Category Archives: Helpful Musical Stuff

Thursday 28th March 2013 – Immersing Your Audience (part one)

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THE POWER OF SOUND

As anyone that regularly reads my blog will know, my main interests in sound (and music) involve total immersion.  This stems from the idea that music is escapism and how this might be perfected.  The ability of music to provide such immersion is somewhat limited due to the ugly apparition of devout taste and the fact that this and other factors give it a limited scope of expression.  I therefore enjoy learning about what can be done with sound as a general medium and my adventures over the past couple of weeks have involved taking inspiration from ideas that are linked but don’t specifically deal with soundscape.

 

CROSS-POLLINATION 

Recently, I visited International Confex 2013 and the Live Experience Expo as well as an event at Discover Children’s Story Centre.  Confex and the Live Experience Expo were large trade events at the ExCeL put on for the events industry and Discover Children’s Story Centre puts on immersive experiences for children.

The talks I attended were all very different but they all had one thing in common: Dipping your audience into a different reality based around a theme.   Below are the main lessons I learnt from these talks and a few of my own relevant thoughts.  You will notice that I don’t really mention sound in the context of these ideas; I want to emphasise that you can gain inspiration from areas other than that of your own work.  Therefore, this post will be about the general ideas and next week I will work on connecting these ideals to sound.

 

DIRECTION

Before a project is worked on, there needs to be direction.  There might be a rough idea or theme that you want to create but this should all be distilled into one specific target.  This way, everything about an experience will be pointing in the same direction.  However, from personal experience, there is a lot to be said for pointing yourself in that rough direction and seeing what happens (although this unnerves many people involved!).  This looser approach can create a more intricate experience as the details will only be loosely related and therefore more varied and feel more organic.  Care is needed here though as there can be a fine line between chaos and ordered chaos!

 

ENVIRONMENT

The perfect immersion is to totally transform a space that appeals to all of the senses and to transport an audience somewhere that is totally different with no sense of the outside world.  Each experience should not seem staged and be relevant in the real world.  Also, its narrative should be loose enough that the audience can create their own stories and ideas within it.  As well as these ideas, the environment used needs to be a place that people want to spend time in.

 

EMOTION

Emotion is very important, as with music.   The only way to connect with people is through their emotions and connecting to people is obviously central to any event.  To have the most impact an experience needs to be emotionally engaging, using fear as well as and joy; connecting with emotion brings down a person’s guard and therefore their susceptibility to being immersed in an experience.  Also, to be fully immersive, an experience needs a comprehensive backstory.  This allows the minute detail to contribute to the experience; it is more likely that every thought an audience member has will be answered by the experience making the desired theme totally watertight.

 

KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE

Knowing the audience is also very important; different things have different meanings for different people and you need to make sure that every person in an experience is fully engaged.  Every person that isn’t fully engaged will detract from the audience’s overall immersion.  To achieve this, everybody included needs to have a story-related reason to be present, from all parts of the audience to those delivering the experience.

 

SIMPLICITY IS KEY

The idea that brings all of these threads together is simplicity.  Ideas need to be simple enough that they are accepted and do not require too much thought to understand them. The audience shouldn’t be trying to figure out what is going on but accepting everything presented before them.  Of course, there could be situations where complexity is a virtue, such as bringing people into an extended series of happenings but these complications should be tailored to the audience as mentioned above.

 

APPLY THESE IDEAS TO ANY MESSAGE

As you can see, immersing people in a watertight experience requires a lot of thought as well as understanding of your audience but the rewards definitely seem to be worth it.  Creating such an environment will make sure that your audience are truly taking in everything you want to say and this means that these ideas have multiple uses.  Whether you are a musician, film-maker,  artist or corporate advertiser totally immersing your audience can only reap benefits.

Tuesday 26th February 2013 – The Aeolian Harp and Soundscape

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After the last incarnation of my band, Lunar Rising, split I looked at various ways to become more self-sufficient.  I wanted to create big sounds using instruments but with fewer people, or at least fewer people with specific skills.  I looked into easy-to-play drone instruments such as the Shrutti Box, computerised sampling and looping and messing around with ‘found sound’ atmospheres.  During this research, I also started to look at drone instruments that I could make cheaply and without much fuss and this is when I came across the Aeolian Harp, AKA Wind Harp.  The nature of this instrument means that on it’s own, it wasn’t entirely suitable for use in a band (or was it…? more on this later) but I wanted to make one out of sheer curiosity and thought it could come in very useful for creating soundscape installations (more on this later too…).

So, what is an Aeolian Harp?  Well, legend has it that the ancient Greeks came up with the idea somehow.  Strings are tightened across a simple (or not so simple) body which is then placed outside or at an open window.  The breezes and winds then brush over the strings and this creates a very beautiful, ethereal sound.  Yes, the wind effectively plays the instrument for you!

You may be wondering how this is possible, as the wind isn’t agile enough to pluck or bow a string.  Well, apparently the jury is still out on the exact science but the basics are known.  Skip this paragraph if science bores you…  Each single sound, instrumental or otherwise is made up of different frequencies (or pitches).  These frequencies are usually mathematically related and these various frequencies all contribute to what you hear as timbre or tone (the way the instrument sounds).  A string that has been pulled taut has a pitch related to it’s length and the various frequencies making up this pitch can be teased out by lightly brushing the string at various points.  This is what the wind does to an Aeolian Harp and the (effectively) random nature of wind is why you can hear so many different, random notes all at the same time

So, how to make one!  I found out how to make an Aeolian Harp by watching this great You Tube video  by Stan Hershonik, a guy that has made many different types.

All you need is a bit of guttering, some wood, nails, instrument tuning pins and some fishing wire!

Soundscape creation

The video above shows you what you have to do but basically you fit wood blocks into either end of the guttering and screw your tuning pins into one end.  Thread your fishing wire strings through the tuning pins and pull them over the other side of the guttering where they are nailed in place.  Use two bits of thin wood as the bridges to hold the strings up.  Tighten the strings using the tuning pins and you’re done! Exact tuning isn’t really necessary as it will still sound nice!  If you fancy making one please do feel free to contact me if you have any questions or are having any problems.

Finished Aeolian Harp

 

Here is a video of my finished harp singing, including a duet with a train and some wind noise!  How does the sound make you feel?

So, you can use an Aeolian Harp to bring a bit of cheer and background noise to a space and this is where an involvement with them could rightly end.  However, how else might they be used?  As I mentioned earlier, could they be used in a band?  Well, mic’ing them up would provide a bit of a chalengle but maybe artificial breezes can be created so that human power can influence how the harp sounds.  Could it be possible to rig a harp up to electronic fans controlled by a user interface? Collaborator Christopher Konopka is currently considering this in some interesting depth… maybe more on this later…  The electronics and software programming could be very simple but considerations of breeze strength and fan noise would have to be taken into account.

If this set-up ends up not being possible in a band situation, these ideas could easily be transferred to a soundscape installation and various artists have already done this.  Using a few harps, big or small, outside could create a space that people can walk around and enjoy the sounds created.  If the fan ideas work out then maybe they can be used indoors as part of a more general soundscape.  The natural harp sound could be teamed up with noises coming from speakers and, again, interactive elements could be used to control what happens when.  The harps could be built into aesthetically pleasing sculptures to provide a visual spectacle as well as interactivity.  But what still remains though is the sound; a beautiful, otherworldly sound that creates a serene and interesting backdrop to any space.  I am really looking forward to having the opportunity to develop these ideas in my soundscape work.  Watch this space but until then, have a go at making one yourself, anyone can do it!

Thursday 24th November 2011 – Sound, Architecture and Environment

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The odd thing about recording is that your end product, the music, isn’t exactly real… it is a process that allows replication of something that has gone on before:  The music etc is played live and a snapshot is taken.  Also, you may know that the recording process cannot capture every single aspect of what the sound was like when you took that ‘snapshot’.  Current technology is very good at trying to emulate the original sound and you could argue that it does it so well that the imperfections are not even noticed, especially to the non-musician.

However, there are aspects of live music that the face-value capture of sound encapsulates with great difficulty.  Think about listening to a great busking band on the street.  You have the excitement of stumbling upon the performance; the personalities of the performers as they interact with the crowd, verbally and with their instruments; the collective experience of being part of a crowd; your own state of mind, if you are on holiday for example; and all of the sounds and feelings associated with these aspects.  Then there are the more physical aspects:  the way the sound of the different instruments reverberate around the buildings (even depending on where each musician is sitting), the qualities of that reverberation (imagine the difference in sound of a cathedral to your living room); other sounds working with/against the music intentionally or otherwise; even the state of the air could influence the total experience.  You then buy a copy of the band’s CD as the experience was so wonderful but, although the CD may sound good, it just isn’t the same.

The total experience (the actual music added to these aspects missing from the CD) is atmosphere (which I go on about all of the time!) and modern recording technologies can even go a long way to accounting for this; think about those realistic reverbs for example.  To my mind, maybe a change in focus is what’s needed to get closer to this elusive ‘atmosphere’.  When recording, maybe don’t think of it as recording music; or even as recording a performance.  Maybe think about the process as recording an experience.  This combined with keeping an open mind about what you can use to achieve this may produce even stronger results.  Music in particular tries to reproduce the thoughts and feelings of the song-writer using abstract methods (communicating with a guitar is very different from talking!), so why not extrapolate this to the whole process rather than just the sound-making?  You could even take this to the extreme by reproducing the atmosphere of a performance without actually including the instrument being used, although this would be a little silly if you are recording a virtuoso violinist because they are technically brilliant, for example!  Obviously, the balance of sound reproduction and atmosphere would have more real-life applications…

So, that finally brings me to the more overt topic of this post.  Architecture could be said to be one of the unsung heroes of the life experience.  We take it for granted that buildings, trees, and the rest of our surroundings are ‘just there’ but as any architect will tell you, these surroundings mold our lives and our life experience/atmosphere.  Therefore if we are thinking about the recording of music as above, it follows that we should take time to notice how sound interacts with the spaces it is immersed in.  This could go further than just putting the sounds in a reverb that emulates the space, and many musicians work with furthering this idea (for example Gustav Holst tried to describe the planets of our solar system in his music ‘The Planets’ using an orchestra; The band The Gathering used samples of crowd noises and street noises in their album ‘If Then Else’ to manipulate the atmosphere).

Thinking about how sounds interacts with architecture or the environment may not lead to placing sounds in a space as such, but it may also deepen an understanding of sound by looking into it’s real-life behaviour, which could loosen-up a musician’s perspective and therefore increase creativity.  For example, watch this you-tube video of a fantastic sound-art installation and see what you learn…

http://youtu.be/Ve6PTrlLGOU

Also, think about the application of sound within the architectural field.  Have a read here for some actual buildings/projects that have been designed to work within an environment that takes sound into account.  A couple use fountains to put up a mask of ‘white noise’ (which contains sound from all frequencies- i.e. the ‘snow’ on blank analogue TV channels) to cover traffic noise; a classroom was also designed to reduce spill of outside noise whilst emphasising the frequencies that the human voice occupies; raised portions and physical barriers evade noise and different materials sound differently when walked on.  Related to this, there are companies out there that design sound for business, taking every sound made within the company’s remit a part of their brand i.e. you wouldn’t use a noisy, clangy metallic floor in a shop that specialises in massage or meditation.

Of course, this is a two-way street as well.  Musicians and sound recorders can learn from sound in the real world and architects can learn from musical idealism i.e. calming soundscapes may be used in a massage parlour so maybe the building can be constructed in a way to emphasises these sounds.

So, if you are a music fan see if these ideas change the way you listen to music; musicians out there, maybe try thinking about sound differently and see if it enhances your output; and if you are involved in any aspect of creation think about how sound is as much a part of experience as your chosen field is and how careful thought around it can enhance the end product.

Thursday 11th November – How to make it in music?

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You may or may not be aware of the weird state that the music industry is in.  Basically, the rise of the Internet and file sharing has meant that making money from music based on the sales models of the latter half of the 20th century is getting harder.  Recording and publishing companies have therefore been finding things increasingly more difficult and this is pretty bad in some ways…. but quite exciting in others…  Musicians that try to pin their hopes on sending demos out to these people have things harder than ever too as recording/publishing companies wont risk spending money with no definite return (like any good business!).  Also, it means that the associated companies will try anything to make money just to survive.  X Factor and the like are associated with this point as they are a way to guarantee sales through reaching a massive audience .  (I put these shows in the ‘bad’ category as, in my opinion, they are quite damaging for the industry due to the influencing of public opinion on what music actually is – more about that another time but how will the industry grow without the continual influx of new ideas?).


So, the worrying parts are that a lot of labels and publishers are struggling and shutting the door on a lot of music (although some are starting to realise the money they can make from shows/gigs).  In fact, a couple of publishers I spoke to after I sent my first round of demos out told me that they don’t actually know how they, or the industry, is going to make any money in the future.  Worrying… and a disastrous lack of insight considering these people should live their jobs.


The good points…?  Well, as a musician and a lover of music, it is obvious that there is so much wonderful music out there now.  Cheaper, good quality recording gear, and the means to reach the public have helped this along, and a trawl through MySpace will bring this great music to your attention (as well as some that’s not so great!).  There is no lack of great music!  But also, the competition is immense!  Thousands and thousands of bands are all pitching for the public’s attention to such an extent that it is all pretty much meaningless:  You get one mail, MP3 etc, you have a listen.  Another, and you do the same… but hundreds…?  The human attention span just wont cope!  The natural order of things is usually for a few individuals to actually poke their heads above the rest… (yeah great songs should do this… but, like I said, there are many great songs out there!).  I believe the difference will be made by good old fashioned business sense.  A knowledge of  marketing, etc, etc will enable those with great songs to actually reach the people that are more likely to be a fan.  Then, a good use of all this knowledge will ensure that these fans are kept interested, get more personally involved in the music and eventually buy into it.  The musician is effectively an entrepreneur.  So, I’m convinced the opportunity is out there for musicians to actually grow some sort of business from their love for music.  They just need to follow the rules that any business enterprise has to follow to guarantee success (sales jobs are all the same, only the product changes).  So, my final positive point?  Well, anyone can learn these techniques and anyone can utilise their common sense to build a business!  Whether or not anyone has the energy and daring for it is another matter….

The Best Music Lesson You Will Ever Have…?

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Hi everyone, Yeah, I didnt write this article, but follow link below to take a look. The author kinda put one of my main focus’ into words and it was the best step I ever took in learning guitar…and it has nothing to do with scales or weird chords….the article is based on learning guitar but the ideas will go well with any instrument at all, including your voice…Enjoy!

http://www.ibreathemusic.com/article/120

Freedom

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Monday morning blues has to be a common thing.  I mean a recent poll I read in some newspaper said that hairdressers were by far the most satisfied work force and this level of satisfaction still only came to 70%.  I guess that could roughly translate to around a third of employed people are not satisfied with their careers.  Now, job satisfaction isn’t the point of this little article.  I am actually quite satisfied with my job.  It’s not music, but its allowing me to pursue that ambition in a way that isn’t too painful.

My trek across the city to work in the morning highlights various ideas for me: The monotony, the seemingly meaningless struggle for cash, the vigour with which people pound away at jobs they are not certain about, and what this does to them.  Obviously I cant say that my observations are representative of the population at all, and I don’t think they are either.  But I see so many people running the last 20 metres to the tube train in fear that those doors will close without them inside.  I always wonder why they cannot afford to wait 2 or 3 minutes for the next train… and various places in London that I have resided in have shown these same, or at least similar types, that I have seen running to progress 3 minutes sitting in-front of their TV’s of an evening waiting for the next morning ( I like to glance through windows when I’m out and about…innocently, I promise…).  Fair enough that we all need to relax after working hard, but I draw your attention to that above figure (which I know I cannot confirm…) and the glum expressions on commuters’ faces in the mornings…

So, have you ever felt trapped in this cycle? Stressed and desperate to do nothing in favour of finding out what life outside of work has to offer.  I know I have.  A lot of people treat their holidays as the only time they can truly relax and free themselves from this.

Predictably, music is my escape and it always has been.  But, like any drug if you have too much of something you become complacent with it and that is why I am always searching for new and interesting music.  An interest I have had for a long time sits with Free Jazz and Free Music.  As well as the citied reason above, this is also due to the fact that there is no musical constraint; No rules (to varying degrees); and an ultimate display of self expression constrained only by the musician’s mind and what their limbs can achieve.

So, what is Free Jazz?  Well, the first time you here it, it may sound a bit too much.  Lots of things are going on and not much of it sits in the comfort of what your ears are used to.  Structure is not as obvious as what you may be used to: Instead of verses, chorus’, keys etc.  it may just be a feeling the band leader has asked the musicians to keep in mind when they play, or a set of feelings or ideas.  It may also sound a bit self-indulgent as each musician seems to be just doing their own thing….

However, keep with it.  Let your ears become accustomed to what is happening.  You will be hard pushed to find music that is as rewarding and adventurous as this.  You will hear the musicians interacting with each-other.  You will hear moods come and go.  Tender emotions dissolve into frustration or ecstatic frenzy.  It is a journey which you may need to unlock, but it is a musical journey nonetheless.  This journey becomes all the more magical by the very fact that it is organic.  The musicians are literally seeing (well…hearing..) what happens and where their, and others’, notes are taking them.  It could be a transparent window into the musicians’ minds as control and constraint are taken away allowing uncensored exploration.  To me, this is freedom.  And I present to you the ‘challenge’ of sticking some of this music on your mp3 player and letting it take you to work. Concentrate what is happening in the music and lose yourself in its journey.  When I did that this morning, it highlighted the farcical, stress ridden circus that was performing all around me.   Let the freedom rub off on you and displace yourself away from the monotony of control and order.  This effect can be very powerful.  It may even shift your perspective on life, especially on a Monday morning…

Check out John Coltrane’s Ascensionfor Free Jazz or for something a little more theoretically free try the Joseph Hollbrooke Trio and enjoy…

Playing With the Mind

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OK, well, still settling in to the new place and slowly but surely getting things sorted….unfortunately the web connection still isnt sorted (it takes two weeks for Virgin Media to migrate the service to my new address!)…..so, i still have to wait until I can properly be more active on this world wide web thingamy…

This slow progress as been a blessing in some ways as I have had lots of time to re-acquaint myself with my guitar.  The thing is, when you are worried about recording, websites, promotion, as well as the rest of life’s little missions you have to sacrifice your attention of other things…and one of those other things has been improving my guitar playing….I almost forgot how fun it was randomly jamming with myself   (stop sniggering you at the back) and because of that I have been comming up with far more song ideas, and these flow so much better as the playing tends to be more ‘organic’ this way.

So, I think I should play more with…I mean..by myself to enable me to write better songs and of course to improve my playing as well as songwriting.  That may seem obvious to somebody reading this but remember that for quite a while I have been taking ideas and tricks from purely thinking about what I’m listening to (and no, that doesn’t mean lifting music from other songs!).  I think the cognitive action of keeping ideas and saliences (psychology speak for new occurrences your mind picks up) in mind as and when they crop up can improve your songwriting immensely so I do recommend it!

 I tend to follow this just by listening to my walkman, picking out sounds and then dissecting them (easy to do on the way to work and a luxury when you have time with some tasty headphones at home).  For me, the parts I pick out are interesting.  I don’t do it in a rote-like manner for learning but am enjoying some aspect, so I follow it.  so, what am I talking about?  Well, for example, bass-lines are a great example of this as they can be easily missed in a lot of rock.  Focus on the deeper guitar parts and you have found the bass if you are having trouble locating them.  Listen to how the bass interacts with the other melodic instruments and the drums.  Maybe its straightforward.  Maybe it intertwines between the two creating something interesting.  Does it have a mind of its own, using high notes all over the place? Does it accent certain parts of the music? how does it do this?  They are all questions that you could answer that should gradually increase your awareness of what’s going on in music and then you could use the little subtleties you are noticing to your own affect.

This kind of listening is also great for teaching yourself about tone and will give you ideas with where to use certain tones.  Let’s stick with the bass again as to many a 6-string player, bass is bass….when actually that is rubbish…as you pick out the subtleties you may start to hear that some basslines sound clearer, some just have a floating presence some sound rounded like you can almost stick your teeth into it… and then others have varying  degrees of all of those…with other instruments it is easier to pick out what effects are going on and with good headphones/speakers you can even hear if the reverb on a drum, for example, is more bassier than another.

Well, give that a go if you think it may help.  The only other thing I will say is that this seems to be a slow process for most people so be patient!  Anyway, it’s no chore listening to music is it….? And if it is you are in the wrong place….