Articles
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What do you talk About in Music Chat Rooms?
Have you wondered if playing a musical instrument is really for you? Or, have you wished you could talk to someone who could help you figure out that guitar riff you are having so much trouble with. What about trying to decide if a career singing is really what you hope it will be. Does your voice play rock and roll or should you consider singing opera. What about wood instruments, do you have the power to blow a flute or a trombone?
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Twelve Top Performers of the Twentieth Century
Music is a difficult field to get into. It is not always how good your performance is that makes you a recognizable performer it is also how popular what you are singing becomes and how your audience views you; the performer. There are many different methods of gaining recognition. There is how well your albums sell, how well tickets to your performance sell; any awards you may win and what lists you get on.
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Top Twenty Record Artists Based on Record Sales
An artist knows their album has done well if it goes platinum. But what exactly does that mean? For an album to go platinum it would have to sell at least one million units. But, as well, it must go through a process of certification to prove that this number of copies have been sold for it to get the award. In the United States, the Recording Industry Association of America, known as the RIAA, collects this information.
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When it comes to owning a musical instrument there are diverse styles for different instruments. Guitars may be one instrument that has more unusual types than most others. This is in part because of their great popularity. But it is also because of the imagination of musicians and designers together. Not all of the unusual guitars that you will see are even playable, but they are certainly there to make a statement of individuality.
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Top Seven Reasons Your Music Demo Might be Rejected
The dream of so many musicians is to cut a demo and after sending it around to find that their music has been accepted and they have been offered a contract to record. It may be a dream, but it is very often an impossible one. Whether it’s an independent or a well known recording label the first step is to get listened to. All too often musicians make so many errors with their demos that they never get the attention they may deserve. Here are some of the pitfalls that must be avoided.
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Top Five Ways the MP3 Player Has Permanently Changed the Way We Listen to Music
Just over ten years ago the MP3 player was deemed the new file extension of an audio format that a company had been pursuing since the 1980s. They were ecstatic that they had finally and successfully completed nearly fifteen years of hard work. This incredible invention, along with the Internet and its access to the world, has changed the music industry and how the average person listens to their music in a permanent way.
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Top Eleven Reasons Why a Young Child Should Learn Music
The studying of music can be very rewarding not only for adults, but for young children as well. This includes young children barely out of the toddler stage. The younger a child, studies show that as young as three is not too early, the more open their brain is to learning and absorbing that which they are being taught. Although instruments can be more difficult for a young child to handle singing is a natural extension of learning to talk and so the voice can be developed younger.
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Three Good Reasons to Consider Buying a Used Instrument
Once you have decided to play a musical instrument, one big consideration is whether you should buy one or not. If you want to be able to practice regularly and you are not learning through a school buying your instrument may be your only choice. Then the question becomes should you buy a new one or take a chance and buy a used one. Some people feel that used instruments are not a good investment well others think that spending on something you are not sure you will enjoy is folly.
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The Top Seven Reasons to Buy a Digital Piano Instead of a Traditional One
A digital piano is one that is electronic. It is played like a regular piano, but it does not have the soundboard, hammers or strings that commonly make the sounds of an acoustic piano. Even with the high technology we have available to us today a traditional acoustic piano cannot really have its sweet sound duplicated even by an expensive high tech digital instrument. Still there are many reasons that so many musicians prefer the digital one.
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The Top Seven Reasons People Choose to Play Piano
With so many instruments out there to choose from, why is it that piano is the top choice? It is because there are so many good reasons to consider learning his particular instruments over others that most people are easily swayed when they research which instrument to play.
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The Top Five Reasons to Learn to Read Music
If you need to look at the reasons for learning to read music, there are many. If you truly have an interest in music and in learning to play a musical instrument then you must seriously consider learning to read music. It is not just the act of being able to recognize the notes. There is so much more to it than that. Reading music opens up whole worlds to the person who sits in front of a pile of sheet music. The squiggles change from mere marks on the paper to a whole series of information.
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Like so many other things, music has a long history in China. The beginnings can be traced as far back as the year 1000 BC. Artifacts have been found that show the beginnings of well-developed musical traditions. During 221-87 BC these traditions were further expanded and the Imperial Music Bureau was put in charge of how music should be played in the military and the Emperor’s courts.
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The Later Periods of Musical History
Musical history often reflected more than just what was happening musically. The music itself was influenced by what was happening in the world at the time. These influences had just as much to do with changes in governments, the sciences, and society as they did with musical tastes. The six periods of musical eras are known as the Middle Ages, Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic and Twentieth Century.
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Originating in New Orleans jazz is a musical genre that is a combination of blues, call and response, swing, improvisation and African musical styles. Much of the sound of jazz is the combination of many musical traditions including hymns, military band music and hillbilly music. Add to that ragtime, and spirituals from various African counties and you have the jumbled origins of this music.
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Country music has its origins in a variety of musical genres that began in the south of the United States. It seems to have taken its sources from folk music, blues, gospel, and Celtic music. It started in the 1920s not long after, by the 1930s, it became known as hillbilly music. Eventually this term was said to be degrading, an insult to the music field, and it became known instead as country music in the 1940s.
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The Greatest Hoax in Music History
Some say it was true, but just as many believed it to be the greatest hoax ever conceived in music history. The publicity generated by this rumor increased the sales of their records and brought more interest in the group. What was the hoax? It was the rumor that Paul McCartney died in a car accident in the early hours of November 1966. The claims go on to say that there are many hints in the both pictures and lyrics of Beatles albums to prove this was true.
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The Early Periods of Musical History
Music has been broken down into six timeframes that have distinctive sounds to their music. But these periods are not just changes in music; they are also changes in the era itself. These are reflected in the cultural, political and societal changes that went on during those times. These changes in life are shown in the changes in the music as well. The six musical timeframes are known as the Middle Ages, Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic and Twentieth Century.
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The Development of the Accordion
How many times have you looked at someone playing an accordion and laughed. Do not deny it, many people think of the accordion as a funny instrument, almost one that is not really worth playing. With its piano keys on one side and its bellows on the other it looks almost like something that was made from two distinctly different ideas or maybe by two people. An accordion is actually a fairly versatile instrument despite its awkward appearance.
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The Best Way to Clean a Brass Instrument
Like anything else that you use a lot, your musical instrument must be keep clean. When you are talking about brass instruments this is done to prevent germs, as well as to keep the instrument in good shape so that it will not get clogged or damaged by dirt. There are some basic steps to keeping these instruments clean.
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The Beginnings of Vinyl Records
It has not been that long since a person walked into a store and bought a record album, originally known as a gramophone record, instead of a CD. The record is the medium that followed the phonograph cylinder that was so very popular in the earlier 1900s. A record, made of polyvinyl chloride, also known as PVC, is a flat disc that has grooves that run through it that is inscribed with the sound. They records were known as an LP, for long playing, or by their speeds.
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The Beatles and What They Were
Which Beatle was your favorite? You may suppose that this question is horribly outdated since the only ones who could really give an informed opinion are those that are baby boomers. The Beatles have not recorded as a group since August twentieth of 1970. They all had their solo careers and though many fans hoped that they would one day play together again, John Lennon’s untimely death at the hands of a madman in 1980, certainly put an end to that possibility.
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The Beat of Native American Music
Just as there are many languages spoken by the Native American population, there are many musical styles. The interesting thing is that I modern times they have also taken the music styles of America, like rock, classical and hip hop and melded them with the tribal music, sometimes called chicken scratch. The music of our native cultures has a sound all its own, born of tribal life and traditional ceremonies their music continues to grow.
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For many years people have tried to replicate the amazing sound made by the Stradivarius violins. There have been theories on why he was able to make such exquisite music from his instruments but so far no one has been able to make the same sweet sounds. Some researchers believe that it was the wood he used that made the difference.
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There are so many different kinds of music that a person can enjoy and each kind of music often has sub genres that divide it into categories of each genre. This is because music spins its own tunes and what one person writes may spur someone else on to write another similar piece, and so it divides into types. If this did not happen we would not have the many different styles of music that we listen to.
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Over the years there has been a steady stream of lists showing which songs are the most popular in various genres. There are lists that are broken down into best of a decade, genre, solo artist or groups. Sometimes the same songs will appear in many lists because of their lasting quality and endearing popularity. Here is one list of the top ten best rock and roll songs of all time. These were put together by the votes of music lovers.


