Friday, November 24, 2006

Ipod, You Ultimate Music Player

By Christy M

Tip! Be able to transpose: Say you are playing a piece from the sheet music you can now read but you think it sounds too high or too low, or just not right. Well now you can move it into a new key and play at a better singing.

Ipods are the hottest things in the market today. We can see that the general public is not aware of all capabilities of this player. Some may even think of an ipods as a very technical gadget. To clear some of the misconceptions and provide some valuable information about ipods is the purpose of writing this article. We are living in a world when it is getting advanced every other minute in some or the other ways. Such is the case of advancement in the music systems as well. They have evolved very much from the days of the cassette recording to the CDs and now come the birth of the ipods.

Tip! Knowing music theory will help you recreate the sounds you enjoy in your favorite songs. Those fabulous chord progressions.

Ipods were created by the Apple Computers in 2003 as portable music systems which can have many functions in the single gadget. They have the look of a rectangular mobile phone. The main functioning part in an ipod is the central wheel which resembles the centre button of the scroll mouse used for navigational purposes. Also it features a head phone jack as well as a USB point to connect to a hard disk. After the initial introduction of this gadget there has been a massive change in its structure and capacity. The initial ones had a 265mb to 1 GB space, in the form of flash memory. This has changed rapidly with the introduction of ipod nano and the present ipod which has the following capabilities according to the Apple specifications. You may have a glance to get the ipod advantage.

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  • Holds up to 15,000 songs(2) and full-color album art
  • 30GB model is 4.1 x 2.4 x 0.43 inches; 60GB model is 4.1 x 2.4 x 0.55 inches
  • Bright 2.5-inch, 320 x 240 pixel TFT display
  • Up to 20 hours of battery life(5)
  • Holds up to 25,000 photos(3)
  • Holds up to 150 hours of video(4)
  • Plays video or photo slideshows on TV via the optional Dock
  • Apple Click Wheel
  • Accessory-compatible Dock connector
  • Dock works with the new Apple Remote
  • Charges and syncs via USB
  • Works with Mac OS X or Windows 2000/XP
  • Syncs contacts, calendars and to-do lists
That means in such a small gadget you can have a river of data in the form of data. As it is not only a digital audio device, you can have your video as well as jpeg pictures viewed. I think then this is great achievement considering the fact that you are a music lover because of which you have read this short article on ipods. You may get an ipod for around 300 - $400. Also it is cheaper for the smaller ipods. It can become yours for life.

Tip! Have your music on your myspace page.

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Monday, November 20, 2006

10 Tips for Succesful Production of Dance Music

By Jaroslaw Golowacz

Tip! Knowing music theory will help you recreate the sounds you enjoy in your favorite songs. Those fabulous chord progressions.

1. Get the right monitoring.

For dance, bigger monitors = better monitors. Bigger recording room = better room. Remember that dj in club will play your track on big loudspeakers. If you mix your track on a small monitors or headphones, it may happen that your track won't be good for club and dj will not play it.

2. Make adaptation of your recording room.

Your producing/listening room has to be well damped, otherwise you will hear a lot of reverberation and sound coloration when mixing. It is very important. If you don't have a lot of funds (expecially for large room), don't worry. It doesn't have to look great, more important is to do the job.

3. Do not use noisy sound cards.

Try to avoid using cheap soundcards below $100. They have very poor quality and they are good for games rather not for producing music. If you have enough funds, consider buying card staring from $300 with low latency. Some cards offer also internal crossing which also might be useful.

4. Use good sound synth sources.

There are already some plugins that sound great, however if you can afford, invest in a best synth hardware. Hardware in 90% of cases sounds better than software. There are also many different samples on the internet. A lot of samples like sf2, wav, reason refills, midi, vocal samples and acapellas, you may find on Vipzone Samples website - also a lot of free samples.

Tip! After the first 8-bar section is complete (or incomplete, it doesn't matter) I'll write down another 8 or 4-bar phrase and listen for the next section of music - if there is a next section. If something comes I follow the same procedure as above.

5. Use good reverbs.

For your instruments and vocals try to use good reverb units / plugins. Good sounding reverb placed on some instruments in the mix can bring your track to life. If you can't afford top outboard units, you may use one of impulse-based plugins available on the market. They should work well for your DAW.

6. Use rhythmic delays on your instruments in the mix.

Remember that dance, trance, and techno music is based on rhythm. Don't forget to use rhythmic delays on leads, vocals, arpeggios or trance basslines and other synths. This will help a lot. Don't forget also to quantize your midi tracks (if you use midi).

7. Sometimes less bass = more bass.

Don't overdo with bass on a bass drum or bass line. Kick drum should have a short click at the start and be enough "pumpy" for dance. You can easy find a lot of free good sounding kicks on the internet. Remember, bass should also have some mid-frequencies audible near the 1-3 kHz - not only the lowest bass. Compare your bass to the bass used in a good sounding tracks.

8. Less instruments = cleaner mix.

Instead of making many sound layers, try to use not much instruments. Make sure to choose punchy and selective sounding instruments with not too wide spectrum. Work on each instrument with equalizers, effects - like delays, reverbs, phasers etc. depending on the sound type. Use eq, to make each instrument staying in its frequency, not overlay with other instruments frequencies.

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9. Set kick and drum section louder than other instruments.

It will significantly helps during the mastering. If you will set them louder, you (or mastering engineer) will be easy able to make good, pumping master on a good compressor. With drums sounding quiet in dance track, proper mastering can't be done and noone will play your track in the club.

Tip! ) GOOD MELODY. Commercial music is characterized by good melodies (i.

10. Send your track to the mastering engineer.

Try to not master your track by yourself and use good mastering engineer instead. He has fresh ear since you worked on your track probably a lot of time already. Mastering engineer will tells you the truth about your track, and what you should fix in the mix. You may find a lot of online mastering studios / houses.

Bio

I was interested in music practicaly since I was born. When I was 4 years old, I was very excited with my father's old Abba-tapes. I listened to Abba all through my childhood. My next fascination was Italo Disco and later Depeche Mode. When I was 16 years old I started to play the guitar. This was the beginning of my next musical fascination - I started to listen to the rock music and groups like Deep Purple, Dire Straits or even later The Cure. My first tracks was recorded on a 4-track tape machine and these was rather some rock-guitar tracks, not dance. Me and my friends founded some rock groups, one of them called Muzyka Wiatru (The Music of the Wind) released album on MC. Unfortunately there was a "time for pop" in Poland and nobody was really interested in promoting new rock band. After 6 years I left guitar...more on http://www.janardana.net.

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Interesting samples for producers you can find on my website http://www.vipzone-samples.com
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Friday, November 17, 2006

How To Download Music Legally

By Alexandre Roux

Tip! Good � make that excellent -- sound quality. The sound quality of the music you are listening to will be the first and most noticeable element.

Looking for a way to Download Music Legally? I know how you feel. There are so many people downloading music illegally, that you never know who will either get caught, sued, or put in jail. It's a real fear, and the only true way to avoid it is to Download Music Legally.

Tip! Get a myspace.com music page.

It's extremely easy to download music legally as well. People simply don't look for it.

The first thing you need to do is find a good company that lets you download music legally. There are many on the internet, but if you're not sure which one to use, I have provided a link to a very good one at the bottom of this article.

Tip! Pop Music Is Not Art.

Here's some quick information on downloading music legally.

1) You don't have to pay a lot to download music legally. All you have to do is find a good vendor, sign up, and begin downloading. It's legal, safe, and cheap. Definitely worth it.

2) The reason it's legal is that those legal companies have obtained licenses that allow them to sell the music at a cost. They have actually made it legal for customers to download music legally. It's awesome.

3) The amount of music they have is simply bind boggling. The vendor I have provided below has millions of songs that you can download. It's incredible. Plus, being legal, is amazing. You don't have to buy anymore CD's, and you can make your own.

4) You can download unlimited songs, usually, when signing up to a legal download system. They don't keep you tied up with a certain amount of songs you can download - it's unlimited. Make sure that whichever vendor you choose, has this capability.

Tip! Original musical themes that still evoke familiar tunes. One of the many benefits of royalty free music is that is an inexpensive way for film producers and directors to use original-sounding production music in their films, television programs and video projects.

These are just 4 simple tips that should make your music downloading life a breeze. So get going, find a good vendor and start downloading today =)

Thanks for reading my article. I'm also thanking you by doing some homework for you, and providing you with this legal music download site. It's completely legal, and a pretty good vendor. Check it out!

Tip! Write down the first year of publication of the music. E.

Thanks again, and have fun downloading legal music

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Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Promote your Music Band on the Web - Getting Directory Listings

By Edgar Clyne

Tip! Carefully select a forum community you can settle into for the long haul. Take your time researching them by reading existing posts, and making sure conversations, and music styles, meet your learning goals and objectives before making your selection.

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An important step in band website promotion consists of getting listed into the existing band website directories. If you want to be found by people, you need to be there where people are looking. Directories are websites in which the content, in this case information about bands, is organised into categories. People can rapidly find a music band based on specific criteria such as location, genre or influences. An additional advantage of getting listed into directories is that they may improve the search engine rankings of your band website: search engines calculate the 'importance' of your website based on the number of other sites linking to it (among other factors of course).


Tips for getting directory listings

- It is better to be listed into several directories than in only one. People looking for bands are probably not going to check all of them.


- Submit your band profile to a website that gives you a dedicated page, in which you can give detailed information about your band. A complete page improves the chance that people will find your band!


- Make your submission as detailed as allowed. Use the space that the directory offers you to advertise your band into as much detail as possible. Describe your music, its genre, its influences and instruments.


- Choosing the right categories is very important as it makes the difference in being found or not.

Tip! Real music management agencies can point you in the direction of successful clients, or can admit that they're still so new that they haven't had any breakout stars on their roster. Believe it or not, some of the most influential music managers of the last five decades had little or no experience in the music business.


- Create a unique description for each directory. Don't copy just your own biography from your website. Search engines do not like duplicate content: your information may receive higher rankings if it is unique in every place.


- Update your information from time to time. Contemporary directories offer easy ways to correct or improve your listing at a later time.



Where to get a directory listing

There are several options out there, and the search engines may help you to find them. For European artists, a great place to start is the European Band List ( http://bandlist.eu ). This upcoming directory offers bands a free chance to submit a band profile. Each band gets an own page on which you can offer detailed information about who you are and which kind of music you play. By means of special keyword ("tag") fields your listing starts to appear in specific categories.

Tip! Websites partners: With the method described above, you should be able to find few free sheet music websites. On the World Wide Web, websites with common themes are often linked to each other.

Edgar Clyne is a performing and recording musician who writes for RecordingFreaks ( http://www.recordingfreaks.com ) and the European Music Band List Project ( http://bandlist.eu ).

Saturday, November 11, 2006

Promote Your Music Band On The Web - How To Be Found By The Search Engines

By Edgar Clyne

Tip! Have your music on your myspace page.

The worldwide web offers you a great chance to showcase your music to anyone in the world without the expensive marketing strategies that major bands have at their disposal. But there are plenty of other bands out there that try to do the same thing. Having a great band website is a start, but don't stop once it is ready. To build an audience through the web, you need visitors. And that is only possible if people can find your website.

Be found via the search engines

If you have a good and unique band name, chances are that your website will rank well in the search engines if people type in the band name. But don't forget that only people who know you will ever attempt to search for your band name. If you are a band from Barcelona playing symphonic rock music, it would be great if your band website appears in the search results for the combined terms symphonic + rock + Barcelona. The more competition there is for these terms, the more difficult it becomes to get a good position in the results and the more difficult it is to receive visitors.

Tip! Carefully select a forum community you can settle into for the long haul. Take your time researching them by reading existing posts, and making sure conversations, and music styles, meet your learning goals and objectives before making your selection.

How to improve search engine ranking

Most search engines nowadays look at the keywords on your website to decide for which terms it will be found. The actual ranking in the results list largely depends on how many other websites are linking to yours, and links from important web pages count heavier than links from less important pages. The search engines also take a detailed look at the keywords present on the pages linking to your site. How to use this to your advantage? Spend enough time to get some links from other websites, preferentially in a listing accompanied by a description of your band. With a bit of patience, it will benefit your ranking.

Tip! Expand your creativity, and ear for music.

Where can I get my band website listed?

There are many places on the web to promote your band website. You can exchange links with the website of a friend band. You can put a link in your signature if you participate in certain forums. On the other hand there are some dedicated directory websites available where you can post information about your band, including a link to your band website. The way they are organised makes it easy for people to find you, for example based on certain keywords or location. A great example is the European Music Band List ( http://bandlist.eu ), in which European Music Bands can create a free band profile page.

Tip! Write down the first year of publication of the music. E.

Edgar Clyne is a recording musician who writes for Recordingfreaks ( http://www.recordingfreaks.com ) and works as an administrator for the European band list ( http://bandlist.eu ) .

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Piano Lesson: Learn Piano Improvisation Through Classical Piano Music

By Peter Edvinsson

Tip! The late teen. By now, serious prejudices have been formed and allegiance to one particular type of music is essential.

Piano improvisation in a classical music way is an interesting complement to ordinary piano improvisational practicing. Let me suggest a way to practice!

Piano sheet music is a means and not an end. It's a way to notate what to play on the piano.

You can find a lot of interesting passages in classical piano solos. These solos can help you collect improvisational material to work on to make your piano improvisations more interesting.

How to develop your classical piano improvisational skills?

May I suggest that you begin with an easy piano solo with just one voice in your left hand and your right hand.

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Learn a phrase with a few bars by heart. Play the melody over and over again as you try to change the melody slightly without losing the classical touch.

One advantage of using classical piano music in piano improvisation exercises is that you will find many interesting and melodic basslines in counterpoint style that you can use to enchance your piano improvising.

The use of playing separate melodic lines together in this way to create music is called counterpoint. Counterpoint is a musical technique involving the simultaneous sounding of separate musical lines.

Classical piano compositions are filled with wonderful licks that you can incorporate in your playing.

What can you do with a classical piano composition to improve your piano improvisational skills? Here are some examples:

1. Study differents ways used to play left hand bass patterns. Play around with the patterns and try to transpose them into different keys.

2. Study interesting chords. Experiment with them, change keys and positions.

3. Find chord progressions to develop.

4. Find interesting passages with unusual musical material.

5. Many more things.

As I can see it there are two differents approaches to learn and work with the before mentioned material:

Tip! After the first 8-bar section is complete (or incomplete, it doesn't matter) I'll write down another 8 or 4-bar phrase and listen for the next section of music - if there is a next section. If something comes I follow the same procedure as above.

1. You can memorize the classical material and start a growing bank of chords, unusual melodic phrases, chords progressions and other classical piano oriented material you'll find in the piano compositions for further use in your piano improvisations.

This approach will of course develop your skills but it will also be very time consuming and maybe overwhelming if you can't devote all your time to piano playing. Who would that be?

Another drawback is that you might lose interest in this type of piano skill development because of the stress involved in learning so many different skills and maybe the joy of playing piano will diminish.

Tip! Knowing music theory will help you recreate the sounds you enjoy in your favorite songs. Those fabulous chord progressions.

2. Another approach is to use the before mentioned methods in a more laid back way without learning everything by heart. Let me give you an example from my childhood:

When I was quite young I used to read a lot of books on popular science from the public library. I had a bunch of books laying beside me as I lay comfortably on my bed with pillows and just having a good time.

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I never felt compelled to read a book from cover to cover or to read in a certain way. The only thing I did was to read the things I was interested in, looking at pictures and enjoying what I did.

I know I learned a lot from these nice reading experiences. If I had a goal it was to feel good and I was reading because of curiosity.

I think you can do the same with the classical music you play. As you enjoy to discover the secrets in the piano sheet music the way I have mentioned you are sowing seeds that will sooner or later manifest themselves in your playing.

The classical music will creep out in your fingers and you will feel new ideas coming up in your piano improvisational endeavors!

Peter Edvinsson is a musician, composer and music teacher. Visit his site Capotasto Music and download your free sheet music and learn to play piano resources at http://www.capotastomusic.com

Sunday, November 05, 2006

Piano Lesson: Learn To Play Jingle Bells Without Piano Sheet Music

By Peter Edvinsson

Tip! The late teen. By now, serious prejudices have been formed and allegiance to one particular type of music is essential.

In this piano lesson we will learn to play piano Christmas music. We will use piano tab notation so you don't need to read piano sheet music.

Jingle Bells is one of the most popular secular Christmas songs in the world. The most played part of the song is the refrain which we will concentrate on in this piano lesson.

Jingle bells, jingle bells
Jingle all the way!
O what fun it is to ride
In a one-horse open sleigh

In this piano lesson you will learn to play Jingle Bells without the use of piano sheet music. After this learn to play piano tutorial you will be able to play the melody with both hands!

Instead of piano sheet music we will use piano tab notation which will tell you where to place your fingers as you play the melody.

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The first thing we will do is to locate the note C.

You will find the note C on many places on the piano. It is the white key to the left of two black keys.

Now it's time to locate the middle C. It is the C right in the middle of the keyboard. On an ordinary upright piano it is near the keyhole.

In our piano lesson we will number the keys. The middle C in our piano tab notation is called 1.

What does 1 mean?

When you see the number 1 you are to press down the middle C once. The white key to the right of C is called 2, the next 3 and so on.

Let's play some piano tab notes:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Now you have played a C-major scale with the actual notes C D E F G A B.

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Let's proceed in our piano lesson and play the first notes of Jingle Bells!

Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells

3 3 3 3 3 3

This is the first part of the refrain. Easy?

I guess that you hear that the third and sixt note has to be a bit longer to create the melody Jingle Bells.

So far we have only used the right hand for playing the melody. How can you use your left hand?

Let's make this piece a little bit more difficult and also more rewarding to play by using the left hand for bass notes.

The notes from C to the next C is called an octave. The keys are grouped this way on the whole keyboard.

You also have these notes to the left of the middle C. We can call these notes the left octave.

If you use the notes 1-7 in the left octave to play bass notes with your left hand we can notate the melody in the following way:

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3/1 3 3 3/1 3 3

The note to the right of the slash is the bass note. 3/1 means that as you play the first number 3 with your right hand you simultaneously play number 1 in the left octave with your left hand.

Tip! Write Music From The Heart.

I guess you have noticed that you only play bass notes together with some of the melody notes.

Let's continue this piano lesson with the next line:

Jingle all the way!

3/1 5 1 2 3/1

What fingers should you use as you play?

You can and maybe you already use your index fingers on both hands to play but it will be easier to find your notes if you cultivate the habit of using all your fingers.

Tip! Look at the page you are about to learn and make mental notes of all the new music.

On your right hand you can use your thumb to play number 1 and your index finger to play number 2 and so on.

The next piano tab looks like this:

Tip! Expand your creativity, and ear for music.

O what fun it is to ride

4/4 4 4 4 4/1 3 3

If you want to use fingerings on your left hand you place your little finger above key number 1 and your thumb on number 5 and the other fingers accordingly.

It's time for the last piano tab:

In a one-horse open sleigh

3 3 3/2 2 2 3 2/5 5

Actually it's not the last piano tab. Now you are supposed to play the refrain from the beginning and when you come to the last line play it in the following way:

In a one-horse open sleigh

3 3 5/5 5 4/5 2 1/1

I suggest that you learn this Christmas song by heart. Memorize it one line at a time and enjoy the Christmas spirit present when you play the song for your friends!

Peter Edvinsson is a musician, composer and music teacher. Visit his site Capotasto Music and download your free Christmas sheet music and learn to play piano resources at http://www.capotastomusic.com