by harlowmedia | Oct 22, 2019 | Pro Tips
By Carey Henderson
I’ve been playing guitar for nearly 31 years.
I started like many people: my parents bought me an inexpensive guitar, because
they were smart enough to start this way to see if I’d stick with the
instrument first, I took lessons (from Jason Harlow himself), and spent a lot
of time driving my parents nearly out of their minds playing the same chords
and riffs over and over until I began to find some proficiency.
I can still remember the moment when I knew,
however, that I wanted to be a serious guitar player. My parents were on
vacation somewhere. At the time, we had one of those giant satellite dishes,
not these tiny DishTV ones you see remnants of now. I was still in the early
stages, and I happened across Van Halen’s ‘Live Without a Net’ special the night
that they were gone, and at the moment just before Eddie took his prolonged
solo. Sammy noted that this was the time during the show where he got to kick
back and drink a beer, and Eddie went to town. I was floored by his grinning
self, in those ridiculous pants and that wife-beater tee, as he began to rip
the sky from the ground in the way only Eddie can. I’d already been a fan of
bands like Stryper, and of course Van Halen, Motley Crue, and I had discovered
players like Steve Vai and Satriani. But I’d never seen anything like the
spectacle of Eddie doing what he does best.
From that moment on, I was hooked and knew
that I wanted to be able to do what Eddie could do.
In those early years, I was mostly into hard
rock, hair-metal, and some thrash, as well as instrumental guitar music. I can
remember riding with a friend at the time to the local mall any time we found
out that a shred guitar player had been released on the inimitable Shrapnel
Records. Marty Friedman, Vinnie Moore, Paul Gilbert, Tony McAlpine, and then
one day I heard Micheal Lee Firkins. Firkins became very quickly my favorite of
the lot, with his wild but precise use of a whammy bar to mimic slide guitar,
and his obvious blues and country influences. I cut my teeth, so to speak, on
these players. Some years later, I discovered Zakk Wylde, and then Stevie Ray
Vaughan, and to this day both remain my two biggest influences.
As my proficiency with the instrument grew,
even in my younger years, I could see my own limitations. I’ve never been any
good with arpeggios. I could tap well, and within a Pentatonic scale, I could
do two notes per string fast and with precision. In those early years, as well,
I used a Floyd-Rose set up, and learned to work the whammy bar with some
precision, though I never came close to achieving the skill of Michael Lee
Firkins. One thing that I credit to being a good player today is coming to
terms with my own limitations early on, and working within them, stretching
when and where I could, but never pretending to be something that I wasn’t.
I’ve always enjoyed serving the melodic sensibilities of a song anyway, so my
limitations didn’t hinder me terribly when it came to making music that I
enjoyed making, and music that other people seemed to enjoy listening to.
But the thing I credit most in terms of both
being a good player and never losing my love of the instrument some 31 years
later was learning quickly to command my own ego.
I find ego to be something like a drug: with
the correct dosage, it can push you to become the best player you can be, but
abused, it will derail progress, alienate you, and take all the joy out of
playing in any situation other than by yourself. There are few things that can
be as much fun as sharing the stage with other competent guitar players, and
enjoying the back and forth as you serve the music and the moment. But when the
ego is left unchecked, there is no hope of this joy.
I’ve played in live band situations since
college, though not consistently. I’ve had years on end where I took breaks
from it, only to find myself drawn back to it again because the shared
experience of music is something that I enjoy. In my many years on many stages,
I’ve seen the ego ruin the experience for many a guitar player (not to mention
the band backing them, and often the audience!) I’ve had so many of them step
on the stage with me and proceed to try and make the moment a competition,
which for me steals all the potential fun from serving the songs and the
moment. I’ve been off the stage and watched guitar players compete with each
other from the perspective of the audience member, one cranking their amp
louder, only to lead to the other player doing the same, until the entire thing
became a spectacle of ego rather than enjoyable back and forth that can come
from two competent players who respect one another.
I’ve always tried to keep my ego in check by
competing with one person only: myself. I want to be the best player that I can
be because I think that serves the music, and because it keeps out the toxic
need to ‘show up’ other players. When I want to improve, I listen to my
influences, and when I know my ego needs to be checked, I do the same. And
these days, if any adult player begins to find their ego taking over, thinking
that we are more special than is true, we only need to pull up YouTube. We can
then see kids at ridiculously young ages who can already ‘shred our faces.’ We
can also watch consummate players like Eric Gales, Andy Timmons, Joel Hoekstra,
and a host more, who all respect one another and share a stage with respect,
and learn from their example. I find doing this to be a marvelous tool in
making certain my ego is being administered at the correct dose.
Of course, there are always those players who
derive a sinister joy from wanting to show up other players, and nothing can be
done about or for them, as this is just the human condition. But most genuine
musicians want to serve the music and not destroy others. Some have this
quality early on in their journeys, and some find this as they age, realizing
with time and the wisdom of growing older that an unchecked ego is a zero-sum
game. Like the habit of abusing a drug, the ruinous monster of an unchecked ego
can never be satisfied, only satiated moment to moment in a never ending cycle.
Carey Henderson is the lead guitar player for The Michael James band and one of three guitar players in the band Reagan and The Advisors.
He can be found on Facebook and can be emailed at carey.henderson@gmail.com
by harlowmedia | Oct 15, 2019 | Pro Tips
Oh no, pucker factor 10!
(pucker factor – the amount your butthole clinches up during a tense situation)
In a world far far away, this is a fictional
story.
Jim Smuckatelli, bass player who played with the band “Sasquatch” comes into rehearsal with a new band called “Lazerbeam”. Now everyone knows that Jim is a player, he’s got 87 Facebook followers and has recorded at Larry Gussledorf’s (a.k.a. Night Rider Band) home studio right outside Nashville at the microtel Rm #23 . Jim will self-admit that he is a bad ass and when he walks in a room, people don’t notice, I mean notice.. this is fiction.
Jim, who is now playing with a cover band (strictly
for money to pay for his drinking habit) approaches the night of rehearsal. Jim knows that his “reputation” will prevail
and he will slay the 3 songs set as goals for the rehearsal, because, that’s
what Jim does.
Enter the “rehearsal”: The drummer kicks it
off 1,2,3,4.. and boom. Jim is playing some weird progression, it kinda sounds like
something I’ve heard before… hmmm… what could that be… I know! “shit”. Yeah, it
sounds like “shit” (as if it has some musical properties to it).
The band stops. Other members confused as to
what has occurred given the pedigree of such a player. The poor leader asks “Jim, what was that?” Jim
is at pucker factor 10.
And like clockwork, the excuses start coming out. (Have you heard these? I probably said some of these when I was younger!)
- “Man, I didn’t have time to really learn them, I “mapped” them out though!”. – I’m not sure what the term “map them out” means but I’ve heard it a lot in my career. I can only deduce that “Mapping something out” appears to be a term that means “I really don’t know what I’m doing but trust me… I listened to it!” Net gain: 0
- “Man, I learned the tune in a different key / different version” – As opposed to the tab that you were given and the explicit instructions to play the version on the album in the key of “g”? Net Gain: 0
- “Hey man, show me that one part” – Because you just now realized you don’t know how to play it? You are now asking others to learn your parts as well? Net Gain: 0
- “Hey man, I’m gonna be honest (like you are not always honest?), I got with a chick the other night and didn’t practice”. – Well, at least you now know where the commitment is and I appreciate you being honest the day of rehearsal (yes, I’ve heard all of these). Net Gain: 0
- “Man, I thought we were doing our own version of it” – i.e. My musical integrity would never let me play something like the original recording, after all, people will be able to recognize my version.. NOT. Net Gain: 0
- “Nobody told me”. This is a fabulous excuse given that everyone else seemed to know what was going on. How about some self accountability bro, maybe ask if you don’t know what songs to learn? Net Gain: 0
- “I listened to them all week” – Awesome! I never knew you are one of those people who can just listen to it and know the parts, that must be nice. Did you just develop Alzheimer’s before rehearsal cause it appears you can’t remember anything. Net Gain: 0
- “I’m a dumb ass and I think my time is more important than yours” – BINGO! I’ve never actually heard this one but I’d respect it much more than the others because it would be the truth. Net Gain: 1 – at least you know who to escort out of the band (politely).
The Impact:
What Jim failed to realize is:
- His actions have built frustration / distrust with his fellow band members.
- His actions have spoken louder than words and have wasted others time.
- He does not possess the same commitment as others.
- He has no integrity. Cannot be relied on.
- He has disrespected others.
- He is the weak link,
- He sucks.
Awe, come on, give Jim a break! He works and
does not have time to practice like the others.
My response: You are exactly where you want to be (as a band).
If you are ok with Jim not learning his parts and you not really progressing, rock on. It’s ok, you folks do you. It’s totally your choice as I’m sure Jim is a great dude, maybe your best friend and you folks will have a great time. I’ve been in bands where it was all about just jamming, in which case someone like Jim may thrive playing part and pieces of songs because nobody cares.
However, I’m talking about a band, a unit of people with the same focus. I’m just saying that I’ve never seen anything become great by choosing to be average, below average, or not putting in the work. As for me, I cannot recommend enough finding people who have the same commitment, values, and work ethic. I personally value my teams time as well as my own so I don’t know how long Jim would last in one of my bands. LOL
So, what’s the different
in Practice and Rehearsal and why does Jim suck?
As nouns the difference between rehearsal and practice is that rehearsal is the practicing of something which is to be performed before an audience, usually to test or improve the interaction between several participating people, or to allow technical adjustments with respect to staging to be done while practice is repetition of an activity to improve skill.
More specifically, Practice is what you do at
the house. It’s what you learn prior to a rehearsal with a band. It’s what you
do to ensure you are NOT Jim.
It’s where you are learning your songs, and
yes, to the very detail of what is recorded.
Why do I want to learn
every detail?
Ultimately, by learning the details from the album
or even official tab, you and your band now have a baseline. The baseline provides
the same “operating picture” to work from. From there, you can always make the
tune your own (if you want to), but knowing the baseline will not only make things
smoother, it will give everyone confidence that you are nailing a song.
What is Rehearsal?
Rehearsal is where everyone comes together as
a band to “practice” together. It’s a different mindset completely because knowing
your parts now allows you to work on the other aspects of the musical journey
such as dynamics and performance. The rehearsal provides that fine tuning of
the songs and allows for the band to take the song and make it their own (if
required).
“Practice is
personal; rehearsal is relational.”
Bottom line: Please, don’t be a Jim!
If you are a Jim, do yourself and your band members a favor by communicating what you are able to provide. Don’t sign up for something you cannot accomplish given whatever circumstances you have. It’s so much easier to be honest and upfront so band members can plan properly and manage expectations. We all have jobs, we’re all busy..etc. This is why it’s important to consider everyone’s time commitment, not just your own.
If you have a Jim in the band, speak to them about the standards you have and what is needed, otherwise, consider removing Jim. Jim could essentially be robbing you of your time, talent, and opportunity.
I realize this article was a little touchy and if you have been in one or more bands, you’ve seen it. There is no rule that says you have to run a band like a business or take any of this advice. It’s just things I’ve seen and have grown to despise at times and getting rid of the Jim attitude and ethic is crucial to growing.
I will continue to say this over and over, find people with your same commitment, values, and work ethic. From there, you can do just about anything your band sets out to do. Rock on.
by harlowmedia | Oct 15, 2019 | Pro Tips
Written by Jason Boyd – Professional Drummer
When Jason Harlow invited me to write an
article, I knew exactly what I wanted to write about first… Groove. Groove is
such an important element of music that I find is too often overlooked. In my
opinion it is what makes music truly enjoyable. I really look forward to
hearing everyone’s input on this topic. As musicians we should always try to
learn from one another, so your input is valuable to all of us!
A bit of history… I have always considered
myself a mediocre drummer. When we look at people who are “experts” on our
particular instrument, we normally tend to gravitate towards the ones who are
extremely technically proficient. This always left me feeling a bit “less than”
as a musician. However, I started noticing a pattern, especially moving to
Houston, TX. What I noticed was that I could be on the call list with drummers
who were without a doubt more technically proficient than I, yet I would still
get the call. The only thing I can contribute this phenomenon to is that I tend
to get the same compliments. These compliments are “You have a great feel” and
“I love what you don’t play”. That last one felt kind of offensive the first
time I heard it, but it is probably the best compliment I’ve ever received.
Is groove something learned or is it something
you either have or you don’t? This is the question that I’ve wrestled with more
than any other. I think for the most part it can be learned, but not in the
same sense a learning a new riff. To me, groove is a feeling and a state of
mind. As a kid, I remember when my dad
would say “find the groove god”. It sounded ridiculous back then, but makes
complete sense now. Groove is kind of like a dance. It has multiple layers that
I’ll expand upon below.
Tempo: In order to have great groove you need great tempo. Tempo is the
foundation that a good groove is built upon. Without this solid foundation,
everything else WILL crumble. Most of us have heard those dreaded words, “can
you play with a click?”. Those words used to throw me into an immediate panic
attack until I was forced to do it. After a little experience with a click
track, I began to love it! Now I welcome a click track and realize that it
relieves a lot of pressure off of me. Try to look at the click as another band
member in your mix and embrace it.
Listen: It’s impossible to find the groove if you don’t know where all of the
pieces are! Listen to your bandmates and compliment them! It’s not all about
you!
Beat
Placement: Now this is the hardest element for me to
explain, yet it’s critically important. In a 4/4 measure there are 4 beats, yet
where you choose to place them is critical! You can play ahead, on or behind
the beat. This is the element of feel that’s so elusive, yet it’s what gives a
song life. This is the “dance” part.
Relax: It’s next to impossible to find the groove if you’re stiff. Relax and
play with confidence! We’re human beings and will never be perfect. Those
imperfections are the subtle life of the song. This is why a “perfect” computer
will never replace an imperfect human musician.
Again, this is a tough subject to teach, but I
hope this has given you a few things to think about. If you are constantly
working on new riffs, I urge you to stop and analyze your feel first. There are
so many bands out there that are technically talented, yet I could care less
about listening to them. I appreciate the technical abilities of Neil Peart,
but I enjoy listening to Steve Jordan more any day of the week! My dad was a
brilliant musician and could groove like no one I’ve ever met. Something he
said about my old band The Mutt Brothers that always stuck in my mind was this…
“Y’all are like a locomotive that’s getting ready to derail, yet you’re right
on track”. Be a beautiful trainwreck and embrace your human imperfections.
You’ll be a better musician and probably get more jobs if you do.
by harlowmedia | Oct 15, 2019 | Pro Tips
Have you ever stepped back and considered all the moving parts of a band? It’s a miracle things actual happen at all given how humans interact.Ever thought about your role in a band?
- Am I a support or lead musician?
- Am I a volunteer or getting paid?
- Will I be allowed and/or expected to contribute creative ideas?
- Do I have even have a role?
Maybe you’re in a situation where you feel like you are pulling all the weight or feel like you are not being used to your full capacity. Look no further as roles may solve your woes.
Why are roles important?
Roles and Responsibilities provides clarity, alignment, and expectations to members in the band and those executing the work to make a successful performance, record, or any other musical venture. Roles & Responsibilities enables effective communications between the various members, preventing folks stepping on each other’s toes and building trust… not to mention making things much more efficient.
As you can imagine, there are many roles doing music. To prevent this note from being a book, I’ll touch on the more common roles and be leaving out roles such as manager, engineer, publicist, publisher, social media strategist, music supervisor, video tech, promoter, a&r, radio promoter, tour manager, website designer, stage crew…etc.
Leader: The life blood of the band. The role is to guide the band, mission, and to be an effective communicator on goals, schedule, and all band affairs. If you are the leader, you have the greatest responsibility. The bands health, morale, momentum, and success rely on your ability to communicate effectively, to serve, set goals, to inspire, and to be honest and transparent with your members. It’s a role which requires patience and the ability to understand others perspectives while holding members accountable as well as yourself. As a leader, you need to be the solid rock who exemplifies the standards that you expect from others. The disposition a leader has in the room drives everybody else’s behavior to a large extent. A positive and confident leader not only stands like a rock for the team, but helps promote and dissipate the same reaction among the team.Band
Members: Without you, the band doesn’t exist. You and your input are critical to making the ship move. Make sure you exercise diligence, flexibility, support, and participation in transforming the band. You must be transparent and honest with the leader and let them know when they could use extra perspective. Learn others strength and weaknesses and always respect the capabilities of others and encourage. Continue exercising your commitment to the band through learning material, lending a hand to others, and ensuring the standards are also met.
Sound guy / light guy: Well, maybe you are the most important after all. I include the sound / light techs in with the band because after all, they are your ears and eyes to a successful performance. They know more than you do in terms of what the crowd is seeing and hearing so respect them and be kind and let them do their role. When there are literally hundreds of variables going on and there is a small feedback, realize it’s a bit more complicated than you think and many times this could be caused by changes in stage volume. Pro tip: loud stage volume leads to less control on the mix, louder isn’t always better because you end up competing with each other in smaller clubs.
Booking / Promotion: If you don’t have an agent, most likely you or someone on the band is doing this role. It’s not the most fun role and it comes with a lot of pressure. It’s not just making calls, it’s doing flyers, promotion, managing schedules and people. The trick I’ve found is to define what the bands requirements / goals are up front and allow the person booking to negotiate on the band’s behalf. If you play in a band because you want to have fun, rock on! Do that and enjoy having the best time of your life. If you play in a band to make money, rock on, Do that! However, when booking, please respect the venue / bar or establishment and look at it not from what they provide you but how you can partner with them to equally benefit. I’ll write an article on this by itself as I see folks who do not completely understand where money comes from to pay bands, the death of live music, or understanding actual value versus perceived..etc. Hint: Remember why you got into music in the first place. ?
The everything role: Unfortunately, the role many people find themselves in. Although it can feel rewarding at times, I’ve seen it personally take a toll on the individual and the band leading up to eventual problems. We’re human and we all want to give everything we got but running everything can ultimately lead to error and burnout.
Example: If you find yourself doing the promotion, booking, setting up PA, running sound, creating the song lists, doing the website, social media..etc. You will inevitably start the human instinct of feeling overwhelmed and underappreciated (it happens, it’s normal). You may even start to feel like others just don’t care when in reality, it could be because:
- Roles were not defined
- Roles were not equally distributed and accountability not in place
- You failed to rely on others
- You have members that are in fact included but not committed (uh oh!)
If for some reason you can handle the load of everybody and everything, rock on, you are better than most! However, in my experience, that’s not a band.. that’s a boss that just tries to tells others what to do.
I realize this was a bit less exciting of a read, however, please take time to evaluate your roles and place people in the roles where they have strengths.
Everyone cannot be the leader and there are no leaders without followers.
Hopefully this rambling can help in your band and personal development. I continue to make mistakes and learn from them. These notes / articles are meant to establish thought and if you have other experiences, please share your insight! Rock on.
by harlowmedia | Oct 15, 2019 | Pro Tips
“Dude, we should totally be a Slayer tribute band” / “no man, I think we should only do country music!”.
Yeah, that’s real. It exists. Two musicians discussing their goals and desires to form the ultimate band. Houston, we have a problem.
Most of the bands I’ve seen that are short lived happen for a number of reasons but at the heart of it is because members of the band simply don’t have the same goals in mind. Worse, the members are not flexible or they’re actually prideful.
I’ve actually been in projects where folks would not play a type of music because they apparently where “too cool for school” – Jason Harlow 1987. Yep, I remember telling myself I would never play a “poison” song. Fast forward 2019, I play them freely as some of the most fun songs ever to play. What was I thinking??? It’s interesting to see how perspectives change when you learn what is actually important.
If you don’t get anything out of this article, get this… music is about having fun. Period. We’re not curing cancer or doing anything that is that serious. I mean really, we’re getting the opportunity to get in front of folks and have a great time doing what we’ve practiced our whole lives. If I had a time machine, I would go back and punch myself in the face for even considering that one genre of music was superior over another. Turns out that most of that music I considered inferior (jazz, country, pop) is much more complex than anything I’d ever played. Good news is that I learned quickly and realized just how ignorant I was fortunately. If this is you, learn from me! I’m so glad with age comes wisdom and experience.
Back to goals! Inevitably, if bands and members don’t align their goals, they simply fail because everyone is pushing in different directions and there is no satisfaction.
So, what happens when you have 2 or 3 different people with opposing goals? How do you fix it?
If you have mature members, divergent thoughts and mixed goals can work to build a chemistry that makes something very special. If members respect each other and have those love languages I spoke about intact, there can actually be some goodness out of it.
Unfortunately though, if you have members who are at the opposite polar ends of the musical spectrum with song choices, attitude, likes, values that are unwilling to change…etc. You must remove them and place them in a project of like people. Sorry, it’s the truth because otherwise you are wasting your 86,400 seconds a day.
That being said, preventing these problems can be solved with a well laid out set of goals prior to taking on members or setting goals with your current members will greatly attribute to the growth and stability of your band.So, what do band goals look like?
- Let’s play Harlow’s in the next 90 days. We can lock in 12 songs to play a 1 hour set. We’ll rock peoples faces and having fun while increasing our social presence through fans and followers (ok, shameless plug).
- Let’s learn the songs: brown eyed girl, honky tonk woman, and mustang sally by next week and incorporate them into our wedding gig next Saturday.
- Let’s save up $500 in the next 2 weeks to record our original “Rock your momma” at Sunland Studios. We’ll take $250 off the top from the Harlow’s gig to help fund and another $250 off t-shirt sales to fund it.
What do many band goals actually look like:
- Let’s get signed
- Let’s become famous
- Let’s make money
Notice the difference?
In the business world we use “SMART” goals. Which stand for:
Specific / Measurable / Attainable / Relevant / Time-Based
When planning your band goals, be specific. Without knowing where you want to be specifically in your music journey, it’s likely you’ll take some dirt roads and find yourself lost and broke down.. mostly broke. Consider this when planning your song choices, venue choices, marketing choices. What specifically is needed.
If you can’t measure it, you can’t tell if you are making progress. To many times I see bands set a goal but fail to measure whether or not they hit the target. After a while of not measuring (whether performance, sound, or connecting with people), they seem to wonder why folks quit coming to their shows. Always measure!
Make the goals attainable! Example: If the singer can’t sing it, don’t do it. Sorry guitar shredder dudes (I’m one of them), people in the crowd aren’t really talking about your string skipping and legato, they are too busy saying the whole band sucks because you thought a dream theater song would impress people but the singer can’t sing it. Make the goals attainable for your band and put any song choices in the sweet spot and strike zone of your singer. Know your limits and play to your strengths not your weaknesses. Before setting the goal to write an album, set the goal to write one song.. then three..etc.
If the goal is not relevant to your band and it achieving something meaningful, it’s practically useless. I also like to use the word “realistic” here as well. You can have the most specific, measurable, and attainable goals but if it’s not really relevant or realistic, you’re wasting your precious 86400 secs.
Time based is key! It’s not only key to be able to measure but it creates the urgency needed and baseline needed for other members to achieve success. If no timeframe exists, you have no real management of expectations. BTW, it’s ok if you don’t make a timeline… this becomes knowledge. It’s likely you may not hit all the goals but if you set a timeline for a week to learn 4 songs and the band only learns 2, you’ve gained extremely valuable knowledge on your band’s velocity (2 songs a week). You can then adjust your timeline based on your new knowledge and continue to refine your capabilities for a well tuned face rocking machine.
Hopefully this rambling may give you some ideas. I recommend you start with small goals and grow. It’s really fun to look back as well to see the accomplishments. You quickly realize without goals; you would have been in the same place, doing the same thing, and expecting different results (insanity). You don’t even want to calculate how much time (your most critical asset) was lost. Rock on.
