Why Saying Yes to Every Single Show Is Actually Bad Advice
It might seem like a good idea at the time, but saying yes to every gig your band is offered could spell catastrophe for you and your bandmates.
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‘Double Basses, You Know What You Must Do’: Breaking Down Ben Folds’ 10-Minute Song
A little over a week ago, the Kennedy Center uploaded a video of a concert in which singer-songwriter and composer Ben Folds creates an orchestral piece of music in under 10 minutes and performs it with the full participation of the National Symphony Orchestra. The video, which has since been shared over 100,000 times, is a…
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5 Stick Bag Essentials for the Gigging Drummer
Drummers today are expected to come prepared and ready to play every session and every night on the road. After you’ve done the work to learn the music you need for a performance, the next step is to make sure you have the right tools to get the job done. In most performance situations, you may…
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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
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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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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Aesthetics: The Forgotten Frontier in the Tone Debate
If you’ve spent enough time around guitarists or bassists, you’re certainly familiar with what gear obsession looks like. You may even be a gear obsessive yourself, or have at least been through a phase of quarreling over minutiae in online fora. And if you know a gear obsessive, you’ve almost certainly witnessed them debate their main adversary: the “tone-is-in-your-fingers”…
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Scrap the Backing Track – How I Create Live Improvisations Using an Ableton Push
+ Master the processes and techniques for programming professional-grade electronic drum beats in Ableton Live with Soundfly’s acclaimed online course. By Dan Freeman In 2013, I had the fortune of receiving one of the first ever Ableton Push sequencers before the model went to market. I was chosen to be the Certified Trainer who demoed the…
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3 Simple Yoga Poses That Work Wonders for Musicians
Strengthen the connection between mind and body while easing your aches and pains through these musician-friendly yoga poses.
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4 Easy Things You Should Be Doing at Every Live Show
Over my years in the music industry, I’ve seen many, many live shows, both from the stage and from the audience. This means I’ve seen bands make the same mistakes time and time again. And because I’m guilty of making these mistakes too, I created lists of some of the ways bands can avoid these pitfalls without too much effort. These…
