1st Piano

By Greg Mason Having good "Mic Technique" means two things: 1.) Understanding that a microphone's diaphragm reacts with varying sensitivity to your vocal performance. 2.) Knowing how to adjust your body according to the dynamics of the delivery. If you're going to deliver a quiet, intimate vocal from start to finish, you can afford to position your mouth just a few inches (or even less) from the microphone. If the vocal is to be sung full volume throughout the song, you may stand a couple feet away. Quite often, though, a song is dynamic enough to require different amounts of air to be pushed at different times. Singers with good mic technique will move their body closer to or further away from the mic as the song unfolds. Ideally, your mouth is as close to the mic as possible before overloading it with level (which will cause it to distort or, with super-sensitive mic's, to temporarily shut down -this will always be blamed on the engineer, even if i...

This is sort of a little warning to you mothers out there, especially you mothers that work at home. You need to watch what your children watch on television. Fortunately the story I am about to tell you is a positive story and thank goodness he hasn't learned anything negative from watching TV. I recently purchased The Max Lucado series of Hermie the Caterpillar and friends. I own 2 different movies one is Hermie the Common Caterpillar which is about a little caterpillar who thinks he is just regular and wants to be a butterfly or anything else except for a caterpillar and when Hermie talks to God and asks God why he made him so ordinary God just says I'm not done with you yet. Great lesson in my opinion but that is not the best part; I will get to the best part in just a minute, but first the second movie..... The other movie I purchased from Family Christian book stores is Flo the Lyin Fly, this movie is about a little girl fly named Flo that lies all the time ...

By Chris Campbell Bob Marley's full name is Robert Nesta Marley. He was born on Feb 6, 1945. If he was still alive today, he would be over 60 years old. Kind of hard to imagine isn't it. Would the college kids still be jazzed about hanging pictures of some old reggae rocker on their dorm walls if Bob was still alive. A gray haired Rastafarian dancing and rocking on the stage like a man many years his junior. Of course, if Mick Jagger can do it (minus the dreadlocks) then why not Bob Marley. While I haven't done the research, I would bet there are a lot more Marley posters, then Rolling Stones posters decorating the dorm walls of this generation. You have to wonder, if music was still the path he would have chosen to follow after all these years. Bob that is. We already know which way the stones have gone. I like to think that he would have. While he was a man of many beliefs and causes, it was his music that seem to run central to most of it. It was the must...

By Musa Respado Rap freestyle music are generally of two types. One is recited or scripted style, which has no authority of one subject matter over the other. The other is free styling or the spitting, which is the modification of rap lyrics. In the free styling type, rappers mostly use or reuse lines from old songs or the likes. As so much of cheating goes on in the business, the free styling that is the result of originality are very valued in the field. Listening to rap freestyle beats of this type would be more enjoyable and worth the while, not that the others are nonsensical, yet originality is always the color of the day. The cliché is that, rap musicians always use inspiration that is always in the immediate surrounding to prove that they have produced authentic music. Listening to rap freestyle beats of another form, known as the battle rapping is pretty interesting as it normally a sort of "battle" of music between two rappers taking place in front o...

Are you looking for soundproofing drum set tips for noise reduction in your apartment, garage or shed? Is your hobby or livelihood as a drummer being threatened by family or neighbor complaints? Granted, drumming is what you like to do but It can be quite annoying to those that are subjected to the noise. We will take a look at some helpful tips, both expensive and inexpensive, to get you back on track to having fun. Expensive soundproofing One of the most expensive ways to soundproof would be creating a room within a room. This pertains to a garage or shed providing there will be enough space for the drums and for you to maneuver about. Essentially, you will be framing and putting up walls, a door, and window if necessary. You will want to have the new walls 4 to 6 inches away from the existing wall. This gap creates a barrier and will absorb much of the sound. Keep in mind for extra sound protection, insulate and sheet rock the existing walls if the framing is exposed...

By Mike Shaw When a key on an acoustic piano is pressed down, the resulting sound continues for a considerable time after the press of the key has taken place, and stops when the key is released and allowed to rise. This elimination of sound is caused by action of a second piece of piano mechanism, called the damper. The dampers are small pieces of wood with felt attached to them. This mechanism is so connected with the key that the latter cannot be moved without occasioning a movement of its own damper. Each key is thus the means by which both a hammer and a damper are moved to action, the hammer for producing tone, the damper for stopping it. (In the case of a few of the top keys of the piano, the damper mechanism is wanting.) The damper lies constantly touching the string, except during the holding down of the key, when it is removed from its place and kept off the string as long as the key is held down. After a pushdown of the key, if the key is kept down, it will ...

By B Matheson Out of 250 million Americans, approximately 25 million people know how to play some kind of musical instrument. The two most popular musical instruments that are played nationwide are the piano and guitar. The guitar is a well loved instrument to play because it is convenient to use, it is very affordable, and it is pleasurable. Because there are more and more people wanting to learn how to play the guitar, some professional guitarists have made their own guitar lesson products, incorporating their own guitar skills into your own home. Some people can learn how to play guitar from different self help books or you can even teach yourself, there is no arguing that one of the best ways to learn how to play the guitar is through a high quality, guitar lesson product. You have to know and learn that the two important factors of playing the guitar include knowing the instrument as it is associated with your own body, and learning how to play correctly from the v...

By Melissa Leanne Davies If your wondering how to identify flats and sharps on the piano, then no worries, I have the answer for you. It is actually very simple. As a teacher, I help my students on how to identify flats and sharps on the piano with a simple visual. When something is flat (such as a flat tire), then it goes down. When something is sharp (such as a sharpened pencil), then it goes up. So on the piano, flats go down a semitone, and sharps go up a semitone. Flats go down, sharps go up. Pretty straight forward right? Well, if your motivated and self-driven enough to be teaching yourself how to play the piano then well done! You have the most essential key for becoming great at anything you do in life. My most successful piano students had the most drive and the most self-discipline, but they also had the most fun! So, with that in mind you may be searching for more answers on how to play the piano. I truly believe that learning piano should be fun and so I al...

How then can one convert MP4 to MP3, and why should he/she do so? Sometime back, audio compression was the biggest thing in multimedia applications. There was a time when the only kind of audio you could possibly download from the internet was minuscule midi files. And that was about the limit of what you could carry from one computer to another, because only removable medium you had in those days was the measly floppy disk. But later, the MP3 came to the market. Now, the same thing has happened with video. With the help of modern video compression technologies, it has become possible to put small yet high-quality video files on hand-held, portable personal video players. And the commonest type of file used by these is the MP4. However, not all MP4 files contain video. The MP4 file format is able to contain video, but nothing says that it has to contain video. It may just contain an audio stream, and that would play perfectly well in any capable MP4 player. In fact, the ...

By Lynne May "EQ" stands for Equalization and refers to the controlling of the levels of various sound frequencies in your guitar signal. If you use a stereo, or even an IPod to listen to your music, then you have probably used an "EQ" to control the levels of treble and bass. There are two basic types of EQ pedals that you can use with your guitar: Graphic Equalization Graphic Equalization is the most common type of EQ used by guitar players. It boosts or reduces certain frequencies by sliding several levers (bands) up or down.Normally, these bands cover the range from around 20 Hz to 20 kHz (which is approximately the range of human hearing). Some Guitarists use equalization effects to drastically alter the configuration of the signal in order to produce a desirable "signature" sound. Metal players like to achieve their signature sound by eliminating or reducing all of the middle frequencies. You can also use graphic equalization to redu...

By Jennie Gandhi As an avid bathroom singer you want to get out of the bathroom and exercise your vocal chords. Well the karaoke system makes for just that. You can sing your song in the confines of your home. No one to poke fun at you and you can feel like a star. Now that you have made up your mind to purchase a Karaoke System, begin to see what best fits your budget and that is technically advanced. Once you have brought your system home, think of a place you are going to keep it. Avoid a corner or an area that has too many hard surfaces as the sound echoes and cause more of cacophony than music. If you want to know how to use a Karaoke system, well it's quite simple. You will need basic tools like a screwdriver, tester and some nails to fit the system on your stand or table. Open the box of the system and run through the manual. Then plug in all the wires in the desired extensions. A Karaoke DVD will appear on your monitor. Adjust the volume with the main volum...

By James DuClos When you get your new guitar you might know how to hold it because you've seen countless guitar players on tv or just people you know. But after that you might not know what to do next. This is the start of a series of lessons that will help you start playing guitar. These are the very basics of playing and guitar knowledge that will help you to get on your feet and start learning guitar. The Guitars Neck and Headstock Now you can just learn chords and how to play them, but there is a ton of information to know before you can become a great guitar player. GLI has fine tuned these lessons to include all the information you need to know in order to dissect other peoples music and make your own sound. You will be able to play other peoples music as well as come up with original compositions. The first thing you need to know is what all the different parts do, you didn't just start driving a car without knowing what pedals do what. These are the bare...

By Anne Roos Whether hiring a musician for a wedding ceremony, reception, business or social event, it is wise to start your search as soon as your date is set. Professional musicians, orchestras, bands and soloists may be booked a year in advance. Here are some guidelines to use when making a decision about the type of music you want: Choose the type of musicians & instruments. Take into consideration the size of the venue and the acoustics. The music should be a compliment to the event, not too overpowering Get references. Chances are that if other people have been pleased with the musician you will be too. Don't be afraid to ask for and check references of the performer you are considering. Audition whenever possible. This will give you an overall feel for the musicians' style of music and "stage" presence. Auditions can be in person, over the phone, by tape or video. Audio CDs let you sample the style and expertise of the musician. Video and D...

By Jennie Gandhi   As an avid bathroom singer you want to get out of the bathroom and exercise your vocal chords. Well the karaoke system makes for just that. You can sing your song in the confines of your home. No one to poke fun at you and you can feel like a star. Now that you have made up your mind to purchase a Karaoke System, begin to see what best fits your budget and that is technically advanced. Once you have brought your system home, think of a place you are going to keep it. Avoid a corner or an area that has too many hard surfaces as the sound echoes and cause more of cacophony than music. If you want to know how to use a Karaoke system, well it's quite simple. You will need basic tools like a screwdriver, tester and some nails to fit the system on your stand or table. Open the box of the system and run through the manual. Then plug in all the wires in the desired extensions. A Karaoke DVD will appear on your monitor. Adjust the volume with the main...