This guy is a beast! The ideas Matt shares in this short video could fill a lifetime of practice. Although what he's playing sounds pretty complicated, with a little bit of patience, it's something you can easily apply to your own playing.

To start, pick a simple groove (start really simple) and try shifting it either forwards or backwards by half a beat — like in the example below. It'll sound and feel strange to play at first, so it's a good idea to practice it to a click and to count as you play. Once you feel comfortable playing your new displaced groove, try alternating between it and the original version. 

As Matt demonstrates in the video, you can have a lot of fun with this idea!

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The Round Tower, Copenhagen

Every Wednesday I share five things I've liked and think you might like too. Here are this week’s Five Things…

1. Brian Eno on children, play and art via a fun comic by Austin Kleon (the author of Steal Like An Artist).

2. Wiltshire has its very own Iron Man. Richard Browning has developed a flying suit consisting of a lightweight exoskeleton and six gas turbines that are strapped to the arms and back. According to Browning it has the potential to reach speeds of up to 450 kilometres an hour, though it hasn't been tested at speeds anywhere near that yet.

3. Learn to code for free! freeCodeCamp is a non-profit with approximately 2000 hours of free lessons and challenges. I've just restarted my quest to work through the course and so far I'm really enjoying the challenge!

4. Ableton have made a cool interactive website that teaches the basics of songwriting and beat making — a really great resource for anyone interested in learning how to make music.

5. This week's musical recommendation is Requiem For Dying Mothers, Part 2 by Stars Of The Lid. SOTL have been the soundtrack of my week as I work through the freeCodeCamp lessons. Their sound has (according to Wikipedia) been described as "divine, classical drone without the tedious intrusion of drums or vocals."

That's all for this week. If you enjoyed it, subscribe and you'll get the next one delivered to your inbox.

Cromer 2

Every Wednesday I share five things I liked and think you might like too. Here are this week’s Five Things…

1. A great post on how to learn more effectively: Let Go of the Learning Baggage.
    
2. Vantablack is very black: "Vantablack is a substance made of vertically aligned carbon nanotube arrays and is the blackest artificial substance known, absorbing up to 99.965% of radiation in the visible spectrum."
    
3. A cool time-lapse video of the Milky Way shot from an airplane cockpit.
    
4. An interesting interview on How Creativity Drives Human Evolution with the author and anthropologist Augustín Fuentes. — "What's distinctive about humans is that we can imagine something and then make it real."
    
5. This week's musical recommendation is So It Goes by the ambient musician and composer Greg Haines. If you like this, check out his albums "Where We Were" and "Moments Eluding".

That's all for this week. If you enjoyed it, subscribe and you'll get the next Five Things delivered straight to your inbox. You can check out previous Five Things posts here.

Cromer

Every Wednesday I share five things I liked and think you might like too. Here are this week’s Five Things…

1. A great comic by The Oatmeal on changing your mind and the "backfire effect". 
    
2. Today is a great day to learn something new, so why not check out Khan Academy. There are short, well explained video lessons on pretty much everything.... and it's completely free!
    
3. Prepare to be amazed... The Mysterious Glass. 
    
4. An interesting series of videos on how Japanese Samurai swords are made. The craftsmanship and time that goes into making each sword is mind-blowing. 
    
5. This week's musical recommendation is Ólafur Arnalds' Living Room Songs. The link goes to the film that accompanied the album, which includes behind the scenes footage about the project (as well as the music). The album was recorded over one week, with each song being recorded, filmed and edited in one day, and then released online the following morning. An amazing project and great music.

That's all for this week. If you enjoyed it, subscribe and you'll get the next Five Things delivered straight to your inbox. You can check out previous Five Things posts here. 

It's a Baileygram

Every Wednesday I share five things I liked and think you might like too. Here are this week’s Five Things…

1. You can now explore the world from the comfort of your home. The new Google Earth is really amazing. Check out the "I'm Feeling Lucky" feature if you don't know where to explore first.
    
2. An interesting long read on What Makes a Genius?
    
3. Emoji as gargoyles... "In classical architecture they used heads of the king or whatever, and they put that on the façade . . . So we were thinking, what can we use as an ornament so when you look at this building in 10 or 20 years you can say ‘hey this is from that year!’"
    
4. An animated primer on How to Meditate. If you haven't tried meditating, I'd encourage you to give it a try. It's probably easier to get started than you think it is.
    
5. This week's musical recommendation is The Köln Concert by the pianist Keith Jarrett. The improvised performance was recorded live at the Opera House in Cologne in 1975. It's worth reading the story behind the concert. At first Jarrett had refused to play due to a mix up with the piano he was supposed to play. 

That's all for this week. If you enjoyed it, subscribe and you'll get the next Five Things delivered straight to your inbox. You can check out previous Five Things posts here.