Creating ‘pad’ sounds on guitar to add space

By Steve Weeks | October 16, 2008

This week I completed my New FX board and took it to church for a first outing on Sunday morning. The most exciting pedal is the Digitech EX-7. One setting allows me to fade in a slow swell of violin sounding stuff. This gave me the opportunity to do the “Pad-Thing” that the keyboard player […]

Buyers Guide – Good Quality Acoustic Guitars

By Andy@Musicademy | October 6, 2008

I want to buy my first decent acoustic guitar. What would you recommend? These days with Far East production methods getting better and better, you can buy a quality instrument far more cheaply than ever before. However, two rules of thumb still apply – 1) You get what you pay for and 2) Buy the […]

Guitar Know How – money saving & some quick tips

By Andy@Musicademy |

Free strap locks – A perfect alternative to buying strap locks is to use the rubber bottle washersused on theold style wire flip top opening of some drinks bottles. Place the washer over the strap buttons of your guitar for instant strap locks! Cheap Guitar Strings – Great low cost guitar strings with a money […]

The failsafe method of working out which chords fit a key

By Andy@Musicademy |

You know the scenario, you’re either trying to remember the chords for a song that you don’t have music for, or you’re trying to find some chords to accompany a new melody, so you stab at all sorts – G F, C Em, A, Bb – some seem to work but some don’t. There is, […]

Worship Drummer on Fire

By Tim Bowdler |

The sound man had a benign tone about his delivery, ‘Don’t worry, I’ve done this before – it’ll be really cool. The first part of that sentence is a moot point – I am stymied by a burden of proof – but the second proved to be woefully incorrect and as such I have learned […]

Playing In Tenths

By Andy@Musicademy |

Andy Chamberlain gives a guitar lesson teaching how to play in tenths on guitar. Here you play two notes in the same key that are ten intervals apart. Great for finding new chord voicings in D. This is the technique that the Delirious song Majesty was written using. This technique is also taught in depth […]

Vocals Warm-up Exercises – Simple Humming

By Marie@Musicademy | October 2, 2008

This clip is taken from a live vocals seminar Musicademy ran with Nicki Rogers. Its part of our “Rough and Ready” series of clips. If you would like to see a more polished edit of vocals warm-ups either check out our worship vocals DVDs or our online singing lessons.

Using a High Strung Guitar

By Andy@Musicademy |

If you’ve got a spare acoustic guitar lying around, even a cheap one, why not convert it to a high strung or Nashville tuned guitar? This is a great way to get yourself effectively another different sounding instrument just for the cost of a packet of strings.