John Wicker.com

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 😉

I’ve been studying various options for PA gear and after saving up cash since around August 2008, last week I finally went ahead and made some purchases. This has been a really tough decision and I’m just hoping I made the right choices. Here’s why I bought what I bought.

I went back and forth on what I was going to buy, bouncing between buying an all-in-one powered mixer or a power amp and mixer. Back in August, I set out to get some advice and wound up talking to a very knowledgeable guy at Far Out Music in Jeffersonville/Clarksville Indiana. He asked me a lot of questions and pushed me toward buying a power amp because it provided the most flexibility– I could start out with the mixer I already had and then trade up for a bigger one as my needs grew. He also pointed me towards a set of speakers that both sounded good and were light (Peavey PR-15s). I managed to pick up a set of those back in October.

Why the light speakers? At that point, I was angling myself towards a series of solo shows and I had to have equipment that I could easily cart in and out on my own. The Peaveys sounded great and are practically weightless. I feel like they were a good deal at $199 each, and I’m pretty happy with them thus far.

As time wore on, I became a little disillusioned with the idea of buying a power amp and a separate mixer. Going that route meant that I also needed to buy a road case for the amp and that the overall setup time for the PA would be more time consuming– it may not seem like a big deal but running cables from the mixer to the power amp is just one more step in a long process.

The last band I played in had used a Carvin RX1200 for sound, and everything worked very well. It’s a powered mixer that provides four distinct channels running at 300 watts, along with 12 input channels, digital signal processing, and an integrated and very sturdy case to house the unit. Having heard this unit in action, I knew what it was capable of, and that was a very reassuring thought.

The downside is that the Carvin costs $699, and the more I thought of only having 12 inputs the more I realized that wasn’t really enough. If I run mics for the drum kit, that’s at least 5 separate channels (kick, snare, two toms and an omni-directional mic for the cymbals and floor toms). Add in instruments (bass, keys, two guitars) and vocal mics and you’re looking at 11 channels already. If we have three people singing, or if we need to add a sixth mic to the drums, or if we have another instrument in the mix, or if someone needs a stereo signal from their instrument, I’m suddenly using all 12 channels.

That was a lot of possible problems, and in the last band I was in we routinely ran all the drums into a separate mixer and then into the Carvin when we played out, so the possibility of running out of mixer channels was not just a hypothetical situation for me.

So the closer I came to buying PA gear, the more I was leaning towards separate components. More on what I bought will show up in my next post.

There are a lot of things going on in my musical world, some of which I’ll get into here and even more of which I’ll get into later on down the road. But right now, I’m gonna talk about my plans for the site, just because that seems like the thing to do.

Let’s just cut to the chase, shall we? I’m going to focus this blog on my musical endeavors. I’m not gonna set the world on fire with my programming skills, and it isn’t my passion. I don’t eat, sleep and dream of code– well, sometimes I do, but only when I’m in the middle of a big project with a tough deadline.

Music is always there and it always has been. Music IS my passion. Everything I do is touched by or informed by music. The jukebox in my head is always running. So that’s the reason for the change in format.

I’m gonna start talking about the particulars and the nitty gritty of what I’m doing and even why. That’s really the big deal for me, because I’m going to start telling it like it is instead of trying to figure out the right thing to say. If I am anything in life, it’s blunt. The whole idea of me trying to spin myself goes against every shred of common sense I possess. So to hell with that.

I don’t know exactly how much of the creative stuff I’m going to get into, if only because I’m not entirely sure how that’s going to work for me yet. I have stuff in my head that I’m going to have to figure out what to do with. When I get a better handle on that, I will probably be able to share more of the particulars. But to be completely honest, I’m not confident enough to do that.

So there is my first bombshell- I’m wanna be a rock star on stage and I have confidence issues. Go figure.

I am playing at Rupp Arena tomorrow.

No, not outside in the parking lot. Not in the concourse area or the food court. On the big floor, right there inside of Rupp Arena.

I talked about a big announcement a while back, and then I went completely quiet. Playing Rupp Arena qualifies as a big one, I think. The stage gonna be almost fifty feet wide and 24 feet from front to back. Big.

As far as this gig is concerned, I’m playing at a rather large conference that’s taking up both the Convention Center and Rupp Arena itself.

I’ve been meaning to post about this for a long time, but I have literally been so busy I can’t put three minutes together to get over to make an update. For now, though, let me just say that I’ve been very busy putting things together.

Rock and Roll!

It’s possible you might have needed to be there.