Every musician knows the feeling. You are sitting in your carefully treated home studio, staring blankly at the glowing screen of your digital audio workstation. Your fingers rest on the MIDI keyboard, but no ideas come. You loop the same eight-bar section over and over, hoping inspiration will magically appear. Instead of feeling the joy
Why Escaping the Home Studio is the Ultimate Cure for Songwriter Burnout Read Post »
Rock Island Bar is the longest-running live music venue in Corralejo, Fuerteventura, featuring the best live acoustic music you’ll ever hear. It also changed my life. I first read about Rock Island Bar on my first (and only) holiday to the popular canary island. It must’ve been around 2005. A flyer left by the travel
Rock Island Bar: My Story Read Post »
A detailed analysis of my top 5 Queen Guitar solos by Brian May, in no particular order, and most of them sadly forgotten. The Hero Flash Gordon – 1980 The Hero is unique for a Queen song in that it serves as a sort of epilogue at the end of the Flash Gordon album, revisiting
Brian May’s top 5 Queen Guitar Solos Read Post »
Vocal warm-ups are something only professional singers need to worry about, right? Wrong! They can and do help us all. Why bother with vocal warm-ups? Vocal warm-ups are something I’ve never bothered with before until I found myself struggling with one of my own songs. First off, there were some quite lengthy phrases where I
5 Minute Vocal Warm-Up Read Post »
Progress at the piano depends on focused strategies and consistent practice. Whether you’re a beginner or aiming to master more advanced techniques, adopting the right habits can accelerate your musical growth. Discover seven effective ways to become a better pianist and develop your skills with lasting results. Improving at piano involves setting clear goals, choosing
The 7 best ways to improve at piano Read Post »
The Post-Mastering Nightmare You know that feeling. The mixdown is printed. The master sounds massive. You’ve obsessed over the low-end, tweaked the stereo width, and finally got the snare sitting exactly where you wanted it. Then you open DistroKid and reality hits: you need a video. Spotify playlists are driven by Canvas loops. YouTube is
I Tested 6 AI Video Generators on My Own Tracks: Only One Actually Understood the Music. Read Post »
Never be too hasty to give up on a song. Sometimes the process of recording can take it in new directions that elevate it to a whole new level. To quote my songwriting idol…. A song either comes quickly…. and we can say, yes, we have or song…. but if it doesn’t come quickly I
Recording as a Songwriting Tool Read Post »
Exploring other creative ventures fits well with the way society is at the moment. All this extra time is opening up opportunities when faced with the new normal. This provides us a window to explore our creative passions and to be innovative. Among these paths is the venture to pursue music production and recording. For
Record Your Own Music: A Home Studio Setup Guide Read Post »
Bijou by Queen: How a filler track signaled the long-awaited return to form of my favourite Band. So what’s so great about Bijou by Queen? Following the lump-in-the-throat disappointment of Queen’s comeback Album: The Miracle, I approached its follow up: Innuendo with lowered expectations. The title track: Innuendo sets out its stall early, harking back
Bijou by Queen Music Review Read Post »
