Related Articles

Paint Your Own Musical Landscapes!
I don't know why, but I find the idea of interpreting nature musically to be very appealing. Maybe it's because I'm attracted to nature's beauty, but the notion of communicating that beauty musically has always intrigued me.

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Why Learning How to Improvise is So Important
Imagine asking a beginning writer to write a short story from scratch. Our writer does not yet have much experience in writing but accepts the challenge and begins to plunge ahead.

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How to Improvise Using a Few Chords
When a painter is getting ready to paint, a color palette is usually chosen first. For example, if a forest is to be painted, the artist may choose browns, greens, and blues for the sky.

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Guitar Players...Learn About The Point Of Discipline
Have you ever started learning a lick or exercise and stopped practicing it before you had mastered it? Now I don't know you, but my guess the answer to the question is yes! Why is that? Why did you stop, when it was something that you REALLY wanted to learn?There are quite a few reasons for it, but the one I would like to mention now is what I call the "point of discipline". This is the point when the initial enthusiasm of learning that new lick/exercise wears off.

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Art of the Recording Engineer: From Michael Jackson to Mutant Radio, Matt Forger Speaks Out
Interviewed by Scott G (The G-Man)G-Man: When people think of Matt Forger, they usually think of your work with Michael Jackson, Quincy Jones, Bruce Springsteen, Paul McCartney, Glen Ballard, and Bruce Swedien, yet when you hand out a CD with examples of your producing, engineering or mixing, it almost always has new and emerging artists, people like Mutant Radio, Laughing With Lulu, The Dharma Bomb, or Fjaere. What's your thinking behind the choice of avoiding the big names?Forger: While my association with those big names was a wonderful experience, it's also in the past.

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Discover The Perfect Place To Perform
Once you know what your Unique Selling Proposition is as a musician (we covered this in the last issue), it's time to ask yourself what kind of venue you want to be letting those talents out in. This is the process that will help you determine your "Perfect Performance Venue" so that you don't waste your energy and efforts searching for performances in the wrong area!Take some time to do this visualisation.

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Review: Medications - All Your Favorite People In One Place
One of the most intriguing aspects of music is how easily it can transform one's mood. The right notes, at the right tempo, and all of a sudden, BAM! You're in a good mood.

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The Flower Garden and New Age Piano Music
If you've ever looked at a flower garden, not only its beauty may have captivated you, but also its overall arrangement.There may have been some tulips or roses combined with other flowers or plants.

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Living Life Loud
Change is good. Just ask the millions of unsigned artists worldwide trying to get their music heard.

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Defining The True Artist - Do You Have What It Takes?
"The real communicating artists seek unique expression. They are not interested anymore in sounding like their heroes, they are searching constantly, developing and refining their own unique voice.

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Musicians: What Chords Do You Absolutely, Positively Have To Know?
As you probably know, there are thousands and thousands of different chords in music - everything from basic major chords to minor 7ths to 13ths to suspensions to poly-chords. Someday, you might want to learn all those chords if you don't already know them.

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Music & Emotions: Can Music Really Make You a Happier Person?
How many times have you turned to music to uplift you even further in happy times, or sought the comfort of music when melancholy strikes?Music affects us all. But only in recent times have scientists sought to explain and quantify the way music impacts us at an emotional level.

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Guitar Buying - The Pros and Cons of Vintage vs. Reissue
To most people, owning the "genuine article" is the only thing that will suffice. As a guitar player, and one who appreciates classic "vintage" instruments, I can fully understand this point of view.

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Choosing a Jazz Band for Your Party
In many years of arranging jazz bands for all sorts of events I am struck by the similarity of how the request is made by most of our clients.It goes something like this: "We are looking for a jazz band to play at our wedding / book launch / family fun day / sixtieth birthday/ store opening etc.

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Jazzing Up Your Leadership Style
I met New York jazzman Tim Armacost in college almost 25 years ago, at a time when we were both grappling not only with what careers we ought to pursue, but with what kind of adults we wanted to become. Tim comes from an illustrious family, boasting more than its fair share of bank presidents, ambassadors and college presidents.

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Music Downloads: Free & Low Cost Ways For Musicians To Get Their Music Known All Over The World
Music downloads are highly compressed audio files transferred onto a personal computer from an Internet website or P2P (peer to peer) program. From IPOD's to MP3 players galore, music downloading is seen as the fastest way for a musician to get his or her work out to the public.

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Flaming Guitars! Minarik Fuels The Excitement of a New Generation of Musicians
From the Telecaster to the Flying V to the Iceman to the Warlock, some guitar designs are forever branded on our consciousness, and now there's a new one: the Minarik Inferno X-treme. The body shape erupts in furious fingers of flame.

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Killer Piano Playing Secrets of a Chord Addict!
I wish you could have seen me play the piano when I was just learning. I was the nearest thing to "hopeless" that you could imagine.

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The Post-rock Revolution (Explosions in the sky)
A lot has been said about the 'post-rock' revolution as of late. The rise of instrumental bands such as Explosions in the sky, Godspeed you! black emperor, Maserati, and The Mercury Program has raised questions about the direction that music is traveling.

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Quick and Easy Violin Mute
One of the reasons I picked up the violin was because it was easier to travel with than a guitar (not that I haven't found some nice travel guitars, but that's another story). It fits in an airplane overhead and is easy to carry!However, I want to be considerate of the folks in the rooms around me when I'm playing in my hotel room.

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