Music Maker Studios Blog
Find out what’s going on with students and ensembles at Music Maker Studios. You can also read about where some of our teachers are performing.
Guitar Basics
How To Hold A Guitar There are two ways to hold a guitar whether it is acoustic or electric. If you're playing classical guitar, you should place the waist of the guitar on the left leg, just behind the knee, and wedge the guitar between the left and right leg. You should also put your left foot on a foot rest to raise that leg up, being sure to angle the neck of the guitar slightly upward so the body of the guitar is lower than the headstock. Rest the edge of the guitar against your chest, and wrap your
Private Music Lessons vs. Video Lessons
Should you teach yourself or take lessons with a music teacher? Youtube is full of videos of people teaching beginners how to play just about any musical instrument, from guitar to drums to oboe (I checked - they're there). Ten years ago, these didn't exist because there wasn't a website like YouTube that would host bandwidth hungry videos for free, but now anyone with an Iphone can make a short video on how to play any instrument and post it for everyone to watch. Obviously, there are pros and cons to this, and we all certainly benefit from having free
Stella By Starlight
Usually 7's first song at the 2013 recital Usually 7 is the ensemble that Bob directs on Monday nights, and they performed 4 songs at the recital this year.
8 Bars Short performing “One of These Days” by Gerry Bluhm
First in a series of videos from our 2013 recital One of the coolest parts of the recital this year was Bob's ensemble, "8 Bars Short" performing a composition written by Gerry Bluhm, longtime guitarist in the "Feed the Meter" ensemble. Feed the Meter was an ensemble that Bob directed on Thursday nights for many years. They performed numerous times in the Boston area, and recorded a cd, which featured a few songs that Gerry wrote. The drum teacher at Music Makers, Adam Nazro, filled in on congas, adding some extra percussion. Also, the piano teacher, Gretchen Stone played piano