• What’s Your Average?

    Over a decade ago, I heard someone say something that has stuck with me ever since.

    He said: “You are the average of the 5 people you associate with most.” That really impacted me on a gut level.

    Simply put, if you hang around all “10s,” you’ll be a 10. If you hang around “3s” and “4s,” you can’t help but to be somewhere in between.

    That’s why, at an early age, I made it a point to hang around superstars…

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    Are You Trying To Reinvent The Wheel?

    There’s a popular saying I’ve subscribed to for several years: “Don’t reinvent the wheel.”

    It means don’t go about overcomplicating things by trying to start from scratch… especially when someone’s already done the work for you.

    Long before I started applying it to music, I used this wise advice in other areas of my life. But it didn’t start that way. It took me a while to be cured of my chronic “reinvention” habits.

    For example, when I started hearandplay.com, I sought out to…

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    Brand New! Musician Breakthrough 14-Disc Program Launching on April 20, 2011! New Video Trailer

    I know you’ve probably been wondering what happened to Musician Breakthrough… the 14-disc, 16+ hour project we announced at the end of last year.

    In fact, tons of you have been e-mailing, calling, and contacting us on facebook wondering what happened.

    Before we postponed it, we had over 16,700 people signed up on the early bird list, over 711 comments, over 5,200 votes, and tons of buzz.

    But we had to make it perfect. It’s 12 discs and over 16 hours with 7 different musicians… not an easy task to get right but we did it…

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    Half-Diminished 7th Chord Secrets Revealed

    Half-diminished 7th chords are very important.

    Not only do they naturally occur on the 7th tone of any major scale, they are used as great preparers for dominant chords on the 5th tone.

    If you play gospel, you’ve undoubtedly used a half-diminished 7th chord on the 2nd tone of the scale to lead to the 5th…

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    The “What Key Am I In” Game 8

    After reviewing older posts on the blog, I’ve decided to bring back the “What Key Am I In” lessons.

    If you understand major scales, the number system, and which chords fall on each tone of the scale (aka – “diatonic chords”), you have what it takes to crack the code.

    But just in case, let’s review…

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    Ask Jermaine: “What One Thing Would You Learn First If Starting All Over?

    This week’s question comes from Michelle S in Oregon: “Jermaine, I’m enjoying your material immensely. I have a fun question for you that I’m just curious of. If you had to start all over, looking back, what one thing would you learn first to make you excel the fastest?” My Answer…

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    How To Develop A Practicing Habit

    Experts say it takes 21 days to develop a habit.

    Of course, some habits are easier to develop than others. While the 21 days generally holds true for any behavior, being able to perform desired activities consistently for 21 days is typically the problem.

    Skipping a few days, doing it when you want here and there, all break the pattern and inhibit habit formation.

    Pushing yourself to…

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