Can creating a stage persona make you a better musician?
My wacky top hat even works its magic when I wield a 6-string onstage. Photo courtesy of PRS Guitars (prsguitars.com)
In 9th grade, I took Speech and Drama as an elective at Lincoln Junior High in Billings, Montana. My gym instructor warned me the class was āqueer bullshit,ā but I opted for it because it promised little homework and a high ratio of cute, popular, narcissistic girlsāthe likes of which would not be found in my other dork-filled classes like Orchestra and English.
Speech and Drama also appealed to the musician in me because it kept me out of woodshop, where fingers were regularly sacrificed to the hungry band saw. Surprisingly, this blow-off elective taught me the one lesson Iāve used throughout my career.
Hereās the gist: One day a local thespian came to class. I donāt remember his name or what he looked like, but I do remember what this person taught me that day. He stood at the makeshift stage at the front of the class, pointed to four of us and said, āYou four come up here and stand.ā
We did, and then we waited. And waited. And waited as he leaned smugly against the desk. Eventually, all my idiot friends began to giggle, and though I was laughing as well, I felt as wildly uncomfortable as you would when a roomful of your peers openly mocks you. I began to wonder if my fly was down or if something was dangling out of my nose. Then panic truly gripped me when I thought my hormonally toxic body might once again torture me with an ill-timed, spontaneous erection. (This condition plagued much of my junior-high experience, forcing me to always walk with a notebook in front of my genitals. Adolescence is a cruel bitch.) I wanted to disappear under my desk.
The actor kept us standing there for roughly 90 anxiety-filled seconds until he said, āNow pretend youāre rowing a canoe.ā Immediately we began hamming it up, rowing manically, striking Lewis and Clark explorer poses, which made the class laugh harder and all anxiety disappear.
The actor told us to sit down, and then asked, āYou were really uncomfortable just standing there, right?ā
āYes,ā we all agreed.
āBut when you were pretending to row the boat, you werenāt uncomfortable, right?ā
We all acknowledged that we were, in fact, having fun and not at all uncomfortable during the boat bit.
He explained that when we stand in front of an audience as ourselves, we feel like we are being judged. We begin to worry about how we look, what we should do with our hands, how to stand. This makes trying to appear natural very unnatural. However, when we pretend to do something or be something other than ourselves, weāre comfortable because we know weāre not being judged for who we are. Instead, the audience judges the character weāre playing. This gives us license to do anything while remaining free from judgment.
A year later when I first walked onto a stage with a guitar in my hand, I was terrified until applied knowledge saved me. I told myself, āJust pretend to be a cool guitarist.ā
āBut who is a cool guitarist?ā I asked myself.
The first image that came to mind was Keith Richards. (Letās have a contest! Nominate your ācool guitaristā in the comments section. I bet Keef wins.) On that day, he became the template for how I carry myself onstage. For years after that when I found myself in a panic-inducing gig, Iād just think, āWhat would Keith do?ā
By now Iāve done it for so long I donāt know where Keith begins and I end. Itās the performance equivalent of a child imitating his father, then developing his own slightly derivative style. Whatever it takes to get in character.
Speaking of characters, how about that Gene Simmons? As a former member of The Kiss Army, Iām duty-bound to read all the Gene Simmons biographies. In one of them, Simmons recalls how the first time he put on the makeup, he felt completely uninhibited. The makeup turned a nice Jewish 6th-grade teacher into The Demonāa far more engaging entity to watch in an arena. In turn, The Demon turned a poor Israeli immigrant into a very wealthy man with his own reality show and enough merch to choke a Walmart.
Currently Iām touring as the pedal-steel player for Lee Brice, an amazingly talented country artist whose current album debuts at No. 1 as I type this. Although Iāve played steel for roughly 15 years, this is the first gig where Iām not the lead guitarist who plays steel on a few songs. This paradigm shift meant that my Keith thing does not really translate to this weird instrument generally played by old guys in cowboy hats. The primary problem is that you never look like youāre rocking when youāre sitting down.
The conundrum bounced about my brain after a show in Memphis while I was stumbling around Beale Street out of my mind on a delicate blend of absinthe and, ah, local medicinal green tea. I lighted upon a bodega/shrine to Elvis where, next to the King, commemorative T-shirts, Jesus candles, post cards, novelty sunglasses, and Haitian voodoo dolls, I found a lone, semi-creepy black top hatāthe kind you might see on ā70s-era Tom Petty or an old-timey mortician. I put it on, checked my blurry reflection in the mirror, paid way too much, and disappeared into the night, eventually crawling my way back to our tour bus.
When I awoke, hung over in my clothes and wearing the top hat, Lee looked at me and said, āBoh, you should gig in that.ā
Iāve worn it on almost every gig since that fuzzy Memphis nightāthat hat has become my talisman. Pedal-steel players are, for the most part, total nut-jobs. You almost have to be one to deal with a constantly drifting E9 tuning, no frets, five knee levers, and three pedals. This ridiculous lid helps me get in character. I look like a total weirdo steel player, which makes me a total weirdo steel player. Now I can just sit at this incredibly complex, beautiful instrument and simply focus on playing in tune and in time. People arenāt judging meātheyāre watching that weird dude in the top hat sitting at the slide thingy.
Whitman Audio introduces the Decoherence Drive and Wave Collapse Fuzz, two innovative guitar pedals designed to push the boundaries of sound exploration. With unique features like cascading gain stages and vintage silicon transistor fuzz, these pedals offer musicians a new path to sonic creativity.
Whitman Audio, a new audio effects company, has launched with two cutting-edge guitar pedals, the Decoherence drive and Wave Collapse fuzz. Combining science and art to craft audio effects devices, Whitman Audio aims to transcend the ordinary, believing that magic can occur when the right musician meets the right tool.
Delivering a solution for musicians looking to explore a wide range of sounds, each pedal offers a unique path to finding your own voice. The Decoherence drive injects a universe of unique saturation into your music arsenal while the Wave Collapse fuzz takes you to uncharted sonic territories.
Decoherence features include:
- Cascading stages (Gain A > Gain B) each with a unique sound and saturation character
- Gain A - Medium to high gain stage with a mid focus for clear articulation and punch
- Gain B - Low to Medium gain with a neutral EQ that compliments and expands Gain A
- G/S Toggle - Selects the clipping diodes for Gain B (NOS Germanium or NOS Silicon)
- Tone Knobs (H & L) - Tuned active Baxendall style EQs that boost or cut Highs and Lows
- True bypass switching, accepts standard 9V DC power supplies (does not accept battery)
Introducing: Decoherence Drive -Ā YouTube
Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.Wave Collapse features include:
- Vintage Silicon transistor fuzz that goes from vintage clean to doom metal mean
- Buffered input and pickup simulation ensure it sounds great anywhere in your chain
- Bias Knob - Allows for a huge range of texture and response in the pedals gain structure
- Range and Mass Toggles - Provide easy access to three diverse bass and gain ranges
- Filter Knob - A simple-to-use tilt EQ enhanced by the Center toggle for two mid responses
- True bypass switching, accepts standard 9V DC power supplies (does not accept battery)
The Decoherence drive and Wave Collapse fuzz pedals carry retail prices of $195.00 each.
For more information, please visit whitmanaudio.com.
Introducing: Wave Collapse Fuzz - YouTube
Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.In our third installment with Santa Cruz Guitar Company founder Richard Hoover, the master luthier shows PG's John Bohlinger how his team of builders assemble and construct guitars like a chef preparing food pairings. Hoover explains that the finer details like binding, headstock size and shape, internal bracing, and adhesives are critical players in shaping an instrument's sound. Finally, Richard explains how SCGC uses every inch of wood for making acoustic guitars or outside ventures like surfboards and art.
We know Horsegirl as a band of musicians, but their friendships will always come before the music. From left to right: Nora Cheng, drummer Gigi Reece, and Penelope Lowenstein.
The Chicago-via-New York trio of best friends reinterpret the best bits of college-rock and ā90s indie on their new record, Phonetics On and On.
Horsegirl guitarists Nora Cheng and Penelope Lowenstein are back in their hometown of Chicago during winter break from New York University, where they share an apartment with drummer Gigi Reece. Theyāre both in the middle of writing papers. Cheng is working on one about Buckminster Fuller for a city planning class, and Lowenstein is untangling Austrian writer Ingeborg Bachmannās short story, āThree Paths to the Lake.ā
āIt was kind of life-changing, honestly. It changed how I thought about womanhood,ā Lowenstein says over the call, laughing a bit at the gravitas of the statement.
But the moment of levity illuminates the fact that big things are happening in their lives. When they released their debut album, 2022ās Versions of Modern Performance, the three members of Horsegirl were still teenagers in high school. Their new, sophomore record, Phonetics On and On, arrives right in the middle of numerous first experiencesātheir first time living away from home, first loves, first years of their 20s, in university. Horsegirl is going through changes. Lowenstein notes how, through moving to a new city, their friendship has grown, too, into something more familial. They rely on each other more.
āIf the friendship was ever taking a toll because of the band, the friendship would come before the band, without any doubt.āāPenelope Lowenstein
āEveryone's cooking together, you take each other to the doctor,ā Lowenstein says. āYou rely on each other for weird things. I think transitioning from being teenage friends to suddenly working together, touring together, writing together in this really intimate creative relationship, going through sort of an unusual experience together at a young age, and then also starting school togetherāI just feel like it brings this insane intimacy that we work really hard to maintain. And if the friendship was ever taking a toll because of the band, the friendship would come before the band without any doubt.ā
Horsegirl recorded their sophomore LP, Phonetics On and On, at Wilcoās The Loft studio in their hometown, Chicago.
These changes also include subtle and not-so-subtle shifts in their sophisticated and artful guitar-pop. Versions of Modern Performance created a notion of the band as ā90s college-rock torchbearers, with reverb-and-distortion-drenched numbers that recalled Yo La Tengo and the Breeders. Phonetics On and On doesnāt extinguish the flame, but itās markedly more contemporary, sacrificing none of the catchiness but opting for more space, hypnotic guitar lines, and meditative, repeated phrases. Cheng and Lowenstein credit Welsh art-pop wiz Cate Le Bonās presence as producer in the studio as essential to the sonic direction.
āOn the record, I think we were really interested in Young Marble Giantsāsuper minimal, the percussiveness of the guitar, and how you can do so much with so little.āāNora Cheng
āWe had never really let a fourth person into our writing process,ā Cheng says. āI feel like Cate really changed the way we think about how you can compose a song, and built off ideas we were already thinking about, and just created this very comfortable space for experimentation and pushed us. There are so many weird instruments and things that aren't even instruments at [Wilcoās Chicago studio] The Loft. I feel like, definitely on our first record, we were super hesitant to go into territory that wasn't just distorted guitar, bass, and drums.ā
Nora Cheng's Gear
Nora Cheng says that letting a fourth personāWelsh artist Cate Le Bonāinto the trioās songwriting changed how they thought about composition.
Photo by Braden Long
Effects
- EarthQuaker Devices Plumes
- Ibanez Tube Screamer
- TC Electronic Polytune
Picks
- Dunlop Tortex .73 mm
Phonetics On and On introduces warm synths (āJulieā), raw-sounding violin (āIn Twosā), and gamelan tilesācommon in traditional Indonesian musicāto Horsegirlās repertoire, and expands on their already deep quiver of guitar sounds as Cheng and Lowenstein branch into frenetic squonks, warped jangles, and jagged, bare-bones riffs. The result is a collection of songs simultaneously densely textured and spacious.
āI listen to these songs and I feel like it captures the raw, creative energy of being in the studio and being like, āFuck! We just exploded the song. What is about to happen?āā Lowenstein says. āThat feeling is something we didnāt have on the first record because we knew exactly what we wanted to capture and it was the songs we had written in my parentsā basement.ā
Cheng was first introduced to classical guitar as a kid by her dad, who tried to teach her, and then she was subsequently drawn back to rock by bands like Cage The Elephant and Arcade Fire. Lowenstein started playing at age 6, which covers most of her life memories and comprises a large part of her identity. āIt made me feel really powerful as a young girl to know that I was a very proficient guitarist,ā she says. The shreddy playing of Television, Pink Floydās spacey guitar solos, and Yo La Tengoās Ira Kaplan were all integral to her as Horsegirl began.
Penelope Lowenstein's Gear
Penelope Lowenstein likes looking back at the versions of herself that made older records.
Photo by Braden Long
Effects
- EarthQuaker Westwood
- EarthQuaker Bellows
- TC Electronic PolyTune
Picks
- Dunlop Tortex 1.0 mm
Recently, the two of them have found themselves influenced by guitarists both related and unrelated to the type of tunes theyāre trading in on their new album. Lowenstein got into Brazilian guitar during the pandemic and has recently been āin a Jim OāRourke, John Fahey zone.ā
āThereās something about listening to that music where you realize, about the guitar, that you can just compose an entire orchestra on one instrument,ā Lowenstein says. āAnd hearing what the bass in those guitar parts is doingāas in, the E stringāis kind of mind blowing.ā
āOn the record, I think we were really interested in Young Marble Giantsāsuper minimal, the percussiveness of the guitar, and how you can do so much with so little,ā Cheng adds. āAnd also Lizzy Mercier [Descloux], mostly on the Rosa Yemen records. That guitar playing I feel was very inspiring for the anti-solo,[a technique] which appears on [Phonetics On and On].āThis flurry of focused discovery gives the impression that Cheng and Lowensteinās sensibilities are shifting day-to-day, buoyed by the incredible expansion of creative possibilities that setting oneās life to revolve around music can afford. And, of course, the energy and exponential growth of youth. Horsegirl has already clocked major stylistic shifts in their brief lifespan, and itās exciting to have such a clear glimpse of evolution in artists who are, likely and hopefully, just beginning a long journey together.
āThereās something about listening to that music where you realize, about the guitar, that you can just compose an entire orchestra on one instrument.āāPenelope Lowenstein
āIn your 20s, life moves so fast,ā Lowenstein says. āSo much changes from the time of recording something to releasing something that even that process is so strange. You recognize yourself, and you also kind of sympathize with yourself. It's a really rewarding way of life, I think, for musicians, and it's cool that we have our teenage years captured like that, tooāon and on until we're old women.ā
YouTube It
Last summer, Horsegirl gathered at a Chicago studio space to record a sun-soaked set of new and old tunes.
Featuring torrefied solid Sitka Spruce tops, mahogany neck, back, and sides, and Fishman Presys VT EQ System, these guitars are designed to deliver quality tone and playability at an affordable price point.
Cort Guitars, acclaimed for creating instruments that exceed in value and quality, introduces the Essence Series. This stunning set of acoustic guitars is designed for musicians looking for the quintessential classic acoustic guitar with fabulous tone all at an exceptional price point. The Essence Series features two distinct body shapes: The Grand Auditorium and the OM Cutaway. Whatever the flavor, the Essence Series has the style to suit.
The Essence-GA-4 is the perfect Grand Auditorium acoustic. Wider than a dreadnought, the Essence-GA-4 features a deep body with a narrower waist and a width of 1 Ā¾ā (45mm) at the nut. The result is an instrument that is ideal for any number of playing styles: Pickingā¦ strummingā¦ the Essence GA-4 is completely up for the task.
The Essence-OM-4 features a shallower body creating a closer connection to the player allowing for ease of use on stage. With its 1 11/16āth (43mm) nut width, this Orchestra Model is great for fingerpickers or singer/guitarists looking for better body contact for an overall better playing experience.
Both acoustics are topped with a torrefied solid Sitka Spruce top using Cortās ATV process. The ATV process or āAged to Vintageā, āagesā the Spruce top to give it the big and open tone of older, highly-sought-after acoustics. To further enhance those vintage tones, the tops bracing is also made of torrefied spruce. The mahogany neck, back, and sides create a warm, robust midrange and bright highs. A rosewood fingerboard and bridge add for a more balanced sound and sustain. The result is amazing tone at first strum. 18:1 Vintage Open Gear Tuners on the mahogany headstock offer precise tuning with vintage styling. The herringbone rosette & purfling accentuates the aesthetics of these instruments adding to their appeal. Both acoustics come in two choices of finish. Natural Semi-Gloss allows the Sitka spruceās natural beauty to shine through and classic Black Top Semi-Gloss.
A FishmanĀ® Presys VT EQ System is installed inside the body versus other systems that cut into the body to be installed. This means the instrument keeps its natural resonance and acoustic flair. The Presys VT EQ System keeps it simple with only Volume and Tone controls resulting in a true, crisp acoustic sound. Lastly, ElixirĀ® Nanoweb Phosphor Bronze Light .012-.053 Acoustic Strings round out these acoustics. This Number 1 acoustic guitar string delivers consistent performance and extended tone life with phosphor bronze sparkle and warmth. The Essence Series takes all these elements, combines them, and exceeds in playability, looks, and affordability.
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For more information, please visit cortguitars.com.