Practice Your Instrument

Two Things You Probably Don’t Understand About Learning to Play Music

Part of our business is a music school for children, so we interact with a lot of kids and their parents on the topic of learning to play music. Our approach emphasizes playing in a band with a goal of performing for an audience, so with new students our focus is on playing versus theory. […]

The Mental Game of Music Practice

I once took a weekend music theory class given at the famous Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY, and during the class breaks the students got together in the cafeteria. Posted on a column one week was a handwritten note, quoting some esteemed character in the school as having said “Practice is a sign […]

How to Practice Music (or help your child practice)

When I look back on my guitar-playing “career” of nearly 40 years (I started very young), I can divide the time into two major periods.  The first, lasting 30 years, was before I learned how to practice music, and the second period, for the last 10 years, was after I learned to practice.  Yes, it took me 30 […]

Music Theory

Music Theory Made Easy

Music theory made easy in this 90-minute instructional video from Paul Baloche focused primarily on chord theory and construction.

Why Music Sounds Good

YouTuber HarveyLegs explores why music sounds good. Topics include 12 tone scale, key centers, the difference between notes and note patterns. By discussing the missing notes of a scale he shows how each remaining note becomes unique relative to the other remaining notes.

Random Notes

We Are The World – 80s Pop Time Capsule

We recently watched the “We Are the World” video for the first time since it came out in 1985 and it was great to see it again as a time capsule for 1980s pop. If you’re not familiar with it (most likely due to youth) “We Are the World” is a song written by Michael […]

There Are No Wrong Notes

There were two monks in a monastery doing their daily rituals.  They were about to bow to their deity.  One got on his knees and said “Oh master, I am nothing, I don’t exist, all there is is You.”  The next monk bowed down even lower and said, “Oh great one, I am less than […]

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