Synth Motion

Archive for February, 2009

Back in the days when television didn’t reign supreme, music played a much larger part in the entertainment of family and friends. So much so, that every home had a piano and more often than not at least one member of the family could play it. That’s certainly the way it was in our family. And, for me as the designated pianist, I can honestly say that it was a pleasure to do it, even though I didn’t act that way sometimes.

Part of the challenge for me was finding sheet music that I liked, especially at Christmas time. I always felt that the piano arrangements were quite boring and lacked a certain joie de vivre. I think that’s why I eventually started learning improvisation so that I could make up my own arrangements. And, because I didn’t like the standard Christmas versions in print, I always acted like I didn’t want to play. That drove my mother crazy.

Mom couldn’t understand why I wouldn’t use my talent more often. But, I know and I hid the truth from her. I was afraid. I was afraid of being judged by others and that I wasn’t good enough. The fact is though, I was better than most. So, what people thought didn’t really matter at all. But, it mattered to me at the time and took a long ahile for me to even feel comfortable playing in front of others.

Now, as a professional concert pianist, I of course no longer feel inadequate. Many of my colleagues still do but somehow I managed to get rid of that fear of playing mentality. It wasn’t easy let me tell you, but I did it. One of the ways I did it was to finally realize that when I perform it’s not about me at all but about entertaining people and making sure they have a good experience.

For anyone thinking of making music a profession that’s so important to remember. Many musicians think that it’s all about them and they have to sell themselves to an audience. That’s so backwards. The only thing a professional musician should be selling to an audience is the promise of a good time. Man, did it take me a long time to learn that lesson.

In any case, more than ever I love to play the piano at Christmas time. Now that my mom has passed away my Dad has taken it upon himself to carry on the family tradition. So much so that, he actually built a large heated garage beside the main house where he can host a hundred people at a time. He even put the family piano in there.

This year 2006 will see nearly a thousand people come to the family hobby farm and I’m expected to play for most of them. That’s ok though, I love it. Why? Because, I know that a good dose of music and caroling will remind them of a good old fashioned Christmas. You remember, like the ones you used to have before television?

Is it necessary to learn ordinary music notation for guitar or is it sufficient to know how to read tabs? Is it worth the price to learn to read ordinary guitar sheets?

Many guitar books available with tablature notation will also have a staff above with the guitar sheet music notation. It is also very common today that classical guitar books also have a guitar tab staff below.

This was not very common a few decades ago. Tablature has by some guitarists been considered cheating. Is it cheating or is it a help to have tabs at your disposal?

Personally I have as a guitar teacher experienced many instances when tablature has been a great help to my pupils. however, I would be very happy if young musicians would put more energy into the endeavor to learn to read sheet music notation.

It is a great advantage to have a working knowledge on how to read and understand music scores and the various symbols pertaining to it.

Let’s take a look at the advantages of being able to read guitar music notation:

1. You will be able to play a piece of music the way the composer has intended without having heard it before. This is possible because music notation consists of descriptions concerning the pitch and also the length of the notes and other symbols telling you how to play the notes and performing the music.

2. You will have an enormous library of sheet music from various time periods at your disposal. It is possible to play music written for other instruments as well as music notation doesn’t describe how to play the notes on a particular instrument but more which notes to play. This makes it possible for a guitarist to play violin exercises and vocal scores and so on.

3. You will as a guitarist be able to write and arrange music for other instruments in your band making it possible to shorten the rehearsal time and facilitating the use of more complicated musical arrangements.

4. Being able to read and use sheet music will help you as a composer to notate all your ideas in a way that you will remember and that you easily can share with your friends and others.

Let’s look at the advantages of using guitar tablature:

1. Being a poor sheet music reader can hinder your from playing on the level of your techniqal skills. It’s a pity that many guitar pupils play just a few boring sheet music melodies when they could really be playing melodies using the entire fretboard just by the use of tablature.

2. It is very easy to describe chords, licks and complicated riffs with the help of tablature especially if you have audio examples of the music.

3. Tablature notation is still as easy to read even when you use alternative tunings as the tab notation still tells you only how to put your fingers. Using sheet music notation with alternative tunings on the guitar is a bit difficult to say the least.

4. Internet is flooded with more or less accurate tablature renditions of popular riffs, songs and more.

Okey, but what is the best alternative, guitar tablature or guitar sheet music?

My opinion is that you can use tablature as much as you want but I recommend you to really learn to read sheet music notation because of the many advantages you will reap from it.

If you start by learning the names of the notes on the frets of the guitar you have already gained an important skill that will help you as you start to learn the notes on a music score staff.

s world of modern music, it seems that almost any topic related to different types of songs and lyrics has been widely debated, discussed and analyzed. Regardless of the outcomes of such discussions, it is very useful for us to develop things for our life in the music world.

While I was gathering the facts for this article, I was quite surprised to find that some of the issues which I had thought were settled and laid to rest, are still the subject of heated debate. Would you like to find out what those in-the-know have to say about the benefits you can get from rap music? The information in the article below comes straight from well-informed experts with special knowledge about what benefits you can get from rap music.

When people talk about rap music the first thing that springs to mind is the songs with their rapid rhythms and lyrics, which may only be appealing to a particular group of listeners, namely teens and young adults. This is due to its exciting and non-stop singing, which may serve to make it less appealing to older people. However, rap music has extraordinary hidden benefits that most people usually overlook.

For rap music lovers, it is quite definite that they keenly appreciate rap songs because of their unique characteristics that provide maximum entertainment. There are only a few people who realize its benefits in terms of using lyrics as a medium to communicate with other people and representing the truth of life.

Rap is classified as an urban poetry of lyrical resistance. Thus, it is not the music of villages, like country music. The lyrics of rap songs are generally based on people’s life experiences, and it is essential that you to listen carefully, so that you are able to find out the variety of experiences represented in the song, and so develop the quality of your own life.

There are some other types of song that represent people’s lives, such as those of country music, but what you will get from rap music is completely different. This is because country music is usually about the lives of people in rural areas, but rap music deals with both rural and urban life. If you find yourself confused by what you’ve read up to this point, don’t despair. Everything should be crystal clear by the time you finish.

One distinct, noticeable point when you are listening to rap music is that it focuses very much on the lyrics, rather than the sound or rhythm of the music, which means that rap music seems to be the only musical genre that aims to tell people about what is happening in their everyday lives, and what they should do about it.

For this reason, now it is the time to turn to rap music and learn more about its benefits to extend your knowledge, as well as to absorb the beauty of other cultures. But do not forget to listen, and let the knowledge in the song improve your life as well.