Stage Volume

Have you ever walked off stage thinking you played a great show?  Someone walks up to you and says, "I couldn't hear you at all".  Funny, you were plenty loud on stage.  Have you ever walked off stage thinking you couldn't hear yourself very well?  Someone walks up to you and says,  "You were so loud!".  Turning up and turning down in the middle of songs, bandmates doing the same.  It can get crazy sounding on stage.  Everyone want's to "feel it".  For many "feeling it" means cranking it up.   

Does loud stage volume constitute good stage volume?  Hardly.  Most of the time, if your band is going through a P.A., the soundman will want you to have a conservative amount of stage volume.   Why is that?  Most soundguys believe that they can do a good job mixing the band if the sounds from all the amps don't cary into the crowd too much.   If you don't agree with this, I understand.  You might be one of many who says "The audience must hear me at all costs, and I must hear myself."  What happens when you perform with that attitude?  You sound great to yourself and the first 5 human rows of people in the crowd, the engineer turns you all the way down in the P.A. because even then your amp is still too loud.  In addition, your band can't be mixed well because you decided you needed to hear yourself at all costs.  Your statement.... as long as I sound good, I'm happy.  Nevermind how my band sounds as a whole.

Sometimes I feel I have no right to write these articles as I believe I'm always learning.  I have a lot of experience and I've made many sacrifices in my search for the best stage volume.  It all started when I got into playing through smaller amps in larger venues.  That reality about the amp on stage being just for my listening pleasure hit home in a big way.  After that, I started asking soundguys to tell me if I needed to bring my stage volume up or down.  They always seemed very happy about my welcoming them to chime in on the issue.  Sometimes it was great, sometimes I could have held a more roaring show in my bedroom with some volumes that have been requested of me.  

What is the correct stage volume?  There's no right answer.  As most of you know, every gig is different.   I used to think if I matched my stage volume to the drums things would be pretty good.  Not so!  I learned that my stage volume is almost never as loud as rehearsal volumes.  At rehearsal,  your amp volume is in fact responsible for filling up the room so everyone can hear.  The same can be said for gigs with minimal P.A. systems where maybe they just put the vocals through.  

It takes a lot of experimentation and of course it's a venue to venue issue on this subject matter.  I've had plenty of shows where I set my own conservative stage volume and then suffered as far as not being able to hear myself on stage or lost my headroom for playing dynamically.  Dynamics is how you want to gauge your stage volume.  If your amp is so quiet that you feel you have to play with more strength than usual, it's good cause to turn up.  If we were all blessed with masterful monitor mixes on the stage and nice lengthy soundchecks all the time it would never be an issue.  I imagine most of you reading this are entry level to intermediate players in addition to players who gig in many different styles like me.  My amp doesn't have a "set it and forget it" setting that I use for all gigs and all instruments.  Sure I know what I like to do with my amp typically but I always do a minute or two of adjusting once I put my gear on stage.  Sometimes, I think I have my amp set up the way I'd like it but then get on stage and found out the room drinks low end for breakfast and I have to crank some "bass" in my bass.  Some rooms fill up will little effort so I may have to turn way down.  

There are so many variables.  Being aware of your surroundings and what is happening all around you is the best advice I can give on almost all of the musical experiences.  Sacrifice is inevitable yet it always comes with a lesson to learn.  Ideally, your stage volume is for you, possibly the drummer a little if he isn't getting a good monitor mix.  You will probably play your whole show and not know exactly what your instrument sounds like to the crowd until you walk off stage and people start telling you what it sounded like.  This is the angle of live sound that always keeps me humble.  What I hear on stage through my amp and even my monitors is just for me and my bandmates.  My awesome expensive speaker cabinet is almost always for my reference only.  There's lots of good and bad live sound engineers out there and you usually don't have control over it.  All you can do is ask the crowd a few times "Can you hear everything alright?"       

Much of your stage volume is going to have to do with the equipment you choose and how you set it up on stage.  I've had very comfortable stage volumes with smaller amps set on a chair.  I've had hard to hear stage volumes with a cranked amp and a huge speaker cabinet.  Some of these issues are dependent on the directionality of a speaker cabinet.  If the speaker is sealed up and has no porting on the front, it may not fill up a very wide area.  I've found much of the time, standing right in front of your amp isn't always the best place to hear yourself.  I usually have to walk around the stage some to find the sweet spots when it comes to hearing my bass. 

Personal Experiences:

I played a gig and the soundman wanted my stage volume very low.  I struggled to hear myself during this set but I made it through OK.  After nearly a 90 minute set, the singer moves from the center of the stage during the last tune.  I decide to stroll over to center stage.  Holy loftiness, Batman!  I was supercranked!  I wish I had known the whole show.  I wouldn't have been pluckin away on stage playing with a bit of frustration towards the soundman requesting my low stage volume.  My amp volume wasn't cranked, but from center stage at this particular venue at least I could feel the sub woofers and the rest of the overall P.A. much better.  I heard the band had a great mix that night in the audience and my bass was plenty present.  

Sometimes you have to lose to learn.  Again, it's about sacrifice.  If from your very first gig, you thought you had the art of live playing down, then your that way too loud guitar player that many bands have or maybe that drummer who keeps speeding up.   Maybe, your that bass player that's annoyingly loud or slaps when it's completely uncalled for.  This doesn't mean you don't deserve to be pro-active and try for a great stage tone and volume.

Most live sound engineers are characters.  They mix up to 25 bands a week and your band is no more special to them than the others until you start your show and have a chance to prove yourself.  When you soundcheck or linecheck and are asked to play your bass, if your way cranked, the soundman will think your an obnoxious selfish jerk and will probably think that will set the tone for the whole evening.  If your lucky, the engineer will communicate with you and maybe even school you.  Every chance I have, I always ask the engineer after each show if he had any thoughts or comments on my tone or volume.  If there's a soundcheck I'll ask after that.  Even if your not working with the best engineer, he probably knows something you don't.   One more note about soundcheck.  When the sound man asks you to play something to he can check the line and tone, don't play some slap line if your playing in a blues band.  Play something that's representative of what your going to be doing most of the evening.  That way, there's less of a chance to surprise the sound man or yourself when things start sounding different.  I've also walked off the stage after soundcheck telling the sound guy "Thanks, everything is great."  Then moments later, Joe guitarist says "i just turned up", or maybe you decided in retrospect you were a bit loud or soft.  That's ok.  Sometimes it all takes a moment to soak in.  Instead of surprising the sound man, tell him your concern.  Maybe he'll tell you there's room to turn up or turn down.  Maybe he'll have another idea such as if one part of your tone could use some sprucing up which man get you more presence on stage as well.  I like a very aggressive tone for some gigs and it can get thin if I don't watch out.  Sometimes, all I need i someone to tell me it would benefit from some low end out front to help out greatly.  

Mixing humbleness with awareness is a great way to move forward as a live player.  Things may not always go your way but you'll learn from each experience.  These lessons can only make you better.   

Practice Makes Practice

It seems a lot of these blog ideas come up by things currently surrounding me in my life.  Maybe it's something for myself, or something that may be coming up frequently with my students.  On occasion, like this particular blog, it's both.

My last blog covered a lot about practice.  Today I'm going to talk about the two types of practicing approaches I live by.  It's really important that you keep at least one of two philosophies behind your practicing habits.  1) Frequency. 2) Variety.

FREQUENCY:  Students and of course parents of students will ask me how much practicing should be going on.  For an absolute beginner they may not have as much material or even stamina to go for hours on end.  Maybe your a experienced musician who's going through a busy time in your life which doesn't grant you the enjoyment of lots of practice time.  My answer is 15-30 min, five days a week, and seven if you please.  I follow it up by saying.  Not 15 min one day, skip three and then 45 min the next time to make up for it.  It's the frequency that your looking for.  The five days in a row.  With this type of practicing habit, physical goals are going to be a lot more slow going but you will still have some effective mental practice which of course is important as well.  For the more experienced players, it may just be up keep until we can get back into a deeper regimen.  I don't think this approach should be used as a replacement for serious nose to the grind stone practicing.  I think it's good for experienced players who are just a bit busier trying to make sure their bills get paid, their relationships are in tact and are taking a breather from music from time to time for whatever reason.  Possibly other pleasures in life?  For beginners, I feel that after 6 months, you should probably at that point be motivated to play at least 30 min a day or more.  

VARIETY:  If you can squeeze a variety of tasks into a short practice successfully, more power to ya.  Usually if I'm going for such an approach, I'm only running down a few things that needed very little work to begin with.  Maybe I'm just running down two or three songs I need to get up on stage and play that night or the next day.  Think of it this way... Do you get much from jumping in on the middle of a 30min TV show for 7 1/2 min and then flipping to another one for 7 1/2 min?  Usually not.  It's all a bit disjointed and of course if you liked the first show to begin with, you would have stuck with it.  So one of those 7 1/2 min slots was probably a waste.  You might of caught on to the plot, but you probably don't know all the characters and there's still a lot of holes in the story.  Bummer.  Now, the rest of this portion of the blog is about those of us who love those practices that go on forever, or would like to know how those who do practice for hours on end get there.

Let's say you have 60 min or more to get some practicing done.  I'm not going to get into an exact regimen because all players have different needs but I'll give you a few basics I go by.  I spend about 1/4 of my time warming up.  This usually starts with very simple and painfully slow right hand exercises that gets me warmed up and gets my mind and body going with some sort of solid rhythm reference such as a metronome or drum machine.  After that, I'm spending some time on some sort of chromatic exercises.  Gotta make sure my left and right hands are agreeing.  From there I'm probably running down some scales in various keys, chords, etc.  Depending on what your studying it may be other things.  You'll notice how I haven't talked about the creative side yet.  This is because I believe the #1 key to a good long practice is eating your Wheaties and makings sure you get some educational progress going first and foremost.  Once we start vamping on a groove or tune, we probably aren't going to be very motivated to go back to modes and arpeggios after that.  Here's the beauty of this approach though...This is exactly how shorter practices turn into enjoyable marathons.  Time permitting of course.  After you've done all your cerebral stuff, you may have already covered nearly 60 min.  Then when you get into your songwriting, grooving, vamping, hashing out a tune you grew up listening to, they may carry you for quite a bit longer.  The importance and effectiveness is much deeper than how simple it sounds.  Of course you can spend longer on one part of your initial practice if you feel you need it or are especially enjoying/appreciating it.

I'm sure there will be more blogs in the future on practicing.  For now I encourage you to experiment with your practice regimen.  Make sure that when you change something, you sit on it for a while and don't abandon it so quickly.  Really give it a chance to be effective.  That goes for everything!