News, Reviews, and 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

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

   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

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

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…)
Sunday Funnies – Mother Of All Funk Chords

   Thanks to my good friend Frank for cluing me into this amazing YouTube video. This clip is called “Mother Of All Funk Chords” and is a compilation and remix of a bunch of music related video clips on YouTube. The video editing is genius and it’s a really fun clip to watch.

   According to the video’s creator, kutiman, what you see is what you hear. So kutiman has quite good musical sense as well as great video editing skills.

   I hope you enjoy The Mother Of All Funk Chords (the E9 Chord).      (more…)
Weekend Set List For Your Live Band To Play – Classic Rock 2

   For this weeks live band setlist I’m bringing you the second of our classic rock set lists. Classic rock is one of the most popular styles of music for live bands to play. There are tons of gigs available out there for classic rock bands.

   The songs in this set are compiled from the top 200 classic rock songs of all time. These songs are guaranteed to get people up out of their seats and out to the dance floor. Even if you don’t learn these songs to play in your band you should have them on your portable music player to play during band breaks. That way you can keep the crowd in the club and rockin’ while you get yourself a drink.

   I feature songs from Amazon.com MP3 download service since they’re less expensive than iTunes and they sound better. These MP3’s are ripped at 256Kbps so they sound excellent. They are also DRM free so you can put them on multiple music players. So get downloading today!!
Being A Musician Playing In Multiple Bands

Matt Rushton – Lead Guitarist

I’ve been playing in live bands since I was 15 years old and in that time I’ve been a member of many different types of bands. I’ve been in cover bands, original bands, wedding bands, jazz bands, country bands, rock bands and the occasional church group. I’ve been in some of these groups simultaneously and I’ve had some interesting times juggling multiple bands.

There are a few different reasons I like to play in multiple bands. I know a lot of great musicians and I like to play music with all of them. Some of the musicians I know are more skilled at different types of music than others. So I spend time playing with different groups of musicians and I get to play different styles of music with different lineups of musicians. I personally like to play a lot of different types of music so playing in multiple groups allows me to play more varied music styles. (more…)