How do you make a good set list? Sound simple?

So the other night, about 15 minutes before we were playing a show, Trever decided to finally make the set list. Normally we are better prepared but this show was a party for our good friends at luck 13 clothing so we were taking a bit more relaxed approach. They asked face to face to play and were more than willing to oblige. As we were talking about the set list I came up with this topic idea for a blog post.
    It seems like it would be really simple to make a good set list but it's actually a bit tougher than it seems. There are multiple factors to consider depending on the situation. So below you will find some tips on making a decent set list. Enjoy.

1) Consider your circumstances. Are you headlining or opening? If you are the main band for the night you may have to fill a 90 minute time slot verses 30 to 40 minutes if you are opening. At a pro gig the time allotments will pretty much be set in stone but at a local club gig it will be much more flexible. This does not mean that if you are a local band you should violate one of the golden rules.....
      Golden rule for opening bands..8 songs or 30 minutes tops! Hit them with your best material. Do it like a pro with some good transitions and don't lolly gag around talking for 10 minutes between songs. Leave them wanting more, not wishing you would get the hell off the stage. It's amazing how many bands mess this up.
2) Open strong but not to strong. If you are playing early in the day or night you don't want to blow your best stuff to soon.
3) Put a great song at the #3 spot on the set. Again, if it is early in the day or night you want to play a couple of songs so that people realize a band has started playing. This is huge at a festival where you need people to move from another stage over to your stage. Get them there and then by song number 3 hit them with something that will keep them there for the duration of the set.
4) It's got to flow. have good transitions between the songs. What note are you ending song #4 on and what note does song #5 start with. Make sure it works. We are even doing this for our recitals at the Music Factory with our Rock band classes.
5) If people don't know you don't try to get them to sing and participate with you. It can be embarrassing. Some bands and front men can pull it off but they are experienced and know when and where to try it. European crowds love to chant. Watch a football game and you will see. If you can give them something easy to sing to you will have a better chance of making this happen.
6) Split up the tempos. Don't put 5 fast songs together and then 5 slow songs. Think about the pacing. The fast songs don't sound fast if that's all they hear etc. Take them up and then bring them down. You are in control.
7) Don't get mad that a crowd doesn't come up front to watch you. Berating them does nothing to help you. Play a great set and win them over.
8) Note on your set list where tuning breaks, guitar changes and talking points will be. Do not wing it.
9) Close with your hit .
10) Know when you will get an encore and when you won't. If you know the market and know the show will go off, plan for your encore. If you are not getting a huge response, don't walk off and come back on. Just play the encore song right away if at all. Do not go over your set time!!! That's an rookie move!!

Rock Band class at The Music Factory oc

Are the young bands of today making any good music?

Not as far as I can tell. Having spent two months on the warped tour two summers ago and after looking at all the scenster kids on this tour, I think it's safe to say that the kids have blown it. Every band sounds exactly the same. Not kind of the same, but exactly the same. They also look exactly the same. Now here's my point. At Woodstock, did all the bands sound the same? I don't think so. Even the warped tour of ten years ago had some diversity. I know that lots of the musicians in these bands are good, they can play for sure. The last thing they need is drum lessons or guitar lessons, but are they going to leave any kind of lasting impression on music history? Why would you start a band and try to look exactly the same and sound exactly like 50 other bands? Is this a by product of the digital revolution that has helped so many bands get there music out there? I also remember being aware of the history of bands and music as I was simultaneously appreciating new bands that were coming out. I don't think the kids of today, or at least the fans of these bands, have any clue about the music of previous generations. Why are they such tool bags when it comes to this? We have students at the Music Factory that come in wearing a Doors t shirt etc so I know there are some younger kids that have an understanding and appreciation for music, but they must be the major minority. come on kids, get it together before we lose all faith in you...

How to be more than just "The Drummer"

There's a joke that goes
Q: what's the last thing the drummer said before he was kicked out of his band?
A: hey guys, I've been writing a few songs. 

     Now although their are many examples of drummers writing songs in various 
bands, in more case than not, the drummer sits silent waiting to sprinkle his 
flavor onto a song that is a semi finished state of being 
    This doesn't have to be these case and probably shouldn't be either. 
Recently i was interviewed by Eric Kamm in DRUM magazine which touched on this 
very topic (Drummers who write/Danny Thompson) As a drummer you have a unique perspective on 

what's happening in a given song. From our listening vantage point we often 
times are in a much better position to notice issues within a given song. I am 
quite often the one to comment on a guitar being out of tune or someone singing 
flat . Now these things don't necessarily make you qualified to all of sudden 
be claiming creative control on your bands next recording, however they are a 
great jumping off point to being more involved in the overall process. 
Before we dice into songwriting let's touch on some other ways you can be more 
involved with the creative process. 
Arranging is a great place to start. Listen to other people's music from a 
vantage point of arrangement. Versed to pre- chorus back to verse and then 
pre-chorus into actual big money chorus. That's the arrangement of the song in a 
very simple form. Your input into how to create an intro for the song based 
around a feel change from the chorus groove or how to flow in and out of a 
bridge are just two examples of how you can influence arrangements. Study the 
masters ( beetles) and take ideas from them. They have hit songs for a reason. 
Don't know where to go with a song? Say to yourself " what would xyz do here" 
      Production is another great area for drummers to expand their base of 
influence. There is a reason that so many good recording engineers are drummers 
. Drummers nature are very good listeners. Although most drummers posses a 
strong creative side, they also have a more pragmatic thought process than say 
the "tortured artist" song writer. 
  Take Rush for example. Neil Peart being a primary song writer in that band. 
Rush is very well thought out and planned " math Rock" . Catchy for sure and 
very well produced, the songs and drum parts are well planned and executed.  
That's not to say that all the members of Rush aren't artistic or exceptionally 
creative, it's just a different starting point than say nirvana. Clearly a more 
artistic approach to start and then being crafted through arrangement and 
production into hit songs. That pragmatic thought process can make you great at 
using recording equipment and digital studio set ups 
      Do you know how to use pro tools or a similar recording format? Get 
yourself invvednin in learning how to use this gear and again make yourself more 
valuable to the overall process. 
      This brings us to actual song writing. What is actually involved in 
songwriting? There music, lyrics and melody. There's many small details to it 
but u think these are the big 3. 
     Most people starting out in songwriting will either start with music or 
lyrics. That's not always the case and of course there are no rules but for most 
people, melody is the toughest part. 
    Let me mention here that you do not need to feel like you have to be able to 
play piano or guitar with a similar ability as you play drums. It would be nice 
and very helpful in the process but only a small amount of understanding is all 
you need to get started. Through the use of digital recording technology you can 
construct a song one chord at a time if needed, purely  by ear. Or take a some 
guitar or piano lessons so you can really take it to the next level. Most likely 
as you start writing songs you will want that knowledge but you don't have to 
wait to get started writing
     There are also song writing classes and workshops offered at music schools 
and colleges . These would also be a great way to really jump in full steam to 
the song writing process

Here is a very simple exercise to get started 
   You will need a guitar or keyboard, a chord book, a drum machine and a simple 
recording device. Your smart phone most likely has an app for both recording for 
the drum machine element. Actually there is probably a keyboard app as well.  
     Start with the music. Put a drum beat together. One beat, nice and simple. 
Think ac/dc here. Put some chords together that will be your verse. Now do the 
same for a chorus. Record this verse chorus pattern several times over. Now 
let's move on to basic melody. One piece at a time here. Let's just try to come 
up with a verse melody. Don't worry about words. Just him or say any words or 
use words from another song. When I played in Material Issue, Jim would quite 
often sings the words to one of his other songs when we were writing new 
material. 
    This is a good time to talk about the song style. At this point don't try to 
write in a particular style. Punk,metal , pop etc. Just write and let it happen. 
If you are a metal fan but your song is sounding country, go with it. As you 
become more experienced you will gravitate to your style. For the purpose of 
this exercise we just want to finish a song. 
     Record your melody parts over the music. 
   Are you hearing a melody that doesn't fit with one of the chord changes? 
That's ok, let's see if you can change that one chord to make it work. 
    After you have established tour melody and chord structure you can start 
working on the lyrics . For me this is the toughest part. A big mistake new song 
writers make is to be too literal in their attempts at lyrics. Try to avoid 
this unless you are writing a country song, in which case just tell a story  
     As you put your parts together you will discover whether or not your chord 
progressions making up your verses and choruses are te right length. Adjust them 
as needed to fit tour lyrical melody. 
     Now let's do one last simple thing. See if you can augment a chorus part to 
use it as an intro to your song. After that let's make that last chorus go twice 
as long as the others
  Record it all and call it a song. It most likely won't be the Wall or 2112 but 
it's a place to start. 
     Start studying and practicing now. My personal goal is to have one song on 
the next face to face cd. We shall see.  

     Drummers who write/Danny Thompson      http://www.drummagazine.com/

Workin the bugs out( First two weeks of tour)

    The first two weeks of this tour have been a great time to work the bugs out for sure. I broke my Mapex bass drum pedal at sound check of the very show. Unbelievable. I have treated that thing with kid gloves, kept it in it's case and everything. We had no choice but to buy a new DW pedal at a local store. Problem was we were in Canada. I paid double what I would normally be able to get one for. Ouch! Day or tow later I cracked another cymbal. Luckily for me Sabian  treats their artists great and they were shipping new gear out the very next day. I was supposed to have a cymbal arrive at 1st ave in Minneapolis but the UPS tracking showed it getting there the day after we left...Oh well..I fell off the drum riser during set up one day. That was fun. The riser was way to small and it was about 6 feet up in the air. I went right off the back. Gotta nice bruise on the front of my shin.  Good times.....The crowds have been amazing and the band is playing great so I am happy about that..More to come soon....

Let the summer tours begin!!

     Wednesday, April 20th 11:06 pm....
               The dogs are sleeping after being well fed. I'm relaxing watching justified after another long day of pre tour stress out week. I can't wait to actually get our tour started so I can relax..The last minute list of stuff I have to get done before I leave doesn't seem to be getting shorter. Action items keep getting added which is not a good thing. Last night while having a late dinner I chipped my front tooth which I had repaired about 4 months ago. I really didn't need that with 3 days to go before departure. Luckily my dentist Tom Baba will be able to see me Friday night. I broke a cymbal day before yesterday. That was a total bummer. The good folks at Sabian cymbals, Chris and Shirline, were super on top of their game and have gotten me all set up fast as possible. I will have to go without this cymbal until we get to Minneapolis on May 4th but I am very thankful that they can make that happen. They are great people at a great company. My Vater sticks arrived today so that is all good to go. Thanks to Chad Brandolini at Vater. They are another great company. I also picked up a two month supply of drum heads from Aquarian today as well. Thanks to Chris Brady and Roy Burns. I was not so lucky with drum companies ..Been working on a new drum deal since NAMM in January and both companies decided not just to say no, but to wait until the last minute to say no so I didn't have any time to look elsewhere. Nice...I will be adding two drum companies to my "will not play" back line rental list. Tomorrow morning I have to take one more of my dogs in to get there shots updated so they can stay at the kkennel. This is the one bad thing about leaving for tour, well there are two bad things. I miss training Jiu Jitsu and I miss my dogs terribly. What else is on the list? Regular packing of course. That includes all my bike clothes so I can ride a bunch with Mr Trever Keith. My vitamin's and supplements and all my electronic toys and very important, all of their respective chargers. I plan on doing a big house cleaning before driving the dogs up to be dropped off on Saturday. Saturday night is hair cut time at Halleywoods in Costa Mesa. I have a ton of projects that I am working on for The Music Factory school of Music.  I was hoping to get more done before I left but you can only do so much. I have this weird travel phobia that I'm going to run out of media. It's so weird. I bring tons of magazines and kindle books etc and I get to read very little of it. I just have to have it to feel good..Weird.......
     I'm so looking forward to Starbucks tomorrow morning. It's gonna be real good...
             

The Drum Tuning Guru has posted a new pod cast...

The Drum tuning guru has posted a new podcast. You can listen to it here....
http://drumtuningguru.libsyn.com/rss

In Today's music industry climate, it's all about getting creative

It's kind of funny, well sad but funny, when bands talk about getting signed or getting a "deal" these days. I'm always thinking "really? like what kind of a deal and have you been living under a rock for the past few years". Getting the old school record deal is pretty much a pipe dream these days and that may be a good thing. If you haven't read Steve Albini's breakdown of one bands record deal circa early 1990's,  read it now.      http://www.negativland.com/albini.html  

    Now before you put all of your gear on craigslist, let me try to move you in a different direction. There are great things happening out there that can really help you to build some type of income and career in music. You just have to think about it in different terms. Remember when everyone started to use myspace as a way to promote their band? That was a huge change in the industry and a huge change in how bands got things done. Those changes are happening faster than ever before and you need to be in the loop on these changes or you will be left in the dust. Social media is rapidly changing and advancing and so are the new portals for getting your music out there and for you to get paid. It's up to you to really figure out how to use these tools for your particular situation but it all starts with getting into this loop and staying in it. How do you stay abreast of these rapid changes and get one step ahead of the curve? Here are some places to start that you may find useful.
   First is the Mashable website. Mashable is the leading site for learning about social media and how it impacts everything from music to non-profits to marketing and more. Check it every day...It is rad!!
    Check out sites like kickstarter.com. This is an amazing concept site and can really help you fund your next project. Here is an example of a kickstarter project loaded up by Trever Keith from my band, Face to Face.http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/119348482/face-to-face-12-limited-edition-vinyl-and-corey-mi

     Now I know everyone has a facebook page and a twitter account etc but do you really know how to use it properly? Read this book to learn. "Six Pixels of Separation" By Mitch Joel.

    Another great promotion site is socialkik.com. This site can really help build your facebook fan page or to promote a video on you tube. The Music Factory is using this site right now to push a video about our new down loadable lesson project.

    The bottom line is that once I started to pay attention and develop a desire to learn these things, new web sites and tools started to fall into my lap. You won't find it if you are not looking....

Step #1 in good drum tone is to actually give a crap....

This is the first blog post regarding drum tuning and drum tone. Just a few things before we dig in to the meat and potatoes. I was lucky to learn drum tuning or at least my baseline starting point from two great people. Neither of these people are drummers which we will get into later. The first person was Larry Sturm. Larry  is a great recording engineer that I worked with on several projects over a few year period. He really turned my ears around when it came to what to listen for when tuning drums. The second was Steve Albini who I had the pleasure of doing a session with and he was great and getting good drum sounds. Over a several year period I was selling Steve drum heads back when I worked at Guitar Center and was able to pick his brain about tuning. From there I just kept applying and refining what I had learned. The tough thing with drum tuning is that it can be very subjective. There are no absolutes when it comes to how drums should sound, however there are some good rules to follow that will at least get you into the game. I have been working on this for years and I still get a bit of nervousness when I'm doing sound check or am recording and it's time to hit that snare or tom for the first time. I'm always somewhat waiting to hear the engineer make a negative comment or have a not so pleasant look on his face. But, the more I do this the more I get a thumbs up from the engineer. If the front of house engineer takes the time to tell you how good your kit sounded, you know you are on the right track. They do a different set of drums every day and I'm sure they are pretty over it by now so you must be doing something right when they take time out to tell you. So let's jump in and see how long it takes me to piss off all the drummers out there..
   Here I go. It is disrespectful to the art form to show up with your drums sounding like crap. Old heads, no clue and an attitude of not caring. WTF? Guitar players will spend 3 grand on a new guitar head just to get a minuscule tone improvement so why are drummers such slackers when it comes to their sound? I understand the difficulty in drum tuning but there is no excuse for not trying to learn and get better at it. Not to mention the fact that when your drum sound rules, you sound way better. Your basic AC/DC drum beat now sounds way better than the guy going on after you who may be a much better drummer. When I play at a festival I usually feel that most of the drummers are better than me so my edge is to have a great sound.
If you feel in the dark on drum tuning don't bury your head in the sand. Many great drummers who are playing in big bands suck at tuning. Tuning is part of the drum techs job but many of us don't have a tech so we need to become an expert at it ourselves. And I might ad that many of the pro drum techs are just faking it on the tuning side of things anyways....
Start taking it seriously today and you will probably sound better just by making an effort..
The next post will start with what to listen for to get good tone and what's the difference between drum tuning and drum tone. Feel free to email me your drum tuning questions to danny@themusicfactoryoc.com

Wanna get the gig? Try being prepared ..

   I have only actually tried out for a band 3 times in my life. When I first got back into music about 8 years ago I saw a band that I thought would be cool to play with. I liked the style of music and the guys seemed cool. They did have a drummer at the time so I told them if they ever lost their drummer to give me a call. When the band called I remember taking the cd and listening to it constantly. I rented practice space at a local rehearsal studio a couple of times a week and played the 3 or 4 songs over and over. I knew it inside and out. And yes, I got the gig. Few years go by and I hear of another band, a little further up the food chain that is in need of a drummer. I really like the music, it was much more like the bands I was listening to at the time and they even had some real solid success in their previous band. Radio air play, tours etc..All that good stuff. The new record even had some other big name people working on it. The only problem was I had never played this style before and it wasn't that easy to jump in to. Again, I listened to the songs non stop. I had my own recording studio by now so I could play along to the cd when ever I wanted so that helped a ton. I would say I practiced 5 times a week for a few hours to try and get it together. I remember calling the guitar player and asking for a bit more time. When I went to play with them I had cheat sheets made of the song arrangements. ( A practice I still apply) I got that gig as well. For my last audition I did all those things at an even harder pace. 8 to 10 hours a day of just me and the kit, a pair of headphones and the songs. You already know how that one turned out. I tell you this not impress you but to impress upon you a few things I have learned from some far more talented and successful people than me.
    Now let me give you my experience on the other side of the coin. This is when I have had bass players auditioning for some of these earlier bands I played in. We would make sure the guy had the cd of course. The bass player would roll into our practice space and 9 times out of 10 say " I didn't really learn the exact songs, just show me the chords and I'll pick it up".
What the @&$% are these people thinking? Really?? You want to waste my time ? I'm gonna sit here on my drum throne while the guitar player shows you the chords? Get out...Get out now!!!
     So the gist of this is be prepared. If you do your home work you may already be way ahead of half the other guys who are trying out. Be professional and take some pride in your art. I have been lucky to know and be good friends with some very successful musicians. You wanna know what one character trait they all posses? Not being a frigging slacker!!!!

You should never stop studying, learning and growing....

I was fortunate enough to have Mike Johnston do a clinic at my music school, The Music Factory, last night  and I can truly say I was inspired to go home and play drums for several hours. It reinforced my belief that no matter how long you play music you should always be trying to learn from others. This is something I think the masters have figured out so why shouldn't the rest of us mere mortals apply this philosophy as well. When you get to a certain level of musicianship it's not about this person being better than you or vice verse, it's about realizing that you can learn from so many other musicians just as they can learn from you. I have been fortunate enough to have had a tiny bit of success in the music business and I can tell you right now that I will be watching Mike's live drum lessons to pick up chops, learn new ways to study and practice my craft, as well as be part of great community of people. I highly recommend that you do the same.

What should I look for in a Music Teacher?

This is a pretty common question so I will start this new blog with this subject. I think there are some universal things you should be looking for when selecting a music teacher. First would be there competence in their given instrument. I think a lot of parents and even some adults probably feel like if the student is a beginner that the skill level of the teacher doesn't matter too much. We are talking about the skill that teacher possesses at their given instrument, not their ability to teach. We will get to that in a bit. I personally think this is a huge mistake that lots of people make. Let's apply this to sports. If you were going to learn how to play baseball or enroll your child in a baseball camp, which would you choose; a camp that had teachers who played in the major leagues, or a camp that has teachers that never even played in high school? Well of course you would choose the camp where the teachers had major league experience. Now this doesn't always mean that just because someone has excelled at their craft that they can teach others to do the same. However, the chances that they have some inside knowledge of what works best and how to apply it is high. In music this doesn't mean that the teacher has to have sold a million records, although that may help, but they need a high level of proficiency to be a good teacher. I get tons of teachers applying at my school, the Music Factory, who need to be taking lessons from us, not trying to teach others. Look for their education experience as well as their professional experience in their field. Ask for specifics with this. Lots of teachers will say they have tons of professional experience but when pressed don't really have much of a resume. If they are coming with a degree from a good music school your are probably safe even if they haven't excelled in the professional arena yet. It's a long haul for musicians and it may not be their time yet. Do some research when selecting a teacher, don't chose the most convenient or the first one that comes along. Most rates for private music lessons are in the same price range so there is no reason to settle for a poor teacher. The best teachers might only be a bit more expensive and it will be worth every penny.
    Once you have found a teacher who seems to posses a high level of competency in their instrument and has a proper education to back it up we want to look for some things that are easy to spot. First, is the teacher organized? Do they use a curriculum and a system of follow up with students and parents? This shows that the teacher has the ability to transfer their knowledge to someone else. We don't want a voice teacher who just shows the student how well they can sing but doesn't explain the technique in a way that is easy to understand and apply. Ask for examples of these things. Maybe take a trial lesson which most teachers and schools will do for free to see if the teacher has a good system in place. The experienced private music teachers have developed their methods over years of teaching.
     Lastly is the teachers personality. None of this other stuff really matters if the teacher is such a stick in the mud that you can't stand to be around them, This is also something to be looking for when you take a trial lesson.
    So a review.
1) competency
2) teaching method
3) personality


Danny Thompson is the drummer for the band Face to Face and is co-owner of the Music Factory School of Music in Costa Mesa California.
www.themusicfactoryoc.com