Donovan Banks

I read many blog or forum posts from people who own studios, teach music or are in some way involved in the music industry where they claim to know and profess all truth.

It seems to me that there are far too many experts who have done nothing further with their involvement that writing about it online. How do you now who to trust?

I always like to look at it this way, has the person done enough with their knowledge to be considered known for it? meaning is the person at least semi-famous as an engineer, producer, musician, teacher etc. Have they written for any publications that matter or are they doing a buddy a favour?

If the answer for that is no, then I consider how honest the person is. Do they say they are still learning but this is what I know so far? Are they humble about what they know? One can only despise the guy who says, "I teach people how to sing therefore I AM the authoritae on song writing." I've come across someone like that before. He tried to tarnish the good name of my band because we didn't agree with him.

I maintain one thought though, listen, take what you need and can work with . But ALWAYS follow your own thoughts. Nobody knows your plans better than you.

When playing small gigs one encounters a variety of very strange people. It’s not always drunk people either. I will try list those I have come across and how to handle them professionally.

I was once accused of hiding behind my effects. It hurt me a little because I like to think that I don't. Then one day my GT8 broke and I had to play without it.

I thought I could get away with it, after all, I only need a clean sound and a lead tone. My amp at the time had 2 lead channels which was more than I needed. That gig was a mess. I had no tuner to reference from, so my guitar was out despite my best efforts (I blame the wind. Thats my story and I am sticking to it)

That played on me a lot. What if it were to happen again? So I went and bought an amp with effects built in. I went for the Vox VT50, but could have easily gone for any of the Roland Cubes or the Line6 amps. Even so I reckon I had better learn to do without any effects at all.

I pitched up at a band practice without my amp or my pedal last week. I had to use my band mates Crate amp. It has a lead channel and a clean channel and I made do. Everything sounded fine, even though I use quite a few volume based effects I had to fiddle with the pickup switch and the volume control a lot more than usual but it happened.

Than yesterday, I carried my amp and all my effects but I think I hit new lows in life when I realised I didn't bring a guitar. It was too late to drive all the way back home and I knew nobody nearby with a guitar I could borrow. So I had to make do with playing on an acoustic guitar. It was an Ibanez MASA commemorative acoustic guitar. There isn't much info on this particular guitar but I can say that this one needs a slight neck adjustment, but all round it's a very nice guitar that belongs to our drummer.

So there I played. I changed a few gain and eq settings to try avoid feedback and I played what is normally electric guitar lines on an acoustic guitar. Soloing was a little tough because it has one less fret than I am used to and the cutaway is hard to get into. Add to that an action that you can park under and there you have it.

Why I write about this is that as an amateur musician, trying to get to the higher ranks, it can be good to be fussy about your gear, but if you are rushed into a studio, you might not have tome to go searching for your perfect guitar or to try find the best feel or tone. You could be in the right place at the right time and the right band will be in the studio. You wouldn't want to tell your favourite band, sorry I can't help you out, I don't have my lucky underpants guitar.

Try playing well on anything, that way you can do it at any time when asked.

Following my last blog about amp placement I feel it necessary to speak more about stage preparation. 

I used to always have my amp standing on the floor when I played. I battled to get my sound right for ages.
What was happening was that the majority of the sound was hanging out on the floor, and what was coming to my ears was only certain frequencies, mainly higher tones.
So I got an amp stand and now I aim the amp at me, much like a monitor.

I purchased a set off books recently that I think I should tell you about. They are a short series by David Mead and while I cannot vouch for the author, nor the accuracy of the content in the book, I always feel that if I learn one thing that improves my playing or attitude, then it is worth it.

I have the Basic Scales for Guitar, Basic Chords for Guitar, Basic Kit Repair and the Basic Guitar Workout.

Now I am very impressed with the Guitar Workout as it gives you some very good practice techniques which are very important.
The book works on a simple principle that 10 minutes of good practice here and there is better than not practicing because you only have 10 minutes. How he structures the sessions is that you randomly open the book to any exercise, and spend 2 minutes doing it. He gives a guide on how many repetitions you should be able to achieve in those 2 minutes but the aim is to do as many as you can, while maintaining clear tones.
Some of the exercises are rather tricky though he has split them into three categories, Warm-up; Co-ordination; and Ear Training. They really work your fingers and force you to practice real techniques that matter, not just speed but clarity across all available fingers.

I do like to buy little things like this. My main aim is to learn as much as possible, from all sources possible. That was my first and biggest lesson.

I got a question from one of the vids on YouTube
"How do you record onto v-track 78_2 and delete the one that's already there?"

To select where to bounce the track move your cursor to the top right of the screen. You will see this;

Select which track by using the scroll wheel, then select which V-Track you wish to use. This is currently track 7/8, V-track 5.

The squares next to the number indicate whether you have something recorded there or not. If they are blank then no data is recorded in the V-Track

Hope That helps. Feel free to ask anything else.

I never really liked the flying V so I advertised it for sale and I was traded a Samick strat style guitar for it. Value wise I reckon they're pretty much the same but the Epiphone has a more popular brand name. The Samick is a basic strat style guitar with two humbucking pickups and a floating Tremolo bridge.

I didn't really find time to play with the guitar much but when I did,
I found the D-string almost jumped out every time I used the trem. The guide at the bridge was broken and couldn't be held in place.


I obtained a new bridge hoping to just slot it in, but the plate was smaller than the current trem and it certainly wasn't going to be that easy. The next thing I thought I could do was to swop out all the guides.








There it is all done. The intonation, luckily, was spot on when I put the bridge on. The hardest part is adjusting the spring for the trem vs. the string gauge. Thankfully I've done that before and it was easier. It has a fatter neck than I thought it would but it plays very smooth and I can see myself enjoying it for a short while before selling it off.

I recently read John Smit's book, Captain in the Cauldron and in it, he speaks of how they arrived in France for the 2007 Rugby World Cup. He said the team decided to act as if they had won the Cup already. From my perspective as someone watching, they did play very well and I could see they were going to win, just by the attitude they took on the field.

Here's something I take for myself as a musician from that. I may not be the most talented musician currently, nor am I even remotely famous but I am going to act like I am, so that I can believe it and practice and perform like I am. It is my first step into being as great as I can be...

A short Video Demo on how to Export Tracks using the BOSS BR600

I know a few people battle with this so I put together this video on putting together rhythm arrangements for the BR600. I know the concept is the same for the Micro BR so knock yourself out.




The Song sheet can be found here...

There is one great lesson that playing music has taught me. When learning to play an instrument there are a lot of barriers that prevent you from being a maestro straight away.

Playing guitar you battle to get your fingers to be so precise. Then you have to battle to understand music itself, rhythms and timing. Then you try get even better and play faster, with different techniques, bending notes, vibrato, hammer ons and pull offs. You see masters playing amazing pieces of music and you want to do it so you try and try and you practice for hours until you can do it to.
we focus so much on the final result that all the work in between is nothing to us, it is a few steps we take to achieve our goal.

Why, then, do we look at other areas of life and not try as hard at it. School, University, Maths (I had to throw that in there), Sports, work, relationships, ourselves? We have proven that it is easy, there are only a few steps.

1. Identify what you want
2. find out what steps you need to take to get there
3. Do it

Isn't it simple. Sure, maybe the steps may seem difficult, but if there are millions of musicians in the word, millions of athletes millions of successful people, why do we still think we can't do something, when in fact, we can do anything!!!

I currently play in 2 bands, Swell band, and Zero thirty one.

Friday night (4th September) ZeroThirtyOne did our maiden gig at the Winston Pub. It was rocking!!! I got the flying V into a playable shape and used it on the night. Aside from being an odd shape that guitar plays amazingly well and I am proud to say I rocked out that night....



But it was short lived by an outside gig I did the next day. I plugged in my GT8 and found it was broken. The volume control had been pushed into the chassis and broke off the circuit board rendering it unusable. It is fixable but I will advise you all (anybody out there?) what happens
The wind was howling that day and I found it messed with the resonance of my guitar. Strangely enough it stopped my strings from vibrating as much as they normally do and I sounded terrible. I will have to experiment with this phenomenon and conquer it. Until then I'm afraid outside gigs are a bit much for me.

Last night I played at the Blues Train with Swell Band at Zack's on Wilson's Wharf in Durban. I've been going on and off to watch some of the finest older musicians around play for a while. They are very good and it's a little intimidating to play in their company and I felt a little like I didn't belong there. That turned out to be one of my downfalls.

We were unprepared as a band and had no idea what to play or how we were going to. So we just hacked through some numbers we thought were bluesy enough.

I used someone else's amp which is never good for me. I found my tone wasn't the way I wanted and the GT8 responded differently to this amp. Although that was the least of my worries, I forgot all the chords. I had a shocker of an evening. Thankfully it was short.

My learning points were;
a) don't be intimidated by your surroundings. You deserve to be there.
b) Practice at least once, if not have some sort of discussion before or a plan in place.
c) Check the gear. I tell myself this all the time and I don't practice it. I like my amp and I know my amp so I should use my amp.

All in all, I had a rough one. I got a few compliments which means it was worse by my standards than others. But we are booked there again in September so I can implement my learning's.

The one thing I know above all is that Swell Band is good. We had an off night, so what. We all had our moments and I had a good, blazing solo in "Holding Back the Years." Most importantly, we live and we learn. Rock on!

This weekend I played at the Awakening as part of Nelisa Kala's band. We've been working for a few weeks to put together this show (hence the quiet blog).

We have a good band with very talented musicians, Keith Naidoo on guitar, Lazarus Pillay on Keys and Ross Viljoen on Drums.

We had some issues that we could learn from this weekend.

Friday: We arrived to do a sound check to discover they had a 6 channel sound desk with 2 monitor sends, they had no monitors and their equipment was shocking. One would normally expect a theatre to have top level sound systems and be well equipped for anything. We took it for granted that the venue provided what they said they would. As a result we had to fix it by borrowing equipment and using a separate feed as monitors and to try boost the quality of the house sound.

Saturday: The gig went very well. Keith played outstanding solo's and people loved it. Nelisa did something amazing in that she forgot the words to one of her poems but she covered it so well and nobody was the wiser. Being a professional is not about never making mistakes, it's about being able to handle them. The crowd LOVED the way she did so that night. She was brilliant and it showed in the audience reaction.

Sunday: we had a substantially smaller crowd. We were comfortable with the venue and sound by now so we were set to have a smooth gig. Keith had issues with his pedal which was buzzing badly every time he tried to change effects. This, of course, happened mid song. There are a few learning points here that we can look at.

1. check your gear before you play. If there are any problems that can't be fixed, and if there is a chance it would happen in the set, remove it and make do. A clean guitar solo can be just as effective as an over driven one. It is also impressive at times to see just raw guitaring. While effects can add to the ambiance, as long as your guitar works you are able to play.
2. Nelisa had walked over to the opposite side of the stage to give Keith focus at his solo time. That's when his gear failed so he could do nothing. She could have turned her focus to either the keys or even the bass to fill in the solo gap. Take the focus off the problem and get the audience looking somewhere else so the problem can be sorted out on the side.
3. When a lead guitarists gear fails on him, there is obviously a big gap. Other guitarists in the band should be able to cover the empty space. Again, get the focus off the problem so it can be handled quickly. If not another guitarist, the keys, bass or even drums can sort it out. You should generate a good enough feel for each other so you know who will step in if something goes wrong.

These are all things you learn from experience. I hope you can learn from my experience so you avoid embarrassing situations in front of your fans or potential clients.

Keep an eye out for Nelisa Kala and the Awakening. We'll be doing the rounds soon enough and it is something definitely worth watching.

I was playing bass on a Fender Bassman 100 recently. It had a constant annoying hum, but when the lead was unplugged or muted it went away. I asked the owner if he knew what the problem was and he said it had been like that since he got it.

It was being used in a church. On the stage each instrument is connected straight into a DI box, the signal is then split. One to the desk, and one to the amp for monitoring.

what happens with some DI boxes is that the desk supplies phantom power. It sends 48V up the cable to the DI box. In this case the phantom power was passing through the DI box and being fed into the amp, thereby creating the hum.
when I flicked the ground switch, the power was no longer passing through the DI but was being used up instead so the humming went.


I had a Fender Bassman 50 previously and it too had an annoying hum. although I never used a DI box the ground switch on that amp too was in the wrong position. If you have a hum, check that first before you start replacing costly parts. It could save you some good time and money in the long run.

Hey,
I play in a cover band called Swell. In fact its more of a corporate band as we are not specific to any genre. I will get into the band more as this blog develops but for now you only need to know that we are developing as a band and we regard ourselves as professionals and hold our trade in high esteem.

We played at HighField House in Hillary, Durban on Friday night (22 May 2009) it was a quiet evening and we were ready to do our usual 3 sets. Bearing in mind this isn't exactly a music venue we had to improvise on our placement (read squeeze into a corner) but our sound was once again very good thanks to Niel Snyman.
Highfield house is a small conference/wedding centre with a lovely garden and a great atmosphere. They set up braais for everyone to cook on and it felt like a family gathering. There were children and dogs running around, it just felt like home. ( I also had what I rate as the BEST roasted potatoes ever!)

I had a few problems at this gig I want to mention so others can learn from it;

Steve Fataar was there. He's a very nice guy but as far as my playing goes I've always felt like a hack. In other words I can cut it when there are no muso's around but as soon as someone I consider to be a real guitarist is around I get more nervous and worry that I will be uncovered and pointed out as a novice. I'm not sure why this worries me, I think it is my lack of formal training but I must learn to get over it. He was very nice though and he gave me a piece of advice which I think is very valuable to any and every guitarist.
A sound engineer will mix your levels to how HE sees fit. So if you are playing with your guitar (especially an acoustic guitar) at max volume on your preamp that is as loud as it will go. So do a sound check with your volume slightly lower, that way when you play and you need to break into a solo, you can crank it up slightly so you can be heard.

Not all sound engineers will mix the same as well, if your engineer is a drummer for example, he will favour the drums in the mix, as a pianist will favour piano, a singer vocals and a guitarist the guitars. You need to know who you are working with. Thankfully Niel is very good and his mix comes out beautifully, but he isn't at the desk to turn me up when I need to solo so I need to make provisions for that in the future.

I had a technical problem which you also need to be aware of. I was playing a nylon string semi acoustic guitar. The pre-amp runs on a battery like most of these instruments. I did two things wrong here, I bought a cheap battery and never carried a spare. what happened was that the battery died mid song. The result was that I started out hearing myself clearly then halfway through the song I couldn't hear myself at all. Batteries are funny objects, when a battery is running low, the chemicals inside are still reacting and once it has generated enough voltage again it send out the current, once again draining all energy from it. This resulted in me having surges of volume in the song. The guitar would be soft one second and loud the next. It's not an easy thing to control.

The last issue I had is a bit of a gripe... I have a pick holder that is on the mic stand and I have a few picks stuck in there in case I drop one. During one of our breaks someone pinched 2 of my picks. Now I'm not sure what to think, did someone think I was that good and wanted a memento? Or is someone that cheap that they have to steal a pick from a mic stand when nobody is looking. I'll take the first option though, so thanks to whoever took them, I feel like a rock star...

Until next time, rock on and if you're in the Durban area pull in to Highfield House for next time we play.