Our Latest Blog on Music & Instruments

How to Practice Funk Riffs

Rod Ferreira By Rod Ferreira on Thu, 10/27/2016 - 6:10pm EDT

Lots of students tend to play what they know best and avoid getting out of their comfortable zone! I always bug my students to learn something new every week and I don't mean working on new songs that tend to use the same chords - but really working on a drill, applying variations and then creating riffs with those drills.

For example, let’s pick a B minor scale and create a funk riff: (B C# D E F# G A)

Classical Sax vs. Pop/Rock Sax: Move Your Ligature!

By Ben Britton on Tue, 10/25/2016 - 2:41pm EDT

When you're first getting into different styles of music on saxophone, usually a teacher suggests that you have different mouthpieces, one for classical playing, one for jazz, and another for pop, rock and similar styles. That's definitely good advice, but something teachers don't always talk about is the idea that you can make more changes to your sound by moving your ligature to different positions on your mouthpiece.

Build Your Own Bassline: Free Video Series Released

Kelly Leprohon By Kelly Leprohon on Thu, 10/20/2016 - 1:52pm EDT

In this quick tutorial series bassist and educator Yonit Spiegelman demonstrates techniques for improving your basslines. The series is broken into three short parts, each part building on the next. 

You can find a PDF download of the chords used in Yonit's backing tracks in order to play along and create your own bassline in the end of each video. 

Questions, or want to learn more? Take a private lesson with Yonit.

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How to Find All Major Modes

Rod Ferreira By Rod Ferreira on Thu, 10/06/2016 - 3:15pm EDT

Watch the New Video of Piano, Voice, and Audition Prep Coach Liz Turner Talking About Her Experience with Lessonface

Claire Cunningham By Claire Cunningham on Mon, 10/03/2016 - 2:01pm EDT

Many thanks to Liz Turner for making this great testimonial about her work on Lessonface. We're so happy to be working with Liz. If you're looking for a piano, voice, or audition prep coach you can book with Liz at https://www.lessonface.com/lizturner

Four Tips on How to Choose Your Instrument

Kelly Leprohon By Kelly Leprohon on Thu, 09/29/2016 - 1:46pm EDT
Martin acoustic guitar and Ibanez electric guitar

Choosing an instrument can seem intimidating, but it doesn’t have to be so hard! If you sit back and consider these key points, you will be in the right direction to find your future instrument.

Age

Some instruments are easier to play as a young child while others can be extremely difficult! For one thing, some instruments are just too big. It would be difficult to imagine a four year old playing an upright bass. For younger children, piano, voice, and violin are popular choices.

Twenty Composition Prompts for Young Guitarists

Leah Kruszewski By Leah Kruszewski on Wed, 09/21/2016 - 2:35pm EDT

Young guitarists love writing songs! As with any creative task, the hardest part is getting started, so here are some ideas to inspire budding composers.

Learn to Rock the Classics: the Sonata di Chitarra

Claire Cunningham By Claire Cunningham on Tue, 09/13/2016 - 10:13am EDT

In our new promotional video, popular bass guitarist and music educator Yonit Spiegelman shows guitar beginner Colin some basics by ably using a great tune -- a tune truly for the ages. 

Why Does Our Musical Alphabet Have Twelve Tones?

Leah Kruszewski By Leah Kruszewski on Fri, 09/02/2016 - 3:56pm EDT

One of my guitar students recently asked me if musical tones vary as much as the color palette does among cultures and languages. For example, all languages have words for the fundamental colors such as black, white, red, yellow, blue, and green; but vocabulary for more complex variations varies greatly. Some languages do not have words for colors like purple, pink, orange, or brown. Other languages have specific words for colors that we English-speakers would consider subtle variations. In Russian, the colors light blue and dark blue have completely distinct and unrelated words.

Pentatonic, Blues & Mixolydian Scales on Guitar

Rod Ferreira By Rod Ferreira on Mon, 08/29/2016 - 3:18pm EDT

When improvising a solo, beginner guitar players tend to pick one scale and go with it for the entire solo. While this strategy can be really cool, solos are often made more interesting by mixing together a variety of scales in order to achieve different sounds.
 
Let’s pick a chord as a jumping-off point: 

A7 (A C# E G)

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