Live Musician Central

Author: Live Musician Central

Live Musician Central – Weekend Album Picks 12-5-2008

   Britney Spears new album Circus is out and it’s Christmas so why not treat yourself to some great music downloads. With Amazon.com’s DRM free MP3 downloads you can even download from Amazon and give it away as a Christmas present. As usual, every weekend here at Live Musician Central we post up several albums for you to check out and download. We feature some of the most heavily marketed new releases every week. These albums are a good example of what the music industry is marketing and you can use them as a guide for building your bands songlist. You always want to play songs the people will be familiar with and there’s an excellent chance that the albums featured in our weekend album picks will have a lot of songs that people will know. It’s a good idea to have them on your MP3 player at gigs so you can test them out on an audience before you spend the time learning them. The album picks can make great break music.

   We feature downloads from iTunes as well as MP3 downloads from Amazon.com music service. The Amazon.com MP3’s are ripped at 256kbps and are DRM free so you can copy them to as many music players as you like. They’re priced very low when you download entire albums. With the Amazon widgets below you can preview the album right here on Live Musician Central. A really great thing about Amazon.com’s DRM free downloads is you can download the album, then give it as a Christmas present. I know I said that before, but it bears repeating!

     I’m also posting a link to the iTunes $4.99 Album Of The Week. You can bet that people will be knowing those songs as well and it’s a great deal on a full album.
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Should I Get Guitar Lessons?

Matt Plays Guitar Like A Keyboard

I get asked this question all the time “Should I get guitar lessons?” and it’s a question that’s quite tricky to answer. As soon as people find out that I’m a performing live musician they ask if I had music lessons. The reason these questions are tricky is because I did take music lessons in general but I’ve only taken about 4 formal guitar lessons in my life and that was because it was required in my college music studies. I’m a self taught guitarist, it’s my best instrument and I play guitar professionally in two bands. So when I tell people, yes they should get guitar lessons, it’s hard to justify formal guitar lessons from my personal experience since I never really had them. I’m going to answer the, should I get guitar lessons, question today on the blog.

The answer is different for everyone and it depends on what other musical training you’ve had. Let’s start off easy, if you’ve never had any musical training on any other instrument then yes, you should definitely get guitar lessons right now and hang in there taking the lessons until you have a good command of the guitar and a really good grasp of guitar theory and music theory. (more…)
Last Chance To Save $200 From Musicians Friend

So you want that Fender American Deluxe Stratocaster? Or maybe you’re really itching to buy the Fender Cyber-Twin SE amplifier that I’ve been talking about? Well, through December 2, 2008 you can save $200 on these items. Not only that, but you can get Free Shipping as well. I’m telling you, now is the time to buy those big ticket items. Hurry because this sale is ending December 2, 2008.

UPDATE! Well, you missed the $200 off sale, but Musician’s Friend is now offering fabulous holiday deals on all kinds of equipment. So you can still find great deals at Musician’s Friend. They’ve also broken down the categories into specific price ranges. Click on the banner below to see all the great deals at Musician’s Friend.
Rock Band And Guitar Hero Tab Songbook by Hal Leonard

My kids and I play Rock Band 1 and Rock Band 2 on our Playstation 3 relentlessly. There has been a really good side effect to playing these video games. My kids have become extremely interested in playing the real instruments that they’re emulating in the game. They’ve also gotten very interested in becoming performing live musicians. They are learning to play the songs that we play along with in Rock Band on the actual instruments because they are familiar with the arrangements that they focus on during gameplay. It’s really great how they’re going from gameplay to working on their musicianship.

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Jeff Beck – Where Were You (Live)

Where Were You is my favorite Jeff Beck guitar instrumental. It’s from his Guitar Shop album and when I first heard it, I couldn’t believe how beautiful it was. The notes that he achieves on his Stratocaster are just unbelievable. I’ve tried to hit them and I have had some success but not like the great Jeff Beck. He gets so much out of his Strat that it just defies description. You just have to listen and stand in awe of his skill.

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Download Free Fender Cyber-Twin SE Presets

Fender Cyber-Twin SE Front

As you know, I use the Fender Cyber-Twin SE amplifier in my live band and in the recording studio. I’ve spent many hours programming and perfecting my own custom patches for the presets on my Cyber-Twin SE. One feature that I love about the Cyber-Twin SE is the ability to transmit and store the presets to my computer as MIDI system exclusive data. That gives me a permanent backup of all my custom presets just in case anything happens to my amplifier. All my hours of programming aren’t lost if something catastrophic should happen.

Today I’m going to offer for download, two of my custom presets that I programmed.
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Sunday Funnies – Xfm Baby Roadies

Little kids doing the roadie work for rock bands? Classic! I especially like the kid hauling the guitar up the stairs, watch for it. I showed this to my kids (my built-in rodies) and they said “That’s us!” I have to admit some of the scenes in this clip looked all too familiar. Enjoy! (more…)
Live Musician Central – Weekend Album Picks 11-29-08

Every weekend here at Live Musician Central we post up several albums for you to check out and download. We feature some of the most heavily marketed new releases every week. These albums are a good example of what the music industry is marketing and you can use them as a guide for building your bands songlist. You always want to play songs the people will be familiar with and there’s an excellent chance that the albums featured in our weekend album picks will have a lot of songs that people will know. It’s a good idea to have them on your MP3 player at gigs so you can test them out on an audience before you spend the time learning them. The album picks can make great break music.

We feature downloads from iTunes as well as MP3 downloads from Amazon.com music service. The Amazon.com MP3’s are ripped at 256kbps and are DRM free so you can copy them to as many music players as you like. They’re priced very low when you download entire albums. With the Amazon widgets below you can preview the album right here on Live Musician Central. I’m also posting a link to the iTunes $4.99 Album Of The Week. You can bet that people will be knowing those songs as well and it’s a great deal on a full album. This week the long awaited Guns-N-Roses album Chinese Democracy is finally available on iTunes! That’s kind of a small Christmas miracle isn’t it?
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Get Ready For Christmas With Black Friday Deals

Here are some of the best deals for the live musician on your shopping list this Christmas. You can save a lot of money by using the following list of links to do your shopping. You can save 15%, 20% or even 89% on music equipment and accessories with some of these deals. There’s also a lot of chances to get free shipping on your orders, regardless of the weight and you know how heavy speakers and amps can be. You could save hundreds of dollars on shipping costs alone. There’s also a link to excellent equipment rebates and gift guides as well. Amazon’s Black Friday deals are huge this year too and they have a great selection of music and music equipment. (more…)
Perfect Club Speakers – JBL JRX125 Dual 15″ 2-Way Speaker

JBL JRX125 Speaker

NOTE: The updated JBL JRX125 is now called the JBL JRX225. It is essentially the same speaker with a new number designation.

Probably the most critical item that you will need to purchase as you become a performing live musician is a great pair of speakers. The success of your live band really depends on how well your sound is translating live and the speakers are the voicebox of your band. Today I’m going to tell you about my JBL JRX125 speakers and how well they have served my music.

I have owned my JBL JRX125’s for about 8 years now and have had no problems whatsoever with them. Visually the speakers are very nice looking with a rugged 18-guage steel mesh grille and a cloth covering. They have recessed handles on the sides and will accept both 1/4″ and Speakon connectors. The JBL nameplate on the grille and handles is nice and understated and keeps the speakers very professional looking.
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