Tips on Flyer

A flyer is one of the most basic tools that a band has for promoting shows and improving name recognition. For many bands, flyers are the only reliable way to promote, so it's worth the time to design and print a really high quality flyer. Here are a few tips for making a great flyer that can get more people to your band's shows.

1. Use the odd. By putting weird pictures and words in your flyer, you can attract attention; remember that people will see your flyer in passing, and that they won't necessarily stop to read it unless something on the flyer gives them a good reason to. Draw peoples' attention with something interesting, and the easiest way to find interesting is to find he weirdest thing you can. Some bands use shocking images on their flyers. If you're in a metal band and that's your audience, it's fine, just make sure you're not going to offend anyone that can call off your gig (like the owner of a venue).

2. If your band is touring, you only have to design one flyer. Leave a large blank section at the bottom of the flyer with WHEN and WHERE written in black, then fill these areas in when you've got a show booked and send them out to the venues and bands that you're playing with. If you can put a few around town before you play, that's even better. Using a single flyer lets you order a ton of high quality prints at a fairly low price.

3. Get your flyers professionally printed. They'll be way more likely to catch the eye than cheap, grayscale printed flyers, and if you order enough online you can get them for a pretty low price. They don't have to be the huge flyers, but getting a few glossies will help your band promote its shows and get more people to show up to the gig, which is the point of the flyer in the first place.

4. Make sure the relevant info's on the flyer. You'd be surprised at how often this is missed. Get the right info on the flyer, including other bands playing the show and the myspace or website information for every band involved (and the venue, if possible). This can be written in, in marker, it doesn't matter, it's just all got to be there. Use a weird description for your band's sound, and maybe even include a few reviews. Give people a reason to show up

Before you enter the studio

some more top tips to consider:

1. Make Sure The Mix Is Great – Mastering is not a time to make huge mix changes, it is instead accentuating what you have already done. While some engineers can perform miracles, don’t always expect you can “fix it in the mastering”. If you’ve gotten a great mix, you’ve made the mastering engineers job much easier. In addition, make sure everyone is happy with the mix before you send it up to the engineer. At your mastering session is the last place you want to be arguing about the level of the kick drum.

2. You Don’t Need To Normalize Or Get It As Loud As Possible – Keep in mind most Mastering Engineers like some head room. Even having your mix peaking 2db below zero is great. I regularly turn in mixes with peaks at -12db since that’s where I find my gain staging sounds good on the console I work on. The mastering engineer will have great gear to gain stage it as long as you go to a pro.

3. Make Sure The Bounce Is Done Properly – When bouncing your files, it is most common to do so in the WAV format. Pay attention and make sure that you are bouncing at the same sample rate you recorded at (if you recorded at 44.1 then make sure to do the bounce at 44.1) – and keep Bit Rates the same as well. Remember: do the least amount of processes to your audio as possible to prevent signal degradation. Make sure that Dithering is set to “None” and as we stated above, normalizing is not necessary. If you are using a compressor you like that really helps get the tone you want, feel free to bounce it with the compressor. However, also remember that your engineer will mostly likely have much better and higher quality gear than some of the plug-ins you’re probably using. If you are going to use compression on your bounced track (and many people choose not to) just make sure you don’t overdo it. Many people will make a compressed and uncompressed version so their mastering engineer can hear what they were going for but recreate it on better gear.

4. Come With An Open Mind – Keep in mind a mastering engineer is a objective perspective. They are giving you fresh ears and if you have listened to your mixes for a month before your date you may be used to the huge size of the bottom end but the mastering engineer may find this hugeness to be sloppy bottom end eating your mix. Thirty days later when you have fresh ears you may agree with him. Give the mastering engineer the benefit of the doubt but if you have a clear vision of what you want and they missed it, be sure to tell them!

5. Know Your Sequence Before You Arrive – You are going to be choosing song order and spacing for the song. When I worked as mastering engineer assistant I would constantly have bands making it up as they go along. You pay a high price to do this, since mastering time is not cheap and anyone with a copy of iTunes can use a playlist to test it out.

6. Email Your Engineer The Files Before You Meet With Them – If there is a problem with your mix bounce you don’t want to find out when it’s too late. Most engineers will take a quick listen to your mix earlier to make sure there are no egregiousness errors. If there are, having your bounce checked first could save you a lot of headache. Use a service like MegaUpload, Mobile Me to email your files to the engineer and you and the him/her will feel more at ease when the actual day comes around.

7. Have A Copy Online And With You – It’s much better to be overly cautious with backups. Even if you email the files to an engineer ahead of time, something can still happen to them. Make sure you take a copy with you and for extra protection, keep a copy somewhere online where you can get access to it. Most likely, you won’t need it, but with something this important, you’ll want to be sure.

8. Bring Reference Tracks – Sometimes you’ll be dealing with an engineer who understands your music and perhaps even appreciates it, but this is not always the case. For volume and style comparisons, you’ll want to bring in high quality MP3′s or WAV’s of other music you like or want to imitate so you can reference them to your own music. This will the individual mastering your record immensely and can show you how you fair with your heroes.

9. Skip The Sauce And Get Some Sleep – Just because you finished your record doesn’t mean it’s time to pop bottles yet. The night before your mastering session is not the time to get crunked up on booze. Save that for another date. Make sure you get plenty of rest so that you’ll be as fresh as possible. Listening to your music at loud volumes repeatedly and helping the engineer make the important decisions is the last thing you want to do while hungover. You have come too far at this point to screw it up, so just hold out until the mastering’s done to hit the bar.

10. Be Prepared With Money – Mastering sessions are almost always estimated beforehand, which means you can go over the time limit and over budget. Be prepared for this to happen and please be prepared to pay for services at the time they are rendered. Especially when dealing with a professional, you don’t want to look like an amateur when it comes down to business. This engineer is probably well connected and you don’t need anyone spreading the word that you are an irresponsible band or artist. Besides, it is not likely you will walk out of the session with a disc in your handle until you put down some cash. It’s time to end the cliche of musicians being cheap bums who are always broke – if you’re serious enough about your music to have it mastered, you should certainly have the money and then some.

To Drummers walk into a bar......

Some Musician Jokes for You

A young child says to his mother, "Mom, when I grow up I'd like to be a musician." She replies, "Well honey, you know you can't do both."

Q: Why do some people have an instant aversion to bass players?

A: It saves time in the long run.

Q: What's the difference between a folk guitar player and a large pizza?

A: A large pizza can feed a family of four.

Q: How can you tell when a singer is at your door?

A: The can't find the key, and they never know when to come in.

Q: How do you get a guitarist to play softer?

A: Place a sheet of music in front of him.

Q: What do you throw a drowning bass player?

A: His amp.

Q: How many vocalists does it take to screw in a bulb?

A: None. They hold the bulb over their head and the world revolves around them.

Q: How can you tell if the stage is level?

A: The drool comes out of both sides of the drummer’s mouth.

Q: What's the last thing a drummer says before he gets kicked out of a band?

A: "When do we get to play MY songs?"

Q: What do you call a musician with a college degree?

A: Night manager at McDonalds

Q: How do you know when a drummer is at your door ?

A: He speeds up when he’s knocking

Love/Hate relationship? Try Hate/Hate

Today, we are going to cover that strange, curious condition that afflicts most bands eventually. The formal medical term is "insecurity-induced musical estrangement syndrome," more commonly known as "I hate my %$#% [choose instrument player] and I'm going to beat his dumb ass disorder." How do you get along with people that drive you crazy? It's hard, but I have some ideas.Let me get this straight. One guy in your band shows up for gigs drunk. Another has developed a coke problem and, as a result, can't afford to pay his share of studio costs for your new CD. The other guy is always fighting viciously with his girlfriend and it negatively affects the band. The last guy acts like a spoiled 5-year-old, constantly complaining and implying that without him you'd be nothing. You just can't stand him. You, on the other hand, are perfectly normal and rational and can't understand why fate has determined that you must play in a band with these boneheads. Yet, when you play together, there's this THING that happens, this magic that has never been present in any other musical situation you've been involved in.

Does any of this sound familiar? It certainly mirrors some of the band experiences I've had over the years. Egos, drugs, dysfunctional relationships and plain old musical disagreements often get in the way of bands functioning at 100 percent and reaching their full potential. If your band is suffering through these kinds of problems, there are a few things you can do to try and improve your relationship with one another.No one ever said that being in a band is easy. It is really like a family, complete with all its positive and negatives. The key, though, is to remember that you don't have to love one another; you just have to get along. Rock and roll history is rife with examples of incredible bands who constantly fought with one another and are still here to talk about it. The Rolling Stones, Aerosmith, The Kinks, Guns N' Roses, the Black Crowes, Megadeth and Black Sabbath are but a few.

The first step is to locate the problem. Sometimes it can be simple: the guitarist has a drinking problem. Other times, especially when it is primarily a clash of egos, it is much more complicated. Still, you obviously cannot fix the problem until you know what its origins are. You have to do some work to figure out why people behave the way they do. That may require more than just a prima facie understanding of human psychology and behavior. If necessary, read a psychology book or talk to a counselor. Do whatever it takes to get a grip on what the real root cause of the problem is.The next step is trying to fix it. Don't ever presume that just because you were the person who recognized the existence of a problem, you may not be partially to blame for it. Even if you are the "rational and responsible" guy in the band, you may have unwittingly contributed to the genesis of this problem. As with most disagreements, there's your side, my side, and the truth lies somewhere in the middle.

There are two critical components to working through any personal disagreement. The first is communication and the second is respect. Talking through a complicated issue is very difficult. The only way for it to work is for both sides to be willing to discuss their concerns rationally. Both parties must do everything possible to avoid getting emotional and upset or to take things personally. In theory, at least, it is in everybody's interest for people to get along. Don't push people's emotional triggers simply to upset them, as that ultimately benefits no one. Do everything you can to respect your bandmates and their position, even if you disagree with them. If people believe that you are trying to invalidate their opinions, chances are that they will respond by becoming defensive and you will accomplish nothing. Remember, your goal here is to find common ground and for all sides to be conciliatory. If your discussion degenerates into a screaming, insult-laden argument—or worse, a fistfight—you may be searching for new members in the morning (and getting some stitches tonight). If necessary, find a neutral third party to help you talk through your problems. Perhaps a counselor or your A&R person or manager can help.

Once you work through the major issues, the focus must be shifted onto relationship maintenance. This means revisiting issues as they crop up and also being willing to take on new problems early, before they grow bigger. All involved must be willing to have respectful, nonjudgmental band meetings frequently to work on that old cliche of "building bridges." If you respect each other and, maybe more importantly, respect what you each bring to the band, you will do what is necessary to ensure domestic tranquility.

A Cracking App for Every Guitar Player

Tuning the guitar has always been a bit of a drag for me. I can tune by ear, but to get to perfect pitch, I need a guitar tuner. I have used pitch pipes and tuning forks, but much prefer an electronic tuner. I have had many electronic tuners over the years, all of them a lot more expensive than my new one. Unlike any other tuner I have ever owned, I will not part with it. It stays with me, welded to me, wherever I go. My new tuner will not get lost or buried away in a cupboard.

Guitar Toolkit

Better still, my new tuner is also a metronome, tuning reference and chord library. The Guitar Toolkit iPhone App is the best guitar gizmo I have ever used. It has a really funky display and is now an essential part of my guitar kit. I have found it to be an inspirational and fun practice and tuning aid. The only drawback is that I can’t plug my guitar lead into my iPhone. I have tried, but hell, on my original iPhone, I can’t even slip a regular mini jack into it, without an adapter. If you are gigging, you might want to hang on to your normal tuner, with a socket. But for practice and showing off in front of your mates, the Guitar Toolkit comes highly recommended.

Is This the New Myspace?

This new site from NME (Well, it’s incorporated into their original site) is called NME Breakthrough. The whole point behind it is for up and coming musicians to showcase their material and get new fans. Although I only signed up yesterday and have been using it for a day and a bit, I’ve already seen enough to know what this site’s all about. Is NME Breakthrough the MySpace replacement everyone’s been waiting for? Unless they give the site a overhaul, make it more user friendly and add more unique features, I doubt it. Is NME Breakthrough worth using? Most defiantly! Let me explain…

Although the site is awkward to navigate (While I thought I was signing up for an artist page I was actually signing up to the NME site. I then had to sign up for an artist page separately afterwards, and when I signed in again later I found it hard to find my artist page to edit it) having a page on the site really does allow for mass exposure. How? Well, every now and then NME features artists on their high traffic home page. And I don’t just mean the NME

Breakthrough home page, I mean the NME home page! If you’re one of their featured artists on any given week, expect a flood of profile views and (If you’re good enough) potential fans.

While NME Breakthough is pretty much a standard “showcase your music and get thousands of fans” site, the fact it has the NME name behind it allows room for growth. The main reason I’d recommend signing up to this site is due to the possibility of getting featured on their main site. If it wasn’t for that feature I’d find it hard to recommend this site as it doesn’t offer anything new. The site layouts they give to signed up musicians are quite boring, and it’s all the same stuff you’ll find on other such sites (Stream your music, upload your pictures, show your tour dates etc). While you should still sign up and hope to be a featured artist, I wouldn’t pour buckets of time into this site.

Let's Rap about Rap

Ok so a few people have highlighted we have not featured any advice for rap acts for a while. So we put together these top tips for improvised raps but these hints could also be applied more generally to any genre to music.

Tip 1. One of the best rap tips is to listen to all styles of rap including east coast, west coast, UK, European, etc. It will benefit you to have a well-rounded background of the different kinds of rhyme schemes, terminology, flow structures, and deliveries of all different styles of rap. Pay close attention to the elements of each style. Listen to music closely is probably THE single most important rap tip to become a better rapper

Tip 2. Increase your vocabulary. Come across an interesting word that you don't know the meaning to? Look it up in a dictionary! If you do not have a dictionary and thesaurus, go out and invest in them. Find out an arsenal of similar words with your thesaurus to keep your raps fresh. Study the dictionary from time to time to learn new impressive words.

Tip 3. Make lists of rhyming words. This can be a greatly beneficial rap tip for your writing process! Make lists of words that rhyme with each other, including single words and groups of words. Always add to your list whenever you discover new words that rhyme in some way. Keep the list at hand when writing raps and refer to it when you need some quick ideas. This is a great rap tip to overcome writers block too. When you see lists of rhyming words, it will spark new ideas and enable you to move forward.

Tip 4. Experiment with different ways of beginning the writing process. If you are having trouble beginning writing your rap verses, try writing the hook (chorus) FIRST. Make sure your hook portrays the main idea of the song you are writing. Once you have the hook idea finished, writing the verses can be a lot easier!

Tip 5. Practice your timing. Here is one of the great little rap tips that I have used in the past. First, find an instrumental beat to rap to. Make sure it is something that you can vibe to and feel comfortable with. Now, start free-styling over the beat EVEN IF YOUR LYRICS DON'T MAKE SENSE! Just rap random words and attempt to make them rhyme. Come up with different kinds of flows and focus on nailing your timing. You see, this exercise isn't about your words, it is about working on improving the accuracy of your rhythm and "flow" to the beat.

Tip 6. Learn tricky verses from your favorite rappers, and practice them. Come across an amazing but tricky verse from an aspiring rapper? Learn the words (this should be easy to do because you probably listen to the song frequently anyway) and try to push yourself to imitate it. Start slow and piece by piece until you can rap the entire thing. This rap tip will help to build your memory, timing, stamina, and possibly speed (if it is a fast verse).

Tip 7. Record yourself often. If you do not already have it, invest in some recording equipment (a cheap mic and recording software will do). Record yourself rapping so you can listen to what areas need improvement. It is very important to hear yourself as you sound to others so that you can analyze your faults and become a better rapper!

Too Many Gigs?

It happens to us all but too many gigs for vocalists normally mean a subpar performance at latter gigs. Well fear not! Here is the Band Assist Voice Fixer!

3 tablespoons liquid honey
2 ounces of lemon juice (pure)
2 teaspoons of granulated sugar
1 Extra large cup

Boil water, add ingredients, pour hot water in cup, stir until honey is dissolved....drink it while it is hot and drink it as hot as you can stand without burning your mouth. Do this once every 2 hours on gig day and your scratchy throat will be clear."

I Give You Firax

Well it was a great month with some awesome new music. We had a massive variety from pop to hip hop, from country to thrash. It really does reassure us that there are still sdome awesome bands and artists out there and we want to help them get the recognition they want. I don't want to hear Cheryl Cole, The Saturdays or this year's X Factor winner on the radio. I want to hear The Calling Card, Speedbird and The Limelight (check out our reviews section at http://www.bandassist.co.uk/)

So this months competition was hard but our "Metal" reviewer let us all hear Firax and boy are we glad they did. These guys are the next metal band to make it. Hell, Band Assist even created a genre for them; "Groovecore"

Check them out at www.myspace.com/firaxband

Here is their interview:

BA: Well Done for winning Band Assists Act of the month! How would you descibe the Firax Sound?

Firax: The FIRAX sound is like a freight train without brakes powering along the railway lines of what you thought was metal until it breaks away and suddenly begins its own path down which there are no stop signs, there are no crossings just inhibited thrash rock metal that moves with the rhythm of everything you know that is right, you just didn’t know it until now.
It makes you feel dirty and greasy and think you know what’s coming. But you don’t.

BA: "Effigy of Hate" is an awesome track can you let us in on the story behind it? and how/who wrote it.

Firax: Effigy is very much Glyn’s song, but I like to think we all had some input. This was the first of our ‘groovy’ songs, the first one that had that ‘different’ sound to it.
The formation of the lyrics didn’t take any pushing or sleepless nights, they simply wrote themselves, and it was a story that Rhyd had needed to say for a long time.
When I (Rhyd) was younger, after a really bad year I was out with a couple of friends having, to the contrary, a good night. We were split up. I met some other friends and then I left the place I was in. I don’t remember the next 2 days. I was jumped outside, this I know from stories and what was in the paper. I don’t know how or why it started but all I know is that my head was stamped on. My face was kicked. My inside was bruised badly. I lost my teeth. I gained permanent scarring on my right eye. I suffered memory loss for a year.
It’s all in there if you listen.


BA: You have such a new sound - was that a conscious decision? how did you come up with it?

Firax: When we got together we just decided to try and take a big influence from the classic metal bands,Pantera, Megadeth, Iron Maiden, you know, it’s just pure chance that our individual styles happened to come together this way.
When a group of musicians get together, who are on the same playing field, who love the same thing, who have the same goal then great music is what will happen.
Of course, when we realised what we sounded like, we decided it was a good thing and are trying to keep it going!

BA: What is your writing process?

Firax: So far it’s been pretty different for every song! Sometimes one of us will come up with an entire song, and everyone else will add their stuff around it; sometimes we’ll say “let’s write a song about this, and this bitof it should sound like that”. Basically, if something sounds cool – whether it’s an idea or a riff – we’ll give it a go.


BA: What do you find most difficult about being an unsigned band?

Firax: We all had different answers to this but they are all valid so i guess we have about 3 things.
1) Unfortunately it appears that, due to various things like the recession, the days of going out to see any old band that happens to be on in your local are gone.
2) People/promoters completely ignoring us. Also, being unable to play a gig unless you bringa certain number of people
3) MONEY.It’s all funded by ourselves. Most gigs aren’t paid. We just do them because we love it.


BA: What is your top tip for other acts?

Firax: If you don’t enjoy it, you’re doing it wrong.
On a side note, try and have a lot of money,this band thing is really quite expensive!

BA: What is your fantasy band line up (Vocals, guitar, Bass and Drums)

Firax:This is definately something we could never all agree on! I guess thatis a good thing though, we all have different influences.

Here is a mix of what we decided :-
Vocals - Bruce Dickinson (Maiden)
Guitar - Marty Friedman (Megadeth)
Bass - Flea (Chilli Peppers)
Drums - Mike Portnoy (Dream Theater)



BA: Tell us an amusing Band Story!

Firax: Ah, what to pick? I would try to think of one not relating to Machin, but I’m not sure that’s possible! I think I’ll go for the one where we had a gig in a pub in Crumlin, and he managed to end up on Crumlin road, Pontypool! The other side of the mountain!


BA: Proudest moment so far in Firax?

Firax: Getting in to the top twelve of Hard Rock Hells young blood competition October 22nd without a doubt.
Obviously being artist of the month is pretty awesome!


BA:What are your views on Band Assist?

Firax: A cracking website that has definitely influenced us, providing us with food for thought. Our review on Band Assist is an inspiration and the other reviews on there have given us a great insight into what we are up against, and how unique we are.
With Band Assist, you get the sense that the reviews are actually being written by someone who has a genuine interest in new music.

BA:Whats Next for you guys?

Firax: World domination! If the public don't mind, that is.

Thanks for the great review, interview and for generally being a site full of "real" people trying their best for people like us!

Blocked? Get Help

Tricks To Beat Writer's Block

Write 10 Songs In 60 Minutes – There is no more powerful way to completely shut off your Writer's Blog problems any faster than sitting down with a stop watch and cranking out 10 songs (a verse and chorus at least). Try it. I GUARANTEE that you will beat Writer's Block and you will come out with 1 song worth keeping out of the deal.

Avoid Your Genre – I remember reading a Guitar World article on Ozzy Osbourne. All of his favorite songs had absolutely nothing to do with “metal”. Metal was a genre he helped create. In other words, he just made noise and people liked it. He didn't try to recreate his favorite music. He simply made his own. Our modern culture with all it's genres implies that you are supposed to be a “rock band” or a “country band”. I recommend writing as many songs outside of your genre as possible. (Once you write 10 R&B songs. Post on the forum. I'll help you turn them into nu-metal masterpieces).

Enjoy Writing Crappy Songs – Don't just tolerate writing bad songs. LIKE IT! I'm serious. Writing ANY song should be fun. Again, we are focusing on enjoying the process of writing and not worried about the result.

Hum Soul Songs While You Cook – I always try to do my Aretha Franklin impression when I cook. It ends up sounding more like a bad dream with Prince, but you get the idea. I should definitely keep my tape recorder in the kitchen. This is where all my best melodic ideas come.

Listen to Greatest Hits Albums – Pat Benetar and Human League are some of the best examples. Why? Because they have some great songs and they have some the most disgusting, vile sounds ever captured on their Greatest Hits. This illustrates that it's okay to write a bad song. It may end up on your greatest hits album some day!

Brainstorming - When you open your brain all the way up, it's amazing what happens. When you have no care in the world whether you are wrong or right, not dealing with ambition or ridiculous assumptions, and simply get your brain to go go go, you can do miraculous things. It's important to just open up and let loose. HAVE THE BALLS TO BE WRONG! It's okay. Write a terrible song and laugh about. Then write a funny song about how you wrote a bad song on purpose (it sounds like something that Tenacious D would )

Guitar Tuning Tips

Here's a few we found for all you guitarists out there

#1 - A Tuner Is Just a Gadget

Tuners are nice little devices. They tell you the frequency of the note a person has struck. The problem is strings go sharp when you first hit them and go flat immediately afterwards. This means that just because you got a string to land on “E” or whatever on the tuner doesn't mean when you strike it with 10x more (or less) force in the take that the string will go sharp.

#2 - Never Tune Flat

One of my favorite tactics that I use daily is to never turn the tuning peg flat. If I'm tuning the G string and I end up being a little sharp, I don't grab the tuning peg. I simply bend the G string HARD. There is always slack hiding in the string and a hard bend will yank that slack right out of there. If you leave this slack in there, it will slowly come out over time and the guitar will drift flat as you play it.

If you aren't so great at bends (it amazes me as a crappy lead guitar player that some really talented guitar players look like something is wrong with them when they attempt to bend a string!) it's okay to physically grab the string with your right and and pull on it a bit. You don't want to yank TOO hard, but you can probably pull a little harder than you think.

This one takes a bit of practice as you have to nail your pitch by SLOWLY turning the tuning peg sharper and sharper. (Kinda like when getting gas for your car. No one wants to go over the magic dollar amount in your head.) Of course, if you go too far, you should just bend the string, and repeat.

In rare occasions when you go too sharp and there isn't enough slack, always go way down so

you can come back up, bend the string, and tighten it some more. Repeat.

#3 - Stretch 'em Hard!

I see guitar players all the time who toss brand new strings on, tune up, and think they are ready to track. I'm not sure where they got that idea, but I'm positive all of 'em have fought through wild tuning fluctuations at first. I stretch strings AGGRESSIVELY. I always start with by placing my left hand over the 22th fret and press down pretty hard. My right hand will be under the 24nd fret pulling up. I give it a good, slow tug and attempt to pull everything I can out of that 23rd fret. Then I move down a fret and repeat. I do this for the entire guitar. I can do it pretty quickly and it's not a huge deal if you skip a fret here or there.

My right hand is usually fairly torn up, so I try to use some kind of cloth as padding.
If you take a guitar that was freshly strung and just tuned up without stretching, you can often pull a full step out of the thing. Some of that is going to be slippage in the tuning peg, obviously, but a nice chunk of that is slack that you would have had to deal with during tracking. Always stretch 'em!

#4 - Tune Up If You Have To Wait

While not an Earth shattering tactic, if I know I'm not tracking for a few hours, I'll go ahead and tune up an extra half step after doing all that stretching. Why? I figure the extra tension while I'm not doing anything will help work out a bit of the slack. It's probably not perfect, but it only takes a second. Anything that saves a ruined take is worth doing.

#5 - How Do You Tune?

I know there are quite a few guitar players that debate over how you should tune. Some guys claim they want the initial attack to land exactly on the note. The problem with this is the string will drop in pitch in a hurry immediately afterwards making sustained notes and chords go flat. Some guys claim you should wait a good three seconds to let the pitch fall. This will get the guitar in tune for the long sustained stuff, but the initial attack will always be a bit sharp.

I tend to take a hybrid approach. I like to give about one second to make sure the note just after the initial attack is in tune. This method is the best of both worlds approach for me. There are certain notes that I have to deal with during tracking, but this approach tends to be the most effective for me.

#6 - Take Note Of How You Play

I'm not sure why so many guys who smash their strings with the sledgehammer known as their right hand turn into delicate fairy princess mode when they stomp on the tuner, but it's an epidemic. Make sure you tune how you play. It'll save you decades of trouble.

#7 - Throw The Tuner Out

When it comes time to really get a guitar in tune, it usually takes a bit of abandonment of the tuner. The tuner is a good tool, but it can't compensate for problems with a guitar or with the hands. Almost everyone needs a little sweetening on the G string. (Usually this requires tuning it just a hair sharp, but not always.) The B and High E string are optional, but often benefit as well.

#8 - Tune Specific To The Chord

If one chord is giving you ultra-trouble, I recommend tuning to that chord and punching in. 95% of the time it's the player at fault, but you can compensate for that by tuning specifically to that chord. This is no different than a singer re-singing a phrase because of pitch. Take your time and get it right.

#9 - Can You Play A D Chord?

99% of all guitar players thing that playing a good ol' D chord is for babies. Then they start recording and can't the damn thing in tune. I've seen it happen hundreds of times. This happens to the seemingly best of guitar players. Usually, there is some much crappier guitar player in the band that can do it no problem. You may want to double check and make sure you can play a D chord in tune. The odds are not in your favor.

#10 - Practice Playing In Tune

I see plenty of guitar players who just obsess over flashy playing. I'm usually shocked by how few of them play in tune consistently. It's as if they never even thought about it. This is one reason why I love practicing guitar using an emulator through my studio monitors to drum loops. It forces me to play in tune and on time as if it were a real take. This skill is dramatically different from anything a person does in their practice area. It's something any serious guitar player SHOULD work on. If you aren't a guitar player, but just a recording guy, you should push this message. Make a big deal about this tuning business.