Articles by Ryan Madora - Page 23

Getting hired for a gig is great! Knowing that you’re getting paid well is awesome! And then finding out they’ve got backline? The stars have aligned. This gig just got easy. Will you have to wrestle your cabs into the car? Nope. Drag them back into the house at 2am? No way, Jose! What if it’s pouring rain and there’s...

Hear ye, hear ye, it’s holiday time again. Time to gear up for big dinners, excessive shopping, family gatherings – and yes – holiday gigs. It’s time for celebration, relaxation, days off from work, and days in cleaning and preparing for company. As a professional musician, the holidays have quite an impact, both on the music that is played and...

Going into the studio to make a record can be a pretty daunting task. Yes, there are a select few who do that every day, but for the rest of us mortals, a session on the books is a pretty rare and special occurrence. Although some folks have sufficient equipment to record at home, there’s little substitute for getting your...

There are certain things in life that require a great deal of courage… bungee jumping off a bridge, rafting through class five white water, snowboarding down a double black diamond mountain side, etc. Even the daredevil in me doesn’t have the guts to try those things. These are pretty extreme cases of having to muster up courage and it’s pretty...

Playing music is a curious thing. We excite at the opportunity to play with and for other people. We look forward to it, prepare for it, take pleasure in it, and enjoy the feeling of making music together. Sounds perfect, right? Well, the funny thing is that the more you play in a “formal” scenario (such as a gig or...

Fruit loops, drum loops, loop-the-loop roller coasters… there are all kinds of loopy things out there. Lucky for us, the looping pedal is one of them. After a recent acquisition and an afternoon of messing around I wondered “why didn’t I get one of these sooner?” As a matter of fact, I did. I just never used it. Loopers can...

Let’s face it, we’re not all singers. Some of us opted to join band in school instead of choir, and in doing so, we missed out on the vocal warm-ups and breathing lessons. We never took the bull by the horns and sang lead, be it on stage or around a campfire, and maybe a few of us have been...

Investing in a new instrument is a lot like moving into a new house. You have a budget in mind, a good idea of the amenities that you want and need, and a few sources to help you find the perfect place. Finally, you find the right home; it’s in your price range, you sign the lease, and prepare for...

Think about all of the ways we can hear music… we can listen to it in our car, hear it as we walk through a super market, be encompassed by it in a movie theater, experience a private listening session on our headphones, or hook a record player up to a great set of speakers. Clearly, there are many mediums...

Believe it or not, I’m a huge fan of the blues. This particular genre caught my attention at a young age and it has taken years (and, I expect, will require many more) to appreciate some of its subtleties. If you’ve had an opportunity to check out my series on blues bass playing, then this column acts as a quintessential...

Do you have five minutes of free time? Yes, you do. You may say that you don’t, but really, you do. It’s easy… wake up five minutes earlier than you usually do and pick up your bass before work. Or, go to bed five minutes later. Or, DVR your favorite TV show, watch it and fast forward through the commercials,...

I’m sure than we’ve all heard the saying “it’s all in the hands.” Many of us, myself included, are willing to support this statement. But is that really all there is? Is our musical voice the same regardless of what we play or what we play through? After all, we’re the one picking up the instrument, and our years of...