The Garage Band Handbook - Chapter One: Friend Or Pro

For the average kid starting a band is like getting together a team for basketball. They want to play with their friends, with the people they know and are comfortable being  around. Of course they don’t want someone on their team who can’t play very well but neither do they want someone too good since they want to have fun and don’t want to struggle to keep up. Most bands are formed from a group of neighborhood friends who each choose an instrument as if they’re choosing a position to play in softball. Some may have musical talent and some may not. Eventually those who struggle to keep up will decide to give it up or the others will move on without him but in the beginning everyone has the potential to be a superstar and personality, desire and perseverance can be more important than musical ability.

    When putting together a band from your available friends, don’t be too concerned with who will play what instrument. Try to share each other’s instruments as this is a good opportunity to see who excels at what. Van Halen guitarist, Eddie Van Halen, originally played the drums in a band with his brother, Alex, the guitar player. They eventually switched instruments and became one of the most powerful brother rock star team in history. Just because you have a guitar and your friend has a drum kit doesn’t mean that when you get to your rehearsals you can’t switch instruments. You also don’t have to limit yourself by allowing only one guitarist or one bassist or one drummer. It will be somewhat chaotic at first, but from out of this group of friends, who are really just getting together to have some fun anyway, a band will emerge.

    If you are an already accomplished musician, having played an instrument since the age of five, you may want to skip ahead a few steps and instead of getting your buddies involved, go straight to the other kids in your school or neighborhood or church or surrounding schools that are at your level. Although be aware that there is a negative aspect to this as well as a positive side. The idea of forming a “supergroup” of your peers rather than your friends can be an effective shortcut to a music career. The positive side is that everyone in the band can hold their own and you will be perceived as a good group from the start. Your reputation will start building immediately. The negative aspect is that your band mates are mostly strangers to you, although you may become fast friends. They also may already have well developed egos to go with their talent and competition within the band may prove fierce.

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Greg Piper - Rock N Roll Bass Beginnings

Hi!  I'm Greg and I'm a Rockaholic!  I started playing bass guitar on a six string instrument back in 1971.  Why? At the time my bizarre show-biz family was putting on a theatrical production of "Curse You Villain", a musical melodrama, in Vail, Colorado and I was part of the music ensemble and understudy actor for the Villain.  The show was far from Rock N Roll, but nonetheless it was a great, easy & fun paying gig.  Imagine that, being 17 and getting paid to play music.  I was hooked!  My mother, Beevie played piano, my brother played banjo and I have my six string guitar that I'm playing bass with. 

We start rehearsing together and at first I am strumming along on the guitar along with the others and I realize there's no sound separation - too much similar rhythm style playing.  So I decided to play the four bottom strings of my 6-string guitar to sound more like a bass, which happen to be the same notes as used on a normal bass guitar.  I changed the EQ on my guitar amp to sound more low end and all of a sudden we had this great banjo, piano and bass sound happening.  It was a perfect trio.  And that is how I officially became a bassist.  

I soon realized quickly that there was a great demand for bass guitarists.  Why?  Everybody wanted to be the flashy lead guitarist, turn up the fuzz, sustain those lead notes, get the girls and all that.  Nobody wanted to play the bass.  There was not much glory in playing bass because few listeners recognize the sound of the bass.  But, I didn't care what people felt.  I liked playing bass and I had plenty of other ways to get attention, believe me.  Plus, for me, playing bass was more natural than playing guitar.

How did I learn to play bass?  I listened to my 4 favorite bass players from my 4 favorite bands . . . Paul McCartney of The Beatles, John Paul Jones of Led Zepplin, John Entwistle of The Who and Jack Bruce of Cream.  In the Rock N Roll world these four greats cover all the bases!  I did not take bass lessons, I cannot read music notation or music charts either.  I learned by listening.  I play by ear.  Besides, most of the sheet music is wrong anyway.  Back when we were playing cover songs we would have to learn 1 or 2 new songs every week to keep up with the club gig scene.  It was just a matter of getting the record (remember 45's?) listening, picking out the notes, the feel, rhythm and arrangements, and then play.  Of course we never were note for note geek freaks, we were more into performance.  You want to hear note for note?  Go home and listen to your records or CDS or the radio.  We definitely got the song down, put some of our own personalities into the songs and we were good to go.  I've been playing bass professionally every since. I still play and I love it! 

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The Garage Band Handbook - Chapter One: Equipment, Part One

Like everything else these days the competition to own the best is also intense. There seems to be two different kinds of personalities in garage bands. The first kind is the talent. He or she is the kid that plays whatever is available and doesn’t give too much thought to the technical side of things. These kids become the standout musicians, the soloists, the lead singers, the song writers. The song is what is important to them. They’ll play the cheapest old guitar and play all day under a tree in the park, they don’t care. The other garage band personality is the techno freak. These types won’t even listen to a demo tape if there’s too much hiss on the leader. They somehow manage to get the best equipment and use their equipment, rather than their talent, to get into bands that otherwise wouldn’t be interested in them.  Of course, the bands are using them for their equipment and eventually as the band progresses, the music becomes more important and the equipment takes care of itself so these types end up without a band. Many times this is where recording engineers come from (no offense intended).

    Most parents of teenagers are very supportive of their children’s musical endeavors. Even if they find the music itself irritating, the activity is wholesome, safe, creative, helps to develop hand and eye coordination and cognitive thinking. Although musical instruments have become very expensive, they are still a reasonable investment providing they are enthusiastically used. Many parents may not want to make the investment as they see their child as only wanting it on a whim. Tennis gear one week, skateboards the next week, video games the next week, electric guitar the next week... The instrument seem one more in a string of seldom used and then discarded items. However, piano lessons followed by guitar lessons or bass lessons does not indicate a lack of commitment but rather a searching process to find the instrument that best complements one’s natural musical personality. Borrowing or renting instruments is a good way to get through this selection process. Most kids want to own an instrument right away but it is far better to learn on a cheap or borrowed instrument and then after all uncertainty is erased,  buy a real good one.

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A Great Idea That didn’t Work

A neighbor of mine owned a state of the art rehearsal facility and told me he had this great idea. He was installing cameras in all the rehearsal studios to film the rehearsals then make those videos available to the public on a subscription basis.

At first I thought this was a pretty good idea. I would love to have my rehearsals videotaped so I could study them later. After all, don’t professional sports teams tape their practices?

The problem was his money making idea of letting the public pay to see my rehearsal tapes. No way would I want anyone to watch my rehearsals. We don’t even allow family or friends to visit when we rehearse. Rehearsals are NOT performances but are the time for learning and most importantly, the time for making mistakes and working out problems. I admit this can be extremely useful and educational for someone wanting to see what the Pros go through but I don’t want my dirty laundry exposed to the public. Why work hard to give a professional show as nearly flawless as possible just to ruin the entire effect by showing the blood and guts behind the illusion?

Apparently no one else thought it was a good idea either and my neighbor has since sold the business.

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The Garage Band Handbook - Chapter One: Equipment, Part Two

Choosing a musical instrument is a very personal decision. The musician needs to hold and play the instrument before buying it and should be able to play well enough to know how hard or easy a particular instrument is going to be for him or her to play. Just as the brand name, color, style, fabric and a host of other criteria come into play when deciding which clothes to buy, so it is with musical instruments. The make and model of an instrument represents a particular genre or style of music. For instance; a Gibson Les Paul guitar is used by hard rock bands, the Gibson SG is used by sixties style rock bands and psychedelic bands, the Rickenbacher 12 string is famous as a folk rock guitar. The Fender Stratocaster is a classic rock guitar and surf music guitar. The Danelectro Baritone is the classic sixties surf guitar. The Gretch is a country guitar and the B.C. Rich guitars are popular for Heavy Metal. Of course, these are generalizations but  the beginning musician needs to have a clear idea of what kind of music he or she wants to play and what kind of genre their band will be. The amplifiers, although important, do not contribute to the uniqueness of the sound as much as they once did since now effects units, sold as small foot pedals, can give the player a wide variety of sound effects and simulate the sound of many guitar and amplifier combinations.

    One important aspect of being a musician is equipment maintenance. Since staying in tune is still a bit of a requirement, here are some pointers: Use a tuner. There are many good, inexpensive electronic guitar tuners available these days so there is no excuse for an out of tune performance. Sometimes, however, the guitar may seem in tune when you’re playing down on the neck but out of tune when you play higher on the neck. This is because the neck is out of alignment or the strings need to be calibrated. If the neck is out of alignment the truss rod that runs up the center of the neck needs to be adjusted and it should be taken to a professional guitar tech. Most music stores can recommend a good tech if they don’t employ one themselves. If your strings need to be “strobe tuned” a professional should also be called on but with an electronic tuner, you can do some adjusting yourself. The basic idea is that the strings should be the same distance from the twelfth fret to the nut (the bar where the head joins the neck) as they are from the twelfth fret to the bridge. That’s what those little screws are for at the bridge. Using an electronic tuner, you start by hitting the harmonic on the 12th fret by putting your finger on one string at a time at the 12th fret but do not depress your finger. Strike the string as you quickly pull your finger off the string. It may take a little practice but you should hear a ringing sound. The tone from this harmonic is cleaner and purer that the actual note. Tune the guitar to that note then press your finger down on the 12th fret and play the note. If it is out of tune you will need to turn the screw at the bridge slightly and continue to tune between the note and the harmonic until they are both in tune.   

    A lot of hard rock guitar players sand the varnish off the back of the necks of their guitars since the heat of stage lights as well as the heat coming off their hands heat up the guitar necks and they will actually warp slightly. This is why you may be perfectly in tune back stage but after ten minutes onstage you’re out of tune. Sanding off the finish with a fine grain sand paper until the guitar neck feels like a baseball bat allows the wood to breath and it handles heat a lot better.

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The Garage Band Handbook - Chapter Two: The Music

    The typical configuration for a garage band consists of one or two guitarist, a bass player, a drummer, perhaps a keyboard player or a lead singer. The combination of the drummer and the bassist make up what is referred to as the rhythm section. They try to work as a team and play with the bass hitting it’s accents in unison with the drummer’s kick or bass drum. The basic idea is for them to lay down a solid, steady beat over which the other instruments can flow. Simple is better than complicated as the primary function is to maintain the steady beat. The small gaps between lyric lines can be used for fills which gives the bass and drums an opportunity to add their own personal expressions. These fills should be agreed upon in advance so that the different instruments don’t all cram their own fills in at the same time leaving no one to keep the song together. Many times the bass fills will be in unison with the drum fills but if the guitar takes the fill, the bass and drums need to keep the beat. Never use a bass guitar through a guitar amplifier rather than a bass amp as the bass will most certainly blow out a guitar amp’s speakers.

    The guitars usually separate their work into the lead and the rhythm. The rhythm guitar plays chords and strums or picks the strings in time to the beat while the lead guitar plays a pattern of individual notes such as a melody line. The lead must be aware of what the vocal is doing at all times and work to complement and supplement the vocal melody by adding fills between the lines and by adding the solo during a section of the song, usually a verse, where the singing is held back. Different styles of music require different sounds on the guitars but usually the rhythm guitar has the cleaner sound while the lead can be a louder or more distorted sound. In punk and Heavy Metal, the sound of both guitars is loud and distorted but even then it is advisable to have each guitar fill a specific niche in the sound spectrum. This is usually done by giving the rhythm guitar a deeper tone while the lead guitar has a more treble or high end tone which helps it cut through the layers of mud underneath. Double lead guitars are tricky to pull off but impressive when done well. Each guitar has to arraign it’s part so as to not step on the other instruments’ fills or the melody line. The two leads can take turns playing solos and can double each other by playing the same lead pattern but an octave apart. All the musicians need to remember that they exist only to complement and support the vocal melody. They must never play anything that obscures or clashes with what the singer is singing and the singer needs to know when it’s time to shut up and let the band play.

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The Garage Band Handbook - Chapter Three: Stage Setup Part One

When starting out the primary objective for most musicians is to simply hear themselves. The drums, by nature of their bulk, tend to become the vocal point with the guitar, bass and keyboard amplifiers set up around it in either a circle or semi-circle pattern. The musicians stand in the middle with each one facing his or her amp. This is a bad habit to get into. You are teaching yourself to listen to your band with your instrument much louder than anyone else rather than to hear the band as a whole. It is the nature of a gig that an audience will be present and you will be playing for them, not you. All of your amplifiers will be lined up in a row along with the drums and will be facing the audience. You will be facing away from your amp and if you’re not use to it you may find it very disconcerting. So get use to it. You should also try to get your amp and P.A. speakers elevated. Put them on a milk crate or a folding chair because if you leave them on the ground the bottom end of your sound will go straight down into the stage and your sound will be muddy. You also will sound better if your music is pointed at the audiences’ ears rather than their knees.

    Rule Number One for performing live (in front of an audience since even rehearsals are “live”): ALWAYS FACE YOUR AUDIENCE. Turning your back on the audience, be it to hear yourself better or because you’re scared to death, tells the crowd you’re not ready to be on a stage. Audiences are like animals, they smell fear and they’ll turn on you. Be fearless or at least act like you are. Remember, once you’re on stage, it ain’t art, it’s Show Biz so act like you’re in charge. You’re putting on a show and the music is just a part of it. Do you want to act the part of the cocky rock star that all the girls scream over or do you want to act the part of the frightened  geek who doesn’t know what he’s doing? It’s up to you and if you’re expecting people to pay money to see you, or even just show up, give them what you want them to see. How do you get over stage fright? Practice. Practice, practice and practice some more until you can play your set in your sleep, and you will, too.

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