Playing louder = playing better?

lincolnblue

Ok I realise this is ridiculously subjective, and there could have been other factors but, here goes my thoughts.

Last night I was asked to play electric for an event. It was a fairly small room but we had the opportunity to play fairly loudly. I had the amp behind me (no in ears or monitors so hearing myself wasn't always the easiest - that's ok though). 

I was playing my Duesenberg which I always feel very free on, but I felt I played really well last night - was nothing fancy, but just seemed to have a good gig. It got me thinking, I was playing louder than I normally do at church - does increased volume somehow have an effect on your playing? It might have been pure coincidence I realise, but it got my mind pondering. Does anyone else feel they play 'better' the louder they play?

OilCityPickups

Yes
simples - squeak 

ElectricXII

Yes, generally, but only if I can hear myself. 

chrisj1602

Yes. Louder is better. You can play with greater dynamics, and the struggle of trying to get things sounding too right at home is gone.

Dontgiveupyourdayjob

I think whenever you can actually hear yourself properly you're far more 'tuned in' to your own playing, so probably helps to play better. Is your monitoring at where you normally play decent enough to hear yourself properly?

Offset

Always.

lincolnblue

Dontgiveupyourdayjob said:

I think whenever you can actually hear yourself properly you're far more 'tuned in' to your own playing, so probably helps to play better. Is your monitoring at where you normally play decent enough to hear yourself properly?

Yes, when I play normally at church the amp is mic'd up an I'm on in ears so I can have it as loud as I want in my ears. 

lincolnblue

lincolnblue said:

Dontgiveupyourdayjob said:

I think whenever you can actually hear yourself properly you're far more 'tuned in' to your own playing, so probably helps to play better. Is your monitoring at where you normally play decent enough to hear yourself properly?

Yes, when I play normally at church the amp is mic'd up an I'm on in ears so I can have it as loud as I want in my ears. 

Thinking on this, I wonder if having it loud direct in my ears results in me turning it down a bit whereas last night it needed to be loud so I could hear and compete with other instruments and drummer. Perhaps the physical sound behind me helps

slacker

It's not the volume, it's what the amp is doing. Churches are generally allergic to volume and therefore most amps will be ticking over. 

If by playing in a normal band or gig, you've turned the amp up its hitting the sweet spot. I've got multiple amps with various amounts of watts/loudness. I'm old with no mortgage. I can get the amp working at most volumes I,m ever going to play at.

A lot of overdrive work better in a band with the amp turned up.

Using in ears or headphones gives you the amp but not in a room. I used to record a clean amp tone with a zvex nano. I needed earphones to hear it. It was a great clean sound but not what that amp does best which volume knobs on full.

Lestratcaster

Some amps have to be turned up loud in order to get their full character. For instance my Peavey 6505+ head has to be on 3 to really get the sound (though most soundguys up and down the country were constantly telling me to turn down haha).

Nowadays I've moved to Kemper playing and usually with IEM's, so I can turn it up as loud as I can to really feel the guitar sound, but the response is different, to say, it coming out of speaker as its moving through air before it hits your ears.

sev112

We were in the studio a good s back.  I was playing as I’d always thought I should, ie for the benefit of the band sound, ie passively I suppose. 

the engineer eventually said “play the f-ing thing,  hit it harder !”

which he then translated as “get some dynamics out of your guitar”

imalrightjack

Highway to tinnitus. 

I actually think yes, but the constant ringing in my ears says, “HELL, NO!” Genuinely. 

maltingsaudio

More volume = hear your mistakes better=try harder not to make them

Roland

There’s a couple of things going on with volume: Amp sensitivity and dynamics, guitar responding to vibration, Fletcher Munson effect changing perceived EQ, and the psychological effect of loudness.

On most amps there is a sweet spot where the amp is most sensitive to playing dynamics, and it generally needs a fair chunk of volume to get there.

scrumhalf

I suppose it might mean people might say  ugh, that's awful, he's too loud" rather than "ugh, that's awful, he's a bloody terrible guitarist".

(Generalisation, not intended as a criticism of the OP.)

HAL9000

Playing louder ≠ playing better.
Being able to hear yourself properly = playing better.

lincolnblue

scrumhalf said:

I suppose it might mean people might say  ugh, that's awful, he's too loud" rather than "ugh, that's awful, he's a bloody terrible guitarist".

(Generalisation, not intended as a criticism of the OP.)

Ha! I was very aware of not being too loud. Having seen a brief video on instagram of the event, you couldn't massively hear my guitar so I maybe could have been louder. Always hard to know when there's noone doing PA (the singer set it up so we had noone monitoring it)
At church I normally have someone let me know if the amp volume is too much

Musical_Mystery_Tour

That's why my amp goes to eleven

CarpeDiem

I’ve been told a few times in the past to turn my amp up, and it sounded better for it. I’d made the mistake of thinking I was loud enough already as I was standing close to my amp, but it wasn’t so loud in the band mix. (I also started using ear protectors and never rehearse/gig without them).

SPECTRUM001

100%  yes - it's a vibe ting.

Although...it has to sit in the mix. Nothing worse than a guitar that is way too loud vs the rest of the instruments (which sometimes you may not even know unless you can catch the front of house sound).

jasonbone75

I'm 100% no. Hearing self is absolutely the most important and that's why we invented in-ear monitors. I don't even enjoy playing when it is above a certain volume. I've said it before if you need to be louder (edit: louder than loud enough perhaps?) to play better then you need more practice. I appear to be in a small fringe minority though