April 4th, 2009 artsbook
To get a jump start on learning to play the piano, you can probably use a few extra tips. A few of these ideas may be obvious, but we all need to be reminded of the basics now and then. As for the rest, you may learn a thing or two. Keep this list in mind as you start to learn.
(… and above all, remember that learning to play piano today is quite possible on your own, as there are a number of good training packages available in bookstores or online …)
1. If you are really not interested in the piano, do yourself and everyone else a favor. Don’t bother trying. Maybe you reason that it would be advantageous to play the piano, but your heart is not in it. In that case, you could listen to lots of piano music and see if you develop an interest. Do not start trying to play until you are happy at the thought of learning.
2. Play what you like. In earlier times, and sometimes even now, the learning process required large amounts of time learning traditional piano music before being allowed to choose. It will be far more inspiring for you if you derive pleasure from the learning experience, so try and find simple versions of your favorite songs. This way, you can still have fun while learning.
3. Dive right in. Do not wait for the sun to turn purple or even to learn all the scales. Begin playing as soon as possible. The more you play, the more you will learn. The more you learn, the more you will play. This can only be good for bettering your skills.
4. Play on the best piano you have available. Although don’t be too put off if all you can find is an electric keyboard. It’s definitely an advantage if you get to use a Clavinova, as it has all of the 88 keys. Others may argue that an upright piano is even better. But obviously, if you are able to practice on a grand piano, by all means go for it!.
5. If the piano is on your premises, try not to annoy others who live with you. The sound will invariably echo through the walls. In most households, this is unavoidable. Although, try to make sure that you ask permission before you begin to practice, as those who need some quiet time, or need to study will find the noise very distracting. Maybe they have had a hard day and just need a little peace. If you choose to disregard their opinion, the tension between house-mates may hamper your practice.
6. Set up your own reasonable discipline. Do not be harsh with yourself. There are times where it is simply not practical to continue playing. Try not to force yourself to continue, as you may come to dislike each session. Allow yourself a little leeway. At the same time, keep up the practice as much as you reasonably can. Only constant practice can aid you to develop your senses and coordination, in order to eventually achieve mastery.
7. Start yourself a journal in order to monitor progress. If anything is new to you, or confusing, take 5 minutes to check the internet or reference manual . Use a blank booklet, or open a document on the PC, typing each new achievement or lessons learned. You can also write in the notebook what has worked for you and what has seemed to make things harder. Record accomplishments while fresh on the mind, as you may soon forget.
As a beginning piano player, you have all the time in the world to learn new things abut your instrument. Each time you find something that makes your life easier; remember it so that you can use it again. This ensures that you advance each lesson, without being stuck on a plateau.
p.s. If you are considering piano lessons for a child, check out the article Tips for Teaching Piano to Children.
Tags: learning to play piano, piano
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April 4th, 2009 artsbook
Online lessons are being used more and more due. You can learn online foreign languages, web design, web design, programming and many other. One interesting thing is the fact that you cant learn online even how to sing.
An online learning program which is used very much is Singorama. This online program will learn you how to sing or how to improve your singing. Singorama is a restricted membership site. So you have to buy your membership. It is not a big amount of money so everybody who wishes to learn how to sing should afford it.
You will see that is a very well organised program and that it will be very simple to start using it. You will find the introduction at the start of the Singorama.
Several audio lessons will be offered to you after finishing the introduction chapter. You will be learned what is the correct way to breathe during singing, or how to understand your voice, vocal methods and singing styles. You will be offered training exercises after finishing the basics.
After you will finish the course, you will get 3 original songs for you . Special for your voice, those three songs will learn you exact timing, the proper rythm and instrumental backing tracks.
There are evident proofs of Singorama’s real aid for some people. One of the proofs of the fact that Singorama really helps is the case of a little girl from Canada which bought membership, and after about an year, she won a music award. In her opinion, Singorama is the big factor that contributed at her success. Derick, a 49 years old retired marine officer bought membership and had success with it. Derick is now the most sold Christmas carols singer in his state. So for sure, Singorma will work if you work a little and you really wish to learn how to sing. By joining this program you will just win. You will have nothing but to win. And maybe after finishing the course, you’ll become a better singer.
You won’t become a music star only with this site. You’ll have to work hard, and also you will follow your dream with any price. And maybe some day you will end up a famous singer.
Check out more singorama review here.
Tags: Singorama, singorama review
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April 1st, 2009 artsbook
Anyone at the 02 arena on saturday to see Metallica play their final dates of their ‘world magnetic’ tour? Its good to see Metallica playing almost all of the new album, as the St anger tour was just them playing the classic songs, with nothing new.
Metallica’s new album ‘Death magnetic’ receives unfair comparisons to their 1986 classic ‘Master of puppets’, probably because its the closest album we have to compare it to. Death magnetic doesnt have the simplicity of the ‘Black’ album, yet the technicality of ‘And justice for all’. ‘That was just your life’ and ‘end of the line, which open up the album feel as if ‘Battery’ and title track ‘Master of puppets’ got an update for 2008/9. The same with instrumental track ’suicide and redemption’ and ‘my apocalypse’ -you cant shake the feeling that they wanted another ‘Orion’ and ‘damage inc’ to stick onto the album. The album surprised alot of people who were ready to to write it off- myself included.
After main support Machine head build the crowd up into a frenzy, its up to Metallica to deliver, and they dont disapoint. Starting with the opening two tracks from the new album and dont let up the pace by playing 3 tracks from the much loved ‘And justice for all’. A tribute to ‘Justice for all’ reaching the 20 year mark? I was just grateful for all nine minutes of the album’s title track, epic fan favourite ‘one’ and the brilliant ‘Harvester of sorrow’.
The surprise of the evening came from the album ‘Ride the lightning’ in the song ‘fight fire with fire’, which rarely gets an outing. The trip to London was is instantly made worthwhile. Metallica played a total of six tracks from the new album- and they were clearly relishing the chance to play the new material. With lars bouncing around on the kit with added ‘oomph’ and Hetfield having the energy of a 20 year old, running to all four mics onstage at any given time. A much called for encore seems them cover Motorhead’s ‘Overkill’ and ‘Kill ‘em all’ favourites ‘Hit the lights’ and ‘Seek and destroy’.
After seeing them play all of ‘master of puppets’ at Download 2006 i vowed not to see them again because I didnt htink they could top that acheivement. Im glad to admit i wass very, very wrong. Metallica delivered a brutal, energetic set of metal after showing that they can still write a great metal record, they’ve demonstrated to all of us there that they can still play it to.
If only the trains had been working that night -Id say this was a great gig -would others who were there agree? Thinking about holding a riverside event near the O2 or want to keep up with London events?
Tags: London events, Riverside events
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March 31st, 2009 artsbook
One of the best things about the Internet is that you can now download music. often times for free, and add it to your MP3 player in just seconds!Even though there are some good free sites, be careful when downloading from the free sites, the quality may not be all that great and sometimes those so-called free sites might include spyware or malware with the download. I recommend BeeMP3.com has great free music downloads.And great quality, too.
But often times, you have to pay for music if you want the quality and peace of mind. Amazon has a terrific selection and the price is not too bad, $0.79 to $0.99 per song.
(This article is only about MP3 players, downloads, and Windows-based products and information, sorry to all the Apple fans out there.)!)
There are other free sites out there that I have used to download music, but they are not quite legitimate, and one of the sites I like is always getting into legal trouble with their government for copyright issues (the site is based somewhere in Europe). So, I am a bit leery of recommending or linking to that site, or any other sites that are questionable.
And my recommendation for the best MP3 player on the market today is the Zune from Microsoft. There are plenty of MP3 products on the marketplace today, and there are products that are cheaper than the Zune, but they just do not have the capacity nor the ease of use that the Zune offers. And this is especially helpful for music fans who want to build a huge musical library for your computer and your MP3 player. My 80 GB Zune is maxed out, and I’ve had to remove some files to add more songs. I hope to buy the 120 GB very soon.
And if you are a bit confused with all the technical jargon, I’ve written an e-book about how to create a digital music library on your computer and on your MP3 player.My e-book offers a truly easy way to collect a state-of-the-art digital music library that is inexpensive, portable, and takes up very little space.
Happy music downloading, enjoy!
Tags: dowload, downloads, easily, free, from, Internet, MP3, Music, player, the
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March 30th, 2009 artsbook
With the Thrash metal revival in full swing, lets take alook at Thrash metals ‘big four’ bands that bought the genre to the forefront just the heyday of 80s thrash.
- Metallica. One of the first wave of thrash bands, Metallica gave us ‘kill ‘em all’ in 1983 and ‘Ride the Lightning’ a year later, then stepped things up with 1986’s Master of puppets -an album people claim is the pinnacle of the genre. After the technicality of ‘And justice for all’, Metallica were catapulted into rock stardom with the ‘black’ album, which cause many to level claims of ’sell out’ at the band. After ‘load’ and ‘re-load’, fighting napster and rehab, Metallica came back out with ‘St Anger’, which the making of was filmed for the movie documentary ‘Some kind of monster’. They released ‘Death Magnetic’, which saw them acknowledge their thrash roots. Still no ‘Master of puppets though’.
- Slayer. From California, Slayer started out sounding very Judas Priest/ Iron maiden-ish with their first two albums ‘Show no mercy’ and ‘Hell awaits’, then came their classic thrash album ‘reign in blood’ in 1986, bringing in more speed, aggression and balls to the wall brutality. When the 90s killed off most metal bands Slayer continued to survive, flying the flag for metal. ‘Seasons in the Abyss’, ‘Divine Intervention’ and ‘Diablious in musica’ all released during this period, Original drummer Dave Lombardo returned to the fold after ‘God hates us all’ and played on ‘Christ Illusion’. Rumors are abound of Slayer retiring soon, -lets hope not.
- Megadeth. After being fired from Metallica, Dave Mustaine put his anger and rage into his new band Megadeth. They released debut album ‘killing is my business and business is good’ in 1985, then much loved albums ‘peace sells’, ‘rust in peace’ amd countdown to extinction’. Megadeth have never had a stable line up, chaging band members constantly over than Mustaine,who called it a day in 2002 after damaging nerves in his hand. Intensive pyshical therapy repaired my hand and Meagdeth were up and running again in 2004, releasing the system has failed and united abominations.
- Anthrax. Anthrax came to being in 1981 with guitarists Scott Ian and Danny Lilker, releasing ‘fistful of metal’ in 1984, their only record with original vocalist Neil Turbin. Then came singer Joey Belladonna to complete the classic anthrax line up for the next 5 albums, including the albums ’spreading the disease’ and ‘among the living’ before being replaced with John Bush of Armored Saint. Anthrax then seem to disapear from view, being ‘forgotten’ on their new label, until they moved onto Nuclear Blast and released ‘we have come for you all’ in 2004. The band later re-united with Joey Belladonna before he to jumped ship- and Anthrax have now drafted in Dan Nelson and are currently writing new materal.
This thrash nostalgia made you want to don some converse trainers and retro bags again? Go here.
Tags: Converse Trainers, Retro bags
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