A value is something that is important to someone. It might be a cold beer on a hot day, the trust of a friend, or a state of mind: anger, peace, freedom. It might be crack-cocaine or a new bass guitar. A value can be defined as “that which one acts to gain or keep” and therefore it is the object of an action. ‘Something’ is of value to ’someone’ and that ’someone’ has to act in a certain way in order to acquire, achieve, or maintain that ’something’.

In order to create a particular type of work a composer must make those choices during the selection process that best allow him to realize that type of creation. If goals and values are related then goals should properly be based on values. The process of musical selection, of choosing which elements are important enough to include in the music, and which are not, is based on those values a musician holds in both music and daily life. What type of mood does he wish to manifest? What types of notes and sounds will he need to use in order to support this mood? What kind of groove is required for this expression? Will the nature of the expression be dramatic, or subtle? By answering these types of questions insight is gained into a musician’s values.

In some music, particularly pop music, there are different layers to these expressions. Pop music is an art form where collaboration is the norm rather than the exception. In other words, there is often more than one person involved in the music creation process. A composer might write only music while a lyricist writes words. A group of musicians may then perform selected songs with the guidance of a producer who provides direction based on an overall concept derived from the individual songs, the performances, and the expectations of the marketplace. At each stage specialists in their field are making value judgments. This brings us to the concepts of synergy and compromise.

The concepts of synergy and compromise are opposites when considering collaborations. If collaborators on a project have similar music values and each participating party has similar end goals then the resulting work is often a product of synergy. In such cases the parties choose to create a relationship whereby decisions are made according to an end concept mutually agreed upon by the collaborators. The resulting work created by this type of synergy may be more fully realized than it would be otherwise. Contrarily, if music values are not similar between collaborators and an end concept is not agreed upon at some point during the creative process the resulting work often deteriorates into a product of compromise and inferiority.

Understanding how the process of music creation and values are related can give those musicians who dare to be different the confidence to stand alone in the face of great opposition. By being aware of values and how they are being expressed in music an artist can be psychologically armed to protect himself from those who do not share his ideals and in fact, may resent them. He will be able to see how other’s criticisms arise directly from a comparison to a set of values which may have been compromised, or sold out, in favor of other values. It takes epic effort to create something truly unique and original. At every turn there are those who argue that it is impossible to create something new and that it is a waste of time to even try. They ask questions like, “How dare you try to be original?” and “What makes you so special?” Because of this, extreme confidence is a key ingredient for those musicians who crave to be original. This special breed of musician must have a deep-rooted belief that his work is strong and valid even in the absence of something obvious to compare it to. Non-conformity is not recommended for most but for some, it is the highest power. There is no right or wrong way to create music; the art simply reveals the artist.
 

J.S. Bach – Invention #8 (gtr 1).pdf

J.S. Bach – Invention #8 (gtr 2).pdf

TAB is generally written using 6 horizontal lines with each line representing a string, like this…

In order to better understand tab here is a picture of a guitar neck from the point of view of looking at it as it leans against a wall.  Here we have the big string on the left (6th string)  and the small string on the right (first string).

 If we take this neck and rotate it 90 degrees to the left we would get this…

Now if we place the TAB lines below this graphic we can see where tab comes from.

The bottom string is the ’sixth’  string and the top string is the ‘first’ string.  This might seem a little counter-intuitive at first since when you actually play a guitar the sixth string is generally on top.

Do you see the numbers on the TAB lines?   They indicate the frets that are to be played on the string holding the number.  In the above example, "6th string-7th fret",  "6th string-7th fret" again,  "5th string-6th fret",  "5th string-7th fret",  "5th string-9th fret".  These notes are to be played in order from left to right.

Sometimes you can have 2 or more notes played at the same time, like this…

Open strings ( no fretted notes) are symbolized like this…

The C Major scale contains the notes of all the white keys on a piano.  The black keys on a piano are the ’sharps’ and ‘flats’ while the white keys just have letter names.  The notes in a C Major scale are as follows.

Since we plan to use the C Major scale as a model for all major scales we will now analyze it in order to determine what makes it special.  A few weeks ago ago we learned the music alphabet which contained the following notes.

A (A#,Bb) B C (C#,Db) D (D#,Eb) E F (F#,Gb) G (G#,Ab) A

We also learned that the distance from one of the notes in the music alphabet to the next one is called a half step.

A – Bb = 1/2 step

E – F = 1/2 step

It should also be known that 2 half-steps equals a whole-step

E – F# = 2 x 1/2 step = 1 whole step

Knowing the above  information we can now analyze the C Major Scale and determine its structure.

 1 – 1 – 1/2 – 1 – 1 – 1 – 1/2  ……THAT is the definition of a major scale.  You can start on any one of the 12 notes and if you make sure to follow the above sequence, you will have a major scale named after the first note.

The song My Friend Jerome started with the idea of writing a song about a clone who kills himself because everyone is picking on him for being a clone. I have a theory that power, the ability to affect our environment, is how we prove to ourselves that we are alive. We can create a piece of software, we can win the big game, or we can kill someone. The same goes for other animals too, including bugs and Martians.

 I almost always write the lyrics first which is different from most songwriters I know. I believe in the idea that a decent song should be able to be played with an acoustic guitar and vocal and still sound good. In the case of My Friend Jerome I sat with an acoustic guitar and played around with chords and melodies and tried to fit the words in. In order to do this the words got changed quite a bit. Originally I had a whole different chorus but I found it only served to complicate the song.

 After I had a song structure and outline together I set up a PZM room mic and recorded myself singing and playing the song into Pro Tools. The next step was to record a "fancy" click track so I could hire one of my drummer friends to come in and lay down some drums. Choosing the proper tempo before you get started is very important. Actually, in a way there is nothing more important!

After the tempo was decided on I laid down the basic chords on electric guitar and a scratch vocal and mixed those in with a click, everything panned to center. When performing live, sequences are generally panned to one ear and the click to the other so that the music channel can be routed to the front end without the click and the click can be routed to the drummer so he can sync the band to the sequence. The click in a studio situation where there is no band performing live is different. I put the music and the click together and panned everything to center. Sometimes I record bass in the fancy click but most times I don’t. I would rather play bass to the drummer than have the drummer play drums to the bass. I have no problem with the drummer playing to the vocal. I like to do 4 hour drum sessions and try to accomplish 3 songs and get 3 or 4 takes of each song. On this day we recorded drums for the songs Freak Magnet and Amazing as well as for My Friend Jerome.

In the case of My Friend Jerome I emailed a drummer friend of mine, Sean Reynolds, the click tracks a couple days ahead of the session date and he came in and played each song 3 or 4 times. We did one or two takes of basic grooves and one or two takes with many fills and spontaneity. I could always edit takes together later. For the session I brought my Pro Tools rig to an old church that my friend David Jones turned into a recording studio and we recorded drums in the big room, a beautiful sounding chapel in West Vancouver that has since been demolished. Unfortunately when I got the tracks home the ride cymbal track wasn’t there. It turns out we had a bum mic and didn’t notice it at the time so I flew in some ride samples from a Mick Fleetwood drum loops collection. When mixing drums I always use Drumagog, or as some call it Drumagod!

There are probably 16 tracks of guitars in My Friend Jerome. I generally mix amp sounds with plug-in sounds. I’ll run the guitar through a DI and then run one line to the amp and the other direct to Pro Tools. This way I can use my natural sound I use when performing live plus a DI line for…whatever. My favorite guitar plug-in is IK Multimedia’s Amplitube which to me is the most natural sounding of the many plugs on the market. For more effected or strange sounds though I prefer Native Instrument’s Guitar Rig. I also really like McDSP Chrome Amp. These are all very high quality guitar plug-ins.

I don’t worry too much about coming up with perfect sounds at the tracking stage although I probably should. It’s just more fun for me to play around with stuff in the box. I also don’t worry too much about performing things perfectly. I’d rather do 3 or 4 takes back to back and then edit stuff around and try different things. Although I accept the fact that audio is very hard work I try to change the process whenever it becomes boring to me.

My vocal chain is a Bluebird microphone through a Focusrite Vocalmaster Pro preamp into Pro Tools. I’ll sing the song 4 times from beginning to end into Pro Tools all on the same track but on different playlists. Playlists are something fairly unique to Pro Tools and is probably the number one reason I have chosen PT to be my main platform. Then I’ll edit together one good vocal track compiled from those takes. If I don’t get a good enough vocal from that I’ll do the same thing again but to a different track. That usually gives me enough material for a lead vocal and a double. If I use a double I almost always run it through a distortion pedal or something and set it back in the mix with a bit of the long reverb. All my sessions usually run 2 reverbs, a short verb about 500ms and a long verb about 1.5 seconds. Ideally I’d like to use 3 reverbs but it just bogs down the CPU too much. In reality though 2 is fine because ambient information tends to be one of the first things that gets sacrificed when you hit the filterbank of the MP3 encoder. I prefer the Fraunhaufer MP3 encoder. I use Adobe Audition to encode but there is a whole trick to making a good quality MP3. If you have loud mastered material it is not advisable to do a straight conversion. Inter-sample peaks and other weird distortions will occur.

If there is a guitar solo I always record it last. My Friend Jerome doesn’t really have a solo but there is a lead in behind a section of the bridge. I do solos similar to the way I do vocals only instead of doing 4 takes I’ll do 10 – 20 improvised takes and edit them together until it feels right. A lot of what I do is just playing around with editing and plug-ins. It’s like problem solving for your psyche. If something doesn’t feel right then do something until it does. In the old days I would compose solos but now I enjoy the discovery of editing improvised takes together.

At some point the song starts sounding like a song and then it’s a matter of listening. I admit I way over-indulge in listening. That’s the most pleasure I have as a human. I’ll listen 100 times in a row without touching a knob just thinking about the possibilities of the song and the production. Unfortunately, I have a bad habit of listening at very loud volumes. It’s just my way of becoming emotionally involved with the music. It will almost surely mean an early retirement though. At some point in the mix I’ll get my friend Robert Graves in to tweak things for a couple hours. As far as I’m concerned Rob is the best live sound mixer in Vancouver and his perspective on a mix is invaluable to me. Beyond that I tend to be an obsessive tweak monkey, especially when it comes to vocals.

I generally don’t do my own mastering because I don’t have an ideal listening environment or any fancy compressors like the Manley Vari-mu or a Crane Song. These units are still far superior to any of the software compressor/limiters in the plug-in world. This is mostly due to CPU restrictions. I usually get 2 or 3 versions of a master and often edit them together. I find that mastering compression acts on different parts of a song in different ways. The guy I use for mastering is Jeff Gudenrath at www.audiointegrity.com in Austin,Texas. I like him because he is a musician and he respects the mix. He doesn’t try to force a square peg into a round hole. When I was looking for a mastering engineer I sent out samples to about 30 guys and had them master the samples so I could choose who to go with. Honestly, he was the only guy that actually sent stuff back to me that sounded better than the original without changing the nature of the mix. Beware of bad mastering especially in these days of the loudness war. It’s not how loud you make it but how you make it loud. Anyway, that’s how I generally record a song but that’s just me. In the end it is most important to develop a process that you enjoy participating in.