The Jeffrey And Tracey Info Emporium

Neil Young, The Canadian music Hall of Famer and former member of Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills, and Nash has released his latest politically charged CD entitled Living With War. His second release in under a year.

Be warned that this CD is unabashedly a protest album by this Canadian born American.

Whether you’re a fan of his politics or not, I think we have to acknowledge that lyrically this is an intelligent, and well thought out CD.

I like it for the fact that it is bound to elicit a response from all who listen. Without regard for positive or negative it will certainly keep the debate open and alive. Which is exactly why it’s a good release.

I also like it for the song that closes it out. A 100 voice choir rendition of America the Beautiful.

Overall Living With War is Neil Young as we have come to know him over the course of the last 40 years. Outspoken and direct. If you don’t mind that style you will enjoy this CD.

The standout tunes on Living With War include the title track Living With War [track 2], The Restless Consumer [track 3], and Lookin’ for a Leader [track 8]. My SmoothLee Bonus Pick, and the one that got Sore […as in “Stuck On REpeat”] is track 5, America the Beautiful. Very nice!

Release Notes:

Neil Young originally released Living With War on May 9, 2006 on the Reprise record label.

CD track list follows:

1. After the Garden
2. Living With War
3. The Restless Consumer
4. Shock and Awe
5. Families
6. Flags of Freedom
7. Let’s Impeach the President
8. Lookin’ for a Leader
9. Roger and Out
10. America the Beautiful

To listen to samples of each song on Living With War by Neil Young go to:
Neil Young CD - Living With War MP3 Samples

Clyde Lee Dennis, a.k.a. SmoothLee is a life long music fanatic. In addition to writing CD Reviews like this one for several music related websites he also hosts an internet radio show, and invites you to join him daily for some of the best soul soothing smooth jazz you’ll ever hear at http://www.SmoothJazz247.com

When I was a fifteen years old guitarist playing rock solos and
classical guitar pieces I remember that I had a desire to be
able to improvise on my guitar in a classical manner.

Nowadays I have developed this skill and I love to improvise in
the style of composers like Sor, Tarrega, Paganini or others or
just trying to find myself somewhere among the notes. These
special moments are a form of meditation. They clear my mind and
also helps me as a composer to stimulate my creative abilities.

The most important reason for learning classical guitar
improvisation is that it’s fun!

If you learn classical guitar improvisation it will benefit you
in many other ways too:

1. It will be easier for you to memorize classical guitar sheet
music.

2. You will find it easier to compose your own guitar pieces in
a classical guitar style.

3. You can make up your own techniqal exercises on your guitar
on the go.

4. You will understand your guitar better.

There are many ways to develop classical guitar improvisation.
How?

You can start with major scales, experimenting with easy chords,
or easy classical guitar pieces. The most basic requisite is
that you want to learn this art and with this desire you will
find ways to practice classical guitar improvisation in all your
guitar playing.

I will just mention using classical guitar pieces in this
article. But how do you begin?

May I suggest that you begin with an easy melody with just one
voice or maybe a two voice piece with bass notes on open
strings. Learn a couple of bars by heart and play the melody
over and over again and try to change the melody slightly
without losing the classical touch.

The ultimate exercise is to use advanced classical guitar solos.

If you think about it you will realize that classical guitar
pieces are filled with wonderful licks, more or less complicated.

These licks can be developed and added upon to give you material
that will help you developing your improvisational skills.

For example, take a two bar passage in a classical guitar piece
that you like and practice it until you master it and then
memorize it.

Now you can play around with the passage, break it down, change
it, analyze it and so on. If you want to improve as an
improvisational guitarist and musician you can regard classical
guitar pieces as collections of very musical licks just waiting
to be used.

I hope these hints will motivate you to reap the benefits from
improvising the classical guitar way.

What do we mean when we say that someone “has a good ear?”
Actually, the term can mean several things. When someone has a
good ear, they can accomplish at least one of the following:

1) they can identify, usually by note name, the various pitches
that they hear, and sing those pitches in tune; 2) they can
identify chords by name; and/or 3) they can identify instruments
or combinations of instruments within a musical work.

Having a good ear is something that most musicians strive for.
Having a bad ear means that you can’t recognize or label the
music you are hearing - an important skill for performers and
composers.

I run a songwriting website, (The
Essential Secrets of Songwriting ), and I know how important
a good ear is. If you are a songwriter, having a good ear is
vital because the best way to improve your songwriting craft is
to listen to the music of the professionals. But if you can’t
really identify what you are hearing, you’re missing out on
opportunities to improve. Throughout my years as a music
teacher, I have observed something interesting and very
important. The marks that my students make in music theory
studies are usually very close to the marks they receive in ear
training. And more than that, I can usually gauge how a student
is going to do in one course by looking at their progress in the
other. For example, students who do well in theory but poorly in
ear training will usually see their ear training marks rise over
time. And students who have great ears but weak theory skills
will generally experience better marks in theory over time. In
other words, music theory and ear training go hand in hand. The
first and most important thing you can do to improve your ear is
to improve your theory skills. Why? When you understand how
music is structured, your ears have a reason for what they are
hearing.

Here’s one good example. In any key, there are three or four
certain chords that work well to reinforce that key, and are
more likely to occur than any other chords. Knowledge of theory
helps you know and identify those chords. So when you are
listening to music and trying to identify the chords you are
hearing, you can focus in the most likely choices. Besides
improving your theory skills, here are some other pieces of
advice for you:

1) Try some of the ear training websites that are out there.
Just do a search for “online ear training” and you’ll find lots
of resources that can help.

2) Try purchasing some ear training software. These days, most
university aural perception programs incorporate computerized
training into their curriculum.

3) Try writing down the melodies that you hear being played.
Transcribing music in this manner actually does not require
strong music reading skills, and you will find that what skills
you do possess will improve greatly and quickly. Take a simple
song, and play it on your CD player a bit at a time, writing
down whatever notes you hear. Even if you aren’t sure of the
rhythms, write whatever pitches you can. If you’re stuck on a
note, find it on your guitar or piano, and then write it down.
This is the best ear training exercise there is!

Practicing your instrument is crucial to becoming a better
musician. But be certain that you don’t neglect your ear!

The voiceover business has radically changed today. This is because of the internet, digital computer-based recording studios in homes and garages and offices, weakened performers’ unions in our current climate of non-union preferences (or so it often seems), the quest for lower cost voiceover talents, and the easy-access many have to training in the voiceover skills area. All of these factors have combined to make voiceover work, today, far different than it was three (or even two or one) decades ago when I entered the marketplace.

Today, voiceover talents must have representation from broadcasting agents in many locations, not only in the U.S., but hopefully, in foreign countries too. The voiceover talent must have a digital computer-based recording studio and know how to operate it (being a capable audio engineer is a big plus!). The voiceover performer must self-promote constantly, realizing that agents are not the be-all-and-end-all of our business anymore, but rather, are helpers who assist talents. Basically, the voiceover performer must find his or her own jobs, his or her own loyal accounts. Networking is paramount in obtaining new connections and cementing former ones. Doing regular mailers and publishing ads in selected target publications is a must. A voiceover talent is an entrepreneur.

A voiceover talent is a business owner and that business is the talent’s voice!

Newcomers: Keep the faith. Old-timers, get in step with today!

Bettye Zoller is the voice of many hundreds of national TV commercials, narrator of major videos and films heard worldwide. She owns and operates a digital recording studio in her homebase, Dallas, Texas. She is an audio commercial and audio book producer. She is a Simon and Schuster audio author. She is well known as the coach who has helped so many enter broadcasting over the years. She is an authority in the voiceover demo and clients travel far to avail themselves of her expertise as a demo producer and career consultant in-person or by telephone.

In the world of music, many Jazz improvisers and Classical composers eventually venture into exploring poly-harmony within their respective art form. Poly harmony is the simultaneous sounding of more than one harmonic concept. The preponderance with poly-harmony began the late 19th-early 20th centuries with classical composers as Stravinsky and Debussy. About sixty years later, jazz musicians as John Coltrane and Richie Bierach incorporated such ideas into their music. The benefits of learning poly-chords will enhance an improviser’s repertoire of harmonic concepts. Thus they can create harmonic colorings that can influence a listener’s outlook. This article will focus on how once can practice and incorporate tertian polychords into their improvisational styles. Many of the examples and references within this article will make use of the seventh chord and triad. One should to explore other tertian harmonies such as ninths, elevenths, and all other similar formulations.

Tertian harmony is harmony that spaces its notes a third a part from other notes. Additionally, tertian harmony includes the harmonic inversion of thirds. Before one begins their exploration into poly-chords, one should be familiar with tertian harmony in its simplest terms of inversions and through a few applied patterns. From this understanding of tertian harmony through inversions and patterns and after one has accomplished or, in the least, feels comfortable with tertian harmony, one should then attempt to combine more than one chord.

The first step in gaining an understanding tertian ploychords is to write triads and 7th chords in a formulaic fashion. For example, begin by writing each major chord a major second apart (i.e. Cmaj-Dmaj, Ebmaj-Fmaj, etc.) After writing these series of chords, write out triads that are minor third apart. For example: Ebmaj-Gbmaj, Amaj-Cmaj, and all other similar progressions. As one can see from the two previous examples, one should continue this process until one has exhausted all the permutations of the triad progression. In a similar fashion, one should continue this writing exercise with seventh chords. The purpose to this writing exercise is for the musician/composer to develop a visual and intellectual connection to the concepts that they will use in a open/free musical environment.

To continue with this process of learning tertian polychords, the next step, after one has learned by rote and memorized the permutations, is to apply their understanding of poly chords to an improvisation setting. Before one begins improvising with other musicians, one should improvise alone. This will familiarize oneself with the polychords without the aid of written materials. One should strive, during this stage, to improvise with polychords without much thought. Other permutations on this stage include the improvising within a strict harmonic setting. For example, one can improvise on chords that are a minor third apart. Similarly, one can improvise on a series of polychords.

In the last stage of development, one should perform with other musicians and observe how polychords affect other musicians playing and one’s performance. During this stage, one should apply their polychord knowledge towards Jazz standards, modal tunes, or atonal standards. Each form of Jazz standard offers its own rewards and challenges. Due to the pros and cons of each form of standard, the outcome will greatly differ. In addition to performing Jazz standards, one should attempt create their original composition with polychords. Furthermore, one should attempt to re-harmonize a Jazz standard with their new understanding of polychords.

In the end, this article focused primarily on the practicing and application seventh chords and triads in a polychordal environment. One can venture into larger tertian harmonies or into other harmonic formulations, such as segundel, quartal, quintal, and all other similar formulations. During one’s venture into other tertian or non-tertian formulations, one should observe the impact polychords have on one’s and other performances. As a reminder to one’s practicing of polychords, for one to be successful at polychords, one should remain diligent in their practice and application of tertian polychords. The process of learning polychords can be tedious, but in the long run, the rewards are greater than not learning this harmonic concept. In the next article on polychords, polychord progressions and its application to composition will be discussed.

Andrew Hanna is the CEO & Production Manager of At Hand Productions, Inc. At Hand Productions is a leading Philadelphia concert and theatrical production company. Andrew Hanna has 20 years of composition experience and 16 years of performance experience. His compositions range from duets to large theatrical productions such as My Journal, Requiem for the Now, and Prophecies of War.

This article compares the differences between legal music download sites VS file sharing networks.

1) Music files available for download:

The p2p file sharing networks heavily out number the legal music sites when it comes to the amount of files available for download. A p2p application provides millions of unlimited mp3 music files, while a legal music download site provides legitimately licensed music files in the hundreds of thousands.

2) The cost of downloading music:

You can download p2p file sharing networks for free, or for a very cheap one-time fee. A legal music download site is usually either “subscription-based” or “pay-per-download”. A legal site will also usually charge extra for the ability to rip or burn music.

3) Variety of files available for download:

A legal music site mainly provides ONLY music files for downloading. A p2p application gives you, besides music files, full movie, game, video, software, TV show and ring-tone files to download as well.

4) Legal Issues & Controversy:

Legitimate legal music download sites are completely free of controversy and 100% legal to use. P2p file sharing networks, while legal, are not without lawsuit concerns and controversy due to how the file sharing technology can be used.

If you choose to use a p2p file sharing program, there are potential risks you need to be aware of, including:

Lawsuit Risks - Peer to peer file sharing networks have been ruled legal in a court of law. However, if you download and share “copyrighted material” you could risk becoming targeted, and possibly sued, by the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America).

Virus And Privacy Risks - In using a file sharing application, you risk the possibility of installing harmful spyware, viruses, worms and malware on your computer. And if that’s not bad enough, many p2p applications also leave you exposed to online hackers and identity thieves that can steal you personal information.

Legal Music Download Sites VS P2P File Sharing - Summary:

At first glance the p2p file sharing networks may seem to offer an easy way to get unlimited free file downloads. But remember, nothing is really free and this is especially true with the p2p file sharing applications.

The file sharing programs come with a price of increased privacy and security threats, and potential RIAA lawsuit risks. The ONLY way to guarantee getting safe music downloads online is by using a legitimately licensed music site that provides downloads of music legally licensed from the record labels and artists themselves.

Article by Anna Rowe, webmaster of 1st Free Music Download .com that provides music download site reviews and quality online music download solutions. Sign-up for a Free Mp3 mini-course that details critical facts about downloading music online.

Buying a digital piano could be a very delicate attempt, especially if you have no idea about pianos in the first place. This article is written to help you out how to choose the best digital piano.

For starters, digital piano is different from an “acoustic” piano in many ways. A digital piano is a copy of what the “acoustic or original piano is. However, instead of strings and hammers, it uses “digitally sampled” sounds, amplifiers and speakers. It was made to imitate the real sound of that of the original piano. Many people now prefer digital pianos. It is because of its portability, low-to-almost non-maintenance, volume adjuster and various voices.

What you need to know in buying a digital piano is how closely it resembles the “acoustical piano” in terms of the sound, and its total piano-like feel. Do the keys move under your fingers almost the same as the acoustical piano keys do? Sometimes, most digital pianos have damaged spring action on the keys thus they could affect the tone of the piano. Always see to it, when you are in a hunt for a good digital piano, you should bring a good set of headphones. It is one of the advantages the digital piano has compared to an acoustical piano. When a player wants to play loud but his surroundings are opposed to the noise it could bring, he could only attach the headphones and play as loud as his heart desires without causing another’s eardrums to bash but his own. Other than that, the headphones could help distinguish faint defects that the speakers couldn’t detect. Do not hesitate to try as many brands as you like to compare and choose which sounds better. It is not in the brand or price range that the piano is considered good. It actually depends on the buyer whether he feels good about the sound of the digital piano he chooses.

Do not forget to check out the range of the tone. Does the tone change when you turn up the volume? And what about when you turn it down? The digital piano should be consistent in its tone no matter how low or high the volume is. Also check out the sound as it ends. Does it linger too long or fades easily? If there is an acoustical piano nearby, do try comparing the sound as you play a note and then a chord. Check out the time lapse of the sound as it ends and sense for repeating patterns or loops.

Check out where the notes come from when you play a scale or chord successively. The trebles should be coming from the right side and the bass should be coming from the left side.

Try holding down the sustain pedal and play the two low C’s to check out the polyphony or the harmony of the notes. It is good if you can distinguish the two low C’s played simultaneously. Most not-so-good quality digital pianos would cut off one tone while being played. Poor quality digital pianos drop both notes prematurely.

Is the digital piano user-friendly? Check out the design and see if you can understand the lay-out of the model. Check out the buttons and if they are functional. Be sure that the “special-effects” buttons are not that close to the keyboard or you might accidentally hit one and then change the entire settings of your piano while you’re playing.

Check the manual for other fine-tuning facilities. Some digital pianos come with other special effects such as alternate tunings, variable harmonics and adjustable decay (fading) lengths. These effects can be very useful when you play with a group. You wouldn’t necessarily go to lengthy process in adjusting to the level of the group.

Most digital pianos offer various tones and voices to have diversity in voice effects. Some have whistles, echoes, guitars, and other non-piano voices. If you are used to playing the piano and using pressed-pedal for sustain, it might become a hindrance to you if the digital piano you got has an “on-off” pedaling.

Also, other accessories such as amplifiers and speakers must be compatible with the brand or model you have. The digital piano you purchased may be a good quality but when attached with an incompatible amplifier or bigger sound boxes, the sound projected may not be very good.

Lastly, if you doubt your capability to choose for yourself a good piano, ask a friend who plays piano, or even better yet, a professional to help you determine a sound-quality digital piano. However, you must not rely totally on what they say. It is because what is good for them may not be good for you. Buy a digital piano that you are going to be comfortable playing with.

About The Author

The Writer, Ismael D. Tabije, runs the website http://pianos.e-mart4all.com that markets a wide choice of high-quality digital pianos and accessories at the lowest prices in the online market. Brands sold include Casio, Yamaha, Korg, Kurzweil and Roland. The website also features interesting piano articles about piano humor, trivia, myths and facts and even piano lessons and instructions

This is a style that stays aside all the other music trends. Not aside, but somewhat deeper. The reason is it is a reflection of the race, the plurality of people united by roots and origin. Rap is the culture of Afro-Americans, the continuation of their language and traditions. Rap is a mixture of speech and music, actually it is speech laid on music or beat it’s better to say. And when we claim that people are united through music, meaning every single human being on this planet, rap unites the ones close to blood by music and then everybody else, either welcoming or being hostile to a newcomer. What attracts people in rap? Is it catchy? Maybe. Those non-natives to rap often state the flow of speech is too quick and it is difficult to differentiate the words. Sometimes it seems rap music is only for those from the cradle. Foreigners are not invited.

Rap is classified as urban poetry of lyrical resistance. Thus it is not the music for village like country music. It is the gathering power of those united by music in big cities. The aim is to resist the grieves because misfortunes are more dramatic and numerous in urban areas.

Rap does not only speak to the mind and emotions, but speaks to the society all around people, for people. If the words or courage to say those words are not there, the subconscious takes over and the Rap lyrics kick in.

But once captured by the beat, most people - mainly younger ones - begin to hear the words, and the words may describe just how they are feeling that day. If the boss came to work with an agenda to screw everyone, some people will “feel” the words and the beat, especially when enclosed in a car doing 70 on the freeway. It’s something about riding with the music turned full-blast that has a way of absorbing the mind and supplying a means of temporal escape.

Some songs have innocent words that impress upon the mind to be released later at the water cooler. Some choruses are catchy and when sung by certain artist will stay within the subconscious long after. Various rappers have unique voices that some people find attractive or along the same vocal tone as their own voice, which it makes it easier to sing along.

First goes the beat, and then goes the lyrics! It is not as smooth and tender as classical music, not as glossy as pop, but it has the scream of pain of real emotion of the world’s harshness. One may even state that rap is the most pain expressing music style. Those who sing it or it is better to say read it revive their feelings not only concerning love, as most of the other styles do. Their message is about life and the problems, especially the ones of the Afro-American people. The music of pain and oppression, rap is a remedy to the latter. Let all the pills be like that!

Article source: Rap Is More than Music.
AllTheLyrics.com is a site which gives you access to huge database of music lyrics, lively music forum and some articles about different aspects of single Music.

Mark Knopfler is an “inspired” songwriter. A former journalist, his keen observations of other people have led to some of his biggest hits with Dire Straits. “Sultans of Swing” was based on a small (and not very good) pub band he saw in Deptford, south London, in the mid-1970s. “Money for Nothing” was actually written in a New York store while eavesdropping on two delivery men complaining about the pop stars they were seeing on the TVs on display. Knopfler borrowed a pen and paper from a employee and literally sat down in a model kitchen in the store and copied down the banter he overheard.

Many of his songs are written in the first-person narrative form, although he’s not actually a “Private Dancer” (made famous by Tina Turner) or a detective (“Private Investigations” from Love Over Gold) or a war criminal (“The Man’s Too Strong” from Brothers in Arms). In a Rolling Stone article from 1985, Knopfler wondered, “In fact, I’m still in two minds as to whether it’s a good idea to write songs that aren’t in the first person, to take on other characters.”

In the Nineties, Knopfler began to find more and more song ideas from stories and characters he read about in books and articles and found fascinating. “Heavy Fuel” from Dire Straits last album, On Every Street, is based loosely on the main character in Martin Amis’ novel Money. The title track from his second solo album, Sailing to Philadelphia, is a duet between the subjects of Thomas Pynchon’s lengthy and very quirky tale of Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, of Mason-Dixon line fame. Although several real life people were the focus of Knopfler’s attention on the the 2005 Shangri-La album (Elvis Presley’s manager Colonel Tom Parker and the late skiffle-player Lonnie Donegan, for instance), two songs in particular were based on books. Ray Kroc’s biography inspired “Boom Like That,” and many of the lyrics in the song about the founder of the McDonald’s fast-food chain are taken straight from Kroc’s own words. “Song for Sonny Liston” was directly inspired by Nick Tosches’ book The Devil and Sonny Liston.

Mark Knopfler is a singer, songwriter and guitar player touring in 2006 with Emmylou Harris to promote their new album All the Roadrunning. For Mark Knopfler news, biography, photographs, and tour information visit the site: http://www.knopfler.info

Are you the parent of a young piano student? Do you find that getting your child to pracice is kind of a pain. Well, you might find this hard to believe, but encouraging your child taking piano lessons to practice doesn’t have to be a struggle. Here are five things you can do that really make a difference.

1. Establish a routine practice time. This will help to build the practice habit. Consistency is important so make sure you do your part by being home at that time so your child can practice.

2. Start with a relatively short practice time such as ten minutes a day. It is better to practice daily than to skip many days and only practice right before the next lesson. This may result in a happy piano teacher, but over the long run your child will learn more through consistent effort throughout the week. Compare this to cramming for a test the day before or building a solid base of long-term knowledge you can continue to build on over time.

3. As your child gains more piano knowledge and playing ability gradually stretch the practice time to 15 to 20 minutes, then 25 to 30 minutes as the difficulty of their playing assignments increases.

4. Be sure that you get your child to their weekly piano lessons. This is very important for consistent practice. When students skip their lessons hey get the impression that piano lessons are not very important and their commitment to practice diminishes. Plus the encouragement and direction students receive from their piano teacher each week sets a goal for students to achieve over the next week.

5. Be sure your child comes to their piano lessons with all their music books. When students come to lessons without their books, piano teachers cannot follow through on important foundational skills that young students need to know to learn new pieces of music. When students have the basics they are more confident and thus more likely to practice at home. Students who frequently come to lessons without their books are confused about what to do at home, and are much less likely to practice.

It takes for children time to learn how to apply themselves to their lessons. When parents do what they can do, however, this process progresses a lot more smoothly for kids. When young students know what the piano expectations are and have the commitment of their parents, it is easier for them to commit to regular practice. So, parents, now that you know how easy it is to help your child learn to practice, don’t forget to do it!

For great home piano activities parents can use to help children ages 5 to 11 develop their musical talent, visit Piano Adventure Bears Music Education Resources You’ll find a treasure box filled with piano resources to create an exciting musical adventure for your child - right in your own home! Visit their website and subscribe to their f’ree internet newsletter so you can download f’ree piano sheet music and mp3s of original piano compositions.

These exciting stories, games, piano lessons, and inspirational gifts feature the Piano Adventure Bears, Mrs. Treble Beary and her new piano student, Albeart Littlebud. Young students follow along with Albeart to learn what piano lessons are all about in a fun way that kids readily understand appreciate. Click here to visit PianoAdventureBears.com For a wealth of information about piano lessons, visit tallypiano.com