What you can learn from this manual

  1. Understand what the parameters / boundaries / rules governing modern popular music are, where they come from, why to stick to the rules, and how to use them to your advantage as a musician and songwriter
  2. Maximising the margin for error: and why this is critical
  3. How to learn a song quickly
    • Basic orchestration
    • Standard chord sequences
  4. Building trust between band members
  5. Musical cues:
    • What are they?
    • How to use them
  6. What is the difference between playing and performing?
  7. Don’t allow your playing to interfere with anything else being sung / played on stage
    • Using inversions to fill in the spaces and not clutter up the sound with redundancies
    • Less is More
    • How to listen to everyone around you while you’re playing
    • Playing in context
    • Instrument roles
  8. Light and Shade – What it’s all about