Hammond Music

Archive for April, 2009

It’s one of the most controversial topics of modern times and there are related stories in the news almost every day. It seems that everyone, whoever they may be and whether they really understand the concept of downloading music or not, has an opinion to give on the subject. Even amongst musicians opinions are divided – there are those who think it spells the end of the music industry and those who are happy for their music to be readily available to a much wider audience of potential fans than they could otherwise have hoped to reach. 

The debate has been going on for years and it really doesn’t look like it’s likely to reach a compromise any time soon. Remember when Napster was finally closed down after a copyright lawsuit from Metallica? Everyone thought that was the end of it – it seemed the age of music for free was over, never to return. But then came Limewire, the Pirate Bay and so many other new filesharing sites, with new and better ways of operating, and never failing to stay one step ahead.

vTo be fair, Metallica certainly had a point, and they are by no means the only musicians to have spoken out against free downloads and the impact it has on the big label music industry. With CDs becoming more and more overpriced it’s not so surprising that people are choosing to turn to downloads, but not everyone realises the effect this could have on the music we all love. However there are those who believe that the music industry as we know it has had its day and that the future of music lies with the people recording their own tracks with DJ software on their home computers and publicising the music themselves online. This is only possible because the music is available online for free, and these are the genuine music lovers who are in it for the music not the money.

The latest musician to voice his opinions is Snow Patrol singer Gary Lightbody. Although his band are hugely successful and far from being unheard, he believes that being able to get music for free is just the modern way and that the penalties for those involved in filesharing are ‘way over the top’. He was speaking specifically about the recent conviction in Sweden of four founding members of The Pirate Bay, who have each been sentenced to a year in jail and told to pay $3.48 million in damages to large entertainment companies. The group are launching an appeal as although they understand hese companies could well be out of pocket, there was no way to know how much by, and it was discovered that the judge was a member of the Swedish Copyright Association. 

There is no sign of an end to the debate on filesharing and certainly no sign of an agreement being made. There is no question that it is damaging to the record label giants’ and huge stadium rock bands’ incomes, but at the same time it enables the little guys at home recording their tracks with an Akai home studio and set of headphones to get an equal chance of being heard. Maybe there is no right answer.

Custom Guitar Bulider Video

Guitars – handmade and custom guitars are still being built. This video shows a man who makes custom guitars, and it tells some interesting history of the guitars he’s made. Most of us aren’t in the market for a handmade guitar. Us “regular” folks can still find good guitars at affordable prices from those manufactured by the top guitar makers.

Whether you are a beginner guitar player or an experienced guitarist…

Maybe you need to buy your first guitar, or you possibly want to buy a better guitar than the one you are using. You may be buying an additional guitar (because you need another style of guitar or are staring a collection).

Either way, it’s a good idea to do some research before buying a guitar. The best places to do this research is in guitar shops, guitar magazines and, of course, check what is available online. With these three ways to research you can find out more about guitars’ current prices and the variety of brands and styles. You can also read many online blogs with great information about guitars and guitar lessons.

Read manufacturers information about their guitars, read musician’s guitar reviews, and ask friends about which guitars they like. If there are local music stores in your town, visit those stores and test out their guitars. When you try out different guitars, don’t worry about your playing (you don’t have to be a great guitar player); just focus on how the guitars sound. Hold the guitar out straight and look down the fretboard to make sure it is not warped or bowed.

Play it first before you buy a guitar! 

When you try out a guitar that you might want to buy, when you strum there should not be a buzzing sound. Be sure that the distance of the strings from the fretboard is not too high (which makes the guitar much harder to play).

On an electric guitar, plug it into an amp and check all the electronic parts, such as the volume and tone controls. Check the pickups and the tone and volume controls. Most music stores have a salesperson that can play a guitar – have them play something on a few guitars. Better yet, bring along a friend who is a guitar player for them to give you a second opinion.

When you have a better idea about the current new guitar prices, you’ll be able to know how much to budget for your guitar purchase. Before negotiating on prices with a store sales clerk, you need to know the current information and prices about several guitar brands. It’s their job to persuade you to spend money – and they are usually very skilled at making you spend more than you planned to. 

If this is your first guitar, you probably should not consider buying your instrument in an online auction.The reason I can’t recommend buying through an auction is because you really should play a guitar before you buy it. How a guitar feels to hold and play is a very personal thing. You’ll be far happier with your new guitar if you do your research, try out guitars, stick to your budget and find a guitar that feels and sounds right.

karaoke hits

Karaoke started in the 1970s in Japan, where business professionals would drop into a karaoke club on their way home from work to de-stress. For club owners, it was a great way to entertain patrons, without paying for strolling musicians. By the nineties, karaoke had become a staple in American culture as well, with tens of thousands of bars, restaurants and clubs offering weekly karaoke nights. Karaoke equipment includes such things as a karaoke machine, which plays CDs, DVDs, mp3s and/or CD Gs, has built-in or plug-in speakers, one or more plug-in microphones and either video cables or a built-in lyrics screen.

So which systems are getting the most buzz? The $60 doPi Karaoke “Party in a Pod” system can turn a video iPod into a karaoke machine. Consumers will also get a microphone, a mixer box with two inputs, echo effect, video in/out ports and all cables needed to connect an iPod to the box, which plugs into the wall. A song card comes with three free downloads and many karaoke songs come with video too. This system, which has been featured by InStyle, People, Seventeen, WIRED, Mac Life, iLounge, FHM and Entertainment Magazine, as well as Good Morning America and The Early Show, can be purchased at www.dopikaraoke.com.

Over a million people have purchased the “Rock Band” game for PlayStation, Wii and Xbox, which turns their video game consoles into a karaoke machine and musical instrument tutorial. Like the karaoke game “Karaoke Revolution,” the lyrics appear at the top of the screen for vocalists to follow, while a bar provides feedback on how well the pitch and note duration match the original. Other friends or family members can try their hand at guitar, the bass guitar and drum pads. This game is really fun for parties, rainy days and cultivating an interest in music.

The $199 Singing Machine Pedestal CDG Karaoke system offers a more professional singing and recording experience than the average karaoke machine. In addition to having two microphones, the system also comes with a built-in camera so singers can watch themselves on the video monitor. Additionally, the RCA output allows singers the ability to tape themselves on a VCR or DVD recorder as well. Unlike other systems that are all-vocals or no-vocals, this unit comes with Auto Voice Control so the vocals are eliminated when the singer starts to sing and returns when the singer stops singing. This function is ideal for practicing a new song. Additional features for this CD/CD G player include key, echo, balance and pitch control. Ipod-compatible systems also exist for $249. Consumers can purchase this product at www.singingmachine.com.

Consumers are not the only demographic for the karaoke machine. Some business owners see karaoke as a great opportunity to add entertainment or set themselves apart from the competition. Obviously, the karaoke club is nothing new, but what about the karaoke cab? In cities like Dallas, New York City, Chicago and San Francisco, there are cabs with built-in karaoke machines to start off a pre-party or occupy riders for long rides. Some videos of karaoke singers are posted at www.mykaraokecab.com. Karaoke Yellow Cab out of Dallas, Texas says that the karaoke hits up his tips and that the most common songs requested are Van Morrison’s “Brown Eyed Girl,” Madonna’s “Like A Virgin” and Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline.”

These days, retaining a lofty societal status is further significant than bringing about any additional assignment. Overlook concerning your daily living and go for the definitive music experience. Outdoor wireless speakers are all set to distribute you lofty standards with their high-end features and beautiful plan. these are just some of the benifits of wireless outdoor speakers.

A number of the wireless speakers are weather proof, that’s why they are just wonderful for the outdoor use. Well this is not the distinct feature that modern day’s speakers can fetch you to a certain extent the allied price tag is also astonishing. Market is full to capacity with these speakers and their manufacturers are going for superfluous miles to endow with customers the vital crash effect. In the midst of such speakers you are by no means going to consider that your outlay has vanished in vain.

If you are not clear in your mind with reference to how to get the exact deal for your greatly preferred outdoor wireless speakers then decide on for the online means. At this juncture you can hit upon more information concerning to such products.

On the other hand, it’s the instant to go on for the eventual sound effect! Fetch a pair of outdoor wireless speakers for your outdoor purposes and it will result in your neighbors envy. Wireless speakers will make your garden sound great when they are playing. Engage in recreation with the music of your selection and take the complete control of it with outdoor wireless speakers. Go for such experience and quality outdoor wireless speakers if you are really interested to. but before you start you need to get a tasks done. Initially you have to think about the position where you yearn for fixing the speakers. Rock speakers have always been great for me. they can be setup anywhere as long as they are in the line of site. You can make yoru speakers look like rocks and blast out fantasic music, and your visitors won’t know where they are coming from.

Well, there are a few extra blueprints accessible in the outdoor wireless speakers section like that of the weatherproof speakers that can convey you the exact combination of know-how and sound effect. these outdoor wireless speakers can work in all kinds of conditions because of they setups. interfearnce is what you need to look at when getting wireless external speakers. So, it’s always healthier for you to select the best outdoor wireless speakers that can effort in opposition to the signal interference.

Soothing and sensual, steeped in tropical atmosphere, bossa nova (Portuguese for “new trend”) is a Brazilian musical style which evolved from another South American musical tradition, the samba.

The dawn of the bossa nova can be traced to Elizete Cardoso’s 1958 recording of lyricist Vinícius de Moraes and multi-talented composer Antonio Carlos Jobim’s “Chega de Saudade.” Although Elizete Cardoso’s rendering went unnoticed, João Gilberto’s subsequent record became a hit, creating the bossa nova craze. An English-language translation of the song has been recorded by both jazz and rock artists under the title “No More Blues,” though it can also be translated as “enough longing.” “Chega” in this context means “no more,” and “saudade” describes an intense, passionately heartfelt need.

Americans are likely to be familiar with the Stan Getz/João Gilberto single “The Girl from Ipanema” (edited to highlight Astrud Gilberto’s vocals), but Antônio Carlos Jobim, Vinicius de Moraes, and João Gilberto are regarded as the most important figures in popularizing the bossa nova sound.

The film “Black Orpheus” (1959) contributed immensely to the popularity of bossa nova, while American jazz musicians visiting Brazil brought the bossa nova back to North America. Dusty Springfield’s 1967 recording of Bacharach and David’s “The Look of Love” (featured in the movie “Casino Royale”) continues to be among the most illustrious North American pop renderings of bossa nova.

A fine example of the Bossa Nova genre can be found on the “Bossa Nova for Lovers” CD (Verve).

Bossa nova music instruments include nylon string guitar, piano, vocals, and Brazilian musical instruments such as the tamborim (a small wooden drum of African origin)

By 1963, the bossa nova movement had ended, but the music’s influence lingered. In the late 60s, the Brazilian rock group Os Mutantes integrated bossa nova with psychedelia, and Italian soundtrack composers such as Piero Umiliani, Stelvio Cipriani and Piero Piccioni developed a distinctive Mediterranean variation, recently compiled on the CDs “Bossa Galore” (Cinevox) and “Morricone Bossa” (Cinedelic). Bossa nova enjoyed a revival in the 1990s, and today performers as diverse as Bebel Gilberto (daughter of João Gilberto and singer Miúcha), Koop, Nouvelle Vague, Stereolab, and Diana Krall have assimilated bossa nova into their work.

Heavy metal has a huge line of guitar players who dominated the stage and played like the demons the vocalists sung about. Here’s three of the guitar players in heavy metal that, although are gone, their influence isnt.

• Randy Rhoads. Randy Rhoads was remembered more for his work with ex Black Sabbath singer Ozzy Osbourne rather than the LA band Quiet Riot. Randy helped to write Ozzy classics such as ‘Crazy train’ and ‘Dee’. Unlike most rock players Randy had a musical grounding in Classical playing, working it into the first two albums that he played on with Ozzy. 1979’s ‘Blizzard of Oz’ album and 1981’s ‘diary of a madmen’. It is believed that Rhoades would’ve gone on to leave the band to study classical guitar at UCLA, and he would seek out classical guitar tutors on tour with Ozzy to keep up his knowledge and playing skill. The specialist Jackson guitars made for Rhoads are a popular choice amongst guitarists today. Rhoads died tragically in a plane crash in 1982, and his since been an inspiration for thousands of guitarists since.
• Chuck Schuldiner. Main songwriter, vocalist and guitarist of pioneering metal band ‘Death’. Often hailed as the ‘father of death metal’, a term that the man himself wasnt in agreement with, Chuck was a huge influence on extreme metal and metal in general. Death’s first release, ’scream bloody gore’, could be said as setting the tone for death metal, but each album featured not only different line ups, but changes in song wiriting and direction. Death release a further 4 albums with the band, ‘Human, ‘Spiritual healing’,'Symbolic’ and ‘The sound of perseverance’ before folding Death to play guitar for ‘Control denied’, which released ‘The fragile art of exsistance’ in 1999. Chuck Schulidner died in 2001 after a long standing battle with brain cancer, which had seen the metal community rally round to try and raise funds for his operations.
• Darrell Lance Abbott -’Dimebag’. Guitarist of the infamous Pantera later of Damageplan and also played guitar on the country band rebel meets rebel. Pantera was formed in 1981 as a glam metal band, but the bands first album ‘Cowboys from hell’ saw them take a much more heavier groove laden approach with the music. Their breakthrough album was 1992’s ‘A vulgar display of power’, which gave the band a whole ‘new level’ of exposure. Next album ‘Far beyond driven’ jumped to the top of the US charts on its release, proving at the time that metal was still ‘alive’. Pantera also released ‘Greater Southern Trendkill’ and ‘Re-inventing the steel’, after which Pantera split, as bassist Rex Brown and vocalist Phil Anselmo went off to do ‘Down’ and ‘Superjoint ritual’ and Dimebag and his brother and drummer Vinnie Paul created ‘Damageplan’. Dimebag was tragically shot while performing onstage with Damageplan in December 2004, which saw the metal community grieve as a collective once again.

Inspired to get playing some electric guitars? Come to these guys to get a great deal on guitars

karaoke hits

To perform all your favorite karaoke hits at home, you will need a microphone, a player and a song collection. One of the cheapest ways to accomplish this is to buy a karaoke DVD player for as little as $30. Although some would argue that setting yourself to perform on your computer is the least expensive way because you need only a $20 microphone and 79-cent karaoke downloads. If you are computer savvy and are willing to spend $49 for karaoke software, then you can create your own custom DVDs using your current mp3 collection.

Rather than buy a karaoke system, multi-functional karaoke DVD players range from $30 to $200 and play regular DVD movies too. The best karaoke DVD players will accept CD G (CD Graphic) format, which is the kind that plays songs and scrolls the lyrics on the bottom. Karaoke DVDs scroll lyrics too, but there are many more CD G karaoke songs available to buy. The VocoPro DVG399K ($110) has 5.1 Dolby Digital output to get the most from your speakers, two microphone inputs, digital key control to alter your voice and accepts CDs, CD-Rs/mp3s, DVDs and CD+Gs to give you maximum versatility.

According to online retailer Amazon, the kid karaoke DVD offerings tend to sell best. Disney’s “High School Musical” 1 & 2, “Hannah Montana,” “Disney Radio Hits” 1 & 2, as well as “Jump & Jive with Hi-5″ and Sesame Street’s “Sesame Sings Karaoke” are all karaoke hits. For older teens and adults, Billboard released a “Top 10 Karaoke Box Set” that includes 40 songs including John Lennon, Neil Diamond, Dolly Parton and Sting, to name a few artists. Also, Party Tyme offers a multitude of karaoke songs on DVD for $13.99, with themes including: Broadway, Country, Old Country, Greatest Hits, Oldies, Pop, Rock and Love Songs. Startrax offers fun genre DVDs too, including 80s movies, 80s pop, alternative anthems, another top 20 hits, at the movies, back to school, boogie nights, classic R&B, country classics, dancing in the streets, disco classics, girls night and kids, to name a few.

Of course not every genre is easy to find on DVD, although it can be done. For instance, fans of Hip Hop/R&B can check out R&B Classics by Startrax, which includes cover artists doing “In Da Club” (50-cent), “Hot In Here” (Nelly), “S.O.S” (Rihanna) and “Shut Up” (Black-Eyed Peas). Punk rockers will love the newly released Punk Rock Karaoke DVD that features stars from the bands NOFX, Bad Religion, Social Distortion and The Adolescents, as well as performances/sing-a-longs for “Gimme Gimme Gimme” (Black Flag), “California Über Allies” (Dead Kennedys), “Minor Threat” (Minor Threat) and “What Do I Get” (The Buzzcocks), to name a few.

The piano is an stabbing musical method that may be a bit frightening to learn but is worth every be on pins and needles time and money you’ll waste If you want to teach yourself to play piano with no trouble and fast, start now. The beforehand you get to it the outdo you’ll be and the prior you’ll be able to play a pet example Here’s how you can twitch

If you want to teach by hand to play piano by far you need to resolve what kind of piano performer you want to be. If you want to be a performance pianist on stage Mozart or Tchaikovsky, you will have to learn how to read notes and wherever down the line, probably take prim teaching if only for the method But if you only want to learn the piano so you can go together with a singer or invent your own song, you can start with chords, which is questionably the easier way to start live
There are also dissimilar styles of piano before a live audience you might want to think on – typical jazz, doldrums new age, etc. You can learn one or quite a lot of of these styles in the potential once you’re well-known with the utensil itself.
To teach yourself to play piano clearly you need approach to a piano A piano is a bit classy but you don’t have to buy one to be able to teach yourself to play piano straightforwardly There are many sources you can tap for free – local clubs, schools, churches, even friends and neighbors who might be enthusiastic to let you use their baby grand

If you’re a not very shy and want to rehearse at home, get a portable electronic baby grand to learn to play piano clearly There are some very inexpensive ones that work as well as a Korg or a Roland. These keyboards even allow you to plug a earphone so no one else hears your in performance Just buy one with full-sized keys for the reason that the thoroughly cheap ones can have smaller-sized keys. If your fingers get used to less important keys, you might have some concern adjusting if you begin before a live audience a full-sized piano in the upcoming

A piano example is never far away. There are abundant books, CDs and online coaching you can tap to help you to teach by hand to play piano by a long way There are some videos and audio instructional sources you can use.

You can get free or paid training effortlessly and can even door some of the most accepted music to learn since we all learn in a different way it’s of great consequence that you find the warning that you feel most secure with to teach manually to play piano straightforwardly

There are times when you might get flummoxed on a lecture in words of one syllable for the reason that you don’t get it or are not using the right system If this happens, find a special source you can use for note to teach by hand to play piano certainly such as a dissimilar website, book or video or just basically ask a big shot if you’re in performance the piano fittingly
not a soulscholarly to play the piano practicing only when they felt like it. Even the virtuosos played the piano as often as they can. on stage this utensil requires doctrine your hand and mind to reminisce motions and learn to business partner notes with the black and white keys on the grand piano exercise for at least half an hour on a daily basis or about 4 to 5 days a week is one way to teach yourself to play piano without doubt

scholarshipto play the piano doesn’t mean you have to be born with talent nor do you have to be as young as your niece or grandchild. everyone who has ordinary mind and tangible abilities can teach himself to learn to play piano without problems and result Piano on stage is as much a cultured skill as it is a ability.

If you can teach manually the expertise you’re halfway near.

Make sure to visit the vancouver piano website for individual, one-one-one piano lessons. There is no better vancouver piano teacher anywhere. So if you have been searching for piano lessons in vancouver that are aimed for both beginner and advanced piano students, take a look at the webpage!

It’s not just guitar hero that’s doing a good job of getting regular non-musical people back into the world of writing and recording their own tracks. The hugely successful game may have inspired countless wannabe rockstars to pick up a guitar and start rocking out but with so much new technology available to budding musicians, it seems the cutting edge of new music is becoming less Gibson and more… Gameboy?? No, you haven’t heard that wrong. As musicians try to come up with more and more ways to keep their sound fresh and new people are discovering musical gold in all kinds of unexpected places, from state of the art mobile phones to old toys and retro games consoles. Here are a few of the more innovative and unusual uses for modern technology in music that we’ve found:

Old Nintendo Gameboys – perhaps one of the strangest musical creations around, DJ Scotch Egg doesn’t actually use any normal DJ equipment but produces his tracks entirely using sound effects and software from gameboys. But they’re not the new, shiny, slick consoles we’re used to nowadays – they’re all the old chunky grey ones you remember from the early 90s. This unusual approach not only works surprisingly well (he even manages to pull it off live and gives a very energetic performance) but it’s also a a bit of a trip down memory lane as you pick out the sounds you recognise from the games of your childhood!

iPhones – Due to play a series of shows at Wembley Stadium in the summer supporting Take That, Gary Go’s set is something a bit different to what you’d usually expect to see at a pop concert. He doesn’t play any instruments live, and he doesn’t have a band – he just does everything on his trusty iPhone. In fact, he wrote, played and recorded his album purely using iPhone software apps he had downloaded. It should be an interesting gig to see, provided his mum doesn’t decide to give him a call while he’s on stage!

Laptops – OK so maybe this one’s not quite so weird and wonderful, it’s not exactly unusual to see a laptop being used onstage during a show. But what makes the laptop such an important part of making your own music is that if you have one you literally don’t need anything else to write, play and record tracks. With so many different programs for musicians out there, able to recreate the sound of any instrument almost perfectly, and then record and mix your tracks, it’s just a case of picking the right DJ software and going for it. Gone are the days when you could use excuses like ‘but I don’t know how to play the guitar’ and ‘I don’t know the first thing about recording music’, nowadays it seems anyone can make it as a rockstar.

The great motivator Earl Nightingale came up with the following definition of success…
“Success is the progressive realization of a worthy ideal.” I love that definition! What does this definition mean to you? Let’s take a closer look at the worthy ideal part of it…

Please spend a few minutes writing down what the words “worthy ideal” mean to you. I feel that it is my vision of perfection…a vision of what I would ideally want & like things to be.It is a vision that I fine very energizing & inspiring!

If your success with guitar is totally dependant on working towards a worthy ideal, doesn’t it make sense that you first need to figure out what YOUR worthy ideal is? How can you progressively realize something if you don’t know what it is? Let’s do some exercises to figure your one out…

Please invest at least a couple of hours doing the following exercises. They will really help you to build a picture of your worthy ideal in your mind’s eye…

Exercise 1:
Try to imagine how you would like to play.Try to imagine what your guitar playing skills will look like, sound like, and feel like.What kind of guitar techniques are you an expert at? How does your improvising sound? What about your composing? You can write down your answers now.

Exercise 2:
I want you to imagine your ideal guitar playing career. Would you be a master guitar teacher? What about a wonderful perforing artist? Or what about performing as part of a highly successful band? How about being an in demand studio guitarist? What do you TRULY want to do? You can write down your answers now.

Exercise 3:
Jot down your ideas for a worthy career in guitar playing. Write your goal down in the present tense like you have already achieved it.Try to make it into a one paragraph statement.

Exercise 4:
If you will invest 5 minutes every morning & night that will help you to reach the goal you want to achieve. This will be a factor in helping you stay motivated and focused on the goals that you want to achieve.

Clarity is essential. If you don’t do it, you might not be able to start developing an effective career geared towards your goal.

You will find that while you are answering the questions that self-doubt will start to creap into your mind. You may doubt whatever you right down will be possible or not! This is completely normal. Just write down your answers anyway You don’t need to know right now HOW you will achieve your worthy ideal. It’s easy, just figure out what it is.

You can improve you guitar playing. You only learn by doing.