Chi, Flow, Zen, The Force...Whatever.

Stop me if you've heard this one.  "There's something to be said for spontaneity."  How about this?  "I don't improvise or jam, I'm more of a riff guy."

Maybe you've said those very lines yourself.  I'm hoping through these blogs, one thing I can break down for some folks are the stigmas that come with well...... practice, learning theory, playing with a metronome, etc.  Basically anything that takes time, effort, and usually leads to frustration.

Many are discouraged from the above mentioned subjects because they will usually either learn it and move on, or learn it but not well enough to actually use it in real world playing situations.  Real world being outside of the bedroom.  That's ok though, I feel the same way about learning foreign languages.  Sure I may know a few words but I would hardly dare use them in fear someone would ask me to complete a whole sentence.

So why is the title of this blog  "Chi, Flow, Zen, The Force"?  I don't think musicians need to learn theory or practice certain physical techniques to earn their stripes and suffer with the rest of us geeks.  I don't think those are the only paths to musical enlightenment either.  Of course you'll have additional benefits if you do learn the above mentioned subjects.  I do believe that good practicing habits and as much time as you can invest is paramount though.  Maybe it's mind numbing finger exercises, maybe it's songwriting for hours on end.

Let's face it, it's not always fun to think so hard.  Chances are except for a rare occasion, I'm having much more fun playing a song I've practiced quite a bit or I've already played live many times before.  How many times does one need to hear "Practice means perfect." to believe it.  It's like a brainwashing motto to tell you that brainwashing is beneficial.

We're talking liberation here folks.  We're talking about being so equipped from our day to day preparedness, that it takes little or no effort to execute what we hear in our heads.

Ear Training: When learning a part of a song, we can try next fret, next fret, next fret, and maybe we decide we've got the right notes.  Or we can spend time frequently ear training, learning songs and eventually get ourselves at least in the right zip code.

Shows:  Very simple.  I can look down at my instrument the whole time, sweat various sections of a tune, and all other sorts of uncomfortable moments.  Alternatively, I can prepare in large amounts and enjoy a bit more, look up and connect with the audience,  focus on my articulation, just flow a bit more overall.

Be it theory all night long or inventing your own scales when you practice, one thing is for certain, the end result of what you do is the real answer to how hard you need to work or prepare.  It comes out in shows, recordings, lessons, jams.  "This section is really tricky" is something one unprepared guy at rehearsal may utter as the other players think "He doesn't even look like he worked on it."  So nobody wins in that situation.  The song doesn't that's for sure, nor does the vibe.  While your sitting there sweating out a tricky passage or trying to find all the notes in the key of the song, your enjoyment is suffering.  If your smiling, it's out of nervousness.

Music should be enjoyable.  Forgive me but allow me to point out the world "able" in "enjoyable".  If your able, your most likely going to enjoy.  

Before I was Joe Musician, I used to watch all those Van Halen videos that came out to support the album "1984".  One thing I noticed was Eddie was always smiling.  While many guitarists are crying over learning his licks, this guy is smiling.  Not because he practically invented a style, because he's that practiced.  I'm leaving some live Eddie footage below to show those videos aren't just what happens when your playing along to a pre-recorded track on a soundstage.

Smilin' Eddie

D.I., D.I., D.I., My Darling!

A short lesson for those who don't know what D.I. is.  D.I. is short for "Direct Injection".  If your amp has an XLR (3 pin plug) out on the back, that's your D.I..  If you go to a club and they plug a box between your bass and your amp, that's a D.I..  What a D.I. does is takes the signal of your instrument which is made to go into amps, pedals, etc. and converts it into making nice with mixing boards and recording devices.   You can find a inexpensive D.I. for around $40 or a high end one for around $500 up.  The D.I. I use is under $200 and I'm very happy with it.  Of course if you go to a studio they should have D.I.'s out and ready to go for you.  Many bass players have D.I.'s they feel are reliable and a part of their sound and will bring them along to sessions and shows.

Some D.I.'s folks use are not so much dedicated D.I.'s, but have a D.I. as one of their features.  The Tech 21 Bass Driver D.I. is a great example.  People buy that product more for tone features than D.I. purposes.  Otherwise, they would just buy a stand alone D.I.  In the case of multi-function pedals that have D.I. as a feature, I typically will send that out to a dedicated D.I. but beware as there's a possibility at that point of getting some noise going.  If you encounter that, adjustments will have to be made.  I've gotten some great sounds just plugging the D.I. of my SansAmp Bass Driver into a recording device.  Let me stress, in the end your tone will be up to you and/or the engineer.  If you have a good D.I., and sensible quality bass, you should be able to get a tone that makes you smile.  Depending on the style of music you play, fresh strings can be a factor too.  Just like any piece of electronics, no two units are the same.  Though the concept of the D.I. is to bring the natural tone of your instrument to it's full potential, some units have one or two features which can shape your tone even further.  Many come with a "high pass" filter which excludes some of the lower end frequencies and let's all the other frequencies after pass through.  I don't find myself using this feature too often on bass.  Depending on the instrument I'm using, it can come in handy.  D.I.'s are very common for use on keyboards and acoustic guitars and at times a "high pass" filter can be helpful.  Other D.I.'s may have an additional tone boost feature to augment your sound.  The Eclair Evil Twin D.I. is a good example.  It has a toggle switch to boost selectable high end frequencies. 

Once you start recording with a D.I., you may find your instrument responds in a different way than when your playing through an amp and cabinet.  There's lots of factors of course.  Remember, your amp is usually made to fill a room and not car speakers or ear buds.  Recording is an audio illusion.  When you see a car blow up in a movie, you sit there and think "wow".  Not usually thinking "They didn't sell it because I wanted to see a car blow up inside the theater."  Same with recorded audio.  Your tones are implied.  Four inch boom box speakers are not there to replace our large speaker cabs that we use live.  If your looking for a very pure tone, I suggest using a D.I. or direct out of your amp and nothing else.  Minor adjustments can be addressed at the mixing board or compressor.  Coming up with tones takes a lot of faith in your equipment, playing, engineer, the room, etc.  

Using the D.I. from your amp can be very useful as well, just make sure you know the rules about if your amp has to be plugged into a speaker or not to function properly.  Looking at the manual will usually give you that info.  I will typically use the D.I. from the back of my amp if I'm only going to record one channel of bass.  The benefit is I can do some tone shaping from my amp.  Keep in mind, concept wise the D.I. from an amp is different than plugging into a dedicated unit. 

CREATIVE BENEFITS 

A friend of mine once scolded me for not recording a D.I. of a guitar on one of my demos.  The demo could have been the real thing except I just used a whatever guitar tone and worked on my tune.  Had I used a D.I. going at the same time, I could have later "re-amped" and had a very non-demo sounding guitar.  Alternatively, I could have used the D.I. tone and ran it through some software for more of an advantage.  The same can be said for bass.  If your going to record with a mic, or a D.I. from your amp, use a separate D.I. of your natural bass tone in addition.  This means your tone can always go through another amp later if you aren't happy with what you committed to while recording.  It's important you always record a true uncolored version of your bass for possible later use and back up.  Options are good right?  

D.I.'s can be easy to use if your just a plug 'n play type of person.  If you are going to record two different tones or give yourself multiple options for tones later, D.I.'s can get a little more involved when it comes to routing your tone and such.  I feel a video on the subject coming on!