Posts Tagged ‘music’
Heavy Metal Viking Style: Amon Amarth
Throughout its history, heavy metal has done well to avoid pretense. Bands sung about topics like slaying dragons, chasing women, and partying. Then, at some point during the 1990s, the cancer of nu metal started to metastasize in the heavy metal genre. Bands started singing about relationships and their feelings in an effort to gain mainstream popularity. Were not talking about an obligatory power ballad here and there”some bands sung about nothing else than how miserable they were and how sad they were over a failed relationship.
Fortunately, the cancerous tumor in the body of heavy metal is now in remission and the tide is turning back. Part of the cure has blown across the Norse sea like a cold winter monsoon and has now reached American shores. Amon Amarth is a band from Tumba, Sweden founded in 1992 who are the latest”and most commercially successful”proponent of a genre known as Viking metal. As the name implies, bands from the Viking metal genre sing about important topics such as sailing, lusting for adventure and conquest, furious winds and treacherous seas. Viking metal bands are too busy metaphorically conquering and pillaging to worry about such trivialities as their feelings, let alone grooming themselves.
Amon Amarth took their name from a landmark in J.R.R. Tolkiens Middle Earth that means Mount Doom in the Elvish language of Sindarin. Drawing musical inspiration from bands such as Bolt Thrower and their Viking metal predecessors Bathory and Enslaved, who in turn took their cue from the great American band Manowar, Amon Amarth plays their own unique style of melodic death metal. Most of their lyrical content is derived from Viking history and Norse mythology.
2004s Fate of Norns and 2006s With Oden On Our Side earned the band considerable popularity all over the world, including North America where they have toured several times as a headline act.
Amon Amarth recently extended their deal with Metal Blade records and released their latest album in September 2008 called ‘Twilight of the Thunder God’. The album continues their thematic examination of their Viking ancestors, and has become their biggest seller to date.
Heavy metal as a genre is making a worldwide resurgence, particularly the Amon Amarth style of ‘Viking Metal’ and other related acts with a similar thematic focus on epic adventure. The band tours constantly, and their powerful live show has earned them a reputation as one of the ‘must see’ concert acts.
David Glisan is staff music reviewer for The Savage Science, a website covering both MMA news and heavy metal music. He’s an avid MMA and boxing enthusiast as well, and reportsUFC news for several mainstream sports broadcasts and websites. He’s studied judo since childhood and has earned the rank of black belt.
Tags: Entertainment, heavy metal, music, pop culture, Rock Music, Swedish music, viking metal bands
History of The Blues in 400 Words
The blues is a variety of music that can be vocal, instrumental (blues guitar) or both. It applies the ‘blue’ notes which are established on a ‘minor pentatonic’ scale quite regularly, otherwise recognised as the blues scale.
Blues music was inferred from the African-American communities in the U.S. out of work songs, spiritual songs, field hollers, chants, shouts and elementary ballads that rhymed. A lot of facets of the blues are indicitive of African influence.
The call-and-response aspect of the music came straight from African origins and there were a lot of lines that would get duplicated thrice or more. This later developed into a line repeating twice and then on the third time around there would be an ‘answer line’. You will be able to still discover these aspects of early blues in modern day music, especially hip-hop.
The term ‘The Blues’ refers to the ‘blue devils’ which signifies down spirits or unhappiness.
The blues guitar brings a fundamental role in blues music as well as contemporary music. It has shaped Jazz, Rhythm and Blues, Bluegrass and even heavy rock genres The original blues of the early 1900’s, otherwise known as “poor man’s blues” was usually linked with hard times, oppressiveness from white folk, ruthlessness of the police, gambling, economic depression, floods, magic, farming and dry periods. This music was fueled by a lot of brokenheartedness and anger. Not uncommonly a lost loved one or an generic harsh environment prompted the lyrics and the tone of the blues guitar.
After the world war, you began to see blues songs that were about relationships and sexual activity. Also, wit was expanded to the mix. Here is a funny example:
“That must be your woman, cause mine don’t look like that… I said That must be your woman, cause mine don’t look like that… Have you seen my baby? She’s so big and fat…”
The blues guitar style came forth from the American South’s instruments of the time which were the banjo and the Diddley Bow. This was a home made one stringed instrument that was favourite in the early 20th century. Figures such as Robert Johnson, Charley Patton, Son House and Blind Willie McTell were a part of the delta blues style which used a lot of finger picking techniques and slide guitar innovations.
Eventually, after WWII ‘electric blues’ became increasingly popular where the blues guitar was played on electric guitars as were the bass guitars. This was most prevalent in the Chicago area.
The history of blues guitar and poor man’s blues is rich with culture and stories of good times and bad. I could go on for days about the history of the blues guitar but let’s make this part 1 so you don’t fall asleep on me!
Download 80 of the best 12 bar blues backing tracks and jam with a *live* band at the comfort of your room. Download these killer 12 bar blues progression backing tracks now.
Tags: arts, blues guitar, blues guitar lessons, Entertainment, Guitar, guitar lessons, lifestyle, music
Drum Instruction DVD: Reinforce The Concepts Many Times As You Need To
We do not have roll over minutes in our house. It is good to skip days sometime to let you family know that you are thinking about them. As any drummer knows, it is easy to get lost in time when practicing, especially when playing to music. So when your wife comes in and points to her watch, you smile and say, “Yes Dear.”
And most of the really successful speed drummers obviously did not want to give away ALL their secrets (understandably). So, I did what I could. And after spending 3 weeks (1-2 hours per session, 4-6 days per week), I managed to improve my speed by about 60-70 beats per minute. I really didn’t expect to win though; since several of Mike Mangini’s Berklee students were to be part of the regional competition.
A typical drumstick has a tip, shoulder, shaft and butt. The tip, also referred to as bead, is the top-most part that strikes the drum. Traditionally, the tip is made of the same hard wood as the rest of the stick.
Vinnie Colauita once said, “Just play in 7 for like an hour”. This is especially insightful as we can often get caught up in studying things too closely and miss the point. Sheer repetition will help lead to more comfort in odd times.
Depending on the type of music, begin your solo to match the flow of the music. You might not want to perform a hard and fast solo to slow, smooth, easy listening jazz nor drum softly to hard, power-driven metal. Make your solo tasteful. Let it make a statement and signature of what you are creating. Utilize all the instruments of your drum set such as your snare drum, bass drum, toms, cymbals and other instruments that accompany the drum set. The final step in developing a solo.
However, six months is not an ideal time. If you have been playing the drum too often lately, consider changing it even though you may have changed it four months back. Signs that should tell you it is now the time for you to change are indents and cracks.
Well, I asked around a bit and was surprised to learn that the history of second line is a bit cloudy. Nobody can seem to agree on how it evolved, I heard stories about there being a line of musicians and staff that marched behind the mourners (second line) at a funeral parade in New Orleans. Apparently the musicians would play funeral marches on the way to the funeral and more livelier pieces on the return home.
Communicate to you family the importance of regular practice. If you skip too may days in a row you can tell and it takes a couple of days or more to regain what you lost. I quit playing for many years and when I started back, it took a year to feel completely at home on the throne. I still had the moves in my head but getting the sticks on the skins was a completely different endeavor.
When it comes to drum lesson, getting the right information can be a daunting task. That’s why we put together this confidential report for you at drum instruction dvd
Tags: arts, business, drums, drumset, DVD, education, family, Hobbies, instruction, instruments, lessons, music, online, percussion
It’s More Enjoyable Becoming A Real Life “Guitar Hero”
One of the most popular video games today is “Guitar Hero” and while there are many people that enjoy playing this fun game, only a few can actually play the real thing. Learning to play the guitar involves a commitment of time and energy, and the ability to put up with some discomfort while you learn to play the guitar.
Unlike the game that you buy, learning to play the guitar will challenge the beginner to learn discipline as you learn something new. At first, guitar lessons will strike you as a little boring compared to the game, but when its all said and done the talent that you will develop when you learn to play the guitar will give you a super surge of confidence
Playing the guitar is a life long journey once you become very good at playing, but like all musical instruments are certain amount of determination is necessary. However there are lots of thing that you will want to do to make your personal journey easy
You may have already decided on the type of guitar that you want to ultimately play on and what type of music that you wish to play. But for starter get yourself a good and inexpensive steel string acoustic guitar at a guitar store. They are durable and perfect for beginners to build up the finger with.
Find someone who already plays the guitar well and can show you how to play. If you are one of the lucky ones and have a friend that plays, have them tune your guitar and use them to teach you to tune it yourself
If you can’t find anyone that play guitar and you have no friends that play all is NOT lost. The internet is full of affordable and free information. You will be able to locate resources that will rival a private lessons teach course online
There are a lot of guitar players that make a good amount of money just by knowing basic guitar chord and basic guitar chord families. This is why it is important that you learn chords and groups of chords by heart
Unlike Guitar Hero, learning to plat the real thing involves pain. All beginners must develop “guitar fingers”. Many decide to quit and stay with the video game. But you on the other hand won’t let that happen. remember that the pain is temporary but the rewards are great
Tags: education, Guitar, Hobbies, learn the guitar, learn to play guitar, music, musical instruments, teach yourself guitar
Guitar for Dummies DVD: The Best Way Of Getting Guitar Lessons For Kids
Backing tracks are audio tracks you can buy or download that give you accompaniment to your guitar practice. As you grow as a guitar player, you will find that your backing tracks, sometimes referred to as “jamtracks” will be as useful a tool as your metronome or your guitar tuner. There is no lead guitar or vocalist on your backing tracks just the backing that you can play lead guitar in front of.
A little tip for you here: If a string breaks on your guitar, I would recommend you change the whole set, other wise you will end up with spare strings lying around everywhere, and for some reason, I always find there is a difference in quality of sound when I only change one string. Maybe I’m just a perfectionist, who knows? As far as practice is concerned, there are a couple of ways to approach it.
If that describes you, if you are just learning the guitar or only recently desired to learn to play guitar, these sites are perfect for you. Oftentimes through these types of online guitar lesson sites that are geared to novices you can become exposed to a wide range of different techniques, including things like the funk-skunk.
You’ve got the blues, you’ve got a guitar–now you need to learn the scales. Those distinctive, southern, pre-Elvis post gospel scales. When it comes down to it, there are only 3 chords you really need to master. Every blues song consists of three chords. They’re the one the four and the five.
In the brick and mortar world, you might want to turn to one on one lessons if you really are intent at improving your ability to play guitar. While these types of guitar lessons can cost you more than other types of guitar lesson options, for many people one on one lessons are ideal ways to learn guitar initially and then to master the instrument to a greater degree on down the road.
Through this overview you will be able to closely consider whether learning the funk-skunk technique might be a good course for you to pursue when it comes to learning guitar. Before you are provided with some direction on where you might be able to access funk-skunk lessons, you really should have at least a bit of a basic understanding of what this technique is all about. In this regard, the reality is that people who are proficient in playing guitar generally agree that they really do not know how the term funk-skunk itself developed.
Classical Gas by Mason Williams might be a little challenging if you don’t think of yourself as a “real” guitar player but it is surprisingly easy to play. Of course if you are not likely to be playing for strangers, you will have some idea of the kind of music your friends like, so just let their tastes be you guide with a little of your own style thrown in.
A simple example is to hold a C chord in the first position and pick the C note on the fifth string, now use your plectrum to strum the other strings. Next, pick the E note on the fourth string and strum the rest of the strings again. Once you have done this a few times you will recognize the familiar bluegrass sound that you hear on CDs emerge from under your fingers.
Tags: acoustic, arts, DVD, education, Entertainment, family, Guitar, instruments, lessons, music, online
A Basic Guitar Chords Chart Is All You Need
Usually 10 to 15 guitar chords are what you need to learn well to play most of the songs you like. Chords are joined with other instruments to provide the background music of most songs. If you are wondering what is meant by a chord, the playing of three of more notes together is what this means.
Three strings being strummed on a guitar if your chord consists of three notes is the way to play the chord. The guitar can only play a chord consisting of six notes because the guitar has only six strings. The chords consist of three groups – Major, Minor and Seventh. The three have their own sound. The major chords are consistent, the minor chords are almost sad and the seventh chords are jazzy.
There is no standard number of chords that everyone can agree on but the general feeling is there are 8 to 18 chords that anyone who is going to play guitar should know. These chords should be the first ones you learn because they are used in basically everything you will be playing. When you learn these chords you can play rock, country or jazz and enjoy learning many songs.
Ok, what are the basic chords? The must learn ones for beginners are the minor and major chords of E,A,D and C and G major chords. The way these chords are played is by at least one string in the chord not being pressed down. This is called an open chord. Frets are what you do when the fingers on your left hand hold the strings down and the right hand strums the chord.
When the beginner starts learning to play guitar open chords are the easiest. The ones considered to be basic chords are G, F, E Minor, E, D Minor, D, C, A Minor and A. The best way to know where your fingers are supposed to go is by using a guitar chords chart. The beginning guitarist often teaches himself to play using this method.
One of the most used methods of teaching the chords is by families. The family is mixed to play chords that are the basis of many songs that people play today. By learning the chords in this manner the learning is more fun and each one is learned in a sequence. This makes it easier to remember them as they are learned. Learning the families will allow you to learn and play music for yourself faster.
Many songs are based on only three chords. The best way to confuse yourself is to try so many chords that you will never learn them. If you want to start playing soon, the easy chords are the ones you want to concentrate on first for the first time guitar player. There are places that have more than 2000 chords and trying to learn all of these is just a waste of time for the player who is just learning as well as those who know how to play.
If you want to play songs in just a few days too many chords would not allow you to do this. The basic guitar chords chart you will be looking at are the best source of learning where to put your fingers. The fact that they are right where you can look at them any time will let you start playing the music you love right away.
Tags: basic guitar chords, beginner guitar lessons, free guitar lessons, guitar chords chart, guitar lessons, guitar lessons for beginner, guitar tips, guitar tutorials, Hobbies, learn to play guitar, music, online tutorials, performing arts, self-help, tutorials
10 Best Tips to be a Successful Indie Artist
1. Post your music on every website you can find. People can’t love you until they’ve heard you, and it usually takes some repeat exposure before they’ll get around to listening.
2. Ok you have a great son. Now, make a video. Borrow talent and resources to help you make it look good. If it’s good, post it everywhere you can. If not, figure out why it’s not and do it again.
3. Get Live. Get gigs. Take anything, don’t be picky. Again, they can’t like you if they’ve never heard you. You know those VH1 interviews where the big names look back fondly on all they had to put up with in the early years? That could be you.
4. Where are you on the Web? Put together a website. A band without a web presence doesn’t seem like a big deal. Update it often. Make sure you post your music and information about your upcoming gigs.
5. Get onto social networking sites. If you’re not at least on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and YouMusic you’re missing out on millions of potential new fans. And update constantly, including media. If a picture’s worth a thousand words, video’s worth a million.
6. Put together press releases of your gigs and send them everywhere. Most of them won’t get published most of the time but when one does, it will be extremely valuable to your success as an indie artist.
7. Get it on CD. Put a CD together. Find a friend who does graphic design and get a professional cover and label on it. Sell copies on your website. You may not sell many but just having it as an option helps to add legitimacy.
8. Your Music is a Serious Passion. Take this seriously. Don’t show up late for gigs, forget lyricsdon’t be sloppy. Don’t presume that people can’t be put off just because your music’s goodthere are millions of bands vying for their attention.
9. Be good to your fans. Enough of them and the labels will come knocking.
10. When you need help, always ask for help. Get the band to ask everyone they know to ask everyone they know to help promote you. Give them CDs and get them excited with you. They’ll help you find gigs, websites on which to post your music and video, and people that will run your press releases.
Tags: Entertainment, Indie Music, Indie Musicians, music
History of Percussion Instruments
Anthropologists and historians repeatedly speculate that percussion instruments were the first musical apparatus ever came into being. But with the utmost certainty, the human voice was the first musical instrument, and surely, percussion tools such as feet, hands, rocks, sticks and logs came in second to the on-going evolution of music. When humans developed tools for hunting and agriculture, their knowledge along side with skill, enabled them to produce more complex tools. They use slit drum, made from a hollowed-out tree trunk. For instance, a simple log may have been shaped to generate louder tones (log drum) and may have been pooled to create numerous tones (set of log drums).
As time moved on, so is the evolution of percussion instruments. In the early 10th century, it was known that most tribes in Africa use sorts of percussions such as djembe, macaras used in Latin America, karimbas in Asia and seed rattles in Australia for their recreational and worship rituals and sometimes used in sending signals.
Many of the percussion instruments were familiar with in the western world come from the Balkans, the Levant and elsewhere in the near east. European percussion instruments advanced with the import of drums and other instruments brought back by returning crusaders in the 11th to 13th centuries.
Percussion is categorized by a variety of criteria at times depending on their cultural origin, construction and function within musical orchestration. It is generally referred as ‘the hearbeat’ of a musical ensemble, often functioning close collaboration with bass instruments if present.
Drums and percussions as well as bass are known as the rhythm section of the most popular music genres. Most classical pieces written for an orchestra since the time of Mozart and Haydn are schemed to put emphasis on strings, brass and woodwinds. However, time and again they include a pair of timpani (kettle drums) although not played continuously. But moderately, they serve to offer additional accents when needed.
Small percussion instruments became more popular in orchestral works of the 18th and 19th centuries, but the cymbal and triangle among others were again mostly in the background as accents to the other instruments. It was not until recently when composers began to explore the possibilities of percussion in a leading role.
In almost all types of music, percussion plays a fundamental role. In a military parade, it is the strike of the bass drum that holds the soldiers in step and at a normal speed, and it is the snare that endows that crisp, vital air to the tune of a troop. In traditional jazz, one almost instantly thinks of the distinguishing rhythm of the hi-hats or the ride cymbal when the word “swing” is uttered. In more current popular music genres, it is almost impossible to name at least three or four rock, hip-hop, rap, funk, punk, techno, grunge, alternative and blues songs that don?t have some kind of percussive beat maintaining the tune in time.
There are even musical ensembles which perform works consisting entirely of percussion instruments. The range of percussion instruments is varied enough that compositions can express melody, harmony and rhythm using only percussive elements and of course, these performances are quite a sight to behold.
Tags: didgeridoos, Entertainment, ethnic, hand musical instruments, hand percussion instruments, music, musical instruments, percussion instruments, recreation
3 Tips To Maximize Effects For Your Music – Synths and Sounds
Internal effects although they don’t have as good as quality as that of an external effects unit, still are useable. They save space and power. Most people feel that they merely need the interior effects. Effects are ordinarily located at the end of the majority of the synthesiser signal paths. They genuinely aren’t a form of subtractive music synthesis. You can get effects in two methods.
1 being externally from an out board form. This’s a separate unit box like a mount or pedal. Then there is the type that’s built right into your synthesiser. That’s in models produced after the 1980s as prior to this time period the synthesizers had no built in effects.
To make up for not having enough oscillators and to create a more dynamic sound, the effects of unison come into play. It multiplies the signal that the synthesiser is producing. Normally it’ll detune the signals against each other. The similar way detuning oscillators is achieved. Unison is likewise not genuinely apart of sound synthesis. It’s a fixed option. A unison effect can be standard numbers like 2, four, eight, and some more. This’s for the signal multiplication. Clavia Nort Lead 3 is truly creative in it’s unison effect. It holds 1 signal in center and pans out 2 signals each to the left and right of the field. This achieves a stereo wide effect as they detune against each other.
To enhance and increase a synthesizers sound you’ll need the chorus effect. This’s one of the very well known ways. It’s a far more compound sound modification process. Some individual claim that unison and chorus are precisely the same, or even alike as detuning oscillators. To support this claim is the fact that it could be shown in acoustics instruments like the guitar or piano. Anywhere where multiple strings are played at the same pitch. On another hand whenever they are merely slightly out of tune it produces a soft warming sound effect.
Chorusing inside the signal chain of the synthesizer lends itself to standard interpretation. An LFO is used to create the effect. When a signal is replicated and mixed with multiple copies of itself and having similar pitch it creates an artificial effect.
This’s at a moderate level, and is forever being swept by an LFO. If the delay based pitch sweeps are offset from each other you can pan the delay effect with the stereo field. This means the effect can be utilized in stereo. Being as the LFO control the effect, the feed-back and depth of the effect it signifies they can be adjusted. The flanging effect utilised the chorus effect, even though its an artificial effect.
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