Category Archives: Music Gear

Minimize Options For Misconnecting Stage Gear

Posted on by

Unless your band is performing at a very high-level venue, you are usually lucky to get a brief line check – you jump on stage, plug into the sound system for the first time at the start of your set, and the sound person give you a thumbs-up that he has a signal from you – before you start to play, let alone a full sound check.

So if you don’t get that thumbs-up, your band starts losing time from your set while you and the engineer try to figure out the problem in your signal chain! While you can’t always prevent an issue caused by sudden gear failure, you can avoid issues caused by misconnections…

Continue reading →

How To Fly With Your Musical Instrument

Posted on by

Musicians travelling by air have long struggled with figuring out how/if/when they will be allowed to bring their instrument in the cabin, rather than expose it to the not-so-tender mercies of baggage compartments and handlers. The US government recently passed this law creating uniform rules for allowing instruments into the passenger cabin:

Musical-Instruments-on-Aircraft-US-Law-2012

BUT… as of this date it is not actually in effect, because it set a deadline

Not later than 2 years after the date of enactment of this section, the Secretary shall issue final regulations to carry out subsection (a).

In the meantime, here are some ideas to help make your instrument-toting travel smoother:

Continue reading →

Friday Faves 10-12-12

Posted on by

Books, Writing, Giveaway:

If you like science fiction and fantasy books, check out the Humble Bumble eBook bundle by October 23rd. Pay what you like for six (or eight if you pay as much or more as the current average paid) DRM-free ebooks by both newer and established authors, including Neil Gaiman, Cory Doctorow, Kelly Link, John Scalzi and more. You can also choose how much of your purchase price goes to the authors and/or to charity and/or Humble Bumble’s expenses.

 

If you want to try writing your OWN book, join me in doing National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) this November!

Continue reading →

Rehearse Your Planned Event Elements

Posted on by

Recently I attended a food-tasting event. In addition to sampling a variety of entries of the type being highlighted, the paying attendees were handed a paper ballot and instructed to vote for their favorite food sample. The organizers assigned each presenter a number so all we had to do was write the number on the ballot. As the first wave of tasters passed through the hall an announcer reminded us to vote, and also to write our name on the back of the ballot to enter for door prizes.

There was one major problem (as well as a couple minor ones) with this scenario:

Continue reading →