Hip New Music - Why the Next Big Hit Could Come From a Simple Home Recording Studio

Hip New Music - The Home Recording Revolution Has Begun

Often we are not able to predict or even see great change around us until the change is well under way or the change is complete. This article's goal is to provide a real time report of the most profound change in the creation and delivery of recorded music in history. In many ways, more important than the invention of audio recording itself.

What is the change and what caused it?

Put simply, the tools and the ability to record professional quality songs and music is being taken from the hands of the few and put in the hands of many.

The Top 7 Reasons (So Far) That Home Recording Musicians Will Take Over Supplying Hip New Music to Hungry Listeners

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  Reason 1: The rapid improvement, increase in power, and increased affordability of home computers.




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  Reason 2: Rapid improvement and affordability of internet delivery speeds and bandwidth, causing the availability of high speed internet to more and more users.




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  Reason 3: Increased demand for high quality home studio equipment has encouraged more products and innovation. This competition has created a huge reduction in the cost of setting up a home studio.




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  Reason 4: Internet music file sharing has begun the death of the big recording labels' monopoly on music distribution.




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  Reason 5: The death of the unholy alliance between big recording labels and traditional radio, which previously succeeded in dictating style, genres and taste to more than a generation of music buyers.




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  Reason 6: The unprecedented exposure, via the internet, of fans and listeners around the world to every conceivable type of music is driving a vast demand for more and more varied, independent music.




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  Reason 7: The spreading realization among musicians and aspiring recording artists that recording professional quality songs and music at home is in fact possible, achievable and affordable

What Does the Future Hold for Home Recording Artists?

For those aspiring musicians and producers who understand, and also embrace and act on the possibilities and opportunities now available, the future of the music industry seems to belong to them.

Consider this:

The average home computer with even free recording software installed, possesses more power than the studios where most of the great records were recorded. This represents a massive opportunity for home recording artists to take control of their own fate. The increasing affordability of the home studio equipment available for today's home studio, make this even more true.

Recording Your Hip New Music - What it Takes to Get Professional Sound in the Home Recording Studio

It is now possible to achieve pro quality recording at home with very simple home recording equipment. Therefore, the tools of the trade are no longer an obstacle.

Making successful and confident sounding home recordings now comes down to the desire and determination of each aspiring recording artist or producer. In other words it is important to become familiar with the characteristics and needs of various sounds and the interaction of their frequencies.

When you know how to take control of how sounds behave together, the recording process becomes a series of quite simple and logical steps from the beginning of the recording to the final successful mix.

This does not mean that it is necessary to re-invent the wheel. Instead, seek a straightforward and simple guide to successful and professional home recording.

In other words, your music may be your unique creation, but the "craft" of recording is not. Before needlessly wasting months of trial and error, make the decision to accept the knowledge of those who are already achieving the results you desire from the home studio.

We Are Entering the Golden Age for Independent Music. Will You Be Ready?

The demand for independent and self-produced recordings has never been stronger. TV series, major and indie movies, web content, documentaries, advertising, CD compilations, and a host of other opportunities too long to list here, are all clamoring for hip new music to provide a fresh and original soundtrack for this explosion of new projects.

Indie and home studio musicians and songwriters are the captains of their own ships, whether they realize it or not. Those musicians who have the foresight to embrace the realities of the new music industry, will find little resistance in forging their path and making their mark.

I invite you to see hip new music from simple home recording set ups. These various indie artists' recordings are successfully being placed in movies, tv, cd release etc. Their songs have one thing in common: They were recorded with the help of the step by step Easy Home Recording Blueprint method. I invite you to achieve your own professional quality home recordings simply, quickly and affordably using a your own home computer, 3 cables, simple recording software and almost no extra equipment.

Warner/Chappell, Hi Bias, Audio Socket and LoudThud recording artist, songwriter and producer, Owen Critchley has been writing, recording and releasing music for over 15 years. For more information about Owen and his home recording tips, and how to be successful in the new music business, visit http://recordinghomestudio.com

The Heart Effect: Startling New Information About How Music Affects Your Health

Twenty-four young, healthy test subjects lay quietly in a university lab, listening to carefully chosen music through headphones, as doctors and technicians hovered around them meticulously measuring their vital signs. The study concluded quickly and the subjects returned to their normal everyday lives. But as the researchers began sifting through the data, something new and interesting began to emerge.

We've known for some time that music is a powerful relaxation tool. Music can decrease anxiety levels, lower blood pressure and heart rate, and change stress hormone levels. It affects your respiration, reduces muscle tension, increases endorphin levels, and boosts your immune system. The effect of music is so powerful, hospitals around the world use music to reduce stress in patients waiting for surgery.

Now there's fresh evidence on the power of music to affect our health. Researchers at Italy's University of Pavia recently confirmed that music changes your heart rate, breathing, and blood pressure. But as they analyzed their data, they found something new, something no one had expected to find.

Dr. Bernardi and his colleagues were interested in expanding the use of music to reduce stress in medical patients. Here's how their experiment worked: the docs recorded the vital signs of 24 test volunteers (12 musicians and 12 non-musicians) for five minutes. Then the volunteers listened to six different styles of music in random order. Random two-minute pauses were inserted in each piece of music.

Here's what they found: fast musical tempos increased heart rate, blood pressure and respiration. Slow tempos reduced them. Pretty standard stuff. But then the shocker: the style of music and the volunteers' personal musical preferences made no difference at all. The only thing that mattered was the tempo.

It didn't matter if the music was classical, rap, techno, romantic or an Indian raga. Only one thing made a difference to their cardiovascular systems--whether the music was fast or slow. This means that the music you hear, whether you've chosen it or not, whether you like it or not, is going to affect your health.

There's more: during the silent pauses between musical selections, the test subjects' vital signs returned to normal, in some cases stabilizing at healthier levels than before the music. The researchers say this suggests that listening to any kind of music--fast or slow--could benefit your heart.

Finally, the study found that musicians were more sensitive to the effect than non-musicians. Musicians may have learned to breathe in time to the music, to become more alert during fast passages, and to relax when the music slows down. Whatever the reason, a good prescription for helping maintain your cardiovascular health could be to take music lessons.

Want to conduct your own experiment? Head over to http://www.relaxationemporium.com/music.html. If you join our mailing list, you'll get immediate access to two free song downloads--one slow (60 beats per minute) and one faster (100 beats per minute). Find out how your body responds to the beat.

Yes Close To The Edge Rock Music CD Review

One word describes the CD Close To The Edge from Yes... AWESOME!

Refreshingly, this was one of those CDs I was able to just pop in and comfortably listen to from beginning to end. Every track is enjoyable and was pretty easy for me to listen to from start to finish.

These days it's a very rare CD on which every single song is good or better than the one before it. This CD is certainly one of those rare CDs.

Overall Close To The Edge is an outstanding release. What I call must have music. I give it two thumbs up and is most definitely a worthy addition to any Rock collection. Truly an outstanding Rock CD. One of those that is completely void of any wasted time, as each track is simply superb.

While this entire CD is outstanding some of my favorites are track 2 - And You And I / Cord Of Life / Eclipse / The Preacher The Teacher / Apocalypse, track 6 - And You And I / Cord Of Life / Eclipse / The Preacher The Teacher / Apocalypse, and track 7 - Siberia

My Bonus Pick, and the one that got Sore [...as in "Stuck On REpeat"] is track 1 - Close To The Edge: / The Solid Time Of Change / Total Mass Retain / I Get Up I Get Down / Seasons.... Good stuff!

Close To The Edge Release Notes:

Yes originally released Close To The Edge on August 26, 2003 on the Elektra Entertainment label.

CD Track List Follows:

1. Close To The Edge: / The Solid Time Of Change / Total Mass Retain / I Get Up I Get Down / Seasons...

2. And You And I / Cord Of Life / Eclipse / The Preacher The Teacher / Apocalypse

3. Siberian Khatru

4. America - (Single Version)

5. Total Mass Retain - (Single Version)

6. And You And I / Cord Of Life / Eclipse / The Preacher The Teacher / Apocalypse - (previously unre...

7. Siberia - (Studio Run-Through Of Siberian Khatru)

Yes: Jon Anderson (vocals); Steve Howe (guitar, background vocals); Rick Wakeman (keyboards); Chris Squire (bass instrument, background vocals); Bill Bruford (drums, percussion).

Alberta Employment

How Did Music Evolve?

Is music just "auditory cheesecake" or can it provide deep insights into the workings of the brain and the evolution of language? From the New Zealand haka to raves and dancing birds, The Guardian's James Randerson investigates why music evolved, how it is linked to language, how it is understood by the brain and how it can be used to treat patients.

Scientists have learned that we are not the only species that can dance to a beat. Birds that engage in mimicry can be entrained to bob their heads in time with a beat, even as the beat changes. Since this musical awareness does not seem to occur spontaneously in the wild, scientists theorize that, in humans, it emerged through natural selection as a byproduct of another skill such as vocal imitation. In other words, perhaps music originated as a series of taking one capacity and using it for another purpose it wasn't originally designed for.

Whatever way it originated, musical grammar is processed in the same part of the brain as linguistic grammar. Expectation of what comes next in a musical sequence or in a sentence is a large part of what establishes meaning. Musicians play with our sense of expectation, sometimes satisfying it and sometimes surprising us, which engages our emotions. Across cultures, music is used in a way that promotes and sustains sociality, perhaps suggesting why it evolved. We use music to reinforce our sense of self and to help establish relationships within a group.

My own belief, which is the theme of my collection of stories on the Song of Fire website, is that music connects us with something essential that defines the universe. Musical patterns, rhythms and sequences infuse everything around us. In a fundamental way, we are music.

Listen to the podcast at http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/audio/2008/aug/18/science.weekly.podcast

More music articles at Song of Fire- obergh.net/songoffire

Relaxation Music to Calm the Mind

One way to help us become more relaxed is using the power of music, not just any kind of music but, specially created for Relaxation, Meditation, Sleep music which, is composed for Alternative Healing Therapists. This type of music comes under the genre called New Age music. This label might put some people off thinking that it is only for geek minded people or people who like to listen to weird space music. This is not the case.

One way to help us become more relaxed is using the power of music, not just any kind but, specially created for relaxation which, is composed for Alternative Healing Therapists. All this comes under the New Age genre. This label might put some people off thinking that it is only for geek minded people or people who like to listen to weird space music. This is not the case.

Music has been with us for centuries and is a great entertainment format, but it can be also be used for healing, especially the Mind & Body. It is used daily by Alternative Therapists in the Healing Arts like Reiki, Aromatherapy, Yoga, Shiatsu and is also used by Hotels, Wellness Centres and Spas.

New Age music is growing in popularity worldwide and is becoming one of the most favourite types of music for people needing to find very calm and relaxing music to help them de-stress and unwind.

New Age covers a whole range of Genres from Solo Piano, Ambient, Space, World, Folk and many more. There have also been some well know artists who fall under the category of New Age music from the likes of Jean Michel Jarre, Brian Eno, Vangelis and Enya to name a few.

Alx is the webmaster for Mello Moods which, is a website created to inform visitors about relaxing music and biographies about the composers. The main category of music is New Age music which is used for Alternative Healing Therapists and for self help healing.

The Development of Jazz in New Orleans

Jazz is known as being one of the only styles of music created in America, though it is a mixture West African and Western music traditions. Jazz's began in New Orleans, around the 1900's, but its roots can be traced back hundreds of years earlier when slaves who were brought to America developed spirituals and blues in order to communicate with one another and express sadness, desires and religious beliefs. The music was passed along orally with each new generation making their own unique changes to the songs, which were often of a call and response form and unaccompanied by musical instruments.

Rhythms and melodies from the black community were combined with European compositions leading to the development of Ragtime music around 1895. "Ragging" a song meant dragging out certain notes and livening up music by rearranging notes. Ragtime and Jazz are similar but Ragtime music is predominantly sole piano music while Jazz music is played in ensembles.

Though jazz is closely associated with blues and ragtime, one of the most important elements of jazz music is that it is improvisational music--well-known notes and lines are a starting point for musicians to develop unique songs around. Early jazz musicians often could not read music but they thrilled audiences by bringing emotion, excitement and the unexpected to their pieces. While ragtime music was popular in restaurants, clubs or hotels, Jazz was mobile, versatile music played at funerals, parades, weddings, and at festivals.

The 1920's were known as the Jazz Age as New Orleans jazz was brought to nightclubs in Northern cities such as Chicago and New York. It was more upscale than the music of New Orleans, and New Orleans Jazz distinguished itself as being a more folksy and spontaneous form of Jazz. Throughout the 20th century, many variations of Jazz music were popular including Dixieland, bebop, Big Band, swing, cool jazz, soul jazz and Latin jazz.

All forms of jazz music and the types of music that inspired it or have preceded it are celebrated during the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. The event began in 1970 as means of showcasing the musical heritage, arts, crafts and cuisine unique of New Orleans. The first Jazz Festival had a lineup that included Duke Ellington and Fats Domino and only about 350 attendees.

Quickly the Festival's popularity grew and it now draws hundreds of thousands of visitors, world-renowned singers and the top talent of New Orleans and Louisiana. This year, artists including Rod Stewart, Jon Mayer, Harry Connick Jr. and ZZ Top are set to play in the event which will take place during the weekends of April 27-29 and May 4-6.

2007 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival attendees are invited to stay at the Hotel Maison de Ville in the French Quarter so that in addition to seeing the festival performances, they'll be right by jazz clubs and bars where they can hear intimate performances by traditional and contemporary jazz artists who have been inspired by the earliest performers.

Hotel Maison de Ville is located in the heart of New Orleans' French Quarter. The main building located at 727 Rue Toulouse, the reception room, parlor, concierge, and nine guest quarters. Additional luxury accommodations are offered in other historic buildings, including the Audubon Cottages. The Maison de Ville also is home to one of the finest restaurants in New Orleans, The Bistro, which features Nouvelle Creole Cuisine. Please see http://www.hotelmaisondeville.com for more information.

Music History - The Renaissance Part 2

The underlying principles all Renaissance art was its artistic honesty to nature, as opposed to tradition, which had been the style of pre Renaissance art.

This principle was deduced from the study of the new found learning, being spread throughout Italy by Greek refugees, and the consequent awakened interest with which people regarded the remains of ancient architecture, sculpture and other art forms, constantly being unearthed in their own country.

With the adoption of the classical principle of truth to nature, naturally came the adoption of a second, that of the study of the antique as the true path to excellence in art or letters. We cannot fail to recognise these twin principles at work in the writings of the masters of the musical Renaissance.

A parallel to that truth to nature, which the painters and sculptors of the Renaissance proper acquired from the study of Greek art, may be traced in the efforts of the composers of the Renaissance, to make their music more and more flexible and responsive to the varied play of human sentiment.

Musicians as well as sculptors and painters studied antique art. Although for musicians not as profitable, the lessons to be learned from antiquity by musicians were not for educational purposes but more for inspiration and creativity.

Palestrina has already been mentioned as typifying the culmination of the musical development of the early ages, and now, in taking up the consideration of a new period, we have, in the first place, to concern ourselves with a man who was already forty eight years old when Palestrina was born. The Flemish composer Adrian Willaert, chapel master of St. Mark's at Venice.

Willaert may be considered as belonging at the same time to the old order and the new, for while, in common with his fellow citizen, Orlando di Lasso, some may say he was one of the last and greatest of the Flemish masters. At the same time, he must be reckoned as a forerunner of the musical reformers of the Renaissance.

Willaert, although he did not originate any new forms in music, may lay claim to have been one of the first to give musical expression to that love of colour, movement, and general spirit of adaptiveness, which are such outstanding characteristics of the Renaissance period.

The forms he employed were those used by his contemporaries and immediate predecessors. The Mass, Psalm, Motet, and Madrigal. However, in them all his colour sense was very strong, comparatively speaking, that is, for that tonal splendour, which led the Venetians in their enthusiasm to term the works of their cherished "Messer Adriano" aurum fotabik or "drinkable gold" might not be so readily apparent to a modern audience.

Although to a musician, instituting a comparison between the works of Willaert and those of earlier writers, the effects gained through the use of broadly contrasting harmonies by the Flemish master cannot fail to appear strikingly original.

While dealing with Venetian music mention must be made of Andrea and Giovanni Gabrielli, uncle and nephew, who represent a later development of the style of Willaert. Giovanni Gabrielli (1557-1612) carried his experiments in tone colour into the region of pure instrumental music; and his "Symphonic Sacrse," the first volume of which was published at Venice in 1597, entitles him to rank as one of the earliest of writers for the orchestra.

In the first volume of this work, there are sixteen pieces for from eight to sixteen instruments, and in the second volume, there are canzonets for as many as twenty-two instruments. These compositions are written for violins, cornets (not the cornets of modern times, but wooden instruments), and trombones.

After the time of Willaert and the Venetians, were the actual workers in the Renaissance of music, and the first of their achievements, the invention of the Music Drama or Opera.

Mike Shaw is an organist and keyboard player and owns music websites, http://www.mikesmusicroom.co.uk, http://www.keyboardsheetmusic.co.uk and http://musical-instruments-uk.mikesmusicroom.co.uk/

Play Music by Ear - A New Guide For Music Lovers

In attempting playing music by ear, to play any piece, the first step is to find out where the tonic, the basic keynote, is. Sing the piece or think it through until you find the note that has that solid, static feeling which identifies it as tonic. Some find this very easy to do; others find it almost impossible.

If necessary, sing the piece to the very end, and you will there find the tonic. Then listen particularly to that tone every time it occurs in the piece; accent it; make it stand out; and you will soon develop sensitivity for that tonic. At the same time you will be developing your enjoyment of playing music by ear.

Having determined what tone of the scale the piece begins on, you can choose the key in which you wish to play it and then find the first note of the piece in that key.

One other observation will help you: Notice where the dominant, the fifth note of the scale, is. Since so much of the melody revolves around the dominant, it is helpful to have that pivot point consciously located in the key and on the keyboard.

As an example of this procedure in playing music by ear, let us take the chorus of Old Black Joe. Sing it through and you find the last note resting firmly on the tonic. Now begin the chorus again and you will hear that it begins on 5. Let us decide to play it in the key of Eb. Play the scale of Eb and you will notice that 5 is Bb. So we begin on Bb.

Remembering that Eb is the solid tonic tone and that Bb is the determined dominant tone, you will now be able to work out the tune. Follow this same process with other tunes and you will soon find that you can locate the tonic and dominant and first note almost without a thought.

Now play any simple music by ear that you have already learned but play them in different keys. Notice where the tonic and dominant are in each key. Think of the tune and let the fingers take care of themselves. Develop a freedom that will permit you to enjoy what you are playing.

Try other pieces that you have wanted to play. Once you have practiced the scales and learned to identify tonic and dominant, you will be able to play many things which were impossible to you before.

Modulation

Pieces do not always stay in one key. In fact, they seldom do. When they go from one key to another, we call it modulating. Most of your difficulties in the pieces which you have been unable to complete have been caused by modulations. The tonic and dominant are necessarily changed when a modulation takes place. Naturally this is confusing; but you can help the situation greatly by realizing what the modulation is - by knowing what the tonic and dominant are in the new key.

There is no easy rule for doing this while playing music by ear; one eventually learns to feel a modulation just as he feels the next note of a piece. But this takes time. Without this power one must either stop and figure out the new key by singing the passage until he can locate the tonic, or just guess. The most frequent modulation, particularly in the type of pieces we are using, is to the dominant. Try the dominant first.

Half-modulation

The Star-Spangled Banner is a good example. When you get to "flag was still there," you have modulated to the dominant key. On the word "still" you have to use a note which is not in your original key. This is your modulating tone, and if you listen to it keenly, you can notice the strong upward thrust which characterizes a modulation to the dominant. It does not remain in the dominant key, however, but jumps immediately back to the original key with the words "Oh, say, does that."

This is called a half-modulation since it does not stay in the new key long enough to establish it firmly; but it is a clean illustration of the point.

Now you are on your way to playing music by ear effortlessly!

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