Short cuts are the enemy - This won't be as coherent as I might normally write cause I'm pissed.

[The Blue Method]

In the recording process it is important to be mindful that short cuts usually result in a product that is less than shining. For instance, if you want horns, save the money, if need be, to hire horns. That being said...you shouldn't even think about that expense until your song has been...wait. My advice 1st and foremost is to take the necessary time to form a band. If you want to be Whitney Houston, see if you can get discovered at an open mic (yea right) or go on Star Search or Showtime at the Apollo. While you're doing that, musicians will be playing shows to crowds of hundreds, thousands and unfortunately sometimes the club staff (LOL! I know what that's like). Point is, you can wait around to be discovered or you can make it happen. Now if you wanna do a solo thing, you better do it like Kelly Carvin and learn how to accompany yourself on guitar or keys. Performing to tracks is buuullshit! (just my opinion) Now, if you go the band route, it might take you a long time to finally have a unit that stays together. Some people only think they wanna be in a band. Some people will not be as committed as others. There are several other reasons why it may take time to get the band together. Distance can be an obstacle. Lack of a practice space can also be daunting. You might say, "Brian, how do I even find a band?" Well if you did a little brainstorming you might come up with the following. Ask the musicians in your church if they know anyone willing to play secular music. Most church musicians have great "feel". "Feel" is a topic for another discussion, but I think you know what I mean. Go to the nearest college/university and see if any music majors want to be in a band while they're in school. This is hella important because SOMEONE IN THE BAND HAS TO KNOW SOME MUSIC THEORY. The more theory knowledge the better. Theory plus natural feel equals badassness!!!! The younger the better obviously. A senior who's bout to graduate and leave town won't really do you any good. You know those sheets of paper you see posted up on bulletin boards with the bottom fringed and phone numbers on each fringe? Hang up one of those with your cell phone number. It could say something like: MUSICIANS WANTED FOR (INSERT STYLE OF MUSIC HERE) BAND - Need bass player, guitarist, keys, drummer, horns, whatever. Another way to find musicians? GO ONLINE! DUH! Ask everyone you know who they know that can play an instrument. This should be on your mind all the damn time son! So ok...you need a space to jam with eachother to see if you're on the same vibe. I would suggest MicroJazz Studios in Trenton if you're in that area. So ok, what do you do? If you're the person getting everyone together, it might be a good idea to ask everyone to bring a list of covers they'd like to play(CAUSE YOU'RE GONNA HAVE TO PLAY COVERS!!!!!!!) to the jam session. You may even go so far as to burn enough CDs to hand out to everyone with a few covers for them to learn for the 1st real rehearsal. Ultimately you're going to need about 40. The number of covers you play per show will decrease as your number of originals increases. OK. So ok...lets keep something in mind. Say you get 5 people to show up and jam. Say you get...a keyboard player, a guitar player, a drummer, a bass player and you on vocals and whatever the hell else yo ass does. Take the time that 1st night to jam on some grooves in different keys, letting people take solos (IF THEY CAN IMPROV). Try a few easy chord progressions. Maybe you've got a song you wanna see if they can put music to. Try all kinds of stuff. Learn a cover tune that night. Why not? Learn one that everyone knows. Now on a personal note, we (and by we I mean THE BLUE METHOD) don't bother to cover anything current. Cause most of this crap, well....is crap. So you keep this same day to rehearse every week. EVERY WEEK. If you're not rehearsing (I'll go easy on you) at least once a week, you're not serious. Most well-oiled machines rehearse at least twice a week. So eventually, you've got about 35 - 40 covers under your belts...and maybe an original tune or two. Time to start looking for spots to play. WAIT A MINUTE THOUGH! You don't have anything to pipe your music through. This is one of the times you find out how serious folks are. You need a PA. Yes you must spend money to make money. That's a hard fact of life. You need microphones. You need microphone stands. You need mic chords to plug into...your very own PA head!!! You need a monitor or two.(HOW ARE YOU GOING TO HEAR YOURSELF WITHOUT A MONITOR???) You need speakers. You need speaker stands. You need cables to hook the speakers and monitor(s) up to the PA. Why do you need these things? Chances are the bar/grills you're going to start out playing don't have any of this stuff. Their business is to provide food and alcohol. They don't have to have live music. But fortunately for you, they do!!! So lets move to the future of this venture. Now you're playing shows regularly. Your show is now maybe 50% original, 50% covers. You're doing 3 set shows for $500 - $750. You've made back the money you spent on the PA. Everyone's happy and making a lil money. Now you decide you want to record. Chances are, before you get to a producer who really knows what the hell he/she is doing, you're gonna spend money on crappy recordings because you'll find a lotta people who are recording engineers rather than producers. THIS IS JUST FINE. There's a name for it. PRE-PRODUCTION. This is the stuff you won't sell, but rather send to quality producers as a representation of the ideas you're kind of going for for a studio CD. You can't approach it like that though. You won't know til half-way through or afterwards. You just go in there serious and do your best. The Blue Method recorded with 3 different people before we were blessed to cross paths with Scott Stallone. Many producers are PICKY PICKY PICKY and only work with artists of a certain level. As far as the pre-production guys...corners might be cut here without you even knowing it. That's ok. You probably won't know what they don't know what to really do and at the end of the whole thing you'll have something you can listen to and for the most part enjoy and then have as an example of what not to do. Ok, I'm gonna come back to this later. This is part 1.

[Epic Songs]

Hey, Brian.

I like your passion, man. Some of what you're putting out here is a great guide for people wanting to start something up. I definitely see where you're coming from regarding a pure horn vs. a synthetic sound. Keys/synths have cut into the space of live horn players and it's a shame that it's gone to the extent it has. I've yet to hear a 'board that can truly match the sound and feel of brass or guitar.

Obviously something set you off emotionally and I'm not looking to fuel your fire, but I would submit that playing to tracks is valid. Granted, I'm not talking about the pseudo musicians who rely only on purchased tracks while singing along like some glorified karaoke star. Those guys drive me nuts. Rather, I'm talking about someone (me for example) who lays down all the backing stuff note by note and accompanies the playback with another instrument and vox live or in studio. It's true, though, that the ability to take an extended improv and create some magical performance moments is lost using this method.

Full band with real horns, full band with keyboard horns / strings / etc, solo with tracks, duo with tracks, duo without tracks, solo without tracks > I've pretty much run the full gamut. There are pros and cons to each from a musical and financial perspective and all factor into a particular person's / group's goals and desires. Let's face it, some stages and clubs were only built to accommodate smaller acts. Many venues can't afford or won't shell out $ for an 8 piece group when they can get a 2-4 piece for far less. Additionally, depending on what you're looking for sonically, finding the right musicians who can play complex parts and get along with everyone else in the unit can be daunting (you did mention this above, but it bears repeating).

Anyway, opinions are opinions so I figured I'd throw this out there for your consideration and again want to stress I mean no disrespect to the values you hold - they are valid.

As a P.S. I would've really enjoyed checking you out at McGuinn's on Friday, but have another commitment. Hope to catch you the next time you're in the area.

Peace, Epic Songs