Wired for Sound
By John Otis and Cherie Yurco

If the bassist in a garage band wants the drummer to play a certain fill for the band's latest song, he'll lean over the cymbals and let the drummer know. The close communication between members of a small ensemble is often taken
for granted—but not by the growing number of musicians who collaborate via wires, creating and performing original songs entirely over the Internet.

"At 35 years of age, I'm able to play music with my buddies, even though I'm 3,000 miles away," says Tom Skillman of Campbell River, British Columbia, a human resources manager and drummer whose bandmates in Gert are spread out across Canada and the US. Members of Gert belong to SongFight.org, an online community of songwriters.

A similar music community called Macjams allowed Chad Miller AKA Doctor Bizarre, 31, photo technician, freelance photographer, and photo illustrator, to achieve his dream of creating a solo CD of guitar music featuring the accompaniment of a worldwide mix of talented musicians.

These sites are global communities for musicians interested in meeting other musicians, sampling musical styles, and finding people with similar tastes and talents. It is a great way for amateur musicians to collaborate and create their own music in an environment unrestricted by time and distance.

Miller lives in Syracuse, New York, but his CD, Blasphemous Cacophony, includes musicians from the states of Washington, Georgia, Virginia, Ohio, and Minnesota, as well a talented young keyboardist, Einar Tryggvason, from Iceland and professional Russian trumpet soloist Vladimir Galaktionov, 39.

"I have been creating music since I was 12 and I have recorded in professional studios," says Miller. "Macjams gave me the resources to record with these talented musicians and fulfill my dream as an artist and a musician."

NO TIME RESTRAINTS

Many members of the websites are dedicated amateurs in their 30s, 40s, and 50s who have little time, between career and family, to spend in a traditional band.

Thirty-nine-year-old media artist David Thomas, who plays drums on Miller's CD, discovered Macjams when he saw his wife sampling music on the site. "I was instantly addicted," says Thomas.

"I left my last band several years ago to go to art school. Full-time school and full-time work didn't leave me any time for rehearsals, and since then all of my music has been mixed on computers," explains Thomas.

"You grow up wanting to be in a band, you want to be a musician and live that lifestyle, but real life happens and you've got to pay your mortgage and your bills," says Skillman of Gert. "I have two bands I play with, and we can barely find time to get together. Online collaboration allows you to maintain that dream and keep your own schedule. If we all lived in the same town, we wouldn't be able to do as much as we're doing now."

"With Gert, if I have an idea at two in the morning, I can post it," he adds. "It might not be seen until 10 hours later, but the conversation is always current."

SOCIAL ASPECT

Since a large benefit of recreational music making is the social one, it's not unfair to ask whether a valuable aspect of the hobby is lost with these virtual collaborations. However, most online musicians agree that message boards create a real sense of community for the users.

"Through the message boards you get to know people's personalities very well," says Gert guitar player and keyboardist Rich Brewer of Boston, Massachusetts. And new songs aren't the only topics discussed, since subjects such as career and family often make their way into the chats.

"What we have in Gert goes way beyond online collaborations," says Brewer, 32, a college textbook publisher by day. "Not only do we perform the songs together, we all write pieces of the songs, we all sing here and there, and we understand what it's like to really work with people."

"I love drumming, and the idea of laying down drums to songs recorded a world away—and hearing them mix in as if we were in the same room—is a real blast," says Mike Watkins, a 38-year-old computer programmer from Sterling, Virginia, who worked on Miller's album.

"In real life it is a lot tougher to find musicians who you vibe with," adds Watkins. "On the Internet the spectrum of artists is laid out before you."

Though when Gert got together for the first time last summer, some of its members were able to see what they missed interacting over the web.

"We thought everything was great and then we got together, and I saw I had forgotten how much fun it is to jam in a real rock band and have everyone in the same room bumping up against each other," says Michael McKinnon, 38, a freelance writer based in Toronto, Ontario. "However, we do all have careers. I have a wife, and I look after my two sons during the day, so I can't afford to get together a couple of nights a week and jam with my buddies anymore. Gert is perfect for me in that way."

GLOBAL CRITIQUES

But, what about the learning aspect—the give and take that occurs in a "real live" jam session? Miller points out that, through the Internet, he has access to the experience of musicians that broaden his musical skills to different styles and ethnic backgrounds. "It makes you think differently," he says.

"I've gotten so much advice and good ideas that I have really improved over my two years at Macjams," says David Thomas. "I think if you ask for, and are open to, critiques, there's a lot of potential for growth."

Some members even believe that their distance prevents a member who stubbornly wants his idea accepted from politicking, which betters the artistic process.

"The way we do it is very different from having a bunch of guys in a room who argue about things," Michael McKinnon says of Gert. "We certainly fight a lot less than bands who are in the same room together because our personalities aren't butting up against each other."

Brewer agrees: "You have to be open to putting your own ideas on the back burner and letting someone else pick up the front. What you're accomplishing is much more significant than your own idea. It's more fun for me to forget about my idea and hear what one of the others has to add."

MULTICULTURAL CREATIVITY

Many users feel that this approach to the creative process is much easier and even liberating. "I find that creativity is inherently private and personal," Gert guitarist Des McKinney says. "I do things in a way that allows me to take my time with a song, to lock myself in a room, perfect it, and offer it up. With a traditional band, laying that creativity bare is really tough. I find myself restricted or I censor myself, but with Gert, it's not an issue."

"I would say that it's easier to get creative and try new things by virtue of there being so many potentially interesting projects to latch onto at Macjams," says Thomas. "Half the time, I turn down collaborations just because I feel like I don't have the time to take them on."

It is the sense of multicultural creativity that even appeals to professionals like Vladimir Galaktionov. Although he is an internationally known musician, Galaktionov says he participates in projects like Miller's for the chance to be involved in diverse creations that appeal to him. "It's not important to me how unknown or well-known the musicians are," he says. "If I like the music I am hearing I will participate in creation with pleasure."

Since deciding to upload his music on free websites for musicians, Galaktionov has distributed his music on about 30 to 50 different sites.

Multilevel collaboration

Musicians using online collaboration sites say that creating music online may at first sound daunting, but it is really not that difficult. The sites have step-by-step instructions for new users and there are always plenty of users on the forums to offer up advice or help troubleshoot technical glitches. (Look on page 36 for some MIDI instruments perfect for collaboration.)

Gert's music is a team effort, where one person is in charge of mixing each song. Miller's solo CD meant that he was in control of the final sound; still, the collaboration process was similar.

"Somebody will come up with an initial idea, like a drum beat, a bass line to go along with it, and a piece of the melody," explains computer programmer McKinney of Mississauga, Ontario. "Then he'll record it, post it, and we have our communal discussion. It generally takes us about a week to hash out all the parts and create a song."

"I write a piece of music, record it, and send it to someone to play via e-mail; then they play their part, send me their file, and I mix," says Miller. "Guitar is my forte and when there is an instrument other than guitar that I would like to hear someone else take on, I ask certain musicians whose work I enjoy. Usually the outcome is amazing."

TRY IT!

Musicians who use the online collaboration sites urge others to try it.

Thomas says that the top three things he takes away from the online collaboration experience are: virtual friendships, music that he's proud of, and a big increase in his production talents.

"When I was only playing with 'real' bands, there were a lot of compromises that I found necessary, just from the fact that it's not easy to find musicians to jam with—let alone ones that are compatible in terms of style and practice schedules," he concludes. "It's a great community and I've gotten a lot of enjoyment from it."