Matt Johnson & Nick Semrad

[Docbop]

Cool chat with two great and funky keyboard players Matt Johnson and Nick Semrad.

 

[video:youtube]

[nadroj]

Enjoyed this, especially from 30 minutes onwards when they started talking about preparation and gigging. I've subbed a few gigs where the band have been like "oh, wow he actually knows the part!". Apparently it is quite a rare thing for keyboard players to show up fully prepared!

 

One time I subbed in for a corporate gig, and the guys were amazed I was playing superstition right. I asked what their regular guy usually did, and they said "he just kinda jams around on a clav sound...". I mean, really???

[niacin]

Enjoyed this, especially from 30 minutes onwards when they started talking about preparation and gigging. I've subbed a few gigs where the band have been like "oh, wow he actually knows the part!". Apparently it is quite a rare thing for keyboard players to show up fully prepared!

 

One time I subbed in for a corporate gig, and the guys were amazed I was playing superstition right. I asked what their regular guy usually did, and they said "he just kinda jams around on a clav sound...". I mean, really???

 

Totally my experience too. I've always assumed I should at least get close to the sound on the record, but I have seen guys just wing their way through gigs switching between piano and rhodes patches and yes I have seen a guy play Superstition on a rhodes patch, a New Year's Eve gig centre of town no less.

[stoken6]

Yup - this is imho an easy way for a keys player to impress a prospective band. I remember bringing Chaka Khan's "Ain't Nobody" to rehearsal, and I had the Ebm7 arp lined up and triggered it at the start of the song. Immediate positive reaction.

 

Also shout-out to KC for helping me understand Joe Walsh's "Life's been good" - I got a call from a virtual/bandemic project asking if I could provide the synth loop in the middle. Their regular keys player (who I know, she's great) wasn't able to. There was a thread here on how the patch used the keyboard (note played) to modulate filter cutoff, but not oscillator frequency. That was a nice challenge on my Nord!

 

Cheers, Mike.

[cp-the-nerd]

Enjoyed this, especially from 30 minutes onwards when they started talking about preparation and gigging. I've subbed a few gigs where the band have been like "oh, wow he actually knows the part!". Apparently it is quite a rare thing for keyboard players to show up fully prepared!

 

One time I subbed in for a corporate gig, and the guys were amazed I was playing superstition right. I asked what their regular guy usually did, and they said "he just kinda jams around on a clav sound...". I mean, really???

 

I was once asked by a new guitarist in my old cover band whether I always learn parts in the original key. I responded in complete confusion "Um... why wouldn't I?" And he told me the last time he had a keyboard player, they always transposed the keyboard to play in C. I didn't even know how to respond to that. Holy crap.

 

Eventually that comment made more sense as we realized he was at least an order of magnitude below everyone else's talent and motivation, despite being around 50 years old and thinking rather highly of himself.

 

We called people like that "good enough" players, because they only learn enough to BS their way through a song and think that's being a musician.

[Tusker]

I found this to be a very educational video. My favorite aspect was the setup, where Nick got us got thinking about what he would do with Matt Johnson's backing track. He ended up more note-focused and less sound-focused than I thought he would. Super-tasteful. Great job.

[cp-the-nerd]

I found this to be a very educational video. My favorite aspect was the setup, where Nick got us got thinking about what he would do with Matt Johnson's backing track. He ended up more note-focused and less sound-focused than I thought he would. Super-tasteful. Great job.

 

I actually started to glaze over during that part. Haha. Nick was being a bit verbose like he was trying to impress Matt.

[marczellm]

Yup - this is imho an easy way for a keys player to impress a prospective band. I remember bringing Chaka Khan's "Ain't Nobody" to rehearsal, and I had the Ebm7 arp lined up and triggered it at the start of the song. Immediate positive reaction.

Cheers, Mike.

I did the same but they were unenthused: it was overkill to try to pull off that weird parallel time signature thing at this one off gig at some museum, with one rehearsal.

 

It"s nothing wrong IMO to play Superstition on a rhodes patch if the goal is to reinterpret rather than cover it.

[Doerfler]

Much respect to Nick (I have seen him several times playing in "The Funk Apostles", he is fantastic.).

 

Much respect to Matt.(I subscribe to his You Tube channel)

 

Nice Yamaha commercial.