Tom Misch Player Study
We filmed this awesome video to help summarise the general style of Tom Misch, and Dan and Dion did an amazing job of that! Of course, Tom Misch is an incredible player, so we've dedicated an entire 20 lesson course that tackles every aspect of his playing, from jazzy chords, cool grooves and developing your vocal lead skills. Check out the player study absolutely free here:
>> Tom Misch Player Study (100% Free)
3 step process
In this lesson, we'll be going through a 3 step process to help you sound like Tom Misch. The 3 steps will be:
- 1. Writing a simple pentatonic melody
- 2. Take the basic melody and add our Tom Misch-ism's to it!
- 3. Developing that basic melody further
Step 1: The Simple Melody
First up, let's take the simple melody, which we're playing in Box 1 of the A minor pentatonic scale. The tab for this melody and the scale shape is as follows:
Once we have the basic melody down, we can move on to the really fun stuff!
Step 2: Adding The Misch
Dion now takes us through a range of awesome concepts and techniques that you can use to make a simple melody like this, sound like Tom Misch. Let's summarise the main techniques here:
Bouncing the groove
First up, try to add a bit more swing to the part. The word that comes to mind is "bouncy", so try and add that bubbly feel to the part. Dion walks you through that beautifully in the video, so give it a go!
Adding Staccato!
Staccato is simply the idea of playing shorter notes that don't wring out. We don't need to apply this to the entire phrase, but adding it to certain notes can be very effective. For example, adding it to the first 3 notes will make a huge difference to the sound. You'll also start to notice that as you add more of these techniques, they all compound together and you get bigger changes to the sound!
Sitting behind the beat
We're looking to try and play deliberately lazily here! It's a choice you make to essentially play all the notes, or some of the notes, slightly after the beat. It gives a very cool soul vibe and is VERY Tom Misch!
The human quality
You can now use your pick control to change the dynamics as you play through the part. By hitting some notes harder and others softer you get a variation in velocity that sounds far more vocal, and far more human! If you use programs like LOGIC, this is the process of "humanisation" to midi parts... Simply taking all the notes and randomly changing the velocities!
Semitone Slides and Trills
A simple to execute, and more tangible technique, is the semitone slide into keynotes. For example, if you slide into the final note of each bar from a semitone below, you get a very cool sound, that once again is VERY Tom Misch. You can also try Trills, which is taking a note and sliding very quickly from side to side around it. Very hard to put into words, Dion walks you through it briefly in the video!
Envelope Filter
Finally, the icing on the cake is to add an envelope filter. Nuff said!!!! We talk a lot about the Envelope filter in our full Tom Misch course.
>> Tom Misch Player Study (100% Free)
Step 3: Developing the lead line
Finally, we have some real fun jamming out the lead line and developing it in the same way Tom Misch would! Watch the video and have some fun with this yourself as you work through it. To help you along the way, if you want to get some chords down on a looper, these are the chords we are using:
Enjoy the lesson guys, and if this really excites you then please check out the full Tom Misch course absolutely free!