I recently had an on radio interview where the host asked what kind of gear I use when I play live. Just so we’re clear, I usually play solo and play an acoustic guitar. What I said in the interview was basically too much gear playing solo acoustically complicates how you play and can put a barrier between you and the audience. But let me first differentiate a few things.
First there is a difference between playing live and playing in the studio. To me, when you record, since it’s going to be a permanent sound recording that won’t change over time, you should use whatever gear necessary to get the sound you want for the listener. Playing live to me is different. If you’re solo like me, but recorded an album as if you have a full band–the best thing to do to get the live sound sounding like the recording is to get a band. But playing live in front of an actual audience requires engagement, even while playing.
Too often though I have seen solo artists trying to recreate a band on the stage with loop pedals, distortion pedals, sustainers, and so forth. While it ends up sounding pretty cool (if done well), most of the time the artist has their head down trying to tap the right pedal at the right time, or they’re banging on their guitar to get a beat going, and it comes off as their more into their gear and guitar playing than the audience.
For the non-musician in the audience, this can be overwhelming. It also does not acknowledge the audience during the song. The audience isn’t getting a chance to be a part of the song when the solo artist is always changing the sound of the guitar, adding guitar layers, and adding drums via guitar.
The reason I keep my solo performances simple (and yes, I have a few pedals, but don’t constantly use them) is I want to display the song in the way I originally wrote it. Playing it without all the effects the recording has makes it more honest to me. And I think that’s the beauty of an acoustic guitar anyway–it’s a natural instrument that should rarely be manipulated by guitar effects.
I don’t mean to put down solo acoustic artists that use all the effect pedals, but this is just my opinion on playing live. Keep rockin’ however it is you do it.
9. February 2011 at 9:28 am
I agree with your perspective on solo performances. Put me in a room with a house PA, rather than my trusty Fender Passport and tuning pedal, and I’m lost. Different main and monitor mixes? More than 4 inputs? Who needs it
Though I do appreciate that when I play with another guitarist who is a gearhead, he can get some really interesting sounds from his pedal (smorgas)board.
9. February 2011 at 3:00 pm
Pretty well put. If I had my druthers, playing live would have the same immediacy as when I’m playing to my friends in the living room or on the porch. Adding the PA system adds one level of isolation… suddenly you have to worry about feedback, or being loud enough, and trying to hear yourself over the mains or over the monitors, and wondering whether you’re hearing what the audience is hearing.
Add a balky pedal, or switching between several instruments, and that’s a lot of distractions. It just takes a ton of practice (both at home, but also in front of people) in performance situations to get comfortable enough to present an enjoyable, engaging performance.
Thanks for sharing, Brian!
9. February 2011 at 3:43 pm
i have played both ways (with loop pedals and without) there are really two parts: 1) what mood the musician is in and 2) what mood (and place) the audience is in. sometimes its hard to always perform solo with guitar because it can get monotonous if you play the same songs over and over again–its hard to engage the audience with the same songs with equal energy. (why most bands change up their one-hit after awhile.) so thats why i started using mostly a loop pedal on my guitar and drums via the guitar; the same song can be done many different ways and pique the interest of an audience that perhaps in a bar would not be listening otherwise. at the same time i got tired of looping and went back to the traditional way of playing solo guitar and could feel like it was the first time i was playing those songs again. with the audience, many people have been mystified and loved the looping and wouldnt have paid me any attention otherwise, some people dont notice, others like just the traditional way. so its hard to tell what the audience will actually like.for the musician, its good to switch things up to keep your playing fresh. i like and appreciate the article in any case. its never talked about that much
9. February 2011 at 11:03 pm
I was wondering about your approach when playing live performances. I see virtue in this approach since you are more directly focused on the audience.
9. February 2011 at 11:28 pm
@Tres I hear ya. I agree that the same song can be done differently. I’ve used the loop pedal as well for drumming. What I found to work best for me is to have pre-recorded beats for songs that I choose to throw in if I want. Every audience is different, I think adding a beat does help at times. I guess my point was if you’re going crazy on the pedals for every song, people are going to see more of the top of your head than your face, hehe.
@Marcos yes, true singer with guitar is unplugged but most venues are too large or too loud to do that. I don’t want to say outright that pedals add isolation (or any equipment for that matter), I think there’s a point where you overuse them and can burden the audience with setting up a beat, solo, rhythm guitar, and other layers.
I should clarify for the record I’m not against using pedals, if you can work them in subtly and not have so much going on that the song is lost, I think that’s cool.
Brian
17. February 2011 at 7:10 pm
I was recently talking to non-musicians about whether they’d prefer to see a solo singer-songwriter type use pre-recorded loops or whether they’d like to see the performer build the beats themselves and they were 100% for seeing the musician build the song.
Maybe it’s just distracting for musicians. I often find people really curious about things that happen on stage and in the recording studio that I don’t care at all about.
Can anyone suggest a a simple drum machine or something else to use on stage to make simple beats?
Emmett
17. February 2011 at 7:11 pm
Oh, and hey Marcos. Sorry I missed you last week.
21. February 2011 at 1:45 pm
I’m sure there are plenty of options for drum machines. I use an Alesis drum machine (http://www.alesis.com/en/index.php) for recording drums on my home recordings, but don’t use it for live recordings. However, I am able to hook it up to a 1/4 inch and plug it into speakers, so technically I could pre-record a beat for an entire song and play along with it. I just choose not to.
Or if you have a loop pedal, do some research to see if you can transfer pre-recorded beats onto it. Most have a USB connect, so you’d have to find out what file type can be transferred onto it.
Good luck and thanks for the comment!
Brian Franke