Joyo British Sound demo

Here is another video of a joyo product. This time it's the British Sound. This thing gets great Marshall tones.

10 hours to a better something or other

I thought I'd talk about something that I've been doing for the last few years and has helped me. Everyone has goals and things they want to achieve/change about themselves. I also believe almost everyone has more failures and regrets than memories/feelings of accomplishment about their lives. Although I can't really give you advice about how to get rid of all the regrets in your life I might be able to help you accomplish more.

Anyway I'm sure some of you have heard of the 10,000 hour rule from the book Outliers. Also I'm sure some of you have seen this TED talk about 1 month challenges.

Although I like both of these ideas, for me there are a few problems. The 10,000 rule is great, but 10,000 hrs is way to long and not many people will have 10,000 hrs of motivation. The 30 day challenge is great for experiences, but for trying to learn or increase skills it's a problem. For example if your goal was to go jogging for 30 days, the 1st day you might run for 45 min, but I know if it were me, by the 15th day I'd be doing 20 min jogs. Another problem I have with them is that you can't control the speed of your progress. A day takes 24 hours and there is nothing you can do to make it go faster or slower.

Instead of these I prefer 10 hour challenges. They avoid some of the problems above, by being attainable and by allowing you to choose your own pace. I set a goal, set a deadline and then come up with a prize. The goal is usually to do something for 10 hours, although you could set a different goal, such as write 8 songs in 10 hours or finish reading a book in 10 hours. The reason I usually choose "do something for 10 hours" is that it's impossible to know how long it takes to reach a goal if you haven't reached it yet. I usually set the deadline for 2 weeks, but really it all depends on how much time you have. I like to practice things in 1 hour blocks, so 2 weeks gives me 4 days to forget/be to busy to practice. You can do 1 week also, but of course you'll have to do more hours a day. IMO doing a lot of hours in a one day is less efficient (read about it here) and time for sleep between practice is important. Instead of rushing through many 10 hour challenges I think it's better to do 2 or 3 concurrently. Finally, prizes are important. After all your hard word reward yourself with something nice. It will help keep you motivated and sometimes it's the only thing that will push you from hour 7 to hour 10.

Some tips that might help you are

• Choose something specific- Be a better guitar player is too vague, but practice alternate picking with a metronome, isn't.
• Use a timer to keep track of your practice- Make sure you use something to time yourself while practicing.
• Don't feel like you have to practice for a long time- 10 or 15 min sessions are fine and in fact they are sometimes better than 1 or 2 hour sessions. Just make sure you have a timer to record it.

I hope that gave you some ideas on how to increase your skills and learn new things. Also you can apply the same concept to things that aren't usually timed. An example would be a 10 song challenge, were you write 10 songs. After you finish your challenge it's always good to look back to where you were when you started and compare it to where you are now. It's amazing the type of growth you can make in 10 hours. Good luck.

Joyo California Sound demo

Here is a demo I did a while back of the joyo California Sound. It's a great pedal and for the price it can make a great backup if your main rig blows up. It's very bass heavy, but the tone is pretty good and there is a lot of variation to be had. With a few tweaks of a knob you can go from a harsh, biting distortion to a smooth woman tone. Check it out.

Harmonic Clarity

Harmonic/Frequency clarity

I thought I'd start with Harmonic clarity first. It goes without saying that in any ensemble volumes should be adjusted correctly and correct harmonies are used. However even when you do that sometimes you'll find your song is muddy or there is something that doesn't sound right. I'll go over a few common problems.

Be careful not to exceed low interval limits. The lower you go the wider the intervals should be. Of course there are no absolutes , but in general this is true. I'll give some examples.

Click here for audio

Some don't sound too bad and others sound like a muddy mess. Although all the notes are correct something sounds wrong.

Now here are some better voiced chords.

 Click here for audio

I just changed the bottom notes to octaves and then arranged the top notes accordingly.

Here are a few more examples of bad voicings followed by better versions.

 Click here for audio

 Click here for audio

 Another problem can be clashes in the upper voices. 2nd intervals are often the culprit, so they are something to watch out for. Often times people will use these intervals to add color and a sense of tension to their harmonies which I like(check out Allan Holdsworth). However tension is a bit like hot sauce, it's nice, but you don't want to put it on everything. Anyway here is an example of  a chord using 2nd intervals followed by , IMO a better voicing.

 Click here for audio

I'm sure you're thinking, that's easy enough, but the hard part is remembering not to do this when you have multiple instruments playing. It's easy to voice your piano parts the correct way, but then once you add the guitar you end up with frequencies clashing all over the place. This is especially apparent when 2 instruments play on the downbeat of a measure. This is a common problem, so I'll give a few examples.

Click her for audio

Although I've heard worse, something definitely seems off. In the 2nd measure the piano is playing a B and the Oboe is playing an A. These 2 notes are causing a congested sound. The same thing happens in the following bar also. Below is a version that has the piano playing a different chord voicing.

Click her for audio

To be honest this version isn't ideal for me, but sometimes you can't always get what you want and sometimes you have to compromise. In general I think that if you have an extension like a 6th(the note A in this example) it should be in the melody(oboe) and not just the harmony. That said I believe it is an improvement. Below are some other ways to solve problems with arrangements.

Subtract notes- Instead of having the piano and guitar both play big lush chords have each play less notes and the combined sound will be better. Often times in jazz the piano or guitar will just play 2 notes and let the bass play the root of the chord. This leaves very little chance for clashes to happen since there isn't much to clash with. Funk music takes a similar approach and goes a bit further by having each instrument play its own rhythm/riff. Often times guitarists and piano players that are used to playing by themselves play these big chord voicings and then when they are playing in a band they tend to clash with the other instruments. Sometimes all it takes to fix this is have the guitar player use only the top 4 strings or have the piano player take their left hand off the keyboard.

Change the rhythm- As long as the clashing notes aren't playing at the same time things will be fine. Sometimes shortening a few notes will be enough to fix things and other times it's better to change a chord into an arpeggio. Arpeggiating chords can be used as a way to avoid clashing notes when you can't change octaves. You can also make a riff that will outline a chord which is useful for funk, rock or metal.

Change the octave- Sometimes it's as simple as changing the octave of a note. The minor 2nd is pretty dissonant, but the minor 9th is much less so.

Hopefully that helped a little bit, but as always let your ear be your guide because if it sounds good it is good. Also  check out some of my songs and arrangements on the side of this page or at productiontrax and leave a comment below.

Part 1 - Thoughts on Arranging
Part 2 - Timbre
Part 3 - Rhythmic clarity
Part 5 - Seeing the big picture

Thoughts on Arranging

A friend asked me recently to write a bit about arranging, so I thought I'd share my thoughts on it. This is a big subject, so I'll just give a brief overview of how I go about it.

My way of thinking about arranging is that its similar to putting together a puzzle. Unfortunately just like a puzzle, the more pieces you have the more difficult it becomes. The main things to worry about are

• Timbre
• Rhythmic clarity
• Harmonic clarity
• Overall effect

I'll go over all of these in this post and then expand on them more in subsequent posts.

Timbre- The overall tone of the song and instruments. Some instruments sound really good together and others don't. Of course this is mostly subjective, but there are some cases where 1 instrument can completely mask another. For example I once tried to double a lead guitar part with a synth playing a sine wave. The sine was was pretty much inaudible unless I turned it up to ridiculous levels.

Rhythmic clarity- Everyone loves a good groove and there are tons of songs(particularly funk) that have almost every instrument playing a different rhythm. However if not done properly the groove falls apart and in the worst case scenarios it sounds like the players are making mistakes.

Harmonic/Frequency clarity- This relates to how a chord is played. Of course the notes of the chord are important, but equally important is what octave they are played in relation to the other notes. If proper care isn't taken, muddiness or seemingly wrong notes will pop up. Also if you have too many instruments playing in the same frequency range harmonic masking can occur. This can happen with things like 7 string guitars and basses, pianos and basses, pianos and guitars, 2 guitars, etc. Having too many instruments in the same range will cause a song to sound muddy and can obscure the instruments. Whats the point of writing/playing a part of listeners can't hear it.

Overall effect- The whole point of writing music is to express yourself and bring about feelings in the listeners. Many people think of arranging in a purely technical way, but arranging can be just as creative as song writing. There is some tried and true tools/tricks that bring about the emotions in listeners and these can make those tired old chord progressions, beats, melodies, etc come to life. Arranging can be used to add musicality to songs that otherwise would be stale and a bit boring.

Anyway, in the future I'll try to explore all of these in greater detail. Until then check out some of my songs and arrangements on the side of this page or at productiontrax. Leave me some comments below.

Part 2 - Timbre
Part 3 - Rhythmic clarity
Part 4 - Harmonic clarity
Part 5 - Seeing the big picture

S-gear demo(part 2)

Here is the 2nd part of my S-gear demo. This showcases the Wayfarer amp model. It's basically a cross between a fender twin and a mesa mark series amp. Anyway, leave some comments below.

Meeting Andy Timmons

About a month ago I was going back home and as I was walking through the airport I saw what looked to be instrument cases. As a guitarist I was interested and then I looked over and saw someone playing guitar. He had long blonde hair that looked like Andy Timmons. Then I noticed he was playing Andy Timmons' signature guitar and I thought, "Either that's Andy Timmons, or his biggest super fan". It actually was him and I got to talk to him and the rest of the band for a few min. He and everyone else were extremely kind. He talked to me a little about the Chandler Tubedriver and how he prefered the 1 tone knob version to the 2 knob version. Overall he was a really nice guy and I'm excited to see him this summer in Japan with Simon Phillips.

S-gear demo

Here is a demo I did for Scuffham S-gear. I've been using s-gear for a little over a year and I'm really pleased with it. I use it for all my guitar recordings now. Mike Scuffham recently talked about an update to this software and hinted that there might be a new Fender tweed style amp added. Not only that, but there will be more impulses and all of it will be free for current users. You can't beat that. Anyway here is part 1.

Mooer Rumble Drive demo

Here is a demo of the Mooer Rumble Drive I made a few days ago. I'm really enjoying this pedal. People have said it's a clone of the popular boutique Zendrive. I don't know, but I know it sounds great. It has that smooth overdrive tone that makes the notes you play sing. Just try this pedal with a little delay and reverb and try to keep a smile off your face. Leave a comment and tell me what you think. Mooer Rumble Drive demo: