Welcome to the second installment of "The Importance Of." This installment is gonna deal with the importance of listening. Sound weird? Its something you don't normally think about and sounds simple but its something that gets overlooked way to often. There are several ways of listening I am talking about and all are important. The first one is listening to the people you are playing with. That means when you are playing, listen to what they are doing and try and compliment it. Not do your own thing or try and play "against" them. Make sure every ones levels are set right so that everyone can be heard and that your not to loud or to quiet. The second one is, if you are playing a cover song, listen to the subtleties of the song. Even when a band is doing their own version of a song there are, alot of times,key parts and phrases that are very identifiable to the song that you need to be doing. If you are trying to do a "spot on" cover of a song you defiantly need to listen for all the intricacies of the song. Something as small as a little "ping" of a cymbal or a pinch harmonic in a certain spot can be crucial. The third thing? Listen to how you sound when you are laying. Are you in tune? Is your eq out of whack? Are you drums tuned? how does your instrument sound through the p.a. you are playing through? How does your instrument sound in the room you are playing? The next thing? How are people reacting to what you are playing? What do they say? Are they applauding? Are they booing? If you are out playing in public or putting your music out for people to hear, you are automatically putting yourself out there for criticism. Listen to it.Learn from it. Don't get pissed off or overconfident from bad and good criticism. Take it and improve. If you ask for an opinion be prepared for bad answers as well as good ones. There are many things to listen to when you are a musician. These are just a few. So keep your ears open and remember the importance of listening.
"The second one is, if you are playing a cover song, listen to the subtleties of the song."
ReplyDeleteSounds like last weekend... "Is that a D minor with a B or a B diminshed 7 or is that the same thing? Why did they even bother with the nasty chord there when the songs has a guitar solo going on right there?"
"Are they booing?"
HAHAHA! Over the years, I've seen some pretty terrible bands... but I've never really heard a local audience boo anyone. Even when I got so drunk off red wine at a gig in Savannah and couldn't play worth 2 cents, people even said "good set" at the end of the night. I just wondered if they were all on something strong. I absolutely hate it when a band that obviously needs a lot of work asks how they sound, especially after they've been to your gigs and given you praise... which then makes you question whether their praise was valid... Oh politics...!
people are a lot kinder in the south. if you play in philly and suck, prepared to AT LEAST be booed. philly fans throw batteries at their own sports team when they suck. i have actually seen people almost come to blows in philly over a local band sucking. these guys in the crowd said " get off the stage before i beat your ass" and they meant it. i had a guy unplug my guitr in williston sc when i was playing in a country bar . someone yelled out crazy train and i strated playing it. this HUGE redneck guy told me i was hurting his ear drums with that heavy metal bullshit and came up, unlpugged my cord from the amp and told me to shut the fuck up. rhett(bass guy) told him "hail satan" and the guy sucker punched him.
ReplyDeletejohnjohn
A lot of this is true to art as well. Over the years Ive asked for constructive critism over my artwork and every time I ask I prepare myself for the worst and Im always suprised to hear the good! Im not a musician, but as an artist I understand your point. Im also one of those ppl that will give you and honest opinion with as little bias as possible if you ask me what I think of a song/band/etc.
ReplyDeleteits good to be honest. good or bad its better to not sugar coat things.
ReplyDeletejohn berret
I agree totally, this is good advice. It's really hard for Me to critique someones playing that I'm jammin' with though. I try to do it kindly, but people will take things the wrong way sometimes. As far as critism for Myself, I welcome it. I want to project the best sound I can, but sometimes I don't trust people telling Me the truth, they are being nice. My wife is very good about it, but I like when musicians give advice, that's what really helps.
ReplyDeleteit can be hard to critique cheesus, i do know that
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