that is something i do all the time, since i wrote my first song – about 18 years ago that is. accidentally i should add.

for some reason, i always write stuff i cannot play or sing – and it sucks. breathing for instance is usually no big deal once you got the basics down. there’s of course – and always will be – songparts that are hard to do, but those are just a few. oddly enough, i managed to write songs, lots of them, that i myself could not breathe at all. how stupid is that?

and although i’m through with this “airless phase”, i still do this with other parts – like drum- or guitarpieces i simply can not play. now, today that shouldn’t be a problem, right? we have computers and such to do this for us. but this is just not how it works, at least for me. even though i do almost everything with the laptop, i still take pride in my music (stop mocking me!) and the things you hear are really played and recorded, not drawn in with some pencil tool. and this is important to give it authenticity, which is one of the most vital things in music – or any art, for that matter. so right now, while working on the second album, i spend a whole lot of time practicing – just to be able to actually play those things i’m making up for myself. it usually is about precision. when i come up with a drumpart, it’s something i am basically able to play – if you can think it, you can play it – so that’s not the problem. same with guitar or bass. the hard part is to play it clean and precisely, to make every hit or stroke count and equally important. to have no fingernoises or rimclicks and so forth. this is the big challenge for me, so it’s writing the stuff and then tracking a really bad version of it, so i can figure it out in detail. and once i know exactly what to play, i practice like crazy to simply not suck too bad on the real track.

and that’s my point. there’s this saying here (no idea if there’s something similar in english…): one grows with his challenges. or as i probably mentioned many times before: practice something you can NOT do, instead of playing something you already own over and over again. so maybe i should feel lucky to have such a freakingly perverted subconscious that throws all those rocks at me during songwriting, because it knows me all too well. but even if this makes me playing better, it still would be nice to come up with something i could do right away every once in a while…

well, of course i have….to a certain degree – why else would i prefer music to a 9 to 5 job? but this idea really makes sense, apart from many others i come up with on a minutely basis. however, i can’t take any credit for this one, it’s out of a book (this one to be precise). although i can’t recommend this book, because i haven’t read it, the idea behind this is really cool. i was told about this and the person who told me had this idea from the book – that’s my story and i’m sticking to it.

now, what’s it about? in a nutshell, it’s about idea-pregnancies. meaning, once you have an idea, you need to let it rest inside of you, it needs to ripen like a fruit until it’s ready to be picked (if those are the correct terms in english…). your subconscious works on it, even if you’re not aware of that, and – as soon as it has something of value to offer – it’ll bubble into your thoughts, seemingly out of thin air. did you ever forget someone’s name and just couldn’t remember it, no matter how hard you tried? but as soon as you thought of something else for a few moments, it suddenly popped up? that’s what this is about…

so once you’re stuck with something, like me right now for instance, just do something else and try not to think about it at all. believe it or not, this will work! as i said, i haven’t read the book, so it might be about becoming rich and famous without doing anything – and that would be bogus of course. but nevertheless, we can use this basic principle to our advantage and become way more creative, productive etc. by just adding pauses. and for a musician, such a pause can be to work on another song for example. it’s like i mentioned before, when i’m stuck with one song, i start another one. but since i’m already up to 15 songs for “traitor”, it’s about time to finish some of them. so i’m taking the rest of the day off, since it’s sunday and sunny outside, and go for a walk. i’m coming out of the closet with this and i don’t care how boring it sounds – i just love to walk. i’m thinking about a 5 hour march through the beautiful hills around here, maybe about 25 kilometers – it’s not about speed, it’s about being pregnant, remember?

anyway, this should take care of beingstuckness and get me home again before sunset. i just hope my back can take this – some of those wombsongs are pretty heavy…

since i’ve just returned from an off-weekend and am already about to record some vocals, i have little time to write. when inspiration hits, you gotta run, so here’s just a quick tip for you guys.

microphones are NOT ears! sounds like a no-brainer, right? but it isn’t. we tend to believe that what gets in (and therefore out) of a microphone is the same as what our ears would hear. but that’s not the case. and i’m not even talking about the fact that lots of mics color the sound, so what goes in is not necessarily what comes out. mics work a lot different than our ears, so don’t be fooled by the fact that both pick up sound. there is a lot of trial-and-error involved before your mic spits out exactly what your ear would pick up – and to make matters worse, to your ear it might sound very unnatural at that moment. i hope i haven’t lost you – it’s a bit difficult to explain. imagine a gun that’s not perfectly “adjusted” and therefore shoots to the right. you could either set it right or aim to the left to hit your target. now, you can’t tweak a mic until it is an ear – but you can change your “aim” until you hit the right sound. and once you have, you might just think “hey, that’s exactly how it should not work at all” – but it does. like aiming to the left and still hit the middle.

so there is logic involved, but then again there isn’t. messing around might be as good as any other approach, but it surely helps to know a bit about mics and placement alternatives – as long as you keep in mind that mics are just stupid. good luck…

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• song no. 7 (audiot.eu)
• song no. 5 (audiot.eu)

• original article
• recording vocals (part 1)
• recording vocals (part 2)
• recording vocals (part 3)

ok, now what’s left are points 5, 6 and 7. and they are more or less about the image people seem to have of singers everywhere. i can’t say i blame them, singers often are a real pain. and that’s what makes things a little hard for the “normal” ones sometimes. on the other hand, sometimes it’s just necessary for a singer to stand his/her ground and demand things others might find weird or wrong. i’m not going to start a philosophical debate here, but let’s just say, the voice is a unique instrument because it’s a part of our body. it’s easily harmed or even destroyed and one needs to take great care of it in order to keep it functional at peak efficiency. now, instrumentalists often just don’t get it. if they have troubles, they can simply change the strings or the heads, a screw or whatever else to fix it. but this isn’t the case with the voice. so singers have to be a bit overprotective, while others need to understand why.

that being said, there is of course no use in singers being bitchy and behaving like little princesses and even i threw out singers myself because of this. by the way, there are guitarists out there, known to be quite bitchy themselves, but let’s not go there…

now, there is certainly nothing wrong with making the vocalist comfortable. so be sure to have some hookers and lots of pizza standing by :-) as for the extra people, don’t ever let someone in who has nothing to do with the recording. i don’t care how good a friend he/she is to you, do you go to work with your friends? sitting on their desk while they’re in their office? i thought so. you’re there to work, easy as that. so throw ‘em out. and this goes for every recording session, not just vocals. bringing extra people just screams out “i’m not taking this seriously at all!”

as a singer, i’m happy if the studio people have water etc. for me, but i always bring my own, because you can just not count on it. it’s the same as with the lyrics. make sure you bring everything you need yourself. if you don’t need it, fine. you can leave it in the car, but you can always get it should the need arise. there’s nothing worse than a cancelled session, or one with less than good results, because of nothing to drink or something similarly stupid. so just be prepared for everything. and to get back to the “be professional” aspect: be able to do your job no matter what the circumstances are. even if there are morons lurking around, you might just not be in the position to do anything about it – if you’re there as a hired gun for instance. so hope for the best, prepare for the worst.

the practice aspect is worth mentioning as well. a singer needs to warm up, for everything. no matter if it’s rehearsals, a live gig or a recording session, warming up is critical. not just to keep the voice healthy and intact but also to make it sound better on the recording. a warmed-up voice sounds different and can be controlled a lot better, so warming up is important. but don’t go over the top with this. it’s a warm up, nothing more. the actual performance is what you need to focus on, so don’t let the warming up eat up your resources. by the way, this is not the time to practice. you should know what you’re doing by now. and, again, be professional. time is of the essence here. depending on the singing-style and the genre of the music you might be able to sing for hours without any problem OR you might have only 15 minutes before the voice sounds less than perfect! so make the best of it, take breaks whenever necessary and drink a lot. you’ll regret it big time if you settle for a crappy take because there was not enough time and you couldn’t do it any better at that very moment.

wow, here’s my favorite: never give negative feedback to the singer. that’s bullsh!t, at least in my book. if your singer can’t handle feedback (that includes both positive and negative), get rid of him/her. that same thing goes for any other musician you’re dealing with. now, i know it’s not that easy, although it should be. chances are you’re stuck with li’l princess, so well, be diplomatic if you have to. you should know who you’re dealing with before the session – know your enemy :-) so be aware if this person can handle feedback or not. everyone involved in the recording process should be on the same side, so if the performance was not good, the performer should be able to hear about it, because it’s for the greater good (now you have to mumble “the greater good” – anyone seen “Hot Fuzz”?). can you imagine a bad sounding recording because noone told the singer he/she was off? there’s too much at stake here. so this goes out to all singers: be able to handle feedback, if it’s constructive of course. if you’re off, deal with it! know your limits, accept your mistakes and do it better next time. closing your eyes and ears won’t do anyone any good, especially yourself. but for the non-singers who are stuck with such an idiot: do what you have to, to get through this. but now might be a good time to start secretly plotting against your singer, so you can have a real one by the time the next session is at hand…

good luck

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• Background Vocals – Session Tips (datamusicata.com)
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time for ranting…

yesterday i had a look at the e-book-preview-thing of the indie-band-survival-guide and again the long tail was mentioned. i’m not explaining what it is, check out the link if you haven’t heard about this yet. now, i just spent the last 2 hours or so over at reverbnation because i thought about writing a blog post with just recommendations of cool new music i found online. but you know what? i didn’t find a single song i’d like to point you to. there was just one (!) tune that made me think “hey, that’s different” – unfortunately, it sucked….in a way that i do believe it was meant as something mainstream and just put into practice very poorly. everything else was just standard. don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with mainstream. i mean, hey, it’s the main stream… but i didn’t want to recommend something to you that you’re already hearing all the time anyway. something you get automatically as soon as you turn on whatever media it is you use. i wanted to recommend something different, that’s what i’m trying to get across here…

2 hours without finding something freaky. wow, now that was a  waste of time. so where is this long tail? where are all the artists that aren’t into making what everyone else makes and now, for the first time, have the chance to get it to the people? where are they? all this time before the internet worked its magic, the only way to get your music out there was through the major labels. well, there were independent labels of course but their possibilities were very limited. but now everything’s possible! every creation, no matter how strange or weird it may be – no matter how far from mainstream it may be – no matter if there’s only one single person on this planet who might like it, it’s possible to get it out there. ain’t that great?

so i ask again: where are they? why the hell couldn’t i find one single out-of-the-ordinary tune? not one! i searched in genres, from ‘jazz’ to ‘experimental’ to ‘other’, i searched in areas, i just let the reverbradio play randomly – which turned out to be more like a skip-marathon for me, but nothing worked.

i really, deeply hope that this was either just me being unable to find what i was looking for although it is out there or just bad luck when it came to the random-party. because if our answer to endless possibilities is that lame, if our answer to the fact that we can now, for the first time, make whatever music we desire, without having to care if it’s mainstream enough… if our answer to this is: “AWESOME! LET’S DO MAINSTREAM!!!” then our species just doesn’t deserve to exist any longer.

but that doesn’t mean i don’t follow a few basic principles. and one of them is to be aware of the workflow. i started to think about this a little when i watched a few tutorials on Propellerheads new software Record which will be released in september i believe. anyway, they have a bunch of short tutorials about it on their site and it looks ridiculously simple. so my first thought was “hey, that’s exactly what i need!” – but then again, i do not really need it, because i’m already able to do what it does best. and that’s recording on the spot without having to set up or do anything except hitting the red button. i might buy it anyway because i’m doing almost everything with Reason anyway and Record will be the perfect mate for it with seamless integration of everything – which would mean to get rid of the middleman. so it might still be a good idea to get it but it’s not absolutely necessary.

now, my recommendation to you – and i’m sure you already are aware of it, but maybe forget about this on a regular basis, as i do as well – make recording as simply as possible. have an empty an ready-to-go project set up at all times, so all you need to do once inspiration strikes is turn on the computer, open the project and hit red. as for me there’s one more step in between, depending on what instrument i want to track. i have a guitar-modeling-device wired into both an audio and a midi interface with the guitar cable already plugged in. i have one bank of the modeler filled with the different sounds i use in most cases. and for all other instruments, i have a midi-controller keyboard standing by. so the extra step mentioned above is simply plugging the audio interface and/or the midi-controller into the laptop. if i would use a desktop computer, this would already be wired up at all times. now, if i want to record guitar, i simply plug in the audio interface, turn on the modeling-device and the laptop, open the empty cubase-project, plug in the guitar and hit record. ok, that’s six steps, but except for the first one, all of them have to be made in any situation. if it’s not guitar i want to track, then it’s plugging in the controller, switching on the laptop open an empty Reason-rack, selecting an instrument and hit record. it doesn’t get any more streamlined than this. the midi-interface is simply there to program/change sounds on the computer screen instead of going through endless menus on the modelers two-digit-display. but since i have my five favourite guitar sounds already at my fingertips, i just need to tweak them a little bit by assigning another cabinet or changing the gain slightly. oh, and when i talk about ‘empty’ projects, i do mean my default starting point. so it’s not really empty, it’s what i defined would be the most efficient and comfortable place to start. and you should do this as well. take those few minutes once to set up what you would like to see as soon as you click on “new” and never again bother with making those same changes over and over and over again as i did for years because i was to lazy to define my preferences (…).

the important thing is to always be ready. if you need to go through a 2-hour-setup-session to catch even the tiniest idea, you won’t get very far. that’s exactly what happened when i first started recording my own stuff. i had every piece of gear i needed, the software etc. but everytime i wanted to record something it took hours to get ready for it. and as a result, i didn’t record very much at all. so once inspiration struck i thought, “cool, let’s track this down”, then i started setting up and halfway through thought “hmm, it’s not that great after all – not worth the effort…” and the idea got thrown into the bin.

today, for me everything is worth the effort, simply because there’s no more effort involved. and with the ability to change sound, tempo etc. after the actual recording process, i can just let inspiration get the better of me and work on it later.

by the way, i found it very important to pick one piece of software and learn to really use it, including keyboard shortcuts and different advanced techniques. i used lots of different programs before and knew all of them just a little, but this winds you up in endless im- and export-battles and so forth. so now i only use two, and one of them only for the raw tracking process. anything else is done inside of just one program which i know pretty well by now – makes things very easy, especially for someone as lazy as me…

a little later than expected, but here it is. the next point mentioned in the article i’m referring to is about reverb. as for me, i don’t need any effects during recording. as i mentioned before, i try to be as easy to work with as possible and that includes being able to give a good performance under whatever circumstances you’re facing. so i made it a priority from my early days on to not be spoiled by anything, which means i can sing a good gig without even having monitors and i’m able to record in virtually every situation that might come up. this is in fact no big deal, just a matter of getting used to it. and it pays off – big time. do you know a singer that complained about anything? i do. i know legions of them and i dislike them as much as their bandmates do (or the guys that record them). don’t get me wrong, there are things that i’m expecting and i’m quite prepared to get them, believe me. but complaining about not having that second olive in my martini or that special silver plate to hold my chewing gum while i’m working my magic isn’t one of them. i’ll get to that later… so if having reverb in your headphones makes you more comfortable, so be it – i’m just saying you should be able to give a good performance without it, just in case… and whatever effects you’re using, make sure they’re set up properly and work the way they should before the actual session. how to set up the reverb right is explained in all detail in the article – just don’t forget, it’s not going to be on the recording, it’s just for your pleasure.

which brings us to the next point, although this is the same thing as mentioned a few times already. everything should be ready to go before the session starts. that includes the whole signal chain as well as the recording device of course. your cubase (or whatever else you’re using) project should be set up and saved with the correct parameters in the correct location. the playback should be prepared and playing without any problems. there should be enough free space to record plenty of takes – and enough processor power of course. you might want to create enough empty tracks with the correct settings (input, mono, bitrate etc.). if you’re not recording on a daw (digital audio workstation aka computer) but something else, it’s basically the same. you just have to check more cables, plugs, buttons etc. instead of windows on your screen. if you encounter noise, humming or anything like that, you’re in trouble. this may take a lot of time to fix it, so again: make absolutely sure everything works perfectly fine before the session begins! i guess one cannot mention this enough…

now i’ll skip points 5-7 because they’ll make part 4 of this little series.

no.8 is no big deal, it’s the same with the equipment. have the songs ready before the recording session – this is quite a no-brainer, right?

that’s it for now…

now here is a little more detail and insight from the singer’s point of view. the following thoughts were triggered by this article i linked to 2 days ago.

first, i’d like to say that i fully agree with those 8 points and think that they’re a good help in preparing for a vocal recording session. however, there are a few things that need to be added. memorizing lyrics is absolutely crucial, at least in my book. there’s nothing more lame than a singer who doesn’t know her/his words inside and out. i never went to a recording session without being perfectly prepared. and that’s simply because i believe one of the most important things about recording is being as professional as possible. that alone could be an entry in itself and i believe i already wrote a little about this every now and then. let’s just mention two things here: 1. you’re not alone in this world. so being professional is showing respect to the people who work with you (and not only because you want them to hire you again…). and 2. not being professional means a waste of the currency time and this will result in less motivation and higher costs. that being said, this depends of course on the fact that you need the lyrics and the song itself in advance with enough time to prepare yourself. but, as harsh as this may sound, being a singer not only means hookers & booze but also being able to get into a song really fast, being able to memorize lyrics really fast and being able to come up with some melody really fast. that doesn’t necessarily apply if you’re just some kind of a backyard screamer – but even then i would expect a certain amount of professionalism from you. if you don’t take yourself seriously – why should i? now, it still is important to have the lyrics printed out and there (plus an adequate stand to hold them in place where the singer can see them without turning around. i always go the extra mile and set this up, even if i do not look at it once. it’s just part of the deal and who knows, maybe you’re giving the performance of a lifetime and then being carried away so far that you lost the first word of the 3rd verse… so just have the lyrics there, will ya? and do not count on others to bring them for you. take care of everything that involves you yourself – well, at least of the things you’re able to take care of. by the way, if you like to make notes on your lyrics or wherever, bring a pen and some paper yourself. they should have it there, but bring it anyway – it’s not that much to ask, now is it?

now, the second point in the article is about setting the microphone up (including the rest of you signal chain) and have it all ready and working before the actual session starts. there’s not that much more to say about this except how important this is! remember the part about being professional? as much as i ask this from myself, i ask this from others as well. it sucks big time to show up on time and then sitting around for an hour or so waiting until everything’s ready. huge motivation-killer. and although i believe in being able to give a good performance anytime, the vibes just suffer from something like this. if i’m recording myself i usually set everything up the evening before, tweak all the knobs and run a quick test or two. then i go home and have a good night sleep, knowing that there won’t be any technical issues spoiling the performance to come. of course, there is another quick test necessary right before the actual recording, but it’s just a great feeling to go there, knowing everything’s ready to go. if you’re recording somewhere else, but with your gear, be sure to plan enough time for the setting up and a short break. i don’t need to mention that you should be able to set up your own equipment even in your sleep, do i? now, if you have nothing to do with the setting up, it’s really not up to you. so the only thing you can do here is being prepared to wait. or better: count on it and then be surprised positively if it’s not necessary…

wow, it seems this makes for at least one more part – so check back tomorrow…

preparing for a vocal session

this is about genres…kind of. there is this saying, that goes something like this: if you have nothing but a hammer, everything looks like a nail to you. i love this metaphor, because it hits the issue on the head (punny, now isn’t it?). we often become the hammerguy, even if we have other tools available – sometimes we just don’t see or use them. recently i stumbled across some people who tried to solve a rock-problem by using classical methods. when i mentioned this, they denied, and who’s to say who’s wrong? but here’s my thoughts on that:

the first step in doing something is to think appropriately. you want to speak portuguese? think portuguese! (note: this works for other languages as well ;-)  ). don’t think english (or wherever else you’re from) and then translate, this won’t work at all. the same goes for music. you want to make jazz? think jazz. don’t try to translate classic into funk or reggae – it will sound horrible!

that being said, i’m not talking about creative ways to come up with something new. i’m talking about ignoring the big picture by using only above mentioned hammer because you’re too comfortable with it or simply too lazy to really get into something else.

maybe i’ll write more about this someday. right now, that’s all i have in me and it should be enough to provoke some thoughts – at least i hope so…

no matter if you’re just a player or writing, recording, arranging your own music – even if you don’t have anything to do with music, this is for you. we’re always trying to reinvent the wheel although this is just plain wrong. i thought about this a lot during the last few days, while working on “traitor”, my 2nd album (still having link-troubles, you can find its category in the sidebar to the right). it looked like this would become a pretty straight, down and dirty rock-album but i’m not that sure anymore because there’s an important choice to make. i could either stick to the plan and do a rock-album that’s already been made thousands of times, but not by me. so it would be different as well as the same. now that might not seem very innovative and you’re damn right: it’s not! but that doesn’t mean it can’t be a great album. in my opinion, some of the greatest records of all time lack innovation – so it’s not a necessary ingredient. and if i choose to create a plain and simple rock-album, it would be a bad idea to try and reinvent rock. you know, if the cat happens to be on that very tree, it would be quite stupid to bark up another one (or even plant your own…) – no matter how many dogs are already there. the right thing to do would be trying to perfect the wheel, make it rounder, turn it into a ball – make it mo’ better.

on the other hand, you could always leave the cat alone and do something different, get a bone for instance. in my specific case this would perhaps mean to take those rocksongs but turn them into something else, maybe by using some of the sounds and vibes i used for “corner” (blue player, sidebar, ’nuff said) and doing some combination of the two. not that this was never done before but i’d have no idea how it would turn out. so instead of trying to make a great rock-album by sticking to the tradition it would be more like just going ahead, being creative and see where it goes from there. And again, this wouldn’t be reinventing the wheel. it would be inventing something alright, but not the wheel.

this might sound a little confusing, i guess my point is to not try and REinvent at all. either stick to something that’s already good (there’s nothing wrong with that!) or invent something new.

by the way, there’s two interesting things about this i should mention. first, creating something is NOT letting something completely new appear out of thin air, it’s taking things already there and combining them in a new way. and second: i once read in a book about bionics that we think we’re smarter than nature because we managed to invent the wheel. but the fact is, a wheel is quite useless in nature – that’s why nature invented the leg, which is far superior to the wheel if you really think about it. and do you really believe, if the wheel was such a great and important thing, nature wouldn’t have come up with it aeons ago?

ps: i really dig the librarian-analogy!

sounds ridiculous, right? i never thought about this before, but a few days ago i went to see a band and that got me thinking…

they should remain anonymous because this is no review about this gig and i don’t want anyone to directly connect them to what i’m gonna say here. so let’s just say there was a live-show that triggered the following thoughts…

as a matter of fact i never heard of them before, when a friend told me they were playing some place near us, so we decided to have a look. first i must say, the place was crowded and the people were in a great mood right from the start. we went in, stood there for a couple of songs, then looked at each other and thought exactly the same thing: why does this work for anybody except us? the audience loved it, they were screaming and singing along…..we were kind of bored. i then asked my friend what he was thinking and he said the very word i would have come up with – slick. no doubt, the performance was flawless – well, pretty much. we detected very few minor mistakes, nothing worth mentioning. it all was really well arranged, really well played and sounded very tidy and, well, slick.

it took a few more songs to find out what was missing (for me/us). there was no edge, no character, no feeling. ok, this is a bit harsh i guess. but it reminded me of my early recording experiences years ago. when i would lay down a performance and then cut off and delete anything that seemed not essential for the part, meaning fingernoise on the guitar or breathing during vocal-takes. so in the end i would have a flawless, tidy take with notes only – nothing else. and it would always sound like shit! why? simply because i deleted everything human in it. what is it with us musicians? we’re building drummachines that play better than any drummer (in terms of timing and precision of course…) and then we’re spending decades trying to add random flaws to it – giving it a human factor, controlled by unbelievably complex algorithms. on the other hand we’re playing something and then try to make it as machine-like as possible, erasing the human factor as good as we can (pitch-correction, quantizing etc.) – what is that? why is that? is this really it? or are we just too stupid?

when it comes to recording, i’m still figuring this out for myself – making this same decision for every bit i’m tracking and it’s very well possible that i would make a different one for the same take on another day. so at least there’s a human factor in deciding if a human factor should be involved :-)

anyhoo, my answer to the question is YES! there is such a thing as a too good performance. it’s just a matter of how one defines ‘good’. wow, this is getting more complicated than i thought – it seems there should be a second part to this, so here’s your chance to think about it yourself :-)

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• song no. 7 (audiot.eu)

thinking about this, my guess would be that i focus on the very basics (because i can’t do anything else anyway) and this makes it sound decent. too easy? think about it, what’s the most common mistake bass players make? not just them of course but let’s stick with this example for now… right, overplaying! and that usually causes them to sound anything BUT tight. now, i understand that playing straight eight notes for 87 measures with no more than four different notes seems boring but nothing ruins a tune like a bassist that dreams about being a not-so-good-but-at-least-getting-through-the-song-somehow-guitarist. i find it quite intriguing that even most bassplayers think the bass is the guitar for beginners or wannabes. it’s not surprising that others think that way because, hey, it looks almost the same. and it usually has less strings so it must be easier than guitar! it still is not common knowledge that a bass is a completely different instrument and needs to be treated as such. and believe it or not – it’s kind of more important than the guitar. do you know why Led Zeppelin worked? it wasn’t Page or Plant. without the foundation Bonham and Jones laid down the band would have gone nowhere. same with AC/DC. certainly, everybody thinks Angus does it all but again, without the foundation he’d have no chance.

well, it’s not really that simple, every band member is equally important – sure. i just wanted to make a point here. now where am i going with this? honestly, i have no idea :-) i just picked up the bass guitar and found that i did what i think every bass player should do on a regular basis. and that is playing the bass. not some melody-crap, tapping-licks or mimicking everything the guitar does. just playing the bass. if that’s out of the question for you because you want to be the star or sticking to the bassline is just way too boring – then, and i’m sorry to be the one to tell you this, you picked the wrong instrument…

…or decisions if you like. until maybe a year ago, i never really thought about those. when i listened to something i liked, it was always about the ‘how’ – how did the artist do this or that, how did he/she make it sound the way it did. i never really thought about the ‘why’.

now when i started to work on “corner”, i already knew about the importance of choices but never made them myself with this in mind. i usually did what i thought sounded cool and was done with it. i should add though tht there never were that many choices before. what i did in those years was mostly the usual band lineup, sometimes an unplugged duo or trio but switching to doing almost everything with software changed it all. suddenly i had choices, more than i could deal with. instead of just being able to choose exactly where to place the four drummics (because there were only four mics and only one drumset and only one room etc…), now it’s more like which of the dozens of drumkits should i use or should i combine two of them…or more? should i use closed mics? or ambient mics? or both? and how should i mix them? which shape do i want the room to have and how large and so on…. one can easily get lost in the sheer amount of possibilities – very easily.

well, you could just browse, right? you want some drums, so you just go through the drumsound-archive and pick the one you like best. sounds easy enough – and it is……if you’re able and willing to spend the next two weeks 24/7 browsing. and that’s just the drums! and even if you’d go through with this, chances are, it sounds like crap once the other instruments are in place. of course, no poblem, just pick another drumset – AAARRRGH !!!

so with this unbelievable amount of choices comes a certain responsibility. you should know what you’re doing aka where you want to go with it and that’s not as easy as it sounds. at least for me because i mostly do not know what i’m doing….mostly. don’t get me wrong, it’s cool to not know where the journey will lead you, this is the perfect way to be creative BUT the challenge is being able to react to whatever your creativity tells you – and fast. if your little mr hyde wants to hear some wahwah sound at exactly this point, you have to know how to get it – before too much thinking throws you out of the zone (or the flow). and if there’s no wahwah available, how to fake it (or build one yourself if you’re using Reason – sorry ’bout that but i’m kind of a fan…). i guess this is where the term artist comes into play. how do you want it to sound? and why do you want it to sound like that? what kind of reaction do you want to create? these are the kind of questions that begin to matter and not only because answering them will narrow the possibilities down to a manageable amount…

in the end it’s more than just picking a few sounds and throwing them together somehow because it will sound good automatically. yeah, that’s a bummer – i thought it would work that way too :-( but on the other hand: that’s what separates the men from the boys.

and one more thing, jamming is not just some stupid habit of killing time. it’s the no.1 thing to become tight as a band. there’s no better way of getting to know the guys you play with. so jamming is fun AND learning at the same time and that makes it really cool in my book!

i want it to be outstanding, something special – so nothing that comes to my mind is good enough, no matter what it is. some of these ideas could become huge hits, who knows, but i don’t let them. i just say ‘nah’ and wipe them away. on the one hand it might be good to have some kind of quality control but this sucker prevents me from creating anything. have you ever been to the home of a craftsman? those guys build formidable stuff every day but their homes often look like junkyards or building sites. they could finish it in an instant but they want it to be awesome or stunning. the point is: this way it will never be finished. never ever. exactly like the material i’m trying to create.

now the thing that made Einstein the genius that he was, was not the ONE great idea. it was unbelievable productivity. the same goes for Mozart, DaVInci etc. those guys didn’t just have great ideas. they put such a huge amount of ideas out there, that some of them just had to be milestones. meaning if i would stop worrying about every idea not being good enough and just put them to paper or tape instead, i’d be much better off……

sorry to waste your time with this, maybe i shouldn’t have published this entry, it doesn’t seem to be worth it………….

the next experience with a music school came about 15 years later. i wrote and recorded some songs together with an american singer/songwriter/vocal teacher who lived in germany and who used to teach at a quite popular singing school in the region. he stopped teaching there shortly before we both met and he gave me two reasons for this decision: 1. a huge drug problem at that school and 2. nobody of the school staff cared about the students. even better: the teachers were told to not teach the students too well so they would need to stay longer. it was a really expensive school that parents had their kids go to in order to impress friends and relatives. ugh!

then a few years later, when i started teaching myself, i talked to some guys at music schools if it would be possible to teach there. but then i decided to stay on my own. it seemed none of them was interested in offering some valuable teaching really. they all wanted to kill as many birds possible with one stone. i simply do not believe it’s possible to teach a group of people to sing at the same time. choirs or background sections are exceptions of course but the single members of those groups need to learn it for themselves first as well. every voice is different. easy as that. you can’t teach 2 or more people simultaneously without sacrificing the very thing teaching is about. it might be possible with instruments if you choose students who are on kind of the same level, this is still not the best way though. but with the voice this is simply impossible. i’ve yet to meet a student who would be a decent match for any other one i had ever before. and that’s where the talking always ended. i wanted to teach one student at a time, they wanted me to teach groups of 2, 3 or even more. end of story… so until today i’m still the private teacher i have been for almost ten years now.

and now the punchline: about 8 years after my last music-school-encounter it seems there is another one ahead.

i’ll keep you informed…….