Songwriting Part 3
The Eclectic Music Site By themusicfansite on 5/2/2006 1:37 PM
Listen to some of the Stock, Aitken and Waterman hits of the 80s (it's not compulsory if you really can't bear to) and you'll see that most follow the simplest format,
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Private teaching (2)
The Eclectic Music Site By themusicfansite on 5/1/2006 2:46 PM
Building your "studio" into this size is an achievable target, but one not as many as could reach it actually do. Those who do are employing valuable marketing techniques whether they realise it or not.
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Private Teaching (1)
The Eclectic Music Site By themusicfansite on 4/30/2006 3:02 PM
For many of today's musicians, working as a private music tutor has many benefits over working within an educational establishment. Firstly, you are a lot freer to choose where, when, and depending on how well you teach, WHO your students are.
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Song Writing Structure Part Two
The Eclectic Music Site By themusicfansite on 4/10/2006 6:22 PM
Instrumental. This is part of the song without any vocals. Yeah, okay. It's often an instrumental version of the verse or chorus, it may be an improvised variation on one of these, or it may be an entirely different tune and set of chords altogether.
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Creating The Perfect Structure For Your Song
The Eclectic Music Site By themusicfansite on 4/10/2006 6:20 PM
The song structure may not be the first thing you think about when you start writing. You probably work on the verse or chorus, or maybe you have a good riff that you want to expand into a song. So you get that down and then you start to think about the other parts - the intro, how many verses, middle eight, do you want an instrumental, the ending...
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Songwriting
The Eclectic Music Site By themusicfansite on 4/6/2006 11:28 AM
Some songwriters just wait for inspiration, those are not likely to succeed. Inspiration comes as a result of work; to get inspired you have to work hard and practice. So, how can you practice songwriting?! The habit of sitting down to actually think about a subject, to look up words in rhyme dictionaries, to play the piano for just the right chord...etc. All this is just the habit of practicing.
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Setting up a home recording studio
The Eclectic Music Site By themusicfansite on 4/5/2006 12:20 PM
Nowadays affordable computers and great audio hardware make it feasible for anyone to make great recordings. The number of soundcards available for example, is enormous. It is impossible to tell in a few words what you need to start a home recording studio, but in this article I will give some valuable advice to get you started.
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Effective Guitar Practice Routine
The Eclectic Music Site By themusicfansite on 4/4/2006 12:29 PM
Coming up with the best guitar practice routine is a matter of first deciding what your goals are. For most guitarists when they think of a practice routine, the goal is to improve speed and technique. For some ....
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Overcoming Nerves for the Audition
The Eclectic Music Site By themusicfansite on 4/4/2006 12:27 PM
So how do you beat it? How do you walk into an audition so cool, calm and collected that you focus 100% on your lines and character? The key is so simple that many have not even thought about it. But let me warn you first. Any acting coach or teacher that promises you a quick fix to eliminate nervousness, anxiety and fear is full of it. Run for the hills. Over the years I’ve worked with a lot of techniques to deal with these emotions that many face.
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Music Downloading
The Eclectic Music Site By themusicfansite on 3/28/2006 1:25 PM
Internet users face having their computers seized and bank accounts locked as part of a massive European clampdown on illegal music downloading. BPI lawyers said that the 1988 copyright act would cover illegal file-sharing prosecutions because it reserves the right electronically to distribute any work to the owners of the copyright.
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The Solo Musicians Toolbox
The Eclectic Music Site By themusicfansite on 3/26/2006 4:28 PM
If you are a solo musician, there are tools that you should know about, and have in your toolbox. It is best to be prepared for whatever comes your way in the form of gigs, and musical opportunities. In this article I will go over some of the general things in the form of gear, hardware, and software that will give you an edge in this competitive, and demanding world. Keep in mind that these are all suggestions, and it depends on your personal circumstances as to what you are, and are not able to obtain.
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Avoid Repetitive Strain Injuries
The Eclectic Music Site By themusicfansite on 3/26/2006 4:23 PM
Ouch! Does it seem like every note you play on your guitar or musical instrument results in pain? Maybe it’s a nagging ache in your neck and shoulder. Perhaps you’ve had long rehearsals for that important gig or recital, and now you notice severe pain and loss of strength in your elbow and wrist. Or maybe you are trying to cope with hands that are increasingly numb and clumsy. Well it’s all part of being a serious musician, right? You’ve got to keep practicing – too much depends on it! Sound familiar?
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The Sitar
The Eclectic Music Site By themusicfansite on 2/19/2006 10:28 AM
The sitar is a Hindustani classical instrument. Acoustic sitars typically have a gourd acting as the resonating chamber. A distinctive feature are the curved frets, which are moveable (allowing fine variation in tuning) and raised (so that resonant, or sympathetic, strings can run underneath the frets, giving a very lush sound). A typical sitar has 18 or 19 strings (depending on the style) — there are 6 (in the Vilayat Khan style) or 7 (in the Ravi Shankar style) playable strings on top and 11 or 12 sympathetic strings or tarbs under the frets. It is rather difficult to tune the instrument. The strings can be tuned using both the pegs on the sides or the 'beads' at the bottom, which are mainly for fine tuning.
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Comparison of Arrangements of ‘Black Magic Woman’
The Eclectic Music Site By themusicfansite on 2/19/2006 10:26 AM
Original – Fleetwood Mac. This is in 4/4 time with a binary structure. The piece starts with a very short intro of two distorted, harmonising electric guitars. Vocals follow a single hit of the snare drum and we enter section A. This section consists of a six chord pattern. Dm, Am, Dm, Gm, Dm, CM, BbM, AM, Dm. While voice sings, melodic guitar lines fill in the gaps. It seems like the guitar and singer are having a conversation. Bass guitar plays the same pattern over and over while the drums play the toms and snare. After two verses comes a remarkable guitar solo. Its remarkable because of its rhythm and melodic structure. Section B follows right after another verse. This section sees a change of rhythm, but not tempo doesn’t change. The rhythm changes to swing as the drums fully play. Dm is the chord of the B section, with guitar playing melodic phrases with vocals. This continues and the track fades to an end.
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BOSSA NOVA Pt2
The Eclectic Music Site By themusicfansite on 2/19/2006 10:25 AM
In the late 1960s musical influences outside of Brazil like Rock were having their influence upon Brazilian music and musicians, who, while remaining faithful to Brazilian rhythms and styles, were happy to experiment with new styles and instrumentation. So Brazilian popular music began to evolve into a wonderful hybrid of Samba, Bossa Nova, Jazz, Rock and regional traditional musics.
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BOSSA NOVA Pt1
The Eclectic Music Site By themusicfansite on 2/19/2006 10:24 AM
Brazilian Bossa Nova is nearly three decades old. This musical style merits special attention because it is a prime example of modernization in Latin American popular music and because of its impact in other nations, most notably the United States.
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Instruments of the Renaissance Period
The Eclectic Music Site By themusicfansite on 2/19/2006 10:23 AM
The Renaissance, or Re-birth, was a period of less restrictive thinking, attempting to look beyond the medieval worldview. Generally referring to the 15th &16th centuries, this new philosophy allowed a freedom of expression throughout all the humanities, including music. Early Italian composers began to get excited about the Renaissance as they set out to recapture the 'golden age' of ancient Rome. Music became an important part of daily life. Both Sacred and Secular music developed during this period.
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Baroque period music
The Eclectic Music Site By themusicfansite on 2/19/2006 10:21 AM
‘Baroque’ probably comes from the Portuguese word ‘barocco’, meaning an irregularly shaped pearl or piece of jewelry. The term first came about in the highly ornamented style of architecture. Musicians later used the word ‘Baroque’ to describe the period of music history. It was during the 17th century that the system of modes disappeared. Composers had become accustom to sharpening or flattening the odd note here or there. The result was that modes lost their individual characters and came to sound like two modes only, Ionian and Aeolian (or Natural minor). From these two modes grew the major and minor scale system we use today.
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Legal Aspects to running musicals
The Eclectic Music Site By themusicfansite on 2/19/2006 10:20 AM
Theatre and venue licences. A license is required for any public performance space to be used and is to be easily accessible any time the premises is in use. It shall be specified on the license the accommodation limit. The premises must have public liability insurance.
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Four Music Reviews of good music
The Eclectic Music Site By themusicfansite on 2/17/2006 6:15 PM
There she goes – Bob Marley. This is a very happy sounding reggae song in C#Maj. It is moderate in speed, has only 4 chords and is in 4/4 time. The instruments are electric guitar, bass guitar, Drums, 3 male vocals. They all play slightly complex rhythms. A short guitar riff brings the song in. The guitar varies from simple strumming to picking and syncopated strumming. The bass line is the most complex playing in syncopation with the snare drum (the rim is played). The bass drum is accented on the first beat of the bar and in between beats 2 + 3. The vocals are most interesting. Bob Marley is singing the lead line whilst two backing singers sing harmony a 3rd apart to exactly the same rhythm. The overall texture created is homophonic, sounding very full.
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Motown – The Funk Brothers
The Eclectic Music Site By themusicfansite on 2/17/2006 4:05 PM
One of the major factors in the widespread appeal of Motown's music was Gordy's practice of using a highly select and tight-knit group of studio musicians, collectively known as "The Funk Brothers", to record the instrumental or "band" tracks of the Motown songs. Among the studio musicians responsible for the "Motown Sound" were Johnny Griffiths and Joe Hunter on piano, Joe Messina, Robert White, and Eddie Willis on guitar, Eddie "Bongo" Brown and Jack Ashford on percussion, Uriel Jones and Pete Allen on drums, and, the keys to the Motown sound, drummer Benny Benjamin, keyboardist Earl Van Dyke, and bassist James Jamerson. The band's career and work is chronicled in the 2002 documentary Standing in the Shadows of Motown.
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DVD-Audio – Part2
The Eclectic Music Site By themusicfansite on 2/17/2006 3:59 PM
The introduction of the DVD-Audio format angered many early adopters of the DVD format, because DVD-Audio discs were not playable on DVD players sold prior to the new format's introduction. While DVD-Audio discs are capable of higher fidelity sound than CDs, there is debate as to whether or not the fidelity above 48 kHz is distinguishable to typical human ears. However, 24 bit recordings at 44.1 kHz and 48 kHz are widely accepted to be of substantial improvement to the 16 bit recordings currently available on Compact Discs. DVD-Audio currently forms a niche market, probably due to its dependency upon new and relatively expensive equipment and a lack of education regarding higher fidelity and multichannel music. DVD-Audio is currently in a format war with SACD.
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DVD-Audio – Part1
The Eclectic Music Site By themusicfansite on 2/17/2006 3:58 PM

DVD-Audio is a format for delivering high-fidelity audio content on a DVD. It offers many channels (from mono to 5.1 surround sound) at various sampling frequencies and sample rates. Compared to the CD format, the much higher capacity DVD format enables the inclusion of either considerably more music (with respect to total running time and quantity of songs) or far higher audio quality (reflected by higher linear sampling rates and higher vertical bit-rates, and/or additional channels for spatial sound reproduction).
Audio on a disc can be 16, 20 or 24 bit, with sampling rates of 44.1, 48, 88.2, 96, 176.4 or 192 kHz. (The highest sampling rates of 176.4 and 192 kHz are limited to two channels.) Different sampling sizes and frequencies can be used on a single disc. Audio is stored on the disc in LPCM format (uncompressed or losslessly compressed with Meridian Lossless Packing). The DVD-Audio player may downmix surround sound to two-channel stereo if the listener does not have a surround sound ...

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Tell me about CD’s – Pt2
The Eclectic Music Site By themusicfansite on 2/17/2006 3:57 PM

CD-Text

CD-Text is an extension of the Red Book standard for audio CDs. It allows for storage of additional information (e.g. album name, song name, and artist) on a standards-compliant audio CD. The information is stored in the lead-in area of the CD (there is roughly five kilobytes space there), or in the Subchannels R to W on the disc, which are not used on Red-Book compliant CDs. About 31 megabytes of information can be stored there. The text is stored in a format usable by the Interactive Text Transmission System (ITTS). ITTS is also used by Digital Audio Broadcasting or the MiniDisc.
Note that other extensions such as CD+G also use those subchannels to store graphics in.
Copy protection
The Red Book audio specification does not include any copy protection mechanism. Ripping is the process by which the contents of an audio disc is copied out verbatim to a duplicate disc or re-encoded into some other format, such as MP3.
An error-correcting ...

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Tell me about CD’s – Pt1
The Eclectic Music Site By themusicfansite on 2/17/2006 3:56 PM

Standard compact disc, often known as an "audio CD" to differentiate it from later variants, stores audio data in a format compliant with the red book standard. An audio CD consists of several stereo tracks stored using 16-bit PCM coding at a sampling rate of 44.1 kHz. Standard compact discs have a diameter of 120 mm, though 80 mm versions exist in circular and "business-card" forms. The 120 mm discs can hold 74 minutes of audio, and versions holding 80, 90 or even 99 minutes have been introduced. The 80 mm discs are used as "CD-singles" or novelty "business-card CDs". They hold about 20 minutes of audio. Compact disc technology was later adapted for use as a data storage device, known as a CD-ROM.

Lets get physical
Compact discs are made from a 1.2 mm thick disc of polycarbonate plastic coated with a much thinner layer of Super Purity Aluminium (or rarely, gold, used for its data longevity, such as in some limited-edition audiophil ...

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The Revolution Of High-Tech Recording Industry
The Eclectic Music Site By themusicfansite on 2/17/2006 3:54 PM
Today, music is one of the biggest entertainment industries in the world. This market is hotter for many reasons. First of all, customers’ demands and tastes are higher and more diversified than ever. Second, the number of people and companies working in this field are increasing at such a speed that it creates a very large pool of tough competition, and of course, to survive, they have to be unique and distinguished.
We can list some relevant industry jobs such as Recording, Radio, Television and other Media, Working live shows and tours, Music Retailing and Instrument Repairing, Education and Instruction and many more. Among them, the recording industry is one that has been applying high-end technologies for many years.
The recording industry commenced at the start of the 20th century, when publishers of sheet music dominated the music business. With a quick development pace, recording industry gradually dominated and controlled the music industry. This is the kind of mass-production cop ...
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Putting together a Press Kit (for Singers & Musicians)
The Eclectic Music Site By themusicfansite on 2/11/2006 2:37 PM
The main goal in creating a press kit is to generate interest in an artist and the music they play. A press kit includes background information, photos, samples of music, a listing of past and future gigs you have scheduled, and any other relevant information.
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*Piano* The Crossover Technique and How to Use It
The Eclectic Music Site By themusicfansite on 2/11/2006 2:37 PM
The piano is an amazing instrument. So many notes, so many keys! That's why the crossover or arpeggio technique is employed frequently. It allows the pianist to use much of the keyboard and the left hand. The trick to using this technique is in the crossover itself. Usually, the left hands initial position will span an octave and then the index or ring finger will be used to crossover the thumb to continue playing more notes of the chord.
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Legal Free MP3 Downloads - Is It Possible?
The Eclectic Music Site By themusicfansite on 2/11/2006 2:35 PM
Downloading free mp3 music from the internet its a great thing to do. Mp3 downloads can give you thousands of free mp3 songs and hundreds of hours of listening just by using your fingertips. However, the common way to download mp3 music is illegal... but there is another method!
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Buy A Piano
The Eclectic Music Site By themusicfansite on 2/11/2006 2:34 PM
How to buy a piano. There are 5 steps to buying a piano. 1. Set a budget 2. Decide if you want an upright piano or a grand piano 3. Decide if the appearance or the tone is more important to you 4. Do you want a new or second hand piano 5. Decide whether to buy privately or from a dealer
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History of the Guitar Part 2
The Eclectic Music Site By themusicfansite on 2/11/2006 2:33 PM
The guitar became very popular with people because it was a very easy instrument to learn at least a few basic chords and songs. However, the guitar was not accepted well with the ‘serious’ musical community, hence the reason there is very few concertos written for the instrument – and is still dismissed by many classically trained musicians today. In the early 19th century, Fernando Sor became one of the most prolific composers for, and promoters of, the guitar as a ‘concert’ instrument. It was him, and others like him, which paved the way for Andrés Segovia to emerge and help bring the guitar to the immense popularity it enjoys today.
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History of the Guitar Part 1
The Eclectic Music Site By themusicfansite on 2/9/2006 6:37 PM
It is very difficult to trace a line back to the exact birth of the instrument we know as the guitar today, as there is a lot of myth and uncertainty surrounding its origins. This is mainly due to the fact there have been a number of similar instruments throughout the ages. Many historians claim the guitar originated at various points in time. Some believe the guitar in its earliest form dates back some 4000 years, however no-one really knows for sure. This is due to a number of artworks that depict guitar-like instruments being used at various times throughout history. Many ancient Egyptian paintings portray musical instruments that could be mistaken for the guitar.
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*Guitar* What Is The Most Effective Way To Practice?
The Eclectic Music Site By themusicfansite on 2/9/2006 6:36 PM
What is the truth about guitar practice? 1. It is hard 2. It will take dedication and 100% effort if you want to improve quickly 3. It will need concentration and a focus on targets/goals, but remember, it is supposed to be fun too!
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*Piano* Useful Piano Care Tips
The Eclectic Music Site By themusicfansite on 2/9/2006 6:35 PM
Your piano is your soul mate. Therefore it is absolutely important that you take care of it properly. Taking care of your piano does not only entail having it tuned up every two to five years. It would also appreciate a daily maintenance from the owner. What good would it do to a piano if it would just be left at one corner of the house, untouched for sometime? Absolutely nothing, and it would just gather dust and rust, and over time, go out of tune.
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Rap Is More than Music
The Eclectic Music Site By themusicfansite on 2/9/2006 6:30 PM
- Rap is 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.
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What makes good music?
The Eclectic Music Site By themusicfansite on 2/9/2006 6:22 PM
Here’s a few questions to think about:Do you feel stimulated, better, warmer, or improved in some way for having heard the piece? Does the piece still have appeal after having been listened to many times? Does the piece invoke a desire for body movement?
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