This is a question for those playing acoustic guitars and I am curious to know how people block out other guitarists and surrounding noise when playing with others. When I play with a group of friends I find that if I sit too close to someone else I tend to listen to them or I hear their guitar and not my own such that if I try to pick out some lead I get muddled. In most situations I can sit far enough away that it isn't a problem but in other cases the seating is such that I can't get out of the range of another guitar. I would suspect that is a particular problem in coffeehouse settings. Any suggestions or is it that my hearing is starting to go :(
Well, I don't play acoustic that much, but I do play with other players (guitar, bass) all the time and you can get lost in the mix. What I try to do is EQ my tone so that I have my own little niche that I can hear myself. Sometimes this takes some real tweaking to get just right.
Playing unamplified acoustic would probably be more difficult as you can't really change your guitar's tone. So probably the best thing you can do is try to distance yourself a little from other players.
It is not your hearing, it is a very common problem. :D
If you know something better than Rock and Roll, I'd like to hear it - Jerry Lee Lewis
It is not your hearing, it is a very common problem
Thanks Wes
You were right as I went to get a flu shot yesterday and the clinic had a free hearing test which I took. My hearing still picks up all frequencies but the technician did say hearing has two components: the ears and the brain. Seems to confirm what my wife has been telling me for years that I just don't pay attention.....
Seems to confirm what my wife has been telling me for years that I just don't pay attention.....
My wife calls that Selective Hearing
John
Well, as a Jazz guy, i can say the very most important thing there is when playing with other people is playing with others. It is all about making sure you hear what you are playing AND what others are playing.
For a beginner that can be really difficult, and even old hands sometimes have nights when their ears just won't cooperate. But what you want to do is to hear what everyone else is doing and how what you're doing is fitting with that.
On a stage gig, the whole point of monitors is to get the sound balance just right so that you have enough of your own sound that you can make sure you're doing what you think you're doing, and enough of everyone else so that you can know what they're doing.
Like most things in the music biz, it just takes experience and practice.
"The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side." -- HST
