Working with Dynamics in your Band
By T. Perry Bowers
My band is a hobby project. We’re never going to “make it” in the music business. We’re older guys, influenced by sixties psychedelic and nineties era grunge. We have our own sound and we love it! We promote ourselves a bit online, play shows locally in Minneapolis and strive to be the best band we can be. But we are under no illusions that we will sell a million copies of our next single.
What we are interested in is how we can deliver a captivating set when we play live. We’ve been talking amongst ourselves and one of the things we’ve been discussing is dynamics. I’m no expert in this, but I am working on it.
What are dynamics?
Dynamics could be described as the ability to raise and lower your band’s intensity and volume at will. One of my favorite acts of all time, Tool, is a master at this. You might think of Tool as a loud, raucous, heavy metal band, and this is true, but only some of the time. I’ve seen them live three times and I am always blown away by their dynamics. Adam Jones hangs on a very simple guitar riff for five to ten minutes while drummer Danny Carey plays some strange percussive licks. The riff is clean and the percussion is subtle. The volume is low. They slowly build into a frenzy of distortion and fusion drumming that is out of this world. Singer Maynard sings almost in a whisper until he belts out like a powerhouse. Tool has great dynamics.
From a listening standpoint, unless you’re paying attention, it is almost undetectable when Tool is doing this. They are so smooth. If you really pay attention, you’ll hear their control over their dynamics and it’s one of the main reasons they are such a blow away band. If they came out and blasted the audience at full volume from the beginning of the show to the end, it would just be annoying. Their ability to become quiet gives them the power of contrast.
Contrast is what allows your audience to appreciate your music. If you have a great blasting lead guitar melody, no one will appreciate it unless you provide contrast to set it up. If everything in your set is at ten no one will notice when your beautifully crafted lead guitar solos happen. But, if you play the verse at half volume, then the drums and bass come up to three quarters volume and you’re on full just when your solo happens, you will turn some heads. If you match your volume with some crafty licks, you might just have something special.
Practicing dynamics also helps you prepare for different venues. We did a couple of gigs at a local brewery recently. The first one was outside so the sound had somewhere to go. We had a little more leeway with our volume. (We were still too loud by the way). Like I said, we are working on it. The second gig was inside with no acoustical treatment. The walls are concrete. The sound bounces everywhere. We could barely hear our own amps as we were playing because we had to be really quiet – which meant we had to completely trust our sound man. The stage mix was not great and once again, we were still too loud. If we had worked more on our dynamics before the gig, it would have been more successful. It wasn’t terrible, it was actually quite a good gig, but it could have been better. We are always striving to be better and contemplating ways to do that. Dynamics comes to the top of the list in our discussions.
A technical point to keep in mind: Sound develops several feet (or more) in front of any speaker (or drum for that matter). So, if you’re only a couple of feet in front of your amp and your amp is on the floor, you’re not hearing the whole power of it. In a small venue you’re probably getting half the volume the audience is getting. This is one of the reasons guitar players keep turning up to hear themselves on stage. But there are a few ways to combat the volume creep:
Get an in-ear monitoring system:
My son’s band has one of these and they love it. I have yet to convert my band, but it may be in our future. You don’t need floor monitors because everything is right in your ear. You can keep you amps low because you turn it up in your in-ear system. It’s a fairly costly remedy for stage volume problems, but in the long run, it could be very beneficial.
Sideswipe your amps:
Try turning your amps towards you (on stage) so they are not pointing directly at the audience. This only works well if you are using microphones on your cabinets. That way the engineer can put the sound of your amp through the PA system at a reasonable volume. If it’s a very small venue and you are not using microphones on your guitar cabs, you might be better off just turning it down. You can get a very strange guitar sound in the audience when you use the sideswipe method with no microphones because they hear the sides of the cabinets, which isn’t always pleasant.
Tilt your amp back, raise your amp up or use a stand:
The closer your amps to your ears, the less you will need to turn them up. This is why a lot of amps have tilt back legs on the sides. (They make stands that do this if your amp didn’t come with the legs.) You can put your amp on a chair, although it’s better if you can tilt it somehow. Use stands that raise and tilt. These are great for combos. However they don’t work well with half stacks.
Drums can be a problem in very small venues. If your band has a coffee shop gig, your drummer will need to practice playing at low volumes. If you’re working with dynamics, your drummer’s lowest volume will be almost nothing at all and the highest volume just a little more than that.
This leads me to another point. You need to get the proper gear for the venue you are playing. I know, we’re not all made out of money, but if your intent is to please your audience with your sound, you need to do the best you can. Get some small, good-sounding combos for your smaller gigs. It’s great to have the big Marshalls, but save them for big venues or outdoor gigs. Get a smaller kit for your drummer with half volume cymbals. These are perfect for an intimate coffee shop gig.
Last but not least, trust your sound guy. Have someone who you trust give you feedback about your sound in the audience. If they say it sounds good, trust them, no matter what it sounds like on stage. During my last gig, we had a guy helping us with sound who was telling us that it sounded great and the volume was just right. During the first set, we didn’t mess with our amps at all. Then, during the second set, we decided that we wanted to turn it up so we could have more fun on stage. It was a big mistake. Another one of our friends was at the gig. He’s also played bass with us and run sound on many occasions. He said the volume was unacceptable. I believe him. We should have kept it right where it was. Lesson learned.
On-stage volume is paramount to good dynamics in a band. If you can’t control your volume, you will never create good dynamics.
Volume pedals, switches and knobs are your friends. I have a volume pedal on my pedal board and volume knobs on all of my guitars. Why do I find that I just crank it all the way up most of the time? Because I’m lazy. I’m not sensing the subtlety of the music. It takes skill to turn your volume up and down in the right places. You have to create space in your playing to reach down and play with your volume knob. A pedal is great because you can keep your hands free, but it takes skill as well. If you’re not careful, you can turn yourself all the way off in an instant. So practice your volume techniques. Bring the band down in the verses and up a little in the choruses. Crank the solos so they really stand out.
There are many ways to play with dynamics in your band. Try taking the drums out of the beginning of verses or drop the bass out of the bridge. Work with distortion and clean tones. When the loud parts come they will scintillate your audience. When it gets quiet your fans will lean forward to listen. The contrast in volume will help to keep your audience engaged from the beginning of your set to the end.
