Try Our FREE Downloadable Practice Packets!
It goes without saying that dedicating focused time to practice is the best way to improve on your instrument. However, many of us don’t have the luxury of being able to commit 8 hours or even 1 hour a day to practice. Many of us are only able to allocate 30 or sometimes even just 10 to 15 minutes to our practice per day.
ArtistWorks Music Roundtable Podcast—Episode 1: Mike Marshall & Caterina Lichtenberg
We’re excited to welcome you to our brand new podcast series—the ArtistWorks Music Roundtable. In this series, members of the ArtistWorks faculty are joined by notable musical guests to discuss topics on anything and everything music. Subjects ranging from touring and memorable moments on the road to recording, songwriting, musicianship, music theory, technique, and more will be addressed. Nothing is off-limits, and all musical themes are fair game!
Coming Soon: The ArtistWorks Music Roundtable Podcast
We’re excited to announce the debut of our brand new podcast series that will be premiering this Friday, March 11, 2022—the ArtistWorks Music Roundtable.
Special Guest Interview: Mike Seeger
The next 4 parts of the Mike Seeger interview series have just been added! In these, we find Mike talking with Bruce Clark on a variety of topics including some banjo history and music influences along side some performances with Mike on the Guitar and Bruce on the Banjo. If you've already checked out the first 13 parts, CLICK HERE to go to part 14. If you're just seeing this for the first time CLICK HERE to start from the beginning. Stay tuned to the blogs for announcements, there's still much more to come!
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Saxophone Lesson: Basic Embouchure with Eric Marienthal
When you’re first learning how to play the saxophone, one of the most important techniques to focus on is your embouchure. Now, you may be wondering, “what is saxophone embouchure?” Embouchure is the way in which a player applies or positions their lips and mouth to the mouthpiece of a brass or woodwind instrument.
Mandolin Lesson: An Introduction to Mandocello with Mike Marshall
Believe it or not, the mandolin is actually part of a family of instruments that all feature four sets of paired strings. The instruments that make up the mandolin family come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and tunings. As such, they offer a diverse palette of tones, covering registers ranging from soprano to bass and everything in between. Among these instruments are the mandolin, mandola, mandocello, octave mandolin, and more.
Mike Block Releases New Album, “Machines That Fly”
This morning, Grammy Award-winning cellist and ArtistWorks instructor, Mike Block released his 16th record as a solo artist or bandleader entitled Machines That Fly.
Ukulele Lesson: Basic Picking Technique with Craig Chee
Fingerstyle playing on any stringed instrument is all about subtlety and nuance. The slightest adjustment to the position of your fingers, hand, or palm, the fingers you chose to pick with, the length of your fingernails, and the part of the finger with which you strike the string all influence the quality of the tone that you produce on your instrument greatly. The ukulele is particularly responsive to adjustments in your picking technique, especially when compared to instruments like the steel-string acoustic guitar, because of its small size, short scale length (or string length between the instrument’s bridge and nut), and nylon strings.
ArtistWorks Jazz Allstars: How to Prepare for a Gig
Preparing for a performance or a gig can be a nerve-racking endeavor, especially if you’re relatively new to performing publicly or don’t gig very often. It can be even more daunting, and sometimes even overwhelming feeling, if you’re performing with a group you’ve never played with before, or an ensemble consisting of musicians you don’t know particularly well. Having to quickly learn each musician’s communication style and musical vocabulary on the bandstand can feel intimidating.
Jazz Piano Lesson: Learn How to Play “Tune Up” with George Whitty
If you’re a lover of jazz music then you’ve definitely heard the classic standard, “Tune Up” by Miles Davis. First released by Miles on his 1954 record, Miles Davis Quartet, “Tune Up” has been performed and recorded by countless iconic jazz musicians around the globe. It was even recorded and performed by Miles and his various groups in a variety of different styles, instrumentations, tempos, and more throughout his career. Needless to say, it has become a jazz classic and a staple of modern jazz repertoire.