Essential Musical Skills: Arranging

Back when I was at Berklee there was a girl there who seemed to get all of the top gigs around. I’ll call her Jane for privacy reasons. I kept on hearing about Jane and seeing her everywhere. When I finally got a chance to see her play I didn’t understand the fuss about her. Jane seemed ok but nothing about her blew me away. Finally, one day I approached one of the artists she played with and asked them point blank why they chose Jane to play keyboards as opposed to the hundreds of other talents who could play circles around her (like me!!). Her answer blew me away and now I’ll share it with you.

How to Develop and Use a Press Kit

So you’re finally getting good at your instrument and you have the equipment and the music to follow. Maybe you have gigs and places to play at. What do you do to get to the next step? How do you now use all of the time that you have put into your art and start climbing up the music industry ladder? What is one of the easiest things you can do to start getting better music business connections today? Enter the 21st century press kit....

Creating the Perfect Practice Space

What does your practice space look like? I'm referring to the space, room, or area that you sit down and practice your instrument. Is it messy or is it clean? Does it have art hanging on the walls and various other furnishments that inspire? Is it bland and detrimental for you to succeed in efficient practicing?

Being on Time in the Music Business

I’m going to share a sad truth right now. A truth that you will be able to use to your advantage. Most musicians disregard punctuality. I can’t tell you how many musicians I’ve encountered that are repeatedly late to things...

Owning the Right Gear

If you’re like me you’ve spent an absolute absurd amount of time working on your music and getting your playing together. Good instruments are essential to help transfer the sound and depth you've worked so hard to acquire. It's only fair to your audience. I don’t care how great of a player you are it will diminish your sound and your message playing on below average gear. Why would you ever want to do that? I try to get the absolute best gear I can afford.

Essential Musical Skills: Sightreading

Although you can get by in this business without reading music it becomes a crutch, is impractical, and limits your gig options greatly. Most people have to be even more developed in another area of their musicianship to make up for a lack of reading skill. It’s similar to your 5 senses. If one of them is weaker or non existent then you’d have to be even stronger in your other 4 senses to survive.

Chicago Blues Piano Instructional DVD

I'm excited to announce that we've completed the final round of filming for my upcoming Chicago Blues Piano Instructional DVD. Shooting the footage was a blast but I couldn't believe the amount of time and work required! It was all worth it though.