Category Archives for "Music"
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Why Adults Can’t Learn Perfect Pitch
The vast majority of musicians don’t have perfect pitch, but we’d all love to have that ability. The problem is that it’s not something that you can learn later in life. Yes, we can get better at identifying notes (relative pitch), but that’s not the same as perfect pitch (absolute pitch, scientifically speaking). Most of […]
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You May Not Think So, But Science Believes You Can Sing
One of the things that musicians can do to up their value is sing. There’s always a place for another voice on stage. Many musicians (and members of the general public) don’t believe that they can’t sing however. The good thing here is that science doesn’t believe that point of view and has proven that […]
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The Unnamed Rhythm Of Modern Music
This is a fascinating video that looks at songs that use a rhythm pattern that doesn’t have a name, yet is found in so many hits. I must admit that I hadn’t thought about this much until I watched this video, and now I hear the rhythm everywhere. What is it? 3 + 3 + […]
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The Types Of Shows You Should Avoid Playing
Most musicians love to play in front of people. Getting an audience involved with your music is such an addictive exhilarating rush that once we get a taste for it we never want to stop. As a result, bands will usually take just about any gig offered to them. When you’re first starting out, that […]
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16 Ways Playing In The Studio Is Different From Playing Live
I’ve been getting a lot of emails lately asking how one goes about becoming a studio musician, so I thought that this excerpt from my Studio Musician’s Handbook (written with ace bass player and good buddy Paul ILL) might be appropriate. It’s about the 16 ways playing in the studio is different than playing live. […]
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Musicians Have Better Memories According To New Study
You wouldn’t always know it by the number of clams that fellow musicians make onstage sometimes, but a recent study has found that musicians have better memories than non-musicians. This includes what’s known as “working memory” as well as short and long term memory. Working memory is the ability to retain information at the same time […]
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A Bernard Purdie Ghost Note Lesson
One of the greatest drummers ever is Bernard Purdie thanks to his unique “Purdie Shuffle” and the countless hits he’s played on with James Brown (“Get On The Good Foot”), Aretha Franklin (“Rock Steady”), Steely Dan (“Babylon Sisters” and “Home At Last”), Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, and so many others. Bernard’s trademark is the ghost […]
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Why Today’s Singers Are Losing Their Voices More Than Ever
I have a theory that part of the reason that live sound is marginal these days despite advances in equipment is the fact that an entire generation of live mixers (maybe 2) learned the wrong way, focusing more on the drums than on the element that needs the most attention – the vocal. It appears […]
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Infinite Music That Lasts (Almost) Forever
How long does a song have to last before you’d call it long? 5 minutes? 15 minutes? An hour? Some Indian ragas last more than 3 hours. That’s long by Western tastes but not to fans of the genre. That said, there’s a category of music where a song not only lasts for years, but even decades […]
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How Our Short Attention Span Is Changing Song Structure
Radio airplay has always influenced how songs were produced, chiefly the length, as for years it was felt that 3 minutes was the ideal length to keep the listener engaged. In fact, today songs are sped up routinely in order to have more plays per hour. Now a pair of new studies published in Musicae Scientiae, […]
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Drummer David Garibaldi – My Most Important Beat
David Garibaldi has played with artists like Patti Austin, Natalie Cole, Larry Carlton, Mickey Hart’s Planet Drum, Boz Scaggs, and The Yellowjackets, but it’s his place as drummer for powerhouse horn band Tower of Power that most people know him for. David credits much of his success to what’s known in drumming circles as the “King […]
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Goodbye Clyde Stubblefield
So much of today’s music was influenced one way or another by Funk music of the 60s and 70s. Of course, James Brown could be credited as the inventor of Funk, but the man behind the feel was drummer Clyde Stubblefield, who passed away last week at age 73. He was the backbeat behind such […]
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Yes, There’s A Film About The 808 Drum Machine
I’m old enough to remember when drum machines first came out. The LinnDrum (see my Roger Linn interview for some great insight on how it was developed) was a wonder that allowed producers to finally get perfect time while scaring the pants off drummers everywhere now fearful for their jobs. Most of the LinnDrum imitators […]
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The Story Behind Bruce Springsteen’s Iconic Hybrid Telecaster
There are some guitars that are forever linked to certain musicians. Eric Clapton’s “Blackie” and “Brownie” Strats, Brian May’s home-built one-off, Neil Young’s “Old Black” Les Paul, and B.B. King’s “Lucille” ES355 are just a few that come to mind. But there is another that fits nicely into this category and deserves equal attention because of […]
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The 5 Ways To Become A Studio Musician
On the journey to becoming a successful studio musician, a lot of roads lead to the same place, but the way it usually works is that someone hears and likes your playing and either hires you or refers you as a result. This excerpt from my Studio Musician’s Handbook (written with studio bassist Paul ILL) outlines the […]
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