A few weeks ago, someone brought in a Fender Squire Strat with the complaint that it was "too noisy to use in the studio". And indeed it was... plugged into my test amp, there was far too much buzz and hiss - as well as the usual low frequency hum from holding a Strat or Tele too close to the amp. ...more

Two important parts of a song that need careful thought are the beginning (which I will deal with in a later lesson) and the ending. Just like reading a good book or watching a great movie, a song needs to have an interesting beginning and a good ending to complete it. ...more

Happy New Year to you all. I thought we would carry on with the culture vibe again in this lesson. Since there aren’t any electric bass guitars in traditional classical Indian music, a lot of these basslines have been adapted from other instruments such as the sitar, vocal lines and sarod. ...more

I'm writing this at Northland's beautiful Tokerau beach, and while here I've been listening to an eclectic range of music: The Stranglers, Pink Floyd, Supertramp, Coldplay, Ian Dury and the Blockheads, Talk Talk and The Smiths. (Yup, a bit of a Brit-fest!) ...more