Live Musician Central

   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 previously wrote an article called A Happy Crowd Means A Happy Band, in this post I’ll discuss the opposite point of view. It’s true that the band feeds off the audience, that being said, the audience is the most unpredictable part of your gig. We as live musicians would like to have a pumped up, excited audience every time we play. We can’t control the audience mood but we can control our mood. Or at least how we appear when we’re playing. Whatever your mood appears to be onstage, it will carry over to the crowd. So even if you’re having a terrible night, keep things light and keep a smile on your face.

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   The “rock band plays acoustic gig” format really came to popularity when MTV introduced the “Unplugged” concert series. The series began in the ‘89/’90 season with a concert by Squeeze with Elliot Easton (of The Cars) and Syd Straw. From there the series took off, soon every live musician was working up an acoustic set of their music that they could play in smaller, more intimate concert settings.

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   When you’re preparing to play a gig, it’s extremely important to prepare for the unexpected. Murphy’s law seems to always rear it’s ugly head at a gig. Here are a few basic essentials every live musician can do to prepare for equipment problems and breakdowns at a gig.

   Make sure you bring some basic tools. At the very minimum you should have a Leatherman Multi-Tool and a flashlight. It’s a really good idea to have a soldering iron as well. You can fill out your toolkit with the following:

• Super Glue
• Electrical Tape
• Duct Tape
• Cable Tester or Multi-Meter
• Battery Tester or Multi-Meter
• Allen Wrenches
• Wire Cutters

   You’ll also want to have some extra basic equipment accessories such as: Read more »

   I don’t know who originally wrote this but I’ve seen it on a few forums and Blogs. If you’re the author, leave a comment and I’ll give you credit. It’s just so funny I had to post it on Live Musician Central.

How To Request A Song From The Band…

When requesting a song from the band, just say “play …. my song!” We have chips implanted in our heads with an unlimited database of the favorite tunes of every patron who ever walked into a bar and all songs ever recorded so feel free to be vague, we love the challenge.If we say we really don’t remember that tune you want, we’re only kidding. Bands do know every song ever recorded, so keep humming. Hum harder if need be… it helps jog the memory, or just repeat your request over and over again.

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   One of the most common problems I’ve seen playing in bands is the fact that bands don’t change their set lists often enough. Having a good set list and maintaining it is essential stagecraft. There are two common problems that arise with set lists. First, a band will learn 40 songs and then play them for the next 5 years without ever changing them out with new material. Second, bands will play the same songs in the exact same order every night for 5 years. The reason I say 5 years is because that’s the typical life of a band, especially when you don’t change up your set list. So how do you avoid these pitfalls?

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   As a musician have you ever heard the saying “Playing The Song Instead Of The Instrument”? I was having a discussion with some fellow musicians the other day and we were discussing the problem of musicians overplaying during a song. It’s something that I guarantee you’ll have to deal with at some point if you’re playing in a band.

   Let’s define what overplaying is: Overplaying is when you play too much to suit the song. Let’s use the drums as an example. A blatant example of overplaying would be changing the beat deliberately to 5/4 without the rest of the band, just for a measure or two to show you can do it. Blatant overplaying would also be putting a drum break in every bit of extra space in a song. Read more »

   I’ve been playing in bands for 27 years now and have been to lots of band practices and rehearsals. Today I’m going to talk a bit about how your band sets up for practice and gigs. I want you to think about how your band sets up during a standard band practice. I’ll bet you that you stand in some kind of circle or oval facing each other with all the amplifiers and speakers pointing at you. That’s really the standard setup for a regular band practice.

   Now think of your setup at your gigs and live shows. I’ll bet your backs are to the drummer and all your speakers and amplifiers are pointing forward. Read more »

   I’m always checking out new and interesting products to help make my life in a band easier. I was looking at some guitar tablature books and stumbled onto the Gig Guide series published by Hal Leonard. The Gig Guide series is designed to provide musicians with a blueprint for building bands.

   What Hal Leonard has done in the Gig Guide series is to pick a musical genre, say Classic Rock, and compile a 12-song setlist. It’s the same thing I’ve done for you with the Live Musician Central Set List series. You get several tools to use to learn the songs with the Hal Leonard Gig Guide series. Along with the list of songs are a Lead Sheet with the basic essential parts you’ll need to know to play the songs. This could be as simple as chords and melody. You also get a demo CD with a full band playing the song so you can hear how you should sound. Read more »

   I always figured if I practiced long and hard enough that I would become a good enough musician that my skills would guarantee a successful show every time I played. So I practiced and I became a good musician but I found that a good show doesn’t just depend on musical skill. A good show is a collective effort between several different factors.

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