Funky Fingerstyle Guitar
The big question to ask yourself when buying a guitar is “Where will I play it?”
Will you be playing it on stage & at live gigs, or at home in your studio or living room?
Then you can think about the guitar choice…
[Read more…] about Tips For Buying an Acoustic Guitar
Tony Robbins says the more you tell yourself you “should do something” you end up “should-ing all over yourself!”
So – you’re not going to get a “you should” or “you shouldn’t” with this article.
I’m just going to help you think it through.
[Read more…] about Should You Use a Thumb Pick for Fingerstyle Guitar?
I call this an “update” because you may have read my earlier post or seen my videos on recording fingerstyle guitar for Youtube videos.
Here, I will describe my home studio setup with getting a great sound in mind.
Please comment below if you have a suggestion or want to mention your gear – or, especially if anything I am saying is not accurate!
If you are thinking about recording at home, you will love this guide. I list my home gear (guitars, strings, software, mics, and more…). Enjoy! 🙂
Find out what simple (and affordable) equipment I use at home to record to get a CD quality fingerstyle guitar sound.
The Attitude
All kinds of gear sounds great for fingerstyle guitar. There are many ways to do record it, mine is just one…here goes.
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Hey Gang!
I was just peeking through the mountain of “Fanbridge” questions that I have, and I came across a recurring theme…
Question:Â “Adam what guitar / strings / gear do you use?”
I get asked about this 10 times a week.
With the “mountain” of gear that one sees in catalogs & stores it is easy to get confused.
Since I carry most of my stuff myself (no car – yep, I’m a a New York guy), it has to be portable, easy and sound great.
All of what I am listing fits in a backpack (except the guitars), and I am ready to play any size concert hall or festival.
Keep in mind, this list WILL change, and “there is more than one way to do it” – but this has been working for me.
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Since the original 2009 post is outdated, I have made 2 NEW walkthrough videos showing how I do all my process. Check these newer videos out, and be sure to get the current “7 recording tools” cheat sheet.
Greetings!
It’s been a crash course in recording solo guitar to be in the studio working on the new Michael Jackson fingerstyle guitar album. The studio has officially kicked my butt, but I am a fighter. Next week are rounds 4 & 5.
Recording solo guitar (or solo anything) is an entirely different challenge from recording a multi instrument track. There’s just nowhere to hide.
Imagine a dish like a stew with 30 ingredients vs a gourmet dish with 3 ingredients. The dish with 3 demands much more care and precision. Any aspect of it being off can throw the whole thing off.
I have practiced and performed this music for a while now – played it on tour, etc. The biggest issue I have dealt with in the studio so far is tuning and intonation.
Coated Strings…Fool Me Once…um…never get Fooled Again!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKgPY1adc0A
My bad. I had the information and tools needed to do it right, yet I didn’t. Randy Hughes – master guitar repair, setup and fret guy warned me – coated strings do not intonate well.
Even if your open strings are spot on pitch, notes get weird as you creep up the neck. Ouch. Boy did that G string go flat as I went up the neck. I didn’t realize the cause until after the session.
I like Elixir Nanoweb coated strings, basically. They never sound as good as Martin SP phosphor bronze strings, but they last longer. If I am not on the road, I’ll use Elixirs.
I also have noticed slightly less “left hand squeak” from Elixirs so I figured, what the heck – how bad can it be. So I recorded.
Additionally…I had with me a Peterson Strobostomp tuner…but used my little Korg tuner instead.
My bad…on 2 counts on string & tuner choice…
Long story short…the lessons we learn are often ones that are expensive and exasperating. I need to re-record a bunch of tunes – and I had the information and tools to avoid this, but just got a little lazy.
I repeat, fool me once…um…never get fooled again…
Other Aspects of Guitar Tuning – Your Fingerings
Tuning a guitar really well is not so simple. Some tuning problems can be avoided by changing the arrangement! That’s right – even on a totally in-tune guitar, one fingering can sound more in tune than another. This requires an insanely high degree of listening.
On my version of “Rock With You” I do melodies across the top 3 strings. Now when I play D on the 3rd string 7th fret and open B together and really listen – OUCH!!! It just sounds terrible. Yes, it’s the right notes, but listening deeper, there’s a problem. New fingerings will come to the rescue.
The same applies for squeaks. Listen for them as you practice, and you may find that there are other fingerings which don’t squeak.
So often we’re just happy to get through a piece and we don’t listen to ourselves on this level until we are in the studio and it’s too late!
In Conclusion
When you record, try using fresh uncoated strings. Stretch them well.
Before you record – listen for tuning and squeaks at home. Adjust the arrangements to minimize tuning issues and squeaks, and then go record.
Before recording a take, play different spots in the song and listen. Each song may require a different adjustment in tuning. Oh – and remember to have the patience to tune with a tuner before every take. Check out the Peterson Strobostomp!
JUST ADDED: Peterson has their strobe tuner technology in clip on tuners and even has a strobe tuner iPhone app: http://www.petersontuners.com/
Gang, my first 2 solo efforts were “commando” style – at home, with mics, background noise; music with warts and all. This time I want to give you and all my listeners the most excellent, sublime recording I can.
Ok, coffee cup is empty and post is written…time to practice.
Ho ho ho….Merry Christmas!!! In August…
Greetings from 30,000 feet. I am on my way from Denver to San Jose right now to do my usual August Bay Area workshop. Sorry for not posting in a while…I have not forgotten about you or the blog, just been busy.
It’s been an exciting 2 weeks. With a minimum of recording equipment, I have recorded 18 Christmas hymns and carols, hopefully to be released just in time for Christmas 2009.
In case you are wondering how I recorded this, here goes. Here is a brief rundown of what I used for my bare bones travel recording setup:
Guitar – Cole Clark FL2AC
2 RODE NT5 mics.
A table top mic tripod from Guitar Center – designed for podcasts
A “stereo” extension for mic stands, so I could do an X-Y configuration
with the mics
2 XLR Cables
ZOOM H4 Digital Recorder
Mac Laptop with Garage Band
A key aspect of recording (I am a newbie – forgive me if this is obvious) is having a nice quiet spot to record. Things like refrigerators, air conditioning, traffic, and neighbors thumping all come through on recordings. Out in Colorado I was able to use a friends empty office space, with fabric covered dividers, carpets, etc.
The ZOOM H4 is cool. What’s key is that it offers “phantom power” along with it’s XLR inputs so I was not limited to the mics on the unit. Inside is a memory card just like a digital camera, as opposed to an internal hard drive. It mounts on the Mac via USB and each track is a stereo wav file.
While Garage Band is not ideal software – it really has a lot of very cool features. After a while with it I got quicker at the editing process. As well, I did my best to play takes right minimizing editing.
The AU effects are a bit more complex than their “out of the box” effects. Ultimately I will go to a real studio with great sounding gear to mix and master, but Garage band is an excellent tool to edit with. A real mastering house has compressors that cost $20K and the guys who are experienced engineers can listen and know what frequencies are missing or overloaded…so I’ll leave that to them!
The only slight drawback was not having a real mic stand…I had to put the mics on a chair close to me and do my best to get a good position. But hey, what I have fits in a suitcase!!!!
While my setup may be less than ideal compared to a fancy studio – I had a quiet environment, great mics (ok, really good mics) and most importantly – the TIME to be creative and spend a whole day on one or two songs. Some takes were done 10 times until I felt that I captured the spirit and essence of the song. So, despite any technical flaws this “open ended” studio time I think allowed for some great music to emerge.
Please post comment especially if you have good mobile recording advice!!!
Until next time….
As a stone cold, New York, Harlem bebop funk kinda guy the last place I ever thought I’d appreciate and love is Nashville. Wow, it was amazing!
I have just returned from 2 trips to Nashville in a course of 2 weeks. First trip was to visit the Chet Atkins Appreciation Society (CAAS) annual gathering. The second trip was to attend Summer NAMM where I did demos for Cole Clark Guitars.
It was my second time at CAAS and already it feels like a family. Correction – it is a family. And youtube makes it all the stranger and lovelier…I walked in knowing the names, faces and music of many of the fine players there and they knew me. It really makes me wonder…how love and appreciation of guitar and music draws certain souls together. Beautiful!
I spent quite some time hanging out with Tomi Paldanius of fingerstyleheaven.com, Joscho Stefan, Joe Robinson…but there were so many other fine players there…Edgar Cruz, Muriel Anderson…the list goes on. Oh yeah, there was also some talented guy named Tony Enamel…Emmanuel…or was it Tommy? I forget what the heck his name was, but he seemed to play pretty good 🙂
NAMM was also neat-o! The convention is much more personal and less of a freakshow than L.A. NAMM. Everything has it’s place, but I really liked the vibe of this NAMM show. HIghlights included – buying a “porchboard” and rocking the house (product review will come), Muriel Anderson’s All Star Guitar Night (best guitar concert I have ever seen), Jerry Douglas stopping by the Cole Clark guitar booth, and eating breakfast at Cracker Barrel 3 days in a row. More butter, please.
The musicians in Nashville are generally…well…awesome to say the least. Great taste, great feel and no room whatsoever for attitude. For a guitar picker like me it felt like home, I must say!
Well…back to work. I am still preparing my handouts and lessons for the Swannanoa Gathering where I’ll be teaching “the ways of the funky fingerstylist” from July 26 to Aug 1, 2009.
Until next time…God Bless, and keep pickin it – never let it heal!
ORIGINAL 2009 POST:
Hey friends! After several requests, I figured I’d write this once so that it is easily accessible, and hopefully will save at least one of you some hours of frustration.
[Read more…] about Youtube Recording Technique for Guitar Videos
Greetings! I’m writing from a Days Inn breakfast room in Leesburg,VA and knocked out gig #1 last night of what I call my “Kentucky Fried” tour. I did a warmup gig at a small coffee house called Market Street Coffee.
Well the gig was ok, but I feel my playing was not at it’s peak. Gotta practice after finishing this post! 🙂
Before we get to Leesburg though, let’s go back to NYC in our minds – I’d like to thank Holly from Rudy’s music stop in NYC. I went there the day before the tour with a Taylor guitar with an intermittent ES pickup system. Needless to say, having equipment crap out the day before the tour is stressful. I do have a backup guitar, but the idea is to travel with 2 functioning guitars, not just 1.
Holly totally gutted & replaced the ES system. Oh, and just for kicks she filed & re crowned some frets, oiled the fingerboard, and saw that the nut grooves needed a slightly different cut. Yeah!! Thank you Holly for loving what you do and over delivering!
Last night’s gig was also the maiden voyage of my new BOSE L1. That too, was source of stress a day before leaving as it had been behaving weirdly at home. Long story short, the little T1 mixer is more akin to an ipod than a mixer. I had to download the latest firmware, reboot and all that jazz. The little T1 is incredible – 4 channels, digital effects, presets- all connected with just a data cable. Whatever the updates did, the BOSE did great on the gig.
I feel good knowing that I have a killer acoustic rig, and can show up anywhere and have great sound.
=-=-=-
An artist can’t stand still or just do yesterday’s tricks. What was full of life, and in the moment last month is not the same now! When I launched my acoustic direction part of the beauty was the freshness, the aliveness and the newness. I have officially hit the next stage, but an important one that I think many musicians deal with.
It’s time to refresh again. I already feel like I am doing yesterday’s tricks and it’s not even a year that the CD has been out. Yes, part of playing a great solo guitar gig is that you have great music ready to go under your fingers – and maybe it’s a question of being “in the moment” with the known music – just the same way David Copperfield has his tricks that he does night after night. Part of my practice today will be getting “the juice” back into tunes I feel like I have played ENOUGH.
Certain songs have a different meaning after having played them for a year. Some songs feel better and deeper. Some don’t feel right and need tweaking or need to be dropped / replaced. (FYI “I Got Rhythm” is one of my trickiest and I will go practice it in 5min…)
The journey never stops. Looking forward to tonight’s gig at Patisserie Cafe in Lexington,VA…..more to come!
