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…

who would have thought of that? i wanted to show you some Michael Landau video, because i think he’s not known enough. this guy played on so many records, chances are you even have an album on which he did his thing. but – as is the thing with many studio-cats – nobody knows him. except guitarfreaks of course. anyway, he deserves to be known…

then i found this clip of his trio playing in Karlsruhe/Germany last year – and i was there! this was one awesome show, wow. Gary Novak on drums, whom i had a little chat with afterwards, is such a nice person and such a bada$$ drummer. he got most of my interest that evening, sorry Mike. and Jimmy Johnson on bass, never seen him before. i think i heard or read his name somewhere but that was it – he was another pleasant surprise that day. this is a great band, if they are still out there gigging – don’t miss ‘em… under no circumstances!

by the way, the guitar really was that loud compared to the other instruments – it’s too bad you almost can’t hear anything else in the clip. i stood right at the stage, in front of the drumkit – that made for a balanced sound. i got very few of the pa, almost only stagesound and that was fine. the guy who shot the video though, seemed to have a somewhat worse position, so sorry for the sound. but you should hear that they know what they’re doing ;-)

enjoy

i just wrote an email to a guy who bought some of my drumparts on ebay and once again i experienced this ‘brotherhood of drummers’ that i got used to over the years and that i love very much. i’ve been a guitar player long before i learned to play drums but i never experienced this with other guitarists. and certainly not with singers :-)

there have been a lot of other musicians that i got in touch with just to buy or sell something. and with a guitarist it’s usually saying hello, making the deal, saying goodbye and be done with it. but this never ever happened with a drummer. even in the first email you can feel this togetherness-thing and when it really comes down to seeing each other, it’s more like trying to say hello but he interrupts with something like: ‘hey, there’s something i need to show you’ – then it’s off to geartalkland for hours, switching over to experiences-with-bands-story-talkland and it never ends. sometimes you even are forced to stay for dinner – unbelievable.

but that’s not it. at the first drumclinics i attended, i felt kind of uncomfortable. why? because i only knew guitar-clinics and there always was rivalry in the air. and not just at clinics, i sensed this at music-stores, in bands, rehearsals, even (maybe especially) on stage and at events like the Musikmesse which takes place once a year in Frankfurt/Germany. i have no idea why, but there always seems to be a rivalry between guitarplayers. i even was in a band once where the two guitarplayers actually fought about who gets to play more solo-notes and they were dead-serious. maybe it’s because of the instrument’s character. in a ‘normal’ band, the guitarist is the second ’star’ next to the singer. singers usually have the lead, they’re in front. but when they’re not, it’s about the guitarist. that is at least one reason why singers are so cocky. and to a certain degree that’s not only understandable but even required. sounds ridiculous? it isn’t. it takes self-confidence and ego to be the singer in a band (remember, i said to a certain degree!) because the audience thinks of you as the lead and wants you in that position. my guess would be: the average audiencer doesn’t know anything about playing an instrument but he/she has a voice, so the singer is as close as it gets and therefore the listeners mainly identify with the singer.

guitarists however, are the ones that play solos and make funny moves :-) so they are sometimes in front getting the most attention. and if the same rule applies, they would need some self-confidence and ego too, to give a convincing performance. i’m no Freud so i won’t speculate about the fear of losing the lead of the one or the inferiority complex because of being the all time second of the other – ida know, maybe there are such things, maybe not. but one thing is for sure: the different musicians in a band are different characters. for instance, the drummer is often the funny one, making jokes, laughing the most – right? that’s at least how i experienced it. while the singer often is a bit of an outsider. and the most amazing thing of all: when i’m playing drums in a band, i’m making jokes and mess around – when i’m the singer, i’m a lot more serious and a lot more about business. how freaky is that?

once again i’m drifting off a bit. i just wanted to share some thoughts about the guitarists’ rivalry (“i’m not showing you my riff!”) and the drummer’s club (“come on in, what’s mine is ours.”) if you haven’t experienced this, go ahead and hang with guitarplayers (if they even get together outside the rehearsal room…) and with drummers. the perfect environment is a clinic or a music fair or the Musikmesse itself. you can go from the drummers’ hall to the guitarplayers’ hall in an instant and feel the different vibes. i’m not kidding, you can actually feel the vibes in the room – crazy…

p.s. i’m not mentioning bassplayers or keyboarders here because i have never been one of those in a band. i have been a singer/guitarist/drummer in many, many bands so i can’t really compare this…

AND of course: there’s exceptions to everything. rumor has it there are drummers out there who really are serious people – never met one of those though. and there are guitarplayers and even singers who are actually very nice persons – i even know a few of them…