Exploring new styles of playing will make you a better musician. They best way to do this is to play with people who have different styles than yourself. As I have told you before, in my first band, I played with a guitarist who played exactly like the Goo Goo Dolls with little variation from that style. I learned how to play lead guitar over anything he wrote. This helped reinforce my skills as a lead guitarist. My next band was formed around my cousin who raps. Wildly different style than before. Now I was the only guitarist, so I had to arrange and play the rhythm tracks in addition to playing any solos. This was a big step in developing because I wrote the songs except for the lyrics. Technically, that's being an arranger, but I was still a huge part of me growing as a musician. Now, that band is on a hiatus because nobody seems to have time for it. So, I've come to that point where I've started writing my own songs and singing my own words. It has been a long time coming and the different bands along the way have gotten me to this point. While I am writing my own material, I am also still playing with my cousin who raps, a friend from high school who plays folk rock and a friend from college who plays pop-like blues. Doing all these at the same time keeps my energy and music ideas flowing. This forces me to think differently about playing constantly and thus making me learn more along the way.
What I suggest is to keep exploring new musicians to play with, even if you just jam for fun every once in a while. It will help you develop as it did me.
Friday, December 10, 2010
Promoting your band.
Promotion is one of my areas of expertise. Over the 3 or so years in my first band, I developed into a pretty decent salesman promoting our shows. It seemed like every month we had another show coming up that was bigger than the last. Now, I am blessed to have a very large group of friends who loved to drink and come watch us play, but nevertheless, I learned many important things about promoting a show.
First, your friends are your lifeline. Get them on board with your music. Try to get some of them to promote for you. When you have shows, offer friends free tickets if they can bring 2 or 3 other people that you don't know. This way you help them help you and you start getting your name out there.
Second, play anywhere and everywhere. BUT, if your friends are the only ones coming and they have to pay every time, then limit those shows to about one a month because nobody ever has any money. In the mean time, play open mics and smaller freebees to keep you playing chops up.
Third, use the internet. This is the best thing for any new band. Now, every band has a myspace. But does every band have a Myspace, Facebook, Tweeter, Reverbnation, Sonic Bids, Pure Volume and Youtube accounts all linked together on your own website? If you don't, then get on it.
Fourth, DON'T abuse the internet. Every day people get a bunch of spam email and messages that they don't even bother looking at because they see so many of them. Set up all your internet accounts and update people on what your doing about every two weeks. Also, send out those updates in the middle of the week, Tuesday through Thursday, because people are more likely to read them.
Fifth, have something to promote. Always be working on new material. Have demos ready for sale at shows. Mention anything interesting that you have been working on lately or any big shows coming up. And don't let people forget about you.
Finally, love your friends. Love your friends and your audience. If people like what your playing and are giving you compliments on the way out. Come back and hang out with them for a little. Get to know them. These are your fans. You want to love them, so they will love you.
First, your friends are your lifeline. Get them on board with your music. Try to get some of them to promote for you. When you have shows, offer friends free tickets if they can bring 2 or 3 other people that you don't know. This way you help them help you and you start getting your name out there.
Second, play anywhere and everywhere. BUT, if your friends are the only ones coming and they have to pay every time, then limit those shows to about one a month because nobody ever has any money. In the mean time, play open mics and smaller freebees to keep you playing chops up.
Third, use the internet. This is the best thing for any new band. Now, every band has a myspace. But does every band have a Myspace, Facebook, Tweeter, Reverbnation, Sonic Bids, Pure Volume and Youtube accounts all linked together on your own website? If you don't, then get on it.
Fourth, DON'T abuse the internet. Every day people get a bunch of spam email and messages that they don't even bother looking at because they see so many of them. Set up all your internet accounts and update people on what your doing about every two weeks. Also, send out those updates in the middle of the week, Tuesday through Thursday, because people are more likely to read them.
Fifth, have something to promote. Always be working on new material. Have demos ready for sale at shows. Mention anything interesting that you have been working on lately or any big shows coming up. And don't let people forget about you.
Finally, love your friends. Love your friends and your audience. If people like what your playing and are giving you compliments on the way out. Come back and hang out with them for a little. Get to know them. These are your fans. You want to love them, so they will love you.
Alternate Tunings.
So far we have only dealt with standard tuning, E - A - D - G - B - E.
There are many other tunings that are fairly common.
Drop D - You drop the low E to a D.
D - A - D - G - B - E
Drop C - You drop the low E to a C
C - A - D - G - B - E
These drop tunings are more for metal guitarists. For example, Tom Morello from Rage Against the Machine uses drop D almost all the time.
Open G Tuning
D - G - D - G - B - D
This is the tuning Keith Richards from The Rolling Stones uses. It is what gives him is signature style and sound.
Open C Tuning
C - G - C - G - C - E
Another common open guitar tuning.
The only problem with playing these alternate tunings is that you have to look up how to play the chords again. But it is fun to switch up the sound and see what you make be able to create in these new tunings.
There are many other tunings that are fairly common.
Drop D - You drop the low E to a D.
D - A - D - G - B - E
Drop C - You drop the low E to a C
C - A - D - G - B - E
These drop tunings are more for metal guitarists. For example, Tom Morello from Rage Against the Machine uses drop D almost all the time.
Open G Tuning
D - G - D - G - B - D
This is the tuning Keith Richards from The Rolling Stones uses. It is what gives him is signature style and sound.
Open C Tuning
C - G - C - G - C - E
Another common open guitar tuning.
The only problem with playing these alternate tunings is that you have to look up how to play the chords again. But it is fun to switch up the sound and see what you make be able to create in these new tunings.
Songwriting - Chord Progressions
More on songwriting. This time we're talking about chord progressions. There are literally an infinite amount of ways to play chords when you factor in the rhythm, pausing and accent of your playing style. Knowing the common chord progression will help you give structure and familiarity to your songs.
First you must know that every chord when we are talking about progression patterns is given a roman numeral. Reference this chart.
So here the most common chord progressions.
The three chord change. I - IV - V.
Check the chart. If you want to write a 3 chord change in the key of A, the chords are A-I, D-IV, E-V.
Now these three chords could be played many different ways.
Such as I - I - IV - V, I - IV - V - IV, I - IV - I - V...ect.
Twelve Bar Blues Pattern
This uses I , IV and V, but it goes;
I - I - I - I
IV - IV - I - I
V - V - I - I
Ways to extend the I - IV - V
Two other ways to extend the I - IV - V are as follows:
I - vi - IV - V
OR
I - vi - ii - V
The lower case roman numerals are minor chords.
- These are the basic progressions. Listen to some of your favorite songs and see if you can figure out their progression and how they tweaked it to make it their own. Use that chart to your advantage. Try to make up your own progressions.
First you must know that every chord when we are talking about progression patterns is given a roman numeral. Reference this chart.
So here the most common chord progressions.
The three chord change. I - IV - V.
Check the chart. If you want to write a 3 chord change in the key of A, the chords are A-I, D-IV, E-V.
Now these three chords could be played many different ways.
Such as I - I - IV - V, I - IV - V - IV, I - IV - I - V...ect.
Twelve Bar Blues Pattern
This uses I , IV and V, but it goes;
I - I - I - I
IV - IV - I - I
V - V - I - I
Ways to extend the I - IV - V
Two other ways to extend the I - IV - V are as follows:
I - vi - IV - V
OR
I - vi - ii - V
The lower case roman numerals are minor chords.
- These are the basic progressions. Listen to some of your favorite songs and see if you can figure out their progression and how they tweaked it to make it their own. Use that chart to your advantage. Try to make up your own progressions.
Songwriting - Tips
Writing songs.
There are countless ways to go about writing songs and everyone needs to find their own way of working. I will offer some tips on how to get the ball rolling and the tunes coming.
1) Get a book. Try to keep it on you at all times. You never know when inspiration for a song idea or a lyric will hit you and you want to write it down so you can use it later.
2) Write something everyday. Anything. Work on an old idea. Rhyme the same line a million times. Write down something that happened to you that day, a dream you had, a conversation with somebody. Anything at all because this will get you into the habit of writing and rhyming.
3) Know your style. Figure out your style of playing and listen to singers that you want to imitate. Dissect their melodies and what make them so catchy to listen to.
4) If you haven't already, start humming or singing along to riffs you wrote. This is the main reason I suggested trying singing when you started playing because if you want to write songs, you will have to sing your own material. If not in front of an audience, than at least to a band member who would sing it for you.
5) There are many parts to a song. Intro,Verse, Chorus, Bridge, Coda and most importantly the Hook. The hook can be anywhere and there can be multiple hooks in a song, but the most prominent hook is in the chorus of a song.
6) If you know somebody with recording equipment, than go to their house and record your ideas. This is not your final product. Listen to them and see what you can make better. Figure out what transitions or lines aren't working. This allows you to devote your undivided attention as a listener rather than listening to yourself while your playing.
7) Simplicity. It is easy to get carried away with songs especially when you are starting off. Not every song can have a 5 minute guitar solo and 3 minute drum solo. Most of the time, keeping some ideas simple and restrained will make them work better. So try it out, if you don't like it, you can change it because it your song.
8) Don't under-rate the importance of your song's title for it's the soul of your song, telling your audience what your composition is about. Make it catchy, appealing, and easy to remember.
9) Avoid overuse of cliches. Instead, what I usually do is take well-known phrases and change them around to use them for my own meaning.
10) Put yourself into the songs. Use your own life experiences as inspiration for your songs. It's always better to write about something you personally know about because the feelings will be more real.
And last but not least.....
.....Steal ideas from your favorite artists and change them into your own. One of my favorite quotes is, "good artist imitate, great artists steal."
Hope these can help you get your ideas flowing. Check out some songwriting books from the library or go buy some. Also, remember to use the internet to its fullest and search for more songwriting tips.
There are countless ways to go about writing songs and everyone needs to find their own way of working. I will offer some tips on how to get the ball rolling and the tunes coming.
1) Get a book. Try to keep it on you at all times. You never know when inspiration for a song idea or a lyric will hit you and you want to write it down so you can use it later.
2) Write something everyday. Anything. Work on an old idea. Rhyme the same line a million times. Write down something that happened to you that day, a dream you had, a conversation with somebody. Anything at all because this will get you into the habit of writing and rhyming.
3) Know your style. Figure out your style of playing and listen to singers that you want to imitate. Dissect their melodies and what make them so catchy to listen to.
4) If you haven't already, start humming or singing along to riffs you wrote. This is the main reason I suggested trying singing when you started playing because if you want to write songs, you will have to sing your own material. If not in front of an audience, than at least to a band member who would sing it for you.
5) There are many parts to a song. Intro,Verse, Chorus, Bridge, Coda and most importantly the Hook. The hook can be anywhere and there can be multiple hooks in a song, but the most prominent hook is in the chorus of a song.
6) If you know somebody with recording equipment, than go to their house and record your ideas. This is not your final product. Listen to them and see what you can make better. Figure out what transitions or lines aren't working. This allows you to devote your undivided attention as a listener rather than listening to yourself while your playing.
7) Simplicity. It is easy to get carried away with songs especially when you are starting off. Not every song can have a 5 minute guitar solo and 3 minute drum solo. Most of the time, keeping some ideas simple and restrained will make them work better. So try it out, if you don't like it, you can change it because it your song.
8) Don't under-rate the importance of your song's title for it's the soul of your song, telling your audience what your composition is about. Make it catchy, appealing, and easy to remember.
9) Avoid overuse of cliches. Instead, what I usually do is take well-known phrases and change them around to use them for my own meaning.
10) Put yourself into the songs. Use your own life experiences as inspiration for your songs. It's always better to write about something you personally know about because the feelings will be more real.
And last but not least.....
.....Steal ideas from your favorite artists and change them into your own. One of my favorite quotes is, "good artist imitate, great artists steal."
Hope these can help you get your ideas flowing. Check out some songwriting books from the library or go buy some. Also, remember to use the internet to its fullest and search for more songwriting tips.
More advice about playing gigs.
Here are some other things I forgot to tell you about playing gigs.
If you haven't been to the place already, go there and check it out before you play the show. Check out the stage or space you'll be playing at and get a feel for it.
Also, talk to whoever is running the show and find out what equipment you need to bring. Usually, there will be a house PA system and a house drum kit, leaving you to bring the amps and extra cymbals. Bring extra cables, batteries, strings and guitars if you have them because you never know when something might break on you. There have been a few times where my guitar's battery has died in the middle of a solo and making it look like I was air guitaring.
Make sure you label everything with you or your band's name, EVERYTHING(cables, amps, bags, cases, drums, ect). Some people are scum bags and will try to steal some of your stuff because it is untraceable. One time we played a show down on 4th and Girard in Philly at this bar called the Fire. The place was a hole in ground in a pretty bad part of the city. And what do you know, somebody stole one of Ryan's drums. You would figure that would be kind of hard because drums are pretty big, but no. After our set, as we are fumbling back to the car with our stuff, some made off with one his drums.
That leads me to my next point, always have someone watching your stuff when unloading and loading the cars. Rotate band members on every trip. Have a friend watch. Pay a friend to watch. Do anything you can think of because your stuff is too valuable to loose for such a stupid reason.
The sound check is everything. Without a good sound check, you wont be able to hear yourself properly and the audience won't hear you guys as clearly. Find out when your sound check is going to be and be there at least an hour early. I think there was only 4 or 5 shows where we made it to the sound check early and had a legit check. That's 4 or 5 times out of about 40 shows. Not a very good average.
Find out what time you're playing at and tell everyone your inviting that its at least an hour earlier. Even more frustrating that being late myself, was having people show up as we were finishing playing, especially if they had to pay 10 or 15 dollars for a ticket.
If you haven't been to the place already, go there and check it out before you play the show. Check out the stage or space you'll be playing at and get a feel for it.
Also, talk to whoever is running the show and find out what equipment you need to bring. Usually, there will be a house PA system and a house drum kit, leaving you to bring the amps and extra cymbals. Bring extra cables, batteries, strings and guitars if you have them because you never know when something might break on you. There have been a few times where my guitar's battery has died in the middle of a solo and making it look like I was air guitaring.
Make sure you label everything with you or your band's name, EVERYTHING(cables, amps, bags, cases, drums, ect). Some people are scum bags and will try to steal some of your stuff because it is untraceable. One time we played a show down on 4th and Girard in Philly at this bar called the Fire. The place was a hole in ground in a pretty bad part of the city. And what do you know, somebody stole one of Ryan's drums. You would figure that would be kind of hard because drums are pretty big, but no. After our set, as we are fumbling back to the car with our stuff, some made off with one his drums.
That leads me to my next point, always have someone watching your stuff when unloading and loading the cars. Rotate band members on every trip. Have a friend watch. Pay a friend to watch. Do anything you can think of because your stuff is too valuable to loose for such a stupid reason.
The sound check is everything. Without a good sound check, you wont be able to hear yourself properly and the audience won't hear you guys as clearly. Find out when your sound check is going to be and be there at least an hour early. I think there was only 4 or 5 shows where we made it to the sound check early and had a legit check. That's 4 or 5 times out of about 40 shows. Not a very good average.
Find out what time you're playing at and tell everyone your inviting that its at least an hour earlier. Even more frustrating that being late myself, was having people show up as we were finishing playing, especially if they had to pay 10 or 15 dollars for a ticket.
Thursday, December 9, 2010
You're band is ready to play some gigs.
Now, you think you're ready to start playing some gigs around the neighborhood and start getting your name out there. Remember, play anywhere and everywhere you can even if your not getting paid. However, negotiate terms with the owner, manager, or whoever is running the show and try to get some money out it because you are performing a service and you are entitled to some kind of money for your service. The times it is acceptable to play for free is if it is a big name place or if it is guaranteed a lot of people will be there to hear you play.
Performing in front of people is stressful and accelerating experience. Your first time playing in front of an audience is the most nerve racking because you don't know what it is like. I really can't put it into words what it feels like whether you play good or bad, but I will give you some tips on how to perform. First off, have at least two extra songs ready to play in your set list in the event that you get an encore or you have to fill time. Second, know your set list, but have a piece of paper taped to your amp as a reference because when you play your adrenaline will be flowing and you might forget. Third, practice transitions between songs. Playing smoothly between songs and preparing for break for audience interaction will make you like a more legit band. Fourth, practice playing the set list all the way through in real time as if you were playing the show for real. Finally, even if you mess up, DONT EVER STOP PLAYING. I can not emphasize this enough. You and your band will look like complete jokes if you stop playing halfway through a song. If you mess up and keep playing like nothing happened, than people listening will probably not notice. One horror story from my first band is when my drummer stopped playing in the middle of the song because he forgot what song we were playing. That was one of the most embarrassing moments of my music career, but I've learned from it and I've moved on.
Performing in front of people is stressful and accelerating experience. Your first time playing in front of an audience is the most nerve racking because you don't know what it is like. I really can't put it into words what it feels like whether you play good or bad, but I will give you some tips on how to perform. First off, have at least two extra songs ready to play in your set list in the event that you get an encore or you have to fill time. Second, know your set list, but have a piece of paper taped to your amp as a reference because when you play your adrenaline will be flowing and you might forget. Third, practice transitions between songs. Playing smoothly between songs and preparing for break for audience interaction will make you like a more legit band. Fourth, practice playing the set list all the way through in real time as if you were playing the show for real. Finally, even if you mess up, DONT EVER STOP PLAYING. I can not emphasize this enough. You and your band will look like complete jokes if you stop playing halfway through a song. If you mess up and keep playing like nothing happened, than people listening will probably not notice. One horror story from my first band is when my drummer stopped playing in the middle of the song because he forgot what song we were playing. That was one of the most embarrassing moments of my music career, but I've learned from it and I've moved on.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)