Cheryl Hodge

Cheryl Hodge has been in the music and songwriting business for well over 30 years; recording on several labels; among them Atco Records (Raindogs, 1990), and has released 4 CDs of her own; on her own label: Jazzboulevard.com Records.

She has performed her music for the last 10 years with noted jazz guitarist John Stowell (amongst many others), and they are about to release a CD of co-written originals. She has been private instructor to many; including the gifted Paula Cole. She is also the author of “A Singer’s Guide to the Well-Trained and Powerful Voice”, and is a published vocal arranger.

Cheryl is currently the head of the vocal dept. at Nelson, BC’s: Selkirk College Music Program. There, she teaches Songwriting and Advanced Songwriting, Business of Music, Arranging and Vocals.

She continues to write and produce her original materials, and has just released “Cheryl Hodge: Original Article” – a compilation of her favourites.

For more info, visit:

Jazz and Blues Artist Cheryl Hodge – Facebook Page

Jazz and Blues Singer Cheryl Hodge on Reverbnation

Jazz Boulevard

Contact Cheryl Hodge

Blog Posts

Author Insights

From the Studio

Same knob, different job

It’s a useful reset to remember that a synth filter and an EQ filter are the same maths wearing different clothes. On an EQ, resonance screaming at self-oscillation is a mistake. On a synth, it’s half the reason people still chase old Moog and 303 emulations. The parameter’s identical – cutoff, slope, Q – only the intent changes. → Glossary: Resonance

From the Studio

Hunting hum by ear

Before you reach for an auto-notch tool, it’s worth learning to find 50 Hz hum by ear – sweep a narrow bell filter with a big cut slowly through the low end and listen for where the hum drops out. It’s a five-minute skill that saves you from notching the wrong frequency and taking a bite out of something that mattered. → Community: discuss ground loop and hum fixes on our Music Community boards

From the Studio

Cut narrow, boost wide – until it isn’t

The “cut narrow, boost wide” rule of thumb holds up most of the time, but it’s a starting point, not a law. For example, an exception might be when a piano and lead vocal are fighting in the low mids. The piano sounds warm on its own, but sitting together in the full mix, the vocal lacks clarity. Apply a wide EQ cut of about 2 dB centred at 300 Hz on the piano with a broad Q of around 0.7. Treat the rule as: where you start turning the Q knob, not where you stop. → Glossary: Q (Quality Factor)

From the Studio

The HPF you don’t notice is doing its job

The best use of a high-pass filter is usually the one nobody can hear happening. If a listener can point to “the bit where you filtered it,” the slope was probably too steep for the source. On most acoustic sources, I reach for a gentle -6 dB/oct first and only go steeper if there’s a specific problem to solve – mud, rumble, a room mic picking up traffic noise. → Forum: share what you’re rolling off and why in the Recording & Production board

From the Studio

The cut-off isn’t where cutting starts

This one trips up a lot of people the first time they hear it properly explained: set your HPF to 80 Hz and the filter is already three decibels down at 80 Hz, not just starting to think about it. Once you know you know. It is so easy to spend a stupid amount of time chasing “missing” low end on a bass track before realising the roll-off began a full octave above the point where you thought it kicked in. Worth remembering next time a cut sounds more aggressive than the number on the dial suggests. → Glossary: Cutoff Frequency / Half-Power Point

From the Studio

Too Much Reverb

Less experienced recording engineers and music producers tend to use too much reverb and to use it inappropriately. Using reverb in the wrong way can create very muddy mixes with vocals that lack punch. You have several options to help you avoid these issues.