Are you looking for a way to kick up your practice game? At times practice can feel stagnant and progress futile. But if you start recording yourself regularly, your practice will be forever changed. Over the years I have had many teachers tell me to record myself and listen back, but it took a while…
Although you don’t need to become a financial expert, the basics of budgeting should be understood by every serious musician. When you know how much money you need for a particular project, you can make accurate guesses as to how long it will take to save the right amount of money. You’ll also be more…
Most guitarists, at some point, decide that they want to be able to play fast. I can definitely relate to this. In my formative years, I spent a lot of time working on my rhythm guitar chops, so while I was pretty creative and even adaptive in my approach to writing and playing riffs, my…
Something I’ve learned while on the road is that the best time to plan for the future is right now. Traveling around the country gives you the unique opportunity to meet people you wouldn’t normally meet and make personal connections you wouldn’t otherwise make. While I’m on tour, I find it’s a good time to…
Smart phone apps have grown in popularity in just about every industry and profession. They can help you capture ideas, track progress, and be more productive with your time, even when you don’t have access to a computer. But there is one major downside – or danger – to getting hooked on apps. You can…
The ability to improvise is incredibly valuable. Not all pros can do it well or even do it at all, so you probably won’t hurt your chances at success if you can’t, but there is a certain confidence that can come from knowing that you can jump into any musical situation and add something complementary…
Sure, you’re an indie artist now, but what about in five years? 10 years? Will you still be completely independent? At some point you’ll (hopefully) have too much on your plate do it all yourself. Generally speaking, your team will be built slowly over the course of many months/years. Indie artists spend a great deal…
In today’s world, hard work, hustle and entrepreneurship are trendy. But I believe a lot of people are rolling the dice on their health, relationships and life for want of fame, fortune, or other prospects. If you’re working 16-hour days in front of a computer, failing to exercise and eat well, and not getting enough…
Let’s face it – the thought of having to memorize the position of every single note on your guitar is overwhelming. Even though there are only 12 notes in music, they are arranged differently on every single string on the guitar (except for the first and sixth strings, which are both E strings). But one…
Short answer: no. Long answer: definitely not. What we’re going to do today is look at what I consider to be the greatest social media myth of all time – and debunk it. Then, we’re going to look at a few artists with very effective social media personas and see what we can learn from…
You can toot your own horn all you want. At the end of the day, if you want to be validated as an artist, you need to get other people talking about you. And as far as online music promotion is concerned, getting coverage from music blogs is quite advantageous. One review may not do…
A triad is a type of chord that only contains the essential notes necessary to make it a chord. In order to create a chord, you need to play at least three distinct notes together (i.e. C, E, and G for a C triad). But just so we’re clear, a double stop is not a…
Believe it or not, when my band goes on tour, we make money. It’s not a lot of money, but we certainly come out on top. This is a result of a couple years of groundwork and less profitable tours, careful planning, and grants. It’s also the result of being able to manage our finances…
Free sources of traffic, such as social media, email, or blog posts are all great ways to get exposure for your music. The problem is that these platforms tend to be saturated, and because anyone can set up a basic online presence, it doesn’t give you much of an advantage. If you want to step…
When you really think about it, double stops are incredible tools on the guitar. You can write entire riffs and solos with double stops. You can supplement a single-note melody with a harmony. You can play through difficult passages of music by playing a couple of relevant notes in place of challenging chord shapes. So…