Meet the Musician: Ardamus, member of The Lucky So & So's

This post profiles Ardamus, solo artist, member of The Lucky So & So’s, and part of Delegation Music, FAR EXP, DropLockers, Art Hotta, and S4YM.

At a young age, music kept me out of trouble and gave me the power to voice certain things that I couldn’t always do all the time. And, because of that, I can say that music gave me a better direction in life after all these years.

The Lucky So And So’s – “Costa E Sol” (unrehearsedDC version)

I rap, work on beats/production, and attempt to sing. And I can play a little piano.

I've been a part of 4 or 5 Flashband events. My first Flashband experience was an eye opener. I was in the Hip Hop Emcee Competition and came in second place. It was good to freestyle again on stage like that and show my range.

Ardamus & C Royal – “Indeed Loyalty”

The value I have gotten is working with musicians in Flashband who appreciate what I do and also being able to work with them on different level than I have before. It’s almost as if I am re-learning music theory, but in a much more fun way.

To other musicians who are new to Flashband, I'd say: After you perform with your band, do this: (1) think about if you want to go further with that band and communicate that and (2) keep up with more of the Flashband events, because there are always new ideas floating around for different collaborations.

FAR EXP – “Get On Your Grind”

The best part of playing music in DC is being able to engage the crowd and have them respond, especially at the bigger shows, where it's nothing but positive energy between you and the people you are performing for.

Find Ardamus on Bandcamp, Facebook and Twitter. 

Want to meet more DC musicians? Sign up for Flashband right now and let's do this.

Meet the Musician: Aaron Miller of The Perfectionists

This post profiles Aaron Miller, a Flashband member and the bassist in two bands: the cover band The Perfectionists and the indie rock band Naylor Court.

Without music, life would not be fair. There are a lot of people who like playing music as a serious hobby. They have day jobs, but take a lot of pride in their craft. That fits who I am and my current relationship with playing music.

I'm self-taught on bass, guitar and ukulele and classically trained on the piano. I have a melodica that’s a ton of fun to play. I recommend any keyboardist picking one up; it’s like $40 and a sure-fire way to annoy a significant other.

The Perfectionists have been together since September ’14 in our current iteration. We are actively gigging at area bars/venues and practicing at 7DL. We play a wide range of covers, spanning from the '60s to present. We play fun stuff, like Wagon Wheel and Uptown Funk (sick bass part on this song, by the way).

We also like to challenge ourselves and play stuff a little off the beaten path, like Jack White’s That Black Bat Licorice and Michael Bublé’s version of Feeling Good. Our repertoire has multiple suggestions from everyone in the band, so I’ve enjoyed figuring out bass parts for such a wide range of music. 

Naylor Court formed in ’08 and was active for about 6 years. We played a mix of originals written by our lead singer and our violinist, and popular covers. We had a great time throughout, and I gained a lot of good experience. We stopped actively playing and practicing last year after our keyboardist left for business school, but the remaining four members will play a gig every now and again if our schedules match up.

My first Flashband experience was in the Number Ones Showcase. It was great! The Meet & Greet was like speed-dating for musicians. It was fun to play with so many different people in such a short period of time.

When it became time to choose a band, I wandered around asking people if they needed a bassist. I’m fortunate that it’s an instrument every band needs, but isn’t as popular as, say, the guitar. It was easy to find a group.

The practices were productive and we usually went for a beer afterwards. It was great getting to know new musicians and people in the community. We played well at the showcase and we all remain in touch. I’m looking forward to doing another cycle soon!

Bands don’t last forever (unless you’re the Rolling Stones) and a band is something I always want to be in. I know that the Flashband community is a great resource for finding a musical outlet. I hope they expand nationally so there’s a ready-made community if I ever move out of the DC area.

If someone new to Flashband asked me for advice, I would say: Roll with it. Especially when selecting songs. Even if you don’t care for the song suggested, there’s something to get out of learning it and making it work.

Practice at home. Come prepared for band practice. It makes for a productive rehearsal and a better sounding end product at the Showcase.

A Musicians Intro to Live Sound, Pt. 4: Outputs

At last! The final step in the live sound process: speakers.

Before I started performing on stage, I used to wonder why it was so loud at concerts and music venues. Once you have your first time on stage, though, especially if it’s in a club with a bad monitor mix, you realize that there’s a lot of noise that needs to be covered up to create a clear sound –both from people talking and from sound bouncing around the room.

Mains vs. Monitors

The biggest distinction between speakers is whether they are for the audience or for you, the performer. "Mains" are for the audience to hear you. "Monitors" are for you to hear yourself and your bandmates.

Bare bones setups use the same mix (i.e., a combination of different instruments) for monitors and mains, but most setups have at least a separate monitors vs. main mix. Professional systems have a different mix for each individual monitor. You need monitors because it gets noisy on stage, and this makes sure you have a dedicated way to hear your bandmates. Remember that what you hear on stage is usually not what the audience hears.

A main function of the soundcheck is to get the relative levels of these two sets of speakers right. For the key pointers on what musicians need to know about how to do a sound check, you can also read our blog post about sound checks.

Powered speakers versus separate amps

If you are running your own live sound setup, you’ll need to also know about powered vs. unpowered speakers. (If you have a sound engineer, you won’t need to worry about it.)

Remember back in the first post when we talked about signal levels? The basic concept is that the mixing board first gets everything up to line level, but then to hear the music you’ll need to convert from line level to speaker level. The difference between powered and unpowered speakers is where that conversion happens – in the speaker, or outside of it.

Powered speakers have a built-in amplifier, and they need a line level signal. You’ll know it’s powered if it has a power cable attached. Don’t send speaker levels to these or you’ll blow them out. These are better for situations where you move the speakers around a lot.

Speakers without an amplifier need speaker level signal. You’ll know it is unpowered if it only has a speaker cable input. You’ll need a separate amplifier, designed to work with that speaker and sometimes built directly into the sound board to produce sound. If you give these speakers a line level signal, you’ll hear barely anything, but at least you won’t break them. These systems can be a little bit cheaper, so are often used in permanent installations.

And that’s it! As we said in the first post, this is a big complicated topic – far beyond the scope of a couple of blog posts – but we tried to hit the high points. 

Have things you think we missed? Let us know and we’ll make it the topic of a future post.

Read our previous Live Sound posts: 

1. Intro to Live Sound
2. Inputs
3. Transmission

A Musician's Intro to Live Sound, Pt. 3: Transmission

This is part 3 of a 4-post series. For the rest of the story, read the first and second posts in the series.

When I first started setting up sound for my band, I thought cables were cables. I even bought a bunch of converters so that I could connect an XLR cable to a ¼” jack, and vice versa. Fortunately, I didn’t ruin any equipment, but my fundamental lack of understanding did make for some pretty long sound checks just guessing at what needed to be connected to what.

The purpose of the most of the equipment on stage – cables, DI boxes, mixing boards – is to bring different signals into one place, convert them to the same type of signal, and send one unified signal to the speakers. All the components of the live sound equipment are designed with a specific signal type in mind, and the biggest cause of frustration is when you don’t understand what types of signals each equipment is using.

Cables

Electrical signals are transmitted in cables. Although a cable looks like one wire, there are typically two, three or more separate wires, separated by insulation, inside the cable.

Let’s start with a few ways to classify cables:

Cable types (the inside)

Shielded versus unshielded

Cables act like an antenna and pick up noise (hum) from radio waves, fluorescent lights, cell phones, other cables, etc. For long distances at speaker level, it's no big deal: the noise is too tiny. For short distances at line and even instrument level, it's also ok. At mic level, or instrument level over long distances, this causes problems.

Shielding is the first way to protect your signal. Instead of having two wires inside the cable, one wire is instead a braided shield that creates a tube. The second wire passes in the center of the braided shield.

Mono verse stereo

Mono cables carry one signal, using two wires (to create a loop). Stereo cables carry two signals, using three wires (to create two loops).

Balanced vs. unbalanced signals

When you have mic level inputs, or when you have line level inputs over a long distance, shielding isn’t enough. You need balancing. (For a reminder how that works, check out the first post in the series.)

Technically, it’s the signal that is balanced, not the cable. Balanced signals need two loops, so the inside of the cable is the same as a stereo cable, with three wires inside. You’ll still hear the cables described as "balanced cables," though. 

Connector types (the outside) 

• An XLR cable has a round plug with 3 prongs or holes and is balanced. Usually used for microphones.
• A ¼” instrument cable (TS cable) has a prong on both ends, one small black stripe in the prong, and is unbalanced. Usually used for instrument level inputs. Keep these as short as is feasible.
• A ¼” speaker cable looks like an instrument cable but is constructed differently. It carries speaker level inputs. Using speaker cable for your instrument creates noise; using instrument cable for your speakers can damage your amp or speakers and can create a fire hazard. (You’re probably fine at low volume, but use caution.)
• A ¼” balanced or stereo cable (TRS cable) has two black bands in the tip. It can be used for balanced mono, or for unbalanced stereo sound. This can be used in some pro setups, but typically you won’t need to worry about it. 
• A 1/8” cable is usually TRS (two black bands) and typically carries stereo signal to/from an audio player or headphones at line level.
• An RCA cable has a prong and sheath plug, and is unbalanced. Usually used for line inputs. 

What you need to know

Ok, lots of cable types – so what? There are a few key places that cause the most problems.

Shielding and balance

Most of the time, the choice of cable is determined by what type of signal the equipment produces, and for the most part you can get away with just using the cable that fits. Mic level signals always need balance and shielding, so they use an XLR plug. Instrument and line level signals don’t need balancing when they are traveling a short distance, but the signal is still small, so you’ll need a shielded cable. If you need to take a line or instrument signal a long distance, you’ll need to balance it first. Speakers don’t need shielded cables typically, but you do want larger gauge wire. Sometimes, though, you can’t just plug it in where it fits...

¼” cables

If only they’d put different connectors on the different types of ¼” cables! The "guts" of a ¼” cable can be either stereo or mono, and shielded or unshielded. 

First off, pay attention to the number of black bands on the connector. Two bands is TRS, which is stereo – good for headphones, bad for your guitar. 1 band is mono, which is just what your guitar needs. 

The second challenge is shielded, which is harder to tell apart. Normally the only indication is some tiny, illegible text on the cable itself that says "instrument" or "speaker." My recommendation is to mark your cables clearly when you buy them.

If you plug your guitar into your amp and the sound is super noisy and muddy, you might be using a speaker cable by mistake. Also, ever wonder why you can’t find guitar cables longer than 25 feet? Beyond that and the shielding can’t block the noise, so if you need to take signal farther you’ll need to convert to a balanced signal (using a DI box). 

Also, for instruments, the shorter cable the better for preventing noise, so use a short guitar cable if you can get away with it.

Converting signals

So you picked the right cable to deliver the right type of signal based on what your instrument or other equipment produces. Where does the other end of it go?

Remember, at the end of the whole system we want one, unified signal to send to the speakers. Right now, all the equipment has signals at different levels. At some point, we need to convert those signals and combine them together. That’s the main job of the rest of the equipment.

• A preamp boosts the signal from mic or instrument level up to line level.
  If your instrument’s output level is low, you might need a pre-amp to get it up to line level. 

• An amplifier converts from instrument or line level up to speaker level; instrument amps have a speaker built in, while the amp for the sound system might connect to separate speakers.
  If you are using an amp (say, for an electric guitar), you can either use the amp sound directly if it’s loud enough, put a microphone on the amp, or some amps also include a line level output.
• A DI box converts from an instrument or line level down to mic level, and sends out a balanced signal. This is a good article explaining DI boxes.
  You use a DI box when you need to send an instrument level signal over a long distance, such as when you connect an acoustic guitar pickup or keyboard line out to the mixing board. A DI box also blocks the phantom power sent from the board, so beware if you need that phantom power! 

• A mixing board takes multiple inputs of various types, mixes both their levels and their frequencies (i.e., an equalizer), combines these signals, and sends the combined signal out to different speakers. It can send phantom power out to devices that need them. Sometimes it includes an amplifier for the speakers built in (meaning it sends speaker level outputs directly to the speaker). Or, sometimes the amp must be separate (it sends line level outputs). Sometimes different channels ("main" output versus "monitor" output) have different output types; for instance, the monitor might have line level output and the main might have speaker level output. A digital mixing board typically operates the same as an analog one, but it can save setting combinations and can often also output each track separately to a computer interface. 

• Gain and volume knobs can be found on instruments, amplifiers and mixing boards. Think of volume as the squeeze handle on the end of the hose, and gain as the faucet knob where the hose comes out of the house. Both need to be adjusted correctly.

What you need to know

Most of the transmission equipment is completely in the domain of the sound engineer, meaning you, as a musician, hopefully don’t need to deal with the intricacies of it. But, musicians usually have two things they do need to pay attention to. First, you’ll need to talk intelligently to your sound engineer about where the signal from your instrument is going. Second, you’ll need to help diagnose problems when they occur.

Tell the engineer what he needs to know

Take a look back at the previous article and figure out what level of signal your equipment produces (mic, instrument, line). Then, figure out how you’ll need to get to the sound board. The most common answers are:

• Your instrument has a pickup and you have your own amp – tell the engineer if you have a line out they should use, or if the amp should be mic’d. 
• Your instrument has a pickup and you don’t have an amp (acoustic guitar, violin, etc.). Normally, you’ll need to go into a DI box that then goes to the sound board. If the instrument level on your pickup doesn’t provide enough volume, you may want to add a preamp to boost your signal – they’re not expensive. 
• If you have a keyboard, pay attention to what output type you have (XLR vs. ¼” and stereo vs. mono). Usually you’ll go into a DI box, but you also might go through an amp. 

Help fix problems

On stage, a musician can help with three of the most common problems you encounter in live sound.

Feedback occurs when a microphone hears itself in one of the speakers. Often this happens when someone on stage moves the microphone somewhere bad. You can read more about fighting feedback in this past blog post, but when you’re on stage and you hear feedback, you can:

• Cover the microphone closest to you with your hand (block some sound)
• Look at where it’s pointing. Is it pointing at a speaker? Did you move past the line of where the speakers are in front of the stage? Adjust. 

No sound happens when there is a break anywhere in the chain from the input to the speaker. Sometimes it’s on purpose (sound engineers often mute channels when they’re not needed). If the channel is needed, you can help diagnose the problem by:

• Making noise continuously, for instance, by talking into the mic. You won’t know when you fix it if it isn’t making sound. 
• Start at the source and check every connection, volume knob and power switch. Pay attention to ones located on your instrument in particular. 

Noise is usually due to bad connections, the wrong cables or grounding issues. Wiggle all the connections to make sure they’re sure, and only use instrument cables for instruments!

Transmission is the biggest section of a live sound setup, so it’s naturally the most complicated. Next up, we’ll briefly cover outputs, the final step in the process.

A Musician's Intro to Live Sound, Pt. 2 - Inputs

Our previous blog post gave us a framework for talking about live sound: the three sections of the live sound system (inputs, transmission, outputs). We also introduced some of the different signal types (mic vs. line level, balanced vs. unbalanced). The one thing that will help the most in understanding a live sound system is knowing the differences between these signal types, and knowing which type of signal each piece of equipment uses. This blog post digs in deeper to the key fundamentals that a musician needs to know about the first part of the live sound setup: inputs.

Almost all input equipment takes physical vibrations and turns it into electrical signals. For a microphone, this is the physical vibration of the air (sound). For pickups, like on your guitar, this can be the physical vibration of the body of the instrument (such as on the bridge of a violin) or the vibration of metal in a magnetic field (the strings of your electric guitar). A few instruments (keyboards, synths, etc.) just produce electrical signals directly.

Let’s go through each one and point out what you need to know.

Microphones

A standard SM57 microphone. Notice
the round top, which is the pop filter.

In almost all live sound settings, you’ll be using dynamic microphones. This especially true in small, loud clubs (or where every musician that isn’t famous plays). The vibration of the air produces the electrical signal directly, so they don’t need external power. The Shure SM58 and SM57 are the most common ones you’ll see. These are very similar mics, but the SM58 has a built-in pop filter, so it’s used for vocals while the SM57 is used for instruments.

A condenser microphone is more sensitive, more delicate, and typically needs phantom power. Some instruments using small clip-on microphones are condenser (violin, saxophone), and in a setting where you can control the sound (recording studio) you can get better sound quality.

What you need to know:

• The biggest thing a musician needs to pay attention to is the position of their microphone. Just because it’s kinda near you doesn’t mean it will pick up sound. Keep it pointed directly at your mouth or instrument at all times. Take one minute to watch this video and you’ll understand what I mean:
  
  

• If you’re using a condenser microphone and aren’t getting any sound, it’s probably because the microphone needs phantom power.
• Microphones produce mic level signals (surprise!).

Instruments

Besides how to play your instrument, the main thing you need to know is whether you’ll use a cable or a microphone to connect to the system, and, if you’re using a cable, what type of signal your instrument produces.

• Guitar and bass pickups create an instrument level out. 
• A guitar or bass amplifier will often have a line out, or you can put a microphone in front of the speaker that is integrated into the amp.
• Keyboards typically have line out.
• Other instruments will use a microphone.

Almost all the rest of the stuff on your stage is designed to move electrical signals from place to place, or to change signals from one type to another. We'll get into that in more detail with our next blog post in the series, which is all about transmission.

Next post: Transmission

A Musician’s Intro to Live Sound

By Neal Humphrey, Flashband founder

The Family Hammer, my bluegrass band

When my first band started doing our first shows, we usually had to run some or most of the sound ourselves. I quickly found myself in the position of being one of the primary “band sound engineers,” even though I knew nothing about live sound.

Every band seems to have that one person who’s just a little more technically-minded and makes an effort to try to figure stuff out themselves. Pretty soon, everyone else in the band assumes that he or she is the go-to person for all things tech. It took a lot of stumbling and Googling and reading in order for me to start to feel like I knew what was I was doing. With this series, my goal is to save you some of that trouble. 

Musicians often don’t get a formal introduction to how live sound works – ever. It’s more of a sink-or-swim thing. While this is a huge topic (so big that textbooks have been written about it), some fundamental basics can go a long way in helping you, the musician, to fake it a bit better, and to not work against your sound engineer. Along the way, I’ll highlight key takeaways for someone that’s performing on stage. 

Let’s start with the fundamentals.

A live sound setup has an input side (you, your instrument, microphones, etc.), some stuff in the middle, and an output side (speakers). Everything on the input side of a live sound setup takes vibration: through the air, like sound going into a microphone, or physical vibrations, like the string on your guitar. The setup converts it into an electrical signal. But the inputs vary, both in how large that signal is and what the signal “looks like,” or the frequencies it contains. 

Everything in the middle is designed to adjust all the various input signals into a combined electrical signal that contains an appropriate mix of all the inputs. The speakers then convert that electrical signal back into sound.

Inputs: Vibrations are captured either as air vibrations or mechanical vibrations, as we mentioned above. All of these things produce some electrical signal as an output. The biggest source of confusion here is the type of electrical signal produced by different types of input equipment – line level vs. mic level vs. instrument level, balanced vs. unbalanced. We’ll cover all that in a bit. 

Transmission: This is the fun part, and also where things get confusing. Remember how different input equipment creates different types of electrical signals? The purpose of the rest of the equipment on stage – cables, DI boxes, mixing boards – is to bring these different signals into one place, convert them to the same type of signal, and send one unified signal to the speakers. All the components of the live sound equipment are designed with a specific signal type in mind, and the biggest cause of frustration is when you don’t understand what types of signals that each piece of equipment is using.

Output: In live sound, speakers have two functions: for the audience to hear you (duh), and for you to be able to hear yourself. The biggest cause of problems with speakers is actually the room you put them in. Sound bounces off the walls and echoes everywhere, people talk louder to be heard over the sound, and suddenly your ears are hurting but you still can’t hear the music clearly. This is a pretty complicated topic, so I’ll just point out a few key things to keep in mind.

The biggest principle I wish I’d understood early on is the difference between all the signal types in a live sound system.

This is one of the main reasons we need different types of equipment on stage, and we’ll reference these types throughout this series. The two biggest distinctions you can make in signal type are:

Level

• A microphone-level signal is very small (millivolts) 
• Instrument levels vary, between mic and line 
• A line level signal is medium (1/4 to 1.5 volt) 
• Speaker level signal is large (10-100 volts) 

These are usually reported in decibels (dB) rather than volts. Decibels are always measured in comparison to something else. Ever seen -10dBV or +4dBu on your gear? That’s telling you what the line level signal type is. Audio equipment has “pro” and “consumer” versions, which are, annoyingly, different. If you want to hear the technical details, this post is a good start.

For most musicians, it’s enough to just think of it like this:

Balanced vs. unbalanced

Another big distinction is balanced vs. unbalanced signals. A “regular” signal is unbalanced, and it just sends the signal one time. So why would you need a balanced signal?

When you send that signal through a cable, the cable also acts like a giant antenna, picking up noise from radio waves, cell phone towers, other cables nearby, etc. The longer the cable, the more noise. When the signal is large (speaker level!), this is no big deal. When the signal is small (mic level), the noise is a big problem. Balanced signals are designed to remove the noise. Basically, a balanced signal sends the same thing twice with the second signal flipped so that the noise cancels out. When you have a small signal level or a large distance, you need a balanced signal.

This video is a straightforward summary of how it actually works (but please excuse the 1995-style intro):

Now that we have some common fundamentals, it will be easier to explain what each of the components are, and what you as a performer need to pay attention to. In the following posts, we’ll dig into each of the three sections of the live sound system and cover what a musician really needs to know.

Next post - Inputs

Meet the Musician: Lainie Williams, Vocalist, Keyboardist and Flashband Veteran

This post profiles Lainie Williams, a professionally-trained vocalist and self-taught keyboardist. Lainie has participated in 11 Flashband events!

Flashband… I once heard it called “Speed Dating for Musicians,” and that about sums it up. If you don’t know what it is by now, I’ll let you investigate on your own. I’d like to tell you about my own Flashband experience.

My boyfriend, fellow Flashbander Rico Morales (aka Sofa King), and I relocated to DC in January of 2013 because of my job. We are both native Texans and it was a big move for us. Prior to moving, we had lived in San Antonio and were deeply connected to the arts and music community there. 

After living in the DC area for six months, we were both ready to pack it in and move back to Texas. We’d made no friends or connections outside of work, we couldn’t find people to play music or hang out with, and we were both miserable.

Then one of Rico’s co-workers mentioned this strange thing called Flashband. Rico called me from work and suggested I check it out online. I did, and the rest is history.

In September of 2013, we met Caleb and Amanda Astey at their house. They were both so kind and welcoming. Even though we’d missed the meet and greet for the Genre Mashup, Caleb worked really hard to involve us. We never got into a band for that show, but we did go see it.

At the show we were instantly captivated by the talent we saw there. We were eager to join the fascinating group of musicians we met that night in their wild and wonderful adventure of pop-up bands and crazy cover interpretations. The fact that the bands all had only a month to learn their songs and even write an original was tantalizing and impossible to resist for both of us.

The first showcase I was able to participate in was Americana Bandstand in November of 2013. I was amazed that a group of people who had never met prior to the meet and greet could make a band that actually sounded good. That experience made me a Flashband junkie… I couldn’t get enough!

Rico was finally able to join me in February of 2014 for the Heartbreak Ballads show, and doing it with the love of my life was an even better experience. I’ve done six more shows since then, and participated in other Flashband events.

I can honestly say that if it hadn’t been for the wonderful people we’ve met through Flashband, we would have moved back to Texas long ago. Many of our temporary bandmates have become permanent fixtures in our lives. Even people we’ve never Flashbanded with, we’ve Flashbonded with, and I consider them family.

In May of this year, we relocated into the District to a great house with a fabulous music space. We are now having monthly jam sessions at our home (the first one was a smashing success) and the majority of the people in attendance were and will be our Flashband family members. 

I’m looking forward to more adventures in music with my Flashband friends, both old and new!

7 Tips for Building a Better Band

By Deborah Lash, Community Outreach Coordinator at Flashband and singer for The Revelations

Music should be fun. Everyone wants to have a good time! But drama can (and often does) grow wildly in musicians’ circles. Here are some of my favorite tips for building a a positive environment for your band that makes space for creativity and gives everyone a rockin’ experience. 

Pick the right bandmates

Thankfully, you’re not in 6th grade gym class anymore. You can pick the RIGHT people for your team, and not worry about an imaginary popularity contest. The next time you’re auditioning future band members or attending a Flashband jam, do your best to suss out who’s the best listener. How? Listen! Who pays attention when it’s time for their solo? Who waits for the drummer to give the starting signal? Pick that person. It might surprise you, but talent is a bit overrated here. You want to choose solid, reliable, easy-to-work-with musicians to be your bandmates.

Bring food and beverages to your rehearsals

Food is a key ingredient for happy bands. Bring some and you’ll be a hero. (Same goes for beer!) Everyone’s tired, cranky, and probably hungry after a long day’s work in their day jobs, and band practice should be a fun, creative environment. Feed the beast and the beast will feed you.

Encourage ideas

If another band member wants to try something different, be positive and give it a whirl. It takes courage to bring up a new idea, and at some point it will be your turn to put yourself out there. Be affirming and constructive. Some of the best music comes from spontaneous creativity, and eventually that good karma will come back to you.

Go with the flow

Music, and playing it with a group, is very special. Whether you’re rehearsing covers or writing an original piece, let your contributions blend in with those of the rest of the band. If you’re only focused on keeping mental tabs on how much you’re being appreciated or how much you’re standing out, you’re missing out on the real magic. When YOU let go is when everything starts to come together.

Have your sh*t together

Practice at home. Know what key you’re playing in. Show up with your stuff together. Have a (flexible) plan for rehearsal. Coordinate schedules ahead of time (and try Doodle polls; they’re seriously the best). When the logistics are taken care of, you can focus 100% on the music.

Practice until everyone is comfortable, and then practice some more

As you’re finishing up rehearsal, check in with each of your bandmates to make sure they feel solid about the songs. Everyone should know what to take home and work on, and they should feel excited about it. Once everyone feels pretty good, you need to plan to get together again as much as you can, and hit it hard. Get those transitions down. Work on the endings. Make it tight. When you over-prepare, you’ll be super confident on stage (where it counts the most!).

Be more awesome

You don’t want to be That Person. You know, the one who forgot to bring their gear or showed up late for practice. Think about the little things you can do to make everyone’s lives easier. Don’t forget your money for rehearsal space. Vocalists: help another bandmate lug their gear. Everyone: don’t let the drummer carry all his stuff alone. Don’t talk behind other band member’s backs; be honest and forthright. You really don’t want to be the one who causes the drama. Be The Better Person. 

The bottom line? Keep your act together, be a human (not a robot), and be kind. No matter what role you play in your band, there are lots of ways that you can make life better, more organized and more fun for your entire group. As we like to say at Flashband, music happens when musicians come together!

What are your tips for a happy band?

Meet the Musician: Ginny Hill, Vocalist for The Perfectionists

This post profiles Ginny Hill, a Flashband musician who has participated in two Showcases. She’s a vocalist for The Perfectionists, who have been playing together since September 2014. 

Playing music in DC is fantastic for one primary reason: Bands become friends with one another. The Perfectionists (my band) got our first gig because we met another band that practiced at our old studio (shout-out to One World!). As you meet cool, talented people, you might invite their band to open for yours or refer them to a gig that you can’t do. It’s like a family and there’s room for many of us to succeed. 

I thoroughly enjoyed my first Flashband experience. I participated in the Number One’s showcase in May 2015. Our band’s name was Kiss My Brass since we had a kick-ass horn section. (Can I say "kick-ass" on this blog?!)

I thought I would be intimidated at the initial jam, but everyone was so welcoming and supportive. The initial improv jam broke the ice and got everyone thinking creatively. Everything just flowed from there, and forming the band was easy. I met musicians with whom I had chemistry, and then it was just a matter of practicing together and on our own. 

Our showcase performance was amazing. We practiced at a “bronze” level and performed “gold!” We all walked off stage and said, “What just happened?!” Maybe it was the adrenaline, maybe it was hard work… It was amazing to walk off stage and feel like we really came together as a band!

If I had to give advice to Flashband newbies, I’d say to be supportive and specific. Being supportive means encouraging and helpful to those in your band AND those in the other bands. It means supporting their music and seeing their future performances after the showcase is over. 

Being specific means offering constructive insights on how someone can get better. We are all amateurs here, so let’s be honest with each other about how to improve and progress with our music.

Flashband teaches you to let go of control and be creative. It’s about compromising and taking the best of everyone’s ideas to create the best show possible. And, you’ve got to have faith in yourself and the people you’re on stage with; there’s no time for second-guessing. That’s a really valuable lesson for any performer!