Picking the right production tools is a very important part of any producers journey. The sound that you have as a producer will greatly depend on the tools that you use. So when picking your tools the first thing you have to decide on is what you want to sound like. If you want to have a grimey old school underground hip hop sound, similar to Nass illmatic in the early 90s than you should consider using a old MPC or ASR-10. You are going to want to get a large collection of vinyl records, and drum breaks. You will also probably want to have a synthesize of some sort that has a good bass patch to write your basslines with. If you are trying to make beats of this style and using a triton extreme you will find yourself wondering why you cant get your beats to sound like what you want them to sound like. Similarly if all you are using is a bunch a vinyl records and a mpc, and youre trying to make pop records like Timbaland you will find yourself scratching your head. But this is common sense.
Lets talk about about specifics details. First lets start with your drums. If you are doing anything in the pop world you are going to want to make sure you have a great 808 kit. The Roland 808 has been around in popular music since the 80s and it doesnt look like it is going anywhere. As the Black Eyed Peas put it, the 808 is that Boom Boom in your trunk. There are tons and tons of crappy 808 sounds floating around the internet, make sure you spend the time to sort through them to find a good 808 kit that is specific to you. They all technically come from the same sound source but if you listen closely you will find little idiosyncrasies in the different sounds. Not all 808s are created equally.
The problem with the 808 is that everybody uses it. I feel like the best way to incorporate the 808 in your production is using it sparingly, use the 808 kick underneath a different kick, or use the clap as a percussion instrument rather than your clap. Obviously there have been many producers who have made a lot of money using the 808 kit as their main source of drums but to every beat that gets placed with the 808 as the dominant sound source there are ten thousand others that sound exactly the same.
This is part 1 in series of articles about production tools. Visit my blog at http://www.gimmethattrack.com/blog for more production tips and hints.
The piano player with the knowledge to play sound chord progressions is the heart of a good band. Their mastery of progressions allows them to fill out the sound of a band. Fundamentally strong chord progressions significantly impact the sound of a song and can make it robust or just BUST.
The way that voicing is assigned can make a huge difference in how a song is received. If you review the chord progressions of some the famous musicians from the baroque, classic and romantic eras you will understand this to be true.
If youre more advanced then you could be interested in the review on Piano Chord Progressions and read more on advanced techniques of chording and music theory; http://www.pianolessonsonlinefinder.com/piano-chord-progressions/
Have you ever gotten sheet music and found that the chord structure was not what you thought it should be? Often these sources only give you the simple arrangement for the chords. You play them only to thinkthis isnt what I remembered it to sound like.
If you were able to build a fundamentally sound chord progression you would hold the solution in your own hands. You would be able to hear those changes yourself because you would be used to playing them all the time.
Simply hoping that you will somehow be able to hear them wont make it reality. You need to learn how to hear them for yourself.
Take a peek at a good way to get started with this http://www.pianolessonsonlinefinder.com/piano-chord-progressions/
There are several courses on line that teach chord piano. Search around and find one geared toward what you would like to accomplish with lessons. The style music you wish to play will significantly influence this decision . If you like the blues then your chord structure will differ from a gospel player. You must do the research and find the right course for the music that interests you most.
One thing is for sure. If you dont know how to use chords effectively your music will suffer. The only way to remedy that is to find a solution to the problem (a good course) learn the basics of chord progressions and practice, practice, practice.
Get started by finding a course that you are comfortable with. If you don’t get started you won’t be any better in a year than you are now.
Check out this review site where they rate courses for several different types of playing. http://www.pianolessonsonlinefinder.com/best-of-the-best/
Five Key Practice Tips for Playing the Piano or Keyboard
By: Tom Johnson
A tourist in New York City asked a local resident How do you get to Carnegie Hall? The passerby answered, practice, practice, practice. Have you ever watched someone playing the piano with incredible skill and wondered how they do it? The answer is simple P R A C T I C E.
Learning to play the piano is the same as learning any skill. After acquiring the necessary knowledge, it then becomes a matter of practice, using repetition to gain the skill required to be successful. I often ask my students How is a great basketball player able to shoot the ball with incredible accuracy? The obvious answer is that he spends countless hours working on the skill of shooting the ball. Over and over again he practices shooting the basketball. That applies to learning to play the piano or keyboard as well. The skill of playing the piano will develop after the repetition of quality practice.
I have compiled this list of the Five Key Practice Tips for Playing the Piano or Keyboard as a tool to help you get the most out of your practice time. Lets look at these keys.
KEY #1: BEFORE YOU BEGIN: Practice must be INTENTIONAL and CONSISTENT. In order to maximize your efforts, it is important to set a regular practice schedule that works for you. I have found that those students who set a regular time each day to practice the piano have the most success. How much time and how often should you practice? That depends on your goals for learning the piano. If you are just wanting to learn for your own enjoyment and do not have intentions of performing then 30 45 minutes a day should be sufficient. If you have a loftier goal than that, then you obviously need to practice much more each day. Professional pianists practice several hours a day.
KEY #2: WARM-UP: Begin each practice session with a WARM-UP time. Just as an athlete will stretch and slowly build up to the full effort, one should develop a warm-up routine before each practice. One excellent way of warming up, is to play various scales, both major and minor. Newer students can play one octave scales ascending and descending.
-1-
This should be done using each hand separately. Once that is achieved, the student should begin working to play the scales with both hands at the same time. A more advanced student can play the scales in multiple octaves (3 or 4) with both hands together, ascending and descending. There are many piano exercise books available that can also be used as warm-ups.
KEY #3: SPEED KILLS. One of the mistakes that many piano students make is to practice at too fast a tempo. As you begin work on a selection, remember that slower is better. You can begin to gradually increase the speed at which you practice as you become more familiar and comfortable with the piece. Slower practice makes for better accuracy and smoother playing.
KEY #4: SMALL BITES. Someone once asked, How do you eat an elephant? The answer was One bite at a time. I have often seen students plow their way through a piece of music from the beginning to the end, all the while making numerous mistakes along the way. I recommend that optimum practice should consist of perfecting a small bite (measure or phrase) and then moving to the next bite. After getting the second bite perfected, go back and combine the two. Then move to the third bite. You will find by layering the entire piece a bite at a time, you will achieve the results you want.
KEY #5: 70 % - 30%. The final key to maximizing your practice is to use the 70-30 rule. You should use 70% of your practice time working on new material. The last 30% of your practice time should be spent reviewing and playing selections already mastered. This review time each day, helps you to develop better musicianship and touch in your playing. It also gives you a sense of accomplishment and confidence in your playing ability.
Consider the tips in this report as you practice playing the piano. I am confident that you will achieve success.
For more piano lesson help, go to http://pianolessonsonlineblog.com
On Tuesday, April 6, Rihanna announced that Nicki Minaj and pop singer Ke$ha would join her on the North American leg of her ‘Last Girl On Earth’ tour, but tonight (April 7), Rihanna will take the stage on ‘American Idol’ to perform her new single.
Although The Beatles-themed episode will feature a set of performances from John Lennon and Paul McCartney’s extensive catalog, Rihanna is set to perform the new single ‘Te Amo,’ from her album ‘Rated R.’ Rihanna will perform during the elimination round of tonight’s episode of Idol, where she will be joined by other musical guests Jason Derulo and Idol’s season 7 runner-up David Archuleta, who will perform John Lennon’s ‘Imagine.’
Rihanna is the latest in a series of R&B performers who have taken the stage on Idol this season. Both Diddy and Usher appeared on Idol’s March 31 episode. Diddy brought along his new group Dirty Money to perform their single ‘Hello Good Morning,’ while Usher served as mentor-of-the-week for the ten remaining Idol hopefuls.
Rihanna’s upcoming ‘Last Girl On Earth’ tour will kick off in Seattle on July 2 and wrap up in Chicago on August 25. Tickets can be purchased at LiveNation.com on Friday, April 9. Catch her performance on American Idol, tonight at 8PM, on Fox.Check out Rihanna’s AOL Sessions performance after the jump.
Five Key Practice Tips for Playing the Piano or Keyboard
By: Tom Johnson
A tourist in New York City asked a local resident How do you get to Carnegie Hall? The passerby answered, practice, practice, practice. Have you ever watched someone playing the piano with incredible skill and wondered how they do it? The answer is simple P R A C T I C E.
Learning to play the piano is the same as learning any skill. After acquiring the necessary knowledge, it then becomes a matter of practice, using repetition to gain the skill required to be successful. I often ask my students How is a great basketball player able to shoot the ball with incredible accuracy? The obvious answer is that he spends countless hours working on the skill of shooting the ball. Over and over again he practices shooting the basketball. That applies to learning to play the piano or keyboard as well. The skill of playing the piano will develop after the repetition of quality practice.
I have compiled this list of the Five Key Practice Tips for Playing the Piano or Keyboard as a tool to help you get the most out of your practice time. Lets look at these keys.
KEY #1: BEFORE YOU BEGIN: Practice must be INTENTIONAL and CONSISTENT. In order to maximize your efforts, it is important to set a regular practice schedule that works for you. I have found that those students who set a regular time each day to practice the piano have the most success. How much time and how often should you practice? That depends on your goals for learning the piano. If you are just wanting to learn for your own enjoyment and do not have intentions of performing then 30 45 minutes a day should be sufficient. If you have a loftier goal than that, then you obviously need to practice much more each day. Professional pianists practice several hours a day.
KEY #2: WARM-UP: Begin each practice session with a WARM-UP time. Just as an athlete will stretch and slowly build up to the full effort, one should develop a warm-up routine before each practice. One excellent way of warming up, is to play various scales, both major and minor. Newer students can play one octave scales ascending and descending.
-1-
This should be done using each hand separately. Once that is achieved, the student should begin working to play the scales with both hands at the same time. A more advanced student can play the scales in multiple octaves (3 or 4) with both hands together, ascending and descending. There are many piano exercise books available that can also be used as warm-ups.
KEY #3: SPEED KILLS. One of the mistakes that many piano students make is to practice at too fast a tempo. As you begin work on a selection, remember that slower is better. You can begin to gradually increase the speed at which you practice as you become more familiar and comfortable with the piece. Slower practice makes for better accuracy and smoother playing.
KEY #4: SMALL BITES. Someone once asked, How do you eat an elephant? The answer was One bite at a time. I have often seen students plow their way through a piece of music from the beginning to the end, all the while making numerous mistakes along the way. I recommend that optimum practice should consist of perfecting a small bite (measure or phrase) and then moving to the next bite. After getting the second bite perfected, go back and combine the two. Then move to the third bite. You will find by layering the entire piece a bite at a time, you will achieve the results you want.
KEY #5: 70 % - 30%. The final key to maximizing your practice is to use the 70-30 rule. You should use 70% of your practice time working on new material. The last 30% of your practice time should be spent reviewing and playing selections already mastered. This review time each day, helps you to develop better musicianship and touch in your playing. It also gives you a sense of accomplishment and confidence in your playing ability.
Consider the tips in this report as you practice playing the piano. I am confident that you will achieve success.
For more piano lesson help, go to http://pianolessonsonlineblog.com
Picking the right production tools is a very important part of any producers journey. The sound that you have as a producer will greatly depend on the tools that you use. So when picking your tools the first thing you have to decide on is what you want to sound like. If you want to have a grimey old school underground hip hop sound, similar to Nass illmatic in the early 90s than you should consider using a old MPC or ASR-10. You are going to want to get a large collection of vinyl records, and drum breaks. You will also probably want to have a synthesize of some sort that has a good bass patch to write your basslines with. If you are trying to make beats of this style and using a triton extreme you will find yourself wondering why you cant get your beats to sound like what you want them to sound like. Similarly if all you are using is a bunch a vinyl records and a mpc, and youre trying to make pop records like Timbaland you will find yourself scratching your head. But this is common sense.
Lets talk about about specifics details. First lets start with your drums. If you are doing anything in the pop world you are going to want to make sure you have a great 808 kit. The Roland 808 has been around in popular music since the 80s and it doesnt look like it is going anywhere. As the Black Eyed Peas put it, the 808 is that Boom Boom in your trunk. There are tons and tons of crappy 808 sounds floating around the internet, make sure you spend the time to sort through them to find a good 808 kit that is specific to you. They all technically come from the same sound source but if you listen closely you will find little idiosyncrasies in the different sounds. Not all 808s are created equally.
The problem with the 808 is that everybody uses it. I feel like the best way to incorporate the 808 in your production is using it sparingly, use the 808 kick underneath a different kick, or use the clap as a percussion instrument rather than your clap. Obviously there have been many producers who have made a lot of money using the 808 kit as their main source of drums but to every beat that gets placed with the 808 as the dominant sound source there are ten thousand others that sound exactly the same.
This is part 1 in series of articles about production tools. Visit my blog at http://www.gimmethattrack.com/blog for more production tips and hints.
On Tuesday, April 6, Rihanna announced that Nicki Minaj and pop singer Ke$ha would join her on the North American leg of her ‘Last Girl On Earth’ tour, but tonight (April 7), Rihanna will take the stage on ‘American Idol’ to perform her new single.
Although The Beatles-themed episode will feature a set of performances from John Lennon and Paul McCartney’s extensive catalog, Rihanna is set to perform the new single ‘Te Amo,’ from her album ‘Rated R.’ Rihanna will perform during the elimination round of tonight’s episode of Idol, where she will be joined by other musical guests Jason Derulo and Idol’s season 7 runner-up David Archuleta, who will perform John Lennon’s ‘Imagine.’
Rihanna is the latest in a series of R&B performers who have taken the stage on Idol this season. Both Diddy and Usher appeared on Idol’s March 31 episode. Diddy brought along his new group Dirty Money to perform their single ‘Hello Good Morning,’ while Usher served as mentor-of-the-week for the ten remaining Idol hopefuls.
Rihanna’s upcoming ‘Last Girl On Earth’ tour will kick off in Seattle on July 2 and wrap up in Chicago on August 25. Tickets can be purchased at LiveNation.com on Friday, April 9. Catch her performance on American Idol, tonight at 8PM, on Fox.Check out Rihanna’s AOL Sessions performance after the jump.
When lost came for the first time on air on ABC it was an instant hit with over 100 million viewers over the first few episodes. After spending time watching the DVD for the first time I am now able to explain why it is all the craze.
The episode starts with a plane crash on a jet that is traveling from Australia to Los Angeles. The initial science fiction of the show starts when the more than 50 passengers survive the crash but are not left unscathed as they get inflicted with bruises and wounds. The cast which is made up of at least 14 main characters immediately realizes that they have crashed on what they think is a deserted island somewhere in the South Pacific. They only realize from a surviving stewardess, that they had been diverted back to Australia due to mechanical problem. This tells them that they were 2 hours off course and that they have no hope of rescue.
By the time you are through watching the first episode, it is evident that the survivors are not only alone on the island but that the others on the island are also not going to help them escape back to civilization. The movie enables you to answer common questions that we face in our day to day lives because the backdrop of survival and the fight to leave the island and be rescued enables us to peer into our society from a distance. How sincere are we and how should we act? Are we basically decent people? What good thing will you do to your children? How much will you value your family?
With these questions the series Lost becomes such a marketable triumph because it poses all these intricate questions and appealing human relations. Personally I was able to enjoy the first season as it was impulsive while offering sole viewing knowledge by offering a frequent flashback into the characters lives with one character being featured in every episode. If you are looking for a suspense filled series that in a clear light shows the inner humanity behavior and selfishness in a more interesting fashion, I would recommend Lost.
The director and the whole production team did a commendable job by making the film so creepy and at times so inhumane showing the true angles and real behaviors of human beings. This is a good action filled adventurous series that will keep you glued to the screen and craving for more.
If you are looking for information on learning piano. Hopefully you see as a benefit starting your search with this article. Right now you are doubtless unsure of how to proceed. This article addresses the issues you are likely to run into.
Typically beginners come in two ‘flavors’ (1) Adult and (2) Children.
Both are acutally categorized as beginners. But they learn differently
Adult Learning
What number of adults are likely to enjoy a return to the structure of school? Few! So when they embark on a class the instruction has to be innovative to maintain their interest and participation.
Visit this site Piano Courses-Initial for mature players; http://www.pianolessonsonlinefinder.com/beginners-piano-lessons/
One way to accomplish this is to use a multimedia approach. An approach such as this gets people involved and keeps them from losing interest. Inserting the adult learner into their favorite music relatively early on in the process will ensure their attention for longer periods of time.
Adults don’t want to get weighted down in tedium so an interactive course that keeps them engaged works extremely well.
A sampling of the best course modules on the internet show that they include large numbers of video and audio files that parallel their tutorial or lesson plans. They also get the student involved in the styles of music that appeal to them so the student can begin playing and getting a shot of encouragement immediately.
About Child Learning
For a good example of such a philosophy check out this review of one such course on; http://www.pianolessonsonlinefinder.com/piano-is-fun-review/
To keep the interest of a child they must be immersed and kept occupied. Their attention span is even shorter than those of adults. Often children lose their interest once the hard work begins and the fun seems a thing of the past.
Children have to be convinced to the point that they want to learn and the best way is to make it fun. Fun is often absent after a period of time with a traditional approach to music classes.
In today’s world of computer games music teachers often find that the computer is formidable competition for free time. An innovative way to offset this is to combine music lessons with the computer fun aspect.
Once shown the fun of such a course the child learner is anxious for more. The great thing about a course like this is that they learn while having fun and when that occurs the learning happens exponentially faster.
One thing the adult and child do have in common is that either should start with a course that gets them actively involved. That is especially important to the degree of success that can be anticipated.
Additional music and piano course reviews are available on this Lesson Site; http://www.pianolessonsonlinefinder.com/beginners-piano-lessons/
Movie Review: The Usual Suspects - A Shocking Tale Of Adventure
By: George Hutton
There are plenty of movies out there involving crime, criminals, criminal masterminds, and complicated plots that twist every which way before they finally reveal who the bad guy is. In perhaps the most critically acclaimed movie in this genre, “The Usual Suspects” stands head and shoulders above the rest, and is what all other crime movies are compared to. This is an absolute must see movie if you enjoy crime dramas that keep you on the edge of your seat until the very last.
The movie starts out with police rounding up some potential crime suspects for a small time, seemingly inconsequential crime. These small time crooks meet up for the first time in a holding cell, while they are awaiting a police lineup. One of these in the holding cell passes on a job offer from his “boss” to pull of some seemingly easy and small time crime.
When they are released without issue after the lineup, the get together to attempt to pull off this seemingly innocent crime. As they dig deeper and deeper into the nature of their business, they find that there is a criminal mastermind behind the whole thing. A mastermind of crime so soulless and ruthless that any who even glimpse who he is are immediately and ruthlessly killed.
They are told some story or legend about what he did in the old country, when a rival criminal paid him a visit. In a show of force, this rival crime lord threatened to execute his family before his eyes, in hopes of keeping him in line. This deadly killer turned out to be far too much to handle for the local crime lord. He executed his own family himself, before killing all but one of those sent to kill him. Naturally this horrible act established his reputation as the most ruthless criminal ever.
As the members of this small group get closer to closer to the real identify of the evil mastermind, the police get closer and closer to the whole setup. In a shocking race against time, the group must evade capture from the police, and must work together to avoid angering he who has hired them for the job.
But both the group, and the police are completely clueless as to the actual identify of the criminal mastermind behind all this. The shocking secret is revealed, and it is such a pleasant revelation, from a script and acting standpoint, that you will want to watch this movie again and again to see how the clues were cleverly placed along the way, down to the correct tone of voice in certain scenes. You should see this movie at the first chance you get. If you have, you should see it again. And again.
