I get that every couple of months. Someone on my youtube channel will tell me my guitar is out of tune. I listen back, umm, yeah, maybe? Ever so slightly? One or two of my videos are indeed slightly out of tune, but the recent ones are not.
Here's my thoughts on the matter.
Some people have an _amazing_ ear for pitch. A _really amazing_ ear. My ear is pretty bad so I tune using a pretty accurate digital tuner, and always tune in very carefully before recording. However, the intonation on the guitar is only so good. In fact when I was hunting for my Esteve, that was high on my list of what I was looking for in a guitar - good intonation. I used my tuner to check the intonation on many guitars, and the Esteve is pretty good. But generally, if you are playing up the fretboard, she's gonna be a bit out of intonation (tune).
Furthermore, when I fret a chord, I'm usually bending the strings out of "the correct place" a small amount. On unusual shaped stretchy chords I'm bending the strings quite a lot out of the place where they should be to sound in tune. Even the simple act of fretting distorts the intonation slightly (but guitars do compensate for an amount of fretting intonation). Not that you or I could hear fretting intonation distortion, but some people can. It's especially noticeable on nylon because they have lower tension strings.
Even the guitar heating up slightly after me playing it will put it out of tune - you should be constantly adjusting your tuning while playing. But since I don't have an amazing ear, by the time I notice, my pitch perfect mates were already wincing in pain five minutes ago.
I have developed a very healthy respect for fretless stringed instrument players. They have to hear the intonation and play to it. They train their ear. Us guitarist, well, duh, we ain't so bright, see, we don't need to hear intonation, duh, the frets dun do that for us. Okay, I'm being a bit harsh there, slide guitarists, even pulling bends, you need to have an ear for pitch, but I think you get what I mean.
The bottom line - no matter how hard I try to have good tuning, there will be a percentage of the population who will cry out at my "terrible tuning". And they are right. Luckily, the other percentage of the population and I won't hear it.
(It's all relative though, I have been known in the past to very politely and with great tact mention to players on youtube that perhaps their guitar was a bit out of tune. For me to notice - that's got to be a long way out of tune. With that said, my ear for pitch is now a lot better than it used to be.)
JAW
Thursday, 3 October 2013
Sunday, 15 September 2013
What's happening September 2013
I ran another poll a month or two ago, this time I asked "If Jawmunji made a product it would have to be..." Here are the results, from 37 responses:
There weren't nearly as many voters I would normally have for a monthly poll, less than half. Either the traffic to the site was down, it was a boring question, or a Jawmunji product is not really called for. But hey, I liked the results! A video DVD with cool stuff appeals to me the most and it was the most voted. It would be a large amount of work, but not as large amount of work as an instructional DVD. I didn't mind the idea of an Audio CD, but, they seem to have passed their use-by date. Thanks for confirming the 99c downloadable mp3s though - I don't like that either. One song might be a cash cow for an artist, but the amount of art you are buying might be the tip of the iceberg from that artist. They might have so much to offer, good stuff you'd enjoy, but all you did was download "the most popular song". Buy the album!
I'm still working away a lot - 2 weeks on site, 1 week in Perth. While in Perth I get the weekends off and only work a 40 hour week, but up here on site I work a 12 hour day 7 days a week. Sure, all my meals are catered for in the mess, my room is regularly cleaned, all I do is work...but I get weary. Hence I haven't been doing as much writing to you as I thought. I'm still playing the '74 Yammy a heap, it's just not "productive" playing. Generally I will sit and just play my regular tunes, most nights with the lads over a few beers. I've done a little bit of working out new tunes - in the pipe I've got "Without You", "Lean On Me", "Bright Side of Life", "Something So Strong", "Bad Moon Rising" all basically ready to record. But I'm not recording while I'm here, and when I'm back in Perth I don't set aside the time to do it either.
Someone commented last month "you should do a Tame Impala cover"...and I youtubed a song of theirs or two, discovered they are a local band, and my favourite genre - psychedelic rock. Closest sound would be early Beatles and Pink Floyd. I enjoyed them so much I bought the album and I have listened to it a lot. I might cover "Only Going Backwards" or "Mind Mischief" to pay homage, it would be lost on 99% of my listeners, so it would have to be a quick and easy cover. But alongside Dark Side of the Moon (I listen to it about once or twice a month, to keep inspired...as well as "Dub Side of the Moon") it is what I'm listening to.
In fact, what do I listen to? Kinda nothing. I'm totally out of touch with modern music, and I don't feel the need to constantly relive the past either. I'm not a headphones-all-day sort of guy, it just makes me further deaf. I do listen for 70's and 80's music if I'm driving somewhere, songs that I might be able to cover, and I do listen to other fingerstyle guitarist covers, but I'm just not a regular listener. Does that sound strange? It does seem a bit rude of me to not pay attention to new music!
Well a quiet What's Happening this time, I do have some stuff in the bag waiting, I just need to get some long term rest so it can come out in flying colours :)
JAW
54% a music DVD of songs with interesting booklet, tab data and other cool stuff 27% an instructional DVD, c'mon man! 10% an Audio CD of songs with an interesting insert 8% just high quality 99c downloadable mp3s
There weren't nearly as many voters I would normally have for a monthly poll, less than half. Either the traffic to the site was down, it was a boring question, or a Jawmunji product is not really called for. But hey, I liked the results! A video DVD with cool stuff appeals to me the most and it was the most voted. It would be a large amount of work, but not as large amount of work as an instructional DVD. I didn't mind the idea of an Audio CD, but, they seem to have passed their use-by date. Thanks for confirming the 99c downloadable mp3s though - I don't like that either. One song might be a cash cow for an artist, but the amount of art you are buying might be the tip of the iceberg from that artist. They might have so much to offer, good stuff you'd enjoy, but all you did was download "the most popular song". Buy the album!
I'm still working away a lot - 2 weeks on site, 1 week in Perth. While in Perth I get the weekends off and only work a 40 hour week, but up here on site I work a 12 hour day 7 days a week. Sure, all my meals are catered for in the mess, my room is regularly cleaned, all I do is work...but I get weary. Hence I haven't been doing as much writing to you as I thought. I'm still playing the '74 Yammy a heap, it's just not "productive" playing. Generally I will sit and just play my regular tunes, most nights with the lads over a few beers. I've done a little bit of working out new tunes - in the pipe I've got "Without You", "Lean On Me", "Bright Side of Life", "Something So Strong", "Bad Moon Rising" all basically ready to record. But I'm not recording while I'm here, and when I'm back in Perth I don't set aside the time to do it either.
Someone commented last month "you should do a Tame Impala cover"...and I youtubed a song of theirs or two, discovered they are a local band, and my favourite genre - psychedelic rock. Closest sound would be early Beatles and Pink Floyd. I enjoyed them so much I bought the album and I have listened to it a lot. I might cover "Only Going Backwards" or "Mind Mischief" to pay homage, it would be lost on 99% of my listeners, so it would have to be a quick and easy cover. But alongside Dark Side of the Moon (I listen to it about once or twice a month, to keep inspired...as well as "Dub Side of the Moon") it is what I'm listening to.
In fact, what do I listen to? Kinda nothing. I'm totally out of touch with modern music, and I don't feel the need to constantly relive the past either. I'm not a headphones-all-day sort of guy, it just makes me further deaf. I do listen for 70's and 80's music if I'm driving somewhere, songs that I might be able to cover, and I do listen to other fingerstyle guitarist covers, but I'm just not a regular listener. Does that sound strange? It does seem a bit rude of me to not pay attention to new music!
Well a quiet What's Happening this time, I do have some stuff in the bag waiting, I just need to get some long term rest so it can come out in flying colours :)
JAW
Thursday, 15 August 2013
How have you kept playing guitar for so long?
A good question. Although it doesn't surprise me when beginners give up playing guitar (another topic), it does surprise me that players who play well, and have done for a long time, give up. Does it come down to character traits - applicable to more than just playing the guitar - commitment, and persistence? I think it is more than just that.
There are many things in life that people will do passionately and they won't enjoy it in the slightest, it will be hard work, expensive, painful, but they carry on. Why? The satisfaction of completing something challenging. Doing something not because it is easy, but because it is hard. There's your commitment and persistence right there. But hey, those guys who did play for ten years and then stopped, they must have had the commitment and persistence to get that far, right?
Habit. Ah but aren't we all just creatures of habit? Once you form a habit, it's hard to break it. If you have a habit of playing the guitar, then you basically never stop. And yet, they still do.
Priorities. For sure, as life progresses you travel through different phases. Some things are very important, then they aren't so important. Apparently it takes six weeks to form a habit. Well, when priorities change, it only takes six weeks to un-form a habit.
I'm going to throw opportunity into the mix. If playing the guitar is a privilege - it's rare, you don't get to play as much as you would like - for whatever reason - then playing is a tantilising treat you eagerly wait for. Being able to play as much as you want whenever you want will increase the risk of losing the sense of satisfaction...changing your priorities...and breaking the habit.
I think all these things play a part while traversing your guitar life, but there is something else. And look, I believe once you are a player, and you've had a taste of all this, you will always be a player. You might go a few years without playing, but something will come up again and you'll get back into it. That something is...delight.
Yeah, delight. In all your opportunity, priorities, satisfaction and formed habit, it is delight that rises above it all. Just when you think you've done it all, you've climbed every mountain, overcome every obsticle, something comes along and blows your mind. You can't believe you could have possibly missed the song, the technique, the concept, the something - something that simply delights you and you just can't get enough. You can't stop. Shifting from delight to delight.
If you are constantly exposing yourself to new avenues of delight, the passion will stay with you. This is with everything in life. Seek out delight. And delight doesn't mean amazement or awesomeness or some huge gratification. It can mean a hammer-on where you used to to pluck the next note. I could mean slipping in a 7th on the last beat of the bar instead of staying in the major chord. Just enjoying a new song that you never even thought about before.
I think I may have just gone all new age hippy on you just then, but The World seems dissatisfied with you just smelling roses. You aren't living if it's not Bigger and Better. Well, bugger that :)
Speaking of which, here is my current delight. Naudo played it years ago, I heard it on the radio last week, decided to transcribe (more or less) Naudo's version, and I'm delighted. So many "Oh wow!" things that happens in this song, can't believe I didn't tackle it when I first heard Naudo play it. It's a window into his playing (I can see how he has re-used phrases from other works I have transcribed before) and it's just a really nice song.
Badfinger's "Without You", made famous by Harry Nilssen, and later by Mariah Carey, but let's just stick with Naudos version :)
Apologies about the recording, it was made via my smartphone. And I'm still developing the song, I haven't committed it to muscle memory, and I'm not playing on my normal guitar, and blah blah blah...JAW "warts and all" Munji strikes again, enjoy.
There are many things in life that people will do passionately and they won't enjoy it in the slightest, it will be hard work, expensive, painful, but they carry on. Why? The satisfaction of completing something challenging. Doing something not because it is easy, but because it is hard. There's your commitment and persistence right there. But hey, those guys who did play for ten years and then stopped, they must have had the commitment and persistence to get that far, right?
Habit. Ah but aren't we all just creatures of habit? Once you form a habit, it's hard to break it. If you have a habit of playing the guitar, then you basically never stop. And yet, they still do.
Priorities. For sure, as life progresses you travel through different phases. Some things are very important, then they aren't so important. Apparently it takes six weeks to form a habit. Well, when priorities change, it only takes six weeks to un-form a habit.
I'm going to throw opportunity into the mix. If playing the guitar is a privilege - it's rare, you don't get to play as much as you would like - for whatever reason - then playing is a tantilising treat you eagerly wait for. Being able to play as much as you want whenever you want will increase the risk of losing the sense of satisfaction...changing your priorities...and breaking the habit.
I think all these things play a part while traversing your guitar life, but there is something else. And look, I believe once you are a player, and you've had a taste of all this, you will always be a player. You might go a few years without playing, but something will come up again and you'll get back into it. That something is...delight.
Yeah, delight. In all your opportunity, priorities, satisfaction and formed habit, it is delight that rises above it all. Just when you think you've done it all, you've climbed every mountain, overcome every obsticle, something comes along and blows your mind. You can't believe you could have possibly missed the song, the technique, the concept, the something - something that simply delights you and you just can't get enough. You can't stop. Shifting from delight to delight.
If you are constantly exposing yourself to new avenues of delight, the passion will stay with you. This is with everything in life. Seek out delight. And delight doesn't mean amazement or awesomeness or some huge gratification. It can mean a hammer-on where you used to to pluck the next note. I could mean slipping in a 7th on the last beat of the bar instead of staying in the major chord. Just enjoying a new song that you never even thought about before.
I think I may have just gone all new age hippy on you just then, but The World seems dissatisfied with you just smelling roses. You aren't living if it's not Bigger and Better. Well, bugger that :)
Speaking of which, here is my current delight. Naudo played it years ago, I heard it on the radio last week, decided to transcribe (more or less) Naudo's version, and I'm delighted. So many "Oh wow!" things that happens in this song, can't believe I didn't tackle it when I first heard Naudo play it. It's a window into his playing (I can see how he has re-used phrases from other works I have transcribed before) and it's just a really nice song.
Badfinger's "Without You", made famous by Harry Nilssen, and later by Mariah Carey, but let's just stick with Naudos version :)
Apologies about the recording, it was made via my smartphone. And I'm still developing the song, I haven't committed it to muscle memory, and I'm not playing on my normal guitar, and blah blah blah...JAW "warts and all" Munji strikes again, enjoy.
Wednesday, 26 June 2013
Cape Lambert Recordings 1
Anyway, some tunes and some stories perhaps? These are all demos of what is to come, played on my $100 1974 banger, in a room I can nearly touch opposing walls, so be kind :)
First up, Lean on Me. Pretty close to ready for production. Tab is made, I play it ok, just not so smooth. While I was sitting with the lads one evening have a beer with guitar in hand, Lisey said "can you teach me Lean on Me?" I flicked the chords up, went the improvise, and behold, it was very simple! Only about half a day invested in this one. It is my "default" fingerstyle strummy drummy flicking pattern - beat 1 is a bass note, beat 3 is a flick/snare drum feel, the rest is squeezed in the gaps. This is going to be a nice easy and reasonably popular tune.
I'd already played the intro to "Something so Strong" about a month ago and decided that would be a good candidate too. My default fingerstyle feel again. It's okay, I don't have too many songs that are this formula, so if I disperse this sort of feel throughout my setlist, nobody will write me off as a one trick wonder. But for you, here is the same feel applied to a different song. Note that I have worked out the solo and tabbed it, it just isn't into muscle memory yet so it was a bit off in this demo.
This I've been playing for a while, I've mentioned it before, Ulli Boegershausen's fingerstyle cover of "Mad World". Excellent, haunting, highly recommended.
"Albatross" by the Peter Green version of Fleetwood Mac is an excellent chillaxing tune, Hansel Pethig did a super-cool improvisation on it a while back on youtube, I have had it noted for a while. You will notice that I...just...can't...play slowly...consistently... It's like I have a fixed speed and I always come back to it. Sorry, but song is still in practise mode!
And finally, the start of "Money", one of the last songs to tackle in my epic Dark Side of the Moon project. This is really raw, concept only. Firstly I wanted something that said "fingerstyle" but also was cash registers/coins clinking. I tried a few tings until I settled on something that flowed, in 7/4 timing, which is achievable and has a "feel". Tap soundboard under soundhole, scrape upper soundboard, fingernail taps on top side, scrape again, clunk base of bridge, scrape up bridge, fingernail tap bottom, repeat. I need to work on the "mesh", I don't want it to sound contrived, it must flow into the song. But it still needs to be obvious what it is! It may yet morph, and my playing of the song is very stiff, you can tell I've only just started...enough excuses, I don't mind sharing my half-baked concepts with you. There's a few edit/cuts in this to make sure it was at least vaugely coherent.
There you have it. Next swing is 3 weeks away, so nothing doing for a while. Hope you found something interesting in my very hacky fingerstyle song concepts on my $100 banger. Sorry about the G-string not being in tune, I only noticed when listening back, bleurgh...okay, enough with the excuses already :)
JAW
Tuesday, 18 June 2013
Look after your hearing!
Once upon a time I used to drill, angle grind, circular saw - you name it - with scarcely an item of safety gear on. After two incidents where I put small fragments of metal in my eye I learnt to wear safety glasses, but it wasn't until much later on I finally heeded the advice: "JAW, wear hearing protection."
Suffice to say, for quite a number of years now, I won't even pick up a hammer without having safety glasses and hearing muffs on. But, damage to my hearing had already started. Irreversible damage. Yes, I have minor noise-induced hearing loss and minor tinnitus (a "ringing in the ear when no sound is present").
Hey don't feel bad for me, it's very minor comparatively, I only hear the tinnitus when the background noise is very low. The hearing loss only affects me when there is a lot of sound coming from all around and I'm trying to listen to something specific. Just take note: if you are doing something - power tools, listening to loud music, that sort of thing, and you come away with a ringing in your ears then that was too loud. Keep a few pairs of ear muffs around the house and a few rolly squeezy type inserts on hand and turn it down. That ringing in your ear, which goes away after a day or so? My tinnitus is very similar to that sound, except it doesn't ever go away...
Noise induced hearing loss, well, let me try to describe it. You might actually have it and don't realise. Now would be a good time to stop it getting any worse if you do. What, you are fine, you can hear a pin drop? So can I. In the quietest of quiet rooms I could hear a flea on a mouse squeak. That's not how this type of hearing loss happens. However, if you put me in a room where several people are talking, and someone is talking to me - right there, right in front of me - I can't understand a word they are saying. Why is that?
As it was explained to me, which makes a lot of sense, it's the high frequencies that are lost first. High frequencies are where the data is. Think about wireless data, or radio transmissions: the higher the frequency, the more data you can fit in it. And even though the main component frequencies of the human voice are generally lower than 1kHz, the "sss"es, are up as high as 8kHz. That holds more information that you'd think. Let me see if I can simulate noise induced hearing loss for you.
First, here is me saying something Ocker. Yes, I am a bit "nasal", that's why I don't sing:
Now here is the same thing with everything above 1kHz removed. It sounds "mumbly", but you can still tell what I am saying:
Here is me saying the same original thing again this time with a crowd of JAWs all saying Ocker things. At about the 3 second mark you can hear me pretty clearly over top of those other noisy JAWs:
Same thing, except the talking over the top has everything above 1kHz removed again. You can still hear me, but it is more difficult:
And that's where the problem is. In a noisy environment, you can't "hear" (where "hear" means "understand") the important stuff - that high frequency data is lost. Apparently people with this sort of hearing loss, as it progresses, may start to withdraw from crowds, perhaps leading to other psychological problems.
But like I said I'm not too bad. I do struggle in a noisy environment, and yes, I don't go into a loud music environment. I do ask people to repeat themselves quite often, and will get up close to hear them. I notice people get a bit annoyed if you ask them to repeat themselves for the third time...and if I still didn't understand them I smile, nod my head and play along like I did hear them. Ah the social techniques and strategies of hearing loss...
Bottom line - protect your hearing!
Suffice to say, for quite a number of years now, I won't even pick up a hammer without having safety glasses and hearing muffs on. But, damage to my hearing had already started. Irreversible damage. Yes, I have minor noise-induced hearing loss and minor tinnitus (a "ringing in the ear when no sound is present").
Hey don't feel bad for me, it's very minor comparatively, I only hear the tinnitus when the background noise is very low. The hearing loss only affects me when there is a lot of sound coming from all around and I'm trying to listen to something specific. Just take note: if you are doing something - power tools, listening to loud music, that sort of thing, and you come away with a ringing in your ears then that was too loud. Keep a few pairs of ear muffs around the house and a few rolly squeezy type inserts on hand and turn it down. That ringing in your ear, which goes away after a day or so? My tinnitus is very similar to that sound, except it doesn't ever go away...
Noise induced hearing loss, well, let me try to describe it. You might actually have it and don't realise. Now would be a good time to stop it getting any worse if you do. What, you are fine, you can hear a pin drop? So can I. In the quietest of quiet rooms I could hear a flea on a mouse squeak. That's not how this type of hearing loss happens. However, if you put me in a room where several people are talking, and someone is talking to me - right there, right in front of me - I can't understand a word they are saying. Why is that?
As it was explained to me, which makes a lot of sense, it's the high frequencies that are lost first. High frequencies are where the data is. Think about wireless data, or radio transmissions: the higher the frequency, the more data you can fit in it. And even though the main component frequencies of the human voice are generally lower than 1kHz, the "sss"es, are up as high as 8kHz. That holds more information that you'd think. Let me see if I can simulate noise induced hearing loss for you.
First, here is me saying something Ocker. Yes, I am a bit "nasal", that's why I don't sing:
Now here is the same thing with everything above 1kHz removed. It sounds "mumbly", but you can still tell what I am saying:
Here is me saying the same original thing again this time with a crowd of JAWs all saying Ocker things. At about the 3 second mark you can hear me pretty clearly over top of those other noisy JAWs:
Same thing, except the talking over the top has everything above 1kHz removed again. You can still hear me, but it is more difficult:
And that's where the problem is. In a noisy environment, you can't "hear" (where "hear" means "understand") the important stuff - that high frequency data is lost. Apparently people with this sort of hearing loss, as it progresses, may start to withdraw from crowds, perhaps leading to other psychological problems.
But like I said I'm not too bad. I do struggle in a noisy environment, and yes, I don't go into a loud music environment. I do ask people to repeat themselves quite often, and will get up close to hear them. I notice people get a bit annoyed if you ask them to repeat themselves for the third time...and if I still didn't understand them I smile, nod my head and play along like I did hear them. Ah the social techniques and strategies of hearing loss...
Bottom line - protect your hearing!
JAW
Saturday, 1 June 2013
What's happening June 2013
Welcome to the Pilbara! This is my home two weeks out of three for the foreseeable future. It is an area in Western Australia responsible for about 20% of the worlds iron ore production. I've been working in the iron ore mining game on and off for 20 years, and have spent the last couple of years engineering software for an expansion of an iron ore port facility at Cape Lambert. Now it is the pointy end of the job - where we commission the facility, which means a lot of time away from home.
(Here is the Birrabira camp where I am staying, and here are a couple of stackers in the facility I'm working at.)
What this all means is that since I don't work more than 12 hours a day I get a bit of free time between meals and sleeping...which I have been filling with guitar playing. I've been running through my set list most nights to several mates who are happy to listen, and I put in time working out new songs. Good news for guitar! Not so good news for my family. But, it is the nature of my work, good pay in return for being away from home. Make the most of it me thinks.
I decided I'm not going to take the Esteve on the plane up and down every roster, so I looked in the classifieds for a good classical banger that I can leave up here. I think I have mentioned I have a soft spot for 70's and 80's Yamahas. Probably because that's all I had for the first ten years of playing. I found a nice example of a G-55, circa 1974 vintage, so pretty much the same as my first guitar. It was in fair condition so I grabbed it for $AU100 (2013). I ditched the strings and went to take out the saddle for a looksee...which I discovered was glued in (sheesh) and when trying to pull it out shattered in my hands. Lucky I have spares! I cleaned up the saddle rebate, filed a new one down and popped it in.
Although the neck is ever-so-slightly bent in giving an ever-so-slightly high action, it plays fine and sounds great. I think my audience is surprised when I tell them it is a $100 banger that I'm going to leave up here forever!
(Note, if you are interested in old yamaha guitars - when they were made, out of what - Yamaha's excellent "Guitarachive" Guitar Archive was closed but has found new support here: http://yamahavintagefg.boards.net/thread/8/yamaha-acoustic-guitar-archive)
I'll let you know of my progress. It's overwhelming what to tackle first! One of my mates who'd like to learn to play said "can you play Lean On Me?"...quick internet search for the chords, quick improvise...then an hour or two later in my room and I have made a really nice fingerstyle version. I think you will like it but I didn't bring any recording equipment...this time. But since I mentioned it, here, have a quick look at the main riff:
Note the strum/finger flick indications on the bottom of the tab section.
Anyway, I'll be in touch! :)
JAW
Monday, 29 April 2013
What's happening April 2013
Another poll finished, I tried to predict the results on this one, let's see how I went...For "Is this your first visit to this site?" I said:
The actual results:
It would seem that most people know where they've been and I have more regulars than I thought - thanks everybody, okay, I should write more!
I've still got my Thursday night gig, I'm still enjoying it. With the colder weather I'm playing less outside and more inside, and the number of patrons is shrinking. Maybe it might soon end for the season, I'll see what the boss is thinking.
I volunteered for a gig at a different place Sunday afternoon, this one was part of a fundraiser for Teen Challenge (an initiative to help people to get out of bad places - drugs, alcohol, self harm, those sorts of bad places.) It's a good cause and I was happy to be part of a lineup of 8 different performers. This gig came about through a friend mentioning me to a friend.
Since I've been gigging for a while I'm pretty comfortable with any sort of gig "at my level", that is, somewhere between 1 and 50 people in a small venue. This venue was another cafe style place. So I just grabbed my guitar and amp and headed in. It was all inside, with a lot of concrete, although a lot higher roof. I was concerned that the acoustics would be poor, I was in for a surprise!
The organiser had a PA setup - two very big speakers and a little 2-channel mixing table. They saw my amp and said "ah, okay, you bought your own gear" and I said "Whoa, yours looks heaps better, I'll use that!" I fumbled around with the mixer for a while and got a sensational sound out of their system. So clean, clear, true to the sound of the guitar and full, solid. It is hard to describe - the sound from my little amp is clean but it doesn't have the "presence", that big solid sound this thing had. Not loud, just solid. That represents a problem...now I am very dissappointed with my amp!
I had previously tried a modular PA system in a music shop and I knew that is the next step, but whoa, yeah thanks for the reminder, I don't need reasons to spend more money!
The guy who brought it down for the event wasn't there to set it up, which is a shame, he is a sound engineer apparently and I would have loved to talk to him. It also was a problem because the two speakers were pointing away from me so I couldn't "hear" what the audience was hearing. I needed a little monitor speaker pointing at me, I was playing mostly on the acoustic sound I was getting just from the guitar being in my hands. I was aware that there was a solid soung being projected, but the lesson is you need to have some of that sound coming at you. At my normal gig with my little amp I sit myself so that the amp is pointing a little bit at me, so I can hear the sound being projected. That wasn't possible here.
I also noticed the bass E string felt overly boomy - out of balance from the other strings. As if someone had wound up the bass EQ way too high. When I thought about it, I suspected the resonance of the room was causing that. The room happily reflected deep bass but mids and trebles didn't reflect. That's I guess what sound engineers are for - listening and tuning the sound. Even when you have a monitor speaker pointed at you you won't know what the sound is like for the guy in the back...when you are by yourself you just have to suck it and see, hope for the best, go with experience (which is low for me!)
(I asked the audience a few times "Is it too loud? Is it too quiet? How is the equalisation, does that bass sounds boomy? It the response flat? How are the dynamics? Do I need to ease off on the soundboard pickup and stick more to the undersaddle transducer? Do you think I should switch the pickup to phase invert between the two pickups?" Okay, I didn't really ask those questions but I wanted to. I need to play a venue where a sound engineer is in control - and see what they do! :))
JAW
75% Yes 15% No 10% I don't know
The actual results:
63% (87 votes) Yes 35% (48 votes) No 1% (2 votes) I don't know
It would seem that most people know where they've been and I have more regulars than I thought - thanks everybody, okay, I should write more!
I've still got my Thursday night gig, I'm still enjoying it. With the colder weather I'm playing less outside and more inside, and the number of patrons is shrinking. Maybe it might soon end for the season, I'll see what the boss is thinking.
I volunteered for a gig at a different place Sunday afternoon, this one was part of a fundraiser for Teen Challenge (an initiative to help people to get out of bad places - drugs, alcohol, self harm, those sorts of bad places.) It's a good cause and I was happy to be part of a lineup of 8 different performers. This gig came about through a friend mentioning me to a friend.
Since I've been gigging for a while I'm pretty comfortable with any sort of gig "at my level", that is, somewhere between 1 and 50 people in a small venue. This venue was another cafe style place. So I just grabbed my guitar and amp and headed in. It was all inside, with a lot of concrete, although a lot higher roof. I was concerned that the acoustics would be poor, I was in for a surprise!
The organiser had a PA setup - two very big speakers and a little 2-channel mixing table. They saw my amp and said "ah, okay, you bought your own gear" and I said "Whoa, yours looks heaps better, I'll use that!" I fumbled around with the mixer for a while and got a sensational sound out of their system. So clean, clear, true to the sound of the guitar and full, solid. It is hard to describe - the sound from my little amp is clean but it doesn't have the "presence", that big solid sound this thing had. Not loud, just solid. That represents a problem...now I am very dissappointed with my amp!
I had previously tried a modular PA system in a music shop and I knew that is the next step, but whoa, yeah thanks for the reminder, I don't need reasons to spend more money!
The guy who brought it down for the event wasn't there to set it up, which is a shame, he is a sound engineer apparently and I would have loved to talk to him. It also was a problem because the two speakers were pointing away from me so I couldn't "hear" what the audience was hearing. I needed a little monitor speaker pointing at me, I was playing mostly on the acoustic sound I was getting just from the guitar being in my hands. I was aware that there was a solid soung being projected, but the lesson is you need to have some of that sound coming at you. At my normal gig with my little amp I sit myself so that the amp is pointing a little bit at me, so I can hear the sound being projected. That wasn't possible here.
I also noticed the bass E string felt overly boomy - out of balance from the other strings. As if someone had wound up the bass EQ way too high. When I thought about it, I suspected the resonance of the room was causing that. The room happily reflected deep bass but mids and trebles didn't reflect. That's I guess what sound engineers are for - listening and tuning the sound. Even when you have a monitor speaker pointed at you you won't know what the sound is like for the guy in the back...when you are by yourself you just have to suck it and see, hope for the best, go with experience (which is low for me!)
(I asked the audience a few times "Is it too loud? Is it too quiet? How is the equalisation, does that bass sounds boomy? It the response flat? How are the dynamics? Do I need to ease off on the soundboard pickup and stick more to the undersaddle transducer? Do you think I should switch the pickup to phase invert between the two pickups?" Okay, I didn't really ask those questions but I wanted to. I need to play a venue where a sound engineer is in control - and see what they do! :))
JAW
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