Music Articles

Music | By Heather Jacobson @ Wednesday, 27th August 2008 @ 1:05 PM

Have you noticed how every famous band in the music industry always includes the guitar? It is perhaps because the guitar is highly versatile, with the ability to set the rhythm, create the sounds that transform into music, and even mimic tones as that of other instruments. It seems that a song would not be completely called a song if it does not incorporate the flavors added by the guitar. So many people want to learn how to play this musical instrument, apart from it being such a popula... more...

Music | By Victor Epand @ Wednesday, 27th August 2008 @ 9:57 AM

After learning simple music theory such as the different types of notes and what the stave, time signature and clef symbols are you are then ready to delve further into learning about the different types of time that are found in music. Put simply the three types are simple, compound and irregular times. Simple time is the easiest to identify. In simple time the top number will always be a 2,3 or 4 denoting that there will be that many beats per bar. This is very straight forward and is e... more...

Music | By Victor Epand @ Wednesday, 27th August 2008 @ 9:41 AM

If you are a new music student there will be a few things you must learn before you can read sheet music. One of the first questions you might hear is what a beat might be. Most new music students will give the only answer that they have. They will answer that they do not know. In a rough sort of way a beat could be considered a measurement of time but it is also more, and less, than that. The first thing that determines the definition of a beat is the time signature that is found at the ... more...

Music | By Victor Epand @ Wednesday, 27th August 2008 @ 7:57 AM

The drum set. The quintessential backdrop for any rock and roll band. The axis around which the other members revolve during any onstage performance. In the movie That Thing You Do, Tom Hank's character explains his marketing approach to his newly formed band: "We are gonna get you some new clothes. Matching suits, nice suits. Nice, because you are nice boys...except maybe for you." And who is the "you" he's talking to? You guessed it-the drummer. The bad boy who, by th... more...

Music | By Victor Epand @ Wednesday, 27th August 2008 @ 7:38 AM

An acoustic guitar is one that relies solely on acoustic methods to project the sound produced by its strings. Interestingly, the term "acoustic guitar" was not coined until the invention of the electric guitar made it necessary to differentiate between the two. Most people are familiar with the appearance of an acoustic guitar. Made of wood, hollow, and usually possessing six strings stretched over a "sound hole" on its face, an acoustic guitar is the image that many people asso... more...

Music | By Victor Epand @ Wednesday, 27th August 2008 @ 5:34 AM

The latter half of the Middle Ages (circa 1000 CE to 1500 CE) was a turning point in European history. Having finally emerged from the Dark Ages (circa 500 CE to 1000 CE), European civilization finally began to recover the ground it had lost when Rome fell. One of the results of this recovery was the re-emergence of recorded music, or sheet music in both religious and secular life. During the Middle Ages, Catholicism was the central power in Europe. It was incorporated into every aspect o... more...

Music | By Victor Epand @ Wednesday, 27th August 2008 @ 5:04 AM

Compared to its acoustic cousin, the electric guitar has a very short history. In modern times, electric guitars are most often associated with genres such as rock and roll, blues rock, and jazz. However, this instrument has its origins in the big band music of the 1930s and 1940s. As the jazz orchestras of those days grew and their brass sections increased proportionally, the need for an amplified guitar became more and more pronounced. Adolph Rickenbacher, George Beauchamp, and Paul Barth, all... more...

Music | By Heather Jacobson @ Wednesday, 27th August 2008 @ 4:26 AM

Digital music has definitely changed the way people listen to their favorite songs. Remember the days when compact discs and cassette tapes seemed to be the most innovative way to tote along as many songs as possible? Today, those storage forms seem obsolete, as now you can have thousands of songs fit right into your pocket, thanks to innovations like mp3 players, and the revolutionary iPod from Apple. From the same company, various cousins of the iPod have been developed, each with a more sophi... more...

Music | By Kristi Ambrose @ Wednesday, 27th August 2008 @ 12:31 AM

Downloading music, searching for music, searching for lyrics, and listening to music online are some of the most popular things to do on the Internet. Every single day hundred of thousands of people go to sites like song meanings, metro lyrics, and azlyrics. Obviously the reason for going to these sites is for finding lyrics to your favorite song but you can do much more. For example, if you just heard a song on the radio that you really like you can go to Google and put in a line from the song,... more...

Music | By Duane Shinn @ Tuesday, 26th August 2008 @ 10:31 PM

Jazz pianist Dave Brubeck is one of the stalwarts of jazz piano. His music is characterized by unusual time signatures and can be either extreme - totally dynamic or or completely relaxed. His most famous piece - Take Five - is so popular it has taken on almost cult status, and rightfully so. David Warren Brubeck (aka Dave Brubeck)was born on the 6th of December, 1920. His thing for music came from his mother - an aspiring concert pianist who was formally taught. She used to take piano cl... more...

Music | By Kristi Ambrose @ Tuesday, 26th August 2008 @ 7:56 PM

Clawhammer is a highly rhythmic class of a fingerpicking technique that is used on the banjo and very rarely on a guitar. Traditional picking styles include those for Folk, Bluegrass, and classical guitar and consist of an "up-picking" motion by the fingers and "down-picking" motion by the thumb. The main reason it's called Clawhammer is because of the shape of the hand when it's picking the banjo; the hand assumes a claw like shape and the strumming finger is kept st... more...

Music | By Jim Brown @ Tuesday, 26th August 2008 @ 7:08 PM

Learning how to play guitar is perhaps a great challenge I had to face back when I was still in high school. But when I think about how I love guitar playing is, I resolve to do better and learn more. The task becomes less daunting when you have defined what really is involved. It takes absolutely time to be able to master guitar playing but it is a little too early to think about that at the moment. Like many other tasks, you need to prepare and have the right materials to learn. In my experien... more...

Music | By Mike Shaw @ Tuesday, 26th August 2008 @ 5:33 PM

A "semiquaver" can be found as a written musical note in sheet music. This musical note is used in all types of sheet music for all musical instruments. The semiquaver looks like a black-coloured oval shape with a stem on the right or left side depending on where on the musical staff it is written. At the end of the stem, there are two tails. These tails can be written in various ways. They can be curly, and they can be straight and shorter, almost like a couple of ticks. If more... more...

Music | By Victor Epand @ Tuesday, 26th August 2008 @ 5:34 AM

If you would like to learn to play the guitar then at some point you may decide to purchase sheet music in order to learn new songs. The sheet music used for playing guitar is more commonly known as guitar tablature or guitar tabs for short. If you have looked at guitar tabs before and felt somewhat overwhelmed by them then try not to worry. In truth tabs are rather easy to read and you will find yourself reading them like a pro before you know it. One thing you will find out about people... more...

Music | By Daniel Lehrman @ Monday, 25th August 2008 @ 10:08 PM

One of the essential keys to choosing a guitar teacher is common sense. Developing and maintaining a relationship with your teacher is critical and essential. The problem is finding the correct teacher. With the guitar now being the most common instrument of choice, it is no wonder that the amount of qualified teachers lags way behind the amount of people wanting to learn to play the guitar. That being said, here are my criteria for choosing a guitar teacher. Every lesson you take is wh... more...

Music | By Mike Shaw @ Monday, 25th August 2008 @ 5:28 PM

A "quaver" is a written musical note found in sheet music. This musical note is used by all musicians and for all musical instruments. The quaver is written as a black-coloured oval shape with a stem on the right or left side depending on where on the staff it is written. At the end of the stem, there is a tail. This tail can be written in various ways. It can be curly, making its way back to the oval shape or it can be straight and shorter, almost like a tick. If more than one q... more...

Music | By Duane Shinn @ Monday, 25th August 2008 @ 8:55 AM

Synthesizers are electronic, keyboard-based instruments that produce artificial, or synthesized, sounds. Many frequently mistake synthesizers for simply portable, electronic pianos, but the differences are extremely vast. While synthesizers can definitely produce a piano sound, their main purpose, usually, is to create sounds not specifically found on any other instrument. The process of creating these sounds is sometimes very difficult; while some synthesizers come with pre-created sound... more...

Music | By Peter Clark @ Monday, 25th August 2008 @ 1:30 AM

So you've wanted to be a rock star since before you could walk, but to really be a rock star you need to learn how to play the electric guitar. After all, the guitar players are always the ones at the front of the stage aren't they? Problem is it's not easy to learn to play the electric guitar, it can take years and some say you're never finished learning. So I've written a series of articles about some of the basics of electric guitars, and in this one I'll ... more...

Music | By Chris Chew @ Saturday, 23rd August 2008 @ 10:25 AM

One of the most important but often overlooked aspects of good singing is to develop a good breath control technique. Many new or untrained singers don't even have an inkling that by breathing correctly, they are not only able to hold a note longer, have a more steady tone and will not become breathless easily. That is why having good singing lessons before a singer launch his/her singing career is so vitally important. Many people must have thought that why should they care about br... more...

Music | By Kevin Sinclair @ Saturday, 23rd August 2008 @ 8:38 AM

Even though there are many famous singers that earn high pay, there are those that struggle in the singing field to "make a living". Copious amounts of time is undertaking by these struggling singers to book singing engagements along with other part-time jobs. Many singers find other kinds of singing jobs to enable them to earn a little money. These singing jobs include: Busking Buskers are otherwise known as minstrels or bards, sidewalk musicians, street musicians... more...