Practical MIDI

It’s been nearly three years now since I dissolved my musical duo in favor of going solo with my MIDI files. It has been an adventure and a learning experience. However, like everything else, you can fall into a rut, so to speak, and that’ll make you start thinking about alternatives. Although you may not actually need another member (or two or three) there may come a time when another live musician is just what you may want to keep from going stale.

In my own particular case, I have played in bands in the past and have covered all the positions, so I’m pretty flexible as to which instrument I feel like playing, whether it’s continuing on the keyboards, belting out those Santana guitar licks, making believe I’m Paul McCartney on the bass, or imagining myself as Danny Seraphine pounding out a beat for the group Chicago. All I have to do is decide where to position myself and which other spot or spots to fill with live companions.

Since a live drummer with all his equipment would take up too much space, I’ve been kicking around the idea of recruiting my former band’s lead guitar player to join me in a new duo. Not only would I breathe a little new life into the act, I’d be able to try out some new material with fancier licks that I can’t personally play. A second singer is also another incentive to expand. And on-stage banter between the two of us also would go over better with an audience than me talking to myself.

This is where sequenced MIDI files come in. MIDI can still cover the drums quite well and the bass guitar while my new partner and I fill in the keyboards and guitar. I can keep my same quality MIDI file and just delete the tracks that we’ll be playing live. It’s a simple procedure and getting the new guy up to speed is as easy as attaching my MIDI files to an email and sending the song list to him to practice.

MIDI files don’t have to take over completely for a guitarist, nor do they have to be eliminated simply because there is now a live guitarist on stage. In my solo act I play Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Boxer” but I never really learned the opening acoustic guitar riff. In that case, my MIDI file was very small—perhaps 1K. All it contained was that opening sixteen-note intro. As that played through the keyboard, I’d fake it on the guitar and come in with the live guitar right afterwards. It flowed seamlessly and no one was the wiser. If the new guy is having trouble with a few licks from Dire Straights “Sultans of Swing” he can play what he’s capable of and let MIDI fill in the parts that he can’t quite master. He can always slow the file down to practice those parts later.

Who knows, maybe even this arrangement will get old after a while and I may want to start something else up. Let’s see, how about four guys all playing their own instruments and singing their own parts? Nah, it’s been done to death.

©2002-2006 Bill Bernico for CYBERMIDI.com Downwind Publications