Musician

A new saxophone mouthpiece is the cheapest way to become a different saxophonist, and also the easiest way to throw money away. Tip opening, chamber and baffle each do something different to your sound, and the material does less than you might think.

Cajón or djembe: the two most popular hand drums, yet very different beasts. One is a wooden box, the other a hollowed-out tree trunk with a skin stretched over it. Which one works best for a band, a campfire or lessons? I own both a djembe and a cajón myself and use each for different purposes.

A microphone stand is a simple thing: a tube on a base, with a clip at the top. But hang a tablet holder, extra arm or cup holder on it and it becomes a multifunctional piece of kit. 

The hi-hat is the piece of hardware on your drum kit that moves the most, which also makes it the piece where things go wrong most often. A clutch that won’t grip, a bottom cymbal lying dead flat or a spring that fights against you: you’ll hear it in your sound. Once you understand how a hi-hat stand is put together, you can have it dialled in within a few minutes.

How many keys you need doesn’t depend on how good you are, but on what you want to do with them. A producer recording basslines will get by fine with a couple of octaves, whereas someone learning the piano will hit a wall within a few months. In between lies a whole range of options, and each size suits its own kind of musician.

Starting out on electric guitar or bass guitar? At first glance they look like family: four or six strings, a neck with frets, an amp behind them. But in a band, they do something completely different. ‘Which instrument is the easiest to start on?’ isn’t really the right question, because guitar and bass both have their own technical challenges. The real question is simpler than you think: what do you think is cool?

A guitar slide might look like a simple tube, but its material says a lot about how it behaves. Glass, steel and brass differ mainly in weight and character. How heavily does it sit on the strings, how bright does it sound and how quickly can you move it? Choose the slide that suits your strings and your playing style, not the material with the prettiest shine.

A trumpet mouthpiece carries a code such as 7C, 5C or 1½C. These ‘Bach codes’ aren’t a ranking from beginner to master. They’re a sizing system that tells you how wide and how deep the cup is, and therefore how the mouthpiece sounds and plays. In this article, we’ll help you decipher the code.

The Fazley Core-FX series consists of two multi-effects pedals for guitar and bass: the compact Core-FX2 and the more extensive Core-FX3. Both pack amp models, effects, NAM captures, a USB audio interface and a rechargeable battery into one small box. The main differences are how many sounds you get and whether you want to use the pedal on stage.

The right hand on its own goes fine. Now the left-hand part: also fine. Great, time to put them together. And that’s the moment everything gets tangled up. This isn’t a personal failing; it’s the stumbling block for almost every beginner pianist. Playing with two hands at once is a skill you have to train separately, and you do that by making the problem smaller and smaller until it works. Time to start cutting.

A crash that sounds when you hit the floor tom, a kick that plays twice or a hi-hat that stays open while your foot is on the pedal: trigger problems are infuriating, but you can almost always fix them with a few settings in your electronic drum kit’s module. You just need to know which setting to change and, above all, by how much.

A string winder: is it a genuine tool, or just a toy for guitarists who can’t be bothered to turn the pegs? Honest answer: you can get by perfectly well without one. But it saves so much winding and costs so little that you’d be daft to leave it on the shelf. In short: is it a luxury? Yes. Unnecessary? No.