Muzikant

Having spent holiday evenings with family and friends, sitting around the campfire with a guitar in his lap, Guestblogger Michel Penterman has some experience in this matter. Being a campfire guitarist is no joke – you have a job to do. You need to bring the vibe and, not only bring the vibe, but keep it there. So it’s not the moment to pull out those face-melting solos, it’s the moment to get crowd-pleasing – and that’s some free advice right there! Read on to get some tips about the right kind of campfire guitar, the right campfire repertoire, the chords you’ll need to know and even the accessories and apps that might come in handy for any campfire guitarist in-training.

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.

Bands that feature a horn section made up of brass or woodwind instruments come in all shapes, sizes and genres. Big bands will often include around four trumpets, four trombones and five saxophones, while some cover bands make do with one trumpet, a tenor sax and maybe an alto saxophone and trombone. But the more horns you have, the harder it is to get everything perfectly aligned. So, what’s the secret to building a tight-sounding horn section? Following up on our first blog covering the brass section, we take a deeper dive into the finer details.

Hip hop is way more than just rapping and also more than just music. Hip hop was first born from a subculture with the music at its centre and, like most subcultures, started as an underground movement before going mainstream. Hip hop first grew up in America in the seventies and didn’t cross the pond to Europe until around a decade later. In this blog, we offer up a quick hip hop history lesson.

One trend that has been picking up speed is gigs where a DJ and one or more musicians team up to make music. What’s the driving force behind this? And what does it entail? Read on, learn and get inspired!

The cajon is an incredibly popular percussion instrument, but this seemingly straightforward bit of kit is easily underestimated in terms of what it can add to music, and is a ton of fun to play. Time for a closer look into its origin story.

We don’t just buy records based on what we hear, but what we see. According to research, colours, images and even shapes influence our decision-making, so let’s take a closer look at how this works in the context of album artwork.

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.

What makes the guitar such an expressive and impressive instrument? Is it the look? Is it the ninja-grade solos? Or is it just the sweet acoustic sound? For me, personally, the answer is simple… it’s the riff, dummy!

“Hello, my name is Michiel and I have G.A.S.” The room replies with the depleted enthusiasm that comes with saying a line for the hundredth time: “Hello Michiel…” Guestblogger Michiel Buisman talks openly about a well-known affliction within the music community: the compulsion to keep buying new gear and musical instruments that you don’t really need. This compulsion has a name: Gear Acquisition Syndrome. So what exactly is it, why does it happen and what kind of forms can it take?

Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan, Nirvana: is there anyone who doesn’t know them? That they all made incredible music is indisputable, but here, Guestblogger Joris van Dijk reveals that these rock legends did far more than just that. The albums that these artists have dropped over the years represent a sort of overview of the rock family tree and all of the influences that lie at its roots. Joris attempts to show this in the space of just seven classic and influential rock albums – which span every time period, from ‘60s psychedelic rock and ‘70s punk to ‘90s alt-rock.