Category: Tips

  • How to Be the Band Nobody Wants to Play with — Ever Again (in 10 Easy Steps)

    How to Be the Band Nobody Wants to Play with — Ever Again (in 10 Easy Steps)

    My band, the Gnarly Shredderz, is one of the greatest bands of all time. We’re so awesome, in fact, that bands on the same bill as us never ask my group to play another show with them because they know they just can’t keep up. We just end up embarrassing them with our insanely interesting…

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  • The 9 Most Common Mistakes Musicians Make When Learning to Play Electric Guitar

    The 9 Most Common Mistakes Musicians Make When Learning to Play Electric Guitar

    By Natalie Wilson As a guitar teacher, I see a lot of common mistakes in my beginner students. While it’s okay to have lofty goals and aspirations, all too often, beginner students get discouraged early on by not being able to achieve the tone, smoothness, and power of famous guitarists like Jimi Hendrix and Eric…

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  • How to Overcome Musical Boredom? Make “Incorrect” Music Instead

    How to Overcome Musical Boredom? Make “Incorrect” Music Instead

    Midway into the song “Room,” the opening track of Arthur Moon’s debut EP Our Head, a slightly out of tune banjo plows over top of the ethereal, washy atmospherics that the band has spent the last minute building. It’s a moment that catches the listener entirely off guard: “…Wait, what did I just hear?” But that’s the beauty…

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  • The Five Rules of Being a Good Collaborator

    The Five Rules of Being a Good Collaborator

    + Welcome to Soundfly! We help curious musicians meet their goals with creative online courses. Whatever you want to learn, whenever you need to learn it. Subscribe now to start learning on the ’Fly. Collaboration, whether by choice or necessity, can be emotional and even downright messy. The more passionate and personally invested each collaborator is, the higher the likelihood that…

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  • Don’t Hit the Stage Without These Overlooked Heroes of Your Pedalboard

    Don’t Hit the Stage Without These Overlooked Heroes of Your Pedalboard

    Guitarists like to spill ink all the time about distortion boxes, classic overdrives, boutique delay pedals, and bucket-brigade modulation effects. It’s understandable why: These attention-grabbing stompboxes lead to dramatic and satisfying changes in sound. Like a great vintage amp or a top-notch guitar, it’s these larger-than-life pedals that help a player define his or her…

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  • How to Properly Maintain Your Vinyl

    How to Properly Maintain Your Vinyl

    By Jessica Kane Any vinyl enthusiast will tell you how crucial it is to maintain and protect your records. Although vinyl records are considered by many to produce the best quality sound, they certainly won’t do so forever unless you take care of them properly. Records are particularly susceptible to scratches, heat, and sunlight. To…

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  • Focus on Simplicity: Exercises to Strengthen Your Foundations in Improvising

    Focus on Simplicity: Exercises to Strengthen Your Foundations in Improvising

    By Mike Casey Raise your hand if you’ve heard this cliché before: “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” Well, as cheesy as that sounds, I happen to believe it’s right on the money. After all, advanced musical devices, concepts, and patterns are usually just a slew of basic fundamentals stacked on top of one another, inverted,…

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  • Goal-Oriented Planning: Don’t Let That Fire Burn Out

    Goal-Oriented Planning: Don’t Let That Fire Burn Out

    + Welcome to Soundfly! We help curious musicians meet their goals with creative online courses. Whatever you want to learn, whenever you need to learn it. Subscribe now to start learning on the ’Fly. Thanks to the ever-frustrating amalgam of rapidly moving digital tech and the old-model music industry struggling to keep up, the truth is that when it comes to marketing your…

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  • These 10 Super Helpful Key Commands in Ableton Live Will Change Your Life

    These 10 Super Helpful Key Commands in Ableton Live Will Change Your Life

    + Master the tools and techniques of producing pro-level electronic music and audio in Ableton Live with Soundfly’s course, Intro to Music Production in Ableton Live. There’s no other way to put it: computers have become a central component of all recorded music, as well as most composed music. Especially when taking on more projects with tighter deadlines,…

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  • Your Music Was Added to a Popular Spotify Playlist… Now What?

    Your Music Was Added to a Popular Spotify Playlist… Now What?

    + Welcome to Soundfly! We help curious musicians meet their goals with creative online courses. Whatever you want to learn, whenever you need to learn it. Subscribe now to start learning on the ’Fly. It’s 2017, and album sales are sinking to historic lows. CDs are becoming obsolete. Even digital downloads are plummeting. But people are listening more than ever —…

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Advanced Synths and Patch Design for Producers