Alex's Practice Log 2011

[N E Y]

Realization (in the middle of reading Victor Wooten's Music lesson)

Most musicians attempt to express themselves by creating music. If they were to instead allow music to flow through them, as it desires, the expression would be 100x more powerful, and, they would be expressing themselves in a far deeper and more geniune way. That's just the tip of the iceberg. Will write a full book report on this when I'm done. Huge paradigm change.

Wow ..interesting..That is pretty much what I have been ( repeatedly) writing about for the last 5 years here at GP and anywhere else ...I am happy you paid attention when Victor said it. I am glad you are going to at least consider it after Victor said it. And remember Beethoven was saying the same thing as was mozart . It is important to know the history of your profession. And to pay attention to how masters live and to what they do....all of them... If you look at the GP newsletters there is a review of Victor's book I did 2 years ago




http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ney_mello
http://www.youtube.com/user/NeyMelloOfficial?
http://bit.ly/aSUSw6
http://www.musicarts.com/Stores/Store.a ... 320&mode=1
http://www.facebook.com/pages/NEY-MELLO/8702485599
http://www.myspace.com/neymello
http://www.twitter.com/NeyMelloGuitar

[N E Y]

Reading the book "Effortless Mastery" right now and getting some really good tips on practicing, which I am integrating into my practicing. Important to take action when you read a book like this and actually do it! I'm on the last chapter of the book, and will do a writeup/book review when I finish.

Also a random thought. I was on the website "gearslutz.com" where a lot of pros in the music industry post. There are some fascinating posts, and I've read a few about music piracy, and the whole philosophy and strategy of the the major record labels. There was one guy on there who worked for a major, and he was defending the practices of the major record labels, from the accusation that they are about screwing over musicians. I didn't agree with much of what he said, but I think he made a fair statement in saying that if musicians have so many bad things to say about major record labels, then why do they keep wanting to sign with them!??

He also said that if people think the labels are doing such a bad job why don't they go and start their own label. He wrote this in a sarcastic way, implying that its completely impossible, but my answer is yes. I will take that challenge. Many bands and musicians have started their own successful labels, and those are going to be the real future of music because they will be where the real substance is, not with the current pop stars who will be forgotten 2 years from now. I truly believe the future lies with indie labels that choose real substance in music, over short term hype.

Hi Lex.
I encourage you. Major labels are not what they were before the 1980's... They are no longer owned by music lovers who want to make tons of money. They were sold to conglomerates and that means that any real artist that gets on a label is by pure chance..and not because that label can tell the difference. In the past labels were owned by people who could tell amateurs from artists.
With the changes in mass thought for the next 30 years...You will have an audience. https://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=449793223526







http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ney_mello
http://www.youtube.com/user/NeyMelloOfficial?
http://bit.ly/aSUSw6
http://www.musicarts.com/Stores/Store.a ... 320&mode=1
http://www.facebook.com/pages/NEY-MELLO/8702485599
http://www.myspace.com/neymello
http://www.twitter.com/NeyMelloGuitar

[alcoyot]

Well...Lex

In my experience this has actually been done extensively, all you need to do is practice MORE! Like they did.
Jimi was a great rock singer....James Taylor is incredible at both singing and guitar, John pizarelli is also a great jazz singer and a great guitarist.....Joni Mitchell is a great guitarist and a great singer. Pete Townsend is another example...even on acoustic. Pino Daniele from italy is another example.[/i]

Thanks for correcting me on this, I have a bad habit of posting semi-dumb things every once in a while before I have a chance to think it out and put it in the best wording.
What I'm talking about is really only one specific style of singing, which is the ultra powerful operatic style with huge volume and enormous tone on every note. With rock it would be people like Steve Perry, or Jim Morrison at his best. Aretha Franklin is a great example as well as some motown and soul singers. And then of course great opera singers. This is the most technically demanding style of singing and just holding a guitar in position is enough to compromise the position the body needs to allow maximum air to flow through.(which shifts often). You can still sound good while playing but not often with the kind of tone that strikes the listener like a wrecking ball!
My point really isn't that you can't play and sing at the same time, or that its bad to do that, so that should be rewritten. I just don't think it would be possible to play an ultra-technically demanding guitar piece, while simultaneously singing an ultra-technically demanding vocal part, while putting your whole entire soul into both actions, and reaching new levels of musical glory. There has to be a compromise somewhere when you do 2 very demanding things at once. Do you agree?
I don't personally see anything wrong with other styles of singing, like the jazz style sounds great, I think Johnny Cash is awesome. Tuvan throat singers sound cool. I like them all!

[alcoyot]

Realization (in the middle of reading Victor Wooten's Music lesson)

Most musicians attempt to express themselves by creating music. If they were to instead allow music to flow through them, as it desires, the expression would be 100x more powerful, and, they would be expressing themselves in a far deeper and more geniune way. That's just the tip of the iceberg. Will write a full book report on this when I'm done. Huge paradigm change.

Wow ..interesting..That is pretty much what I have been ( repeatedly) writing about for the last 5 years here at GP and anywhere else ...I am happy you paid attention when Victor said it. I am glad you are going to at least consider it after Victor said it. And remember Beethoven was saying the same thing as was mozart . It is important to know the history of your profession. And to pay attention to how masters live and to what they do....all of them... If you look at the GP newsletters there is a review of Victor's book I did 2 years ago

Hey Ney! I remember you writing similar stuff, but at the time I could not make any sense of it. It could be that I am just understanding this now because of the way it was written in that book through a story with many pages of in depth explanation but clearly explained. Or it could possibly be because lately I have been reaching new levels constantly in my own musicianship, and I might have just come to the point where the realization has to come from somewhere. For example when I am practicing and go into a trance, sometimes an entire new song will just flow into my head with words and everything, which happened recently over the last few weeks. If that's not proof I don't know what is.
The greatest thing about this idea is that it allows the musician to reach the next level just by deciding to live that way. Instantaneous progress. After I read it I played a show with my guitar player Joe. When it was over we were swarmed by people wanting to know what we were playing, and wanting to join our band!

[alcoyot]

Just read about the recording of Billy Idol's Rebel Yell. The absolute ideal chain of sound.
A cranked 60s marshall plexi + cab played into an sm57 and U87. Sent through a neve console to studer 2 inch tape machine. And of course hte master guitarst Steve Stevens who probably could have made anything sound good, but still went for the best gear. Also interesting the machine gun effect was inspired by something Tommy Bolin did, and achieved with one of the old Lexicon special effects.
Anyone who reads this, listen to that track and hear how amazingly crafted the guitar sound is.

One other thing I found interesting, Steve Perry's vocal sound: U47 (what a surprise) put through an old dolby processor as an effect.

[N E Y]

I sent you a soundcloud message!


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ney_mello
http://www.youtube.com/user/NeyMelloOfficial?
http://bit.ly/aSUSw6
http://www.musicarts.com/Stores/Store.a ... 320&mode=1
http://www.facebook.com/pages/NEY-MELLO/8702485599
http://www.myspace.com/neymello
http://www.twitter.com/NeyMelloGuitar

[GAA43]

https://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=449793223526

Man I hope you're right. Interesting thoughts and observations that have implications far beyond the health and vitality of the music biz.

[alcoyot]

Today's practice.
Right hand picking exercise, no left hand involved just open strings. First no tempo then with metronome, focus on getting exactly on the beat while maintaing relaxed hand/arm/shoulder/body complex. Then went into garageband and did the same thing but recorded so I could see exactly how close I am to on the beat. Quarter notes and eight notes.

[alcoyot]

Just finished recording the backing track for the house of the Rising sun, which I am doing a cover version in the style of the Animals. I did a lot of takes, and this in itself became a very hard practice session. Things are a lot different when the red light comes on, and staying with the beat requires a strong effort to maintain full body awareness at all times. It can feel like a lot more work than no tempo, but it feels great! One other thing I noticed when I set the metronome is that I have been doing all my rhythm practicing in 4/4 and this tune is in 6/8 which threw me off more. Then end result is a bit shoddy, but good enough. In recording sometimes finished is better than perfect. Still this gives me a lot to work on.
All I have left to do guitar-wise is mixing it, and adding a solo, the fun and easy part! Rhythm guitar is the real challenge in playing rock if you're talking about getting a solid groove.
One mixing note;
I found a vinyl effect plugin for free which sounds pretty good on guitar if you put it on the right setting. Going to be trying that out, it would be cool to have a tape saturation plugin as well, but I don't yet.

[alcoyot]

Recording Today Part 1- Performance and Arrangement.
I had the entire day off today, and devoted it to working on various recording projects. I spent a good portion of the day practicing recording a certain rhythm part for one of my songs. The thing with rhythm guitar in song is that has to work perfectly with the rhythm and melody of the song itself so that they enforce each other. I've made the mistake of getting a rhythm part near perfectly recorded, usually with some pre-made rhythm pattern that I though might be cool, only to have it completely not work with the song itself.
So that's one real life lesson in terms of arranging and composing, don't bother with pre-fabricated rhythm ideas. Listen to the song itself and construct a rhythm that comes naturally around that. Then when you do, its important to remember what it is, stick to it with consistency, and don't get too crazy with trying to change things up.
So the next thing is timing, which is a major thing I have been practicing. WIth this piece first of all a while ago I attempted to record it with a metronome, but totally failed. I think because I never figured out the correct BPM. Today first I attempted it with no metronome, which can be cool sometimes, but in an effort to make things less "all over the place" I broke it out, and found the exact correct BPM, I think it ended up being 68, a fairly slow song. With the right BPM, it becomes easy to not only play with consistent timing, but also with the correct feeling and natural organic swing. With that in place, things actually went much better, and I could see much more easily where I was messing up on the rhythm. A couple more tries and I was able to play it all the way through "good enough". Basically with no screw ups in the specific parts where even the slightest mistake really ruins the whole thing. At this point though "good enough" for me isn't good enough! From practicing with a metronome, I know I have the capability to make the timing really tight and on point, so I need to set that next level of professionalism as my new standard.