Live Musician Central

Author: Live Musician Central

  • Should You Stay In The Band If You’re “Forcing It”?

    Nobody "Forcing It" here!
    Nobody "Forcing It" here!

       There comes a point in every musician’s life when playing in a live band becomes a grind. Things start to lose their newness after awhile and the band just doesn’t seem like much fun anymore. You start to notice that learning new songs isn’t much fun anymore and the practices become a drag and a burden. Even having to pack all your equipment up and head to the gig seems like more work than it’s worth. It’s at that point that you may ask yourself “should I quit this band?”.

       As I’ve said before, playing in a live band is work more often than playing. Sometimes the constant work that goes into making your live band be the best it can be gets to be a real drag. It’s easy to get caught up in hating the non-playing aspect of being in a live band. But, you keep working and grinding it out because of the the feeling of stepping out in front of a live audience which is giving you a lot of love for your great effort.    (more…)

  • Sunday Funnies – Funny Street Musicians in New York City

       There’s some funny moments in this video clip. Enough to make me watch the whole thing anyway which is saying something for a 9-minute clip!         (more…)

  • Using Backing Tracks In Your Live Band

    This 15 year old laptop runs our keyboard sequencer.
    This 15 year old laptop runs our keyboard sequencer.

       I’ve played in a lot of different types of live bands over the years. I’ve played solo with just my guitar, as a duo, as a trio all the way up to playing in a full on 40 piece Big Band. As you know, it’s great to have more musician’s to create more of a musical soundscape but it also comes with a lot more logistical problems.

       Right now I’m playing in a 4-piece band that has bass, drums, guitar and keyboards. We are able to cover a lot of music with this lineup. We also do a lot of songs that would take many times more musicians to pull off live by using a computer sequencer to play the extra parts on a synthesizer module. This gives us the ability to cover tunes that there would be no way to do live with just a 4-piece band. It solves a lot of the problems associated with using a lot of musicians in the band.

       We are able to play songs by Nine Inch Nails, Santana, Sting and many other artists that use large groups of musicians or layers of synthesizers to create their music. It really helps us to flesh out our live sound by using these sequenced backing tracks. Having this tool at our disposal has helped to set us apart from the local bands that don’t use a sequencer live.      (more…)

  • Playing For Change -“Stand By Me” – Song Around The World

       Playing for change is the ultimate in Live Band experiences! This video was compiled from performances by musicians around the world. They had never met and yet they created this beautiful version of “Stand By Me”. I have always loved the idea of music as the One World Language and this production goes a long way toward proving that point. I wholeheartedly support and applaud this tremendous effort and I hope this project brings us all a vision of a united world.

       There truly is peace in music and the Playing For Change project is a great example of peaceful creation. Check out the entire project at http://playingforchange.com

    Playing For Change Explained

    Playing For Change – Stand By Me – Song Around The World

  • Weekend Gig Report – In Stereo At Canyon Inn, July 24-25, 2009

    In Stereo - Laying Down The Groove
    In Stereo – Laying Down The Groove

       My live band In Stereo played this past weekend at the Canyon Inn in Salt Lake City, Utah. Our drummer, Ted Townsend was back playing with us after a long battle with a staff infection in his ankle. If you remember, he got sick in April right before a gig. Ted had a rough time recovering but he’s one of the toughest people I’ve met and he’s back behind the drumset again.

       Naturally after that long of a layoff you worry about a players ability to hold up under the strain of two consecutive 4-hour nights of playing. Especially when it’s the drummer because drumming takes a lot of stamina. We did get together to practice a couple nights before the gig and Ted was feeling good so we went ahead and played the Canyon Inn.      (more…)

  • Sunday Funnies – United Breaks Guitars

       This video was made about a man’s true experience with United Airlines. Dave Carroll’s $3500 Taylor guitar was broken by baggage handlers at United Airlines. They never denied that this happened but refused to pay for the broken instrument. So, to get back at the airline Dave vowed to write and produce 3 songs about his experience and then film videos for each to be posted online.

       This is the first of those three songs, it’s really funny and I hope you enjoy it. If you’re a guitarist and own a high end guitar, then I’m sure you can feel the guys pain.     (more…)

  • Expand Your Vocal Chops By Cross-Training Your Voice

    Improve Your Lead Vocals With Cross-Training
    Improve Your Lead Vocals With Cross-Training

       Singing is one of the most basic and essential skills in any live band. If you play an instrument, having the ability to sing will give you the multiple skills to make you a more valuable member of the band. It’s really in your own best interest to develop your singing skills as much as possible

       As you know, singing is controlled by the muscles in your throat and the muscles that control your breathing. Any athlete knows that training the correct muscles will give you stamina and greater power. This is also true with your voice. As you train these muscles you’ll be able to sing better, longer and with more vocal range.

       Another truth that any athlete knows is that cross-training muscles is an excellent way to increase those muscles abilities. The same is true with singing. If you are a lead singer and all you ever do is sing in the upper ranges of your voice you’ve probably noticed that you struggle singing parts that are in the lower ranges of your voice. The same is true if you only sing in the low range of your voice. You’ll struggle when you go to hit those high notes. That’s where the concept of cross-training your voice comes in.     (more…)

  • Save Money With Price Drops On EMG Pickups

    EMG Active Pickups
    EMG Active Pickups

       Over the years I’ve tried a lot of different pickups in my guitars. It seems like there’s a pickup made for every kind of music under the sun. So if your live band plays country or heavy metal, there’s a guitar pickup that’s perfect for your instrument.

       One of the best heavy metal pickups ever made is the EMG 81 active humbucker pickup. What makes the EMG pickups so unique is their use of a powered onboard pre-amp that boosts the signal of the active pickup. This gives them a very hot output which is perfect for pushing amplifiers into heavy distortion and extreme sustain. Even with this high output, they are extremely low noise.     (more…)

  • Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie – Hot House (Live Video)

       There are some players who make an instrument speak in ways that are so beautiful and so unique that it just can’t be described with words. Charlie Parker is one of those special players that come along only once in a great while. He was simply an amazing Jazz saxophone player who excelled when playing with any live band.

       I haven’t seen a lot of video of Charlie Parker playing even though I’ve heard a lot of his recordings. I found this video on YouTube and was impressed with not only the quality of the video but with how well the band is playing. Charlie nails it as does the great trumpet player Dizzie Gillespie. I’m not sure who that is on bass and drums but they are also playing extremely well. This is from a 1952 television broadcast.       (more…)

  • An Easy Tip On Using A Metronome To Improve Your Tempo

    Seiko DM70 Pocket Metronome
    Seiko DM70 Pocket Metronome

       One of the biggest problems I’ve seen in my years of playing in a live band is the ability to keep a solid, steady tempo. If your band is speeding up and slowing down all the time, it’s darn near impossible to keep a danceable groove going. It’s primarily the responsibility of the drummer, bass player and rhythm guitarist to keep the tempo but everyone benefits when the entire band can hold a solid tempo.

       The best way I’ve found to practice keeping a solid tempo is using a metronome. The obvious way to practice is to set the metronome to a tempo that you want to work on and then practice along with it. This is a very basic way to use the metronome but it’s not the best way I’ve found to use it for improving your ability to hold a tempo.

    (more…)