Community Video: Short Shadows – The Jig is Up

Short Shadows take soul, indie rock, hip-hop, and ska and blends it all with wry, observational lyrics, punchy horns, urban samples, and suburban soundscapes. The end result is party rock music that you can get down and dance to. Hailing from Melbourne, Australia’s North, and inspired by fellow Melburnians The Avalanches’ “no sounds are out of bounds” theory, Short […]

Fiona Joy

Australian Pianist and Composer Fiona Joy Hawkins Explores the ‘Now’ Through Her music

—“Each day is a blessing, the future is not a given, so you have to enjoy the NOW”   Fiona Joy Hawkins is a mainstream composer/pianist/vocalist with an international following, whom she greets weekly with pandemic-inspired, livestreamed concerts. The event’s growing success might be attributable to a combination of her musical talent, a love for […]

Pianist Rhys Brigida Lets the Music Tell the Story

Learning/playing music has been the biggest challenge of my life, but also the most joyful. I get a lot of satisfaction unraveling tunes that appeal to me. I feel compelled to discover why a song resonates, or how it invokes certain feelings of joy, melancholy, and longing. This doesn’t come easy to me, but if I can grab at least a basic understanding of what an artist is “saying”…

Gator Releases Instrument Face Masks, Bell Covers for School Band and Music Programs

In its commitment to help school band and music programs continue while adhering to health and safety standards, Gator is now offering instrument and face cover solutions that follow recommendations from the NFHS (National Federation of State High Schools) study. Gator’s product designs incorporated the study findings and insights. Gator’s new double-layered wind instrument face […]

People’s Choice Winner Rich Carroll — A Country Boy with a Classic Voice

Country artist Rich Carroll was the winner of Making Music’s most recent Community Video people’s choice competition. His video for the song “Lifetime” received more than twice as many votes as the runner-up. That song — Carroll’s first professional recording and release, which he also co-wrote — is about “the rise from a hard fall and […]

How to Practice Like a Pro

Efficient and organized practicing is a determining factor in a musician’s overall technical and musical progress on the instrument. Although this article mainly focuses on proper practicing techniques for string performers in classical music, any instrumentalist performing in diverse musical genres can also take advantage of this general practicing approach. Everyone has heard of the […]

Philadephia Percussionist Brings Fresh Perspective to Revolutionary-era Fife-and-Drum Tune

Pandemic-Inspired Musical Project Brings Together World-Class Percussion And Brass Musicians Just a few weeks ago, on Independence Day 2020, a group of world-class percussion and brass musicians released a new arrangement of a Revolutionary War-era fife-and-drum tune, “The Downfall of Paris.” While the project started as a fun musical project during quarantine, it ended up […]