Mixing Resources

Re: Mixing Resources

Ron Kimball said:
Hey Adam, what kind of music do you want to play? I'm usually in a few "basement bands", could use a rhythm guitarist in a blues "band" and a modern rock "band" at the moment a mile or two from your office :) and maybe for a Jazz/Blues jam "band" starting back up in September close by.
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I'm definitely not ready for that but appreciate the offer. I'm still very much a beginner who still struggles with smooth chord changes.
 
Re: Mixing Resources

The following is long but something I have posted before. Maybe not here though. And it is what I believe is one of the best ways to get the hands on part of sound training.

If you just go at it by yourself you are likely to pick up bad habits and also get in trouble and not know how to get out of it quickly. Of course with the apprenticeship method you will likely pickup the bad habits of your teacher. :-0

THE APPRENTICE METHOD

I believe that the only way to really train someone is the apprentice method. And I am not talking about the TV show. I was mostly trained this way. As I have said many times before, my father was an Audio Eng at NBC-TV in NYC and I missed a lot of school going to work with him. You can’t learn everything in a few classes or have it all stick with you. Some people get to learn by going out on their own and do it by trial and error. The only thing wrong with that is, are you learning the right way to do things or not. And lets not forget about the shows or church services that can suffer from this method. Now don’t get me wrong I am still learning every day. I love to learn new things. I wish I could afford to go to a lot of training seminars.

I worked as the Audio Eng for a church (from 1980 –1990) that had a worldwide tape ministry. They also had outgrown their sanctuary (and couldn’t get approval to expand) so they had the Sunday services at other locations. Mostly at a local high school auditorium that sat 1200. We had a portable system that we set up and broke down every Sunday.

The basic way the apprentice method works is the person assists you and you teach them over a long period of time. They need to be inquisitive and you need to have the time and energy to commit to it and want to talk about sound almost all of the time. You also need to be good enough to teach proper methodology. If the apprentice has the desire and ability they will stick with it if not they will quit. Obviously you can’t talk during the service so with one person I taught, we would go out to eat after the Sunday pm service that he helped with and we could discuss the sound system and why things are done a certain way. This was also part of the teaching process. I would many times have an apprentice work with me on other shows also. After a while of physical labor, watching, questioning and being taught they would be let to run the board for short periods of time. Eventually they could run the whole service or show. At first I would be right next to them and they would be told that it would not be personal but if I felt I needed to jump in and rescue the mix they would be hip checked off of the console. I only remember having to do that once.

I have taught this way in the past and one of my apprentices went on to make their living in the industry and used to hire me for shows when he worked at a production company. Another introduced me to someone last year as the guy who taught him everything that he knows about sound. BTW he is a Video/Audio Eng. now. My reply was “But I didn’t teach him everything that I know”. ;-)
 
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