Musician

Some drummers swear by it, while others can’t stand it: the click-track. For any musician, a click-track is essentially a metronome that you can hear over a set of headphones or speakers. Play in time with the click or risk the recording or performance sounding loose and shambolic. This method certainly offers a lot of advantages but also comes with a few pitfalls. So, when should you toe the line and use a click track and when should you just let it go?

If you want to be able to pluck solos out of thin air or even compose a ripping solo, then one thing is certain: you absolutely have to be able to improvise. The honing of this skill demands hours upon hours or practice and an experimental spirit. Only then do you have to power and intuitive flow to weave a stunning solo, even if you’re composing it bit by bit. This is not only about playing along with a recorded track perfectly, but is more about spending days on end inventing little lines of melody on the fly.

Brass wind instruments feature in many different styles of music and are a source of confusion when it comes to what they’re called and how they sound. In this blog, we’ll sort them by pitch and go over the differences.

To end up as a drummer for a big band, you can’t escape beginning with a couple of basic rhythms. While the ones you’ll want to play are likely to depend on your stylistic preference, there are a few simple beginner drum rhythms that can be used in any style. In this blog, I’ll discuss four quintessential rhythms that offer endless experimentation and variation.

Introducing the C-minor scale, this blog follows up on the ‘Learning to Read Music: The C-Major Scale’ blog and aims to teach you how to play the scale in different keys (D, E, F, G and A). Again, it doesn’t matter if you play piano, recorder, guitar or violin – any instrument can be used here.

It makes sense to feel deeply impressed whenever you see and hear a musician play a complex piece of music reading it from a sheet of paper. A justifiable feeling on one hand, because it’s likely they have practiced and studied intensely to hone their skills. On the other hand, reading music actually isn’t all that difficult. No matter if you play piano, keyboard, guitar or drums, any instrument can be used to start with the basics, which include the commonly used C-major scale, also called the key of C. Don’t freak out now, it’s easier than you think!

Fellow drummers, we all know how important we are, but sometimes we need to remind our friends, band members and fans of this slightly boastful fact. We’re more than a glorified metronome and fortunately, there are and have been various drummers prepared to prove that to the world with some beautifully recognisable, iconic drum parts. In honour of them, Bax Music presents: 5 legendary drum parts!

In this blog, Guestblogger Marc offers a step-by-step explanation of how you can change the nut of your guitar. Whether it’s an electric mode, an acoustic, or classical guitar, or a bass, Marc fills you in on what tools you’ll need and why you would bother changing the nut at all. The conclusion seem to be that it rewards you with an instrument that plays better than it ever did. Read on to find out how and why.

If you’re a freelance musician, producer, or DJ, then you probably live a pretty unpredictable live where you’re suddenly travelling for months on end, or you just as suddenly have very little work and a lot of time at home. So, what can you do to make the very best of that in-between-time? In this blog, we offer 10 tips to help you stay productive at home.

The machine heads fitted to the headstock of an electric or acoustic guitar can come in many shapes and sizes: from closed oil-bed machine heads, to open-gear tuners, to the vintage tuners found blessing the heads of a Stratocaster or Telecaster, to the sunken tuning mechanics of a classical guitar. There is one flavour of machine head that is actually often demanded by guitarists: the locking tuner. Find out why right here.

Can a guitar or bass guitar that you buy online be set up and adjusted before it’s shipped off? This is a question that we get asked a lot. As such, we’ve put this little blog together to explain what actually goes into setting up a guitar or bass and why it’s not possible to – or actually understandable that we don’t – set up a brand new guitar before sending it out to you.

Whether you’re a singer-songwriter, keyboard player in a band, composer, or sound technician, sooner or later you might want to record the sound of a genuine acoustic piano. And I’m not talking about any pre-recorded Steinway or Yamaha C7 samples either, because no matter how good these sound, it wouldn’t be your own unique sound. So how do you record a piano, which microphones do you need and where do you even put them? Read on to find the answers to these questions and more!