One year ago today: February 9, 2017, their problem --> your inconvenience.
Five years ago today: February 9, 2013, nobody warns the beginner.
Nine years ago today: February 9, 2009, so why don't they?
Random years ago today: February 9, 2014, zzbrenkzz, how to delete.
Treat. Here’s my current song list. These are tunes that I am rehearsing with the new guitar lady. I sing and play a custom bass line to each. The list is chosen using the criteria described all over this blog. That includes playing the original hit version, lack of lead guitar breaks, simple chord structures, dance-ability, no slow music, distinctive lyrics, and importantly, avoiding any over-played standards. And no dozy guitar ballads.
Act Naturally
A Long Time Leaving
Blame It On Your Heart
Cocaine Blues
Don’t Rock the Jukebox
Folsom Prison
Good Hearted Woman
Guitars Cadillacs
Here’s A Quarter
Jambalaya
Keep Hands Yourself
Long Haired Country Boy
Love Me Tonight
Mama’s Broken Heart
Memphis Tennessee
Midnight Special
Oh Lonesome Me
Pirate Looks 40
Party Till Money Runs Out
Sea Of Heartbreak
Six Days On The Road
Spiders & Snakes
Tennessee Flat Top Box
That’s What I Like
These Boots
Tight Fittin Jeans
Wasted Days Wasted Nights
What’s A guy Gotta Do
Some of the tunes, as can be easily imagined now, have become nearly astonishing in the duet presentation mode. You have to hear them to believe what’s happened in the past six weeks. Each has been combed over to ensure we are never playing the same thing at the same time except for intentional effect. Every passage where we would play anything in unison has been systematically replaced by having one instrument (usually the bass) play something complementary that would otherwise be left out in a duo. This is what I mean when I say Lady Nik has gotten further than any other guitar player in the county. It’s also something guitar players talk about but rarely actually do.
Can we talk? Good, here’s the band gossip. I had to have the talk with the guitar lady. Rehearsal number eight and she still has maybe three tunes together, yet I know she is giving it her best. I also know what has to happen for a band to start up and this is taking too long. That time-to-first-gig is critical and we should be there by now.
I did not pull the pin, but she is still doesn’t even have an indexed folder for her song sheets and it can take her nearly two minutes to find the next song sheet. This cannot happen on stage. She’s okay once the tune starts, but I had to put my foot down about the comping. We are past the time limit where that can be tolerated. Comping brings the whole band down to a substandard performance level.
I was not that stern with her because I know, in such a situation, the solution is the way she is going about learning the material. However, I am a performer, not a music coach. I recommended we get together twice a week with Sunday for guitar practice. That has worked well in the past. She accepted, but understands this is a signal that something’s gone wrong. We should be just flying through this simple material by now, but the rate of progress extrapolates to another 13 to 15 months to gig. Too many things can go wrong in that much time, and I have taken complete beginners off the street and trained them to strum in a quarter of that. Remember the 505?
On the plus side, she has gotten further than any other guitarist in Polk County and [as a ratio of ground covered] she has wasted less of my time than any one of the others. She knows she has to batten down and learn this easy material lest I decide to look for other opportunities. I know that adults don’t have time, it has to be created at the expense of other less-productive activities—and the problem there is that those very activities are often favorites, that is, adults often relax or have hobbies that don’t involve learning anything. The band, at least at startup, has to take priority over most of those time slots. Band startups, if done right, are hard work.
There are music issues as well, there always are. So this is not criticism, but a report card, like most of this blog. I do not play any slow music, and some of my material is super-fast, guitar-wise. It is difficult for me to empathize with guitarists who cannot keep up because I can play it. But every guitarist I’ve met, including Lady Nik, struggles with Johnny Cash and pretty much anything over 150 beats per minute. Also, playing rhythm as a drum-beat quickly suggests how the same strum can work in many situations. Yet that is the exact opposite of what is correct. You must carefully conserve any easy strums for the few pieces that actually use them. Or you’ll be sorry.
Henceforth, next day, ready or not, messy room or not, she has to show me her learning environment. She now knows before we run over any of our songs at rehearsal, I [now] want to hear her independently strum the correct pattern first. She couldn’t, and this is how I narrowed down the problem. Like many guitarists, she can “follow” a bassist if he plays roots a lot, which I do not do. Following my left hand is a habit that requires defenestration. If you try to play guitar by changing where I change, there is only a 50% chance you will guess right.
There is also plenty of warning that I need to see a full stereo setup where the bass line can be distinctly heard during learning. I can tell instantly when a guitarist has not been taking prompts from the bass line—which are the only prompts you will get on stage with me. I’ve provided everything I can, from MP3s to chord charts for every song on my list. If there are remaining questions, go online and watch how other guitarists do it. But all this is homework, something you are supposed to do on your own time. Now this is not a band breakup, but it is an alert that if things don’t pick up fast, whether we continue or not, I have to begin looking for alternatives, which cuts into prime time, which begins the vicious circle . . .
ADDENDUM
How did I just know you wanted a little more background on this “strumming versus guitar playing” issue? Call it a lucky guess. What is slated for Sunday is not a guitar lesson, but to show Lady Nik in more depth how to find the core of each piece of music. This is my own experience talking, so listen up if you want to play in a band better and sooner than otherwise—because I’ve done it before. Unless the music scene has changed entirely, listen to the people who have done it before.
The correct tactic is to find the definitive passage in each piece of music. Initially, at least, I can advise you where to look. If you listen to most popular music, you’ll find the instrumentalists ease up a little bit during or toward the end of the second verse, leading up to the chorus. That’s the first place to seek that unique pattern. It could be just a couple notes but you are looking for that one segment that defines the entire song. Just you watch, some of you will go try this and say, “Son of a gun, he’s right.” The rest of you will never play in a great little band, but you’ll always remain my treasured audience.
Now you take that single strum, or lick, or riff, whatever it is, and discipline yourself to play it as rhythm behind the entire song. This is where you’ll repeatedly encounter that awesome temptation to change back to comping (or customized over-playing) as the song moves along. Resist and persevere, the arrangement you are looking for is there, just keep at it until you can strum that single pattern through the entire song, including the spots where it seems fantastically complicated to get through. Do not give in, keep repeating the song until you can fit that pattern behind the entire piece of music, start to finish. Trust me, then you’ll lean back and say, “Wow, so that’s how they did it.”
Keep in mind, this is a generic description. Some tunes have more than one distinct rhythm. Others have intros, breaks, or outros that do not follow the same strum. Finding that definitive strum is your ticket. You’ll know you are on the right track if time and again, the strum just does not sound right at certain points, but if you persevere, ah, you’ll see it does fit, but you were listening with the wrong ear. Keep it simple while remembering each strum pattern, just like the rest of the instrumentation and vocals, has to be unique to each piece of music. If your audience finishes up and leaves, then you’ve ignored this rule.
And that, guys, is why comping never quite works right.
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