2/6/12

Week In Music

Sometimes you just want to relax. I have an entire playlist called "Relax" for just those moments. Hey, maybe this could even be some good music to put on to set the mood for a romantic Valentine's Day candle lit dinner.

You can't get much smoother than Victor Wooten. If you want a good relaxing, smooth sound, check out these tunes:

Ari's Eyes

The Vision

The Lesson

Speaking of Victor Wooten, "Flight Of The Cosmic Hippo" from Béla Fleck and the Flecktones is a good to add to this list.

From Australian jazz fusion guitarist Frank Gambale:

Serenity

Spike's Song

Alone Together

Even Steve Vai has a nice song that belongs here.

I'm Becoming

And for my new discovery of the week: Afro Celt Sound System. It's a mix of modern dance music and traditional Celtic and West African music. Really amazing sounds! Be sure to add some of this music to your list.

Eistigh Liomas Sealad

Saor / News From Nowh

1/18/12

The Lead Guitarist

I have had conversations with folks interested in assuming a lead guitar role. Typically, these are young guitarists who are currently rhythm electric or acoustic players. More times than not, these young or inexperienced players don’t have a clear view of what a lead guitar player’s role actually is. Before I go on, know that each band is a little different. Lead guitar roles vary as much as band personalities themselves. For that reason, I'm going to be fairly general in my characterization of the lead guitar player.

The first misconception is that being a lead guitarist = soloing. Sure, it’s one of the perks, but lead guitar is not just about solos. In fact, in most band situations, you are playing solos a very small percentage of the time. You may play several songs in a set with no solos whatsoever. The solos you do play in your average cover band normally take up 4-12 measures of a song, with 16 or more being a rare exception.

A second common myth is the lead guitarist has somehow “graduated” from rhythm. No, no, no. The fact is you are now the lead rhythm. Whether you are in a three, four, or five piece rock band, you need to be on top of your game and take your rhythmic abilities to higher levels. Again, it depends on your band situation, but you may find yourself carrying the bulk of the rhythm duties. A typical scenario is a band whose singer is also the guitarist. They might hire a lead guitarist to come in and handle the bulk of the guitar work so the lead singer can focus more on singing while just strumming along.

For the purposes of this article, let us assume the “typical” band is a four piece cover band consisting of drums, bass, and two electric guitars with one of those guitarists being the lead singer. This is not a scientific measurement, but I heard a guitar player in a seminar several years back tell us how our duties are portioned out as lead guitarist: 75% rhythm, 20% “coloring”, and 5% soloing. I tend to think it can get a little more complex than that, but I think that’s a good estimation in most situations. Here’s how that might look:

Rhythm – So if you think that moving up the band ladder to “lead guitarist” is a promotion that allows you to just solo and wail all the time, think again. You want to be a lead guitarist? Start by putting your rhythm guitar skills on steroids! While the rhythm guitarist lays down a nice bed of sound with big, full chords, you rely on chord embellishments and complimenting rhythmic articulations to make for a great two-guitar combo. You don’t ever play the exact same thing as the other guitarist. It will just end up sounding like one loud guitar. Sure, there are things that fall to the sound guy like panning and playing with EQs and levels, but it’s up to you to make it easier on the tech. Sounding good starts with you! The two guitarists also need to work together on having complimentary tones and effect settings.

Coloring – This refers to things like the hook line for a song (i.e. the main riff of “Crazy Train”). It also involves melodic fills and “hot licks” between lyrics or verses, which in that case, you want to make sure you and the bass player don’t clash. Communication is crucial with your bass player as he or she is the most important stringed instrument in the band! Sometimes there’s a bass fill in those situations and you need to stay out of the way. Decide who “colors” where.

Soloing – Finally, the part of being lead that appeals to so many. Audiences love it and it’s some of the most fun you have as a musician, but the young guys tend to put too much into this part too soon and consequently neglect very important rhythmic skills. I’m not saying you should not focus a lot of energy here, just be careful not to make it everything. I can tell you, there is nothing more annoying than a guitarist who tries to solo everywhere and ends up getting all up in the singer’s business simply because they don't know how to do anything other than "solo". That’s a sure way to find yourself out of work. But, when your time comes, hard work needs to go into those few bars of guitar bliss. This is where hours of practicing scales, modes, legato & picking techniques, memorizing the entire fretboard, and whatever else you can think of really pays off. A good solo makes musical sense (most of the time), it is memorable, it is melodic, it is creative. It doesn’t have to be overly complex, it just has to rock. Being in the correct key and having a guitar that is in tune helps, too!

The lead role varies from band to band, but it is filled with many tall orders no matter the situation. Having a good rhythm guitarist can really free you up to go nuts, but that doesn't mean your workload is 100% noodling in any way you please. A guitar player who only solos is a very useless guitarist. You might think you are cut out for the lead guitar spot because you go into Guitar Center and show off your amazing tapping and sweeping skills while pretending to buy a guitar, but if you don't know what a dominant 9th is or you have a blank stare on your face when you hear the phrase "superimposed rhythm", you might wanna practice more. Shredding skills are indeed a part of being a great lead guitarist, but learn to hang back and take on a supporting role as well.

1/5/12

New Year's Resolution: Making A Schedule

So you have a goal of getting better at the guitar, but have you made a solid plan? Have you made a specific New Year's resolution? Of those who haven't, experts tell us, 0-4% are successful at the 6 month mark. Out of those who make specific resolutions, 40-46% succeed. Sure, that's slightly less than half, but wow, what a difference a simple declaration can make!

OK, have that specific statement yet? Now what? Make a schedule. I've discussed time management before, but let's get a little more specific. Sure, most of us musicians are not administratively gifted in the least. Good news: You don't have to be. That's why we hire people like agents, managers, accountants, and attorneys. However, there is something us left-brain impaired musicians need to do to become stronger on that half of our brain and it begins with keeping a strict schedule of our playing time. Do you have a practice schedule? A writing schedule? An intentionally set aside time to be creative? If the answer is no, that needs to change. Yes, this involves calenders, setting appointments, and most importantly keeping those appointments. An artist might argue that you can't schedule creativity, it just has to happen. Load of crap. An artist might argue that you should not work on your weaknesses, only your strengths. I agree. An artist might argue that scheduling is an administrative task and is clearly a weakness. Maybe, but this is a weakness that if you improve upon, will have a direct impact on your musical abilities.

*sidenote* (If you are wanting to be in “the biz” and be an entrepreneurial musician, there's no question that you need to suck it up and exercise your left brain to the point of being your own secretary, but that is a post for another day. For now, let's focus on you the musician, not you the businessman.)

If you are wanting to reach new heights in your playing and get off your plateau, making a schedule for yourself is absolutely paramount. Sticking to that schedule is equally crucial. I have notebooks and journals with practice schedules scribbled in them from when I would have a day with nothing to do in the summer months of my teaching career. Having 16 hours available to practice is a little more overwhelming than only having an hour, so I would have to divide the hours out on paper. No, I wouldn't spend 16 hours practicing, but I would spend 8-12 of those available hours practicing and writing. I found that if I did not physically write out a schedule, my mind would wander all over the place and I would never get anything done. One of my schedules from a Friday in 2005 looks like this:

12:00 – Warm up (Simple exercises to stretch and get blood flowing)

12:15 – Picking exercises & riffs (I was wanting to develop my picking technique at that time)

2:00 – Jam track / Riff writing (I would improv to a track concentrating on the picking thing and use that time to come up with a new riff with said technique)

5:00-9:00 – Go over set (This was about a 30 song set for a gig the next night)

Simple, but effective. I wrote out this schedule earlier that morning. Some other schedules were much more detailed and specific, whereas some were just a few words. When I started doing this regularly, it changed my playing life!

Now, the average guitarist isn't spending 9 hours practicing. You might have a job/family already on the schedule! You can still employ this technique. In fact, I dare say it's more important for people like you to make a schedule. You say you don't have time to practice, but if you sit down with a pen and your day timer, you will find that you most certainly do. It might be an hour here, a half hour there, but it's there alright. Your schedule might look like this:

Monday: 8-9pm – Work on chords

Wednesday: 6:45-7am – Picking exercises

Saturday: 9-noon – Work on that song you've always wanted to learn

Try making a schedule, but don't simply block out time. State what you are going to do with that time. That's the key. Start really simple and go one day at a time. A tangible schedule with specific goals is so much better than just a reserved time slot.

Obviously, I don't know your circumstances and I don't know how you like to schedule things. Everyone is different, so you have to find what works best for you. A fellow student at Berklee asked Steve Vai (who had a huge rock-star career as a young parent) in a chat session we had, “How do you find time to play if you have a wife and kids?” Steve went on about what it was like being a touring rock star with a wife and a new baby, and told of how later on whenever one of his sons would call him, he dropped everything he was doing. After telling us that family always comes first no matter what, he said, “You just have to figure out how to do it all!”