When I joined the forum, someone suggested I started a diary. A diary? Of what? Well, here goes nothing...
For YEARS now I've been wanting to get out, play live, do SOMEthing, but I wasn't sure what. Then a couple of years ago my wife bought me a loop station. It is, simply, amazing. It's a Boss RC-300 and I've been practising with it ever since.
But the problem is that when I have time to practise, it's easier to just noodle, go through riffs, learn stuff off YouTube and work my way through the tower of jazz material. Anything except rehearse for a potential live gig, which involves setting up rhythm tracks, practising bass lines, getting the order of songs correct, and maybe recording videos.
I have a number of my tunes, and a few covers, set up on my loop station which is set up for a live gig right beside me …
It looks like chaos, but it's actually quite simple to operate, as I have everything MIDI synced. I've done a couple of coffee gigs, which seem to go okay, but I used an iPad with loops and found that I need to have less to think about. So I got the Boss GT-8 for all guitar sounds that is switched with the RC300 when I change songs, as is the Korg Electribe drum machine which can just about be seen in the plastic rack on the left (hey, I like drum machines!). So all I have to do is select the song on the loop station and hit record - the drum loop is ready to go and the GT-8 has selected the right bank of guitar sounds, which I just work through from left to right.
I feel terrified at the thought of playing solo in front of people but I know that once I get up there, things are fine. I just feel like it's something I need to do.
So this diary is really an attempt to document how I'm doing with rehearsals, and somehow make me feel accountable so that I actually do something about it and get this stuff OUT of the house and in front of people. Somewhere!
As a beginning step (although I've 'begun' thousands of times!) is getting my tunes up on
Bandcamp. I've done some trial videos using my iPad Pro and recording audio off the mixer, so I should probably also get some of those to a good enough level that I could upload them.
So....here goes!
Comments
Years ago I got into creating my own MIDI backing tracks because I couldn't find anyone that wanted to meet up to play together. Occasionally I was asked whether I could provide background music for events, usually club dinners, and realising that not everyone follows background music, I could start with the simplest - or my most confident - number and go from there. I programmed in solos on other MIDI instruments, such as piano, vibraphone or flute, that allowed me to take a break mid-song. I have one of those songs, here on YouTube. You can hear that everything except the guitar is MIDI.
Just last week I created a new song in Logic, a MIDI piano part that will be played by a lad who has asked to back him at an event this coming weekend, and the audio was my guitar running through my old Boss ME-5 and Mesa Boogie Studio 22+, just like I was doing in 1995!
You are not me but I would rent a room somewhere, maybe in a rehearsal studio, where you have to take your gear, set it up, play your set as if you had an audience, and then pack up and leave. It can help you polish not only your act but the logistics, such as knowing how much time you need to setup and clear out plus other things such as PA and monitor requirements. Once you are confident, a few friends who will hear it from the audience's perspective and give constructive criticism can be really useful.
Keep going: live the dream!
Loved the video, L. That's such a good tune, and I've not heard it played like that before. Nice job. Nice playing
The rehearsal room is a good idea. There are rooms near here that are very reasonable. My next step might be making some videos, see how that goes. That is, see if I can get through one song without screwing up royally!
Thanks guys !
Apologies to anyone if the language between adults is not considered acceptable.
Great effort by the way, looking forward to the diary developments.
You're probably right Dave, but I think it's relatively straightforward, it just looks complicated. I got used to the looper before I added the GT8, so that part became second nature before adding MIDI.
That V
The looper sets up the format of the song, so each track is set to a certain number of bars, sets the tempo, and has an effect setup for warping ,pitch change or just a bit of variety. When I change the song, it changes (via MIDI) the patch on the drum machine and the bank on the GT8, also setting the tempo so tap delays and tremolos etc are in sync. Banks on the GT8 contain four sounds, usually clean, distorted, pad (or stringy type synths sounds) and lead, with a Line6 M6 in the fx loop for weird stuff, which I usually play with on solos and soundscape type things.
There's also a box of switches for undo on each track. Very handy! A Vox Stompab pedal for the bass (which I tend to leave on one setting, but might experiment with that some more at a later date) and an Ernie Ball volume for guitar. Oh and a Yamaha 10 channel mixer.
And a coffee machine.
And a pencil.
And a spare pencil.
And a ...k, shutting up.
Typically a song involves:
1. Pickup bass, hit record on track one, start playing verse and hit record on track two before I get there (it starts when track one has finished recording its set number of bars) then record chorus and hit track 3 to record the bridge.
2. Hit play on track 1 to start looping the verse, then pickup a guitar to record something over the verse bit.
3. Sing the verse, adding guitar
4. Hit play and play guitar over the chorus, recording the second time around
And so on.
I used to worry about the tap dancing, but you can hit play before one track has finished playing and it will start playing the next track when the one playing has finished. No chance of getting things out of sync!
Now I just have to try to remember my lyrics.... Cool - thanks! It's nice to have approval of the stuff you buy. Especially when it only cost £10 yea it does a great job. Again, I tend to leave it on one setting but I like what it does.
http://www.richardsguitars.co.uk/index.php?p=/discussion/21247/my-names-kevin-and-i-dont-have-a-problem#latest
This year it has fallen to me to provide something, so I'll be sitting there with my looper pedal playing some jazz standards. I can play the chords, loop that, then play the head and solo, ending with the head. I'll probably throw in some violin too.
My wife plays tenor sax, so she'll be playing as well, sometimes with me and sometimes to a track.
It will really be like practising while people talk amongst themselves, drink tea, eat biscuits and ignore me, so it will be extremely low key. It will at least give me an idea of sound levels, setting up/tearing down and what it's like to do this somewhere other than in my house.
More news as it happens.
Well, the gig of sorts went well. It was as I thought, just like practising with people occasionally listening, but that was exactly what I needed. Absolutely no pressure. At least I got the Boss RC300 out of the house, which was the main aim. The gear performed nicely, although the 350w active speaker did get lost a bit in the big hall. I'd probably need a second one if I were to do that with a crowd (ie fabric covered sound absorbers).
And on to the next thing...
The next step was always meant to be doing videos. So here's the first (he says, hoping that he'll do a second!). No, I will. There will be another.
"I'm Amazing (You're Amazing)"
-------------Yeehaw !
*applause*
I enjoyed that.
SuperLoner
Impressive to see you so much in charge of guitar, bass, vocals, fx, looper, and video and sound technology.
Classy examples of how a skilled player / performer can use a looper to great musical effect.
Seeing what you can do reminds me of why I took up electric guitar. There the resemblance ends though as I fell way short of successfully managing the challenge even at basic levels!
I use the rig in the picture at the top of this thread.
Guitar > boss GT8 fx processor > Roland rc-300 loop station >mixer
Bass > korg Fx pedal > rc300> mixer
Drum machine > mixer
Vocal mix > mixer
Mixer goes into a powered speaker
Then there’s a line out from the mixer to an iRig adapter plugged into my iPad. Use adobe Clip to trim off the ends and paste in the titles that I made with an app called Sketches.
For Jellyfish, I hit record on track 1, play the bass, then hit track 2 to start recording when 1 is finished, then hit track 3 to record when track 2 is finished. Then I sometimes record guitar over the top for each track, and hit a button for undo for variety, which can also redo to bring back what I undid. I also have a volume pedal for the drum machine, a delete all button for track 3 (so I can reuse it for the final segment) and when I hit stop on track 3, it’s programmed to fade out for two bars. The GT8 is setup for four sounds for guitar and has an M5 pedal in the fx loop for the bass fuzz sound.
Is that what you meant, kevin? I can go into more detail if you like.
I also did about 15 takes to get something remotely passable!
Like Bob Dylan said, “if you don’t want to see me, look the other way”
Don’t
Jesus is for Losers (finally put the light on the other side of the room...,)