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It's taken me a long time to come to a realization of the importance of keeping at anything that you really want to improve at on a daily basis.

Whether your goal is to become a better singer, guitarist, drummer, pianist, producer, or all of the above I think you get better results by doing a little bit every day instead of going at it for hours on end when you really get in the mood.

When you do training sessions more frequently your body (and mind) seems to pick up where it left off the day before instead of sort of having to relearn what you learned last time.

What I try to do (and what I recommend) is to set aside a certain amount of time every weekday (whatever you can reasonably fit into your schedule) following a practice schedule. If you want to learn multiple things (say you want to both improve your singing and your piano playing abilities) then you should set aside some time for each thing you are trying to improve at each day.

I find that using a timer is a really great way to stay focused on a particular task for a particular amount of time (it's too easy to get distracted for me without it.)

I like to take the weekends off from my practice schedule. That doesn't mean I don't do anything musical on the weekends, in fact I may spend even more time on music on the weekend, just that I don't follow a set practice schedule.

Also, if my schedule is 30 minutes on singing and 30 minutes on piano every weekday, that doesn't mean that I don't spend more time than that on music. I may spend another 2 hours recording a song, or something else. The schedule is just a minimum spent on practice routines, any other time I have is time that I can use however I please.

I also think it's important that these practice routines are not just for "playing around" they should be very focused on improving particular skills. This means doing things like playing scales and following practice books, not just learning a song that you like.

I've found that by following practice routines my skill improves much faster than just by trying to learn a song. Maybe this isn't true for everyone, but I've found it to be true for me.

Another very important thing I've only recently realized is the importance of challenging yourself. You get better by trying to do things you cannot do, not by just doing what you can already do over and over again.

One more thing: Use a metronome all the time. The importance of good rhythm/timing cannot be overstated.

A good simple timing practice that I use is "making the metronome disappear." No matter what instrument you play, doing focused rhythm practice is a great idea.

There aren't a huge amount of musical instruments included among Amazon's "Cyber Monday" deals but there are a few that you may find interesting (also there seems to be lower prices on Amazon.com in general this time of year.)

I've ran into audio glitch problems with wireless adapters on numerous occasions. Most recently with the ASUS 802.11 adapter which was causing huge latency spikes (according to the DPC Latency Checker) which made my audio glitch badly or drop out entirely (for very short periods, but long enough to be noticeable and very annoying.)

What this meant was that I couldn't be online and listen to music at the same time (at least not without getting really irritated by the glitches/drop outs.)

I encountered this same problem on my last computer (with LinkSys and another one that I can't remember) and it wasn't until I got the NetGear WN111 wireless adapter that I was able to be online and listen to music at the same time!

So when I had this problem start up again I decided to borrow the ol' NetGear WN111 to see if it would get the job done again. And sure enough, it seems to have fixed the problem.

The best thing about this solution is that this particular wireless adapter is actually one of the cheapest ones on the market. And as far as I can tell it works just as well as the other more expensive ones (as far as internet service) without the huge downside of messing up my audio.

Even if you don't care much about playing the Rock Band video game there are some very interesting developments if you are interested in MIDI controller instruments.

Guitars

The "Fender Mustang" enters the market as the cheapest MIDI controller guitar available (and it's also a game controller, of course.) It uses buttons for the left hand and real strings for strumming and picking for the right hand.

It seems like it would be quite interesting to play VSTi instruments with this thing and the price is nice ($150.)

I'm considering buying this myself but I'm also thinking about waiting for the "Squire Strat" version which will have strings over the frets too (thinking that may be more realistic feeling to play.) There's no price point or release date on it yet, so who knows how long I'll be waiting.

Keytar

This thing is just $80 and would be pretty cool for live performance in certain situations, but I don't have much use for it myself (I've already got a great 88 key velocity sensitive weighted key keyboard for MIDI control - the Studiologic SL-990.)

I installed my new Echo Audiofire 4 firewire based audio interface last night on my Windows 7 desktop and at first I ran into some issues.

The big issue is that I couldn't get any playback. My computer recognized the driver and apparently installed it correctly and when I opened REAPER it seemed to be "seeing" the input while recording - but there was no playback. From there it got worse and on repeat attempts to get it to work it would even say "error starting device."

I spent about two hours pulling my hair out and trying to get it to work. I tried all of the different audio related settings I could find, reinstalled the driver a few times, tried a different firewire connection, restarted the Echo Audiofire 4 and my computer multiple times.

I was extremely frustrated at this point and close to giving up when I found this support FAQ on Echo's website.

The very first one starts off saying: "For those having issues in Windows 7 with FireWire devices, try rolling back to the legacy FireWire drivers."

I'm thinking: Well that's me. Maybe this is what I need to do.

I followed these directions:

Open the Device Manager.

Expand "IEEE 1394 Bus host controllers"

Select your IEEE 1394 (FireWire) controller

Click on the icon "Update Driver Software" at the top.

Select "Browse my computer for driver software"

Select "Let me pick..."

Select "1394 OHCI Compliant Host Controller (Legacy)"

Choose Next and it will install.

I think it worked right away. But I might have had to restart my computer first. I can't remember as it was about 4 AM last night.

But the point is: This worked; playback (and everything else) appears to be working fine now. And if you are having a similar experience you should probably try this first before driving yourself crazy like I did last night.

Today I drilled 9 holes into my wall looking for a stud to screw my new Ukulele String Swing. This is not unusual for me. I have always struggled to find studs! By the way: I'm not exactly the most "handy" dude around. Not my strong suit.

Anyway, to get to my point, I decided to search Google for any tips on how to find a stud without making thousands of holes in the wall first. I came across some stuff about an electronic stud finder which I wasn't too excited about because I had tried one of those in the past without any success but then I came across something I somehow had never heard of before and had never thought of before either: Using a magnet to find a stud.

The idea is that you run the magnet over the wall and when you run it over a nail you feel it tugging. Luckily I happened to have some little magnets that I bought a hardware store (I think they were like 50 cents each.) I tried it out with one of these and this technique worked like a charm. I was even able to get the magnet to stick to the wall!

Yes you have to rub it around the wall a bit before it picks up on a nail, but it didn't take me long at all. And it's definitely better than making a bunch of holes in the wall.

There are magnetic stud finders built specifically for this purpose and they probably work even better (being larger so it's easier to find the nails.) But my little cheap magnet worked fine for me and I plan on using it from now on whenever I need to find a stud.

Hopefully this post will help someone out there who has similarly driven themselves crazy (and driven a bunch of holes into the wall) looking for a stud.

After doing a ton of research (reading lots of reviews mostly) I've decided on the firewire/1394 based Echo Audiofire 4 Audio Interface to replace my E-MU 1616M which I had for about a year and half.

The E-MU1616M started causing random glitches & pops and I couldn't find anyway to stop them. During my search around the internet for a solution to this problem I found that it's a common issue. So I would probably not recommend it to you, although I was reasonably happy with it before the problem began.

I went with the Echo Audiofire 4 because of the universally good reviews that I found for it. Everyone raves about it's sound quality and it's steady drivers. And it certainly didn't hurt at all that I found it on Amazon for just $260.

Because I do not record live drums I don't really need more than the 4 inputs this device has. But if you do want more than that you can go with the Echo Audiofire 12 (which as you may have sussed out has 12 inputs.)

In the end my final decision was between the RME Fireface 400 and the Echo. They both had similarly positive reviews, the big difference is that the Audiofire 4 is just $260 and the RME Fireface 400 is $1300. Considering that I even found some reviews saying that they actually prefer the Echo and that the general consensus seemed to be that they were at about the same level (although the RME probably had slightly more glowing reviews) it didn't seem reasonable to spend another $1000+ on the RME.

With that saved $1000 I could buy all kinds of great gear. Perhaps a new compressor to replace my broken FMR RNLA (I recently discovered it does not work anymore.) Perhaps I could upgrade my monitors? Maybe I could buy another great mic. And eventually I'm going to have to replace my PC, maybe I can save the money for that?

Once I get the Echo Audiofire 4 delivered I'll be updating the comments with my experiences with it. Hopefully it's as great as the reviews make it out to be. At this price it seems like a real steal.

No one would expect to pick up a guitar and play "Stairway to Heaven" well without first learning how to play guitar in general and also learning to play that song in particular.

Yet people do expect to be able to start singing a song well without ever training their voice in general or practicing singing that specific song. And when they can't do so they say "I can't sing!"

This doesn't really make any sense.

The human voice is an instrument too and it can only be used to the best of it's capability with practice. Yes, unlike a guitar, it's an instrument that you're born with - but it still requires practice to use properly.

No one should make the claim that they can't sing without first really training their voice and practicing hard (just as hard as you would expect to practice to learn how to play guitar or piano.)

To be clear; I'm not claiming that everyone has the same quality voice only that training/practice is required to get the most out of the voice that they have. To continue with the instrument analogy you can play "Stairway to Heaven" on a cheap $60 acoustic guitar or a $3000 Martin and of course there's going to be a sound quality difference between the two instruments. But far more important than the sound quality of the instrument is the skill of the player. And that skill is gained only through practice.

My big point is this: If you want to sing well, start practicing - stop expecting it to be some God given gift, it takes work! Check out some of the resources below to get started.

I should also mention that I think ear training is an important element with singing (and all parts of music, really.) It's much easier to hit the right note, if you know what the right note is!

The distance between your monitors is important when you're mixing. If they aren't the right distance apart you are likely to have problems getting your levels right.

If the monitors are too far apart then sounds panned to the sides will sound louder (and sounds in the center quieter) and conversely if the monitors are too close then the sound in the center will sound louder (and the sounds on the sides will sound quieter.)

For example if your monitors are spread far apart you are very likely to compensate for the lower volume of the sounds placed in the middle by raising their volume. This will create a mix that will not translate well.

So how do you find the right distance? With your ears! You can't see the right distance, you can only hear it.

You should play a mono song (being a huge Beatles fan I use Beatles songs from The Beatles in Mono Box Set) and then move the monitors closer together and farther apart listening from your listening position. Listen for a place where the song sounds like it's evenly spread across the distance of the speakers rather than bunched up in the middle (too close) or coming too much from the sides (too far apart.)

The reason you should use a mono song instead of a stereo song is that when you play back a stereo track there's too much information to deal with. You may hear a guitar on the right and a tambourine on the left, but that has to do with the specific stereo mix of that song, it doesn't tell you anything about your speaker placement.

I think the importance of having good sense of time as a musician cannot be overstated. You can play all the right notes, but if you don't play them with a good sense of timing/rhythm then it's not going to sound good.

A very simple (and very effective) thing to do to improve timing is to clap along with a metronome and attempt to make the click "disappear."

When the click disappears that means you are perfectly in time. If you can still hear the click through your clapping that means you are either rushing or too late. When I'm off it's usually because of rushing, and I think that's a more common problem.

What's great about this way of practicing your timing is that you get immediate feedback. If you hear the click you know you're not in time so you need to adjust (most likely you are rushing.)

If you do a short session like this everyday (five minutes is probably plenty) I think you will see marked improvement in your timing.

You will likely find it very difficult at first, but when you do start to make the metronome disappear it will be like a revelation!

You should try doing it all types of different tempos. And don't assume that faster is harder, really locking in at 40 BPM may be a tougher challenge.

I should also mention that at first you may think that you just need to clap louder, but that's not the case. If you can hear the click, it's not because your clapping isn't loud enough - it's because you are not perfectly in time.