The origin of hip-hop can be traced back as far as the ancient tribes in Africa. Rap has been compared with the chants, drumbeats and foot-stomping African tribes performed before wars, the births of babies, and the deaths of kings and elders. Historians have reached further back than the accepted origins of hip-hop. It was born as we know it today in the Bronx, cradled and nurtured by the youth in the low-income areas of New York City.

Fast-forward from the tribes of Africa to the ghettos of Kingston, Jamaica in the late sixties. The impoverished of Kingston gathered together in groups to form DJ conglomerates. They spun roots and culture records and communicated with the audience over the music. At the time, the DJs comments werent as important as the quality of the sound system and its ability to get the crowd moving. Kool Herc grew up in this community before he moved to the Bronx.

During the late sixties, reggae wasnt popular with New Yorkers. As a DJ, Kool Herc spun rhythm and blues records to please his party crowd. But, he had to add his personal touch. During the breaks, Herc began to speak to his audience as he had learned to do in Jamaica. He called out, the audience responded, and then he pumped the volume back up on the record. This call and response technique was nothing new to this community whod been reared in Baptist and Methodist churches where call and response was a technique used by the speakers to get the congregation involved. Historians compare it to the call and response performed by Jazz musicians and was very much a part of the culture of Jazz music during the renaissance in Harlem.

Hercs DJ style caught on. His partys grew in popularity. He began to buy multiple copies of the same albums. When he performed his duties as a DJ, he extended the breaks by using multiple copies of the same records. He chatted, as it is called in dance hall, with his audience for longer and longer periods.

Others copied Hercs style. Soon a friendly battle ensued between New York DJs. They all learned the technique of using break beats. Herc stepped up the game by giving shout-outs to people who were in attendance at the parties and coming up with his signature call and response. Other DJs responded by rhyming with their words when they spoke to the audience. More and more DJs used two and four line rhymes and anecdotes to get their audiences involved and hyped at these parties.

One day, Herc passed the microphone over to two of his friends. He took care of the turn table and allowed his buddies to keep the crowd hyped with chants, rhymes and anecdotes while he extended the breaks of different songs indefinitely. This was the birth of rap as we know it.

Hip-hop has evolved from the days of the basement showdowns to big business in the music industry. In the seventies and eighties, the pioneers and innovators of the rap record was the DJ. He was the guy who used his turntable to create fresh sounds with old records. Then, he became the guy who mixed these familiar breaks with synthesizers to produce completely new beats. Not much has changed in that aspect of hip-hop. The guy who creates the beat is still the heart of the track. Now, we call him the producer. Even though some DJs work as producers as well as DJs (quite a few start out as DJs before they become producers), todays title DJ doesnt carry the same connotative meaning it did in the eighties. Todays hip-hop producer performs the same tasks as the eightys DJ.

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Imagine your child practicing their very first Christmas Song on the piano, such as Away in the Manger, or Silent Night, but theyre not holding out the half notes or playing the dotted quarter rhythms like were all used to hearing it. Their song starts and stops and lacks the rhythm your trained ear is used to hearing. But of course you dont want to say anything discouraging! When parents do try to correct such imperfections in rhythm and tempo, it often creates a lot of friction. Young students just cant seem to get the right beat and parents dont understand why! Well there is a solution thats easy to use. One of the great features of modern piano lessons is the electronic or digital keyboard. With guidance from parents and piano teachers the recording features of these instruments are very useful to piano students.

One of the most difficult things for young students to learn is how to keep a steady beat and play correct note values. While a metronome is a great tool for this, it keeps a very strict beat that may not allow for proper expression of the music. Plus the concept of a metronome is difficult for young students to grasp. One of the great features of modern piano lessons is the electronic or digital keyboard.

With guidance from parents and piano teachers the recording features of these instruments are very useful to piano students. By recording passages of music for students, however, parents and teachers can give young children musical examples to imitate. Once a student can imitate the music (this is kind of like a baby bird learning its family song) they can learn to count the rhythms they are already playing.

Another great feature of a digital keyboard is that students can record their own pieces of music for self evaluation. This is a whole lot better than parents and teachers telling kids what to do, and of course this is the ultimate goal of teaching and parenting.

For great home piano activities parents can use to help children ages 5 to 11 develop their musical talent, visit Piano Adventure Bears Music Education Resources Youll find a treasure box filled with piano resources to create an exciting musical adventure for your child – right in your own home! Visit their website and subscribe to their free internet newsletter so you can download free piano sheet music and mp3s of original piano compositions.

These exciting stories, games, piano lessons, and inspirational gifts feature the Piano Adventure Bears, Mrs. Treble Beary and her new piano student, Albeart Littlebud. Young students follow along with Albeart to learn what piano lessons are all about in a fun way that kids readily understand appreciate. Click here to visit PianoAdventureBears.com For a wealth of information about piano lessons, visit tallypiano.com

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The origin of hip-hop can be traced back as far as the ancient tribes in Africa. Rap has been compared with the chants, drumbeats and foot-stomping African tribes performed before wars, the births of babies, and the deaths of kings and elders. Historians have reached further back than the accepted origins of hip-hop. It was born as we know it today in the Bronx, cradled and nurtured by the youth in the low-income areas of New York City.

Fast-forward from the tribes of Africa to the ghettos of Kingston, Jamaica in the late sixties. The impoverished of Kingston gathered together in groups to form DJ conglomerates. They spun roots and culture records and communicated with the audience over the music. At the time, the DJs comments werent as important as the quality of the sound system and its ability to get the crowd moving. Kool Herc grew up in this community before he moved to the Bronx.

During the late sixties, reggae wasnt popular with New Yorkers. As a DJ, Kool Herc spun rhythm and blues records to please his party crowd. But, he had to add his personal touch. During the breaks, Herc began to speak to his audience as he had learned to do in Jamaica. He called out, the audience responded, and then he pumped the volume back up on the record. This call and response technique was nothing new to this community whod been reared in Baptist and Methodist churches where call and response was a technique used by the speakers to get the congregation involved. Historians compare it to the call and response performed by Jazz musicians and was very much a part of the culture of Jazz music during the renaissance in Harlem.

Hercs DJ style caught on. His partys grew in popularity. He began to buy multiple copies of the same albums. When he performed his duties as a DJ, he extended the breaks by using multiple copies of the same records. He chatted, as it is called in dance hall, with his audience for longer and longer periods.

Others copied Hercs style. Soon a friendly battle ensued between New York DJs. They all learned the technique of using break beats. Herc stepped up the game by giving shout-outs to people who were in attendance at the parties and coming up with his signature call and response. Other DJs responded by rhyming with their words when they spoke to the audience. More and more DJs used two and four line rhymes and anecdotes to get their audiences involved and hyped at these parties.

One day, Herc passed the microphone over to two of his friends. He took care of the turn table and allowed his buddies to keep the crowd hyped with chants, rhymes and anecdotes while he extended the breaks of different songs indefinitely. This was the birth of rap as we know it.

Hip-hop has evolved from the days of the basement showdowns to big business in the music industry. In the seventies and eighties, the pioneers and innovators of the rap record was the DJ. He was the guy who used his turntable to create fresh sounds with old records. Then, he became the guy who mixed these familiar breaks with synthesizers to produce completely new beats. Not much has changed in that aspect of hip-hop. The guy who creates the beat is still the heart of the track. Now, we call him the producer. Even though some DJs work as producers as well as DJs (quite a few start out as DJs before they become producers), todays title DJ doesnt carry the same connotative meaning it did in the eighties. Todays hip-hop producer performs the same tasks as the eightys DJ.

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Hip Hop music is popular with today’s youth. The Hip Hop audience ranges in age from the very young to the seasoned at heart. The messages in the music are clear and often depict life in the real world. Most artist use their own life experiences to tell stories that reflect what their world is like. Hip Hop music is a venue that gives the artist an opportunity to tell it like it is. Many of today’s youth find that through the sounds and messages of Hip Hop they are able to see reflections of themselves and the world around them.

Although some of the messages conveyed by Hip Hop are viewed as negative, it must be understood that the lyrics in these songs are someone’s reality. Hip Hop artist sing about what they have seen and many of their personal experiences. Unfortunately, many of their experiences are not so pretty. Other Hip Hop songs carry a positive message and force the listener to think and dream beyond their current situation. Hip Hop music has taken America by a storm and it will continue to influence our youth. We must all these free expression and the growth of Hip Hop music because what we hear is relative to what’s going on in the world today.

GMP Records, Inc. http://www.godmadeitpossible4me.com also check out http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/deepcover

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The origin of hip-hop can be traced back as far as the ancient tribes in Africa. Rap has been compared with the chants, drumbeats and foot-stomping African tribes performed before wars, the births of babies, and the deaths of kings and elders. Historians have reached further back than the accepted origins of hip-hop. It was born as we know it today in the Bronx, cradled and nurtured by the youth in the low-income areas of New York City.

Fast-forward from the tribes of Africa to the ghettos of Kingston, Jamaica in the late sixties. The impoverished of Kingston gathered together in groups to form DJ conglomerates. They spun roots and culture records and communicated with the audience over the music. At the time, the DJs comments werent as important as the quality of the sound system and its ability to get the crowd moving. Kool Herc grew up in this community before he moved to the Bronx.

During the late sixties, reggae wasnt popular with New Yorkers. As a DJ, Kool Herc spun rhythm and blues records to please his party crowd. But, he had to add his personal touch. During the breaks, Herc began to speak to his audience as he had learned to do in Jamaica. He called out, the audience responded, and then he pumped the volume back up on the record. This call and response technique was nothing new to this community whod been reared in Baptist and Methodist churches where call and response was a technique used by the speakers to get the congregation involved. Historians compare it to the call and response performed by Jazz musicians and was very much a part of the culture of Jazz music during the renaissance in Harlem.

Hercs DJ style caught on. His partys grew in popularity. He began to buy multiple copies of the same albums. When he performed his duties as a DJ, he extended the breaks by using multiple copies of the same records. He chatted, as it is called in dance hall, with his audience for longer and longer periods.

Others copied Hercs style. Soon a friendly battle ensued between New York DJs. They all learned the technique of using break beats. Herc stepped up the game by giving shout-outs to people who were in attendance at the parties and coming up with his signature call and response. Other DJs responded by rhyming with their words when they spoke to the audience. More and more DJs used two and four line rhymes and anecdotes to get their audiences involved and hyped at these parties.

One day, Herc passed the microphone over to two of his friends. He took care of the turn table and allowed his buddies to keep the crowd hyped with chants, rhymes and anecdotes while he extended the breaks of different songs indefinitely. This was the birth of rap as we know it.

Hip-hop has evolved from the days of the basement showdowns to big business in the music industry. In the seventies and eighties, the pioneers and innovators of the rap record was the DJ. He was the guy who used his turntable to create fresh sounds with old records. Then, he became the guy who mixed these familiar breaks with synthesizers to produce completely new beats. Not much has changed in that aspect of hip-hop. The guy who creates the beat is still the heart of the track. Now, we call him the producer. Even though some DJs work as producers as well as DJs (quite a few start out as DJs before they become producers), todays title DJ doesnt carry the same connotative meaning it did in the eighties. Todays hip-hop producer performs the same tasks as the eightys DJ.

More articles at article database

The origin of hip-hop can be traced back as far as the ancient tribes in Africa. Rap has been compared with the chants, drumbeats and foot-stomping African tribes performed before wars, the births of babies, and the deaths of kings and elders. Historians have reached further back than the accepted origins of hip-hop. It was born as we know it today in the Bronx, cradled and nurtured by the youth in the low-income areas of New York City.

Fast-forward from the tribes of Africa to the ghettos of Kingston, Jamaica in the late sixties. The impoverished of Kingston gathered together in groups to form DJ conglomerates. They spun roots and culture records and communicated with the audience over the music. At the time, the DJs comments werent as important as the quality of the sound system and its ability to get the crowd moving. Kool Herc grew up in this community before he moved to the Bronx.

During the late sixties, reggae wasnt popular with New Yorkers. As a DJ, Kool Herc spun rhythm and blues records to please his party crowd. But, he had to add his personal touch. During the breaks, Herc began to speak to his audience as he had learned to do in Jamaica. He called out, the audience responded, and then he pumped the volume back up on the record. This call and response technique was nothing new to this community whod been reared in Baptist and Methodist churches where call and response was a technique used by the speakers to get the congregation involved. Historians compare it to the call and response performed by Jazz musicians and was very much a part of the culture of Jazz music during the renaissance in Harlem.

Hercs DJ style caught on. His partys grew in popularity. He began to buy multiple copies of the same albums. When he performed his duties as a DJ, he extended the breaks by using multiple copies of the same records. He chatted, as it is called in dance hall, with his audience for longer and longer periods.

Others copied Hercs style. Soon a friendly battle ensued between New York DJs. They all learned the technique of using break beats. Herc stepped up the game by giving shout-outs to people who were in attendance at the parties and coming up with his signature call and response. Other DJs responded by rhyming with their words when they spoke to the audience. More and more DJs used two and four line rhymes and anecdotes to get their audiences involved and hyped at these parties.

One day, Herc passed the microphone over to two of his friends. He took care of the turn table and allowed his buddies to keep the crowd hyped with chants, rhymes and anecdotes while he extended the breaks of different songs indefinitely. This was the birth of rap as we know it.

Hip-hop has evolved from the days of the basement showdowns to big business in the music industry. In the seventies and eighties, the pioneers and innovators of the rap record was the DJ. He was the guy who used his turntable to create fresh sounds with old records. Then, he became the guy who mixed these familiar breaks with synthesizers to produce completely new beats. Not much has changed in that aspect of hip-hop. The guy who creates the beat is still the heart of the track. Now, we call him the producer. Even though some DJs work as producers as well as DJs (quite a few start out as DJs before they become producers), todays title DJ doesnt carry the same connotative meaning it did in the eighties. Todays hip-hop producer performs the same tasks as the eightys DJ.

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1)Why Are You Recording Your Album?

There are a number of reasons that a person would want to record an album. Some musicians have had songs laying around for years and would just like to slap them down onto some kind of repeatable device such as a cd. Others are looking to capture their latest batch of songs and hopefully intend to sell it. Others are simply looking for a demo. You need to look at your situation and see what you intend to do with it. This will effect many other aspects of the recording process.

2)What Are Your Goals for Your Album?

Are you hoping to get signed based on the songs on this album? Are you looking to make money off of the album without the help of a label? Are you just wanting to record the record for yourself?

3)Do you really need to record an entire album?

I get a lot of bands who want to record a $200 album and they want it to sound just like their favorite band who spent $200,000 recording their last record. Frankly, it’s impossible to get the same sound at 1/ 1000 of the budget. It’s just not going to happen. It takes time to make a great record that will compete with major label big boy bands. Even great musicians take a week to do drums or a week to do vocals (Sometimes much longer) in the major label setting. Are you sure you want to cram vocals in the last 3 hours on Sunday night?

I always recommend that bands on a very tight budget cut their song quantity down. Chances are that not all of these songs are great anyway. For most bands, you are better off recording your best material and giving yourself plenty of time to work on it. Think about it. If you really want to come out with a perfect record (which many people do) how is this possible without perfect songs? Your perfectionism (if you believe in perfect) should start before you walk through the studio door.

4)What are you expectations for the record in terms of quality and perfection?

You need to have clear goals of what you would like to achieve with your record in terms of how professional it sounds and looks. Again, your budget will play a huge part into the quality and perfection factor of the record. To sound great, you need great musicians, playing great performances of great songs on great gear. That’s basically it. If any of these things are present, you are compromising. Be realistic. Odds are strong that if you are a 16 year old in a rock band, your record simply won’t sound as good as the band that has 10 years of experience over you.

5)In any less than mega pro setting, compromises will I have to make?

I’m talking about on a recording quality level. For example, I’m limited to 20 inputs on my recording system. (Two Delta 1010 soundcards and two Mytek ADC 96s). When a drummer want to use 4 toms and 2 kick drums (and expects them to be close mic’d) I’m already using up 6 mics on the kicks and toms. By the time I put 2 mics on the snare and two overheads, I’m up to 10 mics. I always like to try putting a mic in front of the drum kit and also farther back as a room mic. However, when I know I’m going to need to a couple tracks for bass (DI and mic’d amp) and a couple mics on each guitar cabinet, I have to start rationing my microphones. In other words, I’ve had to compromise what I’m doing because a drummer decided to use an extra tom or two and extra kick drum. Those two tracks could have went to tracks that would have seriously improved the entire drum sound immensely, but instead went to a tom that will be hit 3 times on the album.

Be aware of this and go easy on the recording guy. The more junk you add on your kit, the harder it is to get right. Since most drummers do not balance their kit properly, most things have to be close mic’d. This is unfortunate because it usually reduces sound quality to make up for the drummers lack of playing.

6)How does your drummer sound?

Sit and listen to your favorite records. Then listen to your drummer play. In almost every rock record ever made the snare and kick drum cut through the mix easily. You can hear them clear as day and there are not a ton of washing cymbals drowning everything else out. How does your drummer sound? Does he smash his snare or is it lost in a wash of hihats, rides, and crash cymbals?

If your ears don’t pick up the snare and kick as they should be, no microphone will either. It’s up to your drummer to play his kit in a way that sounds good. About 20% of the drummers that I’ve seen naturally do this. Most have to learn to do it.

7)What is your plan for after the record is complete?

If you don’t have a marketing plan made out before the record is even started, you’ve already messed up. Guess what. No one has every cared about an album that they never heard of…ever! If you don’t have a plan to make sure that everyone in your county has heard your album, how do you expect to sell any to the people that will actually like it? Marketing an album is beyond the scope of this article, but if you don’t have a clear cut plan for getting this album to the people, you will probably fail. Note: Playing a few shows and putting the cd in local music stores is not nearly good enough.

8)Have you thought about graphics?

Graphics are usually not cheap unless you have a talented buddy. You need at least 300 dpi graphics ready for the printer’s specs. While the instructions to do this are not difficult, most people are clueless. If you are doing the graphics yourself, make sure you understand exactly what your cd replicator needs from you.

If you are hiring a professional to take care of the graphics, good. Make sure you save your money!

9)How many cds do you expect to sell with your newsletter?

In my opinion, if you don’t have a large quantity of people on the newsletter, you aren’t ready for an album. The newsletter is the most powerful way to promote your band without spending a dime or much time. All you have to do is send out one email every 2-4 weeks.

So if you don’t have a large newsletter already going, don’t waste your time on an expensive record. Go and record quick demos of each song and save them for a rainy day. The newsletter thing is so powerful and so easy to setup. If you don’t have one, you probably have done a poor job of promoting your band. You are simply not ready to record a serious record.

10)What’s the worst thing that could happen?

Let’s say you go into debt recording the perfect record. You then go into more debt creating the graphics and shelling out the cash to pay for the cd replication. You throw your cd release party and you sell 7 copies. 7 COPIES???? You haven’t even paid for the shipping on the cds yet? If you plan to make a great record, you had better have a plan or you’ll end up with 993 copies of the cd in your basement and a huge credit card debt.

11)Should I use my money to impress a label?

Many bands are hoping to get signed. Great! If that’s the case, you need to realistically look at your situation. If you have the budget to make a recording that sounds so good that the label doesn’t have to do re-record it, you will save money. Of course, most bands can’t afford the bucks it takes to do this. Hiring pro engineers is not cheap in most instances. Pro mixing is even more expensive. So you’ll probably record with a studio that will give you results less than that of a major label recording. If that’s the case, you’ve already compromised. You’ve already weakened a link in your chain. No matter how perfect the vocal take was or how amazingly you played the drums, the quality will be sub par.

In other words, if you are recording at a demo studio or project studio, you are wasting your time if you go for monster perfection. Labels are looking for great looking people to play extremely catchy songs. Most producers are paid to shape you into a real musician when the big bucks come. No matter how perfect of a record you think you’ll make on your own, a real producer will find flaws…lots of them.

Brandon Drury has recorded too many albums for too many bands that didn’t take band promotion into consideration.

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The origin of hip-hop can be traced back as far as the ancient tribes in Africa. Rap has been compared with the chants, drumbeats and foot-stomping African tribes performed before wars, the births of babies, and the deaths of kings and elders. Historians have reached further back than the accepted origins of hip-hop. It was born as we know it today in the Bronx, cradled and nurtured by the youth in the low-income areas of New York City.

Fast-forward from the tribes of Africa to the ghettos of Kingston, Jamaica in the late sixties. The impoverished of Kingston gathered together in groups to form DJ conglomerates. They spun roots and culture records and communicated with the audience over the music. At the time, the DJs comments werent as important as the quality of the sound system and its ability to get the crowd moving. Kool Herc grew up in this community before he moved to the Bronx.

During the late sixties, reggae wasnt popular with New Yorkers. As a DJ, Kool Herc spun rhythm and blues records to please his party crowd. But, he had to add his personal touch. During the breaks, Herc began to speak to his audience as he had learned to do in Jamaica. He called out, the audience responded, and then he pumped the volume back up on the record. This call and response technique was nothing new to this community whod been reared in Baptist and Methodist churches where call and response was a technique used by the speakers to get the congregation involved. Historians compare it to the call and response performed by Jazz musicians and was very much a part of the culture of Jazz music during the renaissance in Harlem.

Hercs DJ style caught on. His partys grew in popularity. He began to buy multiple copies of the same albums. When he performed his duties as a DJ, he extended the breaks by using multiple copies of the same records. He chatted, as it is called in dance hall, with his audience for longer and longer periods.

Others copied Hercs style. Soon a friendly battle ensued between New York DJs. They all learned the technique of using break beats. Herc stepped up the game by giving shout-outs to people who were in attendance at the parties and coming up with his signature call and response. Other DJs responded by rhyming with their words when they spoke to the audience. More and more DJs used two and four line rhymes and anecdotes to get their audiences involved and hyped at these parties.

One day, Herc passed the microphone over to two of his friends. He took care of the turn table and allowed his buddies to keep the crowd hyped with chants, rhymes and anecdotes while he extended the breaks of different songs indefinitely. This was the birth of rap as we know it.

Hip-hop has evolved from the days of the basement showdowns to big business in the music industry. In the seventies and eighties, the pioneers and innovators of the rap record was the DJ. He was the guy who used his turntable to create fresh sounds with old records. Then, he became the guy who mixed these familiar breaks with synthesizers to produce completely new beats. Not much has changed in that aspect of hip-hop. The guy who creates the beat is still the heart of the track. Now, we call him the producer. Even though some DJs work as producers as well as DJs (quite a few start out as DJs before they become producers), todays title DJ doesnt carry the same connotative meaning it did in the eighties. Todays hip-hop producer performs the same tasks as the eightys DJ.

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Coming up with the best guitar practice routine is a matter of first deciding what your goals are. For most guitarists when they think of a practice routine, the goal is to improve speed and technique. For some, sight reading may also be an area that needs work, as well as improvisation, soloing, rhythm and timing issues. What follows is what I’ve used and developed over the course of the last 20 years to get my technique and artistry to where I want it to be.

First, let’s look at where you are. If you don’t already know how to play the Pentatonic scales and diatonic scales, you need to do that first. Once you have them all memorized, let’s look at how to work with those, and chromatic exercises as the basis for the best guitar practice routine for you and your needs. There are links to pdf files of these scales on my website as well as many others out there.

To start with, you need to set aside about 30 minutes for nothing but technique practice, and it shouldn’t be the very first thing that you do. My suggestion is to start with reading practice while you get your fingers warmed up. That way, they’re ready to go when you start with the metronome. If you’re not working on your reading, then warm up with some easy music. I like to warm up with a couple of studies from the book Classical Studies for Pick-Style Guitar by William Leavitt. There’s 2 studies in there by a violinst named Kreutzer that I really like to use. I use these for warm-up, so don’t try to play them at top speed. Paganini also has some famous violin pieces that have been transcribed for guitar and make good practice tools.

If you are practicing your reading, my former teacher, David Oakes, has a great book called Music Reading for Guitar that is very good. In addition, I like the Reading Studies for Guitar book by William Leavitt. There are certainly others, but these are well known and respected books on sight reading for guitar, which we all know is a big problem. As for the amount of time, I’ve done everything from 2 hours per day to very little, and I can’t see that past about 15 minutes there’s a huge amount of benefit. If you read for about 15 minutes per day, you will get better, it’s that simple. Reading is something that must be practiced daily or close to it to keep your chops up.

Now that you’re all warmed up, let’s start working the scales and pushing the speed a little bit. I start with the pentatonic and blues scales. You’ll notice that they are all written in the key of A minor/C major. Once you have learned them in this key, they transpose to other keys simply by moving them. If you want to be in the key of F minor, just move all of the boxes down 4 frets from the A to the F and away you go. What I like to do is set a metronome at an easy pace, around 120, and play all 5 boxes in F minor at that pace. You can use eighth notes, triplets, or sixteenth notes depending on your level of proficiency. In other words, either play 2 notes per beat, 3 notes per beat, or 4 notes per beat depending on how fast you can already play the scales.

Once you’ve finished all 5 boxes, move up to the key of F# minor, and increase the speed on the metronome by 5 BPM. Repeat the process with every key. Once you get up to around B, you’ll probably start running out of fretboard. No problem, when it gets too far up the neck, just go down an octave by subtracting 12 frets. You’ll be playing the same notes, just one octave lower.

Once you’ve done this with all of the pentatonic and blues scale patterns, move on to the diatonic scales. You can do one scale in all keys, then move on, or do all the scales in one key, and then move on. I would start with F# since you’ll have open strings if you use F. What I do is to start with G major, then A dorian, B phrygian, C lydian, D mixolydian, E aeolian, F# locrian. Then move on to G# major, A# dorian, etc.

Once I’ve done just the scale patterns, I go back and practice the broken thirds and stepwise thirds and usually stepwise fourths as well if I have time. Another fantastic book to add to your collection is from the Guitar Grimoire series and it’s the Exercise Book. The author, Adam Kadmon, has written out what effectively has been my own personal practice routine for years. It’s an outstanding book if you want the best guitar practice routine right in front of you without having to come up with it.

After all of that is done, take a break! Your hands will likely be tired, and you’ve been concentrating which tires your body out. Get up for a few minutes and walk around. Shake out your hands and wrists. Get some water, a bite to eat, whatever.

After all of that, it’s play time. Depending on what you’re trying to learn right now, this is always open ended. If you’re working on your improvisation, then play with some jam tracks and work on licks. If you’re learning a song, now’s the time to do that. Spend some time at the end of every practice session doing what’s really the most fun to you. You should notice that after having practiced all of your scales and taken a few minutes of break, you’re playing better than you have before. Now go practice!

Griff Hamlin is a professional guitarist, singer, and songwriter in southern california. For more information on him or his music, please visit http://www.griffhamlin.com. For access to Griff’s Guitar Community pages visit http://www.griffhamlin.com/community.

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One of the Brobdingnagian Bards’ early CDs, Songs of the Muse is going into it’s second pressing. When I saw Christopher Knab’s article Your CD Cover is Your Best Ad For Your Music, I decided this was the perfect inspiration I needed to update the CD graphics.

I’ve been a fan of Christopher Knab for about as long as I’ve been a fan of Bob Baker. He is without a doubt one of the top Top 10 music marketers in my book.

Well, whenever I create graphics, I find too often that I forget a bunch of stuff. So this article serves as a great checklist. But when I read Seth Godin’s Best-Selling book, Free Prize Inside, I realized that it was NOT a complete list!

In fact, the music industry in general has greatly missed out on an amazing opportunity to better sell CDs.

The idea I got came from the backs of books. Go grab a best-seller and turn it over. On the back, you will find the secret…

What did you find? You might’ve seen testimonials, a brief description of the book, or maybe even an exerpt.

You see, one of the problems I found with Songs of the Muse is that since we call our music Celtic music. It wasn’t till much later that I realized that in the Celtic music tradition, songs have lyrics and tunes are instrumentals. This album is all instrumental. So it was poorly named for the Celtic music world.

But if we use the back cover correctly, it doesn’t matter!

The new back cover now lists songs titles along with a brief description of the ideal person who will enjoy this CD. It includes testimonials. And anyone who reads it will have all doubt removed as to if this is a vocal or instrumental CD.

Use Christopher Knab’s checklist for a better CD graphics. Then think outside the box. What can you add to the cover that will make this CD sell better than ever?

Bard Marc Gunn of the Brobdingnagian Bards has helped 1000′s of musicians make money with their musical groups through the Bards Crier Music Marketing and Promotion Ezine and the Texas Musicians’ Texas Music Biz Tips. Now you can get personal advice by visiting http://www.bardscrier.com for FREE how-to music marketing assistance.

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