Muzikant

Music: it’s an art. It’s an emotion. Close your eyes, drift away on a fluffy little cloud and just feel the music. Music can’t be quantified, it can’t be measured. Music isn’t mathematics. Music can’t be judged – that would destroy it. But let’s be honest.

Always on call to anticipate your every need, the Bax Music specialists are our very own year-round treats. Today, they get to gush over the gear that they’ve fallen in love with in 2023, so get comfy and dream along with our experts as they let us in on their Gear of the Year 2023 rundown – the Musical Instrument edition.

A brass section, or horn section is usually made up of one or two saxophones, trumpets and trombones and can fit pretty much anywhere in the music landscape, but in some genres, like soul and funk, having a horn section is an absolute must. In any case, when you add a brass section to the band, you can really make the music explode. A brass section brings in extra soloists, makes everything sound thicker and fatter and looks nothing short of awesome on the stage. But… adding horns into the mix is actually a tougher process than you might think. Here, we offer up eight tips to help you form the perfect collaboration.

If you just treated yourself to your first guitar, digital piano, drum kit, DJ controller or music production software, then chances are you’re already dreaming of performing on a stage one day. To get there though, you’re going to need a good way to hone your skills. Nowadays, there’s plenty of wisdom to be found online, ranging from tutorials on YouTube to free courses, which raises the question: how does self-teaching stack up against going for lessons with a real teacher?

Our guitar specialists could probably spit out a thousand-and-one facts about acoustic guitars but, since no one’s got all day, we’ll stick to just five!

Strumming is something that every ukulele player is familiar with. Whether it’s the calypso strum, the split stroke or just a simple down-up-down-up, what could be more enjoyable than strumming away on your ukulele and singing a song? But, as our guest blogger Matthew Quilliam explores, many people neglect to consider the fact that how they strum can change depending on what finger (or something else) they are using…

The venerable experts of Bax Music could offer up a thousand-and-one fascinating facts about the piano, but since no one has time for that, we’ve hand-picked just five!

Despite all the skill and musicianship involved, cover bands are often looked down on, which is a shame, since putting together a cover band is a big job and a lot of them are actually pretty awesome. So, what is it exactly that separates a great cover band from a mediocre wannabe? In this blog, we take a look at the essential ingredients that go into building a brilliant, successful cover band. We can already tell you that the first thing to be sure of is that you’re creating a band that has its own identity, rather than setting out to make a carbon copy of the original.

Pretty much any guitarist or bassist has done it: tried to flog their spare guitar or bass online via sites like Gumtree, Facebook or eBay. Sometimes, things just don’t go fast enough, or no one is really interested in your goods. All of this can change! Here, Guestblogger, Dean van der Knaap lends a helping hand with these tips and tricks to help you sell off your second-hand guitar.

Our string instrument specialists could probably spit out a thousand-and-one facts about ukuleles but, since no one’s got all day, we’ll stick to just five!

Proper posture is incredibly important when you’re singing. In fact, aligning your body correctly is a basic requirement for singing well and freely. So what’s the right posture? And what do you do when you want to move around or play an instrument while you sing?

Next to your original material, it’s often a good idea to have a few cover songs up your sleeve so, during the set, you can treat your audience to something they’re a bit more familiar with. Sometimes, it can be hard work to make a song fit with your style, so here, Guestblogger Kevin Okkema offers up a few tips on how to craft the perfect cover song.