Hey ya'll - I'm going to do it! I'm going to upload my first instrumental track under the artist name "Toe Beans" !!! BUT . . . . I'm getting myself into a bit of a pickle over making sure the song is as good as it can be for my first release - mix and master wise. I made some small adjustments and then attempted a go at mastering using stock plugins and a YouTube tutorial. I feel like I have no clue what I'm doing :P I want to get good enough to do everything myself and I appreciate that you have to keep doing it over and over to refine your process/style etc, but would really appreciate one more round of opinions before I release this bad boy into the world. Attached is a wav file so I hope it plays :P Basically, in short: Is this of enough quality to upload?

AI gets a lot of (justified) criticism in the music world right now, and watching what Suno and others are doing, I share those concerns. But I wanted to highlight a use case that's been genuinely helpful for me: data analytics. Over the course of one afternoon, I used Claude Code to build a set of dashboards with a tool called Streamlit, running locally on my machine and updated regularly with fresh data. No more wrestling with CSV exports (anyone who's dealt with DistroKid's royalty reports knows the pain 😅), just clean, visual overviews of everything that matters. And it goes beyond display. One question I'd always wondered about: how many songs should I actually put into Discovery Mode? Claude helped me work through that properly, with the data to back it up (see second screenshot). AI isn't replacing the music. But for the business side of things, the admin, the analysis, the stuff we'd rather not spend our creative energy on, it can be a serious time-saver. Happy to share more if anyone's curious. 🎸

Is anyone joining the Hangout tomorrow? 🎸 If so, I could show you how I use Claude for my music project — for example to build analytics dashboards or SmartLink pages. Happy to walk through it and answer questions.

My Fellow Wavers, I hope you're all doing well. It's been a while since I've been engaged in the community (#forgive) lot's of lovely life things kept getting in the way. Anywho, I was fiddling away yesterday evening and stumbled across an idea that I liked and this morning I thought "bugger it" and recorded this song. I've been working on/toying with releasing this type of music for a long while and now I'm getting to the point where I think I'm ready to pull the plug and do it. I recorded an 5 songs back in February which I have been working on to release, but this song came to me yesterday and an inner voice said that this should be the first one to come out. So! I would greatly appreciate any feedback on mixing/levels/etc from anyone that feels inspired to do so, and then I'm going to create a profile and upload this bad boy! (Mixing note: I have an old Mac and Logic. I have only used stock plugins and will continue to do so until I have a new laptop - this Mac is close to the end now and struggles just to do simple things.) Thanks in advance, big love to you all and hope you're having a splendid day :) Freddie

Hi guitarwavers, last Friday I attended a clinic by Chris Buck at Music Store in Cologne. For those who don’t know him: Chris is an outstanding guitarist (currently touring a lot with his band Cardinal Black). His solo playing has fascinated me for years, and his YouTube channel — especially the sadly discontinued Friday Fretworks series (https://youtu.be/QonHlw4oBWw?si=pJsrlD74f2r2wrOm) — has been a big source of inspiration for me. Besides plenty of guitar-nerd topics (including his Yamaha signature model), he spoke during the clinic in depth about his approach to soloing. There were so many gems that I quickly took notes and thought I’d share them here. We haven’t talked much about technique and practicing in the community yet, so maybe this is useful for some of you. Key takeaways: • Start slow and low. He usually begins in the lower register and plays sparsely, then gradually moves up the neck and increases intensity, telling a story with introduction, build-up, climax, and resolution. • A/B phrasing. He often structures phrases as a question (suspension) and answer (resolve). • Don’t be afraid of repetition. Good melodies need time to sink in. He often repeats phrases and later restates them an octave higher. • Study singers, not guitarists. He focuses on vocal phrasing, melody, and character, then translates that to guitar. • Single-string playing. He mentioned that around 70% of his solos happen on a single string. This prevents scale “noodling” and forces you to think melodically, while physically feeling the intervals. • Vibrato like a singer. He lets notes sit flat first, then adds vibrato gradually — similar to how a singer’s vibrato naturally appears as the breath fades. The short video I captured is a great example of all of the above. Here’s the original version (recorded for Paul Davids’ challenge): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tl8CaZVMQzw&t=1514s