[Harp-L] loud music



Loud can be fun and sound pretty cool if it fits the material and the dynamics are balanced.

I play with one band (2 guitars, bass & drums) that does Chicago blues with a hard rocking groove and they are loud, but they wouldn’t sound right if they weren’t. I just turn up and everything cooks.

I sit in with another blues/R&B band (guitar , bass , drums & singer) who got much louder after their keyboard player left the band. The dynamics were better when they had a keyboard in the band which kept things more balanced. Now, they’re just too damn loud. The dynamics are not right, and it’s hard to sound good when I play with them because my instrument is overwhelmed by the volume.

I sit in with a couple of jazz bands and I must moderate my usual volume when I play with them and really have to pay attention to the dynamics. But sometimes even they build to some pretty loud crescendos for intensity on certain material.

Loud is as loud does. It can be a useful aesthetic device when playing electric, but it certainly can be abused (and frequently is). Too much volume and the dynamics are lost.


JP






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