Improving your skills: Finding the right approach

Getting your first guitar or drum kit can be unbelievably exciting, but at the same time, it can be incredibly overwhelming. You're itching to emulate Hendrix or Bonham, but all you can think at the minute is; 'what does this bit do?' 'how come I can't do that?'

Before long, your shiny new axe is nothing more than an elaborate clothes hanger, your drum-kit a coffee table. How do you avoid the all too familiar pitfalls of the new musician? We've put together some of our usual simple steps, to help you keep it up, until you can eventually play...

#1 Get the basics nailed first.
First of all, you won't get better if you don't practice. So, set up a little routine for every day, perhaps when you've just finished the daily grind. Get in, practice, tea, telly, bed.

Take it a step further, to keep you focused, you could look at laying out your practice sessions. Start with tuning, then scales, then you can move on to some songs that you're learning. That way, you aren't going to go straight to that drum solo from Moby Dick, or spend thirty minutes just playing Thunderstruck on loop.

#2 Slow it down
This is a great tip we got from Bobby Arechiga, when you're practicing, slow it down! Get the bare bones of what you are trying to do, then gradually speed it up. Remember, it's about having control of what you're doing. We've all been there, you want to nail that Yngwie Malmsteen song at 100mph, but can you really do that? Not yet.

#3 Sweat the small stuff, but keep it fun
Right, we aren't going to lie. If you want to make it as a musician and not just a glorified receptionist like us, then you'll need to get your head around some pretty boring stuff. Scales, rudiments, even holding sticks properly. Don't neglect it, but going back to point #1, make sure it's part of your practice routine.

On the other side of the coin, don't make practicing too dull, make sure you've always got a jingle or song on the go to keep you going. Here's a test, play a C Major Scale, now play the intro to The Flintstones. See what we mean?

#4 Give someone a show
May sound scary at first, but why not play for someone? Trust us, mums always think you're awesome. Give them a quick rendition of what you're trying to learn, then show them again a month or so later. They will be amazed at the progress you've made.

If you aren't too critical, why not film it? Then you'll see how you've improved (and what needs work). Put it this way, Mike Tyson could fight his way out of a paper bag when he was six.

#5 Keep it enjoyable
We aren't saying don't practice for weeks on end. But don't force it! Keep it enjoyable and remember; when you see your idols killing it on stage, they spent hours in their bedroom going over Enter Sandman on repeat.

We hope this sets you on your way as a beginner, to the lofty heights of stardom you're after. If all else fails, get in touch for lessons!

As usual, we hope that you enjoyed reading our blog, if you did, why not visit us on Facebook, Twitter, or visit our Website? We've got a new site coming soon, with loads of new stuff, including a new studio engineer, new tutors for lessons in our new teaching rooms and much more.

Keep checking back for more info.

These are just our ideas, what do you do to practice?

Quick Tips: Getting rehearsal levels.

One of the biggest problems people have at our studios when they're starting out, is getting the right levels for rehearsal. So we thought we'd give you some simple tips on finding the right volumes for everyone, so you can hear everything properly.

Firstly, good levels means balanced levels, in short, the drummer needs to hear the guitar, the guitar needs to hear the singer and so on. It's not about the lead guitarist blowing the walls off! What's more, it's not about live volumes, leave that to the sound engineer, you aren't looking for a live level, just some point where you can all hear everything during rehearsal. Avoid making the mistake of all gradually cranking it up;

Right, now to set up, so that hopefully, you aren't surrounded in feedback, or burst ear drums.

#1 Start with the drummer
Obviously, the drums are pretty 'un-tameable', they're either quiet or loud, depending on the drummer. Use the drums as the spring board for the rest of the set up, determining the overall volume of everything else. Remember though, there are a few things you can try, such as varying tuning, to limit 'ring' (see our drum tips- part 1 for some help) or use studio rings.
This wont necessarily make the drums quieter, but it could help.

#2 Guitars and Bass: Tone First!
Remember when setting a guitar up, changing the tone can alter the volume! Don't try to get your levels and then whack the gain up for good measure. Make sure you set the tone first, then adjust the volume in line with the drums.

#3 The rule of fingers?
Many people are advocates of 'the finger rule' but what is it? Put simply, keep your mouth one finger width away from the mic, no more, no less. Most live mics work best at close quarters, so don't try and re-enact the 'Iiiiii-Eeee-Iiii' from Whitney Houston's greatest hits. All you'll get during rehearsals is intermittent sound, keep that gob, near that mic!

 #4 One channel at a time
When you're setting up the PA, forget the master volume at first. Look at getting each channel to a desirable output first. Sing into the mic and turn the volume up (1) until the loudest notes just reach the clip monitor, normally shown with a small light. It should flash or light up to show you it's reached the maximum input (2). If it lights up too frequently, or constantly, chances are, you'll get a load of feedback or clipping whilst you rehearse. This is what we do, but there are other methods out there!

Remember, when sound checking, try and give it the same oomph you will when you're all rehearsing. Once you've repeated this for all inputs (lead vocals, backing vocals etc), work on the master volume (3) until it really cuts through the room mix.



#5 Don't add, take away
If you really need to use the EQ on a PA system, we find the best method is to 'take away' frequencies, rather than add to them. What we mean by this is; if it's too 'bassy' take some bass away, don't add more treble to concentrate. Otherwise you'll be cranking up the problems!

And, most importantly, don't forget to ask the staff! They can help (most of the time)



We hope you enjoyed reading, we'd love to hear your thoughts on any of our blogs, you can join in the debate over on our twitter, facebook, or go and check out our website, to keep up to date with all our goings on.

If you do enjoy our blog, why not share it, retweet it or just let your friends know, we'd love to get a wider audience reading!

Keep your eyes peeled for our next posts, including; tackling feedback, guitar sounds and drum tips-part 2!

Starting a Band: 5 things to remember

We've had some great feedback on our last blog entry: '10 ways to get your band noticed' and we'd just like to say thanks to Aggressive Management for helping us with it. We thought we'd go back a few steps with the next one and give newbies a few ideas on how to get a band going...

#1 Find your members

So you can play a few chords on the old axe, now you just need a drummer, bassist, singer, euphonium player, spoons expert and a session ukulele-ist for the odd occasion. But where to look?

Well, a great place to start is your local forums. (in our case Sheffield Forum Musician's Page).

You can always hit up the local magazines, studios, tutors, even photographers. They may all have heard in passing that 'such and such is after joining a new band'. 

#2 Get some common ground 

Don't worry too much if there's just two of you to begin with, have a chat and work out a few songs that you both like. Before you do anything else, print off the music, learn the songs, get in a room and play some covers first.

If you try and go straight to the top and write the next Dark Side of the Moon, with someone you've just met, you're not going to achieve anything and it will put you off.

#3 Write your music organically

We've all tried to sit down and write a riff in the style of 'X, Y or Z'. Don't, you'll just get stuck. The best way to get the music together, is to jam and see what sounds good. Yeah, you will get loads of bad stuff, but you're only looking for that one hook that you can work on and keep going back to.

Take it from us as studio owners, we're always trying new stuff out on the guitars, it never works if you force it, just play and see where it goes!

#4 Words? Stick to what you know

The Arctic Monkeys are a double edged sword in good old Sheffield in our view. On the one hand, they're unbelievably good, original and downright awesome. On the other hand, they've managed to spawn a whole generation of kids singing about losing their fake id's in Bargain Booze, getting smashed at the local and having a 'kick about' on a Sunday morning.

It works for AM, because it's real. But if that's not what you do, don't try and write about it. Take our blog for example, if we don't know what we're talking about, we find someone who does. (Honestly!)
Once you find a subject you can write about, you're sorted.

#5 Finally, work towards something
Once you've got some songs together and a full band, what're you doing next?
It may be scary, but book a gig. That way, you've got a set date when everything needs to be polished off for. Sure, you'll have many a sleepless night thinking about the dreaded evening, but without biting the bullet, you'll never get around to it!

We hope you found this helpful and interesting. If you did, why not follow us on twitter, Facebook, or just check out our website! Don't forget to check out our other blog entries, we've got all sorts of stuff to keep you amused for a short while!

Thanks for reading!