On The Past is Still Alive, folk songwriter Alynda Segarra reignites visions from a past life and the people they've met along the way.

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The funk, soul and R&B band from Seattle explores the more complicated side of love on their latest album, Love Direction.

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This English indie rock band formed while studying at the Leeds Conservatoire in 2020. Four years laters, they won the Mercury Prize.

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The English guitarist and songwriter joins us to talk about his fifth studio album.

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The English singer-songwriter chats about why "labour" went viral and the inspirations behind her new album.

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Frontman BJ Barham talks about working with producer Shooter Jennings and tackling the complexity of Southern identity on the band's new album.

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The Montreal-based band blends together different influences, from japanese folk to J-Pop and Brazilian surf rock.

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The Philadelphia musician wanted to reconnect with his tight-knit circle of bandmates on his new record.

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The English rock band looks to '80s synth pop on their seventh studio album.

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Tune in to a mini-concert with Latin pop and hip hop group 2MX2, plus learn about the foundation cultivating Fort Collins' music scene.

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Big Richard formed to play a one-off festival gig, then the quartet fell in love with playing together.

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Just like their name implies, this desert rock trio is buzzy, loud and fun.

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Denver's iconic outdoor venue comes with a unique set of challenges.

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Hear a live performance from the young Cajun group Amis Du Teche as they perform songs from their latest self-titled album.

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The band co-founded by Lowell George and led by Bill Payne has flourished with their gumbo approach to rock and roll.

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The alternative rock pioneers perform an exclusive set ahead of the release of their latest album.

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The Nashville-based singer-songwriter sought inspiration from Dorothy's journey in The Wizard of Oz.

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The hip-hop group's second and final album took a sharp sonic turn away from their radio-friendly debut.

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The record producer and composer sought inspiration from his beginnings in Sacramento for his latest record.

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Heavily inspired by cumbia, the London-based band has a straightforward ethos: have fun.

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The saxophonist has spent his life developing his unique, physically demanding performance style.

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The Philadelphia musician delivers his most cohesive record to date.

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Find out which songs the English musician chose to perform for World Cafe's new feature called Backtracking.

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The pop minimalists return with a record that feels like calling up an old friend.

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The punk pioneers talk about their ninth and final studio album.

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The hook in "Broke It, Buy It" is insidiously catchy enough to ricochet through your head for days. Levy concludes with the implication that our inability to accept our failings causes more unhappiness than the failures themselves as we chase retail solutions — "we broke it, so we buy it."

Singer-songwriter Nick Zammuto spent most of the '00s as one half of the experimental folk duo The Books. In "Idiom Wind," working at the head of a new project, he tells the story of a man who needs to get his hands dirty.

MC Ride catalogs the paranoia and police brutality that drove him to the insanity the song exemplifies.

In his strangely affecting, minimalist rock paean "We Are All Teenagers," Fite sketches out a spare electric riff with a reverb-y '50s rock air as he nails the adolescent unease that lingers into adulthood.

"Dark Steering" flirts subtly with the sounds of modern dubstep, mixing them with atmospheric squeals and detailed drum programming. The result is an unbelievably fitting soundtrack for a life-or-death motorcycle race through neon-lit city streets.

In few words, "Be Good" profiles two people who love and trust each other deeply, who share their dreams and secret shames, but who would rather shotgun beers together than make out.

In "That Time Is Gone," guitarist, part-time lead vocalist and pop-music legend Peter Holsapple lays bare the anxiety of re-assembling an act that was never much more than a cult phenomenon.

Ambiguous words, delivered with earnest passion, lend special power to "Airline Living." It's the sort of song that's sure to force different meanings onto different people, depending upon their place in life and state of mind.

"Candy Girl" sounds like a shoegazer's modern take on Berlin's "Take My Breath Away" — the song that soundtracked the makeout scene in Top Gun. Cool but still beautiful, it's touching, revealing and almost painfully intimate.

Soul music is rooted in gritty perseverance, so pairing up stalwarts Bettye LaVette and Charles Walker works on so many levels, it's a miracle it hasn't happened until now. "Yours and Mine" is an exhilarating affirmation of the power to prevail.

In the summer months, scheduling music lessons flexibly is possible. How do you want to schedule your summer music lessons?

On our Duet Partner Facebook Group, we recently asked our teachers if they have additional instruments in their home, besides their primary one. From the comments, it seems that music teachers like instruments almost as much as they like music! Here are the instruments that were listed by our followers: Grand pianos, digital keyboards, Celtic harps, recorders, flutes, violins, bagpipe, guitars, ukeleles, xylophones, drums, tambourines, kazoos, upright pianos and cellos. What...

Are you feeling the urge to refresh your music studio? Here are a few ways to make your music teaching space feel clean and organized.

What do you charge for your teaching? If you want to take a fresh look at your tuition model, join us on Wednesday for an online discussion about this most important subject.

Recently, we asked, "What's one thing you wish you knew before starting your own private music studio?" Here are some of the comments we received.

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We know from talking to hundreds of music teachers over the years that students' practicing habits are always a point of discussion. We've seen parents fall into a whole range of attitudes. Here are a few that we've seen.

With all but one of my children driving and displaying functional levels of independence, I recently decided it was time for me to revisit one of my first loves: playing the piano.

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Do you have a set of values that guide your teaching and the way you've set up your studio? Here are some ideas to get you started.

Learning to tap with more than three fingers isn't as hard as you might think, so in this lesson we're going to take a look at 5 finger tapping for guitar. The concept may be a little different for some, but the process of getting multi-finger tapping down is the same with any other technique.

All you have to do is start slow enough so that you can get the coordination down. Once you've got the muscle memory flowing, the tempo is a lot easier to keep than it is with standard three finger tapping.

Have a listen to this example, and then we'll break it down.





Here's a break down of the tapping process:

1. Tap the 11th fret with your picking hand index finger.
2. Pull off to the fretting hand index finger, which is anchored on the 5th fret.
3. Hammer-on/pull off from the 5th to the 7th fret with your ring finger.
4. Tap the 12th fret with your picking hand middle finger.
5. Pull off to the fretting hand index finger anchored on the 5th fret.
6. Hammer-on/ pull off from the 5th to the 8th fret with the pinkie finger.

That completes the whole cycle of this tap. The trick then is to make sure that you can loop the tap in good timing.

This particular five finger tapping exercise is of course minor, and is not appropriate for every style of music, but the formula for this type of guitar tapping can be customized to fit in with different styles of music.

It all depends on the tempo and key of the song that you want to use it in.

If for some reason you are having trouble with this exercise, focus on the index and middle fingers of the picking hand. Really give a lot of attention to those fingers when they are tapping.

Make sure to do this with the hammer-ons and pull offs as well. If you make it so that your intention is to have strong fingers, you will be golden with all things
guitar.