It’s Christmas time again for 2009 and I’d like to wish everyone who’s been reading Live Musician Central a very merry Christmas. To celebrate, I’m posting the video to one of my favorite Christmas songs, titled “Do They Know It’s Christmas?”. This song was released in 1984 and was written by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure. The song featured many of the top Irish and British musicians of the decade and was released to raise money to help provide relief to those ravaged by the famine in Ethiopia. (more…)
Over the years I’ve played several different instruments in various live bands. In fact, the first bar band I played in, I was playing the bass guitar. I really love to play the bass guitar and it’s one instrument that truly came naturally to me. Today I’m going to tell you about the strings I use on my bass guitar.
If you’ve read my post about Dean Markley Blue Steel Strings for electric guitar then I’m sure you won’t be surprised at all when I tell you that I prefer Dean Markley Blue Steel Strings for my bass guitar as well. In case you didn’t know, Dean Markley Blue Steel strings are cryogenically treated by dipping them in -320 degree liquid nitrogen. They are then packaged and sealed in their box ready for you to purchase. (more…)
I got a good laugh out of this Christmas version of the Queen classic, Bohemian Rhapsody. Whoever is playing and singing on it is actually quite skilled and the song is mixed nicely as well. Whoever N2OBand is on YouTube, good Job! I hope you enjoy another great Christmas Sunday Funnies. (more…)
Here’s another excellent Dance set list for your live band to download and use. The songs on this setlist are compiled from the Mobile Beat Top 200 Dance Songs of all time and they are proven to fill the floor with people every time they’re played. You can either use these songs for your band to learn them and play live or you can simply have them on your portable MP3 player to use during band breaks.
My band likes to have a good mix of songs available on the MP3 player for break music because we’re able to fill some song requests while we’re taking a break. The songs on the Live Musician Central set lists are requested regularly and having them available to play during breaks has been a great way to keep the audience happy and dancing all night long.
These songs are available for download from Amazon.com MP3 service. Amazon’s MP3’s are encoded at an excellent 256kbps rate so the sound is very good. They are also DRM free so you can use them on multiple MP3 players. They work with any MP3 player including iPhones and iPods. So get downloading and learn yourself an entire set of excellent dance music!
Included Songs:You Sexy Thing – Hot Chocolate
Footloose – Kenny Loggins
Wild Thing – Tone-Loc
Fight For Your Right (To Party) – Beastie Boys
Sexual Healing – Marvin Gaye
Faithfully – Journey
Tainted Love – Soft Cell
Beat It – Michael Jackson
Get Down On It – Kool & The Gang
Proud Mary – Creedence Clearwater Revival
I Gotta Feeling – Black Eyed Peas
One of the most important things to have when you play in a live band is places to play. Without having a club or venue to play in we couldn’t really call our band a “live band”. It would just be a band that gets together to play for each other and although that’s fun for a while, the real fun is playing in front of an audience at a venue.
I’m sure you know there is a lot of competition between bands to get into the places that feature live music. Even if you have a regular gig you can rest assured that there’s another band ready to step in and take that gig if your band can’t fulfill it. Most clubs have several bands on a regular rotation and there are many other bands trying to get their foot in the door and get booked too. Today I’m going to talk about a very simple way to set your band apart from the other bands that are playing in the same clubs as you. (more…)
Since it’s the season of giving (and of using the last of my live band earnings for tax write-off purposes) I was looking for gifts for live musicians and came across this sweet deal on a Live Sound Accessories Pack. I don’t know about you, but I seem to go through a microphone stand every year. I also hate hauling equipment in and out of the gig. I also always seem to play in some venues where I struggle to get the speakers aimed for the best sound projection.
Well, this live sound accessories pack addresses all three problems for an incredibly low price. This pack includes two ProLine Boom Microphone Stands, two ProLine Speaker Stands, one Speaker Stand Bag and one Rock N Roller R2 Micro Cart! All for the amazingly low price of $149. You just can’t beat that price for such a sweet live sound accessories pack. (more…)
This has long been one of my live band’s favorite Christmas songs. It seems like every year at band practice somebody will bust out singing a version of “Ding Fries Are Done” which is sung to the tune of Carol Of The Bells. If you’ve ever worked in fast food then I’m sure you’ll get a kick out of this fast food Christmas classic! (more…)
Last week I posted up our first Christmas Song set list called Christmas Dance Songs 1 for you to use with your live band. You can either use these set lists as a whole and learn every song on them with your live band or you can pick and choose songs to learn. It’s also a great idea to have all of the songs listed on the set lists loaded on your portable music player so you can have them with you at your gigs. The reason you want to have them with you is so you can fill requests during your band breaks.
It’s not always possible to learn every song on the setlist simply because you band’s lineup may not be able to cover some of the songs on the list. That’s another great reason to have these songs with you at gigs loaded on your portable player. You’ll be able to play some songs during band breaks that your band normally wouldn’t be able to play. That’s a really easy way to keep the audience happy and dancing all night long.
You can download these songs from Amazon.com MP3 download service which gives you several advantages over iTunes. The MP3’s are all encoded at 256kbps which is an excellent quality for MP3’s. You also won’t need any special software to download the songs or load them on your portable music player. All the songs are fully compatible with any MP3 player including iPods and iPhones. So get downloading these Christmas dance songs and start partying!
Included Songs:Christmas Tree – Lady GaGa
Christmas Is The Time To Say I Love You – SR-71
Last Christmas – Wham
Back Door Santa – B.B. King
Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) – U2
Christmas In Hollis – Run DMC
Blue Christmas – Elvis Presley
Sleigh Ride – TLC
Little Drummer Boy – Joan Jett & The Blackhearts
Everybody Loves Christmas – Eddie Money
Merry Christmas (I Don’t Want To Fight Tonight) – Ramones
The current economic conditions have been especially tough on live bands. Gigs just seem to be drying up and disappearing altogether. There is very fierce competition between bands to get the gigs that are still available. Sadly, this has led to many bands lowering their gig rates simply to get any bookings at all. So what should you do when it becomes a matter of money that is the final deal breaker between you and another band getting a gig?
That’s a very tricky question to answer because lowering your rates will not only hurt your band, but it will hurt every band that plays at the club you lower your rates to play in. The biggest problem with lowering your bands going rate is that the new, lower rate will become the accepted pay standard for your band every time you play in that club. The club owner can then use your lower rates as leverage against other bands to get them to drop their prices as well. So as you can see, it hurts all of your local bands if you undercut everyone in pricing just to get a gig. (more…)
A while ago I wrote a review on the Line 6 Toneport KB37 Audio Interface and MIDI Controller. I really love this little audio interface and it’s been an invaluable tool for my music recordings. I have a larger setup in my main studio but the KB37 goes with me when I need to work on my recordings while on the road. That being said, I have to admit that I use the KB37 in my big studio a lot of the time because it’s so simple to use.
When I got my KB37 it was called a Toneport and came with basic Line 6 amp simulation software. I had to purchase Reason 4.o and Sony Acid separately to get my portable recording setup running with the KB37. That added up to quite a few dollars to get a decent mobile audio workstation going. (more…)
