Music And Dance

Archive for September, 2008

A story about one of the greatest composers of all times and how it was that he hit upon the idea to create one of his most beloved pieces.

Ludwig Van Beethoven, was undoubtedly one of the greatest composers of all time; along with other greats such as Mozart, Wagner, Bach, Verdi, Puccini and many others yet it was inspiration from an unexpected source that lead to one of his most famous pieces. It happened one day that the maestro was approached by a child named Elize; who with much enthusiasm said “I love your music her Beethoven, but sometimes it is too complicated for me”. It was upon hearing this young girl that the maestro smiled as he replied “I’m going to write a piece just for you”.

It being after this encounter that Beethoven decided to write what surely could be hailed as not only one of his most popular but simplest melodies entitled “Fur Elize”. This the piece he dedicated to that child who claimed she at times was unable to grasp the great maestro’s music.

A Mozart Story

A story of another one of history’s greats.

It happened on a day which Mozart and his father went to hear a symphony written by another composer, Mozart for his part not being overly impressed with the piece while his father took such a liking to it that he requested that Mozart ask the composer for a copy of the sheet music. Naturally with copy rights in those days being what they were it was very unlikely that any composer would give anybody a copy of his music let alone another composer.

All of which prompting Wolfgang to refuse his father’s request; knowing all too well the composer in question would more then likely say “no” to giving away a copy of his music. Mozart’s father however insisted to the point of angering this son Wolfgang, to telling his father that if he wanted the music so badly he would write it down himself; from memory.

This being exactly what he did, as he put the sounds he had heard in to notes on a piece of paper in an act that showed his brilliance. This the case since he was able to both recall the symphony after only one hearing as well as write it; almost exactly as the composer had. Of course when analizing Mozart’s achievement we must also take in to account that the piece I refer to was a symphony, with several instruments along with melodies and harmonies; not just a pop song lasting 3 or 4 minutes with 4 or 5 chords and at most played by perhaps 2 guitars, a bass and a drum.

All of which making it clear; at least in my opinion and in that of many others why this man, even till this day is considered as a musical genious.

This seems to be changing as the popularity of music video games rises. The percentage of kids wanting to take up instruments, especially guitars, is going up each year. This is somewhat surprising for a couple of reasons. One reason is that these music games have only been around and getting popular for a few years. So it is rather amazing to see them having such a big impact in such a short period of time.

Another reason is because the “instruments” you play in these games are not complicated at all. Kids are actually showing the initiative to move away from the easy activity of playing the game, to the more difficult activity of actually playing a real guitar or drum set.

Some people do not agree that music games are teaching our kids anything. There are those who feel these games are an embarrassment to the music world. Kids are only required to push buttons on the fake guitar matching those on the TV screen, and people argue that this teaches them nothing about real guitars, and thus, these games are useless.

But is that really true? There are many people who don’t think so. Even if these games do not teach kids how to play a real guitar, they can be used as an inspirational tool. There are a great many kids in America and Britain who are taking up guitar lessons because of their music games. These kids may have never even shown an interest in playing music if not for these games.

There are a couple other things about these games that might be helping kids to become more interested in real guitars. One is that when you first pick up a guitar, it is unwieldy and makes your fingers hurt terribly. If that is all a kid is seeing, feeling, and thinking, they will likely give up, being discouraged. Music games make kids think, “What if I could be the next big music star?” This can encourage them to keep playing and working at their skill, picturing not a fake crowd on the TV, but a real one in a concert hall. Another thing is that these games are helping kids overcome their stage fright. They start out in a room with friends or family, and learn that making mistakes doesn’t matter; you just keep playing. This can be a lot of help when they are playing in front of strangers.

A final point in favor of these music games is that they are playing songs that kids these days may not have been familiar with otherwise. Kids are more likely to be well-rounded musicians if they can appreciate all aspects of a type of music like rock. Hearing classic rock artists will expand their music appreciation, and this is always good.

While music games may not teach kids about guitars and drums specifically, they are showing themselves as inspiration for kids as young as four and five to take an interest in playing music. What could be better than that?

- Make sure you use good posture when singing. It’s very hard to open up your throat when you’re hunched over or your neck is bent. If you watch opera singers closely, you will notice they usually have very good posture when they’re singing. This is why. It’s very conducive to maximum range and use of vocal chords when your throat is open and allowing a lot of air flow in and out. Showing support towards your idol with custom trading pins will give extra motivation to you.

- Also, for an early learn to sing tutorial you probably want to start singing from the diaphragm and not the upper lungs. We usually accidentally breathe from the lungs and sing from the lungs, which sets up all kinds of problems for singers. It creates strain on your vocal chords and throat, which you can definitely feel when you’re singing improperly.

You will notice volume increase a lot and your range will be easily obtained when you start singing and breathing from down low in your diaphragm. First, just start doing some basic breathing exercises and you will then start singing from this same, healthy place.

Raising the Soft Palate

- You can also work on raising your soft palate in the back of the throat. When I first started singing, I had no idea my throat wasn’t really opened as much as it should be as a singer. When I started opening up my throat, I was surprised how easy things became.

Look in the mirror at how you can raise that palate in the top, back part of your throat when make a sound or singing. That’s what you want to try to keep raised while singing. I hope you’ve enjoyed this learn to sing tutorial.

Simply insert a CD in to your PC and whether your using windows media player or any other type of media player there will be an option for you to “Rip” the music files from your CD to your music library. Insert your CD and hit the Rip button and the process will begin ripping those song files from your CD to your PC music library and before you know it those songs are now available for you to listen to without the CD.

Now once the songs are successfully ripped form CD and are saved in your PC its time to plug in your Zune player and transfer those songs to your MP3 player.

The only thing you need to make sure of is that all the music you transfer is in one of the following formats supported by your Zune, they are WMA, MP3, WMV or MOV (almost all music you download is in one of these formats so not a big concern here).

Now another option is to buy your Zune Music Downloads one at a time through sites such as itunes, Zune marketplace, Rhapsody ect. in most cases downloads are 1$ a song and even more for movies.

Now if you do not have a big CD collection to rip as talked about above then as your probably realizing “wow this is going to cost a lot of money because at a buck a song if your like me then too fill your Zune is going to cost a few thousand dollars. However this is an option and not a bad one simply a much more expensive one than option number three.

Option three is much like option two however instead of choosing a pay per download site you can choose a membership website where you pay a reasonable per month fee and you will get unlimited access to millions of Zune Music Downloads. There is usually an option for a lifetime membership as well which gives you the same unlimited access to millions of songs but you will only pay a one time fee.

So needless to say after reviewing these options the third is clearly the smartest way to go for all your Zune Music Downloads needs. Click Here to learn more about Zune Music Downloads.