You know James but do you know Livingston?

"I've seen fire and I've seen rain".

These lyrics, I'm sure, are familiar. Classic, poignant, pictoral. James Taylor. As I have decided to expand my sound and begin to really try and develop my own acoustic style, I have been listening to more and more classic artists like him. I always knew he was a great, but like many of greats I have not yet gotten into, I simply didn't listen enough to become a fan. Well, after about 30 repeats of his "Best Of" CD I can assuredly say I am a convert. Before I was never crazy about his voice, but now that I have really listened to him, I am astounded by his smooth copper tambour, with an earnestness that makes you swear he's personally telling you a story. His guitar playing? Forget about it. He's an alchemist; a player that simply transforms pictures and feelings into the surrounding air with nothing but the grace of his hands and the steel on the fretboard. Every song is a world of its own, an entire chapter of descriptive detail with only a few words. A few of my personal favorites are: "Copperline", "Walkin' Man" and "Don't Let me be Lonely Tonight". But no no, James isnt the only one who can draw you into his world with only a single sentence.

He has a brother, Livingston, who is every bit as good! He even looks similar to James...but also bears an uncanny resemblance to Hugo Weaving (Agent Smith from "The Matrix" see for yourself:


























See? Maybe its just me....anyways,

Livingston was one of my teachers while I was at Berklee. He taught a stage performance class that was absolutely invaluable. Im still trying to master everything we learned in that class. See, playing for people isnt just going up and playing some songs and looking down at the guitar. You need to engage your audience; play TO them not just at them, make eye contact, smile, emote, believe the lyrics you sing...all while thumping your foot in time. Sound hard? It is. One of his many creeds was "Dont make your audience come to you, go to them!" Some people are so talented and attractive that people will walk over broken glass to get to them...they can start at the floor and play selfishly and people will sit on edge, eyes fixed on them, for hours. 99% are not like this. Don't count on being one, because you probably are not. Look right into your audience's eyes and sing right to them. You will give them a feeling they will never forget, and they will follow you for the rest of your career if you do it right!

Want to see what Im talking about? Check out a perfect example of this teaching philosophy in action as Livingston plays his original "Life is Good".



So this is where Im trying to get to and its going to be a while. I have been drilling away at fingerpicking etudes and songs much like this one, so in the next months Im looking forward to seeing where it takes me.

With Endway at Hula's

A burly doorman half sits on a stool, arms crossed. Scattered patrons shuffle to and from the bar. The cash register jingles with the first sales of the night. All of this barely visible from the stage lights, but the venue is still pretty quiet. I walk up center stage and take my weathered Martin off the stand. The microphones sit comfortably nestled above the hastily painted black stage, which is garnished with a garden of quarter in cables and dull black chords. Like water through a crack in a dam, the people quietly trickle in as I plug in my Martin and begin to strum and pluck and stomp. A few of my friends come up and stand in a circle near the front and seem to be enjoying themselves, reassuring my secretly self-questioning presence on stage.



After I somber off to chat with all my friends who came out, I hear Endway begin. A perfect volume AND mix; something that the majority of bands I have heard live do not even consider. They are smooth and extremely well rehearsed, a definite must- hear band. With a driving rock ambience, at times anthemic, these guys know how to rock and play and work a crowd.

Aside from the sound guys not showing up to set us up or the DJ plugging his equipment into my mixer mid-set and distorting a couple of my songs and cutting me off from announcing Endway, it was a very good night. Morgan from Endway was actually very good with the mixing board as well as singing and playing guitar and playing the perfect frontman for the show. Kevin is a great guitar slinger, extremely clean and has good balance of taste and rock flair while playing. Scott and Chris were locked all night and were a perfect blend of extra energy and backbone. They all play great together, I suggest checking out their stuff:

ENDWAY

People of the night:

Dean - thanks for running the music stand! I hope to be seeing you again at a future show, maybe at the Duck once again, I hope you enjoyed all the tunes man!

Sarah - you were great to talk to, I really enjoyed it, I hope you find yourself adventuring out of Towson more and more, talking to you was inspirational you have instilled me with a reservoir of confidence in my music. Thank you!!

Alicia and Rene - Im glad I got to see you last night, its been a long time! You two seem like such a well balanced couple and a good team. No drama, just smiles and stories. I hope Ill be seeing more of the both of you, and I hope you enjoy the CD! There will be many more to come. And yes I am now looking forward to going on a cruise sometime, well not real soon, but eventually. I just have to find one with a rock wall.

Candice - What need I say? You are always so fun to hang out with. You need to visit more. Goat abortions and Barrack Obama just don't have the same comedic value unless you are there to laugh and chime in....and then help me find my car keys that are actually in my backpack.

Sean and Josh - your sexy dances were the only thing that kept me alive in a time of tribulation. I sincerely thank you guys for being the ideal audience members that every stage performer wishes for. And for being hilarious, too.

Thank you to everyone who showed up, and Scott for inviting me to play with such a good Boston band!

Learning How to Sing (Apr. 23)

The first time I ever sang in front of anyone was in Solomon's Island on the boardwalk about 9 years ago. I had my dad's acoustic Fender and I remember standing between my friends Steve and Kendall, who were both egging me on to sing an early John Mayer song. My voice was terribly breathy, hard to control, and soft. Every time I sang I had this feeling. I couldnt control dynamics or tone, only struggle and push to get the notes to barely sound good enough to not be embarrassed. I just dropped into the water with no idea how to swim. Regardless, they seemed to enjoy it and so did the many other people at open mic nights I played at over the next few years. So I kept doing it. Lesson 1; you cannot accurately judge the quality of your own voice based solely on what others tell you, whether they say good things or bad things. You need to record yourself. You need to get into your own world and only allow yourself or a seasoned vocal coach to be your judge. Simply thinking "hey I must be a good singer because all the people at the open mics tell me I am" are what creates the blooper reels for American Idol auditions.

Now after 9 years of fumbling with my voice, with no idea about technique other than hear-say, I finally made my first stepping stone of progress to knowing what to do to really improve my voice. Listen carefully: what it feels like to you when you sing is what it sounds like to others when you sing. If your throat feels tight, and fighting against what you want it to do, people will hear that in your voice, even if, for the most part, you are singing in key. My first stepping stone was this realization: singing is not actually hard to do! Any idiot with the smallest amount of talent can be at least a good singer if they practice enough. All problems from singing occur when your mind works against your actual voice. All you need to do is sync up what you think your throat and breath are doing with what they are actually doing. How do you do this?

Just check out this book: "The Secrets of Singing by Jeffrey Allen".

Here is link to the guys website: Secrets of Singing website.

This was recommended to me by a teacher at Berklee. It's fantastic, I cannot praise it enough. Get it! No I am not getting paid for saying this.
It takes a different approach. If you really practice daily, significant progress will occur rapidly, within a few months. All the lessons are based on visualizing certain things while you are practicing in order to manipulate your voice to get it to sync up with your mind. Once you do that, the later lessons are just refining little things, but most of you probably wont even care, you will sound plenty good after the first few basic lessons.

I have months and months of work to do before I get my voice to a level I will happy with, but this book is the perfect tool to sync your mind and voice together so when you think you are singing with an open throat, you aren't actually closing it or when you think you are using proper breath support you aren't actually pushing too much air. If you can sync up a few basic concepts, your singing will improve DRASTICALLY. It will feel easy and sound smooth and full. People who are "naturals" already have their mind and voice synced up. The way their brain works just so happens to be wired to make them sing with correct technique (more or less) from the first time they do it. So odds are you are like me, not one of these people. If you struggle with your voice and it just doesn't feel right when you sing, I seriously recommend that book!

Struggling singers unite! I have been practicing out of the book just for a few days and have noticed small progress.
I will post my progress in a few months.

Sing on.

Flying with a Guitar?

Hey everyone, (fellow musicians in particular)

In preparation for my journey to California to join my friend and bandmate, Andy, in a one week west coast rockout, I have found a dire need to assure my guitar is going to be allowed to come on the plane with me. I usually have not had problems in the past, but a couple years ago United Airlines once forced me to check my guitar. Apparently Im not the only one either, this guy's $5000 Taylor was smashed by an overzealous baggage handler. Justifiably, he wanted United to reimburse him for the damaged guitar (and didn't even want to sue for the emotional damage that comes from having your Martin damaged). After months of being given the run-around over the phone and email by United representatives, he was finally told "we are sorry sir, but there is nothing we can do."

So how does that saying go? Don't get mad, get even. As a songwriter, he wrote a catchy little country tune called "United Breaks Guitars" about his travesty and posted it up on Youtube. Then magic happened. After about 2,000,000 views the song had caused substantial damage to United Airlines ticket sales. Booya. It had such an impact that United called him up and told him they would make a deal with him and reimburse him if he took the video off so that people would stop avoiding the airline. What he tell them you ask? Calm and collected he said "Im sorry but there's nothing I can do"...click. And here is the song itself in all its glory:



Aw, poor poor United, you guys are upset because you stomped all over a consumer whose power you grossly underestimated. Maybe you'll decide to give my grandfather back the pension he worked for for 30 years as one of your best pilots? Oh whats that? Oh of course I understand your need to cut corners these days with the economy and all, oh yeah its fine.


Anyways,
Thankfully it arrived fine, (more or less) a little intonation problems for a bit, but I got it fixed; the extreme temperature and pressure changes that occur in the baggage container below are not good for the instrument (as Im sure most of you already know) and neither are the baggage handlers. So after a good amount of time scouring the internet to prevent this situation from reoccurring or being worse next time with another airline, I have found a few helpful links for musicians planning to fly with an instrument. Rumors have gone around claiming that there is a form you can print out and bring on a plane that this will prevent airlines from denying your instrument from coming on board. That is not true.

For the truth, here is a link to the TSA pdf file that explains the real deal: PDF

Like me, if you are disappointed (like me) that there still isn't some print out you can bring to have immunity from the rules and regulations, click the link below and read the article, it was the most helpful one I found.

Here is a link to THE BEST page of information on flying with an instrument that I found:
ARTICLE

Here a link to another article...a little less interestingly written, but very informational:
ARTICLE 2

The moral of the story; we have not yet won the war against the airlines. Hopefully one day we will get that legislation and never have to stress about this crap anymore. Until then just remember, "United Breaks Guitars"!

I hope this post will save the life of at least one acoustic guitar or other instrument.

Safe travels,

Dylan