Learning To Play An Instrument? Try MIDI Files.

MIDI files have been floating around the Internet for over 20 years. We’ve all heard them while surfing at one time or another, even if we didn’t realize it. Many musicians, pro and amateur , use MIDI files as backing tracks . Video games oftentimes use MIDI technology to render music. But the educational aspect of a MIDI file is often overlooked.Studies have shown that when learning to play an instrument (such as guitar or piano) you can get faster results by playing along with accompaniment. It,s certainly more fun than playing alone – and fun is a factor when learning to play. However, the educational factor goes beyond fun alone.

Playing with others helps develop good timing. It helps with ear training improvement as you listen to the parts someone else is playing. It helps develop a musical discipline that is lacking when you play alone. But what if no one else is around? Well, thanks to MIDI files, you are never alone. You can have a full-blown band at your disposal at any time!

You don’t need any special equipment to play MIDI files – all computers are capable of playing them. By doing a Google search, you can find thousands of MIDI files. The downside is that the general quality of many freely available Midis aren’t that good, but that is not the point. When I was learning to play guitar, I got together with a few friends and we started a garage band. Our average age was about 13 years old. We weren’t very good at first, but we got better and five years later turned professional. The experience over the years was like a musical training camp.

After you find your MIDI files, start playing along with them. Trying to learn the parts is great, but so is improvising along with the song (jamming). Because MIDI files are as accurate as a metronome you will be developing your sense of timing. By repetition you’ll be improving your own chops.

Remember, this is just a start. At some point you’ll want to play with real people.

Join the school band or look into other group playing programs. Get out there are jam with others whenever you have a chance, no matter how bad it sounds. The Beatles weren’t great when they first started, but we’ve all got to start somewhere. And who knows, someday you might end up being a real guitar hero!

: article by Vincent J Miele

Become a Professional Singer – Three Core Skills You Must First Master

Become a Professional Singer – Three Core Skills You Must First MasterThere are three core skills you must posses to become a professional singer. Check out this article to find out what they are and learn how to become a professional singer.

Many people consider taking their singing hobby and turning it into a singing career. Most don’t know how. In this article I will be explaining the three core elements you need to make it as a singer.

Professional singers can broadly be divided into two categories – Popular or classical. Whilst many of the principals I will outline below apply to both worlds, there is much more emphasis on vocal training in the classical world. The rest of this article is therefore written with popular music singers in mind.

Pro singers in the popular music world can be divided once again into those who perform original material and those who perform cover versions of already popular songs. These singers maybe solo vocalists, or perform as part of a band. Successful singers in both groups usually have the following three core elements in common.

 

1. Voice
2. Performance
3. Music

These may seem obvious, but please read on as I develop these ideas.Voice

You don’t need to have an amazing voice to become a professional singer, but it sure helps. Neither do you need to have any formal vocal training, although having a few lessons with a vocal coach can certainly help you learn the basic key principles that can help you improve much faster. The most important thing to do as a budding professional singer is practice. Only through practice will you develop the vocal strength, stamina and lung capacity you need to be a performer.

It will pay to be honest to yourself about your singing abilities at this early stage. Get some friends opinions, ask them to be honest, and be prepared for the worst. At least if you find out that you only sound good in your own head now, you won’t waste years of your life.

Performance

The first thing must have for a professional singer is confidence. Don’t worry if you haven’t got this yet, singing is a great way of developing your self confidence. You need to get out to some karaoke nights, open mic nights and talent competitions to overcome your fear before you can start getting paid to sing.

You must also work to develop your own style as a musician. Once you’ve mastered your tracks, play around with the phrasing and melodies and take time to try new things. You need to stand out from the crowd.

Your on stage image is very important. Even if you’re in a band that just wears jeans and tee shirts on stage, make sure they are clean and fit well. A poor image makes a bad first (and lasting) impression on your audience.

Music

The final element is the music. You can have a great voice and excellent presentation, but if your music is awful you won’t get very far.

There are three ways to get music to sing:-

• Cover Versions – download backing tracks off the internet
• Original material – write your own music
• Original material (2) – find someone else to write music for you

The most important thing that you need to remember, until you’re famous is that you must keep the music you perform appropriate for the audience.In conclusion, you must master three core elements can you start to think about getting paid for your work as a singer. Why not try and offer your singing services to a charity night for free, so you can test out your skills in front of a live audience, and get some experience of what it’s like to be a professional singer.

Best of luck!

: article by Gemma King

How to start recording music at home

It’s perfectly possible to make very high quality recordings at home with today’s computer technology. However, you will need to spend a fair bit of money on software, and hardware (such as high quality microphones and soundcards) in order to achieve this. BUT DON’T WORRY! It is entirely possible to make recordings at home that are very respectable in quality whilst spending only a relatively small amount of money! Even better news…it’s all pretty easy to do!

I like to think of my home recording set-up like an artist’s sketchbook. It’s somewhere to play around with my ideas, record a few vocal takes, put down a basic bass line, some simple drums and maybe a guitar track behind it. It’s then that the magic really starts. On pretty much all music software you can just copy and paste individual parts (or whole sections) around, just like you would do in a word processor. This makes it really easy to swap verses around, try a new drum beat on a different section…anything you can think of really.

Home studio software usually has a good selection of instruments built in, so you can add piano, strings, brass, synth and many more sounds to your songs. If you’re an accomplished keyboard player you can play all these different parts in via a (music) keyboard. If not, you can just play the notes in on screen (and you can change them really easily if you play a wrong note).

Like I said, if you want to do this all at a really high (studio quality) level, then you’ll need to think about investing some serious cash. But most software and hardware manufacturers have realised that there are loads of people like you and me out there, and have produced some really good ‘Entry Level’ cut down versions of their studio quality kit.

What you’ll need to get started.

At the most basic level, all you need for recording at home is a microphone, a sound card and a computer running some recording software. Lets look at the hardware first.

Microphones

You can use the same microphone you would use for live shows for basic home recording (the Shure SM58 is a tried and tested classic), but you’ll want to think about getting a studio quality condenser microphone if you want to record higher quality vocals.

Pop Shield

Pop shields are an inexpensive device that attaches to the mic stand, and stops loud blowing and popping noises from reaching the microphone. Singers make these noises mostly when singing ‘P’ and ‘B’ type sounds. You can make basic pop shield by stretching a pair of tights over a wire coat hanger! It won’t be as good as a professional one, but it will do the job pretty well!

Sound Cards

The majority of sound cards that come with computers are not designed for use with music programs. If you try to use them for recording music the quality will be much lower and you will experience large delays which will make recording impossible. If you want to do home recording then you will need a soundcard that has been designed for this purpose.

There are several different types:-

Internal Cards – If you have a PC that has a spare internal card slot, then you can get a relatively inexpensive sound card that can be used for home music production. If you know what you are doing you can fit them yourself, but if you’re in any doubt then please (for your own safety) get someone who knows what they are doing to fit it.

USB / FIREWIRE – there are some great sound cards that attach via USB / FIREWIRE. They usually cost a little bit more, but are really easy to transfer between computers if you use more than one.

Another thing to consider when you are buying a sound card is whether or not it will directly accept the signal from your microphone. It will almost certainly tell you this on the package / website where you buy it from, and may say something like ‘Mic Preamp’. If it doesn’t then you will need to connect it via your mixing desk.

Now lets talk about the software

On the most basic level, the software works by recording each channel of music (e.g. Vocals, Guitar, Drums etc). You can then alter the volumes of each of the different tracks, just like you would do live on a mixing desk. Each separate channel can be chopped up and moved around (just like you can copy and paste text in a word processor). This is what makes recording on computers much more powerful than old style tape recordings. Finaly you can add effects like compression, reverb and delay to individual tracks (or to the whole mix) then your track is about finished.

I’ve always used software from a company called Steinberg. It’s very powerful software and it’s pretty easy to understand. Steinberg produces a very high quality studio program called Cubase 4. They also produce a cut down version for the home user called Cubase 4 Essential, and another piece of software aimed at total beginners called Sequel. There are several other companies that also make great quality, affordable software for home recording.

Once you’ve got the basics set up, you just need to get recording, and try out new things. Make sure you read the user manual to get full benefit out of these powerful pieces of software.

Good luck, and above all, enjoy your music!

: article by Gemma King

5 Common Problems with Music Lessons (and how to avoid them!)

Over the past 9 years we have talked with hundreds of students and families about their experiences with music programs and what they felt about these experiences. We found common complaints recurring over and over and have made it our mission to create a school offering whatever has been missing from these programs. This is a list of these common problems and what steps as a school we take to help students and families to avoid them.

Common problem #1: Students are instructed in a very strict manner with a heavy emphasis on note reading and theory. Students do exercises and theory homework but are not allowed to play songs. Students are only allowed to play a song when everything seems perfect and wait months or years to be allowed to play and enjoy their instrument. These students and parents usually feel defeated and begin to look at music as a chore with little payoff and lacking any real joy.

Solution: At our school we allow students to play their instruments and correct their technique as they go. Using the Suzuki method allows students to memorize songs by ear and focus their attention on proper posture and technique. Students get into the habit of playing correctly and sounding good on their instrument every day while they also get to experience the joy of playing songs. When strong habits of play are formed we then begin to take a look at note reading and theory.

Common problem #2: Students are allowed to play many songs daily with a focus on fun but without focusing on technique. Although in the beginning students will enjoy this approach it will not take long before students realize that they are not really progressing. In fact many students taught in this way learn bad habits that make it difficult or impossible to play more difficult pieces. When these students come to our program we have to work very hard at correcting these bad habits which may have been going on for years. Unfortunately these parents and students have wasted a lot of time and money which could have been prevented.

Solution: In addition to hiring highly skilled University trained teachers we offer instruction targeted towards building technique every day from the ground up. In lessons students receive practice charts daily that begin with the most basic exercises. As they go through their charts the songs and scales become progressively more challenging in a subtle way. Every level of the practice chart works to support the next level and creates positive momentum over the course of the practice. This system works because when students reach their most challenging piece they can play it comfortably because their technique has been supported throughout the practice.

Common problem #3: “My child won’t practice and we fight over it!” Unfortunately many students do not want to practice and it causes tension between parents and students. Many of these parents know that music education is important but keep wondering, “is it worth all the trouble?”

Solution: As a music program we offer resources to help parents and teachers motivate students to practice. When students enroll we offer a free booklet “9 ways create successful practices at home”. Younger students receive stickers every time they complete a part of their practice chart which makes the practices more fun. We also provide two free recitals twice per year to give students a goal to work towards. Finally, teachers discuss strategies in lessons to make students and parents create the habit of practicing at home.

Common problem #4: Students can play their instrument well, but they cannot read music. This is commonly seen in students who are kept in the Suzuki method for too long. Students who cannot read music will not be able to perform music in groups or an orchestra and will be shut off to a whole world of music. Learning new music beyond the intermediate stages will also be extremely difficult and will take a long time. When music becomes more complicated you simply cannot play it all by ear and you need help from the written page.

Solution: Teach students how to read music at the right time and in the right way. In our program our first goal is to have students in the strong habit of playing correctly and sounding good on their instrument every day. When this is achieved our teachers then gradually begin to teach note reading, music theory and implement some easy sight reading into student’s practice charts. As students become confident and skilled in their reading a whole world of music is opened up to them. Not only do these students become excellent sight readers but we allow students to explore new music as part of their practice such as Celtic, Jazz, Fiddle, Ragtime, Movie Soundtracks and more. Now that these students are in the habit of sounding good, they can easily maintain that habit even when they are sight reading.

Common problem #5: Many students and parents have told us stories about teachers they have had that have turned them off to music. The instruction has been very rigid, strict and negative. These students were pushed to excel at music through fear motivation. Unfortunately many of these students quit, never to return to music, or they continue onward struggling with a loss of self confidence.

Solution: Lessons in our program are focused deeply on sharing a love for music. We believe students achieve their highest potential when they are positively reinforced and we work on building a student’s confidence. We realize that some students will seek professional careers in music and others will not. We strive for our students to achieve excellence in their music and we encourage them to enjoy playing for a lifetime!

: article by Brian Eliason

The Beginners Guide to Starting Music Lessons

The Beginners Guide to Starting Music Lessons

This guide is intended to help new students avoid some of the common pitfalls when beginning to learn an instrument. Using these guidelines, students of any age can have successful and rewarding musical experiences and will enjoy playing music year after year.

Step 1: Choose the right instrument.

When beginning music lessons people are usually drawn to a particular tone from an instrument and will want to choose the instrument that has the most appealing sound to them. It is important to pay attention to this desire and to follow it, however the age of the student must be considered as well. Very young students such as 5 year olds will probably not have the lung capacity to play certain wind instruments and may not be grown enough to play larger instruments such as the bass. Typically the violin or the piano are the best choices to begin with when studying music, and can serve as an outstanding foundation to branch out and learn other instruments as time goes on. The ear training, coordination and balance those students learn from the violin or piano is universal to music and serves as the perfect building block for learning other instruments when they are ready.

Step 2: Find a knowledgeable, inspiring, and enthusiastic teacher.

The world is full of many music teachers. Some of them love to play music and share it with others but lack the technical understanding of the instrument to teach effectively. Some teachers are full of knowledge but they are tired out from teaching so many lessons over the years. The truth is that although music is fun, learning music can also be difficult. What students need is an instructor who completely understands the instrument so that they can help them through the technical challenges, while at the same time support and encourage them to move ahead into their next level of play. Learning in anything is never an even road. Sometimes progress will be easy and fun while other times reaching the next level of play will be slower and you may feel discouraged. The combination of a motivating and enthusiastic teacher, who is also an expert with the technical aspects of the instrument, will propel students forward into higher levels of performance and understanding.

Step 3: Participate in performing opportunities such as recitals.

When choosing a music program it is a good idea to choose one that provides performing opportunities at least once a year. Recitals allow students to not only have a goal to work towards, but it allows them to share what they have learned with an audience. The sense of accomplishment as well as the applause received from family and friends helps students to reaffirm that all their time spent on practicing is really worthwhile. Typically after a recital students will show an increased enthusiasm in their music and will be eager to dive into practicing.

Step 4: Have a plan for implementing a practice routine.

When students first begin lessons they are usually very excited and cannot wait to begin playing music at home. This enthusiasm will last for a long time for some, and others will lack motivation to practice once the novelty of playing has worn off. It is important to have a strategy to motivate children to move ahead and continue to put time and energy into their music. In our studio we give students and parents a list of 9 things that they can do to set up successful practice sessions at home. This list contains the best ideas that have worked for many families to help them achieve successful practice over the years.

Step 5: Learn how to read music.

Many teachers send their students out into the world with a good playing technique but without the ability to read music or understand music theory. For violinists this can cause problems for them if they decide to play in a youth symphony or group orchestra because they will not understand how to read their part. For piano students this lack of note reading and theory will make it take longer to learn new pieces and they will tend to perform pieces less accurately. In the beginning of lessons it is important to first set up the technique correctly and to focus on proper technique and tone production. However, once excellent technique and habits have been established then it is time to learn how to read music and explore reading new material. In our studio we make sure students learn the combination of proper playing technique as well as note reading and a good understanding of music theory. When students begin to prepare for competitions or auditions or play in a group orchestra or ensemble they have positive experiences because they can easily understand and comprehend their part.

Have fun!

Music is something that you should bring enjoyment to your life. Whether you are aspiring for a career in music or choose to play purely for fun always remember to enjoy the journey and the gift of music. It is my hope that by using these guidelines you will have the most positive musical experience possible and will continue to enjoy playing for a lifetime!

: article by Brian Eliason