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What is “mixing”?

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Hey everyone,

So I’m about to release my 4th CD “Addictive Substance” finished recording all instruments and not I’m mixing with my sound engineer.

A lot of my students asking “what is mixing?”

I’ll try to explain it in couple of sentences.

When you finish recording all instruments and assuming you recorded them well! they are still considered raw.

Sound engineer will make sure they are all polished with effects, compressor, delays, reverb and such, also all tracks need to “gel” together and let each instrument “shine” at the right place.

If you recorded more than one song, sound engineer will make sure all songs are in the same volume and dynamic, make your CD sound as a unit.

There are plenty of more details about mixing, it is a profession and art by itself… Mixing is one of the most important steps to release a professional CD and choosing the right seasoned sound engineer is important as well!!

 

Truly yours,

 

Udi

Your sound with tons of pedals.

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Hi Everyone,

Here is a cool tip for you.

Guitar pedals are great and can really help improve and shape your tone.

Still if you have tons of pedals engaged try from time to time turning off some of them and see if they are improving or degrading your tone.

You will be amazed how sometimes turning off a pedal will make your sound actually better.

I had an EQ and compressor pedal on all the time and the knobs and setting where wrong I just forgot about it.. turning both of them off I realized something is wrong and managed to correct it   right before a show!

Truly yours

Udi@guitarlessonsnyc.com

Guitar Pedals tip

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Hi All,

We all love pedals of course I call it toys for adults.

Pedals can really improve your tone and tone options.

I myself relay on a few which are the heart and core of my sound cant play without them.

BUT still from now and then disengage the pedals and listen to your sound make sure it doesn’t improve your sound and not ruining it.

Sincerely,

Udi

 

Guitar Lessons NYC

 

Practicing to play faster

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Hey all,

So a lot of you practicing to play faster, including myself. I do think that a guitar player in most genres of music should get to a certain dexterity to make his ideas more interesting and add some spice to some old phrases.

Here are a few tips to make the practice more beneficial :

1. Instead of practicing with a metronome practice with drum machine you will feel the groove and you will develop sense of time. Think about it you will never play with metronome on stage.

2. Play in all kinds of durations and patterns not only eight boring notes.

3. Practice in all kinds of meters not only in 4/4

4. Set the BPM high and play slow and vise versa

5.play with background chord progression that way you are practicing scales, modes, arpeggios and play fast kill to birds with one stone.

6. Start with comfortable BPM but not too comfortable and increase it as you are warming up.

7. Play sixteen note as fast as you can and WITHOUT stopping play slower… great exercise to develop right hand control!

 

Truly yours

 

Udi

 

 

 

Know your equipment

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Hi to all guitar students,

Been a while I know… had ton of shows and in the process of composing my next rock instrumental CD.

Anyhow wanted to talk about equipment.

A lot of musicians buy very expensive peace of equipment, so far sounds good ! but they don’t take their time to explore and getting to know it in and out.

When you buy a pedal or multi effect or preamp take your time and learn it! read the manual (Something people will never do) touch the knobs and go deep inside to the very least of the menus. it will be a long learning curve but it will pay of for sure and your sound will only benefit and improve because it!

Yours,

 

Udi Levy

Diminished Chord and Arpeggio-guitar lesson

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Ok so I can’t explain the whole theory about it but I’ll give an example how to use it.

Let take a chord progression like Am-G-F-E

You can play of course Minor Pentatonic or Natural Minor and Harmonic Minor as well.

But you can also play dim arpeggio on the E chord, you just need to play it half step up which means Fdim

Lets look at the notes : E  chord —E     G#    B

F Dim    —F    G#    B   D

by playing F Dim over the E chord you coloring it with b9 and 7 degrees! some really cool Neo classical ideas can come out of this approach !

Enjoy experimenting

 

Udi

Learning some basic strums

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Hi All,

I might have mentioned it in the past but this is very important so I’ll write a few more words about it.

Strums give the chord progression a structure and they give the chord progression groove.

That’s why they are so important! think about the strums like a really good drummer , he/she will give you the groove and they will stick with it ! at least until the end and the segment… verse chorus etc…

So there are about 20 strums which we will learn first, they are very common and you can find them in a lot of songs.Once you have memorized them try to apply them to some new songs.

This skill might be difficult at the beginning but it will be forth it down the line trust me.

As always any questions feel free to write

 

Yours

 

Udi

 

When the student become the teacher.

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Hi to all students,

If you have someone who you know that wants to learn how to play guitar, suggest yourself as a teacher.

Teaching will improve your playing and will ingrained the theory and the material  which you have learned.

If you can explain in your own words any theory,song,  or chords to someone (and he/she actually got it) it means that you really understood it.

Besides that it will give great amount of satisfaction

 

Udi

Guitar Lessons NYC for beginners-Chords

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This is a cool lesson which will guaranty will improve your fretboard knowledge.

 

So you know some chords right? and I’m sure you all know the Major and the minor chords

But do you really know them? what do I mean?

Lets take the Am shape which we all know, the Root of the chord is an A note which is the 5th String open.

That’s why we strum the chord fro the fifth string, but what are the rest of the notes inside the chord?

Which degrees are they? understand where I’m going … so each chord that you know try to analyze it.

By knowing all the notes of the chord you can achieve a lot, here is an example :

Let again take the Am chord

5th open is the Root

4th String 2nd fret E note 5th degree

3rd String 2nd fret A note Root

2nd String 1st fret C note 3rd Degree

1st string open E note 5th Degree

 

so if I’ll press on the 2nd Fret , 1st String I’ll play F# note, so which chord is it now?

The answer is Am6 why? cause the first note is 5th degree move the note a whole step up makes it 6th degree.

So the knowledge makes bulding new chords a lot easier.

As always any questions feel free to ask

 

Udi

How Important it is to perform?

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Ok so my show is on this Saturday a few days from now.

Exciting as always it should be really fun.

So you’ve practice for hours, memorizing songs and phrases, improvised and practiced all scales and chords.

The only way of testing your self and get to the next level of playing is on stage.

One show will improve you ten times more than sitting at home and practicing, it is that simple.

And you can’t say to yourself I’m not ready …you will never be ready cause you are getting better all the time.

As long as you will take the show with the right proportion you will be fine.

Think about it, it is just a show what can happen?

So if you practiced for a while book a show you will feel better after it and you will want to do it again, being on stage is addictive.

 

Udi

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