Building Your Band

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

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.

Dan Rebeiz, ‘Unifying’

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Dan Rebeiz by Pete Bulanow

Dan Rebeiz by Pete Bulanow

Guitarist* Dan Rebeiz talks to us about unifying the emotional content of the music we create in this sweeping interview. Contact Dan @ Daniel Jack Productions or Facebook or The Excentrics
Subscribe to iTunes

Subscribe on iTunes

*Music, Lyrics, Instruments, Vocals, Programming, by DJR. Mixed and Mastered by Micah Wilshire.  Links: Sarah McLachlan‘s Music It Might Get Loud, with Jimmy Page, The Edge, Jack White  

Serving the song as a… [guitarist]

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Much of the music we listen to today is defined by the guitar. There is so much you can do right, and so much space to explore. I’m going to assume you know not to use a blues tone on a song that isn’t Gospel. But other than that, I’m not going to get into the technicalities of the kinds of pickups you should use, or if Line 6 pedals are the way to go or not, I’ll let you guys debate the relative merits of the various ways you color your sound. The main thing I want to say is that communication with the keyboardist is good because you two are taking up most of the same space as the vocalists. Communication before rehearsal is nice, during rehearsal is really nice, and eye contact during the gig can do so much to disambiguate who is doing what, when. Since so many songs are the guitarists, when there is a piano song or keyboard section, let them do their thing. And if there are two guitar parts, you don’t need to cover them both (even though I’m sure you can). Feel free to pawn off the least interesting guitar parts to your keyboardist – they will love you for it! Except for special arrangements, make sounds that are guitar sounds so everyone can tell what is going on. There is nothing more confusing for a keyboard player (or congregation, if they are paying attention) than to hear synth sounds not coming from the keys!

Piano songs and guitar songs

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In most worship songs, it is pretty obvious when the song is a “piano song” or a “guitar song.” When a song is a piano song, it may have more chord changes (think hymns), and the groove generally derives from the chord structure. Conversely, when a song is a guitar song it may have less chord changes, and the groove derives from the rhythm of the instrument or some lick or hook. This is something you are probably intuitively aware of and consider when arranging the song, but let’s focus on it directly for a moment and consider some implications. A few years back (maybe before the internet even!) I remember reading a huge interview in Keyboard magazine with Michael Tilson Thomas* in which he talked about composition separate from that of any given instrument. In other words, he didn’t want the physicality of writing at the piano to suggest certain things in the composition. Rather, he wanted to compose independent of any instrument and then later on figure out how to voice it. Being aware of this dynamic, there is one obvious idea and one less obvious idea we can learn: The obvious idea is a neat arranging trick. If you have a piano song and you want a fresh arrangement, you can really change it up by arranging it around the guitar. Conversely, if you have a guitar song and you want a fresh arrangement, you can really change it up by arranging it around the piano. This is most famously done by taking hymns generally written at the piano, and making guitar arrangements. An example in the other direction – I was asked to arrange a piano version of one of Chris Joyner’s tunes for a song he wrote on the guitar called “I Believe“. A less obvious idea is that there is a very real sense that the physicality of our instrument dictates a lot of how we play it. So while we should to play to our instrument’s strengths, we should avoid being limited by that (due to lack of technical skills), or held in a box by that (due to a lack of imagination). So the former is probably easy enough to understand; we should try to minimize limitations by our technical skills. But the latter is a blind spot. For example, how often do we play monophonic (let alone with just one hand) on the piano? If a simple melody or counter-melody best serves the song, we should play just that (rather than chords) as suggested by our many fingers and all those keys. Instruments are means to an end. The end is the song. How best can we voice the song? *famed conductor of San Francisco Orchestra and notable re-interpreter of classic American composers such as Aaron Copland.

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.