Michael Jackson "Human Nature" Song Analysis

Reader Greg Fine asked for a song analysis of Michael Jackson's hit "Human Nature," the fifth single from his seminal Thriller album. Some feel that this song set the template for what's become known as "adult R&B." Like all song analysis, we'll look at the song form, the arrangement, the sound and the production.

The Song
Like most hit songs, "Human Nature" follows a stock formula but changes it up enough to make it sound different. The form looks like this:

Intro, Verse, Chorus, Verse, Chorus, Interlude, Verse, Chorus, Chorus, Outro

There's no real bridge to the song, but the end of the second chorus and the interlude are both different enough to make you think there is. The outro of the song is basically the intro with a slightly changed ending that's faded.

The Arrangement
All of Michael's Thriller-era songs seem pretty sparse and simple, but they all have a lot going on that isn't exactly noticeable. There's a synth pad throughout that can almost be missed because it's so subtle, but most of the song is carried by some clean guitars and a very full synth bass.

  * The Foundation: Drums, synth bass

  * The Pad: Low synth pad and synth strings in the verse

  * The Rhythm: Clean picked guitar and clave

  * The Lead: Michael's vocal

  * The Fills: In the chorus, the delayed vocal answers, in the interlude and intro/outro, the synth counter lines.

In numerous other analysis I've pointed out the "5 element rule," where you never wanted to have more than 5 elements playing at the same time because it gets confusing to the listener. Listen to the intro and interludes, which are very complex arrangement-wise, yet are perfect examples of having only  5 elements playing at once.

The Sound
Engineer Bruce Swedien is certainly the Godfather of audio engineering, but Thriller might've been his finest moment and "Human Nature" is a perfect example of that. There's a lot of effects layering going on (it sounds like every instrument has it's own effect), but nothing ever clashes and each instrument can be heard distinctly even with some of the big reverb washes used. I especially liked the ping pong delayed answer vocals in the chorus.

The Production
This was perhaps producer Quincy Jone's finest hour as well. You never expect anything but the best from one of his productions and this one doesn't disappoint. Q is the master is repeating a part yet making it different, like in the 2nd part of the verses where the strings come in. The first time it's a pedaled string sound, the second time the sound changes and the part is a bit more complex. The same with the choruses. Each time they're slightly different, with either a different vocal effect, another vocal part, or a slight change in the sound of an instrument. This song was state of the art in 1983, and it still is today.

Send me your song analysis suggestions.

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The Key Ingredients That Make A Great Guitar String

Most guitar players settle on a brand of strings without even realizing why, usually only changing when they can't get their favorite brand. In this excerpt from The Ultimate Guitar Tone Handbook, Jim D'Addario, the CEO and chairman of D’Addario & Company, Inc. (the world’s largest maker of musical instrument strings), describes what makes a great string as well as some of the differences between the way manufacturers make their strings to help you make a choice next time it's time to buy strings.
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"What do you think makes a great guitar string?
Certainly, that’s a matter of opinion. It comes down to what tone you are looking for, however there are some common denominators that are key ingredients for making a great string. The most important things are consistency in diameter, shape, and the mass of the string from one end of the vibrating length to the other. If there are fluctuations as you’re winding or making the string, and the mass of the string varies at any point along its length, the intonation is going to be horrible and the harmonics will not be true.

As we developed the expertise to design and build our own machinery in the 70’s, we developed ways of controlling the variables that are involved with the manufacturing process. One of the most important variables is the tension that you put on the wire as you wrap it around the core. I would say it’s one of the most critical variables in string making. Because we use soft temper wires you can actually elongate the wire significantly during the process and end up with a completely different diameter finished string. Tension is a critical aspect of making a string!

What are some of the innovations you came up with in string manufacturing?
Twenty years ago we developed a closed loop system where we actually measure the tension on the wire just before it goes on the string. Utilizing a load cell and a digital control that adjusts the tension, we always maintain perfect tension specifications. You can’t do that when you wind a string by hand, and you can’t do that with a mechanical tension device. It has to be closed loop and digital. It’s really very similar to an autopilot in a plane. Our machines are constantly making minute corrections to hit the tension target.

The other breakthrough innovation we developed was a way of tracking the angle that the wire was being fed onto the core, which is also extremely critical. Many competitors are still using machinery with mechanical drives that feed the wire, but back in 1979 we developed a system that tracks the wire feed angle and makes adjustments on the fly to ensure the windings are perfectly spaced. It is one of the reasons why our strings are so consistent. We designed this in 1979. You can imagine how expensive the electronics for that was back then. 

If you control the basics, core tension, wrap tension and feed angle, then it’s a question of designing the string properly. Here’s where we create your choices for string tone. A flat wound string is very mellow sounding, a half round string is a little brighter and a round wound string is even brighter. A nickel-plated steel round wound string is bright; a stainless steel string is a little brighter, etc., etc.
It’s like going to a restaurant and looking at the menu. What flavor would you like? You want the chef to do a great job at cooking all the things on the menu, but you want to be able to select the flavor that you’re looking for. Picking and designing the materials that should go into the strings is like picking what you like off the menu. Personally, I like very bright sounding strings. I like uncoated phosphor bronze strings on acoustic, but because I have so many guitars and can’t change strings often enough, I use coated EXP strings. I actually like our 80-20 coated strings better than coated phosphor bronze. I don’t know why, but I do. Over the last ten years we’ve gotten the coating process on our EXP’s down to be so thin that I can’t even hear the difference between a coated and a uncoated string anymore.

EXP is a micro coating on the wrap wire that’s only 2/10,000ths of an inch in thickness. What it does is seal it from the environment so it doesn’t corrode and doesn’t get affected by your body chemistry. Those are the key elements that break a string down and make it lose its tone prematurely."  

You can read additional excerpts from this and my other books at bobbyowsinski.com.

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Billy Idol "Eyes Without A Face" Song Analysis

Here's a blast from the past and it comes courtesy of Marcus Correa, who's a reader from Brazil. It's the song analysis of Billy Idol's big 1984 hit "Eye's Without A Face" from his Rebel Yell album. The song and the album was recorded at the famous Electric Lady Studio with Keith Forsey producing, my buddy Michael Frondelli engineering the tracks, and Dave Wittman mixing. As with all song analysis, we'll look at the song form, the arrangement, the sound and the production.

The Song
The song has an interesting form in that it sort of follows pop convention, but with a few twists. The form looks like this:

Intro, Verse, Chorus, Interlude, Verse, Chorus, interlude, B Section/Bridge, Verse, Chorus, Intro/Outro

The song is well constructed in that it never gets boring because each section has enough of a unique twist each time around so it's different. Listen to the end of the 2nd verse and chorus and how the chord changes are different. The Bridge isn't so much of a traditional bridge as a complete other section as the feel changes completely, and the Intro is repeated at the end of the song, but again it's a little different. Very well crafted.

The Arrangement
There's a lot going on in this song but it's well layered. Even though the drums are programmed via a Linn Drum (the original drum machine), they're very human feeling thanks to producer Forsey, who's also a drummer. The arrangement elements look like this:


  * The Foundation: The Linn Drum drum machine

  * The Pad: There's a subtle Roland JP8 synth pad throughout except for the B Section/Bridge


  * The Rhythm: This isn't traditional but it works. It's a combination of the bass, which pushes the song along nicely, and the drum machine handclaps. In the 2nd and 3rd verses and choruses there's also some clean rhythm guitar with a double-time feel, along with the guitar part during the B Section.


  * The Lead: Billy's vocal


  * The Fills: Again not traditional, but there are some nice lines synth guitar lines that are counterpoint to the vocal in the 2nd verse.

The Sound
This song was made in the middle of the golden era of audio. Magnetic tape was still being used (in fact, this track was recorded at 15ips using Dolby A), and there was very little digital gear anywhere in the studio, so everything sounds great. As was the style of the times, there's a lot of reverb (listen especially on the snare drum sample) and delay on everything, but that helps define the layers as well.

Mike Frondelli told me that most of the guitar sounds were courtesy of a Tom Sholz Rockman (which was really the first amplifier emulation box), except for the bridge, which was a Les Paul Custom into a 50 watt Marshall. It's cool how it's hi-pass filtered so there's not much low end so it fits perfectly in the track.

The Production
This is an awesome production. The song is well-crafted so that each repeated section does something slightly different, the arrangement builds with every section, and the sound is big and fat. It's hard to lose interest once you start to listen.

I especially liked Steve Webster's bass playing in that it really pushes the track along. He takes a written part and changes it up enough so it's really interesting while making it his own.

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3 Tips For Choosing A Set Of Monitor Speakers

It’s surprising that so many monitor speakers are chosen on the words of a review or word of mouth since they’re such a personal item. It's more surprising still how little effort is sometimes put into listening to a speaker before purchase. Here's an excerpt from Mixing And Mastering With T-Racks that provides some tips for choosing that most special piece of gear.

"1) Don’t choose a monitor because someone else is using them. Monitors are a lot like guitars. Just because Jimmy Page uses a Les Paul doesn’t mean that it’s right for you. It might be too heavy for your frame, the neck might be too wide, and the sound might not be a good match for the type of music you’re playing. Same with a monitor. Just because your favorite mixer uses a set of Genelec 1032A’s, it doesn’t mean that they’ll be right for you too. You may hear differently, your hearing experience is different, the match with your room might not work, the match with the type of music you work on might not be ideal, and if they’re unpowered, you may not have the same amp to drive them with so they’ll sound different as a result.

2) Listen to the monitors before you buy them. Before the pros purchase a monitor, they take their time and listen to them under a wide range of conditions, so why shouldn’t you? OK, you might not have the luxury of living near a big media center with lots of pro audio dealers, and even if you do, you may not have a relationship with one that allows you a personal demo in your own environment, but that shouldn’t stop you from listening. This is a serious purchase so don’t take it lightly. Take the trip to your local pro audio or music store and prepare to spend some time listening. Listen to everything and spend as much time with each model as you can. What should you listen for? Here’s how to evaluate a monitor:

• Listen for Even Frequency Balance: While listening to a piece of music that you know well, check to see if any frequencies are exaggerated or attenuated. This is especially important in the mid-range cross-over area (usually about 1.5 to 2.5kHz). Listen especially to cymbals on the high end, vocals and guitars for the midrange, and bass and kick drum on the low end.

• Make Sure the Frequency Balance Stays The Same At Any Level: The less the frequency response changes as the level changes (especially when playing softly), the better. In other words, the speaker should have roughly the same frequency balance when the level is quiet as when it’s loud.

• Make Sure You Have Enough Output Level Without Distortion: Be sure that there’s enough clean level for your needs. Many powered monitors have built-in limiters that stop the speaker or amplifier from distorting, but also may keep the system from getting as loud as you might need them to be.

Above all, don’t buy a set of speakers without listening to them. It’s usually very difficult for them to live up to your expectations if you’ve not heard them first. In fact, it’s not a good idea to buy any speaker unless you’re really in love with them. You’ll have to listen to these monitors for a lot of hours so you might as well like what you hear.

3) Listen with source material that you know very well. The only way to judge a monitor is to listen to material that you’re very familiar with and have heard in a lot of different environments. This will give you the necessary reference point that you need to adequately judge what you’re listening to. I like to use some things that I’ve recorded myself that I know inside and out, and at least one favorite CD that I consider to be well recorded. Remember - no MP3’s here. Use only CD’s or a playback system with an even higher quality 24 bit source like a personal digital recorder. That should give you some idea of the frequency response of the system.

Before the trend in monitors turned towards powered speakers, many engineers also brought their own amplifiers to the audition. This is because the amp/speaker combination is a delicate one, with each speaker having a much greater interdependence on the power source than most of us realize. In fact, the search for the perfect amplifier was almost as long suffering as the search for the perfect monitor. All of this has dwindled in recent years, thanks to monitors with built-in amplifiers perfectly matched to its speaker drivers by the manufacturer.

One of the things that I learned in my frequent speaker auditions for EQ Magazine over the course of five years is that you can easily get used to just about any speaker if you use it enough and learn it’s strengths and weaknesses. It also helps to have a solid reference that you’re sure of to compare the sound with. For instance, if you know how things sound in your car, then adjust your mixes so they work when you play them there."

You can read some additional excerpts from this book and others at bobbyowsinski.com.

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Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

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The 12 Major Changes To Recording In The 2000's

Yesterday I saw a tweet that featured a link to an article on Prosoundweb.com called "12 Major Changes To Recording In The 2000's." After looking it over I thought to myself, "Boy, I wish I'd written that." Much to my surprise, I discovered that I was actually the author when I checked out the byline. The post was originally posted on this blog on December 27, 2009, but it still seems relevant today, so here it is again, updated slightly for today.
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I got to thinking about the many changes that came about in the recording business during the 2000's the other day - some of it good, some of it bad, most of it significant. Here are what I consider to be the 12 major changes in recording that took place during the 2000's, in no particular order.

1) Pro Tools Standardization - As the decade started, Pro Tools was was already creeping into the major studios, but every year since it has become more and more entrenched as the standard audio capture format for any professional application. Sure, there are a lot of other great DAWs, but none of them have the traction of Pro Tools. In any professional situation, from music to radio to film and television post, this is the DAW that you're going to have to use as we move into 2010 - until something better comes along (no, I don't have a clue).

2) The Downfall of Commercial Studios - When I moved to Los Angeles in 1980, there were more than 250 "24 track" commercial studios in town. Many of them were multi-room facilities and they all were teaming with business. Today there are fewer commercial studios than ever thanks to cuts in recording budgets, the ease of setting up a home studio, and the fact that studio rates have remained about the same since the 80's while overhead has risen dramatically.

One of the sad byproducts of this is the fact that the apprentice system that existed and taught so many great engineers has pretty much fallen by the wayside. With only a few commercial studios left, it's only the lucky few that get to sit behind a great engineer and learn something new every day. That's good for me since more people buy my books, but it's not a great thing for the industry at large.

3) The Rise of Software and Fall of Hardware - Once upon a time, every studio needed a pretty good amount of outboard gear to be able to record and, especially, mix a record. It would be nothing for a studio to spend in excess of $100k for outboard EQ's, compressors, effects devices and reverbs that they absolutely needed to have in order to attract independent engineers and producers and make a competitive record. During the 2000's we saw a shift away from outboard hardware boxes to software plug-ins that do the same thing, only cheaper and easier. At the beginning of the decade, most pro engineers complained about "the sound" of plug-ins that emulated their favorite outboard device, and for the most part, they were right. It didn't quite measure up. Now that major computer horsepower is so inexpensive and programmers are better at what they do, the difference in sound quality between the plug-in and the real thing is no longer an issue even with the old-schoolers.

One of the big reasons why software plugs have caught on is price. Why buy a rack of Neve 1073's at $2500 a piece when you can buy a UAD card that can give you a hundred of them for half the price of just one? Sure, you don't get the mic preamp and and you can't track with them, but if you don't record more than a couple channels at a time anyway, it's hardly a problem.

Even in live sound there's been a shift as the industry changes to a digital signal path. There'll always be a market for outboard gear, especially for tracking, but the days of large expenditures for hardware are over.

4) The Fall Of Rental Companies - It used to be that renting gear was one of the secret cash-cows of the business. Every town had at least one major rental company (New York, LA and Nashville had 4 or 5) and many engineers and producers made extra dough on their projects by renting their pricier gear back as an extra. Thanks to the rise in software plug-ins, the need for that expensive hardware has dropped drastically. And even when it is rented, the length of the sessions has decreased to such a degree that what used to be a three or four week rental might now take only three or four days. As a result, a lot of the major rental companies have either gone under or cut back drastically, the minor ones don't exist anymore, and it's rare that an engineer will even think about renting the gear back to a project as he's just thankful for the job.

5) Mixing In The Box (Who Needs A Recording Console?) - As the 2000's came around the corner, you would never even consider doing a project without a recording console, and for sure, you'd never open a studio unless you had a Neve, SSL, API or the like. Today, vintage recording consoles that regularly went for $250k plus and didn't depreciate much can now be had for $50k or less with the seller feeling extremely pleased that he even found a buyer. With so little tracking with live musicians being done these days (see Loop-based Music) and the increased power of the DAW, why buy a recording console at all?

DAW's offer so many features these days that a competent engineer can make a great sounding record in a way that couldn't be done in 2000. The sound is good, the plug-ins are great and plentiful, the automation and recall are better than on any console, you're no longer limited to a certain size control room by the size of a desk, and inexpensive controllers are plentiful. It's no wonder that even the old-schoolers have finally acquiesced to "mixing in the box."

6) Less Money Going Around - CD sales are way down and as a result, so are recording budgets. Where once a $100k budget was considered bottom of the barrel when budgets for even non-superstar acts were beyond $500k, we now live in a world of $40 and 50k budgets. No money - no big studio, no rentals, no hardware purchases. It's all tied together. Superstar acts still get a blank check, but there are fewer and fewer of these acts. The future of the recording budget is here - get used to $40k or even less.

7) Sample and Loop-based Music - Once upon a time, all music started with real musicians tracked live. That all changed in the 2000's. Programs like Acid and Ableton Live made it easy to make some great music without ever seeing a real musician. Loop libraries gave you access to just about every kind of sound and mood that you could think of, and samples of every type of instrument became more realistic. Suddenly, you didn't need a studio, you didn't need a tracking room, you didn't need a player - all you needed was a laptop, some software and a set of headphones. Television and film composers no longer needed an orchestra, keyboard players could record great guitar and bass parts without the players, and no one needed a drummer if you had BFD or a similar program. It changed the music world, although not so much for the better, I'm afraid.

8) The Rise of Alternative Markets - Some markets thrived during the 2000's. The church market became a saviour for many audio gear companies as churches installed bigger and better sound systems, recorded their services and even broadcast them on television or the web. The sound system install market flourished as commercial building projects popped up everywhere. While this was truly a bright spot for many companies in recent years, the recession has brought these markets to a resounding halt. The worse may be yet to come, unfortunately.

9) The Rise of the Home Studio - It's now possible to have a studio on your laptop that's much more powerful than anything The Beatle's ever had to work with for less than a thousand dollars. Home recording is within reach of anyone that wants to do it, and everybody does. This has been both good and bad. It's brought about Music 3.0, where an artist is no longer bound by the marketing, distribution and sales system of the record labels, but the filter that the label provided and the help of the many professionals along the way had it's advantages too. Just because you have your own studio doesn't mean you know how to use it. As a result, we have fewer real professionals than ever before who are making less money than ever before - and more and more people making their own music at home. It hasn't resulted in better music so far.

10) The Influx of Chinese Gear - Audio and music gear is better than ever before on average. It's really difficult to find what would be considered a "bad" piece of gear these days (I remember the old Kent guitars with the bowed necks when I was growing up - those were bad), and it's cheaper than ever as well, all thanks to those hard-working Chinese near slave-laborers (with some of that labor now moving on to places like Viet Nam). Just about every gear company does the same thing these days - design the piece here, manufacture it in China, and sell it as cheaply as possible against a dozen other manufacturers with the same product and idea. The problem is that while all the gear is good, not much of it is really great. That's why we have more boutique gear manufacturers than ever. I wonder how they all survive?

11) The Failure of the Hi-Res Formats - In the beginning of the 2000's, the great hope for the industry and audio pros alike was the hi-res SACD and DVD-A formats. The trouble was, the public looked at these formats and yawned. It's difficult to hear hi-quality audio when your sound system is worse than what you could find in the typical college dorm room in 1970. Bad presentation, bad marketing, and no consumer interest all equal format death.

12) Change in Consumer Buying Habits - We all know this one. CD sales down, digital sales up, piracy still high. It's the reason for most of the items on this list. We cover this point all the time in the week on my Music 3.0 blog.

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Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

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Ian Anderson on "Aqualung"

It's very easy to use the conditions as a way to blame a recording gone wrong, but it never seems to bother many pros. Regardless of the equipment, acoustics or comfort, a real pro always seems to put out a great product. A good example of this is Jethro Tull's seminal album Aqualung, which overcame everything from equipment failures to a "horrible, cold, echoey feel" in Island Records new studio in a church to produce one of their best and most well-known works. Here's Tull leader Ian Anderson discussing the situation.

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Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

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Feist "My Moon My Man" Song Analysis

Reader Darryl Millette requested a song analysis of Feist's "My Moon My Man," a song from her third album The Reminder. Feist has been a critic's darling for some time, especially after Apple picked up her "1234" for an iPod Nano commercial in 2007. "My Moon My Man" was also used for a Verizon commercial, and later again on the television show Grey's Anatomy. Like all song analysis, we'll look at the song itself, the arrangement, the sound, and the production.

The Song
"My Moon My Man" is unusual in that the chorus is used only once at the end of the song. The form looks like this:

Intro, Verse, B Section, Interlude, 1/2 Verse, B Section, Interlude/Bridge, Chorus, Outro

The first Interlude is an instrumental version of the B section, while the 2nd one acts more as a bridge in that it's different from the rest of the song even though the underlying feel and chord changes are the same.

The song is built on a single repeating line that changes only slightly in at the end of the B sections, which means the arrangement has to be very strong to hold the listener's interest.

The Arrangement
The arrangement for this song is very simple, which is it's strength, but it also follows all the practices common to a great arrangement. The verses are very simple while the B sections are a lot bigger sounding thanks to the multiple vocal harmonies and the entrance of additional instruments. The chorus is differentiated by the Feist's cluster harmonies. The 2nd verse develops a bit from the first as a very mellow flute-like synth enters. Here are the arrangement elements.


  * The Foundation: Bass, drums and piano bass notes doubling the bass

  *  The Rhythm: Double time piano chords in the B section,

  * The Pad: A very subtle synth on the left side of soundfield during the B sections.

  * The Lead: Lead vocals and electric guitar in the interludes

  * The Fills: Nothing here acts as a traditional fill, but the occasional flutter synth arppegiation fills in a spot here and there. 

The Sound
Any ambiance in the song is subtle but it's there. While the piano and the drums rely on their own recorded room ambiance, the vocal and interlude guitars have a timed reverb to give them a bit of space and depth. The vocal is a bit spitty from overcompression, probably because Feist's vocal was soft, as is her style.

The Production
It takes a lot of skill to take a song that's built around a single repeating 4 bar line and make it interesting. What makes it so is the constant tension and release; soft to loud, complex to simple. I especially liked the clustered harmonies with the harmonic extensions at the end. That's not easy to sing and Feist did a great job.

Send me your requests for song analysis.

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Life On The Tour Bus

Ever wondered what life is like on a tour bus? Here are a few stories and tips from Chapter 10 of The Touring Musician's Handbook that illustrate that life on the bus may not be what you pictured.
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As stated in Chapter 1, the tour bus is looked upon as the mansion on the hill. It holds a unique place in the minds of concert goers and musicians everywhere, but when it comes right down to it, it’s just a way to get a bunch of people from point A to point B as comfortably as possible. The definition of comfortable, however, is in the eye of the beholder. Let’s take a look at life on the bus.

The Bus Itself
Most tour buses are laid out the same. There’s a small front lounge (see Figure 10.3), a larger rear lounge, bunks for either 8 or 12 people, a galley, and a bathroom with a shower. Most also have a satellite television in both lounges as well as a DVD player and sound system, wireless Internet, and maybe even an X-Box or other gaming device. Many now have iPod docs as well.

The rear lounge can usually be reconfigured as a twin or queen size bed as necessary. There are multiple air conditioning zones (up to four on some buses), so there’s usually at least one area that you can find that has a temperature you’re comfortable in. The bus also has a generator so you’ll have plenty of AC power for plugging in laptops and anything else requiring external electrical juice. Most bunk areas are small, but many have a flip-down television, a DVD/CD player, and their own power outlets.

If the artist and the band share the same bus, it’s not uncommon for the artist to commandeer the rear lounge, even though it’s supposed to be for everyone (you better knock before trying to enter). Someone might even sleep back there if they’re claustrophobic in a bunk.

Life On The Bus
Because you share such tight quarters with seven to eleven other people, it’s very easy for tempers to fray. That’s why everybody has to be on their best behavior, no matter how difficult that may be. Because you can offend someone without even knowing, you have to be extra considerate of everyone on the vehicle and respect their physical space and personal belongings. Keeping yourself and your area clean and dumping the trash at every stop goes a long way to keep from setting off anyone’s phobias or quirks.

“Traveling by bus with eight other people is not something everyone can deal with.You have to have a certain type of personality to handle the intimacy and lack of privacy. The bus is close quarters, you can't walk down the aisle without bumping into someone, you can't sit alone anywhere without there being noise and a conversation, maybe someone watching a movie or listening to music. It's difficult to read because there are too many distractions and there is literally nowhere to go except to your bunk, which is about the size your coffin will be when you die. You have to be extremely cool and conscientious of others and hope they will be the same to you because it can be completely psychologically draining.”
 Sue Foley

"As far as the bus goes, you never want to leave any of your stuff out in the aisle. When I started touring, they told you once to put your shoes in your bunk and if you didn’t listen, the next morning they were gone. You always want to clean up after yourself and you don’t want to go to sleep leaving your beer bottles or food out." 

Walter Earl

You also have to take into consideration the opposite sex if you have a mixed male and female band. Women have different needs and a different energy from guys, which changes the dynamic of the behavior on the bus dramatically. Surprisingly, it tends to get mellower as the testosterone levels seem to decrease.

"I know this is going to sound really old school but I always bring a book because sometimes when you’re on the bus with a lot people crammed in, the chances of having some kind of unpleasant discourse between band members or management or crew is pretty high. The longer you’re out, the less sleep you have, and the more you see the differences in personalities. It’s inevitable that there’s going to be a blow-up. I always want to have an escape or a self-defense to get out of those social situations which can go bad and lead you to losing your gig. Burying yourself in a book is a good way to stay out of those situations."
Ed Wynne

Is it a smoking bus, and does that bother you? How much are recreational drugs or alcohol a part of your touring life? Can you sleep on the bus? These are the things you must ask yourself before you take the gig.

TIP: Buy a cheap pair of slippers just for the bus. They’re easier to slip on and off in the tight quarters of your bunk.

You can read additional book excerpts for this and other books on my website.

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Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Don't forget to check out my Music 3.0 blog for tips and tricks on navigating social media and the new music business.

A Look At A Real 60's Jazz Vocal Recording Session

Here's a gem of a video that not only shows what it was really like in the studio back in the early 60's, but just how good some of the musicians were back the. It's called The Audition At RCA and it's about the great jazz vocalist Dave Lambert. It was also one of famed documentary maker D.A. Pennebaker's first films. He was famous for music docs like Don't Look Back with Bob Dylan, Monterey Pop, and Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars, among others.

Dave Lambert was one the first true jazz vocalists as well as the originator of vocalese. You won't find any autotune on these vocals, that's for sure. Give the video a few minutes, it's gets better as it goes along.

I love how sterile the studio was in those days. There's no vibe to the studio whatsoever, but it never seems to matter in this case as everyone just smokes. Also check out the 3 track recorder, the sound of the drums, and the label guys hanging in the control room.

Lambert from Peter on Vimeo.

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Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.


Don't forget to check out my Music 3.0 blog for tips and tricks on navigating social media and the new music business.

Networking Your Way Into The Music Business

Here's part of an interview that we did for The Studio Musician's Handbook (written with Paul ILL) that features Onree Gill, keyboardist and musical director for Alicia Keys. In it, Onree describes how he got his break into the business, which is a perfect example of just how important networking can be.
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"What I did was simple. When I was 18 I started going to industry parties, like a birthday party for Bell, Biv, Devoe or something like that. They’d get you for $25 at the door, so the only people there were industry people. I would pay the cover charge or try to get a hookup from someone on the inside, then I’d ask around to find out who everyone at the party was. It would be like, “The guy over there with the white jacket on is head of A&R for Sony,” or “This women in the blue dress works for Columbia.” After I found out who everyone was, what I’d do was to walk around and just say “Hello” to everyone. I didn’t strike up a conversation or anything, I’d just walk away as I was making my rounds.

So I kept going to these parties and bashes and kept going around saying hello to the same people over and over. It got to the point that when they saw me coming, I looked familiar to them and they’d think, “He’s always at these parties. He’s got to be in the music business.” At some point months later I’d go, “Hey, you still at Sony?” and they’d go “Yeah,” and I’d pass him my card and he would pass me his and all of sudden I’m setting up meetings. That’s how I did it."

You can read more excerpts from all of my books on my website.

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Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Don't forget to check out my Music 3.0 blog for tips and tricks on navigating social media and the new music business.

4 Steps To Transition From Playing Cover Songs To Your Own Music

I’d venture to say that almost all bands start by playing cover songs. After all, what better way to get your chops together than by emulating something already tried and true - i.e. a hit song.

The problem comes when a band or artist begins to gain some popularity as a result of playing cover songs, yet has aspirations of one day playing their own music. Unless you’re extremely clever right out of the box, chances are that your self-composed material doesn’t get the crowds going the way the cover material does. This means that as soon as you begin to play one of your own, that hot enthusiastic crowd suddenly goes ice cold, making you feel like your song just isn't cutting it.

Before you begin to think that way, remember that it’s not your fault that your material doesn’t get the same kind of response. A hit record has usually been finely crafted by a slew of experts, and it’s been burned into your audience’s consciousness over a long period of time. How can you compete with that? Chances are that through no fault of your own,  you weren’t able to put nearly that same kind of time or effort into your material, and of course, it's all new to your audience.

So how do you make the transition from cover artist to playing your own material? Try these four steps.


1. Take what you think is your best song and work it up show-wise so it’s the best song in your set. This means that you concentrate on the dynamics of the song, the lighting, and the movement of the players on stage. Don't know what I mean? Watch a concert by your favorite band or artist. At some point during the set (or several times even) the show will peak thanks to something that goes beyond just standing there and singing and playing. That's what you want to do. I realize that it isn’t as easy as it sounds, but this is a step you’ve got to take.

2. Next, connect that song to one of the hot cover songs that you do that's similar in theme and/or tempo, then play them together in a medley.  Keep working on it until your song get's the same response as the cover because it probably won't happen the first night that you play it. Don't get discouraged, these things take time to perfect for every artist or band, even the hit makers.

3. After you’ve gotten your audience used to one of your songs, use the same technique to put a second, then a third song into your show. It's a gradual process, so just be sure that both your songs and the show around them are as well-crafted as you can get them. It's quality you're going for, not quantity.

4. Finally, since you have to still play cover song for the time being, don’t play them exactly like the record. Don’t be afraid to give them your sound. Remember that you're audience is digging more on the familiarity of the song rather than how close to the record your performance is.

Remember that the above steps won’t work if you can’t write a song to save your life, your arranging ability is hopeless, or you don’t put the requisite work into the show. But if you do, this can be a way that you can gradually transition out of being just a “cover band.”

By the way, at all costs, don’t call your songs “originals.” This one word signals amateur and labels the song as inferior in the audience’s mind. Instead, use “my (or our) music” or “my (or our songs,” or better yet, don’t even identify it. If it’s any good, people will find out soon enough who wrote it.

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Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Don't forget to check out my Music 3.0 blog for tips and tricks on navigating social media and the new music business.

Dire Straits "Sultans Of Swing" Song Analysis

I was at a party at a swanky Beverly Hills establishment a few weeks ago when I got to talking to a group of Gen Xer's about music. Much to my surprise, one of them whipped out his iPhone and dialed up a song and announced, "This is the greatest song ever recorded." As it played, nearly all of his friends agreed, much to my surprise. While I was expecting to hear something more from their generation, the song that played was actually "Sultans Of Swing," the song that launched Dire Straits to international stardom. I figure that if they think so highly of the song, it's worth a song analysis.

The song is from the album Dire Straits, which was made for only about $20,000, mere chump change in the big budget days of 1978. Like all song analysis, we'll look at the song form, the arrangement, the sound, and the production.

The Song
"Sultans Of Swing" is about as straight ahead a song arrangement as you'll ever find. It fits almost perfectly in what you might call the "textbook" song form, which looks like this:

Verse, Chorus, Verse, Chorus, Verse, Chorus, Solo, 1/2 Verse, Chorus, Solo

The Arrangement
There's nothing fancy about the arrangement at all. It's a rock band playing at its simplest and best.

  The Foundation: The bass and drums.

  The Pad: None

  The Rhythm: The rhythm guitar

  The Lead: Lead vocal and lead guitar

  The Fills: Lead guitar

The Sound
In 1979 analog recording might have been at it's peak and this recording certainly is a testament to that notion. Everything sounds completely real and unprocessed. The drums are dry and in your face without being too compressed, and the snare is very snappy (sounds like a lot of under-snare mic). The vocal and rhythm guitars have just a touch of reverb to give them some space but the lead guitar has a a lot of a slightly delayed verb that pushes it back in the mix, giving all the elements a nice front-to-back image.

The Production
Muff Winwood's (Steve Winwood's brother) production is sparse but effective. It's just the band playing with very limited sweetening, but the song is a perfect example of how that can be just as effective as a song that's heavily produced and layered. The rhythm guitars are doubled and split left and right and the lead guitar line in the chorus is doubled, but that's about it. What matters here is the performances, and the band just smokes, especially drummer Pick Withers and his great high-hat work. Of course, Mark Knopfler went on to become a guitar god as a result of this song as well.

Send me your song requests.

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Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.


You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Don't forget to check out my Music 3.0 blog for tips and tricks on navigating social media and the new music business.