CMUSE

Listen to the shimmer of a note floating over a strummed chord. That’s a natural harmonic. A sound like instrument itself is singing. But it … Read more

There’s nothing like having your ruler disagree with your tuner as you’re constructing a guitar neck. You’ve painstakingly measured out the scale length to the … Read more

Many pieces of music are drop tuned, including moddern rock and metal. To achieve this you tune your lowest string down two semitones, leaving all … Read more

Measuring frets will make sense of how far apart they feel from each other. As you ascend the neck, the notes do indeed become different … Read more

Fear: “I slipped with my tape measure by a millimeter.” (That’s a common fear among luthiers). No longer do you have a guitar you’re building; … Read more

When you put a capo onto say the second fret of your guitar, you’ll probably have noticed it is stiffer to play and sounds brighter … Read more

When we talk about tuning a keyboard instrument it means controlling these interference patterns created by frequencies. When you listen to a third, you’re not … Read more

Then there’s the bending. You chase a feel somewhere between a whole step and a quarter step, learning how to bend by ear. This changes … Read more