Theory & Playing Technique

You’re desperate to learn to play the guitar, but what’s the best way to do it? The internet is packed with helpful advice: theory, chords, scales, what seems like millions of different kinds of guitars… but you have no idea where to start. Is getting guitar lessons always the best solution? Here, Guestblogger Bart Hennephof lines up every option available to the complete beginner and also asks the question: how important is it to learn to play with the help of a real guitar teacher?

The combo can be undeniably awesome: drums and percussion joining forces in one band. In principle any and every style and genre will benefit from even a little bit of percussion, but to achieve it, drummers and percussionists need to work like a well-oiled machine. All going well, you get something deeper and more interesting, whether you’re a jazz band, an indie band, or a party band.

While you’re busy mastering any musical instrument, inevitably, a relationship is also busy developing between your instrument and your body. For any musician, the art lies in moving the body as efficiently as possible to guard off any possible aches, pains and even injuries. The Alexander Technique (AT for short) has already helped countless musicians, and here, we lay out the basics so you can start playing better and playing healthy.

Most guitarists want to up their game by playing faster. The secret? The right approach and plenty of practice. Forget ‘talent’ and experiment with these seven tips and train yourself to speed up your playing.

Partly thanks to televised talent show competitions, there are more vocalists than ever. Some opt to join a choir, while others sing solo. And then there are pop and jazz lovers who sing a-cappella as part of a vocal group. Want to know what it takes to sing in a vocal group? Simply read on.

While you can’t actually ‘see’ a voice-over, it’s the element that conveys the message. Some voice-overs are so well expressed, that you not only hear what’s being said, but see images, feel things, smell things and even taste things. But how can a voice artist pull this off? A little empathy and some acting talent can go a long way, of course, but it’s just as important to know what you’re doing and really know the material you’re working with so that, when you speak, you’re speaking consciously. In this article, Myra Grünning explains how to make your voice-overs more expressive. Myra is a qualified speech therapist and speech coach and also works as a voice-over artist herself.

Most musicians will agree that singing is the most vulnerable way of making music. At the same time, that vulnerability makes vocals a great vehicle for expressing and evoking emotion. When it comes to singing with emotion effectively, there’s one thing that’s absolutely essential: connection.

Voice-overs can very literally say a lot. All going well, the speech is in full service of the story, but what if the voice you hear is distracting from the message? Guestblogger, Myra Grünning explains what can go wrong and what you can do about it. Myra is a qualified speech therapist and speech coach and also works as a voice-over artist herself.

Instrumentalists aren’t the only ones who get to improvise. Vocalists can do it too, ranging from adding subtle vocal embellishments to scatting or even all-out improv. In this article, we’ll be taking a closer look at the various ways you can improvise and inject ad-libs.

Infusing pop songs with chunks of classical music requires knowledge of music theory as well as knowledge about certain do’s and don’ts. For example, did you know that just three notes carefully picked from a concerto are enough to successfully mash up pop and classical music? Of course, you can also use an existing composition or integrate other elements into your pop songs, like the four movements that make up a symphony. Read on and get inspired!

If your body and your breathing aren’t balanced, your sound won’t be on-point. For any singer or brass musician, correct breathing is essential if you want to achieve the purest notes. More importantly, musicians in general can definitely benefit from maintaining balance in their body and breathing. Finding that balance is not as easy as it sounds but, while it does take a lot of practice to get it right, the returns are immense, allowing you to play or sing using every cell in your body.

If you’ve just started to learn to play the guitar and feel like you’re not making any progress, then you’re not alone. In this blog, Dean van der Knaap lists the five biggest reasons why beginner guitarists stop playing, and explains why not one of them is a good reason.