Category: Music

The TCU Summer Music Institute in Fort Worth, TX provides an intense, fun-filled experience for middle and high school students.

Band camp will take place June15-19, Marching Percussion and Clarinet Workshops will be held June 23-24, and a Saxophone Workshop is featured June 25. (Source: Fort Worth Child).

For registration, access music.tcu.edu/smi.asp online or call 817-257-7341.

In unrelated event news, the 6th Annual Spirit of Kindness Silent Auction and Dinner Fundraiser will be featured June 26 for the Boston Animal Care and Adoption Center.

For details, go to mspca.org on the Web.

On June 28 the Sudz N’ Fuzz Dog and Car Wash will be presented at the Cape Cod Animal Care and Adoption Center, 1577 Falmouth Road in Centerville, MA. For more details, see the MSPCA website address above.

In other event news, the Kona Marathon benefiting the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network will be held in June 29 in Kona, HI.

Send an email to jmorabito@pancan.org for more information.

In unrelated health news, Duncanville, TX firefighter Tim Riffe is in the midst of a tough fight against colon cancer and his fire department is going all out to help him. (Source: Neighborsgo). There are several fundraising efforts on the horizon and you can look up kramergames.com on the Net to contribute.

In other health news, new ozone standards have been adopted but fall short for public health, reports the American Lung Association. Pulmonary Rehabilitation legislation is also needed for millions of Americans, according to the agency. (Source: lungusa.org).

“Over 40 Senators and 179 Representatives have cosponsored S.329/HR 522, the Pulmonary and Cardiac Rehabilitation Act of 2007,” a press release stated.

NARAL Pro-Choice Texas is asking citizens to sign an online petition urging Congress to help prevent unintended pregnancies in that state by making birth control more affordable. The reimbursement rate for birth control has not increased in decades while costs continue to rise and 98 percent of American women will use it to responsibly plan pregnancies with their families, according to the organization.

“Women spend an average of 35 years avoiding an unintended pregnancy and only five years actively planning one,” literature states.

You can send an online letter at secure2.convio.net/choice/site/. (Source: Planned Parenthood).

In unrelated news, acclaimed automotive artist Bill Neale of Dallas, a founding member of the Automative Arts Society, unveiled a large painting of Parnelli Jones in a King Cobra at the prestigious Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance in March, according to writer Terry Box. (http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/stories/DN-Autos2_09emp.ART.State.Edition1.4444dc4.html).

“Mr. Neale, a longtime friend of Carroll Shelby, is a contributing artist for Car and Driver, Cavallino, and Automobile Magzines,” said Box. “Mr. Neale, 83, says the King Cobra is one of his favorite Shelby racing cars.”

The 24-by-36-inch painting depicts Jones at speed in a King Cobra at Riverside International Raceway in Oct. 1964, Box wrote.…

1. Daisy Duke’s

A nightlife favorite since it was remodeled from an old campus theater house in 2008, Daisy Duke’s boasts the largest square footage of a single bar or dance hall on the Northgate party strip. Friday nights are arguably the best nights to visit the comfortably refurbished dance hall, with discounted drinks all night long and an energetic crowd. The club plays about a fifty-fifty mix of country and hip hop/Top 40 music, making it a favorite of two-steppers and booty-grinders alike. Duke’s (as it is affectionately known by visitors) also doesn’t shy away from fun ’80’s and ’90’s favorites: during my last visit, the whole club was grooving to Digital Underground’s “The Humpty Dance”. The club also books country and hip hop artists on a semi-frequent basis: the catchy “Billionaire” singer Travie McCoy visited in September, and local country favorites Chris Knight and Bruce Robison have made appearances throughout the fall semester. Duke’s is definitely student friendly: featuring end-of-finals specials and holiday events like its annual Halloween party. A perfect place for the “Young, Wild, and Country” of College Station, Duke’s is a great place to unwind with friends.

2. Texas Hall of Fame

Arguably the best place to hear your favorite Texas country artists, the Texas Hall of Fame, located on south 2818, is sure to have visitors two-stepping in their cowboy boots. In the past two months alone, the club has hosted Roger Creager, Aaron Watson, Kyle Park, Reckless Kelly, and Cody Johnson, with Johnny Lee, Granger Smith, Stoney LaRue, and Shawn Jennings slated to appear throughout March. The Hall is very student-friendly as well, boasting some of the lowest entry rates and drink specials throughout College Station: even guys under 21 get in for five dollars all night long. The club also hosts what it calls “The Original College Night” – discounted entrance fees to encourage both guys and girls to come dance, usually held three or four times a month. The Hall embodies classic Aggie nightlife at its best, a great place to go to catch a few two-step numbers with a date.

3. Hurricane Harry’s

Like the Texas Hall of Fame, Hurricane Harry’s features country favorites quite frequently -: recently hosting “She’s Like Texas” crooner Josh Abbot; and No Justice, The Wicked River Band, and Brison Bursey are also all slated to appear within the next month. On a regular night, Harry’s plays a half-and-half mix of club and country music, a perfect mix for any dance hall visitor – and a nightly rendition of Journey’s classic “Don’t Stop Believin'” and The Texas Aggie Fight song add to the unique Harry’s experience. Ample parking and two huge dance floors are sure keep guests coming back. A great place for large groups, Hurricane Harry’s has been a College Station favorite for years.…

Why you should add music to your magic show.
Music can really enhance a magic show. It gives the audience some entertainment while they’re waiting for you to set up for your next trick. It can also give some of your tricks a more fast paced feeling. Music can also act as a good use of misdirection. But most importantly, it adds atmosphere. Watch any movie or TV show and you’ll find music. You’ll notice that all of them play music at various times during its duration. Notice how the music moves you to feel a certain way, or to sense something big is about to happen. Music should do the same thing in your magic show.

Music in the magic show opening.
The opening is the first act of your magic show. It should be the part that makes the audience see how good and entertaining you are, making them want to stay in their seats and watch some more. All the tricks you do as a part of your opening should be short. You should be able to do several in rapid succession.

Adding music to this portion of the show can help the pacing of the tricks. It gives you a tempo to work with. It you play something slow, it’ll throw off the rapid succession of tricks and the audience will feel disoriented. You should play upbeat, pulsing music during the entire opening of the show. It’ll help motivate you to be more upbeat in your movements with the tricks. It’ll also get the audience moving. And if you’re able to do the tricks in time with the beats of the music, it’ll really help the feel of these tricks.

Music during magic show scene changes.
Often times you may have to move things around on the stage. Swapping one large trick for another can be a long tedious job, both for you and your audience. Having some upbeat music playing while you move things around will cure your audience’s boredom, so they won’t be antsy and ready to walk out. You want them to see all your tricks, so keep them interested with some good songs they can tap their feet to.

Music during your closing trick.
The closer is the biggest trick of the show. It is the showstopper, as it were. Because it’s such a big elaborate trick, it might take a bit of time to perform, so you’ll want some music playing during it for the same reason as scene changes. Another note, though, is that you’ll want music that arouses suspense in the audience. Something big is about to happen at this point, and your music should convey this feeling. It should be suspenseful music that has the audience on the seat of their pants. And when the trick is done, the music’s tone should change to something that conveys victory, giving the audience their cue to applaud this great thing you’ve accomplished. It also will then be the undertone of your bow.…

When I was five-years-old I began taking piano lessons. My mother and my grandmother both played piano and wanted me to. I didn’t want to. I saw that as a “girly” thing and also at age five I had a lot better things to do with my time than sit in front of this big thing that had unending teeth that laughed at you because you knew nothing about it.

If you fast-forward 11 years later you find a young man who wanted to be part of a rock band so bad he actually taught himself to play the piano and organ as well knew the trumpet, French horn and drums because he loved music so much. What changed? Was it just a matter of aging? No, I don’t think it was.

Music had become part of my language and I wanted to learn more. I found music contained parts of different histories and parts of different cultures. I became hungry to learn them.

If I had been more aware of things I would have known that we learn music from day one of our lives. Our parents sing to us; we learn from other family members; we learn at school and at church. We not only learn about music but we learn about our culture. Later we listen to records, tapes, radios and television

When we play music a quote from Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones becomes accurate: “Everything you’ve ever listened to comes out.”

Music can have a written language known as sheet music. To give you some idea music is written in two “clefs”, treble and bass. We’ll look at the treble clef. I have linked to a site that shows written music and also the most basic scale which is the “C” major scale.

The treble clef is made up (basically) of five lines and four spaces. The lines are “E,” “G,” “B,” “D,” “F”. The spaces are “F,” “A,” “C,” “E”. The way I was always taught to remember them was that the spaces spelled “face” and the lines stood for “Every good boy does fine.” If you notice by putting it together there is actually a repeating scale “A-G”. The scale you see is actually the staff.

Each one of these letters is a tone. If you go up a half-step it is called a “sharp” and is notated on the staff with ^“#”. If you go down a half-step on the scale that is shown ^“b”.

That is the way we learn music formally.

In Northern India sometimes a student will live with his master our “Guru” to do errands or be chauffeur just to get a basic “lesson.” These are not formal.

African cultures include everyone playing instruments but then sooner or later those that have skill will be called aside to get “special lessons” by those that are more learned.

We learn music many ways. This article just touches on a few.

References:

“Transmission: Learning Music,” Annenberg Media

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8144295610628414248&ei;=WNyOS7PDCoSWqgK0ne3WDw&q;=free+online+c+scale&hl;=en&client;=firefox-a#

Personal Experience…

They say music soothes the savage beast. Actually, originally they said it soothed the savage breast, but somewhere along the way, people starting giggling at the word “breast,” and it got changed to the more well-known but less evocative “beast”. Anyway, I digress. The thing is, sometimes your inner beast doesn’t want to be soothed. Sometimes it wants to be let out and allowed to wreak havoc on everything within its reach. Unfortunately, acts of violence are frowned upon in our society (much like the word “breast”, I suppose), and that’s where music comes into play.

It’s widely acknowledged that music is therapeutic. Soft, gentle music is supposed to ease pain; lively classical concertos are contributing to a nation of baby geniuses, and certified music therapists are facilitating communication in autistic people through musical conversation. But it’s not all sunshine and light, life, and music is good for drawing out your rage and spitting it into the universe without any actual blood having to be shed. Of course, not just any music will do. And while Regina Spektor or Garth Brooks might cause you to scream in pain, that’s not quite what we’re going for here. It has to be loud. It has to be fast. A kick-ass bass line doesn’t hurt, and if it’s not an outright angry song, there has to at the very least be a heavy dose of attitude behind it. This isn’t your emo music that makes you ever so, um… unhappy. This is straight-up fury, pent up and then cracked open and laid bare, acrid stench and all.

So, if you’re having one of those days when you’re late to work, spilled coffee on your lap, and the girl at the drive- thru forgot to put the egg on your Egg McMuffin and it’s not even nine in the morning, allow me to offer a suggestion. Get in the car, buckle up, and roll the windows down. Find a long stretch of road you can drive till your eyes hurt, put on some good old-fashioned angry music, and let it all out. Need some ideas for the music? As always, I’m happy to oblige.

Anthrax-I’m the Man and Bring the Noise

Bad Brains-Attitude

Black Flag-Rise Above, Depression, and Police Story

Dead Kennedys-Macho Insecurity, Kill the Poor, and Triumph of the Swill

The Exploited-Don’t Really Care and Power Struggle

Hole-Violet

Marilyn Manson-Lunchbox, The Love Song, The Fight Song, Posthuman, and Cake and Sodomy

Mudhoney-You Got It and Touch Me I’m Sick

Nine Inch Nails-Head Like A Hole, Wish, Gave Up, and Starf*ckers, Inc.

Nirvana-Negative Creep and Smells Like Teen Spirit (try to get the demo version if you can)

The Offspring-Beheaded, Kill the President, Come Out and Play, Bad Habit, and Ignition

Rage Against the Machine-Guerrilla Radio, Testify, Killing in the Name, and How I Could Just Kill a Man

Sex Pistols-Bodies

Soul Asylum-Religiavision and Sick of That Song

Subhumans-Parasites and Evolution

Tool-Opiate, Stinkfist, Prison Sex, and Hooker With a Penis…

Sterling Heights, Michigan – Charity Music is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing music to the hearts of those who can not afford it. Charity Music Inc. provides musical instruments to schools, individuals, and organizations in need each year. President Roger Fachini has made it his mission to ensure that instruments are provided to those who inquire giving children and musicians a chance at learning.

Charity Music has participated in several other community events in recent years including, America Supports you “Notes of Appreciation” supporting the military men and women providing live entertainment to our troops. The Charity Music Inc. Notes of Appreciation was featured in the America Supports you summit addressed by the Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates.

Charity Also participated in the America Supports you Freedom Walks on September 6^th helping to raise awareness and show appreciation to our troops serving now, victims of 9/11, and our veterans of the past. Charity Music Inc. has gone above the call of duty in the communities of Michigan supporting our families and giving music to those who welcome it into their hearts.

Charity Music has also provided assistance to local bands and musicians needing an extra push to get started. They have provided the Charity Music concert series to help feature the bands and share music once again with those holding music near their hearts. The mission of charity music is to teach history and musical culture to past and present generations, to give inspiration to those practicing and hope to families all over the nation. Charity Music Inc. is truly an organization that cares. They welcome all assistance in obtaining recyclable musical instruments, volunteers geared toward their sames goals, and inspiration where ever needed.

The President of Charity Music Inc. Roger Fachini is dedicated to helping where he can, and aspires to be better each day. His ability to give is incredible and a heart that beats for all individuals. Charity Music is currently hard at work collecting and fixing instruments for distribution to needed homes and working on upcoming benefits to raise funds to continue its work. Charity Music is truly and ideal organization with an eye for community. To find out further details on assisting with instruments and/or volunteer services you can check out www.charitymusic.org. Charity Music Inc. works with many other volunteer organizations like: Volunteer Match, Guide Star, Network for Good, National Community Service, Volunteer Centers of America, Youth Service America, Voluntech, and many more. To find out about Volunteer services with Charity Music Inc. email: director@charitymusic.org…

1) Structure bravery while having a huge amount of fun.
For the people who have music guideline classes in school, taking in an instrument and playing in a band could be heaps of fun. Youths as lesser as eight or nine could be taught how to play a variety of instruments. Aggregates ordinarily have indicates on a steady backing where the adolescents can play for their gatekeepers and others in the school. Adults with music establishment can structure their own particular specific gatherings and perform unashamedly puts. Performing to an open social affair of individuals is a phenomenal methodology to gather confidence for both adults and children much the same.
2) Joint effort and association
Looking into the nature of notes, time marks, and ways and entryways will help them to be a piece of an aggregation. All aspects of a band or troupe must participate to create a conventionally encouraged bit of music. Furthermore collaboration, they can make friends viably. This is especially profitable for adolescents and diverse adults who need to be more agreeable. Together, they can research various different sorts of music and evaluate how to play differing musical instruments.
3) Better orderly bent
An extraordinary music guideline can help improve the logical capabilities of adult individuals and young people. For children and learners, music accepts a discriminating part in upgrading their math and reasoning capacities as a tenet. For most people, they use simply the left a large portion of the cerebrum to explore and tackle issues. Be that as it may, a music guideline can help make the right a large portion of the cerebrum. The effect is that children or developed individual can handle issues in a shorter time and using better come about.
4) Uneasiness Diminishing
Music has for the most part been seen as a constraining expect to diminish stress. To be perfectly honest, this is one of the reasons that make music preparing so well known. Various people truly feel calmer and happy when playing music, including children. On the other hand, significant metal or rock music tends to have an opposite effect on various people and it is generally not suitable as a mean for tension decline.
5) Change music into a calling
For the people who have a monstrous warmth of music, they can change it into a full time livelihood. There are various sorts of vocations that are related to music. They join music educators, capable vocalists or gatherings, conductors and various others.
Today, more people are also urging their young children to expend music lessons. In case there is no music direction framework offered at school, they will send their young people for private lessons. This could be advantageous however in an exchange way. Instead of being some bit of a band, music learners will need to evaluate how to rely on upon themselves when playing their instruments. Various youths tend to take piano lessons or guitar lessons in light of the fact that these are instruments that could be played alone or with a get together. Really, these instruments are also extraordinarily well known with full grown individuals. Despite the instruments, an extraordinary music preparing will leave a positive effect on both children and adults for quite a while to come.…

Rap music is referred to as hip hop. It is not the same as it was, when it was introduced in the early eighties. The Sugarhill Gang and Funkmaster Flex were credited with being pioneers of rap music. They were an instrumental part of the rap music culture. Groups like The Fat Boys and Run DMC were very popular and had a big impact on rap music. The Fat Boys were a huge success and had their own movie called “The Disorderlies”. The Disorderlies was a hilarious comedy about three incompetent hospital orderlies. They also appeared in the movie Krush Groove with other rap phenoms like LL Cool J and Curtis Blow. Krush Groove was a movie about a man who struggled to break into the music business as a rapper.

Curtis Blow was considered the godfather of rap. He was one of the first legitimate rap stars. He started the trend of rappers wearing big gold chains and jogging suits. It was a trend that LL Cool J and Run DMC continued in the early to mid eighties. They made it cool to wear adidas and kangol hats, by appearing in movies like Krush Groove, with this type of clothing on. These rappers created a culture that eventually went mainstream. Rap music led to the a new style of dancing called breakdancing. This type of dancing was featured in movies like Breakin.

Rappers like Run DMC and Curtis Blow made music songs that were fun and had great beats. The Fat Boys made songs that were just funny. Public Enemy also contributed to the success of rap music. They made songs that were more socially-conscious. They made songs that made people think. Some of their songs were controversial. Public Enemy was probably the most unique rap group of the late eighties. Their music was featured in the movie Fight The Power.It was a movie about racism and racial equality.

Gangster rap was created in the early nineties. NWA tried to make it cool to hate the police. They sold millions of records. Their albums were filled with violence,sex and negative comments about women. The members of NWA couldn’t overcome their own problems within the group and broke up prematurely. Tupac,Notorious B.I.G. and Snoop Dogg adopted the gangster rap style a few years later. Tupac and Notorious B.I.G. became two of the biggest rap stars to date.
They both were eventually murdered. Snoop Dogg is still making hits and is a living legend in rap.

The rappers today are more concerned with making money than music. Rappers like Soldier Boy, Bow Wow and Young Jeezy rap about material things. They rap about Louis Vutton bags,money, Jordans and black credit cards. Rappers make songs with r and b singers. They will be on anyone’s song for a price. Now they are rapping about how much money they want for an appearance.…

It’s hard to be cool and suave on stage. Professional musicians often make it look easy, but for every great one liner they shout out at a crowd, rest assured that they’d flubbed about a hundred lines to get there. It takes a lot of time and practice to be comfortable in front of an audience.

Sometimes, though, what you don’t say is as important as what you do say. Here’s a look at a few of the worst things that a musician can say on stage.

1. “Wow, I screwed that one up.” Never admit a mistake on stage, even if it was very obvious. You won’t do anything to lessen your tension. The best thing you can do is to play on as if you’d never made a mistake, whether you’d flubbed a chord, forgot lyrics, or committed any other stage atrocity. Chances are good that the audience will never notice the mistake if you simply don’t acknowledge it, but talking about it will draw attention to it and make you look unprofessional.
2. “Feel free to talk while I play.” This is a surprisingly common statement among musicians, particularly acoustic singer/songwriters. You’ll look around the room, realize that people are itching to get out of their seats and talk to each other during a performance, and, wanting to be nice, you give them permission.

You’ll assume that they’ll think that you’re a really polite, cool guy, and they’ll listen anyways. They won’t. Giving an audience permission to talk during a performance will open the floodgates; nobody will shut up until you’re done playing. Command the respect of your audience–if anything, you should admonish them for talking (but don’t sound whiny). Above all, never, ever tell an audience to pay attention to something other than you during your performance.

3. “I’m going to start that one over.” Even if you’ve royally flubbed a song, don’t restart it. This is one of the worst things that a musician can do on stage–especially with a band. Always keep playing. No exceptions. You can shorten a song if you’ve made some massive error, or find other ways to recover, but restarting a song is an undeniable sign of an amateur (and you want to look like a professional, right?).
4. “…” Sometimes, it’s what you don’t say on stage. Make sure that you mention your name or your band’s name at least a few times during your performance. Introduce songs, and tell the stories behind them if they’re interesting. Tell the audience if you’ve got CDs for sale, and let them know where your next show is. Talk about your band’s mailing list. Never stay completely silent on stage, or you’ll be missing a prime opportunity to promote your music.

What do you say on stage? Post your thoughts in the comments section below.…

It is very apparent today that Myspace is one of the world’s biggest social websites. Myspace is great for talking to friends, meeting new people and more but one area I don’t think gets enough attention is the music aspect of Myspace. For bands, Myspace can mean all the difference between getting noticed and going nowhere. Long gone are the days of sending out demos to record companies because on Myspace you can just upload your bands music to your page and it can go all over the world. Myspace has been quickly becoming one of the best resources for newer and up coming bands around the world.

I remember back in the day if you ever wanted to get noticed, you had to go out and make some demo discs and play shows all over. Now days you can simply make a band page on Myspace and upload your music or even videos from your shows to show labels out there all they need to know about you. As a musician myself, I know the importance of getting the word out there and Myspace can literally cut the time needed in half. You don’t need to emphasize so much on street teams, demo discs, and other areas even though I still say it’s a good idea to do anyways.

Word on Myspace can spread like wild fire if it generates enough popularity. People post bulletins will go to their friends and their friends to their friends and so on. If can start by having each band member with a Myspace page create a bulletin about the band and then their friends will see that and they may repost it and their friends and so on. Your band may even get put up on the featured spot in the Myspace music section. This would be huge for any band that is signed or unsigned. Everyone that goes to the music area will automatically see your band name and everything. If even if they don’t click on it, its still great exposure. Not to mention the already millions of people that are regular users of Myspace everyday.

Creating demos discs can cost a lot of money if you get down professionally and you should always get them done that way because it looks good to record labels. With Myspace music, you don’t even have to make demo discs anymore. It’s still a good idea to do so and send them to some labels but now day’s record labels are creating their own Myspace pages and looking for the next big thing. There again, being featured on Myspace music can lead to big things and its great because the featured spot is the first thing anyone sees in the Myspace music section.

Back 20 years ago, it would be really tough to get attention drawn to your band because of technology then and now. Back then it was about playing lots of shows and getting attention. In today’s world, its just a matter of uploading some songs onto a page for your band and from there, you can easily spread word to people all over the world. It is definitely easier to get noticed as a band today and thousands of bands out there are taking advantage of Myspace music.…