Folk-pop-noir singer-songwriter and professional audio engineer, Ryan Hobler lives in a studio, mixing and recording on a daily basis. Drawing upon his 10 years of experience in both music production and audio post, here he offers his suggestions to avoid some common recording mistakes.
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.
An unfortunate reality for musicians is that, if they play out at all, they’ll probably lose gear at some point. Sometimes it’s an innocent mix-up where cables get lost in the shuffle, picked up by mistake, or something gets left behind. But, unfortunately, other times, it’s malicious.
To ensure constant progress and high motivation you have to develop practice habits that will keep you interested and challenged. I am going to explain my philosophy and outline ideas to help you design your perfect practice regiment.
Playing the bugle requires more than lips and lungs. Playing piano requires more than nimble fingers. Really, playing any instrument at all requires sound mind and body. If you want to play well, you’ve got to take care of yourself—and I mean your whole self. Exercise is important, and so is diet. Whether you’re trying to memorize a song or your tendonitis is flaring up from too much guitar playing, there’s an herb or vitamin for that. Here are just a few of the areas you can begin improving after a visit to your local health food store.
David Kalt has always loved guitars. As owner of the iconic store Chicago Music Exchange, he’s surrounded by guitars all day. Recently, Kalt combined his two biggest passions, music and technology, and founded Reverb.com, an online marketplace for musicians. The site boasts 9,000 unique visitors every day, and has grown 35% each month since its February launch.
Jim Oshinsky believes that every musician should improvise from the start, but that’s not usually the case.
As a partner at the Dallas School of Music (DSM) and one of the founders of the online music site Discover Learn Play (DLP) I get lots of questions about practicing, especially when new students begin at DSM, or online at DLP. Parents want to know how long their kids should practice each day and adult learners are anxious […]