Guest Blogs

Struggling to expand your fanbase and have no idea what you need to be posting on Facebook and Instagram? Of course, you want more likes, more exposure and more gigs. You want your music to be pulling more attention, and you know that, to get that attention, you need to be more visible. But how?! The answer is ‘positioning’. Here, guest-blogger and musician Mirjam Sieben reveals the tips she used to help out the band Stompin’ Grounds.

Whether you’re a casual or a professional DJ, you no doubt know that the DJ-world can be harsh and unforgiving, especially since popularity has seemingly been taking precedence over performance and skill. If you’ve been wondering how to improve and promote yourself in order to get booked more often, then the tips and advice offered up by guest-blogger-and-DJ Brian van Bogaert aka DJ BRIVE might be useful. Read on and learn how to claim a bigger piece of the spotlight and market yourself.

Live coding: type programming code in and spit music out. It might sound a bit much, but if you’re an Ableton Live user looking for a new way to get creative, you’ve just found it. If you want to impress your hoards of fans on stage or at home, it’s time to set that inner nerd free and invite Sonic Pi into your Ableton software. Here, Guestblogger Hens Zimmerman shows you the way.

If you want to make your bread and butter as a musician, besides investing in your skills, it’s also essential to invest in building your fanbase. If you don’t have people listening to what you’re making or coming to your gigs, it’s going to be pretty hard to make a living from your music. With that in mind, the question is: how do you gain new fans? Guestblogger Maaike van Steenis offers up her top tips!

Naturally, everything has to be perfect when it comes to wedding parties. This includes the toast, the speeches given by best men and women, and of course the music — in other words, the sound system on location has to be up to snuff. Not sure what you need or where to start? No worries, wedding DJ Sebastian is here to give you some pointers and a couple of recommendations.

Maybe your first booking was at your friend’s or your cousin’s wedding and it was such a success that you want to go professional. More and more couples are getting wed to a live-performed soundtrack, which only increases your chances of getting some gigs booked during the wedding season. Here, Guestblogger and professional wedding musician Kevin Okkema shares his tips to help you get more requests.

Ego-trippers can be found in every corner of the world and, as musicians, maybe we’re the biggest offenders around (at least secretly… admit it). Launching into a nutty drum break or a show-boating guitar solo can sometimes feel irresistible – but while it might feel good, it might not actually work in your favour. Here, Guestblogger, drummer and founder of Let it Rock music school Jemy Gijsman explains why being a good musician doesn’t automatically mean that you’re a good band mate.

Guest-blogger Marc de Jonge is here to talk about relic’ing: the artificial aging of guitars and basses to give them a weathered, played-in look and feel. There are various ways to go about relic’ing an instrument, and Marc has several tips for everyone who’s thinking about giving it a try. It’s definitely something that takes guts, an eye for detail, and a little artistry.

No matter how good you are at mixing and mastering, the quality of the original recording will always largely determine the final result. Guest-blogger Freek Roffel from Freaky Studio is here to share five tips that can help you get the recording stage right, where preparation is key.

Most bands can’t afford to hire their own light technician and are forced to trust in-house light techs, which means that your light show may vary from gig to gig and more often than not doesn’t look like what you asked for. The cause? Communication, or rather miscommunication. Guest-blogger and stage manager Thomas Oberson-Ricoat is here to share five welcome pieces of advice.

In this article, guest-blogger Wietse Hendriks shows you how to write and compose your own drum parts. Covering topics like where to find inspiration and how to deal with band leaders, conductors and composers, Wietse taps into his twelve-and-a-half years of experience as a drummer.

Real DJs spin with real vinyl…or do they? Guest-blogger Menno from Supa-Dupa Studio explores DJ history to find out how much truth this statement holds and gives his personal opinion on the vinyl versus digital debate.