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You're probably watching the footage that we recorded yesterday at Skip Simmons' place right now. Many times throughout the day we talked about an amp being more or less distorted. Your simple, but important, tip today is to match opposites. An amp that you feel is too distorted should be matched with a mic that you feel isn't distorted enough, and vice-verse. Don't disregard gear that's "too" this or that... there's a match out there for it.

Join me for Intermediate Student Ryan Walker's latest lesson where we cover Accompaniment Playing Study 5 (bluesy 7th Chords), Improvising Study 4 (V-IV-I Transition Licks), Solo Harmonica Study 3 (Bass Lines with Pulls) and Music Theory Study 3 (Playing in Minor).

Another great value of having a recorder handy is to document your progress when songwriting. After a session of working out ideas for a new instrumental I'll grab my iPhone and use the memo app to do a quick recording of my performance (solo or with a jam track). It's common for many days to go by between writing sessions and it's very easy to forget prior progress. I start a new session listening to my past recording, sometimes even playing along to it. I stop the playback and then get to work. continue reading...

The first value of having a recorder around you is to capture the cool ideas that come to you. These moments of inspiration can come when...

1) Playing to a jam track and you play a cool idea that you want to remember

2) Listening to a song and a cool lick comes up that you want in your vocabulary

3) A catchy melody jumps into your mind that you sing into the recorder for later decoding on the harmonica