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Post subject: New Band
Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2008 10:39 am
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Aspiring Musician
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After a few years of pondering, I have decided to form a new band with some mates. We intend to do it as a hobby and to cover a wide selection of songs. I am going to play rythmn guitar. Our first song is to be Back in Black. The other guitarist and I intend to practice for a while first before introducing the other instruments.

Any advice, comments?

I will keep all updated.

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Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2008 11:04 am
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I wouldn't practice too long without the drummer. You guys are supposed to keep time off him not the other way around so you don't want to get used to playing without him.

Be wary, all bass players secretly want to be guitarists. They will try to sabotage your gear out of envy (I'm kidding)

My main advice is to have fun with it. That's what playing is all about.

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Post subject: new band
Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2008 11:18 am
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been there, done that, & doing it now,Paul most of all have fun in what you are about to do,don't try to bite off more then you can chew, any song you cover you don't have to play it exact note for note, try to get it as close as you can but it doesn't have to be exact, what I have done now & in the past is record practice with the band, when I had a 3 piece band with a female front vacalest I used the fostex 4 track casset recorder, was ok for the time, the band I have now is a bit larger so now we record into a korg D888 digital 8 track recorder, it's the best thing since white bread,enjoy music. I'm 58 and I'm still at it, even if it's for sh*t's & giggles
you're making music.
sparky


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Post subject: new band
Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2008 11:18 am
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go for it man.
me and my friends are also going to start to do the same thing.


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Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2008 11:25 am
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That's great man! I wish you and your mates all the luck you deserve! :) 8)


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Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2008 11:43 am
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Practice on your own.

Rehearse with the band.

Set short and long term goals and objectives.

Good luck!

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Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2008 3:10 pm
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Good luck with your band,
You didn't mention what other instruments you will be employing.
Anyway, no matter, what I have always subscribed to is that, if you are doing covers, don't try and be a clone of the original artist. Your band will, like every other have it's own unique sound and style, that should be exploited to the full.
Listen to the pro artitsts, you will recognise the cover song but it's unmistakable who is doing the cover. Lean on your strong points.
As a guitarist I have always worked with the vocalist first, to get a rough sketch of what we are doing and then introduce it to the rest of the band, until we get it nice and tight. Dynamics in the volume, not all on one level, punch hard and withdraw, makes it more intersting to play and for the audience to listen to.
Check out Jethro Tull, they were masters of light and shade, impeccable timing and attack and withdraw on the volume level. Power is not loud.
Loud is loud, power is punch at the right time.
Anyway I've probably said too much, I usually do.
Above all have fun and make it interesting, you'll love it more.
All the best.


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Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2008 6:22 pm
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One thing I found useful in band days was to minimize distractions and skip the "substances." We treated rehearsal time exactly the same as a gig ... part of the job. Ours were always closed sessions -- no friends, etc. and (this was late 60s and into the mid-70s), we'd tape songs we weren't sure we had quite how we wanted them.

I also agree with the point about the singer. We worked early to determine our singer's natural range and pretty much went with that. End result: he never once lost his voice or had to strain.

A final point is to be sure everyone has the same expectations. My band was a cover band with a free form style. Anyone coming in knew up front we didn't do originals, but didn't either play note-for-note. Our style was jazz/blues influenced but something that would sell to mainstream bar, high school and club audiences of the day. The three of us who founded it would give others some ideas of what to listen to (other bands, styles, etc.) before deciding they might want to join.


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Posted: Wed Oct 22, 2008 6:58 am
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thanks for the advice

some of our new tracks are pinball wizard-who, I wont back down-tp, in Gods country, Bad-U2, Folsom prison blues-Cash

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Post subject:
Posted: Wed Oct 22, 2008 8:29 am
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Paulie G wrote:
thanks for the advice

some of our new tracks are pinball wizard-who, I wont back down-tp, in Gods country, Bad-U2, Folsom prison blues-Cash


Ha! Pinball Wizard - second song I ever learnt. Very close to my heart.

It always secretly bothered me that when they played it live John had to cover Pete's lead (from the recording) in the intro and so couldn't do his own bass line at that point, cos I think that bass sounds so nice and atmospheric before the drums come in.

Two ways round that. First, of course, is to have two guitarists, one playing rhythm on an acoustic, one on lead.

Second: when I bought a Boss GT-3 donkey's years ago I found you can assign the drive effect to the expression pedal, with the value "0" at one end, "100" at the other. So then you do the Pinball flamenco (wrong word, I know) stuff with a nice electro-acoustic type sound, but when you get to those lead chords you just step into the drive for a moment, and then fade it out again with the expression pedal while the acoustic strumming continues. Much more organic than merely switching a drive pedal in and out.

You could do the same thing with a drive pedal linked through a seperate expression pedal [Edit: by which I mean a volume pedal, of course], too, mixed half wet, half dry through the amp's FX circuit. A bit fiddly, perhaps, but very impressive to pull off, and has any guitarist in the audience snapping their head around wondering what you did. Nice!

Now, just get that solo acoustic intro right, won't you, Paulie? Pete always said the chords from that intro could have been a song in their own right: very tasty.

Good luck - C

[Edited for clarification]


Last edited by Ceri on Wed Oct 22, 2008 9:05 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Post subject:
Posted: Wed Oct 22, 2008 8:34 am
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B*****s to that!!

Don't play covers! You're giving everyone a yardstick by which they can judge/pigeonhole you!

Write your own stuff and concentrate on being more 'out there' than anyone can imagine!

:wink:

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Post subject:
Posted: Wed Oct 22, 2008 2:13 pm
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One very important thing, maybe the most important of all...

Band practice isn't really "practice". The practicing is the homework you do at home before you all met. When you meet, everyone should already know their parts and you're just playing them together to tighten up a few things. There should never be any "how does that part go again" for the 10th time, etc. That's BS.

This is THE BIGGEST waste of time many bands have, and they go on and on for months when one or two people do not take time to learn their stuff, to frustrating. There's nothing worse than wasting YOUR time at practice when you know all your stuff and someone else is playing games and is still unable to play their parts again and again.

Jamming is jamming - and that's fine. But if you're getting songs together, that's where you stop playing around and work at it. You'll do yourself a great service to have that discipline and skill which will help you tons in the long run.


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Post subject:
Posted: Thu Oct 23, 2008 9:52 am
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Hi,
Pinball Wizard - Yes, the Who did some good stuff and that is one, with it's quiet moments and punchy crash chords and Ceri's technical discourse on the use of effects [ interesting manoeuvre - c ]
If I can say something at this point.
Ian Sherridan has a point with what he said, even though, I think you can do quite a lot with the aforementioned song but generally I would steer clear of songs that are too well known.
Do covers 'yes' by all means, all bands, even the big ones like the Beatles and the Stones started with covers but there is one little trick that we all know about. " Obscure album tracks " If most of the audience don't know it or who did it, they cannot compare it.
Also if I may be presumptuous, can I offer a song that my old band used to play, that always went down a storm with the punters wherever we played it.
A little thing called 'I'm Tired ' by Savoy Brown. Very easy to play, lots of light and shade, punchy crash chords and get the drummer to lay down a bouncy rhythm.
Download it, have a listen, I think you will like it and I know your audience will. Anyway, just a suggestion,
I hope everything is going well, all the best,
Rhumba


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Post subject:
Posted: Fri Oct 24, 2008 11:32 am
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Interesting to go further with some of that. I certainly agree 100 percent with Rhumba and Ian Sheridan - in principle.

However, which of us has not played sets where we try and foist as much of our own material as possible on an audience, only to notice with private dismay their wandering attention, and the relief with which they greet our return to songs they know?

Of course, that is likely a comment on the quality of music I've been involved in... But even the most successful bands in history have always found it an uphill task to play new numbers to even their most loyal fans.

Pete Townshend used to talk about a "tripartite" set list: the big hits that the whole audience would know to open and close the show and pepper it here and there; the more obscure numbers from albums that the diehard fans called out for but which the more casual audience members found unfamiliar; and the "difficult" new material, which had to be sneaked in judiciously, without trying everyone's patience too much.

Even Layla and Wish You Were Here were once unkown numbers no doubt greeted coolly by the first crowds to hear them. I have a CD of Led Zeppelin doing a live show at the BBC and playing Stairway to Heaven, having just recorded it but before the album had come out. Subdued indifference from the audience.

Fine players from The Allman Brothers to Joe Bonamassa have played substantial quantities of covers in their shows. It is what you do with familiar numbers that counts, as Joe Cocker showed.

Cheers - C


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Post subject:
Posted: Fri Oct 24, 2008 12:50 pm
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I agree with Ceri. Although I love writing and playing only originals, I've learned that I can have a MUCH bigger crowd, and more loyal following if I play what they know, play it well, and once they like us, sneak in some originals. They'll be MUCH more receptive to that, buy more CD's, follow you around than if I were to just say "I'm not playing what you like, even though you're paying me to. I'm only playing MY stuff. Take it or leave it, bastards!"

Well, that may be a bit extreme, but you have to know "people". But that goes for any area of life as well.


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