Guestblogger Rob Brummans (AKA Mindru) shares five simple tips to help live-streaming DJs to make things more interesting for themselves and their viewers and listeners. He also gives us a look inside the kitchen where he preps his live streams.

Record a little rhythm guitar, vocals and a few piano chords, then back everything up with a drum beat and some other instruments on your computer – that’s all you want to do. While you don’t have to be a producer or recording engineer to do any of it, it can take a little time to figure out exactly what you need to make a bit of music on your computer.

An epic guitar riff, a majestic drum solo or a piano recital worthy of a virtuoso… To really know how to play a musical instrument inside and out, you’ll need at least a few years. Luckily, there are also instruments that have a really flat learning curve, meaning that pretty much anyone can pick one up and play.

In this new age of countless plectrum variations, Guestblogger and multi-instrumentalist Nigel Hubee talks about what got him thinking more deeply about his pick of plectrum and his happy surprise at finding out how cheaply he could experiment with using picks made of different materials, picks with different shapes, and picks with different thicknesses – and what a massive difference it made to the sound of his instrument. If you’re on your own pick-related journey of self-discovery then allow Nigel to help you take your tone to a level you didn’t know existed.

It sounds like the most anti-creative thing you could do: copying and pasting and analysing, rather than playing in a sandpit of sounds and seeing what happens. But the truth is that a more measured and ‘anti-creative’ approach can actually help you get unstuck. You know all too well that around three-quarters of those amazing sparks of inspiration you have end up in that little folder marked ‘Ideas’. Here, Guestblogger Hens Zimmerman reveals how using arrangement templates can really help free those locked up ideas and bring them kicking and screaming into the world.

Any paid-up superfan has gone on a journey from supporting an artist that no one’s ever heard of to seeing them flourish into the success they knew they always would be. Since it’s essential that artists build a relationship with their potential superfans, most of them stick to social media. But email is actually just as powerful a tool. Here, Guestblogger and musician Mirjam Sieben offers up some email marketing tips and reveals what something as simple as an email can do for your music.

More musicians suffer from stage fright than you might think. In this blog, we interview two professionals to find out where the fear comes from and how you can overcome it.

While you’re busy mastering any musical instrument, inevitably, a relationship is also busy developing between your instrument and your body. For any musician, the art lies in moving the body as efficiently as possible to guard off any possible aches, pains and even injuries. The Alexander Technique (AT for short) has already helped countless musicians, and here, we lay out the basics so you can start playing better and playing healthy.

Most guitarists want to up their game by playing faster. The secret? The right approach and plenty of practice. Forget ‘talent’ and experiment with these seven tips and train yourself to speed up your playing.

BB King, Janis Joplin, Rod Stewart, Tracy Chapman, Beck and Ed Sheeran all started their careers as busking street musicians. Guestblogger Marlies shares her top 10 list of street musicians from around the world. These musicians have just as much talent as the big names mentioned above, so expect to hear more from them soon!

At some point, it’s going to happen to every band: great gig, shabby sound. While sometimes it’s the venue or local sound tech that’s to blame, the band also has a hand in how they sound. Every band’s stage sound partly determines their success, so whether you’re playing a small café or a big venue, you’ll want to make sure that you come prepared.

Partly thanks to televised talent show competitions, there are more vocalists than ever. Some opt to join a choir, while others sing solo. And then there are pop and jazz lovers who sing a-cappella as part of a vocal group. Want to know what it takes to sing in a vocal group? Simply read on.