My fascination with female musicians is not just some weird quirk. I am a musician and knowing how challenging it can be to play on stage makes me respect these talented women all the more.
I am part of Silverwing, a rockin' country band based in the Reno, Nevada area. We play classic and current country music with a few good rock songs thrown in to keep it surprising. I have played for a few lonely drunks in a tiny bar to thousands of people at a political rally. It's always fun, even at closing time and the place is emptying out, I still love and appreciate that I get to play music for a living. It is a blessing in my life.
So where is my next gig? The Whiskey Tavern in Carson City, NV. It should be a great time. Looks like they have a good crowd with lots of Facebook followers. They approached us in Virginia City on the Fourth of July and immediately wanted to hire us. Very cool, that's a nice compliment.
So Saturday is gig day. We start playing at 9pm, but we live an hour away, so we actually have to start our "job" earlier in the afternoon, when we load the gear into the pick-up truck. Gotta bring it all, don't want to be an hour away from home and forget one chord, ugh. So it's personal gear, like guitars, stands, microphones, amplifiers and tuners plus PA gear like mixer board, power conditioners, more chords and lots of speakers.
I don't sit by watching my husband loading gear, frightened to break a nail, I jump into the back of the pickup and organize all the stuff. It's like the old video game Tetrus, putting all these amps, boxes, speakers and guitars into a nice little package in the bed of the pickup.
We gotta get there early enough to set up and sound check, so when we turn it on, it sounds good right off the bat. Each room is different. What worked great at the last gig, could be a real disaster at the next gig. We go from outdoor gigs, to small rooms, to large rooms and everything needs to be adjusted for the unique situation. Plus, you don't want to be rushed and chaotic. So after the sound check we need time to relax and kick back just a bit.
You'd think I would be nervous, but it rarely crosses my mind. I was so shy growing up, that even I am amazed by how cool, calm and collected I am when I'm getting up on stage in front of people and singing. Recently we played a wedding. The first song was the couple's first dance and the first note of that song, was me singing with no music behind me, HUH? What! I admit I was shaking, but, I did great. Yeah!
So, that's why I am a great fan of female musicians. I am just a part of a band. I can't imagine how it would feel to step up and be the focal point, to keep a crowd entertained for an evening. Wow, these women are my idols.
Please stop by my website www.guitarchics.com and learn a few interesting facts about my favorite female musicians. The site will be growing each week, so come back often. Also, check out our band at www.silverwingband.com, that's me right in the middle. Our CD "Moonshine" is available at our gigs, our website, CDbaby and Amazon.com.
Showing posts with label female guitar players. Show all posts
Showing posts with label female guitar players. Show all posts
Thursday, July 25, 2013
Thursday, July 18, 2013
GuitarChics is Alive and Well
My website, www.guitarchics.com, is finally active on the Internet. It's has been a personal challenge for me, but it is working and I will be adding to it weekly for the rest of my days.
My hope with GuitarChics is to introduce people to the stories of women who have made a living in the music industry. Whether they are headlining in a stadium, playing in a coffee shop or teaching young children how to play, I want to share their stories. The stories that encourage and inspire young women to pursue their hopes and dreams. I want guitarchics to be a Power of Positive Thinking with musicians as our role models.
It's dear to my heart because I play rhythm guitar in Silverwing, a rockin country band from Northern Nevada. I have played to thousands in a convention center and to a few in an empty bar at closing time, but regardless, it's always showtime. It's my "job" to do my best, to reach down and give you my heart even if it's time to turn off the neon lights and head home and I love my "job."
So stop by www.guitarchics.com and read up the bios that I have completed so far. Check back each week to see what else I have added. If you have an idea of a great female musician that should be added to the site, send me an email at maryband_girl@yahoo.com with "Guitarchics" in the title. I'll do my best to get that person included.
Get Silverwing's first CD of original music at www.silverwingband.com. It's fun and I'm very proud of it, since I wrote a lot of the lyrics, played guitar and my husband wrote the music and played a bunch of instruments.
My hope with GuitarChics is to introduce people to the stories of women who have made a living in the music industry. Whether they are headlining in a stadium, playing in a coffee shop or teaching young children how to play, I want to share their stories. The stories that encourage and inspire young women to pursue their hopes and dreams. I want guitarchics to be a Power of Positive Thinking with musicians as our role models.
It's dear to my heart because I play rhythm guitar in Silverwing, a rockin country band from Northern Nevada. I have played to thousands in a convention center and to a few in an empty bar at closing time, but regardless, it's always showtime. It's my "job" to do my best, to reach down and give you my heart even if it's time to turn off the neon lights and head home and I love my "job."
So stop by www.guitarchics.com and read up the bios that I have completed so far. Check back each week to see what else I have added. If you have an idea of a great female musician that should be added to the site, send me an email at maryband_girl@yahoo.com with "Guitarchics" in the title. I'll do my best to get that person included.
Get Silverwing's first CD of original music at www.silverwingband.com. It's fun and I'm very proud of it, since I wrote a lot of the lyrics, played guitar and my husband wrote the music and played a bunch of instruments.
Sunday, January 27, 2013
Orianthi receives award at 2013 NAMM Trade Show
Right now one of the hottest,
rockin-est female guitar players on the music scene has to be
Orianthi.
Photo courtesy of Dave Stewart
Orianthi (Panagaris) born was in Australia in 1985 and grew up in a home filled with music. She learned to play the acoustic guitar at 6 and moved to the electric guitar at around 9 years old. She was playing with bands at 14 and had the incredible experience of playing for Steve Vai at 15. Orianthi became interested in Carlos Santana's music and bought all his videos. She studied them over and over till the tapes were worn out and her dedication paid off. When Orianthi was 18 she got the opportunity to jam with Carlos and later he invited her up on stage where she played for about a half-hour.
Later, Carlos Santana brought her to
the attention of Paul Reed Smith and she signed an endorsement
agreement with his guitar brand. In 2006 she signed with Geffen
Records. She has played at Eric Clapton's Crossroads and opened for
Steve Vai. Orianthi was the lead guitar player for Carrie Underwood
at the 51st Grammy performance of “Last Name.” That performance caught the attention of Michael Jackson who hired her to be his
guitarist for the This Is It tour which never took place due
to his passing
In 2005 she released her first album Violet Journey. On the album, Orianthi wrote all the music and lyrics, plus contributed guitar, drums and vocal tracks as well as doing the mixing in her home studio.
In 2009 she released the album Believe with the hit “According to You” which she performed in March 2010 on American Idol.
Right now Orianthi is tearing it up on
tour with Alice Cooper. She has the honor of being the first female
member of Alice Cooper's band. In a quote about her debut
performance with Alice Cooper's band, a fan said “she gave a
blistering performance....she's worthy, she's worthy.”
At this year's National Association of
Music Merchants (NAMM) trade show Orianthi will be receiving the “She
Rocks” award from the Women's International Music Network.
On March 12th her new album
Heaven in this Hell will be issued. Check her out as she performs
the single “Frozen” on Fox News.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cLZSn4B7uQ&feature=youtu.be
In a quote from the website "Weekly,"
Orianthi says, ”I hope to inspire a lot more female
guitar players. Just pick it up and keep on going. Even though it's
a guy thing, it'll be really cool to see more girls out there kicking
butt and rocking out”
And since INSPIRATION is what
GuitarChics is all about, let Orianthi's story inspire you to be
dedicated to YOUR passion, whether it's guitar playing or basketball
or ballet. Become committed to your personal interests and maybe you
will be blessed with good luck and great opportunities.
But you'll
never get there if you don't put in the effort!
Sunday, December 30, 2012
Silverwing records new CD
Hi friends, I have been busy playing music with my band Silverwing and of course procrastinating since I last posted, so I need to do some catching up. Here goes....
When I last posted, I was talking about recording the drum tracks and how we used the wrong microphones for the first attempt and so we purchased the Shure PGDMK6 Drum Mic Kit which worked perfectly. Each mic picked up only the sound of the drum that it was pointed at, so we ended up with 6 individual drum tracks.
Next we recorded the bass guitar. Of course, our bass player listened to the scratch tracks through the headphones while he played along. Instead of placing a microphone infront of a bass amplifier, he used a chord do go directly from the bass into the Tascam DP 24 Digital Portable Studio. This produced a clean track without any room noise at all.
Next it was my turn to do the rhythm guitar tracks. Even though some of the songs are pretty rockin, we used an acoustic guitar on all the tracks. I just changed the strum pattern for each song. For "Moonshine" and "Rodeo" I strummed in short hard strums, but for "Wide Open Spaces" I used a much more flowing light strum. It just is dependent upon what the song requires.
On a few songs I went directly into the board from the acoustic guitar with a guitar chord, but we also used an amplifier and placed a mic infront of it, for a different sound. One of the mics we used was the Guitar Cube from MXL. It is manufactured for recording guitar amps, so it served well.
It is difficult to hear your own mistakes and even though I have played the songs many times live, I still made a few mistakes. In past recordings our engineer has had us replay the entire track again and pick through it for the best parts, but since we are using only one track per instrument, we used the "Punch In" technique to fix errors as we recorded.
So after my initial track was completed, I would go outside and get some fresh air and let the engineer and my hubby listen to the track for any errors. I didn't like to hear it. It makes me cringe to hear myself and I am so critical. If they found a mistake we just "Punched In" the correction.
So they would make a note of what measure needed a correction, and I would play along with the recording, when we got to spot that needed fixing, they hit record, let it go through the error and then turned off the recorder. TA-DA big booboo all gone, just like that.
The CD is actually already completed and up for sale all over the internet, but just for the record I am going to continue to discuss the recording process. You can find a copy of our CD "Moonshine" at CD Baby and our site www.silverwingband.com. If you are in Northern Nevada or California check our schedule and come out to one of our gigs. This New Year's Eve Silverwing is playing at Sharkey's Casino in Gardnerville, NV. I'll post some pictures at my next blog.
Check out this link: New CD "Moonshine" by Silverwing
When I last posted, I was talking about recording the drum tracks and how we used the wrong microphones for the first attempt and so we purchased the Shure PGDMK6 Drum Mic Kit which worked perfectly. Each mic picked up only the sound of the drum that it was pointed at, so we ended up with 6 individual drum tracks.
Next we recorded the bass guitar. Of course, our bass player listened to the scratch tracks through the headphones while he played along. Instead of placing a microphone infront of a bass amplifier, he used a chord do go directly from the bass into the Tascam DP 24 Digital Portable Studio. This produced a clean track without any room noise at all.
Next it was my turn to do the rhythm guitar tracks. Even though some of the songs are pretty rockin, we used an acoustic guitar on all the tracks. I just changed the strum pattern for each song. For "Moonshine" and "Rodeo" I strummed in short hard strums, but for "Wide Open Spaces" I used a much more flowing light strum. It just is dependent upon what the song requires.
On a few songs I went directly into the board from the acoustic guitar with a guitar chord, but we also used an amplifier and placed a mic infront of it, for a different sound. One of the mics we used was the Guitar Cube from MXL. It is manufactured for recording guitar amps, so it served well.
It is difficult to hear your own mistakes and even though I have played the songs many times live, I still made a few mistakes. In past recordings our engineer has had us replay the entire track again and pick through it for the best parts, but since we are using only one track per instrument, we used the "Punch In" technique to fix errors as we recorded.
So after my initial track was completed, I would go outside and get some fresh air and let the engineer and my hubby listen to the track for any errors. I didn't like to hear it. It makes me cringe to hear myself and I am so critical. If they found a mistake we just "Punched In" the correction.
So they would make a note of what measure needed a correction, and I would play along with the recording, when we got to spot that needed fixing, they hit record, let it go through the error and then turned off the recorder. TA-DA big booboo all gone, just like that.
The CD is actually already completed and up for sale all over the internet, but just for the record I am going to continue to discuss the recording process. You can find a copy of our CD "Moonshine" at CD Baby and our site www.silverwingband.com. If you are in Northern Nevada or California check our schedule and come out to one of our gigs. This New Year's Eve Silverwing is playing at Sharkey's Casino in Gardnerville, NV. I'll post some pictures at my next blog.
Check out this link: New CD "Moonshine" by Silverwing
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Lead Guitar Riffs
Quick update on my new goal of learning lead guitar, I forgot all about my new goal and so I have nothing to report. The book has not even been opened. So today, Sunday, a day of take it easy and watch some playoff basketball, I make a promise to myself to open that darn book and make some progress.
But in the meantime, Brandywine played two gigs. We played at the Oasis Bowl and at the American Legion Hall. Both nights were great with great crowds. We added quite a few newer songs to our set lists. I added White Liar by Miranda Lambert and I did a pretty good job singing it and got a few compliments. I think my Karaoke singing has actually helped me loosen up when I try and hit the high notes.
Karaoke at Big O's in Fallon on Thursday & Saturday is taking off with good crowds and lots of fun. Thursday is ladies night, so come on out.
But in the meantime, Brandywine played two gigs. We played at the Oasis Bowl and at the American Legion Hall. Both nights were great with great crowds. We added quite a few newer songs to our set lists. I added White Liar by Miranda Lambert and I did a pretty good job singing it and got a few compliments. I think my Karaoke singing has actually helped me loosen up when I try and hit the high notes.
Karaoke at Big O's in Fallon on Thursday & Saturday is taking off with good crowds and lots of fun. Thursday is ladies night, so come on out.
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