Different paths to being a great musician

Part 94

   So here we go, I might annoy some people with this blog, but this is really important subject to me. Everybody's path to being a great musician is different. What works for me might not work for you. For me it has taken years of trial and error, and endless hours of playing and singing. I am sure some one with the proper teaching skills could have got me musically here much faster, but at the same time I wouldn't have the experience I have now. When you first start playing an instrument, it usually starts with acquiring an instrument, learning some basics by your self, or a friend showing you something. Then you have few different paths to go. You can sign up for some lessons with a teacher, or even go to a music school and get some theory lessons on the side. You can get your friends to show you bit more, play with other musicians and learn from them. My way was driven by hunger to learn more, I spent endless hours in my room winding back cassette tapes of my favorite bands and tried to learn what the guitar players were playing. Then learning the songs with my garage band at the time and playing them endless hours at our rehearsals and eventually get to play them at school gigs or local fund raisers. The thing is that human mind works in mysterious ways and every ones way of learning is different. Some people need to analyze the music so it makes sense in their minds. Some people need to visualize it in their minds and even on that I have heard of several variations. I need to feel it. I know it sounds like a cliche, but I don't visualize the music, I feel it. I feel the groove and go with it, I feel the chord progressions, I feel the fretboard under my fingers and most of the time I let the fingers guide me. This is due to endless hours of playing, jamming and muscle memory. I can read music, though I am very slow at it and definitely out of practice. This again I learned the basics with a teacher in school and then converted it to guitar and just spent time to learn more and more. But still to day if I learn a melody on written music it takes me long time to get it to my head, where as if I learn it by ear I usually pick it up much faster. Until it is in my head I can't feel it and if I don' feel it I can't play it well. I suppose this is one of the reasons I have passed on quite few opportunities in my time. Opportunities to play music I had no interest in but the pay would have been good. It's just not in me to take on a job I know I can't do well.

   But lets go back to the learning songs of those old tapes. Every musician needs ear training, you can learn the best licks, fills, solos and what have you, but you need to learn to use your ears! You need to listen to whats going on around you, what every band member is doing around you. If you zone out in your own world and just play your part, sooner or later you will find your self in a ditch... It is a musical car crash waiting to happen. Listening to other players around you while delivering your own part is one of the marks of a great musician. You need to put aside what you do as an individual musician and become a part of the over all band. You might have the coolest solo you want to play here or there, but it might clash with the rest of the band. If this is the case, back off! The song must come first! And what is the best for the song might not be the fancy fill you love to play but just a simple beat that keeps the groove going and makes people feel the music. For me listening to those tapes and trying to figure what was played was the greatest ear training any one could get. You learn to recognize your intervals, your chords, the rhythm patterns. And you know, I enjoyed every second of it! I could not wait to get to play the song through when I finally had it figured out. I also learned so much about song structures, riff construction, dynamics... And I don't want to take away from the academics of music, but some of these skills if they had been broken down and presented to me through a teacher from a book, it would not make sense to me the same way as it does today. This was the best way for me and still is today. I still learn every day, I still practice every day. Going to band practice once or twice a week won't make you a better player and it definitely won't make your band better, unless you all practice individually every day! And I don't just mean playing random stuff, but identifying your weaknesses and working on them.

    I know there are people out there who think you will not be a great musician until you study in Berkeley or some other fancy school, and there are people out there who think you are not a real musician unless you're self taught. But the fact is, neither is wrong or right. It comes down to the individual. What's your way of learning?


    J.P.

Music before Business

Part 72

    We get so often lost in the world of all this modern music marketing, your YouTube views, twitter followers, Facebook likes and so on, that sometimes we can forget what is the most important thing. You need to have a good song and a band that can make them sound great. I do wave the flag for all the tools of modern music business and for your DIY recordings and all that, but this is only going to work if you have good product to start off with and by this I mean well rehearsed kick ass songs. Only then can you set out to record them. To do this you do need some skill. I know you can buy a Pro tools set up for next to nothing compared to what they used to be, but all that fancy gear means nothing unless you know what to do with it. I am not saying that this is something you cant learn and do, but sometimes we just assume if we get the gear then it all gets done.

    You have to remember that music business very often can be all about the first impression. Sure there were bands over the years who were not so great to start with, but learned to play along the years. The thing is that there is so much music out there today, that for you to stand out, you really need to be better than good, you need to be great. You need to stand out from the crowd. Ok again there have been exceptions to this, where some acts get past it all by some freak elements. But I personally don't think you can create any sustainability by blowing through YouTube charts with great visuals, but no substance in the music. There is a reason the music comes before the business;-)

    And I would also go as far as saying this comes down to individual members of the band. Your band is only as good as its weakest link. So man up and take responsibility for your own playing. If it needs work, put the hours in to it! Only way to get better as a musician is to practice. You won't find the answer to the almighty question of how to get a record deal on the net if your music is not ready yet. Make sure you can play in time and accurately. There is nothing worse than listening to some one try to play a guitar solo when they just can't... If you can't play it note to note perfect slowly, what on earth makes you think you can play it fast. Oh yeah, and lets throw in as much distortion as there is on the tap to cover up any fluffs... I think over thinking your own abilities can be sure way to slow down or even stop your progress, trust me on this one, I was there once. The day you admit to your self that you know very little and you need to learn so much more, is the day you start the road to real development. There is that old saying that it takes 10000 hours to get good at something. So if you worked 40 hour weeks on your playing, it would still take nearly five years before you could even think getting close of perfecting an instrument. And personally I don't think any one can perfect an instrument, as music evolves all the time.

    You know, it is one thing playing in front of all your friends and them cheering you on, but until you play in front of lets say thousand strangers and they all think you are amazing, only then you will be moving heads and it will be a matter of time when you either get offers for record contract, or you have the required skills to put out your own records.

    And to go back to the “product” meaning your songs, it is exactly the same thing. No one is the best songwriter in the world naturally. It takes work. You need to work on your song writing as much as you work on your playing. “Ah, but songwriting is an art” you might say. Well yeah, but it is also very much a craft that requires some serious skill.

   So if you want to take your music seriously, start practicing seriously:-)

   J.P.