How many times have you wished you could be better at your instrument? Or wished you could be a better singer? We all know that the best way to improve is to practice our craft. It’s the biggest no-brainer there is about being a musician. To get better, one has to practice. I’ve read interviews with the worlds elite musicians and they’re quoted all the time saying things like “I practiced 8 hours a day.” or “I even practice my guitar on the toilet.” That’s all good and fine but how many of us really have that kind of time, or actually want to practice on the toilet? Not me, but I have found an excellent bunch of ways to practice that really work and won’t take all your time.
Today we have our fourth set list in our series of Live Musician Central Dance Set Lists. This list is Live Musician Central Dance Set List 4. Now that we have four complete dance set lists, you have enough material to play an entire night at a club. An average set in a club is 45 minutes long and you will usually play 4 sets in a night with a 15 minute break every hour. If you stick with the songs in the Live Musician Central Dance Set Lists you will keep the people dancing all night long.
When I first started playing in bands I was very young, 14 years old actually. All the rest of the guys were about 3 years older than me. I knew nothing about playing live rock-n-roll and was more than willing to have the older guys show me the ropes. The leader in my first band was the Bass player. He was a great leader and we never felt like we had a dictator at the helm. That band was such a great experience that I’m still playing today because of it.
David Lee Roth and Eddie Van Halen Personality Conflict in Action
If you’ve played in bands for any length of time at all I’m sure you’re well aware of personality conflicts. A lot of very famous and huge acts have fallen apart citing personality differences or conflicts as the reason the band fell apart. Chris Cornell of of the bands Soundgarden and Audioslave cited “Personality Differences” as a major reason for leaving both of those bands. Another famous example is Van Halen, Eddie has cited several times that the reason somebody has left the band was “Personality Differences”. I’ve seen interviews with Eddie Van Halen and David Lee Roth where it looked like it was all Eddie could do to keep from strangling Roth.
It’s something that you’ll never be immune to in a band. Part of the evolution of a band is the emergence of personality conflicts. When you start a band, everyone is on their best behavior. The members are nice and respectful to each other. You all share a common vision and in the beginning you’re focused on the same things. It usually doesn’t take long though for the differences of opinion to surface. The nastiness can come out as soon as you start trying to decide on a song list. It can get even nastier when you start trying to decide on a band name. Even deciding which harmonies each member is going to sing can bring out huge clashes between band members. (more…)
One thing that you will have to deal with constantly as a live musician is obnoxious audience members. It seems like no matter how good you are you still have jerks in the crowd. There’s a funny scene in the Jack Black movie “Tenacious D And The Pick Of Destiny” where he’s training to play his first gig. He’s all decked out in a football helmet and his guitar. They’ve set up chairs with paper plates attached to them as peoples heads. Each plate has a mean face drawn on it to simulate an angry crowd. As Jack prepares to play his song, Kyle Gass plays heckles from a cassette tape. They say things like “Boooo!” and “Play something douche bag!!”. Needless to say this flusters Jack as he prepares to play. As he starts to play, beer bottles smash against his helmet. It’s hilarious and frightening in it’s honesty. (more…)
Here at Live Musician Central we’re just trying to make things easier for your band. Here’s the 2nd of our instant set lists for your band to learn – Live Musician Central Dance Set 2
It’s tough finding sure hits for your live band to play. You want songs that are going to fill the floor every time you play them. I’ve been playing the Billy Idol version of Mony Mony since 1985 and it’s STILL filling the floor when my band plays it. Am I sick of the song? Yes I am. Am I sick of seeing a crowd of people dancing and yelling and having a great time watching me play the song. No I’m not.
I’ve been playing in bands for 27 years but I still remember how great it was starting out playing in a band. I remember when it put me on top of the world just to make it from the start to the finish of a song together as a band. We’d be stoked and play the song over and over loving every minute of it. We learned the songs just for the joy of playing them together. After we had some songs down then naturally we wanted to play some gigs. So we played a few school assemblies and did a few songs and had some great success. Once you’ve played in front of an audience then everything else becomes a quest to get back onstage in front of a crowd. This is where the whole process of learning songs and preparing for the show starts to become work. (more…)
