How to Record at Home – Drums, Pt. 3: Fine Tune Your Tuning!

showing how to record at home by tuning a maple snare

When I look back at the many drum sounds I’ve encountered while performing and studying music, I have to say that the 80s produced the most wide-spread variety of drum sounds and approaches out of all the decades of recording. There was something in the water, I guess, back then – every engineer and producer seemed …

How to Record at Home – Drums, Pt. 2: It’s All In Your Head!

If you’re a drummer/percussionist, you were probably hitting things very early on. Lots of things! Like pots, pans, walls, beds, school-books, bus seats, siblings, maybe the occasional pet… But as you matured you learned something: that the surface that you hit responds to your pummeling in two ways – with a certain bounce and a …

How to Play the Guitar For Beginners, Pt. 3 – The Juke Box Hero’s Quest!!

“High atop the glistening mountain, with Terrible Tune Eagles screeching from all directions around him, the Songsmith sat, and watched as the morning sun cut a laser ray overhead from the horizon, and bathed him in warmth. This was why he came: to see how song was born… … to understand its power… … and …

How to Play the Guitar For Beginners, Pt. 2 – Wield That Weapon With Style!

“Hiyyy -YAH!” “Tchoh!!” “Whohhhhhhhh – HAH!!!” If any of you, like me, have ever taken a martial arts class or course, then you know the sounds I’m talking about! Somehow just that little bit more ‘oomph’ comes forth when we utter those syllables of power. Plus, it just makes you seem more of a bad-ass, …

How to Play a Bass Guitar – Keepin’ It On the Down Low

You’ve heard it before; you’re walkin’ the sidewalk somewhere, maybe downtown, and a car goes by that has the music up so high you know their ear cilia is getting as fried like KFC chickens. Interestingly though, the only thing you can hear is that big, low rumble of the bass frequencies rolling past and …

How to Make a Song – Live and Let Di-atonic!

(Editor’s Note: Charlotte continues tutoring us for a second time in how to “make a song” today. You guys really liked her first entry, so let’s see what other genius ideas she’s got… this time about the writing of the tune and music!) Salutations! Charlotte here again. Teaj said you appreciated my last post about how …

How to Play the Guitar For Beginners – Pt. 1: Beavis-to-Keaggy Mastery Awaits You!

Ever since Elvis Presley appeared in 1956, flailing and rhythmically beating up the guitar that was strapped just above his undulating hips, guitars have been one of the best-selling instruments among youth in America. Currently, it’s the second most popular instrument for students taking private music lessons in America, dancing only behind the ubiquitous piano. …