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This article discusses 8 vital things to remember as improvisers - whether advanced or just getting started:

1. Your technique is probably miles ahead of your ability to think.

This isn’t just true for classical players. I’ve known lots and lots (and lots) of jazz
players who have let their technique run the show as opposed to their brains.
Happens all the time.

With players who are just beginning to improvise, this is vital to keep in mind. Slow
down! Even at furious tempi, you can “long meter” melodic phrases that dance and
skip over the fast tempo - thinking them in real time. And you can have great
precision and musicality in doing so.

FYI, most players who play so fast you are asking yourself how can they think that
stuff in real time - probably aren’t really thinking that stuff in real time. Most are
performing a memorized, yet impressive move. Sort of a human software, “sub-
routine call.” To me, not the real thing.

Personally, I’d rather listen to simple ideas that are inspired than impressive, over-
thought, over-prepared ideas any day. Particularly when they are masquerading as
“improvisation.”

2. You will be playing unexpected notes (mistakes) in the best of situations.

Yes, I know, we’re supposed to KNOW what we are doing. But to get good at
anything, we have to stretch, and stretching means taking risks, and taking risks
means making mistakes.

Over time, you really will be able to hear a melody and execute it flawlessly. But by
then, you’ll be stretching into new realms of harmony or rhythm and hearing more
possibilities in melody - and making more mistakes. It really never stops, if you’re
doing it right.

3. Keep a music manuscript journal.

Write down any ideas that you have - chords, bits of melody, melodic shapes,
anything. Use the notation system devised over hundreds of years. If you can’t be
precise, don’t be. If all you can think of is a rhythm with undefined notes, write the
rhythm with X’s as the notes - defining them as non-specific. Non-specific is good.

4. Here’s a big one - sing with your playing.

Start now. Start with your current repertoire. By doing so, we are unconsciously
hooking up our brain with our voice with our instrument.

What we’re reaching for is the ability to “sing” our lines as we create them,
simultaneously playing the right notes on our instrument. That’s a non-linear jump,
but we can build the muscles for that now.

If you’ve ever heard a Keith Jarrett record, you’ve probably heard all the weird noises
he makes with his phrases. Sounds like he’s squeezing one out (and that’s probably
not far from the truth…). I think I can safely say that he is letting his phrases force
the issue, physically and mentally. He doesn’t sing perfect notes, but almost the
intention of his lines - as I have said in the past, “riding the forward momentum of
the moment’s creation.” You’ll note that the intensity of his vocalizations seem
phrase related, as opposed to note defined. He sure ain’t singing melody.

So, if you can’t sing your phrases, growl them. Get yourself to the next level by
allowing the force of the music to drive the notes and phrases out of you. In time,
they begin to align.

5. Here’s a related one - Think in terms of phrases, as opposed to notes.

Be non-specific. Any way we can keep the big picture in mind is a very good thing. I
have found that painting the big picture, tends to forgive the micro mistakes.

Another approach is to think in terms of texture as opposed to notes. This frees us
from note definition and allows for us to discover the music that transcends note
specific thinking.

6. Create some time every day for you to experiment and not sound good.

This process really does take a daily commitment to achieve. Spend a good 20
minutes playing stuff you are willing to sound outright “wrong.” If you have to wear
headphones with an electronic instrument in order keep the ego unmolested - so be
it. But spend this time.

7. Mistakes often are the best means for discovering something that is unique
to you.

This is a really big one. We are all shaped by a compilation of experiences, positive
and negative, over the course of our life.

Why would music be any different?

When you make a mistake, you may find a new melodic idea, a new harmony, a new
voicing. Write these down in your music manuscript journal (see above). They will
become the basis for your own library of musical ideas that are unique to you.

A caveat. Your mistake generated idea may not be totally original. Your F minor 9
voicing may be the same one 40,000 other pianists may use. But it is your process
that delivered the idea, and that process is entirely unique. It may make you write
material that is particularly F minor 9 centric. Maybe that way, you’ll write music
that hasn’t been thought of before coming from that point of view.

Music improvisation is a non-linear explosion of creative thought.

What makes us unique in life, works the same way in the music that we create. Even
if you were an identical clone of someone, there is no one who has all of your
experiences and made the mistakes you’ve made.

Use this.

8. Finally, build a safe space for this development so you aren’t dissuaded from
your path.

This process is a very personal one. Sharing your results may not impress anyone
except yourself for now. That’s fine. Keep it private as needed. The last thing you
need to do is show your journal to someone who says, “Oh yeah, I’ve seen that
before. So and so did it this way, and so and so did it that way.” Deflation does not
breed continuity.

It’s almost as though you are building your “Chi.” In martial arts, “Chi” is the life
force that is released upon a move (maybe that’s what Jarrett is up to…).

You are interested in building your musical “Chi,” because that will permit things to
happen that won’t happen any other way. Deflating it by sharing with the wrong
people is counter-productive and makes little sense.

I hope that this article has been helpful to you. If you like it, gift it to someone. I
only ask that you credit me as below:

©2005 Ben Dowling, the author of “The Metaphysics of Improvisation” - is a pianist,
composer and an authority on music improvisation who publishes Music-
Improv.com, a web site that provides useful paradigms and practices for musicians
interested in expanding their ability to improvise.

Learn more about the conceptual and metaphysical underpinnings of musical
improvisation by visiting http://www.music-improv.com

Was the request six months ago, a sixtieth birthday party, the client said. It got me thinking. There is a whole untapped market out there for people who lived as teenagers and twenty somethings through the sixties and seventies. They are all coming up to this big sixtieth birthday date and they all love the kind of music I love to play and earn my living out of! More than that, their kids are off their hands, their mortgage is paid up and they can afford to splash out on a big celebration.

That isn’t the real reason for writing this article, in fact it has very little to do with the subject which is about the day in the life of a working professional London musician. It did get me thinking, however, how things have changed from my own youth. When I was young, sixty-year-old men smoked untipped fags, wore flat caps and suits and listened to Max Bygraves. Now the average sixty year old will be a fan of Wilson Pickett, Otis Reading, James Brown and The Stones and be dressing in Gap. He or she will definitely not be a smoker!!

The engagement was in West Sussex, a lovely part of the world, in late June. The weather was perfect as I loaded up the car. For a soul band music gig you need amplification and some lighting as well as a cd player for keeping the music and atmosphere going for when the band takes a break. I picked up my bass player Andy mid afternoon, and we drove down together to the sixtieth birthday party. Andy is no stranger to soul band work. He was musical director a few years ago to the Flirtations, a sixties Motown soul music band who had three or four hits back in the nineteen sixties. A very experienced and talented musician Andy has also worked with Van Morrison, Phil Collins and Eddie Reader as well as 1980`s swing band Wall Street Crash. Being a close friend for twenty-five years the trip down to the party was a pleasure. Good company, good conversation, lovely weather and countryside and the anticipation of a very rocking gig with some great players!

As usual we arrived early. The party we were playing soul music for were still having dinner and would be at least another hour. That was fine with us as the venue of the party was delightful. The person who’s sixtieth birthday it was had arranged drinks for us and so while we brought the musical gear in to the venue a pot of tea was rustled up for us. Over a brew and the gear sitting outside the function room, we decided on what order the soul music for the party should take. There is no point playing the real lively soul music tunes too early on. A group of sixty year olds with full stomachs are not going to appreciate being coerced into getting down to Mustang Sally by a full on soul band after a big rich pud! The party is always best started with some more laid back soul music by people like Al Green and Ben E King.

The other musicians from the band start to arrive and bring their gear in. There is still time for a cup of tea and we order it for them whilst guitars and drums are brought into the hotel. Shortly the room begins to clear. The sixty-year-old birthday boy is obviously keen to party and doesn’t want to waste time on speeches! As the guests make their way to the bar, go out for a smoke (the young ones…they’ll learn) or take the lovely Sussex evening air, the band dives in and sets up the gear for the party. We meet the host who insists on describing, in detail, a gig he went to in the sixties featuring Stax star Otis Reading who was a master of the soul music genre and a legend in soul music. We are torn between setting up on time and listening to some one recount their memories of a legend! Being a big fan myself I am able to recount a few memories of my own of seeing the Blues Brothers soul and blues band with legendary players Booker T, Steve Cropper and Duck Dunn. These guys are soul music legends too, having played and written the hit “Green Onions” and having backed Otis Reading and Sam and Dave on many of their live gigs both in London and America. Steve Cropper was also the writer of “Sitting on the Dock of the Bay”, “Knock on Wood” and “In the Midnight Hour”, all soul music tunes we play in our soul band as part of our set and tunes we intended playing for the sixtieth birthday party that very night.

The band is set, the lights are on and we have started our evening’s entertainment. There are already a few people on the floor dancing to that great Bill Withers tune “Lovely Day” and it makes me realize that people who were growing up in the sixties are much more in tune with live music and are used to dancing to a live band than the current generation. What also hits home is how the generation of today, when they get the opportunity to listen to a great soul band playing great soul music, get caught up by the music we play and respond so well to it. It makes me realize that bands such as mine will be playing soul music for a party like this and like we do for younger persons weddings, long after current musical trends die.

The evening progresses, the soul band picks up in tempo, the horns are riffing those familiar riffs from such favourites as “Hold on I`m Coming,” “Dancing in the Street” and “I Feel Good”. I always kid Mark our main singer and master guitarist when he sings “I Feel Good” by James Brown. James Brown is in his mid seventies, American and black. Mark is white, in his forties and from Scunthorpe! At the end of the tune I say what I always say….it always gets a laugh…”Its like James Brown was in the room!”

The audience is hanging in there with us. Drenched in sweat and transported in time, they are back in the Flamingo in Soho or some other sweaty dive of their youth. I look round and the boys in the band are having a ball. We are working real hard; we are sweating more than the audience. To make a band like ours rock as hard as it does requires a great deal of energy. Soul music isn’t music played off the back foot; it is high-energy music that drives. As such, whether it is loud or quiet, it requires total commitment and all ones physical resources. An amateur band just doesn’t cut it. They are unable to give the energy coupled with the sense of groove that good soul music requires. It needs relentless practice of ones instrument, high energy all evening that cannot drop…in fact it must increase as the evening progresses and a lot of stamina that only constant work on your instrument gives you.

Before we know it the night is over. We manage to persuade the birthday boy, after two encores, that it is time to finish. He is delighted with the band and the soul music we have played for his party. A few of his guests have come up for business cards. They too have sixtieth birthday parties coming up and they too love their soul music!!

We have been paid and the gear has been packed away. We are debating whether to employ a roadie at the moment. Everyone in the band loves playing soul music for a party but no one likes to cart gear! The funny thing is this. Every year technology makes musical gear lighter but somehow every year the gear feels slightly heavier!! As you, me, everybody, gets nearer to his or her sixtieth birthday party I suppose everything gets just that little bit heavier!

We say our goodbyes. Hugs and handshakes. You wouldn’t believe that we see each other on average two or three times a week! On the way home we leave the radio off. It is time for quiet reflection. We discuss the gig. What went well. How we could improve the set order. We decide we can`t. What new tunes we want to incorporate into our soul music band party repertoire. This isn’t easy. The most important criteria is to get people up dancing. There is sometimes a conflict between favourites and the sort of tunes, which will fill the floor for the party. This is always our main priority. It is what we get paid for. Paid well for. We have a reputation to maintain.

Andy has been dropped off. It is two o’clock. I am home fifteen minutes later. The gear is brought into the house. Must look into getting that roadie!

On goes the computer. Must check my emails. June and July are a busy time. Just as I thought. Three pressing messages that require an answer. Get to bed at three thirty. Please God don’t let the kids wake me up before ten on Sunday morning. I’ll need to be up then as the band are in Birmingham in the evening doing another soul music party and the M6 can be murder at this time of the year.

The kids come jumping into our room at eight thirty! It doesn’t matter. Monday I am totally free. I can get them off to school and come home and sleep. Someone once said ” If you can earn your living doing what you love you will never do a days work in your life” How true.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jeff Williams is a London based trombonist and vocalist who has worked all over the world in most areas of the business. He also runs a successful, specialist, live music agency using the best of London musicians, servicing both private and corporate clients playing all over the country. He would be happy to advise you with your own event or party and offers bespoke solutions for the perfect occasion.

Contact him on 020 8761 8932 or 07747 801471
Email him on bonejeff@aol.com
Visit the website www.jazznotjazz.co.uk

Copyright (c) Jeff Williams, JazzNotJazz.co.uk

OK, I passed a small milestone and didn’t even realize it until tonight. About 1 year ago, a started a website called indieTunes.com which i envisioned as being the best place on the internet for independent artists to sell and stream their downloadable music on a secure platform, and the best part of it all is, that my business model (as crazy as it may be) pays the artist 100% of the profits from every song sold. Let’s see ya beat that!!! The only thing that gets deducted from the sale are visa/MasterCard/ and pay pal fees (which dont go to indietunes anyway) and the rest gets paid to the artist. The only thing indieTunes.com charges is a $9.99 a month membership fee for a Premium membership which allows you to sell your downloadable music and stream your music videos. Basic memberships are FREE, and you can stream your music and alot of other stuff with a Basic. So if you can sell one album a month, you can virtually break even, and everything after that is pure profit. Not bad huh?

OK, for anyone who thinks I’m getting rich off the backs of indie artists, think again. Building this site has practically put me in the poor house and I am no where near break-even point on monthly expenses let alone my full investment. However, I have confidence that someday this will be one of the cornerstone sites for independent artists on the internet, and I will continue to build and upgrade and promote the site to ensure its success. So far in the first year, with very little promotion, we’ve gotten 1,059 artists on the site to date. I’m ramping up to do national PR (anybody know an insanely talented web PR person?) and I’ll be much happier when the site has 10,000 artists, which I’d like to say is my goal for this time next year.

So hey, spread the word. indieTunes.com is a great site, and we’re finishing up a very substantial upgrade right now that will add to each artists page (yes every artist gets their own page), the upgrade will add a photo gallery, artist blog, and a reviews section to every page. So, do me a favor, go spend some time surfing indietunes, get a feel for it, give me some feedback, positive or negative (I’m a big boy I can take it), and spread the word. Me and the indieTunes staff are working very hard every day to make this a successful site!!

Source: Indie Tunes Blog

For more information on Independent artists Visit indieTunes.com

On July 28, 2004, French Internet access providers and music copyright owners signed a joint national charter aimed at cracking down on illegal downloads and expanding the amount of legal music tracks available online (AFP). This is the latest in a series of moves taken across the world to combat music piracy as production labels see more and more of their profits being lost to illegal downloads of music files.

The music industry has been saying the same thing for several years now: peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing networks are exponentially distributing pirated music across the world through the Internet, and this constitutes a copyright infringement. In English, this means that the fact that I downloaded a Tori Amos track through Kazaa yesterday and am listening to it right now makes me a criminal. So far, so good. Quite true as well.

But the real problem is not that people do not want to pay for music. Often I sample new music off the Internet before buying the CDs. Chances are that if I like most of the album, I’m going to buy it. On the surface this is what radio stations do when they play music. The difference, however, is that it has become insanely easy for me to acquire almost-as-good-as-original quality mp3s of any track that I want to listen to, and even if I don’t pay a dime, no one is there to catch me.

The principle of accountability has vanished. When one sees that there are two ways to acquire the same product, but by sacrificing a ‘little’ bit of quality you can get it for free without being penalized for it, what would most rational people do? P2P networks have made finding music off the Internet ridiculously easy, and most of us tend to ‘forget’ our social responsibility when it comes to such ‘trivial’ matters. To contribute to this, copy-protection techniques used on CDs by major production houses are always a step behind the latest cracking algorithms, and steps taken to prevent ‘ripping’ of CDs and DVDs have proven fruitless so far.

Enter music downloads of the legal kind. Disregarding the small number of ‘free’ legal music available for promotional purposes, more and more artists and labels have begun to provide a pay-per-download music service. In essence, you can purchase individual tracks or complete albums through a secure online transaction and then download your ‘purchase’ and, with variable limits to personal use, pretty much do whatever you want to do with it (Several providers digitally encode the files to prevent them from being played on other computers, or to be burned onto CD-Rs)
This is both a move to encourage free-riders such as me to start acquiring ‘legal’ music and an economic adjustment to the digital music revolution. Developing technologies are changing the way people perceive and use music. The advent of iPod and other mp3 players has meant that more and more people are becoming accustomed to carrying around their complete music collections with the latest players offering space for around 10,000 songs. This holds frightening possibilities for record companies. There is a very real concern within the industry that the CD format is fast going out of style, and as technology evolves, consumer demands for the best ‘medium’ will change as well. Till a few years ago audio CDs offered unparalleled music quality, a factor record companies used to encourage people to ‘buy instead of steal (download)’. However, today’s high-quality digital formats mean that audio quality is comparable, and in some cases equal to, CDs. Some experts are even starting to predict that within a decade CDs will become history as digital music will evolve to a point where we will be have access to our entire music collection (hopefully paid for) wherever we want it: in our car, at work, anywhere in the house, even on the beach. Matched with promises (and the reality) of audio quality, this is a serious threat to traditional business.

Thus, providing legal music online is a means of the industry trying to position itself to take advantage of the rising trend of portable music collections. A quick glance across major online music stores tells us exactly so. While offering free-riders affordable music (allowing them to purchase only the tracks they like instead of forcing them to buy the complete album) to ensure that they do not turn to music piracy, sites like eMusic and Apple’s iTunes are backing the new trend. iTunes, Apple’s online music store, has the added distinction of being supported by perhaps the best mp3 player in the business, the iPod. In this combination, Apple has found a very secure marketing brand and ensured that it takes full advantage of this cross between technology and music.

Legal music downloads appear to be the perfect answer to stopping music piracy, at least the downloading kind. Therefore there is no surprise when one sees major record labels pushing to expand such services. However, recent developments tend to make us question what the overall agenda really is. After a period of consolidation of the digital music market in the last two years, albums available for download online are being priced higher than they would normally be in retail stores. It used to be that you could download a song for $0.99 and a complete album for $9.99, but now stores are setting higher prices, with tracks going for $1.50 or even $2.49 and $11.50 albums being sold for $12.50 and $13.00 online. What is going on?
In positioning themselves to take advantage of changing market forces, the music industry has also hit upon another major factor in determining sales: consumer behavior. Legal music downloads offer people like me the comfort of never having to waste time in retail stores looking for my favorite track from high-school days or wondering when the latest album of Nickelback would hit the shelves. Instead, all the hassles are removed with everything easily searchable, previewable and downloadable from the comfort of my computer chair (and this baby is very, very, comfortable). Consumers may not be usually rational, but they are always looking to save the effort when it comes to making any sort of purchases. Online stores (or is it the major recording labels? Who knows…) are now cashing into this very aspect of human psychology and are beginning to charge extra for a service they are portraying now as a privilege. Having already consolidated their core target market, the time has now come to increase revenues.

Would this drive people back towards music piracy? Highly unlikely. People are not evil, or criminal, by nature. Appeals to their better nature usually work, and that is the strategy adopted by agencies like the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) who are actively involved in putting a stop to illegal music sharing. Media campaigns encouraging music lovers to pay a dollar or two for tracks instead of ‘committing a crime’ by downloading them for free are actually working as slowly but surely, more and more people flock to online music stores. And with existing customers sticking to this more ‘comfortable’ way of buying music, the industry is finally starting to win back ground it lost due to music piracy.

For more information about this topic please visit www.Every.ca
admin@every.ca

Mike Ber is the owner of the Canadian Domain Name Portal called http://www.Every.ca. He is also a contributing author to Canadian Computer Magazine and http://www.Developer.ca website.

One of the most intriguing aspects of music is how easily it can transform one’s mood. The right notes, at the right tempo, and all of a sudden, BAM! You’re in a good mood. This 3 piece from Washington, DC knows exactly how to pull this off. Consisting of members of the now defunct band “Faraquet”, Medications oddly enough, sounds a lot like Faraquet. It’s peculiar how a band consisting of the same musicians can sound very similar. After the Faraquet breakup 2 of the founding members created Medications and while the sound is very similar, the new third wheel does add some new elements into the mix. A mere 6 months since the release of their Medications EP, they have returned with their first full length Your favorite people all in one place available now on Dischord.

While the music on this album does sound a lot like Faraquet and the Medications EP, the quirky time signatures and awkward vocal lines are quickly becoming a thing of the past, the songwriting maintains that same dry, yet clever feel, but it seems the band is slowly trying to forge a new identity. The album begins with Surprise! Which is arguably the single greatest opening track of all time, starting off as every 70s rock concert ended, a solid 4/4 beat with ascending guitars and thundering drums. Any band that has the guts to open their disc with a rock and roll finale gets extra points from me.

The production and dumbed down songwriting of this album is slightly disappointing, unless of course you are a classic rock fan. You can clearly hear the influence of early rock bands like Led Zeppelin, both on the production, and the songwriting. With drumming that is very evocative of Bonzo and very thin, vintage guitar tones. The album, just as the EP and all Faraquet material before it, has a very raw and uncut feel to it. Not raw in the St. Anger “we didn’t even try” sense, but more along the lines of a live recording, the band sounds tight, but you can still pick out the playing nuances of each member, giving the band a very ‘real’ sound. If you’re sick of pro-tools albums, this just might fit your prescription. (Pun intended, zing)

I think the classic rock influence shines strongest on the albums 9th track, I am the Harvest the opening feedback drops into a guitar riff that just screams Jimmy Page from miles away. You can almost see the band performing it in your head, after nearly 2 minutes of introduction guitar noodling, the vocals finally enter and the guitar takes a much needed break. The drumming really takes over on this track, as the guitar feedbacks during the verses and allows the drums and bass to dictate the rest of the song.

Your favorite people all in one place may not be a bold step into uncharted territory for this DC trio, but there’s nothing wrong with a slow evolution. The music is solid and the band still appeals to their core fans while managing to remain fresh and interesting.

Overall: 7.1

Chris Elkjar is the founder of ‘trust.me’ an online music magazine for the enthusiast. He spends all of his spare time immersed in music, be it writing reviews, interviews with leading bands or writing his own music.

For more of his writing, check out Trust-Me.ca - Music for robots

Rock n’ Roll has become somewhat of a generic term used to identify a wide variety of popular music today. Like many other things associated with this generation, it has been reduced to an almost pathetic state of relativism, but it wasn’t always so.

When Rock’n Roll was born, it offered up a fresh new sound that was radical and different. Rockers such as Little Richard, Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Bill Haley and the Comets, and Elvis, among others, burst onto the scene in such a way that audiences were amazed, some were shocked and others were absolutely appalled. However, most of us can now look back in hindsight and recognize the important influence these early artists had on the direction that popular music was to take.

Which brings me to the point of this article. Last week, my husband informed me of an interesting fact about a little bird known as a starling. Since we happen to have a family of them living under the eave of our house, he has been having fun recording them with his new camcorder. He showed me the clip and pointed out that I should listen to them sing. At first they sounded like themselves. Then, all of a sudden, one of them sang like a meadowlark! He told me that he has heard them sound like magpies, ravens, and even a rooster once! Starlings love to mimic other birds.

Mr. B.B. King once told a class of young guitar students that he didn’t care if they could play like him. No one needs another B.B. King, he said; that’s already been done. You’ve got to find your own voice.

This is a wise piece of advice from someone who knows from whence he speaks, so please take heed. Do you have dreams of really making it big someday? Then let me ask you an important question: are you going to be a Rock n’ Roll Star or a Rock n’ Roll Star–ling? How you answer, may well determine your future.

Consolidating Debt

You’ve possibly heard all types of rumours about consolidating your debt. Some of these stories portray it as the easiest and quickest way to repay your debts. Others paint a worrying picture of escalating debts which, leads inevitably to financial disaster.

The real situation probably rests right the middle. Consolidating your debt may or may not be the best way for you to repay your debt. It all depends on a wide range of factors: not just how much you owe to creditors, but how much you make and what type of debts you’re thinking about consolidating, as well as your attitude to debt and to money in general.

There are a few rules that apply to most people.

Take a look at these debt consolidation dos & don’ts.

DO

Do talk to a professional debt adviser if you’re thinking about pursuing debt consolidation. You need someone who can help you explore your options, so make sure you talk to a company that doesn’t only provide consolidation loans. Its possible that all you need is some advice on budgeting more effectively, so you can handle your debts personally.

Make sure you think carefully about the repayment term for your consolidation loan, if you take one.

DON’T

Don’t keep on struggling if you really can’t afford your debt repayments. If you need help, ask for it - a debt consultant will be able to help you decide whether you need a professional debt solution, and if so, which one.

If you make a habit of salivating over vintage recording gear, wince at the price, and secretly wish you lived in the the ‘good old days’ when every recording studio was full of these fat sounding cool pieces of equipment, remember to include being born rich as part of your dream.

Before the advent of the digital age and cheap consumer electronics, the phrase “I’m going into the studio’ had a reverence in the music business. The recording studio was a remote unobtainable dream for most musicians, and for a very good reason. It was expensive. Really expensive. Studio gear was expensive, therefore, studio time was very high. In the early 70’s, from 40-75 dollars an hour for a good local 16 track studio and well over 100 dollars for a national house was normal. Remember, this was in 1970 money, multiply that by at least a factor of 8 to get todays monetary value. Even demo studios, with antiquated 8 track equipment were 20 an hour on up (that makes it $160 by todays money.)

The cost of operation was high as well, the 2 inch tape used in 16 track recorders cost some $50 a roll, (not included in the price of the session.) Editing was a time consuming process, every edit point had to be laboriously found on the tape, razor cut, and the tape physically spiced together. Often hundreds of yards of acetate lay coiled in empty garbage cans waiting the razor.

Not just the recording process was pricey. The cost of producing the vinyl record was astronomical. First, a master had to be made, with a special machine literally cutting grooves in a metal plate. Then molds had to be cast, (a mold was good for only a certain number of records, the longer the run , the more molds had to be made.) Finally the vinyl had to be pressed and the label printed. One a small run of a few hundred 45 rpm singles, just the record manufacturing cost alone ensured the impossibility of recouping expenses. Only in large runs and sales of many thousands did the vinyl record become profitable.

The cost of recording and producing a small run of 45 rpm records to go on local jukeboxes and use as promotional tools was something many bands scrimped and saved for years, and the product would very likely be nowhere near airplay quality. A self produced album was a rarity, usually the result of a band either finding a wealthy ‘backer,’ or maybe a member working in a local studio for studio time in the off hours. A song writer either relied on simple guitar and vocal demos, or relied on demo studios to do quicky versions of his songs, often for a package price per song. Either way, the recording a band was not something done on a whim, or, on an empty wallet.

So remember, the next time you drool over some esoteric retro tube 70’s gismo, for the adjusted price of a few hours in the studio ‘back in the day,’ you now buy gear that will give you all the time in the world to create, hone your craft, and maybe still have enough left for that tube preamp.

You’ve just taken the photo of a lifetime with your digital camera.

It has perfect light, a great composition, and the photography muse was clearly smiling upon you when you took the shot.

You send it off to the printers, and what you get back is terribly disappointing.

A quarter of your image is gone!

The brilliant composition that you so carefully crafted when you took the photo doesn’t have the same impact as the image you see on your computer.

What in the world happened?

Aspect Ratio

Welcome to the world of aspect ratio.

It sounds mathematical, but it is easy to understand once the following four points makes sense:

• A standard 4×6 print has an aspect ratio of 2:3 (4×6 divided by 2)
• A single film negative also has an aspect ratio of 2:3
• Some digital camera sensors do not have an aspect ratio of 2:3
• Aspect ratios are usually written with the long side first (3:2)

Remember when you used to get your film photos developed into 4×6 prints?

The photo that you took was the photo you got in the print. Since the aspect ratio of film is the same as a 4×6 print, no cropping takes place.

But the aspect ratio of your digital camera might be 4:3 (a common alternative to the 3:2 ratio).

Here’s the key point: every photo that you take with a 4:3 digital camera will get cropped when you make a standard 4×6 print. Since the aspect ratios aren’t equivalent, some of your image is lost.

Larger Print Sizes

People who own digital cameras with 3:2 sensors might be feeling pretty smug right about now. But even you are not immune to the effects of aspect ratio.

Let’s say that you take your 3:2 image and make a 5×7 or 8×10 inch print. Do you think you see the problem here? 3:2 is not equivalent to 7:5, nor is it equivalent to 5:4 (8×10 divided by 2).

Every 3:2 photo that you print at 5×7 or 8×10 will get cropped - you’re now in the same boat as all of those 4:3 people trying to make 4×6 prints.

True, this problem is not the same as the previous one. You’re far more likely to make 4×6 prints than 5×7 or 8×10. If the 4×6 prints remain intact and only the larger sizes get cropped then 90% of the prints you make will turn out fine.

Your Options

If you are buying a new digital camera, find out beforehand what the aspect ratio of the sensor is.

• If you want to make a lot of 4×6 prints, get a camera with a 3:2 sensor
• If you enjoy making larger size prints, it won’t matter what the sensor’s aspect ratio is - both 3:2 and 4:3 will get cropped in some way
• If you never want to print your photos, then the 4:3 ratio is actually more convenient since 4:3 is the same aspect ratio as your monitor - this makes it easy to use your photos for desktop backgrounds

If you already own a digital camera, there’s not too much you can do about print cropping - it will happen one way or another.

The only way to control it is to do the cropping yourself. In every photo that you take, leave additional space around the borders of the image.

Use your favorite image editing program and set your cropping tool to the aspect ratio of the print that you want to make (3:2 for 4×6, 7:5 for 5×7 and 5:4 for 8×10). When you crop the photo for the appropriate print size, you are in control of the parts of the image that get lost.

This way you won’t get any nasty surprises when you get the prints back from your most recent tropical vacation.

If you ask the experts, they’ll tell you that there are ten things you can do to make sure that your photos are as good a they can be. These are by no means the only things that will give you better photos but most of the pros agree that these are at the top of the list.

Surprisingly, the first thing they tell you to do, when photographing another person, is to look your subject in the eye. This technique engages the subject and gets the best possible expression out of the subject. Take the photo at eye level. If the subject is a child then stoop down to their level. This is called getting a bird’s eye view and is very effective.

The next tip is to use a plain background. You don’t want to take attention away from the subject. By using a plain background the attention is squarely on the subject. Make sure there are no objects of any kind sticking out from the sides of the photo area. Your subject is going to look pretty silly having a car sticking out of her right ear.

Third on the list is to use flash outdoors. While this is actually not necessary, the pros say that this will actually improve the quality of the photo. By using a flash this lightens the facial area and eliminates shadows that can be caused by the sun. It’s a subtle difference, but a difference just the same.

Number four is to move in close to your subject. This will make the photo as sharp as possible. Plus, you want to fill the photo area with the subject itself and not the things around the subject. Don’t get too close or the photo can turn out blurry.

The fifth tip is to move the subject from the middle. This may sound wrong by instinct but what this does is bring your subject to life by moving him from the middle. Try playing tic tac toe with the subject to get the most interesting effect.

Sixth on the list is to lock the focus. Many cameras have auto focus options. Use them. Unless you are a seasoned pro, the camera will do a better job of focusing in on the subject than you can.

The seventh thing to do is to know the range of your flash. Not every flash travels at the same distance. If you are too far away from your subject for your flash to reach you are going to end up with a very dark photo.

Coming in at number eight is to watch light coming from other sources. A bright flash of sun on your grandmother’s face can bring wrinkles more to view. This is not something you want. You want the light to be even throughout the photo. This may involve moving your subject a number of times.

At number nine, the pros suggest to take some vertical photos. In other words, turn your camera on it’s side. For whatever reason, vertical photos just look good and can make a new photographer’s photos look that much better.

At the bottom of the list at number ten is to be a photo director. Don’t just passively take your photos. Move your subjects around. Try to create a composition with your photos. Let them tell a story.

The above tips should get you on your way to being a much better photographer.

Michael Russell

Your Independent guide to Photography