Professionally Tune Your Instruments: Get your instrument professionally tuned and intonated. There’s nothing more frustrating, or time wasting, than an instrument that constantly goes out of tune.
—Magic Moreno, producer (Eric Clapton) June
Practice in the Round: Set up in a circle where band members are facing one another. This allows everyone to hear each other well, and it’s also the way that almost everyone records, since it’s so important to have eye contact when doing a take. Playing in the round usually forces you to control your volume a bit so you don’t blow out your band members, that’s not such a bad thing, is it?
—Bobby Owsinski, producer (Chicago) Aug.
Record A Preproduction Demo: No matter how well preproduction rehearsals seem to go, it’s important to make a preproduction demo recording before you record the songs for real. Why? You never really know what a player is playing until his part has been recorded. The demo can be fast and cheap. A couple of passes of each song is all that’s necessary unless there’s a major train wreck. What you’re trying to learn is how well everyone is playing together and if the arrangements and song structures actually work.
—Bobby Owsinski, producer (Jimi Hendrix) Aug.
Be Well Rested: If your vocal session is scheduled when you’re tired and you’re pushing past fatigue, you risk strain, blow-out and a general poor result. Some studios offer reduced rates for recording late at night. If you’re trying to save money that way, take a nap and arrive once the rhythm section is recorded. You need to be at your physical best for your voice to respond well.
—Jeannie Deva, voice and performance coach June
Don’t Rehearse A Song To Death: Many bands rehearse the same songs at every rehearsal over and over—to a point where they don’t want to play them anymore. This starts you down the slow road to changing the song in small or large ways because of boredom, sometimes taking a great song and reducing it to something that gets worse as it goes along instead of better. Once you learn a song, record it or put it away for a while.
—Bobby Owsinski, producer, author, consultant Aug.
PERFORMING
Prepare For A Monitor Break Down: It doesn’t matter if you have your own crew and sound guy––monitors will go out and you won’t be able to hear yourself. In those situations, most singers tend to over compensate. But that is the worst thing you can do. So I really concentrate and try to make sure I don’t sing too hard. The funny thing is, I’ve played some shows that I thought had the worst possible sound, just terrible. But our fans thought they were our best shows ever.
—Toby Morrell of Emery May
The Curse Of Tour Buy-ons: “I don’t believe in buy-ons [when a band pays to join a tour] and they don’t exist in my world. I prefer acts that have worked their way in to a spot.”
—Troy Blakely, agent (Red Hot Chili Peppers) March
Don’t Stare: When auditioning, use eye contact but do not stare at any one person or place too long. Looking directly into the judge’s eye can be creepy, but staring right behind him at the blank wall can be equally unsettling.
—Jonathan George, artist development coach Jan.
Use Live Shows As Auditions: “You need to play in front of people so that they can judge whether your practice is paying off or not. If you’re just playing alone in the living room all the time, you’ll never know if you suck.”
—Dennis Coffey, guitarist April
Develop Dynamics: Dynamics have to do with the volume variation of loud and soft. Staying at one volume without change can tend to make a song boring, emotionally monotone, less believable and so less communicative. Explore the emotions inherent in the music as well as the emotional variations within the lyrics. From there you can develop your sense of dynamics for each song you sing.
—Jeannie Deva, voice and performance coach Feb.
IN THE STUDIO
Decide If You Need A Click: Do you play the kind of music that requires a click track? If so, you need to find out if the musicians can actually play to a click (especially the drummer), and let the studio and engineer know beforehand.
June
Critique Each Player: Every player must know his/her parts. But, you may notice that some performers are better live––it’s a fact of life. This is the time for honest appraisals. The studio will amplify any weaknesses, bravado and errors. If a player can’t handle it, consider hiring a pro.
June
