Author: Live Musician Central
-
Band Members Must Have Common Goals
Matt and Tom Have A Goal Of Playing As Many Gigs As Possible One of the biggest challenges I’ve faced in my live band is getting a group of musicians together that all share the same goals. There are a lot of musicians out there but not all of them want to play in bars. Some musicians just want to jam and don’t want to play any live gigs at all, ever. If your band is going to succeed you really need to have common goals.
The first thing you need to discuss before you even decide on what type of songs you want to play is where and when you will play gigs. This will determine your song selection as well as whether or not the individual band members are willing to commit to certain types of gigs. Too many bands dive right into learning songs which is always the first goal of any band. Let’s talk about that first goal of learning songs for minute. (more…)
-
So Your Band Sounds Like A Train Wreck
In Stereo Started Out Sounding Like A Train Wreck So you’ve searched for musicians, finally found a the perfect band lineup, and you’ve decided what type of music you want to play with your live band. You’ve had a few band practices but your new live band sounds like a train wreck. This is a common problem and believe it or not, can be very simple to solve.
The first question you have to answer is, what’s causing your band to sound like a train wreck. The most common problems I’ve seen in new bands are centered around the ability to play to a beat and individual player preparation. (more…)
-
Sunday Funnies – Bikini Girls And Spectacles
For today’s Sunday Funnies I’m posting up a pretty funny ad for Specsavers. It’s relevant to performing musicians because let’s face it, you have to look cool when you’re up onstage. There’s nothing that can overcome a dorky look, so be careful how you dress! (more…)
-
Keep Your Show Moving And Minimize Dead Air
Matt, Ted and Tom Keep The Show Moving I’ve played in a lot of different live bands over the years and one of the biggest challenges I’ve faced is keeping the show moving along at nice pace. What I mean is minimizing space between songs, also known as Dead Air. Dead air happens between songs and can be a serious show killer. If you aren’t engaging your crowd, you’re losing them and that’s a bad thing.
There are some key ways to minimize dead air between songs. The most important is to have a well organized, printed set list for every person in the band. When you plan your setlist it’s a good idea to group songs into sets of 3 that are easy to transition from song to song. When setting up a group of 3 songs you can group them by instrument changes, tunings, singer rotation or effect settings. After awhile, your band will remember what songs are grouped together in three’s and be able to transition quickly between those songs. This makes it easy to tweak your set list on the fly and still maintain some continuity by keeping the 3-song sets together. (more…)
-
Get Your Music Distributed On iTunes And Amazon.mp3
Today it’s easier than ever to get your own original music recorded either at home or at a professional studio. Once you have the perfect recording of your original song it’s easier than ever to sell your music to your fans. The beauty of current online music distribution channels such as iTunes or Amazon.mp3 service is that anyone can get their music sold through those channels. Today I’m going to tell you about a very easy way to get your music distributed through iTunes, Amazon.mp3, eMusic and many other major online music distributors. (more…)
-
Sunday Funnies – Annoying Orange Harasses Leprechaun
I figured since it was almost St. Patricks day that we ought to have a little St. Patty’s day humor. Today I’m posting up a video of the Annoying Orange, who is truly annoying, giving a Leprechaun a seriously hard time. I hope you all have a great St. Patricks day! (more…)
-
How To Tune Your Own Piano
Tune Your Own Piano I’m a pianist as well as a guitarist and I have an old Kranich and Bach baby Grand Piano. I’ve had my piano tuned professionally only once since I’ve had it and naturally, over time it has gone out of tune. So I decided to tackle the job myself to see how well I could tune my own piano. It wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be and the results have been very good. (more…)
-
Having A Vocal Only Rehearsal With Your Band
The Eagles Sing Harmony Live One of the most neglected aspects I’ve seen with live bands over the years is the backing vocals. I’ve seen plenty of bands that have an excellent lead singer or even multiple lead singers that nail the lead vocals every time. But they are severely lacking in the backing vocals. Too many bands just don’t take the time to learn and then fix problems with their backing vocals.
I’ve written many times on Live Musician Central that the ability to sing is crucial to your skills as a band musician. It’s up to you as an individual player to take ownership of singing backup vocals in your band. Along with your regular, personal practice on your instrument you need to take the time to practice your backing vocals. I often practice my singing while I’m driving as it’s something I can do without my hands. Make sure you take the time to learn your individual backing vocal part before you have a band rehearsal. (more…)
-
Gig Report – Bonne Nuit Live Online Concert March 6, 2010
Matt and Erik Rushton Play Guitar In Bonne Nuit I played a gig in the live band I’ve started with my 3 oldest sons this past weekend. The name of the band is Bonne Nuit and we play a lot of current hit music. The band is a four-piece comprised of two guitars, bass guitar and drums. We are playing some seriously synthesizer based songs using only guitars. We cover the Black Eyed Peas, Metric and Gary Numan and we play these songs on our guitars.
We are able to take the main synthesizer parts and using my prowess as a patch programmer on my guitar effects units we are able to capture the overall feel of the songs with guitars. I use my trusty Fender Cyber-Twin SE amplifier and Erik uses my Digitech 2120 guitar effect rack. Between these two excellent guitar units we can create enough synthesizer type sounds to really flesh out the songs and make them work using guitars. (more…)