Breathing Basics for Singing
Normal breathing involves a shallow inhalation and an even exhalation followed by a pause before it all starts again. But when you sing, breath control means taking your breathing off autopilot. You not [more…]
Determining What You Need for Your Home Recording Studio
Home recording studios can vary tremendously. A home studio can be as simple as a cassette deck and an inexpensive microphone set up in the corner of your bedroom. Of course, you can opt for something [more…]
Beating the Bongos
When someone mentions playing bongos, you probably think of a beatnik poet embellishing his obscure poetry with flourishes on a pair of these little drums. Though this image may seem somewhat ridiculous [more…]
Stringing an Acoustic Guitar
One difference between changing guitar strings on and acoustic versus and electric guitar is that an acoustic uses removable bridge pins to hold the strings in place at the bridge. Bridge pins require [more…]
The Circle of Fifths: A Brief History
In the sixth century B.C., the Greek scholar and philosopher Pythagoras decided to try to make things easier for everyone by standardizing, or at least dissecting, musical tuning. He had already discovered [more…]
Ballet Moves: Demi-Pliés
The first ballet exercise at the barre is the small knee bend, or demi-plié ("duh-MEE plee-AY"). This article shows you how to perform a demi-plié from first, second, fourth, and fifth positions. [more…]
Miking the Drumset in Your Home Recording Studio
If you're like most musicians, getting great-sounding drum recordings seems like one of the world's great mysteries. You can hear big, fat drums on great albums, but when you try to record your drums, [more…]
Storyboarding Your Film
Before you create your film storyboards, you have to perform certain tasks and make certain decisions. First, begin by evaluating your screenplay and picturing it in terms of separate shots that can be [more…]
How to Play Basic Major Chords on a Guitar
Basic open major guitar chords include C major, D major, E major, G major, and A major. This video lesson shows how to play these guitar chords with exercises a beginner can follow. These basic chords [more…]
How to Play the Blues Scale on a Guitar
If you want to play jazz or blues on the guitar, you need to learn how to play the 6-note blues scale. This video illustrates a blues scale box pattern -- a fingerboard pattern -- and shows how you can [more…]Auditioning for an Acting Role: What to Expect
When you're called in for an acting audition, the people present at the audition will include you, the casting director, and maybe a handful of other complete strangers. Some of these other people may [more…]
How to String A Steel-String Acoustic Guitar
Knowing how to restring your acoustic guitar is a vital maintenance skill. Regardless of string brand or gauge, this lesson shows how to replace a string on your acoustic guitar and get back to playing [more…]Perfect Piano-Playing Hand Posture
Hand posture and comfort are vitally important while playing the piano or keyboard. Poor hand posture can cause your performance to suffer for two reasons: [more…]
Proper Hand Position for Playing Guitar
Guitars are user-friendly instruments. They fit comfortably into the arms of most humans, and the hand position that comes naturally is pretty much the position from which you should play. In this article [more…]
How to Play Folk Guitar Fingerpicking Style
If you're playing folk music on your guitar, you'll probably want to put down the pick and use a fingerpicking style. This video gives you ideas and instruction on playing folk guitar with just your fingers [more…]Exploring the AABA Form in Songwriting
The song form known as AABA was the form of choice in the first half of the 20th century. It's still used today in songwriting, but has fallen off in popularity. However, it's good to know this form because [more…]
Identifying the Fab Four Singing Voices
The four singing voice types are soprano, mezzo, tenor,and bass. Even though these names sound like characters in a mob movie, they're nothing to be afraid of. Under each voice type heading, you discover [more…]
How to String an Electric Guitar
Changing strings on an electric guitar is a vital skill for any guitarist. This video lesson shows how to replace a string on your electric guitar, regardless of string brand or gauge, and get back to [more…]Practicing Your Singing: Getting Started
If you truly want to become a great singer, you must practice using your singing voice. It's okay if you aren't sure what to do when you practice your singing. Knowing where to practice, when to practice [more…]
Guitar Basics: Strumming an Electric Guitar
Strumming means dragging a pick (or the fingers) across the strings of the guitar. You drag the guitar pick in a downward motion (toward the floor) to sound the chords formed by the left hand, but you [more…]
Creating Flesh Tones for Oil Painting
Because human flesh runs the color gamut from light to dark and pale to brilliant, re-creating flesh tones for your oil paintings can be one of the most difficult things to do. Many recipes for flesh tones [more…]
Fine-Tuning Your Acting Performance on Film
Acting in film and television can require a special set of acting skills. Film and television can show anything from two normal people eating a normal lunch to microscopic people swimming through someone's [more…]
Examining the Various Film Shots
The camera never blinks. That's what cuts (changing from one shot to another shot) are for. But to cut from one shot to another, you have to vary your shots by size and angle so that you don't end up with [more…]
How to Tune Your Guitar
Electric, acoustic, and classical guitars need tuning. This video lesson demonstrates how to tune a guitar using either the fifth-fret method or an electronic tuner. [more…]Holding Your Bass Guitar
If you watch other bass players, either live or on television, you may notice an array of different ways to hold a bass guitar. Some definitely look cooler than others, but you may have difficulty playing [more…]
