Drum Lesson Studio

Chris Scherer — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 15:52:14 +0000

Here are some shots of the teaching studio.

Jam Night Songs

Chris Scherer — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 04:03:55 +0000

Coming to an open jam night prepared to play a lot of tunes that most local musicians have never played or have played once in their life at best is a sure fire way to be kicked off the stage early. Learn the stuff that people know and, at the bare minimum, know how to play/follow a blues progression. A great way to get a feel for what musicians know and like to play is to go to an open jam as a spectator; sit and listen closely, then go home and woodshed.

Women of the Calabash

Chris Scherer — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 23:32:42 +0000

I remember watching this when I was 14 years old. Some very nice shekere playing here.

Enjoying Dirty Loops

Chris Scherer — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 00:26:34 +0000

Dirty Loops is a band from Sweden that is giving pop a facelift with jazz elements and cool arrangements which twist, bend, and extend the songs they cover way beyond their original boundaries.

Tip the Scale Drummer Warmup

Chris Scherer — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 01:11:22 +0000

This drummer warmup is a step up from “8 on the Hand”.
Download sheet music and enjoy: Tip the Scale – Drummer Warmup

My Swiss Army KniPhone

Chris Scherer — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 17:26:42 +0000

As a musician and educator I find it important to embrace technology in order to make what I do a little more efficient and easy. The iPhone 4 has enabled me to create and teach on a whole new level with this specific collection of killer apps.

Amazing Slow Downer – Changes tempo and pitch of music independently. Also creates loops on the fly to isolate certain sections of music for practice. Import anything from iPod app.

NanoStudio – Full music creation software including expandable synth library, keyboards, sequencing, sampling, multi-track view, drum machine, sound shaping effects, metronome, swing feel, time signatures and mixdown to share on SoundCloud or export to wherever. The only thing it doesn’t do is multi-track audio recording. But, I found something for that…

MultiTrack DAW – The only program that I’ve found so far that really gets the job of multi-track recording done. It records lossless audio, features auto select input, a visual waveform on each track (stereo or mono), audio input monitor, iPod import feature, and you can record as many tracks as your iPhone can handle. After laying down your tracks, go to the mixdown feature and share your work through the app folder in iTunes. Done & awesome!

Music Theory Pro – This is a wonderful tool, chock full of features for learning music theory. The ear training section, which I frequently use, tests you on intervals, chords, scales, and tempos. The visual sections help in teaching key signatures, note names, intervals, and chords as they appear on the staff.

Lyrics World – If I ever need to learn lyrics, this is the app I use. Lyrics World works with the iPod app to bring you immediate and accurate lyrics so you can sing along and sing it right!

The following apps are ones that I don’t use as frequently but still are nice to have because they come in handy.

Decibel Meter Pro – A great app for measuring decibel levels in a particular environment. It features several direction sensors, max and peak levels and the interface is pleasant to look at and interact with.

djay for iPhone & iPod touch – My favorite virtual dj app. I create mixes and record them in real time.

iDrum: Ministry of Sound Anthems – A nice drum machine with a big library of sounds. Great for creating beats and grooves on the fly.

Recorder – I used this app to record a writing session last week. It’s a step above the voice memo app that comes with iPhone because of it’s editing capability, wifi Sync and the call recording option (costs extra).

Where it would otherwise require me to lug around extra gear, the apps I’ve listed here have helped me to create and teach on the go with just my iPhone. I hope you find them as convenient, fun, and useful as I do.