For the longest time, I thought of every song I learned as its own island. Each new song was a new set of chords to memorize, a new form. No one was there to tell me that, in fact, the same common chord progressions were repeating themselves all the time. I could learn to identify…
Author: Stephen
My Kid NEVER Practices
“If she doesn’t start playing more I think we’ll just have to stop.” “I never want to force him to practice, but I do want him to understand you have to work hard to improve.” “She never practices.” I’ve been asking myself why, over more than 15 years of teaching music, I hear these (and…
Everybody Should Play Drums
I often think of two things I’ve done for myself as a musician that have paid massive dividends, and technically neither of them involve my primary instruments (guitar and keys). I’m talking about drum lessons and voice lessons. I have a lot to say about both, but today is all about DRUMS. Everybody should play…
Practice through the Tough Parts: 2 Minutes To Mastery #1
Most of us have heard the saying “practice how you perform”. The spirit of that saying is: “really give it your all in rehearsal, so you know what that feels like. When you finally play the show, you can go on autopilot and everything will fall into place.” I’d like to talk about the flip side…
Music Theory (Dispelling the Myth)
“I don’t really care about the ‘theory’ of what I’m doing. I’ll just play what I play… I don’t want to lose the soul of my music or have to follow any ‘rules’.”
I’ve heard variations on this theme for my entire musical life, and probably said something exactly like this when I was 12 and learning how to play guitar. In a way, I understand the sentiment, but since I first dove deep into music theory I’ve come to understand one very simple truth: