audiotthoughts on music

long time, no see…

i know there haven’t been many updates recently and this one is just a quick question to get you thinking. actually this is not just about music but can be applied to virtually anything.

yesterday, i read an entry in some german musicians forum about a guy who wasn’t really sure what to answer when someone asked him what instrument he was playing. he identified himself more with the band than his instrument, that sort of thing – this isn’t exactly what this post is about, but it got me thinking.

what exactly is it that you do? and more important, do you even know it – and know how to phrase it without sounding shy or silly? this is very important because it tells you something about yourself and the path you’ve chosen so far. are you a drummer? or a musician? or an artist? or all of it? or what?

this goes for any other profession as well. what exactly is it that you do? think about this, as will i, and try to put it into words – words that convince not only whoever’s asking, but yourself as well.

to be continued…

this is filed under reviews but it’s really an order. in fact, it says ‘BUY THIS RECORD !!!’, well with a few more words, but basically that’s the message.

this is about the new Bill Champlin record called “No Place Left To Fall”. you may have already heard or read about it, depending on where you live i guess. here in germany, Bill Champlin is not as big as he should be. but anyway, you can find all sorts of information about this new album anywhere on the net. what i’d like to say about it, since i’ve had the chance to fully listen to it yesterday, is quite simple. this album is outstanding. it’s a great piece of songwriting, arrangement, craftsmanship and let’s not forget a lot of fun to listen to. but since this blog is for people who are somewhat more into music than the average listen-to-some-radio-while-driving-to-work-in-the-morning-kind-of-guy i’d like to give you some good advice you might not find in another review. this album simply is one awesome lesson for every musician. you’ll find songwriting with some edges and corners you wouldn’t expect and still it all runs smoothly like a bar of soap covered in babyoil on an airhockey-table…….ermmm, oh well, you get the idea.

and then there’s of course the playing itself – and wow! you can learn so much by closely listening to this masterpiece. there’s nice voiceworks by Bill and his mates and even if Bill’s voice is not really my favorite, soundwise, he’s just doing a great job. there’s outstanding performances by all of the musicians, topped by the ridiculously awesome creative greatness of Billy Ward, who’s simply drumming this album to the all-time-must-haves. sorry for this, but it would seem i’m kind of short on superlatives :-)

this record is a perfect example for ‘being in the moment’, which is (or at least should be) every musicians priority. you’ll find the right thing played at every single moment. and that’s a great lesson in itself…

so before i write myself into tears of joy, i’ll say it again. go and buy this album. if you do, naked women will have sex in your backyard – or men, whatever floats your boat…

so, now he has completely lost his mind, right?

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…

there you go. because of the pauses in between here are the links to the original article as well as the first three parts of what i wrote about it. you may skip the link to part 1, because that was just me presenting the link to you:

• 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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so small beats large, eh? didn’t i talk about that already? well, this time it’s more like short beats long and i’m talking about periods of time. did you know that it’s impossible for us to really concentrate on something longer than a few minutes?  it’s true, although i don’t know the source of that information anymore. we think we could do something for hours and being focused the whole time but we can’t. by the way, this might be the reason that the ideal length for a song, which is played on radio, is somewhere around 3:00 minutes – keep that in mind when you record your next 70s-sound-alike-mammoth-intro…

anyway, learning is most effective if you do it for short periods of time – about 5 to 10 minutes and then take a break. there are two reasons for this: first, the above mentioned ‘concentration-span’. and the second reason: remember the puppeteer-and-datahighway-building-guys? those fellows are quite assiduous people. when you start learning, they start building – nothing fancy here but when you stop learning, they go on building for at least a few more minutes. ok, if you’re learning for five hours and then you win 5 more minutes, it’s nothing. but if one of your learning units is only 5 minutes and you still get a 5 minute bonus, that means – well, you do the math. depending on how long you need to dig in, learning periods of 10 minutes might be better, you need to check this out for yourself.

so go ahead and make up a plan by first breaking down the task into small pieces (that can be done in 5-10 minutes…), then do one at a time -  slowly and focused and after each of those periods give your brain a break, so the tiny workmates up there can finish up. you don’t need to doze off into standby mode, just do something else you don’t need to focus on. for example, you’re working for 7 minutes on that new arpeggio, playing it slowly and focused up and down the guitar neck. then, as a ‘break’, you crank up the amp and thresh your favorite punkriffs out to the universe. and after that mr. brain is ready to take another bite…

this is something that lots of musicians don’t think about. and if they do it, it’s often for the wrong reasons. i know a lot of musicians who teach, but most of them do it for the money and that’s just wrong. you shouldn’t become a musician to make money and you shouldn’t become a teacher for that reason either. if it’s money you seek, work as a banker (maybe now’s not the right time to start…), lawyer, doctor or whatever else. if you’re a musician because you want to make money, you’re either a moron or Paul McFriggin’Cartney. don’t get me wrong, if you happen to make money as a musician, that’s great! if you make a living by playing music – awesome!!! this is the no.1 dreamjob. period. but if you are even thinking about money during ‘work’ – you’re in trouble.

well, why teaching at all then? first of all, to spread the art – to enlighten – to help others grow. not your cup of tea? alright, the next reason is for the me-people out there: to learn something! ahuh. i’m serious, since i started teaching (back then it was for the wrong reasons, i admit) i have learned so much, it’s still hard to believe for me. when i started, i thought ‘hey y’all, i’m so good at what i’m doing that i’m gonna show you how it’s done and you’ll pay me to bathe in my wisdom.’ ugh.

the first thing i learned though, was that i was not half as good as i thought. i guess today i’m half as good as i thought back then (and that’s a lot :-) :-) :-) ). then i learned that teaching is more than just talking about how you do it – you need a plan, a concept. you need to set goals and you need a way to achieve them – and, most important, you need to have a plan b for everything. because in almost ten years of teaching, i never ever had a single student whom my concept worked on without adjustments. every student is different, especially when it comes to the voice. so by adjusting, improvising and figuring out new ways to deal with problems you’ve never encountered before, you learn. and not just as you would learn from a book or something – more like new horizons. we always get used to things, it’s our nature. but that means once we have found our way of doing something, we don’t think about it anymore – and therefore, don’t learn anything. but dealing with problems we never had ourselves forces us to think and to make up alternatives and that’s how we learn.

i would even venture to say that teaching is the next step in learning music. once you’re a decent player/singer, it becomes the next thing to do.

i should mention that not everybody makes for a good teacher, and if you simply don’t like the idea, then you probably shouldn’t teach. but there’s still two things you should do. first, learn about teaching – or better: learn about learning. learn how learning really works, that alone is worth so much… and second, create a concept on how you would teach someone. yes, even if it doesn’t come to it….

and who knows, maybe you even make some money ;-)

once more, i discovered an interesting discussion on new music strategies right here. it’s about when to put your own musicstuff online. is it better to wait until it’s properly mixed, mastered, produced – so it’s good in quality, maybe even polished and slick. or is the answer more like “now”?

there’s a lot of comments that lean more to the one or the other side, but one aspect seems to be quite important to most of them. the fear of scaring your fans (or people that might become fans) away. boo!

my thoughts on this are a bit different, i’m saying “now”! put it all up, all you’ve got. polished? fine. raw? fine. good? fine. it sucks? fine. no matter what, show it to the world! now! you might think, so what has he put up so far? and you’re right, i might be the last person on earth to give advice about this. and i don’t, it’s just my thoughts on it, remember? by the way, i put stuff up here – remember? and it was neither good quality nor good songwriting or whatever, it was just nothing, a little gag. but back to me being the last person…. right now, i have nothing to upload. ridiculous? damn right it is. it’s a shame that all those years i spent making music only exist as memories and stories – i can’t change that. but i can do better from now on – and i will.

now why is it good if you upload anything that just sucks? well, for one, any publicity is good publicity. and this is now more true than ever. you might scare people who otherwise would have become your fans? think again. tastes differ. one man’s crap is another man’s gold. maybe your sweet little popsong is soooooo bad, it becomes a punkhit – who knows? and if noone likes it at all (and that’s hard to believe, someone on earth would love it. guaranteed.), so what? if you work on your internet-appearance, so that you’re findable – you have as many chances as you like. so the first hundred visitors didn’t like it? maybe the next hundred will. no? maybe the next hundred will. no? maybe the nex….. you won’t run out of possible fans, it’s the internet.

another thing that comes to my mind is the renaissance of bad quality. since everybody’s able to put cellphone-videos online in an instant, there are no more quality issues. today people sit in front of their screen watching clips that are just plain black (maybe with a little blurry-brown-something) and sound like a horsie making love to a running lawnmower. if someone would have brought you a vhs-tape with that clip to watch it on your tv in the pre-web-era? yep, my thoughts exactly. and let’s not forget: even well known acts put up low-quality-stuff. think bathroom sessions of the barenaked ladies – and people loved them. certainly, it’s nicely performed. what if you just can’t play? again, who cares? you will improve, and someday people might be proud of having known you since your first steps. even if they’re not, even if noone likes your music. i say it’s still far better than not releasing it to the public. because now it’s out there and its never going back. YOU are out there and you’re never going back. there’s more danger in waiting and trimming and polishing a little more and trimming again and…. “cool, there’s a new effect-device coming out next month. this will so improve this song of mine. i’m saving some money to buy it and then this song will rock and i can put it up there…..” this never ends. you’re really planning on releasing something as soon as it’s perfect? that moment will never come. it’s not the past, where independent artists saved money to make an album and because of limited time and cash, needed to decide which song and how long etc. today you have the possibilities to throw out whatever you like and an infinite amount of trials, so………………….

recently i mentioned that during recording, i prefer to do full-takes rather than punch-ins. if the tune plays from beginning to end and i’m laying down a complete track to it, i consider that a full-take.

now, lots and lots of musicians – the vast majority i guess – don’t do it this way. they do a full-take or two and the rest is kind of damage control or cosmetics or similar. so if the second half of the third chorus is not to their satisfaction, they punch in a few bars before, do the rest of the chorus, punch out again and then tinker it in there somehow. why? there’s usually two reasons: it’s supposed to save time and/or the musician is actually not able to do it all in one go and therefore needs to puzzle his track together, creating kind of a best-of-take…

back when i worked as a financial advisor (i’m serious!), i first learned about vibes – they did call it different though. in a nutshell: if you’re calling a customer to discuss business and you’re wearing a shell suit while lying on the couch, there will be no deal. i think it’s an interesting point. if you’re working, you’re working. imagine you’re going to a bank to invest some of your hard earned cash (i know, but there might be some non-musicians reading). what would you do if the banker was in a shell suit, probably hadn’t shaved in a week and was clipping his toenails behind the desk? yes, me too. of course, on the phone you wouldn’t know what he’s wearing, right?

wrong. enter the vibes. this is – among other things – about attitude. no one takes you seriously if you look like a trailerpark-inhabitant. you won’t even take yourself seriously – and that’s what the other one will know because of, tadaaaa, the vibes. on the phone, in a letter, on the moon – everywhere. is it wrong to judge someone by his outfit? maybe so, but who cares? it’s common practice.

anyway, back to recording. take it seriously. the audience will know if you did it right or if you just chose the fastest and easiest way. if you’re not capable of doing the whole tune in one continuous piece, how ’bout practicing some more? or doing it a little different? noone will miss that one guitarsolo-part where you’re playing a 20-notes-per-second-tapping-arp, believe me. what they will miss though, is a strong impact caused by your performance because it’s the work of a tinker rather than a craftsmen.

i tell my students that the song starts with the first sound there is. no matter what instrument it is, the song starts right there – for everyone. even if there’s no vocals at all for one whole minute, the song starts there. they have to dig in right there, not just a few seconds before their part starts. and they have to stay in until the last sound has vanished completely. i can get quite angry at them if this rule is not obeyed, because it is very important. the vibes are very important – and way too often underestimated. so if you record something, take it seriously.

and by the way, doing the whole track again just takes about five minutes – time well spent…

Image by audiot.eu via Flickr

this word has kind of a negative taste, right? but i guess it’s time to stop that because we need a term for it and this one seems appropriate. what i’m talking about is once again the awesome possibility to work together through the internet, which is – sadly enough – not used to the extent it deserves.

so i’m stepping forward and dare you to do the same. of course there were others before me and i won’t accept any credit whatsoever for this idea, because it simply wasn’t mine, but it’s a great one and anyone interested should stop couchpotating and be part of it. what i’m talking about here is a cooperation between artists – an artistic-penpalship-thing (we might have to work on that term though :-) ). if you would like to create something with me, drop me a line. easy as that. i don’t care if it’s ‘just’ music or if you’re a video-, photo-, paint-, or whatever-else-artist. i don’t care about a genre or some other stereotype. i just love to work something out with someone else somewhere. so if you are creative and kind of a free-thinker, we might give it a shot and see what happens…

come to think of it, “guerrilla” is also one of those words in need of a less negative rating. recently this has become a term for people who try to do things on their own, musicians without a label who try to make do with the resources they have for instance. and that’s a great thing, at least in my book…