Constructive Criticism of My Blues Band Needed

[Pat C.]

These clips are from our first show all together. If you can, listen with good speakers or through quality headphones to hear the bass. I'm open to any constructive criticism on my playing, stage presence, etc. I'm especially interested to hear critiques of the guitars and vocals. I've linked to a few different styles (slow and moderate blues, straight-ahead rock, shuffle) and there are other tunes up on Youtube if you want to take a listen. Thanks.

Texas Flood

Everyday I Have the Blues

Going Down

Long Gone

[Deathblade Eric]

Not bad at all. Verging on Damn Good tbh. But...

It's pretty obvious who your lead player's favourite guitarist is, & for me, SRV's best left alone (I have the same view of Hendrix-ists). It's been done. He's a good player though, just needs to spend a bit more time getting his own voice IMO.

Speaking of voices... Not sure about your vocalist (I'm hesitant to call him a singer). On the plus side, he's a pretty good frontman & he and your rhythm guit create enough physical movement without being crazy. On the minus side... his pitching's a bit off & I can't say I care for his phrasing - his style veers perilously close to "The Pub Singer" at times. Perhaps some voice coaching?

Overall the visual balance is skewed stage right. If the guitarists could swap positions, the focus would be centre-stage.

As to yourself... No probs I can detect musically, nice variation in your walking on "Every Day" & "Texas Flood" wasn't slow-blues-by-numbers (Every Day could perhaps be a bit faster & more swingy). About all I can suggest is to turn up a bit & get out of the corner - move forward, you look a bit lost in the back there

Pete.

[fingertap]

When the man in the hat developed some sort of difficulty with his hat (in Texas Flood,) then finally turned his back on where the crowd [me in the crowd] would have been, that alone would have lost about half my interest.

I listened to other clips and noticed what I felt to have been a general absence of connection with the audience. Was there an audience? I couldn't tell. I expect things such as eye contact and projection or focus that is toward the crowd [me in the crowd]. I know blues is often a kind of interior-focused thing and it is not my musical flavor of choice. That being said, my observation may be of limited value to you.

The mix seemed heavy on the man in the hat. Vocals sounded too dry for my taste. I felt he could have used some good old reverb to fatten him up a bit vocally.

Your bass was present but pretty far in the background for my taste. Too bad the camera cut you out so frequently. You appeared visually to be more in the background as well. Maybe move out front.

First show all together, you said. You should only get better as time goes on.

~

[5StringBlues]

Originally Posted by Deathblade Eric

Not bad at all. Verging on Damn Good tbh. But...

It's pretty obvious who your lead player's favourite guitarist is, & for me, SRV's best left alone (I have the same view of Hendrix-ists). It's been done. He's a good player though, just needs to spend a bit more time getting his own voice IMO.

Speaking of voices... Not sure about your vocalist (I'm hesitant to call him a singer). On the plus side, he's a pretty good frontman & he and your rhythm guit create enough physical movement without being crazy. On the minus side... his pitching's a bit off & I can't say I care for his phrasing - his style veers perilously close to "The Pub Singer" at times. Perhaps some voice coaching?

Overall the visual balance is skewed stage right. If the guitarists could swap positions, the focus would be centre-stage.

As to yourself... No probs I can detect musically, nice variation in your walking on "Every Day" & "Texas Flood" wasn't slow-blues-by-numbers (Every Day could perhaps be a bit faster & more swingy). About all I can suggest is to turn up a bit & get out of the corner - move forward, you look a bit lost in the back there

^ I'm in total agreement on the SRV style guitarist and the vocalist. +1 To the above post in general.


A little bit of work with both would be a major shot in the arm for your bands overall sound.

[mulchor]

Sounds plenty good to me, I'd think give the vocalist a bit more reverb, the rhythm section's nice and tight. Bass lines in particular are textbook, right on, imo.

Stage-wise, maybe need a rehearsal with a big mirror or video camera.

Drummer and bassist don't look like they're having fun. On Born Under a Bad Sign, vocalist introduces bass player and there's no visual reaction, bass solo the same thing. Kinda gives a feeling of I wish I were somewhere else. There's a call-response guitar war, no sign the drummer or bass noticed it...

Mostly I think visually what I'm seeing is the strat player and vocalist are clowning it up, while the drum and bass don't appear to ever look at them or the audience. The vocalist's style is that over-sold blues-brother-esque schtick (which honestly I think best matches his voice), and the whole band has to sell it for it to work. If everyone were completely stoic, that'd be okay, or if everyone's grooving that'd be better.

It's summer festival/fair season, so I've been seeing a bunch of acts each weekend. The band in these videos sounds good, but the performance seems like the ones that I hear, enjoy, but don't get inspired to look for again.

In contrast, last summer I heard an AC/DC tribute band "Livewire" (not usually my kind of thing) and when I saw they're playin last weekend I went out of my way to see them again (and was completely disappointed, but that's a diff story). The reason I wanted to see them again was they weren't just music to drink beer to, but an actual performance, set-list that worked, start-middle-end, and a band that played together. Something beyond musical competence.

[Pat C.]

Thanks for the great feedback guys, exactly what I was looking for.

Couple of clarifications:

• The audio is a feed from the board. Decent quality, but not ideal because it's mixed for the sound system at the venue, not for video replay. The vocals are definitely too hot, and the rest of the mix is balanced according to the needs of the venue.
• The venue itself is an amphitheater on the side of a mountain. The sound system is a nice, compact Peavey line array - there was plenty of volume out front. We were the opening act on this evening so we played as people were entering the venue. There were probably 500 or so people when we started, and over 1000 when our set was finished. The audience was fairly loud and appreciative, but they can barely be heard at all on the video since it's a feed from the board.
• The video camera must've gotten move slightly because it was set at dead center (drum riser) before we started, but I get chopped out half the time. It wasn't skewed like that to begin with. The stage is HUGE, it actually extends another 15 or 20 feet outside of each side of the frame. We actually spread out a little too much, which hurt us a little since we're used to playing in a cramped basement. Also, the SL guitarist was supposed to be positioned outside of me (further stage left) which would've given us a "flanking guitars" look and allowed me to move downstage more often. It just didn't work out that way. Lessons learned.
• The two guitarists actually share rhythm and lead duties, although the set we performed probably had a 60/40 split between stage left and right guitarists. The other fellow played lead on Going Down, and also Red House and Got to be Funky (and share leads on a couple of others, I believe).
• Someone mentioned the vocalist turning his back during Texas Flood. He actually goes to get his camera to take a couple of pictures from the stage (see from about :30). Audience perception of that type thing is something we need to consider.

I've got my own opinions and critique, but I'm going to leave them unsaid for now so that I can get additional unbiased opinions from others. We're having a band meeting tomorrow to discuss our recent shows and these videos and we're planning on offering each other constructive criticism on our performances. The input so far has been super helpful so keep it coming. Thanks guys.

[Pat C.]

Thanks again for all the input.

I agree with pretty much all of the observations you guys shared. Some of the things were addressed at our recent band meeting, others will have to be worked on and addressed over time.

Some of my specific thoughts:

• Our vocalist is good at a specific style of blues, but not that strong in all styles. His pitch accuracy is questionable at times and his phrasing is not always that great. I will be working on a way to (tactfully) recommend he get some vocal coaching. In the meantime we are going to tailor our repertoire a bit to suit his vocal style and range.
• I rather enjoy the playing of our "SRV" guitarist. I know that many people have issues with copying of certain styles (SRV, Hendrix, etc.) and I totally understand and respect that perspective. Heck, we can definitely say the same thing about a ton of bassists copying Jaco (which is totally overdone as well). I will say that his playing of that Texas-blues style really is better than any guitarist I've ever played with and I've experienced some pretty magical musical moments with him in the band on a few of our gigs. And the audiences are generally blown away by his playing, so even though a few people may be turned off by his playing style, that's way offset by the people he will draw in. Besides, he makes his living off of Texas blues guitar lessons so it's doubtful that he'll be changing his style anytime soon.
• Our second guitarist (the strat player) also plays slide, but we haven't yet fully incorporated that in to our repertoire yet. We're working on some new tunes (Allman Brothers, etc.) that will showcase that guitarist a bit more.
• The drummer and I look like lumps on a log. After the show ended we both commented on how if felt like it took us 3/4 of the set to get warmed up. Since it was only an hour show we never really got grooving. We (particularly me) will be working on improving our stage presence. I probably won't ever get fully into the schtick that the guitarist and vocalist were doing (which was totally organic and not pre-planned), it's just not my personality. But more interaction with the band, eye contact with band and audience (sans sunglasses most of the time) and more movement in general on my part will improve things greatly.
• My solo in Born Under a Band Sign needed to be taken backstage and shot. The drummer decided to start with some abstract groove which threw me off. Then my bass was distorting in the drum monitors on stage when I started digging in hard (you couldn't hear it in FOH, or in on the video, thankfully), which was distracting as well. I'm going to move this solo from the intro of the song, or out of the song completely. It just isn't working as is.
• We're looking to work with a specific sound company on most of our gigs so we will able to iron out any sound issues, including balancing the vocals with the rest of the band, more (appropriate) effects use, harder hitting bass/drums, etc.

Thanks again for all the input, when we make some improvements if/when I get some new recordings I'll post them up here.

[jazzblade]

Pat, For the first time out you guys did well. You already are your worst critic so not much needs to be said. Like you already said, It would have been great for you to me a little looser, smile at the drummer and your band mates, look around, step up front every once in a while and see what your two guitards are doing when playing off each other.You and the drummer need to project to the crowd, its not a studio gig.

Man your gigging in front of people. They won't notice all the small stuff that's wrong, but it IS your job to make them smile and enjoy the show.

Good luck

[superbassman2000]

Originally Posted by Pat C.

[*]I rather enjoy the playing of our "SRV" guitarist. I know that many people have issues with copying of certain styles (SRV, Hendrix, etc.) and I totally understand and respect that perspective. Heck, we can definitely say the same thing about a ton of bassists copying Jaco (which is totally overdone as well). I will say that his playing of that Texas-blues style really is better than any guitarist I've ever played with and I've experienced some pretty magical musical moments with him in the band on a few of our gigs. And the audiences are generally blown away by his playing, so even though a few people may be turned off by his playing style, that's way offset by the people he will draw in. Besides, he makes his living off of Texas blues guitar lessons so it's doubtful that he'll be changing his style anytime soon.

I think he's pretty good, and I don't mind the SRV playing either, however, I would suggest maybe he switch it up a little bit sometimes...Born under a bad sign was my favorite cut of all the onces you guys put up, but he still sounded like SRV again. But that was just as a criticizing musician's standpoint--I think that if i were just dancing in the crowd, it wouldn't be a big deal. Also, like you said, he makes his living doing that, so why stop a good thing? On the other hand, I like variety when I go see bands, and if the songs all sound like they melt into each other after a while tonally, I get bored...but again, that's if i am in criticizing musician mode. If I am on the dance floor after a couple of beers, it's probably not going to make a lick of difference to me.

[*]Our second guitarist (the strat player) also plays slide, but we haven't yet fully incorporated that in to our repertoire yet. We're working on some new tunes (Allman Brothers, etc.) that will showcase that guitarist a bit more.

This would be cool--like i said with the switching up tonally, the second guitar player provides a nice contrast, and a slide would be even nicer

[*]The drummer and I look like lumps on a log... We (particularly me) will be working on improving our stage presence....

This is a good idea--we all need to do this! enjoy what you are doing! This is the most fun thing we get to do (play live) and we should show it You don't have to be doing backflips off your amps, but move to the beat, move around--if the audience sees you having fun, they will have fun--it's all a synergy

[*]My solo in Born Under a Band Sign needed to be taken backstage and shot. The drummer decided to start with some abstract groove which threw me off. Then my bass was distorting in the drum monitors on stage when I started digging in hard (you couldn't hear it in FOH, or in on the video, thankfully), which was distracting as well. I'm going to move this solo from the intro of the song, or out of the song completely. It just isn't working as is.

I disagree--the solo was rocky, but that's not because you were off...it was just rocky because it didn't go anywhere. It's a really cool way to start off the song, especially BUABS but I think the audience would dig it more if you threw in some ornaments around it--you can even keep that groove, just throw in some things that give the solo some POP


Beyond these criticisms, I thought it all sounded really good. If i was in the audience, I would been at a great show! Keep up the good work!

[Muaguana]

How's this for stage presence? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8y0J...eature=related

Around 1:30.

[jlasse]

Originally Posted by jazzblade

Pat, For the first time out you guys did well. You already are your worst critic so not much needs to be said.

I totally agree with this. I think your work is good, but if you identify the problem early then your music will only get better. Constructive criticism from yourself and from others is one of the best ways to learn if your music is going to make it. If you want to find another way to see how others will react, you could try selling your songs. A site I use to test my songs is, Sell Your Songs online. It might be a different way to see how others feel about your work.