Raised an only child, Matthew Kenney of Edgewood, Kentucky, was tasked with finding ways to entertain himself. The baby grand piano in his parents’ sitting room was his first inspiration. He began piano lessons in the third grade, but bored with the formal training, he quit after six months. Instead, he played by ear, learning everything from commercial jingles to the pop songs on his mom’s favorite radio station.
Xaphoon Pocket Sax is a tiny injection-molded sax with an incredibly big sound. The sound is described as somewhere between that of a saxophone and a clarinet, and two octaves lower than a flute of the same size. It uses standard saxophone reeds.
The DigiTech RP360XP guitar multi-effect processor is packed with a truckload of iconic amps, cabs, and stompboxes. The intuitive LCD interface makes it easy to explore and nail the perfect tone. Along with its stunning arsenal of effects, the RP360XP gives you a built-in expression pedal, a 40-second looper, 198 presets, a USB port, configurable […]
Todd Hobin was given the opportunity to test out some of the best priced microphones on the market – the Samson MTR Microphone line.
So, here I am driving my car on Cambridge Street like I do 3 times a day in my town. My radio is on and I am listening to a top 40 station outside of Boston when a song comes on that I have never heard. The man’s voice astounds me and I am transported in another way entirely. It’s such a beautiful ballad and I need to find out who is singing it.
When Jessica Brown was just a little girl, she used the power of music as her best means of communication.
Selecting the right reed can be confusing, especially for beginners. To a certain extent it is a personal choice and will take experimentation and experience to figure out what’s right for you and your playing style. Even for experienced musicians, it is often a difficult and frustrating aspect of playing a reed instrument. The following information from A Guide to the Art of Adjusting Saxophone Reeds, by James Rötter, gives some tips.
A scale is a collection of pitches that follows a set pattern of ascending or descending intervals. A major scale, for example, may start on any note, as long as the subsequent notes follow the appropriate pattern of whole steps and half steps. The same is true of minor scales—but with a different pattern of steps, of course.
Todd Hobin has some helpful tips and tricks that you can use at home. Watch our instructional video on how to mic an acoustic guitar whether you are in the studio or performing.
What causes this misalignment and pressure on a nerve? Stress! Whether it is physical, chemical, or emotional, stress can cause dysfunction within the nervous system. Musicians have major physical stress. Repetitively playing an instrument in the same position and utilizing the same muscles over and over again puts major physical demands on the body. RSI, either combined with poor posture ergonomics or independent of each other, is direct physical stress that can cause subluxations in the spine or joints of the upper extremities.