Knowing where to begin the search for something that suits your particular needs can be daunting. Narrowing down the options is often a good place to start when it comes to choosing the proper keyboard.
Author: Freddy Villano
Portable PA Systems & Their Components
If you’ve been thinking about buying a small portable PA system to get a better sound at jam sessions and/or coffeehouse gigs, but know little about them…
Fishman: The Man behind Acoustic Instrument Amplification
I like to look at what we do as untying knots,” says Larry Fishman, founder and president of Fishman Transducers, Inc., the world leader in acoustic instrument amplification.
Unique Guitar Techniques
When most people pick up a guitar, they apply the usual guitar techniques. Learning how to fret a chord, playing with a guitar pick, fingerpicking, maybe even using a slide, are all common techniques that an aspiring guitarist would, and should, explore.
Alex Skolnick: A Genre-Defying Guitar Hero
Alex Skolnick is not your average, everyday shredding guitarist. He started his career at 16 years old with the Bay Area thrash metal band Testament.
The Secrets of Slack Key Guitar
According to slack key legend Cyril Pahinui, slack key is essentially a Hawaiian term for what is more commonly known as open tuning.
Jail Guitar Doors
“The arts, and music in particular, is the one thing we know will reach people on a deep fundamental level to change hearts and minds,” explains Wayne Kramer, former guitarist for the now-legendary Detroit-based seminal hard rock band The MC5 and co-founder of Jail Guitar Doors USA, a nonprofit program that provides musical instruments and opportunities to help rehabilitate prisoners.
Virtual Band
Dean Brantley Taylor is a songwriter and producer. He also has Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), which makes it hard for him to leave his apartment, much less sing or play an instrument. It’s even hard to simply listen to music, he says. “But, I’m in a band. Hallelujah!” he exclaims with a resounding euphoria you wouldn’t expect from someone afflicted with such a condition.
House Concerts
House concerts are musical performances generally held in private homes and hosted by fans, friends, or relatives of the performing musician(s). Audiences are usually 25 to 35 people, but can sometimes be as large as 60 or more, and a donation of $15 to $25 is generally requested, but not required. Oftentimes, there is a potluck dinner involved, but wine and cheese events are most common, with guests encouraged to bring a drink to share. Hosts will even sometimes put performers up for a night.
Victor Wooten’s Music and Nature Camps
In addition to being one of the premier bass players of his time, most widely known as a member of Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, Grammy winning bassist Victor Wooten also runs a successful music camp in Only, Tennessee. Wooten’s Center for Music and Nature at Wooten Woods Retreat originally focused on teaching music to bass players. Now in its 15th year, it has accommodated all instruments—voice, horns, keyboards, and more—for at least the last six years or so.