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How to Create an Original Melody
Here's a method I use that works. First, sit down at your piano or keyboard and just improvise. I suggest improvising first because music that is created in this way is at its freshest. It's not adulterated or thought up. It is pure inspiration. Now, there will come times during improvisation where you may say to yourself, "this is nice and I'd like to develop it." You see, now you have an original melody to develop. The trick is you don't need a lot of material to begin with. JUST TWO BARS IS ENOUGH to start you on your way. I usually work within 8-bar phrases so I know that the melody will usually end or repeat itself after 8-bars. I say usually because sometimes, the melody does not want to fit nice and neat into a predefined 8-bar phrase. But more times than not, the 8-bar phrase will serve you well Now, to be able to grow the initial 2-bars of inspired melody into 8, you can either harmonize the melody with a few chords or just write out the rest of the melody as it comes. Once I have the first 2-bars, I usually have already identified what Key the piece will be in. It then becomes a matter of choosing a few chords from the Key and the rest of the material is easily flushed out into 8-bars. In the piece "Rainforest," I use 2 chords for an entire 8-bar phrase ( 4-bars for G Maj. and 4 for E-minor) and improvise the melody on top. Edward Weiss is a pianist/composer and webmaster of Quiescence Music's online piano lessons. He has been helping students learn how to play piano in the New Age style for over 14 years and works with students in private, in groups, and now over the internet. Stop by now at http://www.quiescencemusic .com/piano_lessons.html for a FREE piano lesson!
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Dont Go Tubthumping I have always had a big problem with my addiction to music. I tend to hear I song I like, then rush out to the local record store to buy the CD, without consideration for whether or not I would actually like the rest of the songs on the set. After years of this habit, I have amassed a huge CD collection, but I have been left with many one-hit-wonder discs that I no longer listen to and just gather dust while taking up space in my small apartment (anyone else fall for the infectiousness of Chumbawumba's "Tubthumping" back in the '90s only to find the rest of the CD less than appealing?). I know I am not the only one with this infliction I like to call " Itchy Trigger Finger Music Purchasing," and we all could use some help in weeding out the now-undesirables to make room for hopefully wiser purchases in the future. Les Paul Vintage Gibson Guitars Les Paul vintage Gibson guitars were first produced in 1952. These guitars were the first solid body electric that Gibson had made. The 1952 version of the Les Paul vintage guitar has a gold top nitro-cellulose lacquer finish, and no serial number. This Gibson was designed by Les and included Kluson tuners, a pair of P90 pickups, and retailed for $210. Music Mini Course: Learn The Basics Of Reading Music On A Keyboard Instrument Welcome to the wonderful world of music. As you begin reading this Music Mini Course it is fun to realize that you are also participating in a very important cultural aspect from around the world which has been going on for centuries. Did you know that pianos in some form have been around for over 500 years? Some of the first instruments of this kind were created in the late Medieval Period and were called clavichords. They had a very light, metallic sound because the small hand-pounded 'hammers' were made of very light weight metal-like material. These hammers struck strings of varying lengths to create different tones or pitches. The next cousin to the clavichord was the harpsichord invented by Cristofori in Italy around 1450 A.D. This keyboard instrument had a mechanism in it called the plecktrum which 'plucked' the strings and produced a slightly stronger sound than its predecessor. Whether you are playing an acoustic instrument, which is the closest relative to the history just mentioned, or an electronic keyboard, you are now participating in a centuries old musical art form. How to Get Past Creative Blocks When I first began playing the piano and improvising, there were times when the music just wouldn't flow. No matter what I did, I couldn't make it go any further. Blocked and frustrated, I wondered why this happened. One minute I would be in flow and enjoying the process of playing the piano. The next, I would find myself trying to come up with material Does Reading Make Music? When you read music you are deciphering the printed page and transferring the information to the keyboard. You might say that you are decoding what the composer or arranger put on the page . The symbols put on the paper by the composer are the only means he or she has to convey his/her musical ideas to the performer, hence to the listener. The Time Machine Exist! We call it music, ever noticed how vividly music triggers memory? Bagpipe Lessons In Your Own Home ! Bringing Bagpipe Tuition to Everyone, Everywhere. College Radio: The Most Important Radio Level for Musicians For the self-promoting independent artist, the idea of taking on a radio promotion campaign can, in itself, become overwhelming. But, this idea is usually based on such artists attempting to obtain worldwide airplay on a local budget. Do You Know What a Didgeridoo Is? Do you know what a didgeridoo is? There are so many things in this life that are unknown to us. I bet you could find out about something outside your normal sphere of vision and experience everyday for the rest of your life and still not get close to knowing about everything out there. Not to mention the number of things we don't know about our own internal selves-physical, emotional, spiritual and mental realities that are still unaware to us. That's another story however, let's stick to the external in this article. Visualization Techniques for the Pianist Controlling the images of the mind through image projection has proven valuable not only for psychotherapy, but also as a learning aid. Visualization can have as much impact on the subconscious, memory, and entire body as a "real" experience. 5 Sure Fire Ways to Get Radio Play for Your ?Independent? Music! You have to find radio airplay time if you're going to be heard and we're not just talking the local college campus. The trick is called promotion. Now that doesn't mean you just put your press kit in an envelope with a demo and hope they take pity on you. Perhaps you call a station and they give you the standard pitch of, "Send it and if we like it we'll put you in rotation." After a few months of never hearing your music, you automatically think you're not worthy. Record Collecting Still Thriving in the Twenty-first Century It may surprise many to find that the hobby of record collecting, long thought dead after the introduction of the compact disc, is still alive and well. Granted, many music fans have long replaced their records with CDs, but for many Baby Boomers and Generation X-ers, the hobby of buying and collecting record albums and singles continues to be a focal point in their lives.Records offer the tactile sense of a substantial product, unlike the CD. The seven-inch, 45 RPM single often came with a picture sleeve that has no equivalent among compact discs. The nostalgia of records draws many back to their younger days. And records still sound great. A recent check of the Bay auction site showed 959,857 records for sale. That's just under one million records!These records aren't selling at garage-sale prices, either. At any given time, there might be six thousand records by the Beatles for sale, some of which have sold for up to $40,000. Elvis isn't far behind; his first five singles, issued on the small Memphis-based, Sun label, routinely bring $2000 at auction in nice condition. Other artists, such as the Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, James Brown, or Madonna have issued records that not only command sky-high prices, but also draw a lot of bids. The greatest interest in record collecting is in artists of the 1960's and 1970's, but newer bands, such as Nirvana, draw a lot of attention from younger collectors. Nivrana's first single, Love Buzz issued in 1988, sells for up to $2000 and there are several other bands, such as the Misfits, that have released numerous records that sell for more than $1000. What do collectors do with these records? Some play them, some frame them, some simply put them on the shelf. There are collectors who only buy records that they intend to play and others that simply want anything that was ever commercially released by the artist that interests them. There is no pigeonholing a collector; they come in all shapes and sizes. For them, finding a long-unavailable single that has eluded them for years is like winning the lottery.For those who are interested, there are literally thousands of Websites devoted to artists, records, and record collecting. There are well-known magazines, like Goldmine , Discoveries, and in the UK, Record Collector. Anyone who thinks they might be interested in collecting records has more resources available to them than ever before. Twenty years ago, people thought that records would be long forgotten by now. They couldn't have been more wrong. Be An Organized Church Pianist Playing in front of a congregation each Sunday is no easy feat. Make sure you are well prepared before giving your best for God and before others. Vintage Guitar Collectors Can Still Find Deals If you're a recent vintage guitar collector, the stories you've heard are true. You once could step into pawn shops or flea markets and find vintage Gibson Les Pauls and Fender Stratocasters for $50 to $100. True. These guitars now sell for thousands of dollars on Ebay and Gbase. Be Your Own DJ - Digital Audio Processing Tools Overview SoundEdit Pro http://www.deprice .com/soundeditpro.htm Reasons to Ditch Your Guitar Pick Lately, I haven't been using my guitar pick all that much. I got this tab book of some good ol' Gatemouth Brown finger picking blues. I've been enjoying myself so much trying to get this fingerpick thang goin'." Writing Hit Songs There are a lot of factors to writing a hit song. First, you should focus on writing a good song. Once you've done that, you are not far away from writing a hit. Like most other things in life, it takes persistence, patience, drive, knowledge, belief and maybe some luck. Stop and think about your favorite songs. Really analyze them and figure out what it is that you like about those songs. Different factors may come to play here. Maybe it is the good beat, lyrics that hit home, a beautiful melody, something spiritual or patriotic, or maybe even that it is humorous. If you include one of these elements in your songwriting you are well on your way. If you combine two or more of these elements, you may have yourself a hit. A Good Beat Rhythm is important in music. I have to laugh and think of Jerry Van Dyke on "The Dick Van Dyke Show" years ago trying to play the banjo and sing, "I've got rhy-rhy-thm, I've got mah-mah-music..." But, unless you are very funny like Jerry Van Dyke, your audience is not very likely to stay with you. Your music not only needs to have a good beat, but must fit the genre of music you are trying to write. A Metallica beat in a George Strait type song may not get you very far. A song with a good enough beat might be a hit even with no melody and no lyrics. Remember "Green Onions?" Along with the beat is the tempo. Country music is easy to write (I did not say it is easy to write well) because it is about people's lives and everyday experiences. However, too often people write slow songs for country music, when in fact the industry is starving for upbeat country material like "Country Roads" and "Rocky Top." It is much harder to write a good up-tempo country song than it is a tear jerker. Lyrics in popular music can range from broken relationships to political issues, and just about any point in between. Those that tend to be the most popular are about situations you and I may encounter in our everyday lives; "Workin' 9 To 5," "I Just Called To Say I Love You," "Your Cheatin' Heart," "God Bless The USA" (which ingeniously incorporates spiritual, political and patriotic views). A beautiful or interesting melody can get you into the ranks of hit songwriter with no lyrics required. Going back in time to prove a point about beautiful melodies, you might consider songs like "Last Date" and "Sleepwalk." Songs with great melody lines are very easy to be found in many hit TV show themes like "Peter Gunn," "Hawaii 5-0," along with many of the 60's surfer songs like "Wipe Out." Well done humorous songs usually find an audience, such as Ray Stevens "The Streak," and Jerry Reeds "She Got The Goldmine, I Got The Shaft." If you have a knack for both humor and music, you might make a fortune. Spiritual and patriotic songs, if they are well done and come out at the right time, are easy hits. Every time the U.S. gets involved in any type of world conflict, the songwriters get their pens out. Keep your ears and eyes open, and keep a shoe box to put your ideas for songs in. Every time you think of an idea for a song or a song title, write it down and drop it in the box. It could be your first, or your next, big hit. Killer Piano Playing Secrets of a Chord Addict! I wish you could have seen me play the piano when I was just learning. I was the nearest thing to "hopeless" that you could imagine. I was into baseball, not music ? and my heroes were Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, and Ted Williams. (And by the way, I still have a picture of those 3 guys on my wall.) My dream was to hit baseballs like them, not to play the piano. Breathing Space in Music While most students want to know when to play certain notes and chords, it's equally important to know when not to play. For example, I had a student who knew how to improvise and play in the New Age style. What he didn't know how to do was to allow for breathing space. I tried to teach him that you don't have to play note upon note but allow for some pauses. Rhapsody Music Downloads Part II - A pleasant experience? Welcome back to Part II of Rhapsody Music Downloads! I hope you took an opportunity to enjoy the first week of your two-week trial. Must have been a joy to stream and download online music by the truckloads. Now...you did take the liberty to utilize the free trial, didn't you??
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