John Wicker.com

My son has been taking piano lessons for better than two years now, and though he’s been working with music the entire time, we realized last night that he still can’t actually tell us what the notes are when given a simple piece of music.

I’ve also been wanting to read music– I used to be able to read simple stuff but then stopped working with it. Actually, that’s happened more than once if I stop and think about it. So I’m going to be working on a set of flash cards which present a staff (and a clef) along with a note, and then the note in question notated on the back. I’ll make it available for download here, and depending on how well it goes, I may add additional sections that deal with key notation, different types of notes (eighth, half, etc.), and whatever else I can think of.

Keep your eyes peeled here, and let me know if there are other sections you’d like to see added!

Child Star. Singer. Dancer. Entertainer. Recluse. Eccentric. Alleged Child Molester. Icon. Beloved. Reviled.

These words, and hundreds more, all describe Michael Jackson. A man who is known the world over, so much could be said about what happened to him, the choices he made, how incredible his talent was, how strange he was, how misunderstood he was. I’m not the person to say any of those things, really. I wasn’t ever a big Michael Jackson fan, but the first album I ever bought was Thriller. When Mtv premiered the full-length video for Thriller, everyone I knew was in front of a television. His music was the soundtrack for an entire decade.

His personal life eventually overtook his musical career, and somewhre along the way, I forgot about how talented he really was. I saw a bunch of his videos on Mtv this evening, and each one that came on reminded me of the things he did musically. He created music videos that were works of art and not just promotional material. He worked with Eddie Van Halen, Steve Stevens, and Slash, and the live videos reminded me just how great he was as a performer and entertainer. All of the weird shit aside, this man had chops, and he has a tremendous fan-base.

Rest in peace, MJ.

I’ve played with a lot of different people and in a lot of different places over the last few years, and it seems like there are some common practices that people follow when they’re playing out. It kind of sounds strange to think of rock and roll having a set of rules, but if you want to play with someone more than once, and especially if you’re going to be playing with them a whole lot, here are some tips for getting along, getting paid, and getting asked back to play again.

Be on time
Nobody likes to worry about whether or not you’re going to show up. Walking in at the last possible minute can lead to ulcers, gnashed teeth, and excessive sweating.

Life can sometimes intrude, so if you’re going to be late for some unavoidable reason, pick up the phone and let people know what’s going on.

Bring Spares
Whatever you play, bring back up parts. Strings, reeds, picks, cables, straps, cords, power cables, drum heads– they can and will crap out on you at the worst possible time. Have something handy to replace them if you can.

If you can, bring along a backup instrument, and make sure it’s on hand and ready to be played if at all possible. It’s much better to grab your backup axe than to cut a set short so you can change strings. Some will say that you should be able to carry on when strings break, and you should. Other times having the spare will be the only thing that will save the show– if your keyboard stops working it isn’t like you can whip out a screwdriver and a soldering iron and fix it between sets.

Be sure that you’ve got whatever tools you’ll need to make quick fixes as well. A spare set of strings or a drum head is useless if you can’t get your fancy floyd rose unlocked or if you left your drum key on the desk by the front door.

Share
If somebody is hurting for something they forgot or something that just quit on them, and you happen to have one on hand, don’t laugh at them for being unprepared. At least now until after the show, that is. Throw them a spare cable and get the show moving again– and if it’s not an expendable item or a throw away (I’m looking at guitar strings and picks here) then be sure you get it back at the end of the night.

Work Out the Money Before You Get Paid
Work out who is going to get paid what before you arrive at the show. Most bands do an equal split, but some don’t. If someone provides all the equipment they might get two shares. An equal share might be set aside against expenses– rental gear, recording, merchandise and so on. There might be an agent’s cut or there might be an extra taste for the person who brought in the gig. You might be coming in as a last-minute replacement expecting a full cut only to find out you’re getting something entirely different.

Figure out all of this stuff before the money gets handed out. Nothing can kill the buzz of a great show faster than arguing over money.

Help Load In and Set Up
It has been my experience that drummers need the most time to set up, followed by keyboard players, guitarists, bass players, and finally the singer. Of course, we’re not mentioning that someone has to set up the PA gear, or that you might be playing more than one instrument or playing and singing.

Drummers usually have to carry the most gear, but it’s usually bulky but not super heavy. Bass players have the heaviest amps on the face of the planet. Guitarists might have a guitar or two, plus amps and effects. They get off with stuff that’s mostly light, but you have to be careful carrying it around because you don’t want to break the neck off of your Les Paul. Keyboard players tend to have delicate electronics and they usually don’t have the good sense to buy a hard shelled case for it.

And whoever handles the sound? Mixers, power amps, monitors, sub-woofers, mains, multiple 50 and 100 foot cables. And don’t forget the lighting rig, if you have one.

So you’re all set up and ready for the sound check? Great! What about everyone else? A lot of people are kind of callous about helping someone else out, but when it comes down to it, you’re all gonna sound like shit if the sound guy didn’t have enough time to get everything set up and skipped the sound check.

Offer to carry stuff, run cables, set up lights and mic stands, tape up set lists, whatever you can do. Even if you’re not physically capable of lifting heavy stuff, running cables from mics, monitors, speakers, and so on can still be a big help. There are always a million things to do, but many hands make light work. My last band could load in and be ready for sound check in 45 minutes, with every bit of the gear I talked about. When I played Rupp arena last month, it took more like two hours because we didn’t know each other well enough to have a system down.

Look for more tips in the next article in the series.

About ten days ago I woke up with severe muscle and joint pain scattered around my body. I didn’t know it at the time, but I had caught a virus from my kids which gives kids a rash and gives adults joint pain. That night I woke up to go to the restroom and quickly found myself laying on the floor about five feet from the bathroom. I passed out again when I sat up.

What followed was a series of visits to medical facilities, trips to doctor’s offices, various tests, lots of time missed from work, and the loss of a large percentage of my body hair due to medical tape. If you are ever past due for a waxing for your arms or chest, just pass out and then go to an emergency room. They’ll fix you right up.

I have passed out on three different occasions in the last nine months, always under very specific circumstances and always when there has been some other underlying condition (sickness, changes to my routine or prescription medications, etc.) This has obviously caused a lot of concern and when they started saying things like “abnormal EKG” and “see a cardiologist” that concern started inching towards full on panic mode.

So that was my state of mind when I wrote my last Things to Do post. My family history is pretty terrible when it comes to heart disease, so to me, this was even more serious than it might have been for someone else.

At this point I’m still scheduled to undergo a series of tests over the course of the next two weeks. My family history still sucks but at this point the situation falls along the “something isn’t quite right” line as opposed to “you’re going to have a heart attack and drop dead at an early age like several members of your family already have” variety.

I was doing pretty well on last weeks list, and I was already making some mental notes about what to move on to for this week.

John Lennon said that “Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans”, and truer words have not been spoken. On Friday morning, a personal issue came up that was problematic. On Saturday, that personal issue became one that was potentially life-changing. I will be posting about this here but I’m holding off so that I can get a handle on everything, and so that I’m not making continuous updates that go back and forth in a frantic attempt to keep things up to date. Full details later, I promise.

So for right now, dealing with the Problematic Personal Issue will be my thing to do for the week of June 15th.

There’s an old joke about guitar players that goes like this:

Q: How do you stop a guitar player from playing so much?
A: Put some sheet music in front of him.

A lot of guitarists first starting playing by picking up Uncle Fred’s beat up acoustic and noodling around. If we’re serious, we are encouraged to practice until our fingers bleed, to learn scales and chords and arpeggios, to study solos and learn them note-by-note. We are encouraged to study the masters and to learn from their styles, to determine what kind of guitar and amplifier and effects pedals they play. But we are rarely encouraged to actually learn music, and the guitarist who can actually read (much less play) sheet music is incredibly rare. It’s so rare that some guitar player invented []tablature, which is a way to record what frets to play on what string. There are actually pieces of software that you can use to record tablature and play it back.

Most guitarists eventually pick up the name for most of the common chords they play, and they can remember what note each open string on their instrument is tuned to. We can learn all kinds of fairly advanced musical theory by way of different types of scales and modes, different types of chords and so on, but all of that stuff goes out the window the first time the singer wants to change the key of a song to better suit their voice.

I’m not about to say that a guitarist who can’t read music is somehow lesser than one who can. But there are still times when it would be nice to if we musician’s all had a common language that describes the notes we’re playing. You’ll learn that the first time your keyboard player asks you what key you’re playing in and you tell her that it’s the seventh fret on the fifth string. Or when you’re trying to work on an original song and someone tells you that an A flat would sound really good at that one precise moment.

The truth is, we never had a tool like Learn the Fretboard to help us along the way. This site presents a free PDF that gives you a method to learn the notes at every position on the fretboard. It minimizes rote memorization in favor of various methods geared to helping you remember and learn faster. I’ve read through the first couple of chapters and it made a lot of sense to me.

This is NOT going to teach you to read music. But with the foundation of knowing what all the notes are, learning scales, understanding chord theory, transposing songs and so much more now becomes much more manageable.

So if you want to learn more about the way your axe works, talk to other musician’s in a common language, or amaze your bandmates with your late night bar tricks, go forth and study!

I’m posting my list of things to do here for a couple of reasons— first, I want to share what I’m working on so that you can get an idea of what I’m doing, what my priorities are, and so that you don’t get the idea that I’m just writing a blog about being a musician and not doing things to go out and be a musician. Secondly, if I make my Things to Do list public, I am creating a deadline for myself… I find that if things I want to accomplish don’t get a specific deadline, they can tend to be pushed back on the list of things to do until they find themselves off the list entirely.

Another thing about posting things here is that it will give me a focus for the week. I can get sidetracked when I’m working on my music projects by working on different parts of the project than what I should be working on. I justify this to myself by saying that I’m still working on my music, but it limits my actual output. For example, I was working on a new design for this site this weekend. I looked up an image that I want to include and when I had trouble finding it, I realized that I need to re-structure the orginization of some of the files that I’ve saved. I wound up spending more than an hour juggling files back and forth. I’ve made things easier for myself moving forward, but I still don’t have a new design ready.

So here’s what’s on my list:

• Complete a first draft for the new design for this site.
• Acquire the rest of the source music I want to use for creating demos.
• Watch The Zen of Screaming and begin practicing some of the techniques there.
• Write at least one major post for the site.

Why this stuff?

I want to create a new design for this site for two reasons:

1. With a design in place here, I can begin working on my other marketing materials (business cards, press kits, etc.). I want to create a consistent feel for all of the stuff that I’m using with my musical career, and that look and feel has to start somewhere.
2. The design I’m currently using is a readily available WordPress theme called Elegant Grunge. It’s nice, and I like it, but I want my site to be something unique that truly reflects my personality as closely as possible.

The importance of creating a demo is fairly obvious, but that single thing constitues a lot of little steps. I’m obtaining source music for the demos because that’s a smaller step that moves me closer to a larger goal. If my plans as a musician are a big project, this list represents smaller steps that will get me there. Breaking a large project into smaller chunks allows me to focus on the particulars and move the project along.

I can play guitar when I’m up in Indianapolis, but any kind of vocal work is pretty much out, and I don’t know anyone up here to jam with. I feel like I don’t pay enough attention to actual rehearsal and practice time as a result of this, so watching The Zen of Screaming and working on some of that material might make a big difference here. I came across it
in a music store and remembered reading about it a few years ago. I scanned the back of the DVD and decided to take a chance on it. The important bit that caught my attention was that it stressed using healthy vocal techniques. I’ve watched the first twenty or thirty minutes and I like most of what I’ve seen thus far. I’ll post an in-depth review later on.

And finaly, updating the site is pretty much a no-brainer, isn’t it? 🙂

I want to talk about an issue near and dear to my heart today, and that issue is confidence in yourself.

I have self-confidence issues from way, way back. Traumatic childhood, tough time in school, blah blah blah. Everyone has a sad story to tell, and to be honest, there’s probably a little bit of a loner or an outcast inside of every person that has gotten up in front of someone to play rock and roll– on some level, this music appeals to the rebellious folk who want to lash out.

So whether you have big-time issues or you’re the most confident cat in the club, at some point in your journey things are going to get to you. Maybe you had a bad gig. Maybe you had an argument with your girlfriend or were sick. Maybe you’re struggling to make an impact, to get signed, to get paid, or even to get a gig. Everyone has those moments where we think “Why am I doing this? Why would anyone want to actually come see me play? Who am I to think I’m something special?”

My favorite one is the old standby of “I’m never going to be as good as [insert super talented person] so what’s the point?” Everyone has had that thought once or twice– hell, I have it once or twice a day. But guess what– Bruce Springsteen wasn’t as good as the Beatles back when he started playing. Stevie Ray Vaughn didn’t have the chops to compare to Hendrix when he picked up his first guitar, and I’ll bet he probably didn’t have them even after five years at it. But both of those guys, and all of the other big names in the pantheon of rock and roll, did the same thing: they stuck with it.

I get the down on myself feeling a lot, especially right after a gig. I’m a perfectionist to the core, and if things don’t go as well as I’d like them to it really gets to me. I’ve done gigs where every rehearsal was awesome but then when I got in front of a microphone I couldn’t hit the first note. I’ve done gigs where everyone says we did a great show and all I can think about is how I messed up the lyrics, or stepped on somebody’s solo, or how the one of the comments or jokes I made between songs fell flat. After my best performance ever, I was still driving home thinking about how I was a little flat at the beginning of the first song, and then fumbled a lyric in the fourth one.

When I first started playing guitar seriously, I was in high school. I had a friend in school who had a band, and I thought he was a phenomenally talented musician. They played in front of real audiences, they knew their material, and they were TIGHT. We graduated the same year, and one day at our graduation rehearsal, he told me something that I remember to this day: “Dude, you’ve been playing guitar for what, two years now? If you aren’t good after six months, or really good after a year, you never will be.” Kind words, indeed. I told him to shove it up his ass.

But that comment stuck with me. I kept thinking about it every so often when I practiced, and even more so when I messed up a riff or struggled with some technique. And eventually, I internalized it and gave up playing. So I listened to a punk-ass kid and that kept me from doing what I really love for about 15 years.

When things are getting you down, if you’re frustrated with your progress, if you discover you’re actually human and that you make mistakes, don’t give up. When someone tells you you’ll never make it, think about them while you practice and hold it in your heart the next time the crowd goes wild when you finish a song. Keep moving forward and always take the positives from every situation. It doesn’t matter if you have a setback– learn from it and keep at it. Ask anyone who is truly successful and they’ll tell you that 10% of their success is due to talent and the other 90% is all hard work. That means that even if you’re a talentless hack (and you aren’t), you can still be better than 90% of the people out there when you work at it.

Keep working it. Keep a positive attitude and remember that a mistake is really just an opportunity to learn. Believe in yourself even if no one else does, and when you make it, your success will be all the sweeter for it. Don’t let them get you down!

So I had been going back and forth between buying a power amp or a powered mixer. I was leaning towards going the power amp route, and I had a rehearsal coming up and needed PA gear. I got in high gear and started doing research. Just to cover my bases, I went ahead and called Carvin about a RX1200, but it turned out that they were out of stock. I wound up renting a Yorkville AP 800 from the Doo Wop Shop in Louisville. Yorkville’s products are well made and highly regarded, and I had considered buying the amp I rented from them. But after I heard the amp paired with my speakers, I wasn’t totally satisfied.

As it turns out, the AP800 outputs 200 watts at 8 ohms, and the PR 15’s are rated at 8 ohms. I didn’t know exactly why I didn’t like the combination, but I wasn’t thrilled with what I heard. I ran the rehearsal with the Yorkville, dodged some farm animals (more on that some other time), and got on down the road.

I hit Far Out Music again but the knowledgeable expert who had helped me out back in August had left, probably to become the sound man for a major touring band. The guys that were there were very helpful but they readily admitted their expertise was not with live sound gear. I didn’t have clear choices presented to me and I still had questions that were unanswered. On top of that, the options there were more expensive than I remembered– either there was a new model with a higher price tag, or the last quote I had gotten had a better discount. Either way, I left without making a purchase.

I was running out of ideas, but I was still determined. Soon enough, I was back in Indianapolis for work, and I headed out for Sam Ash. I was not familiar with Sam Ash before I started working in Indy– Guitar Center I had heard about, but Sam Ash was an unknown. Jason introduced me to this magical place shortly after I started the job up here. Sam Ash is a really big damn music store, and I had spoken with a guy there a couple of weeks back. He had given me a quote on a full set of equipment, including a Furman Power Conditioner, a Samson power amp, and a SKB 6 slot rack case to protect it all with. With my experience with the Yorkville amp, I wanted to hear all of the components together before I dropped coin. Once again, my original salesman wasn’t there, but after some major discussions (which I’ll detail in yet another post), we hooked up the amp in question with a PR 15. And I hated it.

No, hate is too strong a word. I didn’t like it, and it turned out that the fact that my original salesman wasn’t there was a GOOD thing. The department manager who wound up helping me out knew his shit. And his audio gear, too. The reason that the sound wasn’t great, and the reason why the Yorkville didn’t sound as good as I had hoped, was because both of those amps were underpowered compared to the PR15’s, which are rated at 400 watts. I don’t remember what the Samson amp was putting out at 8 ohms, but the Yorkville was throwing out 200 watts at 8 ohms.  Much discussion ensued.

I heard a lot of theories thrown back and forth, and things like “voice cones” and “throw distance” and a bunch of other stuff that I’m not qualified to repeat or smart enough to remember. Long story short, though- I got a Samson PG3800 amp, which puts out about 570 Watts at 8 ohms if I recall correctly. I also got the road case, the power conditioner, and 100 feet of speaker cable. And I’m really happy with the gear that I bought.

So I’ve now got 15 inch mains and around 600 Watts of sound to pump through them. I still need monitors and subs, but this is a bare minimum. My first band played every show we ever did with 12 inch mains and something like 200 Watts. It ain’t perfect but it’s a good start.

So what have I learned? What advice can I give you? When you’re gonna make a purchase, look at the money involved, take your time, and do your research. Don’t be afraid to ask questions, even if you know they’re stupid. Because after all, would you rather sound stupid in a music store, or while you’re standing up on stage?

P.S.- I’ve been trying to scrape time together to get this post written for more than a few days, and it has proven to be more difficult than I expected. I’ve had other posts that I wanted to make, but I told you guys I’d discuss my PA gear next time, and I don’t like to break promises. So lesson learned– don’t promise what the next post is gonna be about 😉