Thursday, February 25, 2010

3 of 4 - Again

Last weekend's rehearsal again only featured 3 of the 4 members. Our singer had been sick all week, couldn't make it.

The other three took the rehearsal time and work through some song parts that had been troublesome for us. It was actually rather fortunate that the singer wasn't there, so we didn't feel bad about playing the same part over and over while she stood by bored.

By the end of the rehearsal, we were really feeling good about some of the more complex breaks in our songs.

After rehearsal, we enjoy a live band ("The Transients") who were, like always, great. It was good to watch another band and get a feel for what was working well for them.

Looking forward to a fully-staffed rehearsal this weekend.

RAWK AWN!

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Three Quarter's of a Band

We got word this morning that our drummer Bob wasn't feeling well, and he would not be joining us for rehearsal. So, instead of a full rehearsal, Mike, Katie and I decided to work on vocals.

Neither Mike nor I has ever sung much, but we'd like to add some harmonies to help fill out the vocals. It's difficult to sing something other than what you are used to hearing (harmony vs. the melody). After some struggles, we started doing pretty good on several songs.

While we'll never be able to sing a Beatles-like 4-part harmony, I think we'll at least be able to avoid embarassment.

We decided to add 2 new songs to the set list: "One Way or Another" by Blondie and "Shut Up and Let Me Go" by the Ting Tings.

We are looking forward to another full practice - with drums and everything!

Until next time - RAWK ON!

Band Practice - Week 3

Super Bowl Sunday marked the third week of 71 South, and another practice session.

Unfortunately, I was running late, and missed the first 45 minutes of practice (they should fire me). I got stuck at Guitar Center where I was purchasing a new Acoustic/Electric guitar for use on "I'm Yours" and "Black Horse and Cherry Tree." (I got an Ibanez AEG20 - a great little affordable guitar.)

We tried out 2 new songs this week, which we have never played before. "Before He Cheats" sounds surprisingly good. We only have one guitar, a bass and drums, and yet I think we filled out the sound well. Mike's covering guitar on that one, and I'm playing bass. Katie's inspired vocals (perhaps she was jaded at some point in her life?) were incredible. This is a great song for us, and I look forward to playing it out.

The other new song was Modern English's "I'll Melt With You." This one is a little tougher because of the multi-layered sounds. I'm playing guitar, and I'm trying to leverage my Digitech RP350 to create several different sounds for this song. There are so many different parts, it's difficult to switch sounds and I switch parts. We've moved the key on this one up a step so Katie can sing it. With only one guitar, the chorus sounds really shallow, so instead of playing the part, I may just strum the chords to fill it out a little bit. This is a great song and will be an interesting challenge for us.

We also worked on some other songs that we've been playing a while, and they are all coming together nicely. Part of our challenge is that we aren't full-time musicians, so sometimes we just don't have the time to practice like we should. For example, I was traveling all week last week and didn't have access to a guitar to practice. I was pretty rusty on Sunday.

But, we are all having a blast and are committed to working to improve in order to give the audience a kick-ass live music experience. We hope to be playing out soon, and look forward to seeing all of you there.

Rawk On!

How a Band Is Formed

71 South was born from a New Year's resolution.

My name is Ron, and I play guitar. Our other guitarist, Mike, has been a friend for years. Mike and I have both played guitar since we were kids, and we have played together in a band in the past. Recently Mike and I started jamming with some friends. This jamming renewed my interest in playing guitar more seriously.

When 2010 rang in, I decided to make it a goal to play in a gigging band by the end of the year. I wasn't sure if Mike was going to join me in this endeavor. I shared my goal with him, but he wasn't quite on board. I decided I would try to find an existing band to join.

However, after a couple of weeks, Mike decided he wanted to give it a try. We decided we only wanted 4 members in the band. Basically, a smaller band is easier to manage. However, neither Mike nor I has ever really played the bass guitar. We decided we would trade off playing bass. This would allow us to have a singer, 2 guitarists/bassists, and a drummer.

We knew who we wanted to sing. A co-worker, Katie, had been a background singer for another band for a while, but she recently left that band. She had sung with Mike and I during our other jam sessions, and we both felt she would be a great lead singer for our band.

I asked Katie if she'd be interested, and sure enough, she agreed.

Mike asked a drummer friend of his if he'd like to join us, and he agreed. Within a week, we went from zero to jamming.

We've had two rehearsals, and so far things are a little rough, but we can see some promise. We started with 12 songs to work on for the first rehearsal. Mike and I have played some of these songs before, so the learning curve wasn't too bad. It was just a matter of getting used to playing together, and for Ron/Mike to get accustomed to playing bass.

So, choosing songs to play requires several things to consider. Can Katie sing it? Can it be adequately played with one guitar? How difficult are the backing vocals? And who will play bass?

For for the first few songs, we simply split them up. We plan to split the songs so that I play bass on half of them, and Mike plays bass on the other half. So far that's working out well. We can choose songs that fit our guitar style, and let the other cover the bass.

Some songs need to be played in a different key to acommodate Katie's voice. For example, we are playing "Real Wold" by Matchbox 20. That song is too low for Katie, so we've moved it up to a higher key. On the other hand, the song "Hot N Cold" by Katy Perry is a little high for her, so we've moved it down a little bit.

We are only 2 weeks into this project, but so far I think we've got a good thing going. We all need to practice more (always), but most of the songs are coming together really nicely. We hope to have enough material to gig within a month or so.

If you are needing a band for your special event, contact us! info@71southband.com.