audiotthoughts on music

check out this two youtube videos of german drummer Benny Greb. i’ve been to two of his clinics and saw him play live a few times. the thing that makes him special is besides all technique and flashy-freak-out-stuff he’s able to do, it still grooves. he has learned the no.1 lesson: it’s about the music! many musicians are fast, but that’s just physics and practice. making it about the music is the key…

don’t forget to check out his website as well…

in the last entry i mentioned a very common mistake people make when they’re hiring a teacher. it’s simply a matter of what to expect. many people think that, as soon as they have a teacher, they’re off the hook – meaning they don’t have to learn it themselves. they rather think the teacher just fills their heads with the knowledge and the abilities needed in order to perform the task, like filling up an empty bottle – in which case there would be an active part (the teacher) and a passive part (the student). now this is exactly how it does not work. learning requires something from you. at the least it is to be (and stay) motivated and open-minded for the things to come. our brain wants to learn, it has a desire/an urge to learn – yes, yours as well – there’s just one catch: it has to be important!

when it comes to learning a new language, the vocabulary-drill is what people dislike the most. why is that? because it’s boring and not very effective. you’re reading a list of words over and over again, hoping to remember some of them in the end. your brain notices you don’t like it/find it boring, it concludes that this is not important for you and therefore goes into standby-mode. well, not exactly scientifically correct but something like that. now another example: imagine a campfire. now you reach out and hold your hand directly into the flame. in a split second you have learned something you will never forget for the rest of your life. that is efficiency. and why? because this lesson is important. now you don’t have to get wounded every time you want to learn something, it’s sufficient to just be motivated. make your brain believe that you want, want, want, want to learn this, that there’s nothing more important, sexy, joyful to you right now than this – and your brain will gladly comply.

now back to our question: you should expect from a teacher to show you what, why and how to do something in order to learn it. the doing itself though is up to you. of course he/she should know how to motivate, but with you giving a sh!+ about it, it’s all just wasted time…

a few more things: he/she should be able to protect you from doing harm to your voice, hands etc. and should know how to break things down into smaller steps or how to take a different approach if something is too difficult for you. he should answer your questions (ask them by the dozen – important !!! ). nobody knows everything but finding a way to solve your problems is his job. that’s one of the things i love most about teaching: questions i can’t answer right there, because that means i get to learn something too, yay!

and finally (for now…): it’s about you, not him!

Image via Wikipedia

alright, this is actually so freaking easy, but almost noone seems to care about this. it’s about how we learn….and i’m not talking about learning in school because that doesn’t really work. this is different in every country of course – even from school to school – but most of those systems aren’t very effective. well, there’s not much you can do about that and if you’re not in school anymore, it wouldn’t help you anyway :-)

so if you want to learn something, anything, you’re pretty much on your own. yes, you could find yourself someone to teach you – that’s where lots of people make the first mistake, but i’ll get to that one in another entry. but still, it mainly depends on you. now what? buying books? or dvds? there’s great ones out there but this is not what i’m getting at here. there is one thing that’s more basic, easier, doesn’t need any time or effort at all and it’s also for free. join my sect and i will lead you to the final enlightenment…..oops, sorry that was meant for another blog…

let’s take a look at how children learn. now what is the single most important aspect in that? come on……….correct: imitation! you just won a free lifetime-sect-membersh…dammit! now you might think: wait a minute! to imitate something or someone, time, effort, action is required! and you are right of course.

however, there is one aspect of imitation that is different: the subconscious one. to not get things mixed up and because it describes it better, i like to call this being stamped – shaped or formed are also fine. maybe there’s someone at work who says ‘oh, my god’ or even ‘o-m-g’ about ten times every minute and it’s driving you insane. and then after a few weeks you say this yourself. don’t believe it? investigate. you might be surprised about all the things you pick up along the way, but beware, you might find out things about yourself that are not pretty at all…

believe it or not we are being stamped all the time by our surroundings. our friends, colleagues, favourite tv-shows etc. are stamping us every single moment. don’t panic! because this can be a good thing. if this is good or bad basically depends on you. there is no way to stop this stamping-process, so just don’t bother trying…feeling helpless? need someone to light your…OH, FOR GOD’S SAKE!!! but what you can do – and that’s so ridiculously simple…you can choose who’s permitted to stamp you.

ok, you might not be able to choose your workmates but the rest is up to you. you decide which radio or tv station sprinkles you and you decide whom you’re hanging out with. if you have a violent temper, the texas chainsaw massacre might not be the best choice when you’re about to meet some nerving relatives of yours. go for Bob Ross instead.

needless to say this works not just for moods but virtually everything, meaning you can use this to become better at an instrument as well – or for whatever other thing you can come up with. so if you want to become a better drummer, listen to as much great drummers as you can. actually, you don’t even have to listen. just surround yourself with them, put their music in your stereo while you’re doing the dishes or even watching tv. it doesn’t have to be loud, let it be background noise – your mind will pick it up. don’t concentrate on it, don’t make it time- or energy-consuming, even ignore it. just let it be in the background while you’re driving, reading, making phone-calls…simply all the time and it will stamp you. guaranteed.

one more thing: it’s likely that you won’t notice your progress, at least at first. but others will and if you give it a little time, you will too…

Image by farnea via Flickr

i uploaded two loops to mixmatchmusic. you can find them by going there and searching for ‘boomy-hiphop’ or you can go to my profile-page and find them there. i created them by playing live on a midi-controller, the software for recording and further messing around was Reason. two hiphop-kinda-loops with a quite boomy and a little dirty sound. they should work perfectly as loops but somehow the preview over there has a gap between the end and the next beginning. maybe some kind of flaw of the site (not really flaw, but it sounds a bit strange…) – i’ll look into that…

those are two variations of the same groove, i’m gonna do a couple more so it doesn’t get too boring when someone wants to create a song with them. it’s good to be able to choose between 4-5 similar loops to make it come alive…

Image via Wikipedia

although i mentioned this site before, i think it’s time to point you there again now that it’s up and running. the site is mix match music and it’s just an awesome idea to say the least. this is exactly what’s the internet best at: connecting people and making it possible for them to create something together even if they’re thousands of miles away. and hands down, if this world needs something, it’s more teamwork.

so this approach is about teamwork and collaboration in a musical way. there are two ways to participate: you can either sign up as an artist and create pieces of music like a guitar-riff or a drumloop for instance and upload it to the site. or you can be a ‘simple’ user who contributes by just going to the site and mixing together some of those pieces (they call them ‘stems’) to create a song. either by downloading and working with them offline, or by using the tools available directly on the site. you could also make money by participating: if someone uses the stem you uploaded and creates a hit with it, you’ll get your share. actually, they can explain this much better than i, so go there and get into it a little. i’m a fan already and at this very moment i’m creating some drumloops to upload there – great fun…

by the way they really do care about their users, i emailed them with some questions and got usable help in no time – thanx guys, way to go…

actually, this series should be called ‘saving energy’ or something similar because that’s what it’s about, but anyway. if you have problems being able to sing for hours without passing out, throwing up or just losing the voice, it’s not about more strength or power or more training, it’s mostly about saving energy. of course, if you live a healthy life – sports, healthy food etc. – it helps a lot in many ways. and if you have strong powerful lungs and lots of stamina, that’s great as well. but this here is about making the best of your current situation. i’ve yet to have a student that doesn’t waste huge amounts of energy in the beginning, so this is a good thing to do at the start. i already told you about efficiency here and here, to open your mouth (read it here) and to check out how much energy you can save before your performance suffers without any other adjustments (here and here).

the next point would be to develop a strategy for a song and for the whole gig for that matter. that’s quite an easy one. notice that some songs give you a hard time while others seem to sing themselves – energywise. this depends on the whole song, not just on how high the notes are for instance. the feel is important here. once i had the problem of not being able to sing the songs i loved the most. after suspecting the devil himself to work against me, i thought it might be wiser to use a more scientific approach. the answer was easy, i used to dig into those beloved songs too much which resulted in some kind of small burnout. the next mistake was to think i needed to become stronger because digging in any less was out of the question. the real answer is strategy. no matter how strong you are, there will always be a song that sucks you completely dry. by strategy i mean finding out how and why the song really works and using that to your advantage. for example, maybe you forget to use the guitar solo as a break for yourself to relax a bit because you dig it so much. or maybe you don’t have a regular breathing rhythm for this song because you just get carried away. it’s easy to throw some techniques overboard when you’re into it but you should fight this urge – at least while you’re developing a strategy. try to get to that song as cool as possible so you can have a clear look at it. discover the moments in the song that really eat up your energy. when you’ve found them, decide if it’s possible to save some energy there without sacrificing any of the feel (hint: it usually is!)

another trick: doing the opposite can work ridiculously well, meaning try to whisper that one word you would usually scream – this can make it way more powerful. it can, not does always.

imagine a ‘suspense curve’ (if that term even exists – you know, like in a drama or something…) for the song and notice where power is important and where it’s not needed. for many songs, it’s not a good choice to start from the top of your lungs because then there’s no room to build up from there. save this for the climax, where it belongs…

and a rather general trick would be: if you reach your climax too early, just start softer. come to think of it, this might also work in other situations :-)

it’s not about getting into it so much that you crash along the way, it’s about making it sound and feel good. there will come a time when all those techniques work automatically – then you really can let go because mr. subconscious will take care of it. but until that time….well…..you know……it just sucks to suck, right? :-) but don’t panic, with a little work on that, you’ll get over it quickly.

once again mess around with all of that and have fun…

yay! time to celebrate! 100 entries in this blog – how cool is that y’all? and if that weren’t enough, today’s my birthday. so relax, enjoy yourselves and if someone doesn’t like it, tell them i commanded you to :-)

thank you so much for reading !!! here’s to the next 100 entries !!!

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wow, this really takes a long time – but it’s all worth it already. if you’ve read something out of the garden-category already, you know what this is about – at least kind of :-) after many years of songwriting, recording, playing live etc. i decided to do an album completely on my own because a lot of music – actually almost all of it – i participated in is lost due to issues of all kinds, mostly stupidity. you write something together, record it, then everything falls apart and that’s it. so i’m doing this alone because i want to create something that exists, no matter if it’s any good – but it will exist.

that being said, this project serves another purpose as well, which is getting more important every day and which is the reason why this is taking so long. writing and recording a bunch of songs is hardly a matter of months – at least it doesn’t need to be. but i’m taking this opportunity to learn anything this project teaches me….and pass this on to you of course :-)

after learning to play five different instruments in my life so far, i thought i was well prepared for something like that. little did i know about the surprises i’d encounter along the way… but that’s great! there is no timeframe, this project is not at all about making money and it doesn’t cost me a thing – so i can do whatever i want. and i want to learn as much as possible in the process of making this.

so where are we right now? there are five songs already written and, more or less, ready for tracking. lyrics are there but need to be changed, partly recreated. drums and bass are recorded for one song, guitars follow tomorrow. the artwork is finished……in my mind :-) to the point where it’s just about taking the actual pictures and make them look good. i have no idea about how to get to these technical aspects – much learning ahead, yay!

that’s pretty much it. writing goes on in the background while tracking the parts that are already finished. it took some time to mess around with drums, drumsounds, mics, placements and all those cool choices one has. no choices with bass, i don’t have a bass amp and only one bass – so it’s plain and simple d.i. recording into the mac so far, maybe with re-amping involved… i’ll explain every single one of those choices as soon as i have a decent audiofile to post here. i think it doesn’t make much sense to post a dry drumtrack without you having any idea of the song at all. so my approach will be to post a finished song and afterwards give you a tour of how it was created. that will certainly strip all the ‘magic’ away, but that’s exactly what this is about – cool, huh?

yay, once again the Modern Drummer festival took place. for the non-drummers out there ;-) the Modern Drummer magazine is the world’s most widely-read drumming publication and they do a two day festival every year with a selection of international top drummers. they also produce a dvd each year and every one of those is really worth watching… there’s performances as well as clinics and interviews, so it’s not only entertainment but also a great source to learn something…

you can watch what was going on this year on Hudson Music’s website. right here they provide information about the festival as well as a bunch of videos, so check it out!

just wanted to add – in case i didn’t make myself clear: it’s absolutely fine to have lots of effects and mess around with everything you can get your hands on in the making of a song/record. art is not just what your brain comes up with, it’s also everything you do with it. nowadays we have so many possibilities, it sometimes almost seems unreal – and it’s good to use them, if the song aka the moment asks for it.

my point was, as a musician one should be able to just play something and if it’s only to not make a ‘Kelly’ out of oneself (ha! remembered her name…). no matter how one creates his art, we should never lose the connection to the real thing….

just imagine some party and someone asks you: “you’re a musician, right? cool! play something for us!” and your answer is like: “nah, i don’t have my computer with me and by the way i never make music when it’s as warm as tonight and that car over there has the wrong color and…….” that’s just as ‘Kelly’ as it gets.

so go create your music in the infinite world of bits and bytes but wipe the dust off your acoustic guitar every now and then ;-)