Found this Rick Beato video very interesting.
Being of a certain age I just assumed the bands I saw live when I was young just played and sang and that was it. Live performance were frequently noticeably different from the albums, in most cases. Never really gave a thought at some of the really big gigs, where the subsidiary instruments came from. Guess I’ve been educated but hey look, it justifies the recordings where I have used them. Good enough for the pros good enough for me, simples.
It helped me a lot, as I don’t sing it used to rule out most things apart from instrumentals, this is the reason I had a problem with rhythm guitar when I came here first, I had hardly done any!
Once I had gone through everything I needed to to get me up to a standard that I knew was necessary things were so much easier. To be honest I always use a backing track now and do my own if I can’t find anything suitable; which I wouldn’t have been able to do before.
I’m not a fan of the backing track. At our music club’s open mics backing tracks are not allowed. In the case of big gigs, I’m not down on them at all, it’s a whole experience that’s being created. And in the case of some small gigs, I can see the value yet still lean towards disliking them. Perhaps it’s because when not used well is when I’ve noticed them.
Backing tracks have their place in music and always have. There have always been great pieces of music on albums that just could be replicated live. Pink Floyd is a good example. Your not going to bring a helicopter into an indoor stadium for a song or songs that have a full orchestra. It’s hard enough being on the road with the band and crew never mind 100 orchestra members
I despise lip syncing, auto tune and all the other pieces of technology the modern performers use to lie to their paying fans. If you can’t sing or play your part don’t resort to pretending you can.
100% with you on that Rick !
I like good music and it has to be really good for me to pay for it. I don’t care how you get there if it sounds good. There is room for everyone, everything and all approaches.
I startet playing in my mid 40ies and until today I never found other people to play with my favourite Indie Rock. Therefore the only way is to play with backing tracks for my practice at home. Since this months I use the app „Moises“ and it works great. I never played in front of an audience but if this will be one day, it is important to play an own style and without any backing track or something synthetic.