Back in July our Michael Feinberg published an article titled 5 Things I Wish I Was Told in Music School. That turned out to be – by far – the most viewed post of our blog, which made us realized that musicians out there are particularly interested in learning from others’ experiences. Coming from that perspective we decided to make a […]
Applications of Long and Short Strokes with Jazz Brushes In the first installment of this two-part post on jazz brushes I explained how to produce long and short strokes with lateral motions, and I promised that today I would introduce ways to use this technique musically and creatively. Here I am to keep my word and share with […]
Becoming Familiar with Lateral Short and Long Strokes with Jazz Brushes Back in September I wrote a post titled An Introduction to Brushes, where I examined how to produce long legato sounds using circular motions, an essential part of jazz brushes technique. In this post I will describe another important area of brush playing: staccato sounds. The […]
As a developing musician, improving your time and rhythm is one of the most important technical aspects to prioritize, regardless of what instrument you play. After all, it is thanks to time that we can make sense of music, and if we didn’t organize it in some fashion (rhythm), all we would hear would be […]
I love brushes. Brushes are more than a tool with which one plays the drums; they are an instrument in their own right. Brushes are used in different music styles, but their most extended applications are found in jazz. Most people outside the world of jazz identify brushes with ballads and mellow or folksy tunes, […]
Working in a competitive field like music presents many challenges, especially in a place like New York City where there are so many musicians already. In my experience, I found that one’s musical skills are not the only deciding factors in this competition; music is a social business, and one’s professional attitude and behavior can […]