Well, here we are at the start of a brand new year! Before I put away my 2004 appointment schedule, I glanced through the weeks and was reminded of how different many of my studio sessions were from one another. For example, my experiences included: vocalists with jazz combos, vocalists with orchestras, several motion pictures, lots of Simpsons and King of the Hill episodes, animated shows, Django Reinhardt solos for Lexus commercials, live television performances of songs from movies, Academy Awards, American Idol, UCLA student film score compositions, Broadway show performances, Family Guy, Hawaiian music, flamenco solos, country music, a new solo CD release (TRIO available at MAYZING@aol.com), and a few jazz gigs just for fun! Just about every style of music I can think of came down the road at some time this past year.

One of my favorite things about this business has always been the variety of experiences presented by each musical situation. I love the different musical styles, but the variety I'm speaking of extends well beyond styles. There is a broad range of composers, recording studios, recording engineers, recording techniques, guitar equipment, conducting styles, monitoring situations (headphone mix), music preparation (copying), etc. and these elements may not always be conducive to your giving your absolute best performance.

Many times you have to adjust to something- a poorly copied part, a bad headphone mix, a piece written in a bad key for guitar, malfunctioning equipment, a blister on your finger, or a bad hang-over. It's always something! Just kidding - but one of the keys to being a pro is to get over the little things that aren't exactly right, and do your job anyway. In looking back on the sessions and performances over the past year, I realized that each date was unique and a challenge for its own specific reason(s).

Just a couple weeks ago I did a movie that was scored by a composer named Michael Picton. I didn't know Michael, but as the session progressed I could tell he was a very good composer. The music was well written, and the parts very clearly copied. The guitar parts were all pretty standard, with nothing really too difficult to play. Then the copyist handed me a VERY complex flamenco-style part that was composed and played on a keyboard, then put into a music copying program to print out the guitar part. It was a nice part, and presented a fun challenge, however, getting back to the fact that you can't have everything perfect, it was all in F MAJOR! So, to make it work on the guitar I had to use a capo, which was no problem either, but I had to tune the low E and A strings down a step and a half to get the low D and G written in some of the sections.

In addition, as I said- the music was originally written on a keyboard triggering a guitar sample. That's great, but as a guitarist, all the keyboard advantages of ten fingers and a sustain pedal go out the window! I had to re-voice some of the chords and runs to make them more playable on the guitar and at the same time, I had to determine (with the help of the composer) what parts in the piece were important to remain true to. Fortunately, the studio was good, the engineer was fast, and we were able to knock it out in a few takes! With a difficult part like this, you don't want the engineer to say after a great performance; "That was great, let's do one more so I can adjust a mike."

That's just one example of having to overcome a less than ideal situation. With the technology available to us today, more and more sessions are done in home studios. These can be as good as commercial studios, but can be somewhat less accommodating. Often this means having to record direct instead of miking an amp, poorly copied or nonexistent music, less than ideal monitoring situations, no coffee, or whatever.

The point is- sometimes we have to make up for these problems and do what we need to do to give a good performance. While my favorite way to record an electric guitar is to mike an amp, in smaller studios it's sometimes not an option. The good news is there are more and more good ways to record direct. Many of the direct plug-in units work OK, and there are more and more hard drive-based guitar rigs that are pretty good, but it takes some "finessing" to get a guitar sounding like a miked amp. I also find that using a tube pre-amp helps the sound. Again, sometimes we don't get the luxury of our "dream sound", but we have to make it work!

One of the most common challenges is the quality of music copying. A good copyist is invaluable to a musician in that a part is clearly and logically laid out, making reading much easier. Although copying programs for computers are getting better, it is a great help to have a part prepared by a professional copyist with the proper spacing, chord symbols, etc. That's just one less thing to worry about so we can focus on the playing! Again, in an ideal world...

Some fun surprises come in the form of equipment failures; probably the most common is string breakage. It never happens at a good time, usually at the end of an otherwise great solo or right before a real important part! We have all had to play a passage entirely on the third string because the second string has just broken! Amps and electronic stuff will sometimes fail, so we always have to have backup equipment at hand. With all the doubles studio guitarists play, we have to keep dozens of different instruments freshly strung and ready to play, even those like a bouzouki or ukulele that we may need infrequently. Actually, instruments like these have to be in top playing shape because it can be enough of a challenge to play the "unusual" instrument without having to compensate for an instrument with intonation or playing problems.

We guitarists have always been an adaptable and flexible group, and we have to keep on in that vein. In the fast-changing world of electronics and recording, we have to be prepared for anything, keep on adapting to the quick changes of the recording business, and do what we need to do to get the job done!

Happy New Year one and all!
Tim May