I never cease to be amazed at the number of guitar players who cannot name the notes on their fretboard. Little do they know that by devoting a little time to unlocking the neck of their guitar they will improve their playing, and enjoyment of the instrument, ten fold!! During my time at the Guitar Institute in London, and Sandown College Of Performing Arts in Liverpool, I met many guitarists who had been playing for 10, 15 or even 20 years, and yet, unbelievably, couldn’t show me where to find an A# on the 2nd string or a B natural on the 5th string. My amazement prompted me to write the...

MAESTRO has evolved past his Let Your Backbone Slide days, but people still associate him with his first hit 15 years ago. Does that bother him? No way! For MAESTRO it is through his accomplishments as an artist that he has evolved and looks fondly back on his early years with pride. To date no one has exceeded the levels of accomplishments that MAESTRO has achieved. To date, 7 music awards, 7 albums, 11 JUNO nominations, Gold and Platinum albums, Gold singles and a mixture of other awards in film/T.V and personal achievements. All of this, plus a film and television career? No wonder his latest...

Many “How To Hire A Disc Jockey” articles overlook one of the most important criteria for choosing entertainment. Your ears. Forget checking for a business license (anyone can get one), or endorsement by some far removed, “official” DJ association. Send them their fee and you they will endorse you too. Whether your entertainer is “certified” on paper or not, how his or her system sounds is critical. Most DJs are not experts in the technical realm of sound specifications. They may not even know what signal to noise ratio, total harmonic distortion or frequency...

Believe it or not, there is actually a hard and a soft way to play New Age piano. Two different “schools” or styles that have made their appearance in the last 20 years or so. The first style made popular by George Winston introduces a more percussive “hard” sound. Created mostly be a left-hand ostinato, this style is very chord-oriented and paints a background of textures while the right-hand is free to improvise a melody. The reason that I say this style is a hard sounding one is that when compared with someone like David Lanz, the difference is readily apparent. Lanz...

“Major Overlooked Band Promotional Ideas” I’m going to lay out a couple of easy-to-use band promotional ideas for you… “Successful Band Promotions Start With Your Marketing Abilities” “Tricks To Selling More CD’s At Gigs” First make sure at every gig you are placing your CD sales table in the correct place. I can’t tell you how many times I have seen bands who setup their CD sales table in the darkest corner of the venue. Think about it for a moment…If you were at a venue and listening to a band. Then, out of the corner of your eye…...

Adolphe Adam (1803-1856), composer of O Holy Night, once observed, In Paris, at the hub of the arts, one cannot enter a church without being followed by one or sometimes two serpents. Most believe the bewitching instrument he was referring to was invented around 1590 by French priest Edm Guillaume of St. Steven Auxerre Cathedral to add a fuller baritone/bass voice to his choir. The serpent consists of a wooden tube carved as two half-rounds, glued together and then firmly wrapped with a coil of veal skin or other leather to make it airtight. The most common version needs to be about six feet long,...