Archive for the ‘OBB/Personal’ Category
Trailers for Glenn Packiam’s New Book “Lucky”
Saturday, February 12th, 2011
Off Beat Band Conversion
Tuesday, June 15th, 2010Hello everyone. In the past, this blog has been exclusively about music and subjects related to it. The thrill and excitement has died. I’ve discovered that writing about music wasn’t as fun as I thought it would be, so I’ve decided to slowly transition this blog into a more personal web log. I’ll continue to write about music related subjects since it remains one of my core passions, but I’m going to give myself more freedom to write about topics that interest me and stories of a more personal nature. Okay! Thanks for reading!
“Find a penny,
Pick it up,
And all day,
You’ll have a penny.”
– Unknown
Listening Intentionally: A Higher Level of Music Study
Friday, October 23rd, 2009What is your favorite song? I’m sure by now you’ve listened to it a thousand hundred times. You know every word by heart, every chord change like the back of your hand, and every drum beat and transition is etched into your brain with razor-like precision. It may have even influenced a decision that you had to make in your life, expressed the exact feelings you were having when you first heard it, or (like many songs for me) helps pick you back up when you feel down. I want to talk about how you can become a student of the music that’s had a positive impact on your life, and use said knowledge to write your own awesome material. Your own personal, self-taught music appreciation class if you will.
So what is “listening intentionally” and why should we do it in the first place? Isn’t it just good enough to listen to music for its quintessential awesomeness? Well, yeah it is, but we’re not normal. We want more. Listening intentionally means that you’re looking beyond what most people see, trying to understand the meaning behind the song, and the reason that you like it so much. If you love a song, wouldn’t it make sense to write another song just like that one? Okay, not exactly like it since that’s illegal, completely unoriginal, and just plain bourgeois. But you can use the knowledge you gained from that song (and hopefully many others) to write something at the same awesomeness level, or awesomer.
Becoming a virtuoso musician entails doing some things that other people might find strange. It means pushing the limits (that is, your own), and continually learning new things. Most people don’t listen to the same song for a week straight, or practice that same song for hours on end. Most people don’t ever set up their own personalized The Playlist, or build a prioritized list of songs they want to learn. Not everyone sits down with a timer and practices vibrato for an hour. Intentional listening is just another one of those “outside of the box” things you can do to really hone your skills and improve your ears.
Step L: Listen
Okay, enough soapboxing, lets see what it looks like to “Listen Intentionally”. Let’s start out with your most favorite song (ever!), and listen to it for the next week straight. A whole week. Nothing else. No cheating either. You are now a disciplined individual. You can do it. Music from coffee shops, department stores, and elevators is acceptable since you can’t control them, but anything that’s under your power should repeat that song relentlessly. Now some people might be thinking “If I listen to this song for a whole week, I’m going to hate it!” To a certain extent this might be true, you probably won’t want to listen to it for a few months afterward; but honestly, if you can’t listen to a single song for a whole week straight, then maybe it’s not that great of a song in the first place. Am I right, or am I right? And, if this song really was forged in the fires or Mordor, I can assure you that you’ll be drawn back to it before too long. My precioussssssss!!!
Step R: Research
When you start listening to your song, hop on the internet and do a few searches for the artist and song. A good place to start is the artist’s official website, since they’ll have the most accurate lyrics and bio about the band. If you don’t have the lyrics memorized yet, do it. See if you can find the history of the band, and if possible, see if you can find some commentary about the song itself. If the song is a popular one, you might be able to find some really specific facts about it. When was it written? Did the artist write the song him/herself, or is it a cover? Ideally you want to find an interview or article where the artist talks specifically about the context and meaning behind the song. This will give you better insight, and will ultimately lead to a higher appreciation of the song.
Step ILIBP: Intensively Listen Intentionally – Big Picture
After researching the song, begin the intensively listening intentional process. Here are a few “big picture” things you want to pay attention to while listening:
- How many instruments are there, and what are they?
- What are the levels of the instruments? Which are louder than the others? Do any of them have a piercing quality, cutting through the other parts?
- Which parts are rhythm, giving structure to the song, and which parts are melody?
- Who is holding down the beat? The drums usually do a good job of this, but that might not be the case in some songs. I love Dream Theater and Liquid Tension Experiment, and sometimes you can’t even tell what the heck Mike Portnoy (the drummer) is doing.
- Pay special attention to who is NOT playing. Silence is golden. A well placed rest in a song will introduce contrast in a piece, accenting and building complexity in the places that DO have sound.
- Which parts are complex, and which are simple? Some of my favorite songs are just a singer playing solo with his guitar, but at the same time I’ll love a song that utilizes a full orchestra.
- What is creating tension? When and what is releasing it? Where is the climax?
- Pay special attention to the opening and closing. Does the song start high or low energy? Does it end with the same theme it starts with?
Step LSMV: The Live Show and Music Videos
Another dimension of music is the live show. Since there isn’t an option for specialized recording equipment, backup vocals, full orchestras, or multiple takes, the live performance might feel “empty” when compared with the recording. Groups with a higher budget will be able to include some of the other extraneous elements included in the recording, but not everyone has that luxury. Although the sound quality might not be as good for live shows, another vital element comes into play: visuals. Search on YouTube or the band’s website for live shows, and take note of the differences in sound, and the kind of stage presence they exude. Watch the movies several times, taking note of each band member’s actions. Notice if and when the members feed off each other. Do they make eye contact often? Do they talk to each other between songs? Do they act like one amalgamated entity or are they engrossed in their own little world?
If you feel strange watching somebody like that, just accept the fact that you’re a creepy stalker, and famous people deal with creepers everyday. You know they love it.
Music videos are yet another avenue that bands present themselves. Unlike live shows, they have the opportunity to present refined visual and audio in the same package. This is one of best ways for a band to present their image to the world, since it allows them to do it in a medium where they can cut out the errors. Again, take notice of what’s being presented.
Step PP: Practice Profusely
If you haven’t started learning how to play the song, this is the time to do it. For each instrument you know how to play, look up tabs, find the score, or figure out the parts yourself. If it’s especially difficult, find the official score online or in a store and buy it. I find that music videos are especially helpful when trying to figure out guitar parts because sometimes you just need to know the position on the neck before you can figure it out. I’m writing another article on how to figure songs out, so I won’t go into great detail on this here, but the key point here is to examine the chord progression and understand the structure behind it. This is key. If you only have time to do one of these “steps”, do this one. The chord progression defines the mood of the piece, and gives the driving force behind the song. The most interesting and memorable melodies are built upon good chord progressions.
Step ILISP: Intensively Listening Intentionally – Small Picture
If you haven’t noticed yet, the order of these steps don’t really mean anything. You don’t even have to do all of them, I’m not an LI dictator, but I’m just trying to fill your head with some ideas that could be helpful.
So moving on, you’ll now want to use those beautiful ears of yours to listen to each instrument specifically. This can be deceptively easy since you’re listening to a finished product. By now I’m sure you know what the raw sound “should” or “would” sound like with no tailoring. Everybody knows what a real life, unrecorded, un”effected” acoustic guitar or grand piano sounds like. So what you want to do is try to figure out the changes that were made, and follow the sound through the cables from beginning to end. This can be extremely difficult for the inexperienced, and (if the artist is using some special kind of pedal or effector) it may be impossible. But after you play your instrument for a while, and make a few experimentation trips to the local guitar store, you start to discover the kinds of sounds and effects that are typically used.
Do this listening exercise for each instrument, and look at what effects are being used. Who is putting out a raw, undoctored sound? Who is running their signal through a hundred million effector pedals? Listen with open ears and an open mind. The artist had an end result in mind, and used whatever s/he needed to get there.
Here’s an unofficial, and incomprehensive list of common effects you might try listening for. A lot of these effects are mostly used for electric guitar, but you know how some people are. They like to get … creative. Search the web for samples of these effects if you aren’t familiar with them.
- Reverb
- Delay/Echo
- Equalization
- Compression
- Distortion
- Chorus
- Flange
- Wah-wah
- Tremolo
- Octavers and Pitch Shifters
Closing Words
Don’t stop at just one song. Great quality and high quantity input begets great output. I would know, I spent a year learning a second language.
Step NGUNS: Never Give Up, Never Surrender
One song for a whole week. Straight! You can do it!
Paradigm shift: Home Recording
Friday, October 16th, 2009Are recording studios going out the window? In a recent article by the LA Times, experts in the recording industry estimate “as many as half of the LA area’s commercial studios have closed or been sold to artists for private use.” They are seeing a huge trend of people setting up studios at home, and completely skipping out of recording at a studio. This trend (which most of us probably expected) is certainly going to have an effect on the amount and quality of music being put into the universe. The art of recording is being taken from professionals and put into the hands of amateurs. Is it a good thing? Lets talk about it.
Home/Private Recording
On the home recording hand, we see more freedom put into the hands of the artist. People are able to go into their own personal studio whenever they like, record for as long as they want, make mistakes and break equipment without having to deal with anyone at all. A huge advantage of having the studio right at home means the freedom to record whenever a brilliant idea hits. Some people do their best work at two in the morning, and come up with great stuff on the spur of the moment. These kind of moments are often passionate and emotionally driven, which can be immediately captured (in spite of heat from the neighbors the next morning!). It’s nearly impossible to encapsulate moments like those weeks or months after the fact. I personally like the idea of home recording because you can record the *cough cough* good ideas like “I wanna love you tender,” as well as the ones that are *actually* good. As in almost any industry, you want to be able to fail cheap. Recording at home lets you fail all the time, which will ultimately lead to success. Understand? Good.
Studio Recording
On the recording studio side of the fence we get: Quality!!! with a capital Q and three !!! exclamation points. Recording studios will sometimes spend more than a million dollars on equipment (!), they are run by professionals who often have degrees from prestigious schools and love their work (!), and you have somebody to go on coffee or beer runs for you (!). Depending on your situation and wants, recording in a studio might actually be cost beneficial, offering you the use of equipment that is far beyond your budget. Recording drums is a particularly difficult thing to do for those trying to rough it home studios. There are many factors that come into play when doing drums – such as mic phase, the resonance of the room, size, tuning, expensive frequency-specific mics, and neighbors – which are problems that lead many people to the front doors of a professional studio.
Many recording studios offer services besides sound recording too. I visited Side 3 Studios in Denver not too long ago, and (at the time) they offered a demo package which included (1) professional recording, mixing, and mastering of your best 3 songs, (2) HD video-recording of one of your live shows by professional videographers, mastering of that video, and (3) production of 100 DVDs ready for distribution to any venue you want to play. To me this sounds like a sexy option compared to the fuzz and crackle you might get from a demo you make at home.
Final Thoughts
In light of the many factors that come into account when one desires a recording, I’ve come to a final (but subject to change) decision. Let’s start with my current situation: I’m a vocal guitarist with a drummer, and we have written a few songs together. We plan on finding a bassist, another guitar, another vocalist, and want to start gigging and writing songs as soon as possible. Needless to say, we’re babies. Even though we’re a small outfit, we feel a calling from God to write music, and will stop at nothing to fulfill that calling. Owned equipment: a two channel preamp, a crap computer, and a crap PA with 20 year old speakers. Can anyone say “humble beginning”?
So here’s my plan. I want the freedom of recording at home, but the experience and professional quality of a studio, and don’t want to pay huge amounts of money either. How can I get the best of both worlds and cut costs to a minimum? First, I want to set up a small home studio. One so small that you might call it a “mini” home studio. No fancy equipment, bells or whistles, but simply the bare essentials needed for recording. This probably means midrange or used equipment, free/open source recording software, and second rate mics and speakers. The sound will most likely be crappy, and I won’t care because that’s not what I’m using it for. The purpose of the home studio is to simply capture the moment, that special point of inspiration, and help me to remember it. This moment can then be brought to a professional studio when the time is right, we can play the material, and have a platform where we can easily present what we want. I feel it’s important to exhibit oneself professionally from the start, so I would like our first demo to be – from start to finish – professional. Anything distributed to the public thereafter – albums, singles, demos – professionally recorded and mastered. The price for professional recording might be steep for some (I mean most), which I understand completely (since I’m in the “most” category), but I feel that it’s worth it if you take your music seriously.
So what do you think? Do you have any suggestions for me or others who are in a similar boat? Have you been through this process before and have some advice for the rest of us? If so, post a comment and share your ideas with the world.
Off Beat Band Goals
Saturday, September 12th, 2009I believe that setting achievable goals is essential if you want to accomplish anything, and making those goals public can help other people keep you accountable. In this way I want to lay out some road cones for the direction I want Off Beat Band to take in the future. I say road cones, because there isn’t a road yet; I’ve got to make it myself. As of right now, I don’t know of anybody that has done anything like this before, and so I’m going to be blazing the trail ahead. All the while making lots of mistakes and a fool of myself in the process. I’m okay with that. Here are some of the aspirations I have for OBB.
- Off Beat Band is first and foremost about music. This includes all aspects of music, but more specifically it will help other people to achieve full time musician status. This can include all aspects of the music business, including finance, skills improvement, promoting yourself or your band, gigging, social interaction, and other things.
- I want OBB to become a community-like. An online collection of people who all share a similar love for music. It’s my hope that I can foster communication between artists, encouraging people to meet up locally, start bands together, and broaden the music scene in the places they live. I also hope it’ll become a place where beginners can find good advice and encouragement from those who are more experienced.
- OBB needs to be inspirational. As humans we are naturally weak. It’s hard to take the risk of becoming a full time musician, so I hope to dispel some of the myths and lies that might be subconsciously holding you back. This should include creativity exercises, financial advice, relationship advice, and other things that can spur us on to greatness.
- I don’t want OBB to become a “tech” guide. This is simply because the world of instruments, electronics, and accessories is way to large for me to handle as one person. It’s best left to others (who I’ll hopefully find on the way). However, I do plan on giving some “how tos” on the equipment and products I’m familiar with.
- The main goal of OBB is to help others improve their lives. I think things like overcoming fear, conquering addictions, and eliminating rage are more important than writing awesome songs. I want to help people enrich the world, not steal richness away.
- I’m planning on making money from this site someday because I think I should get paid for my hard work, but I’ll keep it on a very short leash. I hate annoying advertisements, worthless newsletters, and people that have to trick you into buying something. I avoid them like Yersinia Pestis.
- A tangible goal of mine is that I’d like to write at least one post a week. As I get a greater audience, I hope that people will help to keep me accountable with this goal. Like I said, I’m naturally weak.
- I want to share the healing message of Jesus. I’m stating it publicly now, ’cause I dislike it when people have unclear or shady motives or try to trick you into following their religion. I’m still in limbo about exactly how I’m going to portray my message, but God has had a very huge impact in my life and I want others to experience the same freedom that I’ve found.
At this point in time, nobody is actually reading OBB. I’ve only showed the website to my Chinese friend Lin, who plays guitar as a hobby, and has no interest in starting a band. But in the next few months I plan on having a committee of 10 or so of my genius colleagues to come in and review my site. During that time I hope to make a whole lot of improvements to the site, and get good ideas for articles. After that initial reworking, I’m going to have a more official release date where there will probably be more pomp and ballyhoo.
Don’t worry, I’ve never heard of ballyhoo either. 10 cool points for the thesaurus.
I have to admit I had a lot of hesitation starting this website. Mainly because I’m not an expert, and I don’t have years of experience under my belt. I’ve been playing guitar since 2002, and played my first gig only a year after that, but all that stuff doesn’t add up when compared with people that have been intimately involved in the business for years and years. Even though I have zero readers right now, the fact that this website is up and publicly available makes me nervous enough.
But I was thinking yesterday, one of those intense, deep thought “eureka” moments when I realized that I have no reason to be scared. I accept my ignorance, embrace it willingly, and choose to fight on in spite of the opposition, when ironically the only opposition is myself. Also, I have an advantage over others, because I’m going to meticulously document my path from ignorance to expert. In this way you can see in close detail the steps it takes to move from the field of novice to that of a virtuoso.
This is Off Beat Band. Welcome.
