And who could forget? Kurt Cobain (of Nirvana)

Now more stress on the Cornell/Vedder than the whole whine-scream Cobain deal. I am pretty good at grunge singing and it almost never hurts my throat. My question is I've heard of vocal nodules and how they can damage your voice. Obviously, grunge is not the easiest nor healthiest singing technique but many singers have had long, fulfilling careers spanning well over several decades singing it. What are some healthy ways I can prevent damaging my voice while belting with distortion (aka grunge singing).

P.S. I've only ever felt pain trying to mimic things like Cobain, which I presume he gets a lot of his tone from marijuanna and cigarettes. Yeah, not healthy, nor fun. Eddie and Chris sound fine to me and once again, I can mimic with no pain. If you wan't an example of the kind of grunge singing I mean - look up the song "Wide Awake". A professional (traditional, no rock knowledge) vocal teacher told me they sing on top of already broken vocal cords. Sounds like bullshit to me.

Props to whoever has the heart to read this:

I have a wide array of problems that have been bothering me from my early childhood to now. I don't have anyone to talk about it to and my family cannot afford any professional doctor to sit around and nod his head to me about my problems. But I had to voice them, they've been causing me to churn. When I was 6 my parents divorced and split, I went with my mom and my brother. When I was 10 years old, my mother passed away from cancer, shortly before that she gave me a guitar as a birthday present (this becomes important later). My brother dropped out of high school and refused to go to college several times even when my father offered to pay (we are not very rich as well), this was in New Jersey. Came my 11th birthday my dad told me we're moving to Chicago where he found a new woman and a job. For the first half year or so Chicago was decent, but after I started getting bad grades and began pathologically lying to my new step-mother, child abuse became normal at our house. And since my Dad was away as a truck-driver, he was never home to witness anything and as a child I never told him about any of it because I was afraid that I would be further abused for telling on my stepmother. I started to learn how to play the guitar and fell in love with it, my brother (who was still in New Jersey) flew over on New Years and showed me some things he knew and the inspiration for music kept flowing. I suddenly found myself immersed in different styles of music, primarily pop rock at first. Music was my only escape from the real world, whether it was composing or listening. My stepmother did not approve of my guitar playing, because I tended to do it for long peroids of time and she thought it distracted me from my studies, as a result in 7th and 8th grade I received honor roll and got accepted to a very selective prestigious high school. But during those years, I grew older and the child abuse grew more casual and I had begun to resist and fight back, being it that I was also now taller than said step-mother. Eventually, my father and I had figured things out and decided to move elsewhere and split with the stepmom. We moved to an apartment near the new prestigous high school where I was attending. I began to get bad grades but that didn't seem to bother my father for too long and so I became a regular underachiever. However, with all the time and motivation on my hands I became a fast and fairly good guitar player and had formed many bands which fell apart because I was the only one who wanted to make this my career or who was actually good at playing my instrument. I was never cocky about it though (like I'm being about it now). Recently, I formed a band and we've been doing semi-succsesful but I continue to fail school and have been smoking weed. My bassist is 18 and has dropped out of the same prestigous school recently and my drummer is a freshman at a diffirent nearby high school. I know I have talent, people are in awe when I compose music or poetry. (By this age I primarily listen to grunge music). I became immersed in grunge music actually, Nirvana, Soundgarden, Audioslave, the Toadies, Stone Temple Pilots... all those bands lyrics' started talking to me - not through me like they usually do to listeners who listen occasionally. I am involved in music and art programs in which I do exceptionally well, but continue to get shitty grades in classes like French II and Chemistry (btw because of this prestigious school, all students are placed in an All-Honors Cirriculum, where there are no regular high school classes).

I'm at a road block.

I want to become a famous musician, and be the person to bring back grunge music, a short-lived, but powerful wave of hard rock in the alternative spectrum. I'm not starving in a poor African country, but I've had my share of **** and I have been constantly depressed over the past few months. Not only do I find myself unattractive, but my future seems blurred and I have suicidal thoughts. I cannot talk about them with my father because we don't have much of a relationship. Music continues to be my only output but the local audience seems to prefer the light-headed fun la-de-da indie rock scene where everyone sings about rainbows and don't mention things like suicide, soul manifest, and **** that's supposed to blow your mind because its so real, its unreal.

What do I do

What do you think

Who am I

Am I doing the right thing

Hi, I've had this practically since I can remember - forever. I can't really describe when it happens Because it happens randomly but recently I've noticed it happens in particular when I stand up after sitting for awhile and then immediately begin walking. I see a flash of green blobs and lights directly before my eyes for a few seconds and also feel a sort of strange dizziness and numbness in my brain and body causing me to stutter in my walking path. Again, it only happens for a few seconds and perhaps twice a day, and then again I've had it forever - but I'm really curious if this happens to everyone or something weird is going on...it's so difficult to describe, it's just one of those indescribable things that happen. Lately, it's been getting frustrating, and I want to know what it is and maybe why it happens. I'm also 15 if that helps.

(I'm 16) There is this girl at school that I really like,and I decided to write her a poem and perhaps leave it by her locker. We've spoken before but we're not close friends which I also heard is a good thing because it can be less awkward. Here is the poem itself:

Hello

I couldn’t mind but writing about someone so neat

Far too smart for anyone, far too bright and keen,

And your skin is the color of the sweetest cream,

You’re a walking princess, escaping from a dream.

Your face to me is music and your laugh to me is art,

The melody is beautiful and comes from the heart.

The more that I will write, the farther away I get

From the simplicity of you – yet so wonderfully complex,

Your hair is like a waterfall, silky and outstanding,

Your words are like a garden, soft and understanding.

Your movements are like the love that I will always lack,

Sadly, I can only see you from your back.

Ode to you – I plead, a poem and a song,

Nothing even close to your beauty – so strong,

And your sparkling eyes that twinkle with the twilight in the sky,

Leave me breathless without words and my tongue all dry.

It must be weird to be you – seeing who you are,

You in yourself remind me of every shooting star,

You are an epitome to the throb that’s in my heart,

Swinging like a metronome every time we part

Could I please get some feedback from people who were in these kinds of relationships or have had a similar resolved issue?