Hey folks. My name’s Brad, and I’m a musician and writer from Portland, Oregon.

I started singing in bands when I was in high school, and have been playing guitar since my early 20s. I’ve also been involved in a few different hip-hop projects for the last decade, with the current one being Sticks Downey, in which I make the beats, write and perform the raps, and produce and record the whole affair. A lot of the music I make with Sticks Downey is culled from different sources (samples, live instruments, programmed elements), and finding ways for it to all fit together in song form has taken my ear training to places I didn’t even know existed.

Along those lines, in my writing for the site I’ll focus on how the individual parts of a composition work within the whole, and how disparate sounds can often make perfect sense when placed in a context that suits them. I’ve never been big on formal training, so my perspectives won’t be weighed down with fancy terminology. I’m self-taught, but I’ve still got plenty to learn. Let’s make it happen.

You can read Brad’s first article, on the K-X-P track “Mehu Moments”, later this week.

In the mean time you can read more of his writing over at his music blog Stallion Alert, get the latest in wry pop culture commentary in the Sly Records Weekly Waste and listen to Sticks Downey tracks at SticksDowney.com or CD Baby.

Hello. My name is Matthew and I am a writer and guitarist from the United States.

I started delving seriously into music during college. I did start to play guitar in high school, but not to any serious point. I started to get serious training in the performance aspects of lead and rhythm guitar with Jimmy Kane. I also spent a great deal of time studying composition, music theory, and orchestration.

Most of my own ear training developed as part of learning to play guitar. The style of guitar I play has several techniques that require ear training to use. Constant repetition of training exercises also contributed to helping certain aspects of ear training sink in. There are also areas of ear training that seemed to develop quickly as I began composing songs.

I have primarily been trained by Jimmy Kane in playing guitar. He has taught me a great deal about the entire process of writing and playing music on the guitar. I have also received lessons from Luca Turilli of Rhapsody of Fire. This was particularly interesting because Rhapsody of Fire was one of my main influences to learn to play the guitar in the first place!

My articles will be influenced by my experience as a guitarist, and in some cases focus on areas of ear training that are unique to guitar. In addition, I would like to draw attention to areas of ear training that might differ from one type of musician to another.



No doubt all you guitar players out there are glad to hear we’ve another six-stringer on board! If you have any topics you particularly want to see covered, don’t be shy! Matthew’s diving straight in tomorrow, with an article on how to listen for broken chords, particularly played on guitar.

Hello! My name is Joseph DuBose and I am a composer currently living in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. My musical training began when I started taking piano lessons in middle school. It was in high school, though, when music became my passion in life.

It was at this time that I began to compose music as well as studying anything I could get my hands on related to music. I studied music theory and composition at Appalachian State University. My interests are mostly in classical music prior to 1900. I consider myself a true Romantic, in its fullest artistic and philosophical sense. Currently, I continue to compose and have recently ventured into writing about music. Feel free to check out my composition blog at http://jsdmusic.wordpress.com.

As I’ll explain later in one of my articles, my experience with ear training in college was far from beneficial. My recent adventures into ear training, therefore, have been an effort to improve myself as a musician and as a composer. In trying to find what works best for me, I’ve structured my approach to ear training similar to my approach to practicing my instrument. In other words, I’ve focused on building upon key principals of ear training in the same way I would center my instrumental practice on fundamental exercises. Thus, my articles will focus around the solid foundation necessary to be successful in ear training. Some things may sound a little elementary and other may seem a little unorthodox, but I hope that through sharing my personal experiences you will gain some basic principles that will help you in your own adventures into ear training.

Joseph’s articles start tomorrow with “Ear Training and How We Learn” – essential reading for making sure your time spent with ear training is effective!