Taking Band Photos

Professional photography can make the difference between your band looking smooth and polished and looking like total amateurs. First impressions do matter in this business, and a pro can help make you look your best but you must balance that against the cost. Nowadays most of us have access to some decent photography equipment, so here are a few top tips

• If using a professional ensure you ask them for samples and see if their style is a match with yours. Basically, it comes down to -- do you like their stuff? Their "eye" will be reflected in the photos you see, so look closely. Give them a band bio and any information on you that they might find helpful as to staging the shoot.
  
  
• Overdo hair/makeup and costuming for the shoot.

• Choose cliché backgrounds or poses. If I see another band against a wall or propping up a bar I will go mad! Be original!
  
  
• Don’t wait until the day of the shoot to talk about what everyone thinks the photo should be like. Discussing this ahead of time can save time/money and make things less stressful.
  
  
• Don’t be afraid to voice your thoughts to the photographer -- sometimes it can help to have one person as the "spokesperson" for the group to avoid things getting too chaotic.
  
  
• Don’t hesitate to ask for a break if things are feeling stiff or if you want to talk to band members to see how they feel it is going.

• If you have problems keeping everyone's eyes open at the same time, have everyone close their eyes, count to 2 and open on 3. It helps.
  
  
• Try to make sure everyone gets a good night's rest so you can look your best.

• If the photographer doesn't object, music in the background can help relax you and make the shoot feel more natural. Especially if it's your music!

Hiring a professional photographer can be a great way to make sure your band looks their best but not always necessary when you are first starting out.

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Tips for Keeping Your Band Together

Your band has lost it's focus. Members are late for rehearsals; or they don't show up at all. When everyone does show up, the sessions deteriorate into a lot of bitching, leaving everyone angry and resentful.

If your band is no longer the well-oiled machine it once was, perhaps these tips will help restore everything to its former order and glory.

1. Have a band meeting once every six months. Ideally a band meeting is held at a neutral location, such as a bar or restaurant. This helps everyone feel at ease. Try not to hold them at your rehearsal location and whatever you do, don't allow anyone to bring instruments or significant others. You don't need noodling guitars or whispered conversations between lovers to detract from the meeting.

   Use this time to air suggestions for new songs, critiquing past performances (not just went wrong, but also highlighting what went right), promotion ideas, performance and rehearsal schedules, new venues to consider, and brainstorming ways to improve the group.

   If you can find something to do after the meeting to build camaraderie and blow off steam, so much the better. How about having the band meeting in a bowling alley snack bar, then bowling a game or two after the meeting? Never bowled before? It'll be a new experience for you, and lots of fun for your bandmates!

2. Revisit your band's common goals. Are you a cover band, or do you play originals? Does everyone want to play six-nights-a-week, weekends only, or casuals? How often should you rehearse? How many members does it take to remove a song from your set list? Is there a certain style or genre of music that you are aiming for? Are things getting stale the way they are? Are there adequate performing opportunities in your area, or do you need to branch out to surrounding communities? Revisiting your band's goals -- and reaching agreement on them -- is a great salve to put on a sore situation.

3. Voice your opinion. Silence is tacit acceptance that you agree. Try not to remain silent when you should be voicing your disagreement. A healthy band is one that promotes discussion and communication. An unhealthy band has festering problems that will eventually lead to the band's demise.

4. Encourage discussion. While it's not always possible to reach a consensus agreement on every issue, it helps to allow each member the opportunity to discuss their opinion. Especially encourage the shyest member to contribute. He/she may have an insight that the rest of you will find helpful.

5. Identify the main problem. It helps if you can break down the symptoms into manageable chunks. From there you can point to the main, overriding problem -- and correct it. Is there a bandmate with a drug or alcohol problem? A girlfriend or spouse that attends practices and insists on giving her/his opinion (the Yoko Syndrome)? One or more band members that have come to hate the style of music the band is playing? Or perhaps the band leader is treating the other players like inferiors, and a mutiny is ready to occur?

6. Elect a leader. It can be the best musician, the player with the most performing experience, the lead singer, the person who put the band together, or simply the person who has been in the band the longest. Agree on this person, and their duties. Does the leader have an equal voice in band politics, or the deciding vote? Does the leader contact the members to remind everyone of practice and upcoming gigs? Is the leader the main point of contact between the manager, booking agent, and gig contacts? Is there a term for the leader, or is it for the life of the group? Don't assume anything. Discuss it and get band acceptance.

7. We already have a leader, but it's not working. Then perhaps it's time for a manager. This person, surprisingly enough, manages the day-to-day activities of the group. The manager works with the band, booking agents, venue owners, members of the press, web sites, recording label A&R staff, and other interested parties to free up time that would otherwise be spent by the band leader. The manager will also visit with the band to help it agree on an image, and will work with the members to help them reach their goal.

   Some managers may demand as much as 35% of the gross in exchange for their services. This might be fine for a band just starting out, but the term (length) of the contract should not be for the life of the band, so that the members can renegotiate the contract at a later date, once the band begins commanding higher performance fees. (You've heard it before, always seek legal help before signing a contract.)

Tuning your Drums

Perhaps the most frustrating aspect of playing drums for many people, whether they are beginners or established players with years of experience, is the realization that for some reason their drum set just doesn't sound right, that when they play their drums they hear dissonant sounds unlike the sounds they hear on their favourite recorded music or when they see other drummers playing live.

This often leads to the mistaken notion that their drum set is somehow inferior, and then the person embarks on a never ending quest for "a better drum set". This often results in the purchase of various brands and models of drums for the sole reason that they think it is merely a matter of a drums "brand name" or design that makes it sound good or bad and that eventually they will stumble across that "good set" that is going to have the sound they desire.

The truth of the matter is, even though high quality drums will always sound "better", and to the discriminating professional there are subtle yet noticeable differences in sound between drum brands and models and also that fine quality drums do offer advantages in features and beauty, there is no reason that even the cheapest, most basic budget drumset can't be made to sound "OK" through proper choice of quality drumheads, and most importantly, proper TUNING of those heads.

Often a customer will come into our drum shop and state that his drums just don't sound right and he's reached the point of frustration because he/she feels they have tried everything and that it must be the fault of the drums. Usually though, it is the case that we find at least one of these tell-tale symptoms when we look at the their drums:

1. The original heads that were on the set when it was purchased are still on it, often just thin economy heads which simply can't be tuned to sound like a good quality drumhead by a name brand manufacturer.

2. The heads on the drums have been played abusively and are full of dents and "baggy spots" which make the drums sound bad and do not allow them to be tuned well.

3. The heads on the drums are of the wrong variety for the kind of music the drummer plays or the sound he/she wishes to emulate, or a misguided choice in drumhead selection has caused him/her to use the wrong type of head for a purpose which is contrary to normal usage, and is making the drum sound bad.

4. The heads are either too loose, over-tightened or simply not "cleared" (the same note produced all the way around the perimeter of the drum at each tension rod).

5. The heads have been "doctored up" with adhesive foam, duct tape, paper napkins taped to the heads, felt strips or pieces of cloth stretched across the drum underneath the heads, or various other "last resort" methods in an attempt to control unattractive, dissonant drumhead overtones.

Get Your Band Reviewed

How to Get your Band Reviewed

Getting reviews for your band can be one of the toughest things for any new band. It's not just trying to figure out who the best people to send your cd to, it's making sure they listen to your band and actually write the review. Music writers get an avalanche of band's cds each week, I have learnt that through Band Assist. Some really good bands get overlooked when it comes to getting reviews because they don't follow a few simple but golden review rules. If you don't follow these rules you might as well make that stack of CDs then chuck them in the bin;
The Golden Rules of Getting your band reviews

Be INTERESTING, sounds obvious, but if you can't be arsed with your output then why should anyone else care about you?

Make sure your contact details are on EVERYTHING, several times I've been sent a totally blank cd by a band. Even if it's an amazing band the chances are I'll never know who they are as the CD pretty much always gets separated from the covering letter (if there is one).

Make sure you know who you're sending your band's stuff to, there's no point in sending your death thrash black metal to a rumba magazine is there?

Don't bother sending your cd to millions of record labels, they will just go in the bin.

Review contactsThe biggest challenge when planning a PR campaign for you band is getting contacts. You can spend months looking up publication/ zine contacts on the web only to have your press packs returned undeliverable. This is especially true with webzines, they are often started with fantastic enthusiasm by the people behind them, then left to rot after a few weeks.

Reading your band's reviewsThe next part of your 'get heard' challenge is reading your band's reviews. Sound daft doesn't it! But think about it for a moment, you've spent months finding contacts, stuffing envelopes with your world changing cds, but how are you going to get copies of the reviews if they are published? 99.99% of zines/ magazines will not send you a free copy of their publication. Most zines (especially the big ones that you really want reviews published in) get sent anything up to 100 cds a week, if they sent out a free copy to each of those 100 bands then they wouldn't have any copies left to actually sell! So what do you do? You subscribe to every single one of these publications, in fact you'd probably have to as the chances of your release / demo getting reviewed when you think it will be are pretty damn rare. So you'd have to buy every copy of the magazine (or whatever) until you happen across your own review.

So is this all worth it?Of course it is silly!

Getting reviews brings exposure, interviews and about a thousand other positive outcomes! Don’t forget Band Assist love to hear your stuff and our site is viewed by up to 150 people a day

– great exposure plus unlike some sites we don’t charge for a thing

The flying death circus that navigated the land of eon with the bejewelled sword of neon and the band of pre-dawn space avenging monkey dancers

Long Band Names

I don’t recommend giving your band an excessively long name. I’m not referring to names with two parts like "Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers" or "Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention" that flow — but rather the flat-out, unnecessarily long band names.
Here are some examples:

· When People Were Shorter and Lived Near the Water (9 words, 49 characters)

· The Presidents of the United States of America (8 words, 46 characters)

· …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead (10 words, 44 characters including ellipsis)

· I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness (7 words, 35 characters)

· I Can Lick Any SOB In The House (8 words, 31 characters)

While "The Presidents of the United States of America" can be nicknamed and referenced as "The Presidents,"the rest of the names don’t have a lot of options unless you want to go the Excessively Long Acronym route. Here are some reasons to avoid a long name for your band:

· Does not flow in conversation

· Can be difficult to remember

· Often does not sound like a band name

· Website domain name will need to be different than your name (unless you want to make the mistake of using the actual long version) Note: There is a 67-character limit on domain names

I’d like to add that the occasional song or album with a long name is okay, but Fiona Apple went too far with her "When the Pawn" album title that is 450+ characters in length!

What do you guys think? Do they work?

Any other long band names that are worth noting?

Do you have a long-winded band name?

Playing Bass Live

Playing Bass Live Advice

Live bass sound can be the most difficult to mix and the hardest to make a sound technician care about. When done properly, a bass guitar blends right in with the rest of the band, truly layering music in a complementary fashion, allowing each player to voice his instrument with skill. Done improperly, bass guitar volume can cause drums to rattle out of control, create uncontrollable feedback and create a rattling, swelling sound that drowns out the rest of band.

Proper Choice of Bass
An instrument with active pickups, multiple effects pedals and MIDI technology may sound like a choir when playing alone in a practice room, but it generally falls flat when it comes to blending with a band. Selecting the proper quality bass is a critical element to achieving the best possible live bass sound. According to David King in Global Bass Magazine, the bass should have a clear, flat tone with few enhancements.

Make Friends With the Sound Guy
Each venue will more than likely have one employee (or volunteer) working the sound board. Ask him about the acoustics of the venue, how instruments respond and whether it's better to plug the bass into the venue's PA or to go straight from the amplifier. The sound technician may just respond to the musician's interest and friendly demeanor by taking extra care in mixing the sound of his instrument.

Volume Levels
Maintain a low volume when piped through the house's main speakers. This will allow the intonation of the bass to ring properly while reducing the fuzz and rattle that sometimes occur when the instrument's volume is set too high. Again, this strategy is geared toward blending into the sound of a full band so that guitars are able to shine through with treble and middle tones and the bass is able to thicken the whole notes of a given tune without rattling the hinges off of the venue.

Putting on a Rock Show

No matter where you hail from there are usually plenty of local bands and venues. Putting on a local rock show that is profitable is quite another story. However, there are some tried and true approaches that can actually net you a decent return.
1. How to Put on a Profitable Local Rock Show
o 1
Find the club and make arrangements for the date of the show. The first step is finding the right club. This involves calling different venues and visiting them in person. You want a club that will allow you to control the door take (what you charge patrons to get in to see the show). In a perfect world you will also want to negotiate with the club about getting a percentage of bar profits for the night; this is where the real money is. Always book a Friday or Saturday night show for the biggest turnout.
o 2
Scout and book bands with a large fan base. Make sure that you keep your bands in the same genre. Finally, offer the bands a flat fee plus a percentage of the door and you will easily get several large local bands to sign on.
o 3
Create the marketing posters and fliers and distribute them. See resources below for a Web site that lets you design and order great posters online. Make sure that you include all of the venue information as well as dates on the posters. Print out plenty of fliers for the bands to hand out prior to the show. Make sure that you place posters in conspicuous places throughout the club and anywhere else that you can think of.
o 4
Post free online ads. Sites such as Craigslist.com and Myspace.com are great for posting events. Let all of your friends know. Tell them to network. Spread the word as much as possible and you will get a greater turnout.
o 5
Offer bands pre-sale tickets. It's the best way to get bands to draw big crowds. Give them a large percentage of the tickets sales they generate as motivation for selling them.
o 6
Talk to and secure potential sponsors. It is always wise to talk to companies that may be willing to sponsor your event, create banners or fliers if their logo is on them and offer drink specials all night at the concert.
o 7
Secure a reliable staff for the event. Usually you want to go with a good friend that you can trust who will take in money at the door. This way there are no accounting issues to worry about. Make sure that you have a decent sound technician or that the club provides one for the event.
o 8
Promote the show as much as possible. Tell everybody that you know and have them tell everybody that they know. The more people that know about the event, the more people will show up

Guitar Solo Inspiration

One of the key fundamentals with any music and any instrument is timing and it doesn’t matter what you’re playing, if it’s not in perfect time then it sounds amateur and somewhat annoying for the listener. If you have ever struggled in the past with guitar timing then you may find these ‘guitar solo in time tips’ useful, and hopefully instantly applicable to your playing.

There are two main avenues we can look at in terms of timing, and they are external and internal influences. External influences focus on what is outside of you; things like your guitar setup and the picking action itself, the things that physically go into making the sound. Internal influences come into the category of how you think, hear and structure the notes before they are played. With these two areas in mind, here are some things to think about to get ‘machine like’ timing in everything you play!

Thinking about the Beat – Internally, how you process what you hear makes all the difference. I can guarantee you that you and I could be hearing the same beat but creating different tunes in our mind to play over it, and this matters with timing because you need to hear the accents and where the main notes need to land. If you have a basic 4:4 beat and you are playing a scale over it, the scale will consist of notes in between the beats as well as notes that land dead on the beat. Even if you don’t hear a physical beat you need to learn how to imagine it’s there, as this is what timing is all about – picking where the beat should be and landing dead on it (this is how a solo guitarist can play with no accompaniment and sound good, because the beat is in his/her mind).

Following a specific beat – There are two main ways to physically create a beat to play to; use a metronome and get an instant timing you can play to, or take a little longer and set up a drum machine or drum software. Either way is fine and will do the immediate job at hand, but the advantages of the drum machine are that you feel more inspired because it’s playing real music, and you can have snare accents for example to help create odd timings and different feels. On the other hand metronomes are cheap to buy (there are even free ones online). Also, if you do get a chance to play with a drummer do it. There’s something that happens with your playing when playing with a real drummer, you become more accountable and are almost forced to become better, especially with your timing.

Pick Attack and Timing – This is the third area to control after the external and internal timing. Pick attack simply means the speed and consistency that the pick strikes the string. If you are playing a basic chord progression and are ‘strumming’ to just get a relaxed feel then you can have a very loose hand while playing the notes as timing will be a bit more forgiving. If you’re playing a guitar solo or anything with single notes or with more speed, then this needs to sharpen up and as a general rule – the faster you play the tighter your picking action needs to become. When playing guitar solos there is a focus on picking the note fast (even if the sequence is slow) to get an immediate and clean sound from the note, and only then can you add your chosen technique to it.

It’s a very handy thing for guitarists who want to learn lead or solo work to first think about the rhythm and groove of the song. Only when you get the feel from that side of things can you add to it with a solo because solos are not usually stand alone pieces, they are enhanced and structured by what’s underneath them (even if it’s not physically played).

As you can see from these guitar solo in time tips, timing comes from a few aspects of the sound, and if you learn to first hear it and then play exactly to it (practicing slowly and evenly at first) then your timing will improve dramatically in a short space of time, and just imagine what happens when you speed it all up?

Improve your Singing Voice

Improve your Voice
Whatever your vocal skill, these tips for improving your singing voice are sure to get you singing and sounding much better.
Tip 1: Think about breath. Without proper breathing, you aren't using your voice to its full potential. To find out if you're breathing correctly for singing, place your hand on your stomach and inhale. Your hand should move out--your stomach should be expanding, not your ribcage and chest. That's because you need to support your breath with your diaphragm--the muscle underneath the lungs that inflates them. The diaphragm is activated by abdominal muscles, and it's much stronger than the muscles between your ribs--the muscles you're using if your chest, not your stomach, expands with your breath.
You'll need to have strong breath to give your voice adequate support for singing. To do this, you'll need to use your stomach and lower abdominal muscles to support your breath. Ab crunches and sit-ups can help you build up strength in this area that you can use to project your voice.
Tip 2: Focus on posture. Your breath travels from your lungs straight up through your mouth. If its passage is twisted, kinked, or blocked in any way, it won't be able to get out efficiently. How you stand has a big effect on how you sound. You should be standing with your legs about shoulder-width apart. Your chest should be lifted to give your lungs plenty of room to expand. Your shoulders should be back and relaxed.
Tip 3: Relax. If there's tension anywhere from your abdomen to your head, it'll affect your sound. Your facial muscles, tongue and throat muscles, vocal cords, jaw and shoulders should all be as relaxed as possible. There are plenty of jaw and facial exercises as well as warm-up activities that will help you relax the muscles in your shoulders, face, and vocal cords.
Tip 4: Know where to put your tongue and soft palate. The soft palate should be raised--this will give more space for your voice to resonate. The tip of your tongue should be placed at the back of your teeth. This will keep it from blocking your throat if it's positioned too far back.
Tip 5: Watch what you eat. There's nothing better for your voice than water. Period. If you have a performance coming up, avoid dairy and thick drinks for at least three days beforehand. Drink only water the day of the performance.
Tip 6: Don't strain. Pay attention to your body. If something hurts when you sing, you're either at the limit of your range or you're doing something wrong. You should be able to sing at a strong, healthy volume if you're maintaining proper breath control; if something hurts because you're singing too loudly, you're probably not supporting your voice well with your breath--the vocal cords are doing all the work. If you hurt when trying to hit certain high or low notes, however, it may be that you're trying for a note that's outside of your range. It's true that good breath control can expand your range, but the size of your vocal cords determines the pitches you can reach. You may not be able to hit certain notes no matter how well you support your voice. It's important to choose songs you can sing comfortably. Above all, don't try to sing if you have a sore throat--you may make it worse.
Tip 7: Warm up before singing. Don't go straight into a song without a good warm-up first. A good warm-up routine should concentrate on relaxing your body and getting your breath ready, and should start with simple deep breaths. It should progress to light humming from there, and then some scale work once you feel ready. It's important not to strain too hard during the warm-up process--don't reach for notes that aren't comfortable, and don't sing at the top of your volume.
Tip 8: Get a teacher. A good voice teacher can really help you improve your voice. It's sometimes hard to determine how you sound when you're by yourself; even the most dedicated singer can get into bad habits without feedback. A teacher can give you immediate feedback on how you're doing and address specific problems you may have.
It's a shame that so many people think they can't sing--and wouldn't be caught dead singing in public. In truth, singing is something anyone can learn to do. Follow these tips and practice, and you'll have a singing voice you'll be proud to show off.

Guitatist Stage Skills

This article will hopefully give the reader some basic pointers that might help improve how a performer looks and presents him or herself on stage. I've also included some pointers on how to build a music set. It is mostly intended for acoustic players who also sing since playing or singing alone is a little easier to do. Other guitarists might also benefit from the pointers, but if you've been on stage for a while, you probably already know them.

Placement

The closer you are to the edge of the stage, the closer and more personal you are to your audience. This is where you want to be.
If you are in a group of players, stepping forward will bring you closer to the audience and "upstage" the others in the band. You want to do this if you are soloing or the lead singer. Of course, if the guitarist is soloing he should step forward and the singer should step back.

Eye Contact

To make an audience feel that you are looking at them while you are playing, look just over the tops of their heads. For me, I divide the audience into 'Left', 'Right', and 'Center', and move the direction of my gaze every so often. Eye contact is not a bad thing, but it can get distracting. The "over the head gaze" should be the default with the occasional eye contact. Do it while you practice, not just on stage.

This also means you won't be able to look at your guitar much. That is usually OK for chord strumming, but will take some work if you are playing a difficult piece and singing with it, too. For me, when I am practicing a difficult piece, I try to find out if looking at my hand placement while I'm not singing is adequate or if I have to keep an eye on things. If the former, I start practicing looking at the right times. If the latter, I move the microphone so that I can see my fretboard out of the corners or bottoms of my eyes. It isn't perfect, but it helps. Obviously the best way is to practice not looking at all, but this isn't a perfect world and practice time is limited.

Facial Expressions

The single hardest thing I had to relearn was scrunching my eyebrows when I was concentrating. To avoid looking like I was scowling all the time, I cultivated the habit of raising my eyebrows a bit during difficult (well, ok, difficult for me) passages.
Get a mirror. Start paying attention to what you are doing while you play. And smile. Look like you are having fun. The audience will forgive a multitude of mistakes if they see you having a good time. I cannot tell you how many times a piece has gone badly and people still seem to enjoy it because I enjoyed it...which brings me to my next point:

MistakesPretend like they didn't happen. Flub through it and keep going, and also know that once in a while you are gonna crash and burn so bad that you can't pretend. Don't scowl or get frustrated. If at all possible laugh it off, make a joke of it and keep going. In fact, you might even have a good one liner or two to cover the really bad ones: "Bad hands! Bad, bad hands!" or something like that.

Selling the Music SetThings I learned as a disc jockey:

1. Sell 3 songs in the set in the reverse order that you will play them. In fact, that last song you talk about should be the next song, or the song after that, that you play. Give them too many songs and they might decide to leave because they don't like 2 or 3 of them.

2. Never "back sell". In otherwords, introduce your song before you play it, never after you are done.

3. Never apologize. If you hose something up, keep on going. If you are unsure whether you can pull a song off, don't apologize before you play it ("Here's a new one I'm still learning", "Here goes nothin'", etc.) or just drop the song.

4. Keep your talk times short. Work on how you talk, too. Odds are they don't care what you have to say, but what you do or don't say and how you say it can hurt you. The rule of thumb being: KISS (keep it simple, stupid). You might even script it out and get a second opinion if you have to.

5. I didn't learn this as a DJ, but by watching other performers: Do not tell personal stories about yourself or your music. Save the personal stuff for the between-sets mingling.
Building the SetMore things I learned as a disc jockey: if the songs you are playing are your own, or are material the audience won't know, it helps to have a well-known song on either side of the unknown material. It keeps the audience more comfortable with being introduced to new things.
As far as tempo, if you have 2 slow songs in a row, make that 3rd a little more upbeat. Vice versa, too.

Dealing with RequestsHave a sheet of paper and pen sitting out front. When someone asks for something you don't know, tell 'em to put it on the paper and you will put it on your list of "songs to learn". Tell them tips that fold will increase the odds of it getting learned, too. :-)
Lastly, there is always a time and a place to "break the rules".

I hope these pointers help.

Recording Keyboards!!

Recording Keyboard Tips

To continue from our previous recording blog, we were asked about recording Keyboard and to address some of the challenges.
Recording synths can be one of the most fun but sometimes excruciating experiences. Trying to get just what you want takes years to learn. We have assembled some tips from our years tweaking synths that are simple tips that make a big difference.

1. Split Up The Hands. Often times two hands of keyboard can be a little much in the mix. Record the two hands separately and see if both voicings are needed.

2. Play With The Sustain Pedal. Even on some Instruments you wouldn't expect, this can give you a sound you would never imagine. This can a tiny bit of magic you didn't think of before.

3. Record With A Preset, Tweak It After. One of the things amazing programmers do is get the sound in the ballpark with a preset and then tweak it later on and fine tune all the cool details after the part is recorded.

4. Try A Different Octave. Experiment with the octave the keyboards are played in. The movement up or down an octave can open up a mix and free it of clutter.

5. Watch Your Releases. One of the thing that separates the men from the boys in the keyboard department is being neat with when you let go of the keys. While many can play notes on time, finnesing when you let go of each note is what makes a part really shine.

6. Check Your Image. Many synth patches aren't real stereo. Put your signal in mono and flip the phase on one side and make sure your synth patch isn't take up an unnecessary tracks and DSP.

7. Does It Need To Be Stereo? While many synth patches are true stereo with interesting image variations. Panning every synth in stereo will leave little room in your mix. Bounce or pan some synths to mono as you need to.

8. Use Filters. High pass and low pass filters are two of your biggest friends in getting synths to fit in a mix. Learn to tweak them as best you can for improved results.

9. Record Dry. Many synths can have cheap reverbs and delays on them. If you aren't in love with the effects on a synth patch take it off and apply them in the mix.

10. One Is Enough. One of the biggest beginner mistakes is to layers numerous synths on top of every part. Try to make all of your synths work with just one or two playing each part. Anything more can be a clutered mess.

Home Recording Tips

We’ve compiled some recording hints for those of you recording your own stuff at home. It doesn’t matter whether you record on to an old 4-Track tape machine, a computer based system or wax cylinder.. the same rules usually apply!

Getting the simple things right is the key to a smooth session and a good recording.

1. Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse. If you know your material and your arrangements you’ll save time and money and make time in the studio more productive and enjoyable for everyone.

2. Re-string your guitars, re-skin your drums. If you can set them up yourelf then do it. If not then pay a guitar shop to do it. Top studios regulalry hire in gear if the artists equipment isn’t up to standard. A crap guitar is still going to sound crap even if its recorded through the best gear!

3. Make sure you have a guitar tuner with you while you record. It’s absolutely critical to tune before every take. Nothing worse than doing a great take then realising your out of tune! When you layer up parts in a multitrack recording any tuning issues will become apparent and will generally make your recording sound less good!Putting down your initial tracks to a click track or a metronome is always a good idea. Its much easier to add tracks to a multitrack when what your’re playing to is in time! Subtle tempo shifts can be good but big timing issues are one of the major differences between a piece of music that sounds ‘right’ and one that sounds a bit unprofessional.

4. If you’re recording with a mic try and get your mic as close to the sound source as possible. Unless you’re trying to get an ambient/roomy sound, a close mic sound will generally be a bit more useful when you’re trying to mix your song. If you’re recording on to a computer you’ll probably have some plug-in effects you can use on your sounds. In this case you’re definitely better off with a close mic’d sound as you’ll be able to do more with it.

5. A good studio trick when recording guitar is to mic your cab up in another room. Put the head in the control room (or wherever your recording gear is) with you so you can adjust the settings easily. This is handy for overdubbing guitar parts as you can then hear exactly whats going on in the mix

6. Another classic problem with home and small studio recording is the old “It sounded different when I played it at home.” Its tricky to get consistant sounding recordings and mixes, that’s why people pay big bucks for studio design. To get round the problem try setting up 2 sets of speakers so that you can listen on both as you’re recording and mixing. Headphones will also give you another perspective. If you listen to music in your car then take a rough mix to the car and listen to it there… people do this a lot even in top studios! Once you’ve done a few recordings or mixes in the same place you’ll get to know how your listening environmnent sounds. For example, your studio might might create ‘standing waves’ in the low frequencies which make certain bass notes or the bottom end of your track seem really loud, so in your mix you’ve turned the bass right down. Then, when you play your recording somewhere else, the bass seems really quiet or is missing something. Once you know this you can try and work round it or try and set up some accoustic damping.. Not always possible if you’re studio is your bedroom!

7. Distortion can be friend and foe! Nice distortion is possibly a question of taste but generally a bit of analogue distortion or harmonic distortion is quite nice. It sounds good on guitars, vocals, almost anything in fact. When it doesn’t sound so good is when your recording levels are wrong and you’ve ‘clipped’ or distorted the input stage of your recording device. Setting your input gain level is really important. When you’re setting up your levels try playing and recording the loudest section that you’re about to record. Then have a listen back, check your meters and listen to how it sounds. If you’re input level is too high you’ll hear crackles, pops and general badness. If you record on to a digital system you’ll see the meters go red in the loud bits. Turn the input level on your recording device and try again until your recording sounds good. Bear in mind that you don’t want to turn your input levels down too much as then you’ll record your signal at too low a level. This will make it difficult to use. Essentially you will have also recorded ‘noise’ the background noise of the recorder which will be audible when you turn up the track in the mix or try and effects, compression or E.Q.

The Art of the Persistent Musician

There is Japanese proverb which states “Fall down seven times, get up eight.”

Indeed, persistence, or that not-so-common ability to persevere in the face of disappointments and setbacks, is one of the key factors that separate those who realize their goals from those who fall short.
Of course there is also that catchy, but annoying saying that “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”

So what are we to make of these seemingly contradictory sayings?
Two types of persistence
There is a fine line between persistence of the “insanity” variety and persistence of the “there’s more than one way to skin a cat” variety in which an individual relentlessly but creatively persists in the attainment of a goal – via multiple avenues that may be off the beaten path.

I came across a photographer’s blog posting, which illustrates how he managed to navigate that line between these two types of persistence. The post chronicles his attempt to gain greater behind-the-scenes access to an NBA basketball team over the course of several years. Please take a moment to read it here.
Persistence + ingenuity + audacity + the kitchen sink > persistence only
As evident from this example, there are times when plain old persistence is not enough, and we need a bit of ingenuity and chutzpah to get over the hump.

I once worked with an individual who, upon finding out that she had not been invited to the audition for her dream job despite making a great screening DVD, resolved to prepare as if she were invited and show up at the audition anyway. After consulting with a few trusted advisors, she proceeded to do exactly that, got the panel to agree to hear her, and played a great audition. She didn’t win the job, but left with no regrets.

Of course, I don’t recommend that everybody start crashing auditions around the country (and if by some chance you do, please don’t say you got the idea here), but this brings up an interesting point about regret and how it may play a role in persistence.
Two categories of regret
When it comes to regret, we can have regrets about two things; a) actions – like asking someone out on a date, or b) inactions – NOT asking that person out on a date.

In the short term, we tend to have regrets about both actions and inactions. We worry about how we’ll feel if we go out on a limb and are rejected, but also worry about the regrets we might have if we chicken out and don’t ask for that really cute barista’s phone number.

Research suggests that the balance of regret shifts as time passes, however. In the long term, our regrets are primarily centered around moments of inaction. We have more regret about the things we didn’t do, than those things we did do (even if they didn’t work out so well). In other words, when you look back on your life, the time you asked someone out on a date but were turned down won’t bother you much. However, that time you met your dream date but never asked them out may gnaw at you, as you can’t help but wonder if that may have been the soul mate you always believed was out there, but never did find.
Take action
Ask yourself if what you are working towards is really worth it to you. If the answer is yes, ask yourself if you have really truly explored every possible avenue that is available to you. Did you really do everything you could have? Chances are, there is more you could do.

Remember that we tend to unfairly weight the consequences of unsuccessful actions in the short term, and make it a habit to engage in more courageous actions on a daily basis.

For instance, given a choice between a familiar restaurant and an unfamiliar restaurant, why not try the new place? Given the choice between saying something to that cute guy at the coffee shop or ignoring him, why not say something? Given the choice between letting loose and really going for it in a performance or playing it safe, why not go for it? As the noted author Wayne Dyer once said, “Don’t die with your music still inside you.”

Remember that on the path towards any goal worth striving for, there are going to be obstacles, and that these obstacles are not there to keep you from reaching your destination, but to discourage the others who don’t want it as badly. It’s an opportunity to prove just how much this goal means to you. These are the moments in which to engage in persistence plus, or that more imaginative, creative, and committed brand of persistence where you simply refuse to be deterred by the hurdles that one finds on any journey worth taking.

Better Band Practices

Make your practices count

It is a great feeling when you play live but that 30minutes on stage must be the result of a great deal of practicing so the audience can enjoy it too! Practices can deteriorate very quickly into jam sessions or simply a time to hang out. So here are some tips for a better band practice

· 1 DEVELOP A STANDARD WAY TO PRACTICE SONGS.

Some musicians who get together to rehearse are talented enough to just "jam" and create a very condusive atmosphere in the practice. Theysort of automatically know where to go. When you're basically first starting out you need to create a direction which everyone can adhear too stricly. To really get the most out of practicing a copy song, each musicain should come to the rehearsal knowing the "arrangement" of the song already.

Ex: Play each verse and chorus separately. This gives the musicianssmall integrated steps to practice the "memory and timing" of a song.
· 2
DEVELOP A CLEAR COMMUNICATION RULE.

Every band I've played in has shown this has to be a must. Ego's and humility do not mix well. It can be very frustracting trying to communicate an idea to someone who thinks they already have all the answers. A good way to make sure ideas are communicated is with a"Talking Stick" nobody is allow to speak over the person holding the stick. This just works well in my expierence.

· 3 MAKE SOMEONE A LEADER.

Either democratically or self appointed, someone has to take the reigns.When there is a dispute on how things should go you have to remember the ultimate goal of the band is to develop a tightness between each other with the music. A leader should bring everyone together on ideas by leading, not dictating.

· 4 DEVELOP AN ULTIMATE GOAL

As a band everyone needs to be on same wavelength to reach the band's goal. Good practicing involves reaching a cohesiveness by being together musically. Realize it's inevitable some practiceswill be better than others. A standard is what should be require andmet at each practice to fully implement a solid rehearsal.