Guest Blogs

Naturally, everything has to be perfect when it comes to wedding parties. This includes the toast, the speeches given by best men and women, and of course the music — in other words, the sound system on location has to be up to snuff. Not sure what you need or where to start? No worries, wedding DJ Sebastian is here to give you some pointers and a couple of recommendations.

Maybe your first booking was at your friend’s or your cousin’s wedding and it was such a success that you want to go professional. More and more couples are getting wed to a live-performed soundtrack, which only increases your chances of getting some gigs booked during the wedding season. Here, Guestblogger and professional wedding musician Kevin Okkema shares his tips to help you get more requests.

Ego-trippers can be found in every corner of the world and, as musicians, maybe we’re the biggest offenders around (at least secretly… admit it). Launching into a nutty drum break or a show-boating guitar solo can sometimes feel irresistible – but while it might feel good, it might not actually work in your favour. Here, Guestblogger, drummer and founder of Let it Rock music school Jemy Gijsman explains why being a good musician doesn’t automatically mean that you’re a good band mate.

Guest-blogger Marc de Jonge is here to talk about relic’ing: the artificial aging of guitars and basses to give them a weathered, played-in look and feel. There are various ways to go about relic’ing an instrument, and Marc has several tips for everyone who’s thinking about giving it a try. It’s definitely something that takes guts, an eye for detail, and a little artistry.

No matter how good you are at mixing and mastering, the quality of the original recording will always largely determine the final result. Guest-blogger Freek Roffel from Freaky Studio is here to share five tips that can help you get the recording stage right, where preparation is key.

Most bands can’t afford to hire their own light technician and are forced to trust in-house light techs, which means that your light show may vary from gig to gig and more often than not doesn’t look like what you asked for. The cause? Communication, or rather miscommunication. Guest-blogger and stage manager Thomas Oberson-Ricoat is here to share five welcome pieces of advice.

In this article, guest-blogger Wietse Hendriks shows you how to write and compose your own drum parts. Covering topics like where to find inspiration and how to deal with band leaders, conductors and composers, Wietse taps into his twelve-and-a-half years of experience as a drummer.

Real DJs spin with real vinyl…or do they? Guest-blogger Menno from Supa-Dupa Studio explores DJ history to find out how much truth this statement holds and gives his personal opinion on the vinyl versus digital debate.

As a musician, the spotlight is usually yours. After all, capturing the full attention of the audience is part of the job, but for some gigs, you need to take a step back and provide the background music. This demands a really different way of working and of performing and can sometimes be hard to pull off. Here, Guestblogger Kevin Okkema offers some tips for getting the best out of those quieter shows.

The number of available DAW plugins is still growing every day. In this article, guest-blogger Davey Jonez looks into the biggest differences between the standard plugins you get with your DAW pack, and separately available, commercial plugins. Are the latter worth the investment?

You’re desperate to learn to play the guitar, but what’s the best way to do it? The internet is packed with helpful advice: theory, chords, scales, what seems like millions of different kinds of guitars… but you have no idea where to start. Is getting guitar lessons always the best solution? Here, Guestblogger Bart Hennephof lines up every option available to the complete beginner and also asks the question: how important is it to learn to play with the help of a real guitar teacher?

During the height of gangsta rap in the mid ‘90s, a very real rivalry between east coast and west coast rappers emerged, resulting in the death of two legends: Tupac Shakur and Notorious BIG. Here, Guestbloggers Nick and Martin take a brief look at how gangsta rap came about and quickly reached boiling point.