Thoughts on NAMM and Whisperings

I am flying home at the moment from Los Angeles after spending some time at NAMM, a enormous music industry show, and my friends with Whisperings, a group of concert pianists and recording artists. Here are some thoughts I came away with.

NAMM encompasses 1.5 million square feet of every music product you can imagine including instruments, recording equipment, stage equipment and an assortment of other stuff. It is not open to the public but is still attended by close to 100,000 industry people. I technically am not qualified to attend myself because I don’t have a store but I know people that do qualify and one of them got me a pass.

I only made it through one day there. That was one long day. I was looking for inspiration, potential partners, and recording equipment (since I am building a recording studio). I found little to inspire me, no partners and so much recording equipment that I just got overwhelmed. I also found maybe a hundred drum companies, two hundred guitar companies, and a lot of not-shy guitarists and drummers who were happy to “entertain” anyone who would listen. My ears have not forgiven me yet.

Probably the thing that surprised me the most was the immense number of Chinese companies exporting music products to the US. Right now, they get no attention but what I know about Chinese business strategy tells me that they are not likely to be concerned about the lack of love. They think long term and as their products improve, you will start to see them gaining traction. Already, they have a few piano brands that are performing quite well in the US.

I found myself wondering exactly who all those people in the hall were and who all that equipment was being sold to. It occurred to me that probably a huge chunk of it ends up being sold to churches. Of course, a lot of instruments are sold to parents. And a lot of stuff is sold to professionals that perform and record. That being said, the biggest group in the room was probably the wannabes or the semi-professionals trying to hit it big. They were the ones dressing in absurd ways to try to stand out. They were the ones playing instruments feverishly and loudly trying to attract the attention of someone important. And they were the ones standing in lines for hours to meet the various celebrities in the hall.

And so I stepped back and watched them trying out gear, looking for something that would catapult them to the next level: perhaps a preamp that would improve their recordings a bit or better guitar strings. While I watched, I have to admit that I found myself skeptically wondering how many of those guys put the same kind of effort into improving as musicians and writers. If the empty booths at the music school exhibitions were any indication, maybe not too many of them.

If you are an aspiring musician, listen up for a second. You don’t get to the point you want to get to by having great equipment even though great equipment is very important. Rather, you get good by improving as a musician and writer. Stop spending all your money on the latest and greatest electronics and get a great teacher and start practicing. I still spend over $2,000/year on piano lessons. That is way more important than spending $2,000 to upgrade a preamp to get a small improvement in sound that almost no one will notice.

So I left NAMM a bit disillusioned and I did not return the next day. Marla and I went to San Diego instead. We tried to hang glide (two days) but sadly, we picked a few days where apparently there was no wind around. We still enjoyed ourselves immensely, especially the USS Midway museum (go see it if you ever go to San Diego).

During the entire trip, we spent a lot of time with my Whispering friends who are some of my favorite people. They have probably helped me more than anyone in all areas of music from the business side to the technical side and of course, the music itself. Most of them have out many CDs of original music. They often are lumped into the New Age genre but I rarely find a Whisperings artist who wants to claim that label. They just think of themselves as creators and performers of solo piano music. Many of them have extensive and impressive backgrounds and awards (including Grammys).

I like those guys first of all because they are just good people but also because they care about music so much. In many cases, they are true craftsmen, obsessing about tiny details in their music. Many of them own recording studios so they care a lot about technical equipment too but they always understand that the music itself is ultimately what is important. Even in my Nashville experience and certainly in my church experience, I have rarely seen such a commitment to getting music right.

Because Whisperings plays my music, I am called a Whisperings artist, but my approach is very different from most of the music I hear there. They tend to think very horizontally with a focus on creating great melodies and they like to develop their music by using different levels of motion. I tend to think a lot more vertically with more of a focus on harmony and develop my music by playing with different levels of density in my harmony. I have a lot to learn from them and it is invaluable to me to listen to them. I always come away inspired to write better melodies in particular.

Today, Marla and I wandered in Hollywood and left LA in the evening, hoping to get back to Alanta around midnight. It was a great trip in spite of my slight disappointment with NAMM. I am already looking forward to next year.