Live Musician Central

   One of the things that will be an ongoing quest for your live band is your ability to play consistently in the groove. What is a groove? That’s when your band locks into a certain rhythm which defines the overall feel of the song. There’s a rock groove, funk groove, R&B groove, country groove, jazz groove and many other types of grooves. Playing in a groove can also be called “playing in the pocket.” It all comes down to a very simple concept and that is how all the parts being played by your band interlock rhythmically. Today I’m going to tell you about a very simple but very effective way for your live band to do a groove check, or rhythm check if you will.

   Here’s how to do a rhythm check. First choose a song from your bands playlist. Then have everyone mute their instrument so that no actual notes are being played. Keyboard players can pick a single note to play. Now have everyone play the song by only playing the rhythm of their parts. That means if the bass guitar is playing a steady 1/8 note line, the bass guitarist should just beat out an 1/8 note rhythm on the muted string. The drummer should play their normal drum part. The guitarist should beat out whatever the rhythm is for the guitar part and the keyboard player should do the same. Now listen to what’s happening. All the rhythmic parts that everyone is playing should fit together. It should sound like a tribal rhythm happening. There should be an underlying pulse and everyones parts should be hanging off that pulse in a proper place to create a groove. You should be able to dance to what’s happening. Another way to do this is to have everyone grab a drumstick and tap out their parts together. Again, you should be able to get a groove going rhythmically with everyone tapping out their parts.

   Doing a groove check is a very simple thing to do and it can point out some glaring problems with your band. It can also expose certain players weaknesses in the rhythm department so be ready for that. Don’t let a rhythm check devolve into a petty argument about player skill. Players of any skill level should be able to adjust their playing to play in a groove. The whole purpose of a groove check is to find out where your skill level is when it comes to playing in a groove. With that knowledge you can adjust your rhythmic playing to match your skill at playing rhythms.

   I’m sure you’ve played with players that have a tendency to overplay. Overplaying is almost always an instant groove killer. You’ll want to have the players in your band tap out their fills where they would normally play them while you’re doing a rhythm check. This will let you hear how a fill can change the groove rhythmically. Too many fills will definitely kill the groove.

   A groove check can also help players focus on putting a definite rhythm to their fills.  It may sound cool when your guitarist plays a 1/32 note scale, but during the rhythm check that may sound lifeless and boring. Your guitarist may find that a series of pauses or held notes linked together with groove based rhythms will suit that scale much better within the context of the song.

   When it comes down to basics, the most important thing that goes into making a song work is the ability to have a good rhythm. That’s why I highly recommend taking the time to do a band rhythm check and then taking the time to fix rhythmic problems. Once you get the rhythm all locked in together, the groove will come naturally and your live audience will respond by getting up out of their seats and dancing the night away.

Every week here at Live Musician Central we post up several albums for you to check out and download. We feature some of the most heavily marketed new releases every week. These albums are a good example of what the music industry is marketing and you can use them as a guide for building your bands songlist. You always want to play songs the people will be familiar with and there’s an excellent chance that the albums featured in our weekend album picks will have a lot of songs that people will know. It’s a good idea to have them on your MP3 player at gigs so you can test them out on an audience before you spend the time learning them. The album picks can make great break music.

   We feature downloads from iTunes as well as MP3 downloads from Amazon.com music service. The Amazon.com MP3’s are ripped at 256kbps and are DRM free so you can copy them to as many music players as you like. They’re priced very low when you download entire albums. With the Amazon widgets below you can preview the album right here on Live Musician Central.  I’m also posting a link to the iTunes $4.99 Album Of The Week. You can bet that people will be knowing those songs as well and it’s a great deal on a full album. The new David Archuleta album is out so check ‘em out!

  Every week here at Live Musician Central we post up several albums for you to check out and download. We feature some of the most heavily marketed new releases every week. These albums are a good example of what the music industry is marketing and you can use them as a guide for building your bands songlist. You always want to play songs the people will be familiar with and there’s an excellent chance that the albums featured in our weekend album picks will have a lot of songs that people will know.

   We feature downloads from iTunes as well as MP3 downloads from Amazon.com music service. The Amazon.com MP3’s are ripped at 256kbps and are DRM free so you can copy them to as many music players as you like. They’re priced very low when you download entire albums. I’m also posting a link to the iTunes Free Music Video Of The Week. You can bet that people will be knowing that song as well. So check ‘em out!
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That’s right, getting along is more important than musicianship. This is band chemistry 101 for all you live musicians out there. I’ve played with some of the most incredible musicians I’ve ever heard and I’ve also seen them not able to function in a band for more than a year. The musicians I play with now are all excellent. Maybe not the best in the world, but excellent players. My two bands have been together for 18 years and 14 years respectively. Let me tell you why we’ve been together for so long.

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Stevie Ray Vaughan is a legendary live musician. His live performance was simply amazing and he was very much at home on the stage. In this video clip Stevie talks about his playing and you get to sit back and enjoy him riffing away on his Fender Stratocaster. The camera stays on Stevie’s hands so you can really take a good look at what he’s doing while he’s playing. If you’re like me, then you wish every concert DVD had a camera just on the guitarists hands so you can see and learn what they’re doing. The only downside of the clip is I wish he was playing more but he does have some sage words of wisdom for guitarists. Enjoy!

Stevie Ray Vaughan Interview And Guitar Lesson

Fender Artist Series Stevie Ray Vaughan Stratocaster Electric Guitar 3-Tone SunburstThe Fender Stevie Ray Vaughan Stratocaster Electric Guitar is made for Texas Blues - Stevie style - with the same features as Stevie’s number one Strat. Unique features include a special “oval” neck, pao ferro fingerboard with 21 jumbo frets, three Texas Special single-coil pickups, gold-plated vintage hardware with Stevie’s unique left-handed synchronized tremolo, and special engraved pickguard. Pay tribute to a master with every note you play.

   When I was just starting to play in rock bands and learning how to be a good live musician, I absolutely loved band practice. Hanging out with the guys and learning how to play together as a band was such a great rush. We’d play and talk about music and pig out on junk food. It was great! Over the years though, band practice has become more and more of a burden. It’s not very convenient and once you play live in front of a live audience, practice just doesn’t compare for getting a rush.

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Every weekend I pick several albums to post on Live Musician Central. The albums I put up are determined by a couple factors. I usually put up a couple that are being heavily promoted by the music industry. These may not be albums that I particularly like but they are albums that are going to be prominent in the public conscience. It’s good for us as musicians to stay current with what’s being promoted by the industry. We can gauge what we’re doing with what is being pushed out there and see how we fit in with the current music scene. It’s also a good source to choose new music for your band to learn and play live or to have on the iPod to play during band breaks. The reasoning here is that you want to play music that people will know and since the albums I post on Live Musician Central are being so heavily promoted, your chances of people knowing the music at your shows is very high.

   The rest of the albums that I post are either personal favorites or they are certified classic albums that have sold millions of copies and are familiar to a lot of people. I also like to post a few links to iTunes and a few links to Amazon’s music service. Amazon has DRM free MP3’s that are ripped at 256kbps which is excellent quality at a killer price. So make sure you check them out!

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   Carl Palmer of Emerson, Lake and Palmer fame as well as the supergoup Asia is one of my favorite rock drummers. He is a highly skilled live musician. He has a light touch and he’s amazingly accurate and fast. Carl was hailed as the rock-n-roll equivalent of jazz great Buddy Rich. I personally like to watch Carl Palmer using the classic jazz grip on the sticks. You don’t see it a lot with rock drummers. Another thing I really enjoy is Carls sense of showmanship. He knows how to put on a good show while playing the drumset. He is truly a great example of a good mix of musicianship and great stagecraft.

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I’m always looking for song selection ideas for my band In Stereo. One of the greatest challenges musicians face when playing live music is playing music that the audience knows and wants to hear. One resource I like to use is industry magazines. Rolling Stone magazine has been covering the music scene since 1967 and I believe it has some authority in the music industry. Rolling Stone Magazine has released several articles with compiled lists of the greatest songs of all time. Today I’d like to point you to their list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Songs Of All Time.

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   Every weekend I pick several albums to post on Live Musician Central. The albums I put up are determined by a couple factors. I usually put up a couple that are being heavily promoted by the music industry. These may not be albums that I particularly like but they are albums that are going to be prominent in the public conscience. It’s good for us as musicians to stay current with what’s being promoted by the industry. We can gauge what we’re doing with what is being pushed out there and see how we fit in with the current music scene. It’s also a good source to choose new music for your band to learn and play live or to have on the iPod to play during band breaks. The reasoning here is that you want to play music that people will know and since the albums I post on Live Musician Central are being so heavily promoted, your chances of people knowing the music at your shows is very high.

   The rest of the albums that I post are either personal favorites or they are certified classic albums that have sold millions of copies and are familiar to a lot of people. I also like to post a few links to iTunes and a few links to Amazon’s music service. Amazon has DRM free MP3’s that are ripped at 256kbps which is excellent quality at a killer price. So make sure you check them out! The new Labelle album is surprisingly good. It’s comprised of Patti LaBelle, Nona Hendryx and Sarah Dash.

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