Systems

A whole new world opened up the other day. Actually three. It happened on a a trip to get a keyboard amplifier for Lori. It was my first trip beyond the guitar areas of Guitar Center.

They have spaces dedicated to sound systems, lighting systems and control systems. The world just got a bit more complicated. A cursory check says it's going to get a lot more expensive too. Bugger...

Somehow, all the noise this band makes has got to be tucked into a rather cryptic electronic space, get spun into gold and be sent wafting into an audiences ear. Preferably without causing any bleeding or broken glass.

Then we have to have some lighting. And lasers. Don't forget the lasers. There were several cool "little" toys that look like fun. A quick scan of the www led to some nifty things. The big question here would be size and intensity. Blinding people goes right up there with making ears bleed. It would be frowned upon. The other extreme of having to turn off all the lights to see if they're working would be a major disappointment. 

Note from the author: Lighting is my desire. I'd like Pink Floyds Pulse light show but... Somewhere between that and flashlights will work.

Finally, controlling the whole beast. Letting everyone have their own volumn controls might imply the need for a third party intervention. Especially me. I'm still looking for that amp volumn control that goes up to 11. Balancing the sound will be needed. 

This is tricky business. There are a lot of things that have to happen to make a good, high fidelity, sound. Adding the control of lighting make the "engineer" position all that more viable.

Making a mistake in selecting a piece of equipment can quickly make what seemed an intellegent decision into the choice of a fool. This may take camping out in the showroom trying stuff out or finding a rental company with choices.

Finding the right questions will also be a key. Lori got a nice amp. But getting a programmable amp didn't cross my mind until yesterday...

A note on the last note. A friend of my daughters is taking singing lesson and I've expressed an interest in taking them too. I was kind enough to repeat my r'r'r'r singing moment.

I'm a bit uncomfortable when a 15 year old knows more than I do. "You never sing R's". Along with the cursory rolling of eyes and the shake of the head I was promptly reduced to possessing every human deficiency known to man.

There should be a law.

The past few weeks have been interesting. Crazy but, intersting.


I was in the school band in 5th grade. Drums. Got kicked out when I accidently tore a kids shirt off trying to remove a loose thread. I have developed a monster respect for that poor teacher. This stuff is a lot harder than the pros make it look.


We've had two practices since the last post. Mad fun and getting better every time. It has been a bit difficult getting 6 people to a regular practice. Work trips, visitation schedules and family vacations can toss a kink into the plans but that's life. This is fun! We have yet to have all the members together.


So we can play. It sounds very good. Then there's the singing part. Singing's hard. Singing good is really hard. I'm, by default, the singer. Yikes!


Wikipedia has been a great help. So has my wife (and keyboard player). It's easy to sound ok when you crank the volumn up on the radio. Cranking the volumn on a PA system is a whole new adventure. My first attempts added up to 650 WATTS of pure s**t.


There are a lot of reasons that singing is hard. Not knowing the words to a song is probably the first and biggest road block to singing it... Those parts we mumble with the radio really sound freaky live. I've gotten better at memorizing all of the lyrics to the songs we're playing. I still have a lot of work to do. And I'm really good and mixing up the order of the verses. So good, in fact, it might be considered a strength if it weren't for the melody going in a different direction. I'm trying to steer the music selections to songs with very few lyrics.


We're playing a lot of Pink Floyd tunes. Most of Dark Side of the Moon, Comfortably Numb, Wish You Were Here. Got some Joe Walsh, Stevie Ray, Santana, Doobie Brothers and Buffalo Springfield in the mix as well. We'll certainly add more.


Some of these I've been singing along with for 40 years. Rocky Mountain Way is in the key of B. High B. Joe's high B. I couldn't hit that if a snow storm blew up my shorts. It's now a middle B. Nice and comfortable. Hopefully the audience will appreciate the fact that I'm making it easier on all of us.


An epiphany was handed to me by my lovely wife. "You have to make the words your own". I made an AC/DC song my own once by singing "Dirty Deeds And Dah Dunder Chief". She didn't mean that way.


I'd been struggling with the opening lyric of Breathe. Just finding the opening note was tough. The second line, "Breathe in the air", was a joke. Have you ever heard someone who's lived in Texas for quite a while say air?  Gilmore makes it breathe. I made it sound like air'r'r'r. Mortified.


So, in a sense, I made the words my own. I spoke them. into a recorder. I've never said air'r'r'r in my life until I tried singing that line. It wasn't there when I spoke. So I spoke and spoke and spoke. The recorder patiently proved my ineptitude repeatedly. Until I used my own voice and my own pace. Comfort settled in and it improved.


Wiki has several pages on singing. Exercises for loosening up. Training your voice. Finding your key. Breathing. It's been a big help.


A long way to go and my r key is getting chapped.


More later.