Building Your Band

A better conversation about music, with David Loftis and Peter Bulanow

Peter James | Clashing With Every Single Person

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We’re joined by legendary Hillsong keyboardist and sound designer Peter James. Peter has been playing piano/keys for the last 25+ years, and has been heavily involved with Hillsong Church as a volunteer on the weekends, as well as being employed by Hillsong United and Hillsong International Leadership College as a lecturer for the past 13 years. Additionally, he has played on 40+ Hillsong albums.

In this episode, we get inside Peter James headspace on everything from Sound Design -> Writing Parts -> Arranging -> Synth Bass. We hear how he pushes himself to continually try something new, the relationship of keyboard parts to sounds, a trick for coming up with parts, and how to incorporate synth base into your band. We hear about the influence of Hillsong producer, Joel Houston, and the reference material he pushed out ahead of tracking, such as: M83, Passion Pit, & Radiohead, that influence modern worship music today.

Go to Peter James Productions, check out his stuff at Multitracks (including his sounds for Oceans), don’t miss his Youtube Channel, and follow him on Facebook, and Twitter.

Subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher and support the show by rating us and leaving a comment. Have a question or thought? Leave a comment below or connect directly with us!

Toto Masterclass

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When we hold a workshop, we start out by talking about the roles for each instrument. Knowing the role of each instrument goes far to inform what everyone should play.

But even without that understanding, we have clear examples of the kinds of things we should play all around us: original studio tracks. If your playing doesn’t line up with basically the kinds of things you hear on records, you may be overplaying.

Session players are the ones that get the call to play in the studio while the tape is rolling and there are a bunch of people sitting around charging by the minute for their time – when you need to get it right the first time. Toto is a band that formed out of session players – so in many ways, they are a textbook.

This is a breakdown of a famous song of Toto’s from the 80’s called “Rosanna” which you can read all about at the wikipedia page. Other than the fact the announcers talk too much over the tracks, this really does go far to break down just how little is needed, yet how significant each contribution is. If your playing is significantly different than what is on here, it’s time to rethink some things.

A couple things jump out at me listening to this:

Jeff Porcaro on Drums – he is famous for just playing the groove and not playing a lot of fills. My kind of drummer, and exactly what you need most Sunday mornings.

Steve Porcaro on Keys – This really is textbook keyboard playing. Something as simple as a roll down at the right time can shift the whole song.

Steve Lukather on Guitar – Note just how tasteful his playing is when called to play rhythm. Don’t be afraid to step out a little when asked to solo.

Vocal Harmonies – Everything should start out with melody. You build harmonies slowly. Blend is everything. You can actually get away with a lot of harmonies if you’re tasteful and intentional.

Finally, everybody uses contrasts to make certain things speak, and other things lay back.

What jumps out at you?

The Five Stages of Musical Proficiency

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BYBStagesXSomething that I think would have been helpful to me in my musical journey, was some sort of validation of where I’ve been, where I am, and a hint of what is ahead of me.

This handy chart that I created is one way to break things out, and it’s the way I hear many folks describe their musical journey.

The First Stage is really the beginner stage- when you first pick up your instrument and don’t know a thing about a scale or a chord or a time signature. It’s about acquiring those basics.

The Second Stage is the “doing your homework” phase of musical progression, where you put in your time – maybe even most of your 10,000 hours – to gain proficiency on your instrument. If you don’t love your instrument by this point you get out.

The Third Stage represents a paradigm shift. It’s the first time you start focussing not on what you’re playing, but on what you’re not playing. It’s about creating space for others and responding to what is going on. If you’re copying the record at this point, that’s where your eyes get opened up to what session players are actually doing. They’re not the busy little doodlers we are when we play by ourselves. There is an economy to what they play. This is when we get knocked back by the significance of The Edge when he says:

Notes actually do mean something. They have power. I think of notes as being expensive. You don’t just throw them around. I find the ones that do the best job and that’s what I use. I suppose I’m a minimalist instinctively. I don’t like to be inefficient if I can get away with it. Like on the end of “With or Without You”. My instinct was to go with something very simple. Everyone else said, “Nah, you can’t do that.” I won the argument and I still think it’s sort of brave, because the end of “With or Without You” could have been so much bigger, so much more of a climax, but there’s this power to it which I think is even more potent because it’s held back… ultimately I’m interested in music. I’m a musician. I’m not a gunslinger. That’s the difference between what I do and what a lot of guitar heroes do. —The Edge (1991)

The Fourth Stage is when you’ve moved past trying to copy your influences and you prefer your own voice. This is when you can apply your sound to original material without second guessing yourself. This is also when you might listen to the record, but you don’t need to, because you understand how to serve the song. This level represents the true expert, the specialist in music.

The Fifth Stage is reserved for the very few who are willing to be extremely brave and vulnerable and who continue to distill their voice and find something so new as to be thought of as original. Very often this occurs across genres or it is art that transcends genres.  This stage of musicianship is reserved for those who change the way we hear music, and we’re never the same after that.

Once we move forward, we still may step backwards at times so that we can again move forward with a different vocabulary or improved skill set. I think of Rush’s Drummer Neil Peart, already a world class drummer with 14 Albums under his belt, using a traditional rock style of hitting the snare (clearly at the Fifth Stage), who decided in 1994 to back up (to the Second Stage) and learn the looser jazz style traditional grip of playing to find some fresh inspiration, the result of which can first be heard on Test For Echo.

What do you think? Do these stages help you think about where you are in your own musical journey? Are they helpful as you think about the musicians you play with, produce, or direct?

Season 1 Remix | Kaleidoscope Edition

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While recording and editing the first 18 episodes of the podcast, I began to notice some of the content commented on some of the other content. I began to think how awesome it might be to hear these ideas back-to-back, remixed into a super-episode, which would demonstrate both the importance of the ideas, as well as some of the different ways they’re approached. When my amazing wife suggested I do a “kaleidoscope” edition, I poured through all 18 episodes, finding clips to put together, resulting in this fascinating overview of Season 1.  Special thanks to all my guests who shared their quality content.

If you missed Season 1 of the Building Your Band podcast, this is a great way to catch up! It is also an invitation to go back and revisit specific episodes.

I would love to hear your comments right in the Soundcloud stream or below in the comments section. For all the episodes past and future, subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher!

Season 2 will be coming soon! Please contact me if you would like to be featured!

“Almighty“- Produced, Mixed & Mastered by Peter Bulanow | http://meltingearth.com

Featuring: Taylor Carson | http://taylorcarson.com
Additional Vocals:  Eileen Graham | http://eileengrahammusic.com
Cello: Michael Thomas | facebook.com/CelloMT
Bass: Aron “Teo” Lee | facebook.com/teo.lee

Special thanks to all the musicians for their collaboration, and to Dan Rebeiz (http://danieljackproductions.com) for his advice and mentorship.

Aron Lee, ‘All In’

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Aron Teo Lee

Aron Teo Lee

Aron “Teo” Lee (Twitter | Facebook) talks to us about owning the support role of bass.

Topics include:

  • Roles and responsibilities of the bass player
  • Being in the driver’s seat vs riding shotgun & navigating
  • Commitment to the groove
  • How a rhythm section liberates everything else
  • (Negative) Space
  • Communicating with a bass player as a producer

Genesis by Matthew Shell & Arun Shenoy (Amazon | iTunes)

Subscribe to iTunes

Subscribe on iTunes

What is a rhythm section?

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Put another way – what is meant by a “rhythm section”? And more importantly, why is it called that?

A rhythm section is really just the drum kit and bass (upright or electric).

It’s called this because the rhythm section operates as an integrated unit by defining the rhythmic structure of the song as well as the tempo and the groove. That cool rhythm guitar part? Yeah that’s just filler or ear candy at best. The real song, the definitions of downbeat and the bass of the chord, are determined by this dynamic duo.

This idea is at the foundation of moving away from the pianist defining the song and the mix. And everyone has to be aware of this dynamic. Even if a song were to start out on acoustic piano, or with a guitar riff, as soon as the rhythm section is in, they define time.

When a rhythm section is working, it’s truly a beautiful thing. It frees other instrumentalists up to not have to “carry” the song, but to just play the parts that really add value.

Making room for the bass

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Once again I am going to write from the perspective of the keyboardist, which I can fortunately do not only because I am one, but also because keyboardists are the biggest offenders at this! It is actually pretty hard for a guitar to get down in that range, in the same way it’s hard for a viola to step on an upright base, or a cello to step on a violin.

So, dear keyboardists – your wax- on wax-off is to sit on your left hand. I’m serious – you don’t get to use it – not at all.

And here is the really beautiful thing. Your sound guy will appreciate it. The piano will sound better. Your band will sound better. It will be less muddy. Your bass player will probably take you out for dinner!  It’ll be a win-win-win-win-win, at least a five-way win.

Once it starts making sense to you what you should be playing, that you can indeed get away with using just one hand, once you don’t need it anymore – then you can finally have that hand back. And you will find that you will sound better than ever.

You were getting bored doing the same old thing week after week anyway, weren’t you? You needed a challenge. Well this is it.

Protip:  don’t forget to do your Hanon exercises so your left hand doesn’t atrophy!

Flesh and bones

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What on earth am I talking about here? This is how I think about the roles of the various instruments. The rhythm section, consisting of bass and drums is the skeleton, the bones, and everything else is the flesh that hangs off the skeleton.

So the real “song” is defined by the rhythm section. A vocal track should have no problem existing inside this space thus creating “the song”. And indeed it is all empty space in there. The other instruments – the acoustic guitar, electric guitar, keyboard, organ, solo and orchestral instruments, backing vocals and choir – all are the flesh and muscle and organs (hah) that exists inside the skeleton, and must not conflict with the lead vocal or each other!

This paradigm, these new wine skins, must inform how everyone thinks about the song to include how it is played and how it is mixed. The mix must begin with the kick, snare, hat, etc. and then go to the bass, and then the other instruments. They can be sub-mixed in groups (the rhythm section in Group 1-2, the instruments in Group 3-4), so that the vocals speak, but the only thing that can conflict with the vocals are the instruments, not the rhythm section.