For vocalists

Hello friends,

Some ideas for vocalists and others.  Feel free to pass this on, disagree etc.

Think for yourself.  Use your own experience and opinions when  making music.  You will not be able to ask a teacher or read a book that will explain every note, rhythm, articulation - and besides, it's your music.  

When you hear instruction in a lesson, hear music, hear yourself singing, read opinions -- don't merely like or dislike something.  What about it do you like and dislike?  Be specific and detailed in your thinking.  You can develop your taste (and confidence in your own judgement) by forming opinions about acting, music, art, comedy, anything.   If you find yourself standing next to a rack of ties in a department store - which would you buy, which do you hate and why?  Feel of the fabric, color, width, how does it reflect light, is it pleasant to the touch, is it well-made?  If you dislike a singer, what about her? is it as much about the singer as the song, the production, the tempo, the lyrics?  Then keep relating back to your music and art.  Don't just be a music snob, nothing is gained that way.  Keep giving your own work the same searching appraisals, and evolve through doing so.  This may seem pretty abstract, but do it until something occurs in your thinking and feeling.

Example:  

-Someone you don't like?  

-Madonna.

-what about her?

-her narrow range.

-Johnny Cash and Tracey Chapman have pretty narrow ranges.  Do you like them?

-Yes, better than Madonna.

-So maybe range is only part of it.  What else?

- the pop production, the sounds are too big.

- James Taylor has pop production, but not the same way - there's a feeling of intimacy.  Would you like Madonna's records better if there the voice felt close and unaffected like James Taylor's Cds?

- Part of it is that he is someone I would want to know and Madonna isn't.  And if her voice was close and unaffected -- well, I don't like the sound of her voice much.  

- You said range first, then you mentioned pop production, personality and the sound of her vocal instrument.  You're intending to record a CD,  Any thoughts after considering these artists?

- I don't want the production to make me seem far away from the listener.  I want people to like the true sound of my voice.  Also, personality comes through in a vocalist, and I want people to like me for who I am.  

-Being liked, reaching listeners that way -  probably makes how you come through as you sing, and your connection to the song's mood, message, meaning --important.

- wow, more than I realized.  And I guess I could make myself too distant from the listeners with the wrong production.  I think you just steered me towards making a folk album!

Record yourself often, listen more than once.  Don't just like or hate, notice details.  Get to know what you really sound like.

If a teacher is observant, they'll be getting far more info from your singing than from your explanations, excuses, history.  Most talking during lessons is beside the point.  You can express what you need to for most of a lesson with "OK" ('I understand' or 'I'll sing that') and "huh?" (I don't understand).  Also, in a lesson, a teacher should see your posture, breathing, tension.  Dress accordingly.  Don't wear shoes you're about to fall off of.

Everyone you meet, who hears you, who you interact with -- could hire you or refer you.  You don't need to tell them you're looking for work.  In the performing arts, EVERYBODY is looking for work.  Everyone you know is bombarded (and bored by) by adverts, emails, pitches asking them to buy things or hire people.  The best way for a performer to "network" is to get better at what they do.  That way, when you sing in a class or a gig, people remember you.  I saw a concert once.  Six years later, I started 4-5 years of lessons with that artist.  

Pitch, time, phrasing, choice of notes - these are not simply "good or bad".  Serious musicians spend their lives focused on these basics.  Your rhythm and pitch can be refined and improved.  They always can, in everyone.  Most of what you're trying to refine is your perception of pitch and time - your brain's awareness of how you are singing, of the sounds of the other instruments.  Very often in music, performers are not aware of what they don't have control over.  Or they're fixated on one thing, and unaware of others.  You will often have to focus and search to find what needs work and improvement in your performance.  

You'll need to be hard on yourself in order to improve.  You'll need to be kind to yourself in order to do it at all.

Hire accompanists, book rehearsals whether you have work or not.  Barter if you have to.  In voice lessons you'll ask and receive advice from a teacher.  Use rehearsals with good musicians to make your own musical decisions, to develop your musical perspective.

By learning what your colleagues on the bandstand know -- by learning music theory, rhythmic theory, how to describe an arrangement, and how to lead a group, you'll improve your singing, gain the respect of the instrumentalists, develop your confidence.

As you go on in music, you'll be recording CDs and putting up a website.  You'll work with audio engineers, producers, graphic designers.  You'll be making production choices.  Get informed about the crafts allied to music.  Whatever you can learn about music software, audio engineering, graphics will help you make choices and save you money.

About composing

I've been watching the PBS series Art:21 lately.  The series shows visual artists at work, talking about their creative routines.  I’ve heard the artists say, "I’ve tried different ways of doing this, and this suits me".  Or, "I used to do something else, but lately I’m excited by this method of working.”  Both their work and their methods change over time.

I write music going back and forth between piano, manuscript paper, notation software and recordings of sketches.  Often I'll improvise at the piano and ideas will come pretty quickly.  I'll stay with an idea for a while, refining it as I do.  A lot of nice details might appear and disappear during this process.  It seems to be the best way, though.  If I record everything I'm faced with too much listening.  I prefer to get something somewhat defined, no matter how many possibilities are lost.  Then I write out what I have, or record with whatever device is handy.  I prefer notating to recording audio - I can look over the page and see what's next, what comes before and after.  I usually do so much editing later that I don't fuss too much at this point.

I use 10 stave manuscript, not 12 stave (how many lines are on the page).  That gives me room to write chord symbols and alternate rhythms above my sketches.    My notation is quick at this point, motivated by not forgetting what I have, and there may be crossing out and revisions.  Sometimes I really want it all to fit on two facing pages, so a long idea might be pretty crunched up on the page.

I'll usually play the idea into notation software on the computer pretty soon after this.  I’m likely to start with exactly what I had in pencil, but now I can format it, and leave space for writing in lines above.  I’ll print it, play through it at the piano, marking revisions on the printout.  Then I go back to the computer and enter the revisions into the software, print it again.  This usually happens a few times.  Living with something for a few days (or months) seems to be necessary.  It's harder to write using a keyboard or away from the piano. The charm, the richness, the mass of the piano sound affect my perspective, even if I'm writing for other instruments.

If I try to transcribe or compose straight into the notation software it slows me down.  I was doing that for a while but it didn't work out well.  I’ve returned to pencil and paper in a big way.

If  music is for a group, or for my trio, I'll get it in shape, read it with the group, and make whatever corrections or revisions might be needed.  I think a lot about what will make sense to the players, what will lay well on the instruments, what will be interesting to a jazz soloist.  That’s usually called ‘arranging’, or ‘Ellington-style arranging’ if you really write with specific players in mind.  Personally, I wouldn't know how to compose or arrange without considering instruments and players.  The "limitations" of each instrument are inspiring, they often help me to compose.

If a song goes through many versions, I'm always interested in the last one.  Other versions just go to the Land Of The Misfit Toys.  That might seems inefficient, but it works well. For me, more of the composing happens during the editing than in the initial moment.  I may add or remove sections, write new lines etc -- at any point in a piece's history, even after it’s been on an album.

As a teen I had a facility for creating short pieces in the moment.  I had no ability to refine music then – I’d play them or write them out and stare at the page, feeling it was precious, not knowing how to find alternatives.  I did a little film scoring and I could see  that editing was really important.  I started forcing it, forcing myself to do many revisions.

Sometimes it seems that I can't play through music without wanting to tinker with it.  In 50s sci-fi there were stories about inventors who built anti-gravity machines in the family garage.  That's how composing should probably be done: in dim light, next to a Studebaker.

Something new. Please.

I keep encountering the same 300 tunes on jazz gigs. Most of them were written a long time ago. A very long time ago. Sadly, jazz in our fair city rarely involves new material or new ways of playing.

The song forms, feels and harmonic language changed drastically during the 60s. As a pianist, I know how hard it is to solo and comp without seventh chords and II-V's.  It's so hard that it pretty much means re-inventing the vocabulary.  So??

I have a steady trio gig. We're playing right-now music and post-Beatles songs as vehicles for jazz.  The songs are inspiring us to blur melody and soloing, or to layer them -- with bitonality, interruption of melody, hiphop-style repeated notes, “out” comping, varying phrase lengths.  We're playing songs by Vampire Weekend, Feist, Alanis Morisette, Los Tigres Del Notre, Radiohead, Bob Marley, The Beatles, -- along with the customary standards and bebop tunes.

The music has more depth when I immerse in the original vocal performance before "jumping off the pier".  I hear some pretty cool notes and rhythms these "mere pop singers" are choosing...  I love trying all of these new songs and ideas on a gig.  I'm excited about jazz, about practicing, about performing.

The rarity of groups in jazz - because of the demise of steady gigs and touring - has made it difficult for new songs to enter the repertoire. If a jazz musician starts playing anything uncommon, there's often no scene where he can get a group used to it.   The song is likely to become "that new tune", brought out when playing with open-minded colleagues.  It's unlikely that those musicians or others will take it up and play it on other gigs.

Neither economics nor stylistic difficulties fully explain the jazz conservatism.  Are jazz musicians and their audiences trying to re-invent 1958?  I love Bill Evans' playing.  I've also heard too many bloodless versions of his music which just added up to "bad Bill Evans".

I'm excited by new music from other places.  From Poland - Tomasz Stanko, Marcin Wasilewski trio.  From New York - Robert Glasper, Sunny Jain, Chris Potter, Jean-Michel Pilc/Ari Hoenig project, Brad Mehldau.  I'd like to be surprised by music in Los Angeles more often.  I've heard some fine music from members of the Los Angeles Jazz Collective.  But I only know what I know, and there are countless venues.  Who should I be hearing? or playing with?

Looking for originality and variety in my own playing has changed my thinking about music.  Impatience might have started this, but it's become a big deal in my life. And I'm just getting started.

Things I don't know

I'm listening to Joni Mitchell singing A Case Of You. How is she able to sing ahead or behind the beat so much and sound so good? When I try to do things like that I just sound like I can't hear the drums.

I wrote out some corridos, the two-beat tunes from Mexico with tuba and accordion. There are phrases with 9 bars, 11 bars etc. The tunes are in two, three, or four. The musicians sound like they were born playing those songs. Why are those odd phrases so hard to solo over?

These corridos -- yow! It's actually quite difficult to decide how to make a clear chart for a rhythm section -- How many bars to put on each line? One of the best things about software-based music copying is trying different layouts after the music is already in there. I'm sure doing that on these tunes!

artist's PR

If I look up an artist and their website feels too focused on marketing, I tend to move on quickly. Many artist's websites are designed as nouveau business cards, fine in itself, but in a world where we're pelted with adverts, not something I want to spend much time looking at.

Kelly Morgan, who teaches Artist's Way workshops, talks about website designing as self-discovery -- deciding who you are and (therefore) what you want to put out there, then designing and revising until it feels like a good representation of yourself (and your work).

I recently ran a campaign seeking grassroots funding to buy equipment for my project studio. I planned a recording project to go along with the campaign, intending to send music to the donors. I also shot and edited video explaining the project.

I'm actually quite happy that I worked on it, even though the campaign was unsuccessful. I learned the basics of some video editing software, and something about funding for the arts.

I encountered considerable apathy, even from friends and family. I'm not writing this to gripe - I learned from the experience. people delete most of their email since we're all pelted with so many adverts. I had some people tell me they don't have $10 to spare these days. Also, many people also have huge music libraries and are less interested in acquiring new music.

I see that often artists' PR makes no impression on its receivers. I also realized that I have conflicted feelings about self-promotion - I'm in favor of it, I do it, and yet it can be embarrassing to me. More of my energy has been directed towards being a good musician, or writing and playing music I enjoy.

So I'm going to redesign my website. I suppose I need the 'business card' aspect - but I'm going to bury it in there somewhere. I'm going to somehow include more things that are fun or exciting to me. Maybe that'll mean blogging about my friends, video of great performers, I don't know yet.

Sessions for an Album

Guitarist/singer/songwriter Moris Tepper has played guitar with Captain Beefheart, Tom Waits, Frank Black, P.J. Harvey. He’s a really interesting songwriter, generally categorized in alt rock or folk genres. Here are samples of his lyrics:

“results and separations felt by everyone,

but there’s nothing in the blueprints, nothing can be done.

I would climb up a mountaintop, sail out to sea,

just to meet you halfway honey, but there’d be no one there to greet me!

just like moving trees, make the wind blow,

and the ocean makes the moon move slow,

the blame is falling over on the other side,

standing here on the fault line.”

-- and --

“no one’s mind hardly ever talks,

no one’s mind sleeps on rocks.”

Moris called about piano and organ for his album, “A Singer Named Shotgun Throat”. We decided to track at my place. About a month later, he started sending me mp3s. What started as four songs became nine. I was in Moris’s touring band for 6 years, so it was easy to communicate about music – we’ve still got ‘the shorthand’. He would send me mp3s with descriptions – calliope organ, murky underwater piano…

The mp3s were rough mixes of guitar, bass and drums – and the instrumental parts were really built around Moris’s rhythm guitar parts – the band was sort of wrapped around Moris’s rhythm guitar parts, which were really connected to the vocal lines. – He’s got that cool guitarist/singer/songwriter thing, where everything is really integrated…

I did thorough takedowns of guitar and vocal parts for several songs, then worked on parts, shooting for piano parts that would sound like additional strings on the same guitar. It’s easy for piano to obscure guitar parts, and I can remember album dates years ago where my contributions were ultimately simplified, cut, or mixed way down. When recording for a guitar-based song, I like to pick ranges to play in or avoid, and be really aware of hammer-ons and other subtleties. I’ve had some long associations in the acoustic folk world, and with guitarist/songwriters. Since unaltered, "indigenous" guitar doesn’t have oodles of sustain, guitarists often re-attack the voicings, or having little hammer-on movements to alternate single notes. I like connecting to those, doubling them on my instrument or staying out of their way.

I started recording and sending him the tracks. With him not being there, I was deciding what my parts should be, how dynamically to play, whether to play fills or leave them for another instrument.. I recorded two or three passes through each song. Some of those tracks “stuck”, and Moris also asked for changes. He came over a couple of nights to work with me. We had a lot of fun working together again, we had spent a lot of time on the road together years ago... When we got together, he brought some new songs. “In The Summer Sun” had constant shifts of meter and chords. He wanted an angular, single note organ line, and thought it better not let me learn or hear the tune before recording. Ultimately, we came up with an 'every-note’s-a-surprise, every-rhythm-is-different' sort of part. That song is a favorite of mine from the album.

While working on “Shotgun Throat”, I listened to Moris’ demos and to his other recordings. That helped me to immerse in his musical world. Usually, the more time I put in connecting with an artist’s music, the better. When Moris pressed copies of the album and sent me one, I felt that the listening and transcribing had paid off. I was quite happy with the “rightness” of the parts.

Improving Your Musical Skills to Make Better Recordings

Improving Your Musical Skills to Make Better Recordings

Picture a good recording session. The instrumentalists and vocalists work well together, songs come together pretty quickly. Different takes are similar enough that (if necessary) editing between takes is possible. If parts will be overdubbed later, the tracks leave room for that. The artist, producer and engineer are happy with the results. Later, the mix session goes well with little time spent "cleaning up" performances or riding faders. What's involved in getting these things to happen?

An Imaginary Session

Look at recording from the viewpoint of the people who will work with the music after the session -- the producer, the mix engineer, and the artist.

The producer is looking for tracks that satisfy both her/himself and the artist. That includes good time and pitch, coherence from beginning to end, style and mood, band tracks that accompany vocals well, mix well, and won't pull focus from the vocal.

A mix engineer wants performances within the dynamic range of the recording equipment. Playing too loudly can cause clipping and too softly could mean tracks with hiss, leakage from the headphones, other problems with noise.

The artist-vocalist is looking for instrumental performances that she feels comfortable singing with and that suit the mood of the song. Each instrumentalist's performance needs to feel connected to the vocal, and instruments generally need to avoid doubling the vocal with the top notes of their voicing. That's important -- comping instruments need to learn to avoid playing the melody.

"Suiting the song" can mean checking out the meaning of the lyrics and considering the artist's overall tastes in music. There's nothing to be gained by imagining that anyone knows what the record needs better than the artist-vocalist. There are plenty of sessions where male musicians and engineers subtly marginalize a female artist-vocalist who has hired them. If the artist is less experienced than some of the other personnel, that doesn't change anything. It's still her CD. Everyone else has been called in to make her sound good.

Improving Your Musicianship

How does this apply to musicians? Time and pitch issues are two problems that can stick out right away and keep you from being asked back. Here are some practice tips:

Many musicians have good "downbeat time" but rush particular figures, or else they have slight unevenness in their lines. To combat these problems, try recording loops of both straight and swinging 8th notes at every tempo and play rhythmic figures along with them, listening closely.

Work at "compressing yourself" when recording. First try playing with little or no dynamics. Then work at having real control of your dynamics, being able to play an entire tune softer or louder.

To improve pitch accuracy, practice playing or singing with headphones over one or both ears. Instrumentalists and vocalists inexperienced with headphones will usually have a hard time with pitch. Practice recording with the headphones at soft levels -- loud headphones will bleed into the mics.

Vocalists, violinists etc. can make ultra-slow recordings of the lines they're going to sing or play using a keyboard, sequencer etc., then practice centering each pitch with the recording.

Gaining Recording Experience

Bring a Zoom H2 recorder to gigs. Record yourself rehearsing. Also record yourself playing or singing with a metronome and with recorded music. Sequencers, metronomes and recording devices can be great practice tools.

There's no substitute for playing sessions. If possible, walk into the booth at each session to hear the sounds and hear how the engineer is monitoring.

Create your own recording opportunities. Get together with players to record yourselves. If you can multi-track (never cheaper or simpler than it is today) then have a go at mixing what you record so you can hear the results.

Sitting in on mixing sessions, talking to engineers, learning about recording -- even doing some engineering yourself -- will all help you to record better. Listen to recorded music and try and figure out how the tracks were recorded. Recorded with a click or not? All at once, or with overdubs? Can you hear edits? Try to hear how the mics were placed on particular instruments.

Paul Tavenner, owner of Big City Audio in Chatsworth, a popular studio for recording jazz, says that musicians sometimes insist on a microphone choice and placement, or other aspects of recording. Remember that engineers develop their ears for years, just as musicians do. The engineer is on your side! It's good to come in to a session open-minded, then listen to the recorded sound and offer suggestions if needed.

Instrumentalists can become overly focused on minute aspects of their track, ignoring the big picture. At a recent session a soloist asked the producer endless questions about subtleties, eating up studio time and preventing listening back. Ultimately the producer started saying, "Play as you think best. I'll tell you if something needs changing."

There are plenty of anecdotes about session musicians who "nail the first take," never having heard the song before. That's great, but don't let that stop you from carefully transcribing vocals and guitar parts from the songwriter's demo, then writing and rehearsing lines that mesh well with them. Recording a great part can justify extra hours of preparation.

Situations come up where gear malfunctions, or one person is having a hard time. Sometimes it becomes necessary for everyone to play one good take after another in order to get even one usable version of the song. Those are situations where having great recording skills really pays off.

the jazz audience

I go out to clubs to hear jazz --   our local artists, headliners from NYC, European jazz groups on tour.  I'm often at the Jazz Bakery, since I live a few blocks away, and I've recently been at Spazio's, Cafe 322, Steamers, the Crowne Plaza, in a word, the usual suspects.  Here's something I notice - a good part of the jazz audience consists of jazz musicians.  I usually run into players I know when I'm at concerts or clubs.  I also see musicians from other disciplines - classical players, film composers, what have you.  

As is often noted, the clubs are under-attended and it's difficult for jazz or any musical acts to fill a house.  

I hear sometimes hear musicians talk about audiences with an "us- and-them" mentality.   I'm going to float an idea here -- We're a big part of the audience -- "them" is largely ourselves.  if we musicians attend more clubs and concerts, we'll be supporting the venues, helping our colleagues get repeat bookings, and  even diagonally supporting our own musical endeavors by keeping the places open.  The clubs are often small to begin with and a few tables would make the difference between profit and loss for the night.

On an off-night, it's nice to stay home, get to bed early, rest the ears.  Go home and make pasta, see what's come in from Netflicks, rule despotically over our minions, that sort of thing.

YES, AND -- If we musician types extend ourselves a bit - push away from the table after the strudel, oof... and go see people's sets, look what awaits us:

We'll be able to dig a little jazz ourselves, crack wise with the band on their break, pester the club-owner with our CDs, have a drink, keep the club in business, have the gratitude of our colleagues whom we've come to see, guilt them into coming to hear us play...  Wotta great setup, itza perfect evening.  Really all that's required is finding the shoes, putting them on again, that's it... getting in the car and driving to a club.  Happy music-iarse, Louis

Building a Project Studio

New (ish) ways to practice

At Jerry Kalaf's Christmas Party this year, bassist Larry Steen and pianist Rich Ruttenberg got into a discussion about how they practice and stay inspired as soloists.  Here are a couple of methods I've gotten mileage out of lately:

It's possible to practice silently -- doing everything you would do with your hands but not pressing down on the piano keys, plucking strings, etc.   It's a way to stay warm between pieces of music and prepare for piece you're about to play.  A few years ago I started doing this and started seeing some unexpected benefits -- Hey, it also means that when someone is making a windy speech you can be soloing on "Moment's Notice"...

Playing soundlessly (on piano) means much smaller motions than usual.  I had always wasted energy before -- lifting higher than necessary off the keys.  As I got into this kind of practicing -- there was a steady gig I was doing with classical accompanying, and lengthy pauses between the pieces-- my hand and finger motion became much more efficient.  

I took it further and got into playing so that my fingers would seldom lose contact with the tops of the keys -- the vertical motion became really minimal.   As I was doing this I was also practicing leaping accurately up and down the keyboard without looking at the keys.  Looking down at the keys interferes with sight-reading, watching a conductor or soloist, etc.  So I got more control of my vertical and horizontal hand motion through this kind of practicing.

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I got one of the 80-gig ipods a couple of years ago.  I started doing what everyone does -- uploading CDs I owned or borrowed and buying music on itunes.   It really improved the quality of my listening -- I had access to a lot of great music at any time.

OK, I have insomnia.  At some point watching TV or reading at night evolved into searching for jazz or ethnic music on the internet with youtube, pandora, and allmusic.com.  I started listening more intently -- not using the music as background, but listening pretty intently, often playing tunes several times, focusing on one instrument at a time.  I would sometimes finger a small keyboard with the sound turned off while listening.  I got more into music (and less into NPR) when driving.

Through "active" listening, one "gets better" at musical concentration...   I got into a whole phase of listening to great drumset players, checking out the vocabulary and the endless possibilities...  Lately listening has become a big part of the evolution of my soloing.  I'm getting interested in, or evolving in areas I hadn't considered before... (Yeah, OK, like counting to 8...)

It also seems that there is something to be said for listening or working on music before being "fully awake".  It seems as though the whole "what-the-notes-are-for-and where-they're-going" thing can burn in deeper before starting the "words-sentences-and-decisions" part of the day...  It's also nice to spend time with just-plain-excellent, "Swiss-pharmaceutical-laboratory" music -- I mean, if you're going to make yourself deaf, it might as well be with late Coltrane, Fauré's song-cycles,Teddy Wilson, Kenny Barron, Bulgarian folk, Palestrina, John Abercrombie, Joao Gilberto, Bartok's quartets, kna'meann?

I'd like to hear how other players practice, especially for memorizing tunes, which can be hard for me.  Comment-ses, anyone?

Web publicity for your music

I met publicist Lexi Kavanaugh (lexi@k2mgt.com) when I was playing in Chicago last November.  She was working with Lili Haydn, who I was performing with.  Lexi now lives in So Cal and she has had some easy and mostly free suggestions for promoting my trio that I wanted to share with the Jazz community...

1) Make html rather than flash websites because the text in them is not readable by search engines.  (I already had a flash site up, but all text in it is duplicated in an HTML site)

2) Whatever web presence you have, make sure the sites all link to each other, makes it easy for search engines to find them.

3) Write a wikipedia article on yourself, very easy to do.

4) Sell your music on http://cdbaby.com.  From there it will be picked up by itunes, napster and other music sites.  Also, their articles on marketing are really helpful.

5) If you don't have reviews of your music yet, get blurbs (short statements) from fans, musicians you play with, employers.  Put them up on your website.

6) Start a blog, let your listeners get to know you through writing.

7) Write thank-you notes to the people who come to your gigs or by your albums.

8)  Make a lens on http://squidoo.com about your music, create myspace and facebook pages.

9) Enlist the help of your audiences to get the word out about your music -- ask people at your gigs to blog about your group.

10) Update your work in http://allmusic.com, http://imdb.com, list your gigs in http://lajazz.com

11) Pianist Tamir Hendelman suggested Marty Khan's book on the business side of jazz called Straight Ahead. http://www.outwardvisions.com/straightahead.html

12) Create T-shirts and other merchandise your fans can order with http://www.cafepress.com

---None of these are bookings for your group.  They are all ways to expand your web presence and expand your fan base.  When you talk to a club about a booking, the booker will google you to find out more about who you are than your press package can tell him.  There will be more there for her to see.  The same when someone hires you as a sideman, considers taking lessons with you, decides whether to go out to a club and see you.

Four recording sessions

I played four sessions over a few days time.  At each session, the demands were a little different.  Here's what happened...

The first two were sessions for film composer Miriam Cutler.  She had scored a documentary about journalist Helen Thomas.  She had done a MIDI mockup of the score and was replacing the parts with acoustic instruments.  For the first session I brought a Roland VK-8 over to her house, an organ with drawbars that imitates a Hammond B3 well. 

We started by listening to some of the soundtrack of “Get Shorty”.  Green Onions was in the soundtrack and there were good greasy organ parts on other cues.  We used what we heard as a starting point for sounds. I decided to get sounds entirely by shifting drawbars, not using presets and a volume pedal because that way I could make the sound evolve during long notes or over the length of the cue.  I memorized a drawbar starting point for each cue so I could get back when I needed to.  It made the parts more expressive.

She had already recorded accordion, terrific playing by Nick Ariondo. My parts doubled his sometimes.  Everything else in the monitors were parts from her MIDI mockup.  The accordion spoke kind of slowly, the organ speaks quickly, so I was listening to the click and to his parts and estimating when to play.  When overdubbing I listen and try to remember the timing of as many of the attacks and releases as I can.  It’s like counting cards --  “these are right on the click; these hits are late; these two parts are flamming...

We had a good time doing it.  We started listening to dialogue as we recorded.  Miriam is a "sperienced" film composer, sensitive to dialogue and editing.  She's also a nice, bright, cultured type so it's always nice working with her.  Sometimes I was playing her written parts, sometimes she was having me get away from the score and it was a nice challenge to improvise parts yet stay suitable to dialogue.  As we listened, she had the accordion down and the organ up…I said, “why don’t you put it a little the opposite, have the accordion up and the organ behind?".  That ended up being a nice thing;  it made the music sound more human and greasy.  

•••••••

     The next morning, we met at Carl Sealove’s to record piano for the same documentary.  Carl has a Mason Hamlin – it’s a terrific instrument.  I struggle with the headphone mix there sometimes since they usually listen to the same monitor mix that I do.  At sessions, I hear a lot of piano acoustically since I'm sitting at it -- I usually want much less piano in the cans than anyone else does.

  There were a few kinds of cues, she was conservative with her themes.  There were triadic even parts - really simple and effective.  You really felt tension and release.  There was swinging, bluesy piano parts that went with the organ.  She used the same ideas in different cues but with different tempos, keys and scoring so it was a nice varied score.  I liked what was going down.  Again, I was playing with the accordion and sometimes with the organ that I played the night before, and since the accordion spoke a little slowly I would find myself playing later…playing behind the click to match the accordion.  When I finished, Carl was going to play bass on the cues, I hope it wasn't too hard to follow!

  Carl recorded in Digital Performer (which is what Miriam uses).  We went from cue to cue very quickly and Miriam would have me do several passes.  One where I would play the written part, then other passes where she would make requests like, “play something high and loopy”, “play something that fills up the middle”,  “just go nuts on this one in a Kurt Weill kind of way” -- it’s a nice way to work.  It must mean a lot of extra listening and editing for her when she’s done --  but we’ve done several scores like this and she seems like she enjoys every part of the process.  Again, these are smart, witty people.  It’s really a pleasure to be around them and work with them.  

••••••••

     That was Thursday night and Friday night…the following Monday night Matt Aschkynazo and I went to Stagg Street Studio in Van Nuys.  Gary Denton, the studio owner, engineered…  We had done some quartet recording before with Larry Steen playing acoustic bass and Chris Wabich playing drums.  We were coming back to replace a couple of guitar solos. Matt wanted me along to listen and to record a couple of duo tunes.  Stagg Street has a Yamaha C7, they’ve changed out the action and revoiced it.  It was sounding good.  

We got started around 9pm.  There had been a little leakage at the original session and it became clear that wherever he wanted to replace guitar, I’d have to replace piano.  We started with the duo tunes, I’m really curious to hear what went down on one of them.  It was a bluesy tune, a Scofield tune, "Heaven Hill".  We tried a “drunk and stoned” way of playing on one of the takes and made the time wobble all through the take.  We were both having fun.  I don’t know if it was a keeper but it was great fun playing that way...   We worked our way down our "list.  We got plenty done but I felt myself getting tired and snippy.  We'd only worked 3 hours but it was close to midnight and I was fading.  Recording when you're not alert or feeling well can be a real test.  Once I played a session after scratching my cornea.  The playing went well but I was in this weird kind of pain!   Matt suggested we come back another night and I was releaved. 

•••••••

Wednesday morning I had a session to record a piece with a vocalist called, “O Sleep, Why Dost Thou Leave Me?” -- an art song by Handel.   The session was with a tenor who was using it as part of an audition reel.   Karen Swerdlow sent the project my way and she has a Kawai tall upright at her studio -- not the first choice for a classical music session but workable.    The vocalist had a sweet lyric tenor sound and sangthe song very well.

The morning of the session I spent an hour trying different ornamentation – trills and mordents and working out fingerings until I ended up with something that sounded good to me - and a little intricate.  When I got to the studio, I went straight to the piano and tried phrases, getting the right touch to evoke a clavichord... The tenor asked me if I would try a keyboard with a harpsichord sound for this? We tried  a Korg Triton…it sounded wa-a-y too cheesy.  I can’t remember ever hearing a keyboard harpsichord spatch sound good.  So we used the piano and it worked it out well.   

The vocalist was happy with the second take so we called it.  One of those questions we all wrestle with:  I felt like I had a better take in me, but the client said we were done.  I often wonder whether to say something or not.  (I did a session with Guitarist Jeff Golub once and he was not shy about asking for additional takes until he was happy, maybe I should be more assertive like that).   The vocalist sounded very good; I've lost his card or I'd mention him here.

auditioning for musical theater, part 1

How can vocalists be well-prepared for musical theater auditions?  I’ve been at auditions as a music director, as a rehearsal pianist, or as both.  I have enough interaction with the actors when talking over or playing their selections that I feel like I’m on both sides of the table most of the time.  The actors often have a very different impression of what's happened at their auditions than those they've auditioned for; I'm writing this in the hope that it may help to close that gap a bit...  I’ll pass on the collective experience and  thinking of some of my colleagues and myself.  Since acting, singing, dependability and work ethic are all considered together at auditions, I’m going to write this in two parts; this first one being about considerations beside the musical ones...

Getting to know “Them” 

Who is your likely audience at auditions?  Surprisingly, it’s everyone you see once you walk in the door or even talk on the phone with before and after the audition.  Think about it: the production staff work together, often for several days with the callbacks.  They’ll be busy when auditioners are showing up promptly, and have down time when there are stragglers or cancellations.  The staff are sitting in a rehearsal hall for long hours, so they often chat during down time about who they’ve seen, and who else they know who might be good for a role.  A receptionist is likely to be part of the theater company and will hear your singing through the door.  The other actors in the waiting room?  Some may be cast right off while others are called back, and as pre-production or rehearsals start, those early casts might also be asked about the people they know or have heard.  The pianist?  As a rehearsal pianist, I’ve never played auditions where I wasn’t asked my opinions about the voices I heard.  I’m not saying you should worry about who you interact with, but that everyone could be someone who matters. 

Often actors seem obsessed with their own performance and skills before, during and after an audition.  You should be concerned with these things, yet you should also be well-rested and calm enough to observe and reflect in the moment.  Part of that is knowing your material well enough that you could be flexible with it and somewhat relaxed while performing.

What “they” are looking for generally  

There are aspects of hiring for theater specific to music and acting – and other aspects that aren’t so different from hiring a receptionist, a waiter, a dance teacher, a babysitter…  

Employers in just about every potential job look for the feeling that they can count on the person they’re hiring, that they will do the job well, that they will be able to understand one another, that they will be able to work together easily, and possibly have some fun in doing so.  Again, if this seems off-topic, it's all aimed toward helping you empathize with the people you’re auditioning for. 

Someone who solves problems or makes them go away is always appreciated as an employee.  If an actor says, “I don’t drive”, that’s a potential problem -- that they may pass on to the production.  If they come in saying “I don’t drive, but I have a driver and I’ll be early to everything”, then that means they have a problem they are solving themselves -- and won't be passing on…  

Someone who takes the time to learn a song from the show before auditioning is showing good initiative and work ethic.  However, singing something really well usually trumps a lesser attempt to demonstrate willingness to work.

In the auditioning room you are likely to find any of these: the director, the musical director, producer, choreographer, writer, rehearsal pianist, interns or other staff, other cast members, a video camera.  Typically, the director will be sympathetic to the nerves of the auditioners and keep attendance down and distractions to a minimum.  If this is not the case, it may indicate a director or producer either inexperienced or insensitive – careful!  

Musical directors are typically looking for: (not in any order of preference) good musicianship (ability to learn music quickly and well, ability to sing harmony, etc.), good pitch, good range, a good sound for solo or ensemble, good rhythmic feel, sufficient volume,  suitability for the musical style of the role or show (Part 2 of this article will be specific about music).

Music directors are often calculating as they hear auditions, like: “after I cover the two leads, If I can get one real first soprano and one real tenor somewhere in the cast, I can move parts around and make everything else work with mid-range voices.” 

Directors have to consider casting issues – whether two people would be believable on stage as a couple, does someone seem easy to work with, etc.  Often the others involved in musical auditions -- directors, producers, other people involved – are not able to hear music differences as acutely as “the music people”.  So they may naturally think more about other issues they know better than singing – whether an actor has an aptitude for comedy, moves well, etc.  They also have casting issues to consider that could be about anything under the sun – eg. the height of the actors…

In our age of film and television, casting can be more important to the success of a production than anyone would ever wish.  Actors are expected to have good voices and ranges, make difficult songs seem easy, AND act, AND dance, AND look the part, AND have a track record, AND have some box office draw – well, that’s a lot of demands on the cast!  I’ve seen people chosen or passed over based on issues that had very little to do with how they sang or their acting.  It’s good to remember that after auditions and not be tempted to agonize over minute aspects of your performance…  

To be continued...

"locking in" rhythmically

You can use a sequencer and make loops to practice different swing ratios:  I put a tempo increase in the conductor track of two beats per minute every 10 bars.  Then I put in 1 bar of quarter-note clicks in the first bar, 8 bars of swing 8th notes (with some flavor of drum sound) and 1 bar of rest and loop those ten bars.  The loop repeats with a little space between iterations while the tempo steadily increases.  I’ve practiced pure triplet swing and other swing ratios this way to get my 8th notes really grooving.      

When you play with a new rhythm section, listen to how the drummer and bassist swing and whether the offbeats or the beats are accented by individuals or by the group overall.  You can really try to match the drummer or rhythm section for a while as a way of acclimating; get your notes to disappear into the ride cymbal.  If you’re going to over-dub on a recording, same deal.  Spend a little time connecting with the subtle particulars of the rhythmic feel. Check out the releases of the notes also -- eg. are they playing quarter-notes long or short?.  If you get the track beforehand or get a metronome marking you can spend time playing simple rhythms and making them disappear into the (click or ride).  If you tap your fingers on your knee or the steering wheel you can do this making barely any sound -- this means you'll be able to hear the music you're referring to really well.  Don't just focus on the drums - there’s always going to be individual differences in rhythmic conception and you often have to decide whether to "go with" one or the other players.  

Back to the track example -- try locking in with bass or other parts.  See where they're at.  It's a good thing to keep you're conscious mind engaged while you do this -- keep comparing and see if you're really connecting well.  You can also do things like considering the time feel of each player or part in the music when listening.  One reason to do this is so that you're practicing being AWARE of rhythmic differences while playing.  Just thinking little thoughts like, "the bass seems a little behind the drums when they enter", or, "this soloist is backphrasing", is a good start toward being able to stay connected rhythmically on gigs or when recording...

Personal differences in swing feel

(thanks to Jerry Kalaf for Jazz musicians talk about the nature of swing: the subtle aspects of how a rhythm section plays together and reacts to a soloist. One aspect of music with swing 8th notes is that at different tempos, people hear and phrase differently, sometimes influenced by the particular instruments they play. At very slow tempos many players prefer to count or feel the music in triplet subdivisions – so they’re feeling everything in 12/8.  There seems to be different “break points” for this – some players are comfortable with slower tempos than others; some players don't have s trong internal sense of time and expect the drummer to play time pretty constantly in order for them to feel comfortable…     

At fast tempos, the tendency on most instruments is for the swing 8th notes to even out a bit..  Drummers, however, bounce the stick on the cymbal for a fast ride pattern.  Often the swing 8th note gets more pronounced the faster they go – closer to dotted 8ths and 16ths. Sometimes players can get a very relaxed feeling in playing by delaying the “ands” at slow tempos - giving a feeling of laziness. Ray Charles did this well. I am not talking about back-phrasing at this point; that’s a terrific sound when done well. I’m just talking about where the “ands” are positioned in relation to the beats.  On the other hand, we’ve all heard music where delaying the “ands” in swing sounds jerky or corny, anything but relaxed.  I’m not sure what makes the difference; sometimes it's playing accents that are too strong and disrupt the continuity.  Comments, anyone?

a vocal and acting audition

I was contacted by the Central School of Speech and Drama in London, England. They hired me to accompany auditions for prospective graduate students. I was charmed by the language of their advert for the auditions: “Any relevant proof of ability in composing, writing or choreography should be bought with you to the audition…”.  Initially they booked me for five hours. With successive emails the time became less - they obviously had fewer applicants than expected. I was told later that this was their first year of West Coast auditions for the school. I don’t know how many non-musical applicants they had; ultimately there was one person for me to accompany. A drama teacher and a voice (for stage, not singing) teacher had made the trip out to audition him.

I had a quick rehearsal with him to try out his music. He sang a haunting Kurt Weill ballad, Lonely House. He also sang the fast two-beat Bock and Harnick tune She Loves Me. They were fine choices; showing his vocal and dramatic range well. He was a talented singer.  He also brought a piece from The Light In The Piazza to play on piano for the judges. His vocal pieces were both tricky sight reading and I was glad to run them both twice before his audition. He sounded very good. There were minor cueing problems that we worked out.  His music audition went very well.  The drama teacher stopped him right away, had him do some relaxation and posture exercises, then had him start the song again. She said to me, “we don’t have any of our music faculty here today; would you give him direction?”. I asked if she meant do you want to see if he can take direction as part of his audition? “Yes, exactly.” So I had him sing part of the ballad with a couple of different rhythmic feels. I had him crescendo on a phrase that went from high to low, that is, against the tendency of his range. On a section he sang with accents he seemed very used to I had him remove the accents and sing at a constant dynamic.  On his solo piano piece I had him change fingering to get a better legato and cleaned up his pedaling.  He was in good spirits for all of this and didn't seem a bit flustered.  I stuck around to watch his acting audition. (An actor's preparation can be mysterious to me, so I like to watch rehearsals and auditions)

He had memorized two monologues that I think the school must have chosen.  They were both directed at another person listening. This made it possible for the acting teacher to silently play the other person. First, she did physical adjustments with him right after he started, then she talked over the circumstances of the scene with him. "where is the character you are addressing? Give me some of the back-story - have you been talking a long time? Is this news to her or not? What was happening just before? Are we outdoors?" He was doing Arthur Miller from All My Sons where a man was telling a woman about her fiance’s death. Then there was a David Mamet monologue, I believe, a man talking to a woman about the conventions of polite conversation. “We have to be polite - we have to go through the routine of meaningless phrases, otherwise we are not agreeing to communicate.”  It was a little harder for him to make acting adjustments than singing ones but he seemed to be delivering whatever she asked of him.  I've seen people be quite inflexible in auditions and be flustered by requests.

Although the directions she gave were all pretty basic, the teacher seemed excellent; very observant and focused.  I enjoyed watching them work.

Sorry, couldn't resist

"Dear Abby... I think my wife is cheating on me. I am a working musician and, as you would expect, travel a lot. I have been noticing strange things happening when I get home. Her mobile phone rings and she steps outside to answer it or she says, "I'll call you back later". When I ask her who called she gets evasive. Sometimes she goes out with friends but comes home late, getting dropped off around the corner and walking the rest of the way. I once picked up the extension while she was on the phone and she got very angry.

A buddy of mine plays guitar in a band. He told me that my wife and some guy have been to his gigs. He wanted to borrow my guitar amp. That's when I got the idea to find out for myself what was really happening. I said "sure, you can use my amp but I want to hide behind it and the gig and see if she comes into the venue and who she comes in with". He agreed. Saturday night came and I slipped behind my Marshall JCM800 half stack to get a good view. I could feel the heat coming off the back of the amp. It was at that moment, crouching down behind the amp, that I noticed that one of the tubes was not glowing as bright as the other three. Is this something I can fix myself or do I need to take it to a technician?

Thanks, Very Concerned."