Does it sound good unplugged?

In the modern era of music we, as songwriters, have an infinite amount of tools, plug-ins, instruments, editing tricks, and effects to make any kind of sound we like. Often I find many bands and songwriters will rely on effects to make their music. Something I often wonder is “Would it sound good unplugged?”

It’s an important question to ask. How good is your song if you turn off all the effects and just hear it with a voice over an acoustic instrument such as a guitar or piano? For some of you out there you may be thinking, “Why does that matter?” and I would challenge you to consider why it does matter.

Foundation is everything

When you are writing a song and want to weigh its strength the first thing you should ask is, “How strong is the foundation?” I firmly believe that a song should be able to be stripped down to just its basic chord progression and vocal melody and still sound pleasing to the ear.

You can take any pop song on the radio, take away the beat, the synths, the electric guitars, and bring it down to a chord progression on the guitar with just vocals being sung over it and you will find that they still sound good. If you don’t believe me just look up any song you like on the internet and search for someone playing an acoustic version of it. Odds are someone out there has done it and guess what? It still sounds like a good song.

That’s what a strong foundation means to me. The progression and melody alone are strong enough to carry the weight of a song without the need for production. If your foundation is strong then you can build up from there. Your only goal will be to make the song better at that point and if all else fails when going overboard with instruments and effects you can stand confident in knowing your foundation is strong enough to go back down to the basics to try again.

Song design

You can think of it just like the foundation of a home. Built well, no structural issues, good square footage, and an awesome floor plan. Now you get to design it! What color should the home be painted, how do you furnish it, landscape it, and give it that flair that is uniquely your own?

The same applies to songwriting. Once the song sounds great at its most basic application then you can design it to be exactly how you want it. Reverb on the vocals, multiple vocal tracks, harmonies, and other effects. Electric guitars, tremolo, chorus pedals, and delay. Driving drum beats, groove beats, or soft, focused drum playing. Synthesizers, keyboards, odd nature sounds for flair. Whatever it is you have in mind, you build up from your foundation. And once you’ve lost your head in the madness of production you can go back to your foundation and see if you are really heading in the direction you want with the music. You have a home base and it’s a good home. One you can always rest your head in.

Live performance

One of the biggest let downs in life is going to see a band you’ve been really excited about and realizing that their live sound sucks. That song you’ve been listening to over and over again on Spotify by them was all a produced and manufactured illusion that they can’t pull off live. They relied on all the fancy effects, 4 guitar tracks, a synth, and multiple vocal tracks. Now you are there watching 4 people play and the vocals sounds dry and thin, there are missing parts from the track, and nobody is playing as tight as they did on the recording.

My point is these bands usually didn’t make sure their foundation was good enough. They relied on production tricks to get the music sounding good instead of making sure they and the foundation of their music were rock solid.

If you are a successful band and have all the production tools in the world at your fingertips then go ahead and get crazy with the recording of a song because you can afford the team necessary to replicate that live. The rest of us need to sound good live! Anytime you play live you have an opportunity to sell records, create new fans, and provide an experience for people that makes them want to come out and see you again. Don’t mess it up by overcomplicating your arrangements and make sure your music sounds good at its core.

Pop up gigs

The best thing about having a song good enough to play unplugged is you now have an opportunity to showcase your music anytime you want. You are free to sign up for open mic nights and have confidence that your rock song still sounds good unplugged if you need it. You can play for small groups of people on the street or around the camp fire. You have the ability to play your music and express yourself anywhere and anytime. This is a good way to get people interested in coming to your shows too where you might play with a full band.

It’s becoming more and more difficult to get heard through an internet algorithm and record labels aren’t seeking out talent like they used to. The only way to get your music out there is to go physically get it out there. When people come to see you make sure you sound as good as you possibly can. Make sure your material is sturdy enough that it can stand on its own without crutches. Make sure you can pick up that guitar and just sing it to a random soul and still be proud. If you have that then the arrangement will transfer over to a live band setting sounding better than you could ever imagine.

How I record 8 track demos live

Recording is extremely tedious when recording individual tracks one at a time. Recently I was recording a song that way with my band and we spent hours just trying to get one song with drums recorded on it. Everyone was feeling restless and bored after a while so I suggested trying to get a live demo take with the whole band playing. The energy in the room shifted and suddenly everyone was excited to play again. It no longer felt like a chore but an opportunity to perform for someone to hear. There was life in the room again.

Recording live demo takes does have it drawbacks, mainly the noise bleed from instruments creeping into microphones across the room. The recording will always sound a little noisy no matter how tight the performance. You will also need superb band performances to get good sounding recordings. Lastly, it is expensive to acquire the gear necessary to record a whole band live. On that note lets dive into what I used.

Setup

In my “Home recording essentials” article I take about the basic equipment you need to record music yourself. The biggest difference from the article is recording 8 track demos will require more mics and at least an 8 channel mixing board.

The computer I use is a “MacBook Pro 16”. I use “Logic Pro X” for my DAW. For my mixing board I have a “Tascam 24” which is a 24 channel mixing board that we plug the PA system into. The PA is actually just one speaker right now and its an “Electro Voice” 12” speaker.

From here I have 7 microphones that I run into the mixing board and one direct line in cable for the bass. I use a “Shure beta 52A” for the Kick drum place about 1” in front of the hole. A “Senheiser e 906” for the snare placed about 1” above the snare head at a slight angle. Two “Shure Sm 57”s for the overhead mics on the drum kit equally distanced from the center of the kit. So for drums we are only using four microphones to record on these demo tracks. This is beneficial in a couple ways.

First of all, it’s cheaper. You can get a cheaper 8 - 12 channel board as long as it has usb connection to a computer for recording functionality. Less channels dedicated to drums means more channels available for other instruments. It also means you will be spending less money on microphones which can really add up quickly.

Secondly, using only four tracks for drums makes mixing the demo much simpler. Mixing drums can be a serious headache when someone is using 8 or mics on their kits to record. Getting the levels just right on 5 different toms, multiple overheads mics, kick drum, snare, and various other percussion instruments is simply a nightmare for most. I personally can’t stand it. Mixing four tracks is relatively straight forward and will allow you to focus on the overall sound easier.

For the guitars I use a “Senheiser e 906” for each of the guitar amps hanging directly onto the amp mesh at the center of a speaker cone. We usually have two guitarists in the room. For the bass I use a XLR cable to direct line the bass into the board for a clean signal.

Amp placement is another important factor when setting up. To try and minimize noise bleed you have to take into consideration which direction your microphones are picking up signal and whose amp might be faced to directly at an unintended microphone. The fact is there will always be noise bleed unless you are in isolated, treated studio situations. We play in a small studio space, one room, not treated for noise, and lots of noise bleed. It makes mixing the song harder down the road and it’s pretty hard to reduce the overall noise in the mix but this set up isn’t intended for professional recording.

Performance

This part is more straight forward, you just need to get an awesome take of a song performed together. There are a couple ways to approach this though. You can either play everything together all at once like you would a live show or play as few instruments as possible and dub over the rest of the tracks after the base structure of the song is recorded.

Vocal tracks are usually the most important and the vocal mic will usually capture a lot of sound from the room while recording live. The best way to reduce noise in the vocals is to actually just dub them over once the song arrangement is recorded. The problem with that approach is sometimes the band relies on the vocals to know where they are at in the arrangement. Live vocals also bring that energy you need at times to capture the best performance from the band.

The way I do it with my band is just record everyone live together in a single take. Then we drop out the vocal take and record a new one isolated over the track. The old vocal track ends up being so low in the mix you don’t really hear it because we are playing loud rock n roll music. If we were recording softer more delicate tunes I wouldn’t recommend going over the vocal track and would instead just try to record without vocals during the bands performance. You don’t need that high octane energy for the vocals in the case of softer music. Instead, you want tight and clean performances with less noise involved.

My other recommendation is to leave out guitar solos or intricate lead parts that require precision until the base song is recorded. That way you can go over and have multiple tries at the perfect solo in isolation. It can be very frustrating to have to redo a take just because the guitarist didn’t come in the perfect bend on their solo.

Final thoughts

The most important thing is to make sure the mic setups and gain levels are adjusted to get the best possible signal for the recording. This will make mixing the song much easier afterwards. I’ll go over how I mix these demo tracks in another post.

Recording live is much more enjoyable than recording track by track and can end up sounding pretty good if done correctly. It takes out all the monotony of playing to a metronome over and over again trying to get the perfect performance. It allows the music to occur in its natural state, alive and full of energy.

Get in the habit of…

Habits are the most powerful tool in a person’s arsenal to achieve any goal they may have. Consistent, steady progress towards your aspirations can only be achieve when you create good habits that lead you towards your goals. If you are inconsistent and let things slide often then you will find it very hard to make any progress. How do you start new good habits and make them stick? Let’s get into it.

Habit forming

In the “Power of Habit” by Charles Duhigg, Charles goes over all kinds of methods to form and keep good habits. The most important thing I gathered from it was to effectively form and keep a good habit there needs to be a positive feedback loop or the habit will just fade away with time. Let’s say you really love playing video games every morning but want to get into the habit of going for a run in the morning. You would set a clear rule that you cannot play video games at all until that run has been finished. When the morning comes and you don’t feel like running that little motivation missing might just be knowing that once your run is over you get to play video games. If you don’t do the run then you don’t get to play video games. Everyone remembers a parent growing up that said you can’t hang out with friends or play games until your homework is finished. That’s the same concept. The positive feedback loop of getting to do something you want after doing something you have to is what keeps you on track.

Habits obviously don’t have to be boring or feel like a chore before you get to do fun stuff. I know practicing music is fun for a lot of us most of the time but sometimes it just isn’t. When it isn’t fun you need some sort positive feedback to keep you on track consistently. Maybe you only eat breakfast after 30 minutes of practicing your guitar or after drilling drumming rudiments you allow yourself to scroll on instagram afterwards. The point is to reward yourself in some way after a good, healthy habit and it is more likely to stick.

Another very useful tip is to make doing a habit is easy as possible. If I have to get my guitar case out of the garage before playing, then set up my amp, and then set up my pedal board before I can even start to practice then I’m probably going to put off practicing. You should be make things as easy and simple as possible to form good habits. Get a guitar stand and keep you guitar right by the bed or in the chair you sit and have coffee in. Have it be ready to be played at any moment so you can just pick it up and start plucking away at it.

Good habits to have

Practicing every day is a must for anyone serious about being a musician. Maybe practicing in a structured way every day is a little ambitious at first but at least get in the habit of showing up. The best thing to get started with is getting in the habit of having your instrument in your hands. If you get a guitar or drum sticks in your hand, you’re going to play something. Playing something is better than not playing anything, that simple.

Of course, just playing won’t be enough to make big improvements in skill and ability but it’s a great place to start to at least get in the habit of practicing. What you would really want is to have some sort of study followed by practice. An online course, YouTube channel, music class, or book where you learn something new followed by a time period of practice where you try out the new thing you just learned. This is a tried and true method to getting better over time. To really make the habit of studying and practicing stick try rewarding yourself for being disciplined with your time. Allow yourself some tv time or a small treat, anything that will reinforce the good habit of practicing.

Writing a little bit of something everyday is another great habit to have. Lyrics can be hard to write well if you aren’t practicing. I’ll write some words everyday about a random prompt, or a few lines of poetry just to get the mind in the flow of writing about something in a more imaginative way. Doing it every day for just a few minutes goes a long way into improving your lines. My trick for this one is I do it while my coffee is being made and once the coffee is ready I am finished. I of course can choose to write more if I wish but my goal is a small one of writing every single day and my reward is a cup coffee when I’m done.

Another important habit to have is listening and testing yourself. Ear training will help recognizing what someone is playing and will help with improvisation. Find an app or study program for ear training and make it a daily practice. Try to listen for what interval changes are happening in a piece of music and how it make the song feel. Try to match pitch with your voice or grab a guitar and try to find the key. Even better try to learn how to play something without looking anything up and just listening to it. Like a song? Work out the music on a guitar or piano and you’ll learn ten times the amount than you would’ve just looking up the tabs to the song. Listening is a crucial skill that needs to be practiced constantly to improve as a musician.

I find it really important to get in the habit of studying a little music theory every week. It is very important that you understand simple concepts such as intervals, triads, and chord construction. Theory isn’t necessary to play music but it will help immensely with understanding music and why certain things work so well. When you come across a writer’s wall your strong theory fundamentals will allow you try something different in a more structured way instead of having to rely on the muse of creativity again. It also makes it a lot easier to communicate music with other musicians if they know some theory as well. Calling out key of G major with a I - IV - V progression is going to save a lot of time rather than explaining every fret your finger needs to hit to someone over and over again. And if you don’t know what that last sentence means then I implore you to just put 30 minutes a week into studying some theory and you’ll have that bit nailed in no time.

And then…

After some time these habits will become a regular part of your life. They will hopefully become so second nature that you will feel off and like something isn’t right when you don’t do them. Don’t expect this to happen overnight though, it takes about 3-4 weeks for a new habit to form. Once it does, you will look forward to your daily routine. It will provide you with structure, balance, and a confidence knowing that you are working towards becoming better every single day and it’s just a matter of time before the work pays off.

Home Recording Essentials

You’ve written a song and you want to record it but you’re not sure what you need to get started. In this article I’ll go over exactly what you need to get your recording journey started. I will be talking about the very basic necessities to get started and will avoid the endless list of gear that everyone tries to convince you that you need. Let’s dive in!

1.) Computer

You’re going to need a computer that can operate a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation). The computer won’t need crazy high specs to start recording music but higher amounts of RAM will allow you to have larger song files with more tracks before slowing down. 16GB of RAM is usually going to be plenty until you start getting to extremely track heavy files. Usually only professional recording studios will require more than 16GB.

The kind of computer you get for recording is up to personal preference. Different DAWs are compatible with different operating systems but whether you go for a Windows or Mac you will be able to find a DAW that’ll get the job done.

Another consideration is whether you want a home studio or a mobile studio. With a desktop you are forced to keep your computer in an office but get to save some money. Laptops are awesome because you get to take your laptop anywhere to work on your music. The drawback is they will generally be more expensive with weaker computer specs. I personally use a MacBook Pro because I love the Apple software and the portability of the laptop. Something like a MacBook Air would’ve been just fine as well. I just felt like splurging on the Pro so I wouldn’t have to worry about upgrading it for a couple years.

2.) DAW (Digital Audio Workstation)

A digital audio workstation is an application software used for recording, editing and producing audio files. Examples of a DAW are GarageBand, Logic Pro X, Pro Tools, and Ableton. Without a DAW you can’t actually record tracks onto a computer.

Functionally most DAWs will perform the same tasks and anyone of them will allow you to do the most basic of recordings. The difference in capabilities will only apply to professional recording artists and audio engineers. All you need to worry about is ease of use and user interface. I have found the apple products GarageBand and its more professional brother Logic Pro X to be the clear winners in ease of use. These programs make it incredibly intuitive and simple to get started recording. Even if you know absolutely nothing about recording music the interface is simple enough that you could figure it out within a few minutes. Logic Pro X has the added benefit of being a legitimately professional quality DAW that some top artist have used for recordings that you’ve heard on the radio.

The industry standard DAW is Pro Tools. If you take classes in college for music production and recording you will most likely use Pro Tools. It is the DAW that almost every professional recording studio uses but that does not mean it is actually the best one. Pro Tools is by no means “user friendly”. If you are completely new to recording and open up the program you will be overwhelmed immediately. It’s a confusing interface and looks less like a fun program to use and more like a dry workshop. I, of course, have my biases so do some more research and find the right DAW for you and your own recording projects. I’m a Logic Pro X fan boy and I have no shame in saying that.

3.) Audio Interface

To be able to connect your instrument or microphone to your computer and record into your DAW of choice you are going to need an audio interface. This can be something like a 2 channel pre-amp that hooks up with a usb to your computer or a multi-channel mixing board that has a usb connector. The key here is it can connect the instrument to the computer.

For most home recording situations all you need is a two channel audio interface such as the “Focusrite Scarlett 2i2”. That will allow you to connect two instruments and record at the same time. If you are recording track by track then this will satisfy all your recording needs. You really only need more tracks if you are going to record drums but even with two channels you can at least get a room recording of a drum kit to lay down demo tracks.

4.) Microphones

You will certainly need at least one microphone to start recording. If you are just laying down guitar tracks then you just need a guitar cable to plug into the audio interface but if you plan on recording any acoustics, vocals, or random sounds then you will need a microphone. A tried and true all purpose microphone is the “Shure Sm-57”. It’s a dynamic microphone that is used mostly to record instruments but can be used as a cheap vocal mic to start. They are great for guitar and snare drum mics.

If you want cleaner vocals then you can invest in a more expensive microphone for that. You don’t actually need anything more than a solid “Shure Sm-57” to get started though. It will check all the basic boxes. They’re also durable and long-lasting. With the cheap price tag you might even be able to afford two to utilize both of your audio interface channels.

5.) Headphones

The last thing you really need to get started recording is a pair of really good headphones, preferably noise cancelling. You are going to need something to hear the music playback while also letting you hear what you are playing at the same time. This is called playback monitoring. If you want to sing over a guitar track you need noise cancelling headphones so that you can’t hear the guitar track in the microphone while you’re trying to sing along. Noise bleed will lead to messy sounding mixes.

Good headphones are a lifesaver for drummers trying to record as well. Without noise cancellation the drummer won’t be able to hear the metronome or rhythm track over their own playing. It will make it near impossible to get a solid drum track recorded if they can’t hear where the rhythm is supposed to be.

Lastly, good headphones will give you the ability to monitor how the recording sounds. You will be able to do some mixing and editing with them and get a good idea of how the mix sounds in stereo. Ideally you would invest in some studio monitor speakers to do the mixing work but it’s not necessary to start. Headphones will get the job done to start and you will save a little money in the process.

That’s it!

You don’t need anything else to get going on your recording journey. With these five items you are all set to get down and start recording! This is assuming you have an instrument to start but even if you don’t you can get started with drum machine beats and vocals lines. The best part about having all the essentials is you can start having fun and experimenting with sound. Anything can be become music and there aren’t any hard and fast rules on what’s allowed to be recorded. I once recorded my front door opening and closing to use at the beginning and the end of a song I wrote. You have the freedom to do whatever idea comes to mind so get out there and get started.

Common mistakes songwriters are making

I want to discuss a couple things I have seen songwriters struggle with, myself included and ways to counter that. These aren’t specific techniques you are misusing but rather a series of bad habits that a lot of songwriters have. Grab your big boy pants and let’s get into some pitfalls you’re walking into.

Not playing enough

I see this all the time, someone writes a couple songs, plays them for a few friends, puts it up on Soundcloud and calls it a day. I guess this is cool if your only goal was to write a song but if you want someone to experience your music you need to get out there and play it for them.

There are millions of songs recorded out there that will never see the time of day from most people and that’s because there is no personal connection with the artist and with so many options it’s just not possible to be discovered. How do you make a personal connection? Play your music live in front of people! It is what puts your song in the mind of a listener and gives the song life. A song played for yourself doesn’t really exist, it’s merely a part of your own mind. Go get your music out there!

Not practicing enough

If you aren’t practicing just about every day then you aren’t practicing enough. Simple as that. I do believe quality of practice over quantity matters but at the end of the day any practice is better than none.

You need to be constantly learning new concepts, introducing them into your material, and practicing techniques so that when it’s time to perform (which your going to be doing more of now) you have the confidence to sound your best because you know you put in the work.

If you want to write better songs you need to practice more. Practice can include actually writing songs as well. The more songs you write the better they will get over time as each song will teach you something about the process. There are no shortcuts in music and songwriting. Do it more, get better.

Not writing enough

Sometimes writing will come naturally to you like a gift from the heavens but most of the time you have to dedicate your focus towards writing. I mean actually sit down for a predetermined set of time and focus on writing specifically. That can mean 10 mins of just trying to write lyrics or poetry even. 10 mins of putting together a chord progression and working out a melody to go over it. Set aside time just like you would for any task and focus on songwriting.

When you make a conscious effort to work on songwriting it is inevitable that a song will eventually arrive. Those people who say they have writers block are literally just not writing enough or taking enough time to focus on it. This isn’t to say every song is going to be good and realistically most of them will be average at best. The lesson here is consistently showing up will eventually lead to you writing an amazing song. Every song you write you will learn something new about the process. Over time this accumulated knowledge will lead to better songwriting practices.

In every bad song there is gold to be mined, more work to be done. They leave a longing for better music. They can keep you driven towards a goal because you know deep down you can do better. In failure there is an opportunity for redemption. Keep that in mind when you are getting down and out on yourself for not writing the next “Stairway to Heaven” right away.

Not singing enough

Look I know we aren’t all singers here and a lot of us don’t ever want to be. The problem is a song isn’t really a song until you have lyrics and a melody on it. I know there is instrumental music but be real, nobody cares. It’s simply too boring for your average person to listen to. Singing is what connects with the listener, it’s also what allows them to get involved by singing along.

The point is you don’t have to sing to be the actual performer but it helps immensely when constructing a song and showing your idea to a potential singer. If you have ever tried to write a song with all music first with no consideration for the melody or singer then you probably know it can be extremely challenging to force a melody to work rather than have it forefront in your mind during the writing process.

Singing allows you to formulate melody, lyrics, rhythm with the voice, and prevents songs from just becoming cool sounding instrumentals. It’s also going to make it easier to collaborate with other musicians or songwriters for other singers.

Not collaborating enough

I know the glory of being the sole songwriter of an amazing piece of music is something to be proud of but working with others will help you be a better songwriter. Working with someone else is going to teach you how to create music in a team environment and going to help you learn how other people make music.

Collaboration tends to lead to better sounding music too because there are now multiple people deciding if something works or not. You also have multiple minds working towards the same thing, something tribal humans have evolved to do expertly. Sometimes one person can have incredible ideas and that can inspire another incredible idea in someone else, all ending up in awesome music.

Final thoughts

A lot of what I say essentially boils down to “do more” and I am aware of that. The reason I hammer this in constantly is because I truly believe most people are not doing enough to be great at something and everyone has it within them to work harder. Most of us are coasting through and expecting amazing results when we haven’t actually put in the effort required for those results.

So get out there and meet some people to play with, start practicing more, start writing and singing songs, and most importantly go play the music for someone live!

How to start a song recording

Recording a new song is an exciting process but sometimes getting started is the hardest part. Today I would like to take some time and share with you some techniques I have used to get started. Let’s jump in and get started on your new song!

Live or tracked?

First you will need to decide if you are going to be doing a live take recording, where each instrument is mic’ed up and the song is recorded as a whole, or record the song track by track. The live take technique requires a lot of microphones, mic stands, and a mixing board with enough channels to capture all the instruments. Tracking is much cheaper and requires little more than a computer and a couple mics.

Live Recording

Live take recording has many challenges. The biggest draw back for live track recording in my opinion is the need for the entire band. It requires coordinating a lot of time where the whole band is in the same room together for hours. Some musicians’ expectations for how long a recording should take aren’t conducive for getting the best take possible either. Sometimes you’ll know a take isn’t good enough but someone in the band is bored, busy, frustrated, and just wants to be done with it.

Recording in this way also means that the experimentation phase is over. Everyone should be playing the exact same thing every time as a performance rather than exploring new ways to add to the music. This is something I dislike about live recording. Sometimes great new ideas get discovered during recording songs track by track because you have the freedom to experiment. This simply isn’t possible with live recording.

It also requires a space that is large enough or isolated enough so that noise bleed isn’t an issue. Whenever multiple microphones are involved in the same room noise bleed from other instruments will occur and can muddy up the mix when it’s time for mixing the finished track. Rock music might not suffer as much because the added noise can add to the sonic wall of sound that can give the song some edge. Other forms of music might not want so much noise in the mix and will require each instrument to be fully isolated in its own recording space. If you are doing live takes I highly recommend at least recording the vocals in an isolated spot or not singing at all during the performance and dubbing them over afterwards. This will prevent noise bleed on the most important track being recorded and will allow the mixer to make the voice shine without all the muddiness beneath it.

There are some benefits to live take recording. A live take just has that extra energy to it once completed. It “feels” like a live performance and can really capture the essence of a band’s sound when done properly. It’s not as boring as recording track by track because the whole room is alive with the music.

You can also avoid playing with a metronome this way. Some musicians struggle to play with a metronome and would rather just play with the drummer. The drummer may not be able to play with a metronome either and in this case will most likely fluctuate tempos during the song. This may or may not be an issue but generally isn’t a big deal as long as the rest of the band follows along with accuracy.

If you have the band, the gear, the studio, the time, and a recording engineer to push all the buttons, live recording is for you. Otherwise, recording songs one track at a time is going to be the path of least resistance.

Tracking

Recording one track at a time has a lot of benefits. It allows the artist recording as much time and freedom to get their part just right which is especially helpful when a singer is belting a note, or a guitar player is shredding a solo. It also allows a lot of editing of the music. If each track is played to a metronome you can do all kinds of fun stuff to tracks during the editing process. Cut, copy, paste, loop, or move sections as you please.

Another huge benefit is the quality of the recordings. Without noise bleed from multiple instruments in the room you can get crisp and clear recordings without any muddying of the mix. This will make the mixing process much easier and will help get the sound just right on the final version of the recording.

The biggest drawback to tracking is playing to a metronome. It’s hard for some musicians to do because it just isn’t practiced as much as it should be. The metronome is tight, clicking with precision. It’s unforgiving and will make it very clear to you when you are even just a little off with your timing. The problem is music played live is never exactly on time, usually it will be just ahead of the click or just behind which is what gives music a certain “feel”. To replicate this playing one track at a time and without the other musicians playing with you is a real challenge sometimes. It basically takes the natural instincts of a live jam away and forces one to play with less feel and more rigidity.

Where to start

The big question is how do you start piecing together a song if you are recording one track at a time? In a perfect world your drummer comes along, throws on the headset and plays the song from start to finish to a metronome, first try, with an abundance of energy and feel for the groove. This will likely never be the case. You want your song to have life and most of that life is going to come from vocals and the drums. To get life out of your drums, they will need to play along with music not a metronome.

What has worked for me in the past is to start with “scratch” tracks. Recordings of simpler pieces of the song like the rhythm guitar or bass line to a metronome. A recording that is nearly perfect with a click track and isn’t something that will require lots of effort to get started with. Once you have the rhythm guitar and bass line recorded to a metronome add in a quick vocal track. Don’t spend too much time on any of these recording because they are just “scratch” tracks, meaning we are throwing these away later!

The purpose of recording scratch tracks is actually just to get something with some life for your drummer to play along with rather than playing along with a metronome. This is how you get life out of the recording. Now your drummer is basically playing along with the band instead of a click track and can get into the music rather than just be a drum machine working to a click.

Once you have a drum track that is consistent in timing, has life and great feel to it you are good to go on recording the rest of the song as you please. Ditch those scratch tracks and start recording everything to the drums instead of the metronome. This will make sure the rest of the tracks sound lifelike and have feel to them.

It is crucial when recording to really take your time with takes. Don’t ever leave a track saying, “That’s good enough.” It is imperative that you get the best take possible for a recording because that is what you and the listeners will hear forever. You want to make the best possible music you can and never leave any thoughts left over for what could of been.

Last words

Hopefully I have provided some useful thoughts on different recording approaches and starting points for a recording session. There are many ways to go about it and every time you get into a recording session circumstances will be different. There will always be something to learn, a different way to approach it, and different musicians with different abilities to work around. That is part of what makes it so interesting to me. Lastly, recording can be an incredibly fun, rewarding experience and while it can seem boring at times, the results will leave you elated with what you have accomplished.

Songwriting in 5 simple steps

Writing songs may seem like a daunting task and can oftentimes be overwhelming. Where do you start? Today I would like to discuss 5 steps I often follow when writing songs to keep me on track and focused on the task. There is no rigid method to songwriting but these steps aim to guide you in your process. You may find your songwriting style requires some tweaking to my method but at least you will have a reference point for how someone else may go about writing a song.

1.) Get started

The beginning process of writing a song is the simplest and yet most over thought step by most. All you need is one musical idea to start and still so many struggle to get started with that first step. So let’s simplify it.

If you don’t have a song idea and are starting completely from scratch then let’s go back to basics here. A great way to get the wheels turning is to just pick a chord progression at random and see if any emotions start to land with it. Try out a I - VI - V for instance and just start playing around with rhythms. Don’t like it? Try another progression or try the progression at a different tempo. I’ve done this countless times when feeling uninspired and it is usually enough to get the wheels turning. We are just looking for solid ground here to start expanding upon.

Another great way to get started is to put on a drum track and play along. Playing with drums incorporates feel and groove into your playing and can add life to any progression that previously felt stagnant.  I’ve had instant and strong reactions to some drum tracks that led to new rhythmic ideas I wouldn’t have considered without hearing them. For instance leaving space in your playing is usually a hard thing to do when there is nothing else to fill it and drum tracks will give you the creative freedom to NOT play every single beat.

You can also get started with a song with a vocal melody. Sometimes singing random stuff in the shower really does work! If you are lucky enough to have some word or phrase come to you in a vocal melody please by all means run with it. The trick is to figure out how to take that nugget of gold you found and get music behind it. I will usually pick up a guitar and try to find the key of the melody I am singing and go from there. Start simple with the music behind the melody so you can internalize the vocal hook and add complexity to the music once you’ve got great feel for it.

2.) Record it

No I don’t mean professionally start recording your idea but to simply get a recording of what you have so far. If you have a DAW to record your ideas with then great! If you don’t then take a simple phone recording of what you have so far. The purpose of this is two-fold. By recording your ideas regularly you will avoid forgetting your song ideas. I know you may think some of your ideas are so good they can’t be forgotten but I assure you they can and will be. I have lost countless songs to time and they usually never make their way back to your mind once they are gone.

The other purpose of recording you song ideas is it allows you to play them back and expand on the initial idea. Let’s say you have a 3 chord progression for a verse but it feels a little boring. Play back that recording and start playing some second guitar or keyboard tracks with it. Experiment, improv, and have fun with this portion of the process. Anyone can and has played the I -IV -V progression and yet we have 1000’s of different sounding songs with that same progression. That is because the possibilities of coloring a song are infinite with different guitar phrases, vocal melodies, rhythmic patterns,  or bass lines. Recording the idea is where you get to start having fun with songwriting.

3.) One part at a time

Often times what will happen is you will sit down, play a cool riff and then not know where to go next. Happens to all of us…ALL the time. The thing is we don’t have to figure out what is next yet, we can actually make this part sound better before moving on. If you have a verse idea don’t worry about the chorus yet, get the verse sounding just the way you want before moving onto the next section of the song. Take time to experiment, play with your recording and really hone in on your sound.

When the time comes to focus on the next section of the song don’t expect genius to strike right away. I often find myself completely unable to put together another great sounding section of the song without trying multiple iterations of different ideas. I will often go back to what we learned in step 1 and start trialing out different chord progressions. If my verse is I - vi - V I might try to play a ii - V - I and see how that lands.

The key is making each individual section of the song sound as great as you can on their own. You want to really take your time with each section, making every note sing. Once you feel good about the different sections of music you’ll need to write the one thing that makes every song good.

4.) Write the hook

Every great song has a great hook. It can be a traditional vocal hook in a chorus like you hear in every song on the radio or it can be an incredibly fantastic musical hook that just won’t get out of your head. A hook is just that, it’s what hooks you to the song compelling you to come back and listen again and again.

I will admit this is the hardest part of writing a song most of the time unless you are fortunate enough to have a golden idea from the start. This is where Step 2 of recording comes in handy though! By recording your ideas you can have countless takes and tries to perfect a vocal or musical hook to the song. Go ahead and listen on your commute to work, sing that song to yourself over and over again until you hit that hook just right.

What is important to remember is the hook is what brings the listener back to your song. Big belting choruses are awesome if you have the vocal bravado to pull it off but what most people want is something they can sing along with. Doesn’t mean you can’t flex your vocal prowess but when a chorus is one that anyone can sing along with it’s almost guaranteed to get someone to listen again.

Lyrics are another topic altogether but they can also go a long way to making that chorus a true hook. Words are powerful and can invoke lots of emotion or sometimes ruin the fun in music. Consider the difference in these two vocal lines.

“Last chance to catch this ride”

vs

“Last night my father died”

The first line doesn’t say a whole lot meaningful but has a rhythm to it even without music behind it. Now while the second line has more emotional impact it’s definitely not a lyric ANYONE would want to sing along with. No matter how catchy the hook is, singing about your father dying that “on the nose” just isn’t going to get someone to come back and listen again.

My last tip on writing catchy vocal hooks is to just grab an instrument and start playing lead lines over the progression. These lead lines aren’t to show off your soloing skills but are more to work out melodies that can be sung over the music. Often times a riff will sound cool on a guitar but it is actually better to drop the riff out completely and use it as your vocal melody instead. I have done this many times and am sometimes surprised at how well a cool sounding guitar riff transfers over into a vocal hook.

5.) Song arrangement

What do we have so far? We have multiple sections to our song and we have a hook. What’s missing is a complete song arrangement to make the song sound coherent and amazing. You basically have your first draft of the song and we want to get to your final draft of your song.

You can find formulas for song arrangement with a quick google search but here I want to focus on Tension and Release. When arranging your song you are taking the individual parts of your song and arranging them so that your song builds up points of Tension and then Releases into your hook. It is incredibly important to recognize that without tension a hook will fall flat or sound uninspired.

This is where a lot of going back and editing your song will occur. If your chorus or hook sounds small then the parts before it are most likely too big. If your verse is loud and big but your chorus is quiet and small then I am going to guess it just doesn’t sound that memorable. You have to go back and adjust your perfectly crafted parts to make each point of your song either be a part where you are creating tension or allowing release of tension.

This is really where the nitty gritty work occurs in song writing. There are a multitude of ways you can adjust the energy and vibe of a song but I would really recommend trying to focus on that tension and release aspect. This is going to really elevate the quality and memorability of your music over time.

Final Thoughts

At this point you may have realized that song writing is no short task! You may occasionally strike gold and have a song come to you within minutes or hours but this often won’t be the case. I have spent hours, days, weeks, and months working out songs. Just because it isn’t a short process doesn’t mean it has to be complicated though. Just get started with the simplest of ideas and start expanding outwards and upwards from there. Record the idea so you never lose it and can start working out more details in the song. Work on the individual parts first, find that hook in your song, and then arrange the music to get the most impact out of that hook to keep listeners coming back for more.

One last thing…Share that song you just spent all those hours crafting! Either play it for someone you know or share it online to the world. It is important to get the music out of you into someone else’s ears and mind. This is what brings a song to life, it no longer lives in your mind alone but is a part of the world of music forever regardless of how many listen. You put in the work now go show it to someone!

How to be a better musician

How to be a better musician

You’ve heard it before and you’ll hear it time and time again, getting better at anything requires a lot of practice and hard work. Anyone telling you otherwise is lying to you. While some people are born naturally gifted in some ways, no one achieves mastery without discipline and dedication to their craft. I don’t intend to teach you some music theory concept that will improve your musicianship but rather give you some tools and tips I have learned along the way to improve upon your skills.

Habits are everything

Habits are the greatest tool to improving at anything in life. Want to be a cleaner person? Set a daily goal of cleaning anything for 10 minutes a day. After a week you have spent 70 minutes cleaning and your significant other is happier that you live there.

The same applies to music. If you want to be better at guitar then set a daily goal of practicing for 30 minutes a day. This is slightly different then saying practice makes perfect, we will get to that next, rather showing up to your daily routine is what is important. It keeps you on track and doesn’t allow for excuses to be made.

When you tell yourself you don’t have the time, it is a complete and total lie. 30 minutes in a day is one television episode in the evening, one coffee drink in the morning spent on your phone, or one drink missed at the bar. Time is going to go by whether you like it or not. Would you rather have hours of goals being achieved or more excuses about how busy your life is and how you couldn’t make it happen? The point is make a habit of practicing and show up every time. Don’t make excuses and results will follow.

Study like you’re in school

If you are no longer studying music then you are not going to get much better than where you are at now. Experimentation will get you a little further along but making huge leaps in skill won’t happen without a study program to follow.

If practicing 30 minutes a day was important, studying for some portion of time everyday is equally important! You need to continue to learn new concepts and techniques in music. You will never be done learning if you are serious about getting better.

Learn music theory, new scales, how to construct new chords, interval training, chord progressions, how to get different tones, how to play new rhythms, and new styles of music. Learn literally anything you can and do it every single day.

When you are constantly studying music your creativity will be free to explore music differently every time you decide to play. New ideas can be generated from your new knowledge and practice may be less boring because the material will be new more often.

Practice makes perfect

Everyone your whole life has told you that practice makes perfect and its true. Nothing beats routine practice for improving and solidifying skills. The key is how you practice is just as important and how often you practice.

When practicing guitar for instance, many people will sit down and just repeat a scale over and over again for 10 minutes and call it a day. While that repetition is good you need a little more than that to get much better. Add in different rhythms and faster tempos to your scale runs, maybe add a chord on every root note and 5th to vary the practice. The idea is to get your brain and muscle memory engaged. If something has gotten automatic and proficient then you have to jump up in difficulty somehow.

The most important thing to practice is incorporating new concepts and skills learned through your studies. You should constantly have new concepts and techniques to work on. Ideally every time you start your practice for the day you will have so much material to go over that the time flys by.

With all these new concepts and techniques to work on how are you supposed to practice all of it while still learning? The biggest asset in my development has been to practice just enough to learn it and then leave it for a little while. Come back to a concept right at the point where you almost have forgotten what you learned. It’s at this point that your brain has to go into the file cabinet to retrieve the information you had stored away. This forced recollection is what solidifies the learning into long term memory. This way you can consistently learn and practice new material just remember to come back to it often enough so it is never forgotten.

The truth

Habits, studying and practice might seem obvious and boring to you. The truth is, that is what’s going to be the difference between mediocrity and greatness. It is the only way proven time and time again to achieve consistent results. So stop making excuses, stop blaming life and others for your failures, and get to work!