The Mystery That Comes When You Learn How To Play The Piano

By Evrose Vartable

When you talk about a piano, many people could only dream of what it would feel like to play piano. Some of the acquired skills take years to comprehend, and many people often times feel that they simply do not have the time or the patience to put into learning this awesome skill.

There are a lot of websites online that have continued to pop up promising that they can teach the right way to play the piano in no time flat. However, there have been no reviews on these sites posted specifying if their lessons truly were successful or not.

Before you can begin to play piano, there is so much that you must first be able to comprehend. You have to analyze the piano and be able to break down each particular part. You will definitely need to understand that each key serves a particular purpose and you will have to train yourself on what the purpose of certain keys are.

The music alphabet is also something that is imperative that you have a firm understanding of, before you can begin playing. The music alphabet is in a way like our alphabet but lacks a lot of letters. The music alphabet goes from A to G. Each letter actually represents a certain sound. You will need to know what sounds each letter makes.

When you're faced with the fact of having to play the piano, it may seem a little daunting at first. Just remember people have conquered learning how to play the piano for years, and you will be able to as well.

Many people want to learn how to play the piano simply because of the sounds that they have heard come from it. No one would probably have a spark of interest in learning how to play if you never heard what it sounded like. Hearing the piano can be intimidating to those who are looking to learn to play themselves.

You need to be able to put yourself in the frame of mind that learning to play piano can easily be accomplished. You have to believe that you have what it takes to learn the difficult task and just believe in yourself.

Playing the piano is almost like a job in itself, it takes time to develop your skill. You must be open to people nagging on you about how you sound. Take heed of others peoples words and work to prove them wrong. When you do this, you have become a real sincere musician. - 18758

About the Author:

Evrose vartable is a musician, composer and music teacher. Pay her blog a visit at How To Play Piano Songs and obtain your free online piano lesson informations and learn to play piano helpful tips.

History of Drums Overview

By Amy Nutt

Throughout the history of human civilization, musical instruments have played an important role in shaping most cultures. These instruments have been used as a tool for communicating feelings and meanings. One instrument that has played a major role in musical history is the drum. When studying the history of the drum, one will discover its historical influence on many societies and cultures from around the world.

Drums emerged at almost the same time as Man. The origins of the drum is said to have occurred as early as in 6000 BC. Mesopotamian excavation teams discovered small cylindrical drums that dated back to 3000 BC. The American Indians used gourd and wooden built drums for their rituals and ceremonies. Early drums were made by hollowing out a log and tightly covering the hollowed section with a membrane.

Drums have been a very important influence on Africas culture and customs. They have been used in African religious ceremonies and rituals. Early African tribes used drums to express important meanings in their culture and practices. The drums made their way from Africa to America during the slave trade. African drums had a major influence on western rock and roll music. The early African rhythms still influence todays music.

When people realized they could play more than one drum at the same time, they began to play two or more drums simultaneously. Drum players began placing different drums together to develop a variety of beats and rhythms.

Cymbals and tom toms were invented in China. They were added to the various set of drums for new sounds and beats. Eventually chimes, wooden blocks, and cowbells were added to the musical mix. The famous Ludwig Drum Company is known to be one of the most important historical influences on the evolution of the drums. The Ludwig Drum Company was started by a young man who had a passion for playing the drums. He could not find a bass pedal that would keep up with his vigorous drumming technique. He searched every store and shop in an effort to locate a proper pedal, but could not locate one. He decided to make a bass pedal out of wood. The pedal turned out to be better than any other product on the market. With the help of his brother, Ludwig created a stronger metal bass pedal which was better than the wooden one. In 1909, The Ludwig Drum Company was created. By the 1930s, the drum kit had been born. The kit included a foot pedal and bass drum, snare, hi hat cymbal, tom toms, and large hanging cymbals.

During the 1950s, rock drummers became popular and they began expanding the drum kits by adding more cymbals and tom tom drums to the kits. This resulted in the modern drum kits we see today. Technology created the electronic drums which produced the sounds that standard drums could not create.

There have been many types of drum kits that contain a variety of drums and other drum accessories. Yamaha and Tama are two companies who have played a major role in shaping the drum that we see today.

Drums have played a major role with influencing the cultural evolution of music. The early methods and sounds of drums can be seen in todays drummer. Although new and innovative technology has improved drum sounds and provided a clearer and more accurate beat, todays new drummers still have to develop rhythm and drumstick techniques. Practice is still the best way to achieve excellent drumming skills. Imagination and innovative technology will certainly influence the future and diversity of the drum and its role in music. - 18758

About the Author:

Music School offering Grand Piano Toronto, voice, piano and guitar lessons Vaughan and the GTA area. Visit our Piano store Toronto to find new and used pianos.

Choosing Your DJ Weapon

By Nik Levesque

DJ turntable vs. CD players: which is which, you might ask. Well, that depends on two things. One: what do you intend to use the music player for. And two: how much money are you really willing to spend on the player. By the way, these are two very different players. For starters, a DJ turntable is basically a phonograph or gramophone, which uses vinyl records as its primary medium. Speaking of which, vinyl records as a form of recording style has been supplanted by digital music in 1991. Although there are still some artists and recording companies who use this medium to store music, most of the vinyl recordings carry music only from the late 1920s to 1990.

On the other hand, optical discs are the primary medium for CD players. CD discs have a wider range of music selections, primarily because new music is being constantly added to the play list and music companies are re-recording "classics" on digital formats now. At the same time, amateur musicians can record their own music and have these burned on CD formats easily.

There is also no such thing as a compact DJ turntable. This equipment can be rather bulky, and not really the type you can play on you lap while you take the bus home. Most CD players are very portable. However, these are limited only to the conventional CD music format, and will not play any other forms of recordings (e.g. MP3s.)

Saying this, let us now tackle about your actual intention for acquiring said players. Naturally, playing music is the number one reason here. It should be noted that both players do not have the capacity to burn or scratch music either on CD formats or vinyl formats. However, these can work well enough with playing their respective mediums. DJs also use the turntable to scratch, mix, or spin music - which is something that conventional CD players cannot do. Scratching is the distinct repetitive sound made when the DJ's hand moves the vinyl record back and forth in little motions. Mixing and spinning music can only be done using two turntables and a music mixer with crossfader functions. The main goal of using turntables is to play, mix and scratch music for the benefit of others. Very rarely will you see a DJ mixing music for his or her ears only.

Conventional CD players do not have this same capacity. These can only ever play pre-recorded music, and only at the sequence specified. Because the songs are digitally recorded as a whole, CD players cannot start the music other than its introductory area, and you certainly cannot mix part of the song with another song in the same disc without skipping to the next tune.

As for costs, turntables are more expensive by far. Complete turntable units can cost as much as $7,000; this still does not include the rates of the vinyl records you have to buy. Some of the higher end CD players can cost about $200, while the portable ones cost less than $40. - 18758

About the Author:

Get set up to be a dj by finding some great dj.

RIAA And Its Role In Music Industry

By Susan Reynolds

RIAA is an acronym of Recording Industry Association of America. The association is a groping of various large companies who deal with the recording and music distribution in the United States of America. In the 1950's the primary concern of this association was maintaining the quality of music. However now the focus has shifted to the copyright protection which has become the main thrust area of the association.

Piracy in any form will not be allowed says RIAA. There had been reports about people making profitable use of copyright protected music. People are inclined to make multiple copies of music, after downloading them from the net. Later on the music is burnt into multiple CDs and sold commercially. Consequently the music industry sustains huge losses in revenue says RIAA. Everybody is barred from downloading any music without permission, and severe actions would be taken against the violators.

The only course of action left to RIAA was to ban the online music sharing services like Napster. A legal framework was made to arrest such practices as music download. Strict laws were enacted in the early 2000 to prevent people from illegal download or even purchasing pirated CD's. Youth were specific targets of RIAA in order to restrict them from downloading music in violation of copyrights

Though RIAA is doing all in its power to protect misuse of music protected by copyright but the activities in this direction by RIAA are not welcome by everyone. Those opposing have brought out that number of CD's sold was more when online services such as Napster were available. Doubts have therefore been expressed about the stated aims of RIAA to help the artists and recording studios. RIAA has also been blamed for putting the artists to a loss who are paid very less payment for sale of CDs while they themselves make big gains.

However in its zeal to carryout its campaign RIAA has hurt its own credibility. People have been very much dismayed by its legal action such as the one against a kid of about 12 years, a woman in her 60's not able to use computers, or one against an ageing woman of 83 years. Such legal actions have largely undermined the trustworthiness of RIAA..

In accordance with popular wish RIAA enacted a law that for past acts of illegal downloading of music no action will be taken against people. However they must assure that they will not continue to do so in future. It was seen by many as the right approach but in a year's time the law was depreciated.

Generally people are unsure of their feelings towards RIAA. Some are opposed to its actions and criticize it on many scores, but on the other hand there are many who welcome its efforts. In spite of a lack of consistent view about it amongst people in general it has to be accepted that in the last few years it has made remarkable progress.

In addition to copyright protection, RIAA looks after the sales and keeps a track of them. Records are marked and labeled as "Gold" or "Platinum" by RIAA depending upon the number of CDs sold. In summary it may be said that RIAA has reasonably maintained clean and good business in the music industry. - 18758

About the Author:

Susan Reynolds is the webmaster for a website that lets you Download Music for Free. For more information visit: http://www.sharepanel.com/

The Recommended Mp3 Bitrates

By Zachry Nest

Anyone that listens to music and has some knowledge on how to download music off the Internet, or how to rip music off a CD, or even knows how to burn a CD has probably heard of the term Mp3. However, many people out there don't quite know what an Mp3 exactly is. If you are one of those people, then its safe to say that you don't know what a bitrate is either.

If that's true, then don't worry because you will learn what an Mp3 is, what a bitrate is and more. This article should leave you more informed on what an Mp3 is and what the role the bitrate plays in determining the quality of the audio. So what is an Mp3? Millions of people around the world listen to them via their Mp3 players, computers, and even devices like the cell phone. Yet, its safe to say that 80 percent of those countless millions don't know what an Mp3 is? The Mp3 is a highly efficient, patented form of compression.

All that means is that an Mp3 is the compressed form of the original audio file. You may ask yourself: Why compress an audio file to begin with? The reason why we compress audio files is because original, uncompressed audio files tend to have massive file sizes. Without compressing audio files, it would be unpractical to store. On the opposite end, if you decrease the file size of an audio file too much, the audio quality will be negatively affected.

The Mp3, also known as MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3, is meant to deal with that issue by shrinking the file sizes without negatively affecting the audio quality. Here is where the bitrate comes into play. The bitrate is the number of bits (units of information) that is processed per second. Now I know that sounds somewhat technical, but just look at it like this. The bitrate is the amount of information that the Mp3 player, computer, or other device reads per second.

The more information the device reads per second, the higher the audio quality. But on the other end, the more information per second, the bigger the file size will be. A common bitrate of an Mp3 file is 128 kbit/s. Just in case you aren't aware, the 128 kbit represents the number of kilobytes and the /s means per second. Now consider this example: Imagine you have an Mp3 player with 20 gigabytes of storage and you have 100 Mp3 songs each with a bitrate of 128 kbit/s.

Now imagine that you have another Mp3 player with 20 gigabytes of storage and you have in your Mp3 player 100 Mp3 songs each with a bitrate of 192 kbit/s. You would have less space in the 2nd Mp3 player because the file sizes of the 100 Mp3 songs with the bitrate of 192 kbit/s are bigger.

Bitrate is important because it helps determine the audio quality of the file. Now that you have a basic understanding of what an Mp3 file is and what the bitrate is and why it is important, I would like to share with you my favorite bitrates and why.

To be more specific, my favorite bitrate changes depending on what device I will be playing my Mp3 file on. If Im going to play my Mp3 file on my Mp3 player, then my favorite bitrate to encode at is 192 kbit/s. I prefer that bitrate because it is the same bitrate songs are encoded on CD's (also known as CD quality) and the audio file size generated is relatively small. If I plan to listen to my Mp3 music on my computer, then my favorite mp3 bitrate is 256 kbit/s.

Though the increased bitrate will produce a slightly higher file size, the audio quality would be improved. If I plan to listen to my Mp3 music on my cell phone or a device with a small amount of storage, then the bitrate I would encode my Mp3 files at 128 kbit/s. Now that you know my favorite bitrates, I recommend that you use them because I believe they produce the best combination of audio quality and file size. - 18758

About the Author:

Learn how to add Mp3 Album Art to your Mp3 Songs in only 3 simple steps. My Favorite Mp3 Bitrate was provided by eSquaredMarketing.