A packed dance floor is no accident. The best DJs I know aren’t necessarily the best mixers, but they are the best ‘feelers’: they register what’s happening on the floor and respond at just the right moment. Reading your crowd starts before you’ve even played your first record, and it works differently at a wedding than it does in a club.

Headphones for podcasting? I put mine on before the microphone is even switched on. Yet I regularly get asked whether that’s really necessary: you’re just talking into a microphone, aren’t you? Yes, it’s necessary. If you can’t hear what the microphone hears during the recording, you’ll only discover mistakes when editing, and by then it’s too late.

Buying an ocarina seems simple: a little flute with holes, job done. Yet plenty can go wrong, from unplayable souvenirs to a fingering system you’ll later have to unlearn. My advice in one sentence: start with a 12-hole plastic ocarina in C, and only look at ceramic once you’re hooked. The rest of this article explains why.

Playing guitar and blowing harmonica at the same time: Bob Dylan did it, Neil Young still does, and I’ve been doing it myself for years with varying degrees of success. The secret isn’t a third arm, but a sturdy, well-adjusted harmonica holder plus a harmonica in the right key. The rest is practice (and the odd bum note, but that’s all part of it).

The size of violin you need depends on your child’s arm length, not their age. Instruments are also regularly bought to grow into: an eight-year-old with a violin that’s just a touch too big, “because otherwise we’ll need another new one next year”. Understandable, yet exactly the wrong approach. A violin has to fit the player’s body; if in doubt, go for the smaller one.

You can’t work out your voice type from a single high note and a single low note. Measuring your range with a keyboard is a great start, but your vocal colour and the part of your range where your voice feels at home count for at least as much. And the final word often belongs to someone who hears you sing, not to you.

Most people regularly use their digital piano with headphones, so those headphones are no afterthought. To choose a suitable pair, ask yourself a few questions. Who else can hear you, are they loud enough, does the plug fit (or do you want to go wireless), and how long are your practice sessions?

A guitar footstool is a small, height-adjustable stool that you place under your left foot. Classical guitarists in particular swear by it, and not without reason. By raising your left leg slightly, the guitar rests on your left thigh and the neck naturally sits higher, without you having to sit at an angle or let one shoulder drop.

Bass strings last a long time, but not forever. New strings sound bright and punchy, and that sparkle slowly fades without you even noticing. How quickly that happens depends on your hands, your playing style and your taste. 

A short scale bass guitar has a scale length of around 30 inches instead of the usual 34 or 35 inches, and that makes more of a difference than you might think. For years, a short neck was dismissed as a kids’ bass or an entry-level model, but if you’d rather stretch less, want to spare your shoulder or are coming over from guitar, you’re often better off with one. High time that image got an update.

Can you play a bass guitar through a guitar amp? I get asked that just about every time someone has bought their first bass and has an old guitar combo sitting in the corner. The short answer: at low volume it’s perfectly fine, but crank it up and you’re gambling with your speaker’s lifespan. The other way round, guitar through a bass amp, is pretty much always fine.

Cleaning a flute isn’t difficult, but you can do a surprising amount of damage along the way. A good share of the harm done to flutes doesn’t come from playing, but from well-intentioned polishing. What your instrument needs is simple: dry it on the inside after every session, use nothing but a soft cloth on the outside, and once a year, let someone who really knows what they’re doing look it over.