Note: This guide has relevant parts for both vocalists and music producers. For any bits you can’t personally do yourself, please refer the advice to your chosen beat maker or vocalist. Making demos is an important part of writing and creating music. In fact, I consider it to be a skill as valuable as writing….
YouTube is an amazing platform on which to build a presence as a musician. It gives you the opportunity to showcase your musical sensibilities and style in video format, and get your content in front of a large audience. But getting to that point takes time. Although there are a few “growth hacks” you can…
You don’t have to put in 10,000 hours of practice to become good at guitar. If you want to master the guitar, then you will definitely need to embrace a longer-term journey, as there is simply too much to know and learn. But when it comes to improving, there are really just a few habits…
Showcases are super important for indie artists. In fact, bands big and small showcase all the time – pretty much everyone has someone they want to impress! Organizing a great showcase is a bit of an art form. Some bands/managers know how to set up a showcase just so, and they can really make an…
Guitar solos today are often little more than little “fills”, short segments of quick licks that lead right back into the bridge or chorus of a song. This type of solo requires little thought, and isn’t hard to construct. One of the reasons this happens is because a lot of guitar players today aren’t confident…
If you’ve been ever to a music conference like SXSW, CMW, NXNE, or similar, you’ll know exactly how overwhelming it can be. There are often hundreds of artists in attendance, and they are all doing exactly what you’re doing. Then again, you’ve probably heard stories of bands getting noticed or signed at these conferences while…
Want to learn how to create a Drake-type beat? If you like ‘Started from the Bottom’ which was produced by Mike Zombie and Noah Shebib, you’re going to learn a lot from this tutorial! Important Note: This tutorial looks how to produce a similar beat for your own learning. You should in no way release…
Unfortunately, there is no known way in the universe to extend time. So the only thing you can do to be more productive is make better use of your time. There’s a limit to how many songs you could realistically produce in a day, week, or month. But if you could improve your processes, and…
Palm muting is a technique you can use to dampen and deaden the strings on your guitar. From a more general perspective, muting is an important part of guitar playing, and oftentimes both the right and left hands are used to mute in different ways at different times. Palm muting, however, is essentially a picking…
Besides playing music, the best part of touring is exploring new cities. Have you always wanted to go to New York, Nashville, or Newfoundland? Well, you’re in a band, so go ahead and book yourself a tour! At the end of my days, if nothing else I will have seen a lot of the world….
Just recorded a new mixtape? Want to know where to upload it for people to hear for free? While uploading your mixtape online isn’t a guaranteed way to have people hear it, it does have a few uses: Hosting. If you don’t have your own website (which you should), you can often upload your mixtape…
Guitar solos often sound really impressive. But there’s no need to be intimidated. Playing single notes can actually be easier than playing chords and riffs. For example, Kurt Cobain isn’t considered the most skilled guitarist in the world. He was certainly able to express himself in the way he wanted to, but didn’t necessarily aspire…
Radio isn’t dead. No matter what people say, getting on the charts has huge implications for your career. As an indie artist, college radio should absolutely be a part of your marketing plan. College radio stations are dedicated to playing new music and they spin music commercial stations simply can’t, due to their need for…
Music needs to be distributed and promoted. Without this two-step process, you have no hope of connecting with your audience and driving interest and sales. The problem is that you have to be smart about your marketing. You have to understand your target audience, carefully craft your message, and put an organized plan in place…
In some ways, lead guitar is actually easier than rhythm guitar. With rhythm guitar, you often need to be able to switch difficult chord shapes on the fly and play complex rhythms. With lead guitar, you usually only need to play one note at a time, and it doesn’t even need to be fast! If…