The Versatility of OpenD Tuning for Guitar

I get lots of e-mail inquiries on my website as to why I consider my system, Guitar-eze, to be so much simpler than virtually all the other guitar methods out there. The reason is Guitar-eze is based on the well-known but highly under-utilized, and under-appreciated, open-D tuning.

Thats right the guitar tuning that so many greats used and built upon, from Robert Johnson (open-E some of the time, but the exactly the same thing, a whole toner higher throughout), Keith Richards (Street Fighting Man, Jumpin Jack Flash unthinkable any other way), Joni Mitchell (with her jazzy, ringing open-string inflections), and so many more. Open-D can be much more than a one-off alternate tuning, as so often characterized, even from renowned instructors and players, in the method books and websites . Heres a little clarification on just one amazing aspect of open-D guitar tuning.

One of the great advantages of open-D tuning is its visual aspect. For anyone with event a li mited background musical theory, this can be a real eye-opener when learning guitar. Speaking from personal experience (as an aspiring guitarist with a moderate understanding of theory i.e. what chords and triads were), it became the point when the light bulb came on for me. In standard guitar tuning E A D G B E, the stArting open chord is generally not usable (a permutation of an A11 or some such). The only way to build chords from that stArting point is to utilize various finger-fret combinations, so as to create note groupings that sound the chords you want to play. Not only is the mastering of often tricky and unnatural finger positions a majo r stumbling block, especially for absolute beginners, the actual finger positions mean nothing. You cant tell from a E-chord or an A-chord (first position) why they are what they are. Contrast this with open-D tuning, D A D F# A D. Even with no finger to fret, you can see the chord as you look down your strings. The four highest D F# A D are the triad for a D major chord (octave doubled).

What and advantage this is! Permutations are as simple as adding one finger to any one string, to any fret higher than the root note. For instance, staying in our open-D for the moment: Add your first finger to the first fret on the A string (makes it an A#). Youve just created a D-augmented (D+), a modification universal up the whole of the fretboard. Move that same finger up one more fret on the same string youve create a D6; again, a modification that can be used up and down the fretboard of the guitar.

For anyone with even just a rudimentary understanding of the rudi ments, the logic should be highly appealing. Now, youre no longer memorizing chord positions, without understanding what the relationships are. Youre seeing the relationships right at your fingertips.

For the experimenters out there go nuts! Add one finger to any string stArting at any position on the guitar (i.e. a one-finger major barre chord, which is what open-D gives you up and down the neck of your guitar), and youve discovered a new chord check any theory book and itll tell you the name of the chord youve just created by making that modification. Its an endless supply of new chords. Of course, its expandable to more than one finger, too.

By trying different combinations off the basic stArting point of a major chord, youll hit some beauties and, of course, come clunkers. But what a way to hear and see how chords are structured and built. Also, because you have repeated strings in open-D (three Ds, and two As), you can try modifications on the repeat strings and see how the texture of the chord changes with the pitch of the note you've changed.

My book focuses on open-D as a stArting point to guitar versus standard tuning. The above example is what I refer to as the systems versatility. Its something you simply cannot glean as simply when your stArting point on the guitar is E A D G B E. I make the point that the system is great for either end of the guitarist spectrum (whether newbie, frustrated, or advanced) whether you are theory-based or an ear-experimenter, open-D is much more than just a folkie alternate tuning for one song. It can be a stand-alone playing style (as Ive done for twenty-plus years), or a viable alternative to add to your existing arsenal.

Frank Foxx is a semi-professional guitar player and pArt-time guitar teacher who plays exclusively in the tuning of open-D. He has written a guitar method book, extolling the virtues of what he considers to be the most versatile and easiest of all guitar tunings, entitled Guitar-eze A Simpler Approach to Playing the Guitar. His website is http://www.easierguitar.com. He keeps a blog at http://open-d.blogsp ot.com dedicated to helping guitarists and aspiring guitarists see the light.

Author:: Frank Foxx
Keywords:: play guitar, learn guitar, open-D guitar, open-D tuning,easy guitar,easier guitar, simple guitar
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The Power of Standing Still

Have you ever thought about the power of JUST STANDING STILL when you talk to an Audience, or share your Music?? Most of us feel we have to DO something when we're on Stage; that we have to dazzle everyone with our great Performance ability. It's just not so. I teach my students to STOP moving around on Stage unless it's called for from an emotional standpoint; they need to connect with a particular section of the Audience; or, they just feel that it's time to move because the speech or Lyric dictate that.

One thing most every performer must become conscious of is shuffling their feet around on Stage. It's a common thread among performers and Speakers to be in constant motion. They don't really move, though, using their Stage effectively; instead they take a small step, drag the other foot, rock back and forth; you get the picture. What that does is steal the Focus from your Message, and distract the Audience. Subliminally, your Audience is pulled off your Message by all this shuffling around. They can't concentrate on what you're saying when they're distracted by your inconsequential movement.

So be brave next time you present or sing; try standing still! It will allow your Audience to completely Focus on your Message, not your feet. A performer who stands still and only moves when it's important shows Mastery and Command. Focus on your Message, and have the confidence to stand still when you have something important to say!

2006 Beth Lawrence is the only expert in the country teaching The Integrated Voice method; a holistic approach to voice coaching and therapy honoring the connection of body, mind and spirit. Beth is the CEO of Viva La Voice!, a company offering private coaching for Speakers and singers, workshops in the performing arts, and Music ca mps for women. To learn more: http://www.VivaLaVoice.com

Author:: Beth Lawrence
Keywords:: Music,Audience,Performance,Lyric,Message,Focus,Stage,Stage skills,Presenter,Speaker,Mastery, Command
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How to Arrange Music for Piano

So, how does one go about arranging Piano Music? That's a good question. And one that can get confusing for most students. They sometimes confuse composing with arranging and with good reason - they're closely connected. Let's look at how to arrange a piece of Music for Piano. Specifically, we'll look at the lesson piece Fall Sunrise.

Fall Sunrise is a contemporary/new age Piano piece I wrote to illustrate how ABA form works. The first section is comprised of 4-bars which is repeated twice. The next section (B) is an 8-bar phrase repeated twice and then we come back to our (A) section, which again is repeated twice. So, if we were to a rrange this so we can see what it would look like we'd end up with something like this:

2A2B2A

This is a shorthand way of seeing the arrangement. It simply tells us how many times to repeat a section. Now, this arrangement by itself is sufficient for about 3-4 minutes of Music, however, if we wanted to, we could add another section and lengthen it even more. The reason why we need another section (if we wanted more Music) is that if we keep repeating this, it gets monotonous and boring.

We introduce a new section for contrast purposes. The ear hears this new Music and is refreshed. But before we introduce a new section, we need something to lead us into it. We need what is called a transitionary phrase. Two bars is usually enough to accomplish this. The transition prepares the listener to receive something new. It's a connective device that bridges the sections. After the transition is introduced, we can bring in a new section of Music and call it C.

Now, if we were to write out what this might look like we can come up with something like this:

2A2B2ATCA

Where T= transition and C= a new section of Music. By adding in a new section, we can now repeat the other sections more because we've introduced contrast into the mix.

Edward Weiss is a pianist/composer and webmaster of Quiescence Music's online Piano lessons. He has been helping students learn how to play Piano in the New Age style for over 14 years and works with students in private, in groups, and now over the internet. Stop by now at http://www.quiescenceMusic.com/Pianolessons.html for a FREE Piano lesson!

Author:: Edward Weiss
Keywords:: Music arranging,Piano,Piano lessons,Piano Music,Music,
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The Secondary Event Ticket Market

The Internet has become a major playing field for buyers and sellers of event Tickets in the extremely competitive $10-$12 billion event ticket market -- particularly for sold-out sports games and very popular music concerts and plays. Called the secondary event ticket market, this is the part of the event ticket market that includes Tickets bought by professional brokers as well as extras that season ticket holders can't use. People estimate the size of the secondary event ticket market to be at about $2 billion although the estimates of its size vary widely.

A huge market with tons of small players, the pre-Internet event ti cket market was a perfect match for the Internet around 1999, and as we fast-forward to 2006, hundreds mom-and-pop electronic storefronts, auction-based websites and online destinations now resell secondary event Tickets. While many of these are smalltime operators, a few major players also exist. As one would expect, eBay members are also in on the act and in a big way. In fact the biggest players of all in the secondary event ticket market are the members of eBay, which as a group sell more than $300 million in event Tickets annually and boast by far the biggest community of buyers and sellers.

But members of eBay also offer the biggest potential for fraud. Like everything else sold on eBay, stories abound of people getting ripped off by buying fake event Tickets. Although buyers can check out how others have rated a given seller, eBay is largely operated on an honor system and offers fertile ground for fraud.

To work around this event ticket fraud problem, some secondary event ticket sellers offer 100% guarantees. If you get a bad ticket, they replace it for free. Other secondary event ticket sellers take possession of the event Tickets and verify them before listing the event Tickets as being available for sale.

Online event ticket sales are growing as consumers become more comfortable shopping on the Internet. One source estimates that online event ticket sales will grow by 27 percent this year.

Even professional sports teams are involved in the secondary event ticket market. The demand for Chicago Cubs Tickets is so high that the team set up their own secondary event ticket market with a team-owned ticket broker.

Reselling event Tickets, otherwise known as scalping, is not against the law. Selling event Tickets, however, is often against the law where the event Tickets are sold in the immediate vicinity of an event.

Thirty-eight states, including California, have no meaningful restrictions on the resale of event Tickets. In twelve states, the resale of event Tickets i s regulated. In about half those states, ticket brokers who take inventory must register with the state. In the remaining six states, event Tickets cannot be resold above a maximum price premium. In these states a broker might be allowed to charge 20 percent more than the event Tickets face value at a maximum.

Michael Merten is an Internet marketing specialist who also works as an event ticket broker on the side. He sells Tickets to popular, upcoming events through the Rock Concerts and Events Blog a blog that features news, reviews and Tickets to upcoming rock concert events.

Author:: Michael Merten
Keywords:: concert Tickets,event Tickets,Tickets,rock concert Tickets,ticket broker,concert ticket,event ticket
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Hardcore

Hardcore was originally acclaimed as dirt, quick and bustling Punk-rock, which emerged in the US in late seventieth through early eightieth. The hard-core Bands, including Black Flag, Circle Jerks, Teen Idles, Minor Threat, Jerrys Kids posed as founders of Hardcore.

Until eightieth, Hardcore appeared to be peculiar of ear-teasing, short and quick Songs of approximately 1 to 1.5 minutes with presence of social lyrics. This stage completed due to Bands tendency either to split up or, to, simply, shift to different Musical Style. Those times Hardcore is labelled the old school Hardcore.

Some Bands, including Earth Crisis, All Out War, Strife, following the old school Hardcore, enriched their Music with combination of slow melodies and metal elements, which, thus, committed to establishment of the new school of Hardcore.

The others, like Husker Du, Meat Puppets and Embrace however, applying restrictions to hardness in their Music, developed the new Styles of grunge and emocore, respectively. The emocore boasts the peculiar features of emotional performance, melodic and soft back-vocal, minor chords as well as typical behaviour on stage.

The Bad Religion Band, established in 1980, omitting usual now presence of slowness and duration in Songs, posed as establisher of new Musical trend through introducing professional beck-vocal. The Style appears to lack in denomination, but is conditionally nicknamed as skate-punk (trifle lig hter form of the said Music is played by Blink-182 and New Found Glory), although it differs from traditional Pop-punk, represented by Ramonez, Buzzcocks and Lookout records, both, in origin and Style.

As the time passed by, the Hardcore influenced development of such Styles as fast-core, thresh core and crossover, however, the Bands, following the said Style failed to experience support of great audience, as their processors did.

Thus, a bulk of modern alternative Music stemmed from Hardcore. Notably, the old school Hardcore is still in demand and keeps developing, irrespective of breeding more popular Musical trends. A slew of Bands still promotes the Style worldwide among Music lovers.

The Styles encountered development of a parallel manner (they experienced step-by-step development from the very beginning).

It should be noted that a Style, depending on social background and geographical location may posses original and uni que nuances.

Article source: Hardcore. Music Babylon is a site which gives you access to database of Music lyrics, lively Music forum and some Music articles about different aspects of single Music.

Author:: Mark Renton
Keywords:: Hardcore, Punk-rock, Band, Songs, Music, Pop-punk, Style, hard-core Bands
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Spectral Muses Revisited: The Channeled Melodies of Rosemary Brown

Rosemary Brown (1916-2001) was a middle-aged South London widow, making ends meet as a grade school kitchen assistant, who rocketed to international fame in 1968 through a BBC broadcast recounting her purported collaborations with long-dead Composers. These included Liszt, J.S. Bach, Handel, Beethoven, Schubert (who of course no longer needs spectacles), Monteverdi, Rachmaninoff, Debussy, Brahms, Robert and Clara Schumann, Mozart, Grieg, and Poulenc. And after he died in 1971, Igor Stravinsky joined them.

Though Ms Brown's musical education had consisted of no more than two years of Piano lessons and a couple of halfhearted trips to the opera, she went on to turn out over a thousand pieces worthy, in the estimations of a number of musicologists, of many of these legendary giants. Concert pianist Hepzibah Menuhin (Yehudi's sister), observed, There is no question but that she is a very sincere woman. The music is absolutely in the style of these Composers. Sir Richard Rodney Bennett, who studied under Sir Lennox Berkeley and Pierre Boulez and scored the film Murder on the Orient Express, said, A lot of people can improvise, but you couldn't fake music like this without years of training.

In 1969 the BBC arranged to observe Ms Brown in the act firsthand. They sat her down on a Piano bench and waited for Franz Liszt. In due course he appeared, to her anyway, and dictated a piece he called Grubelei that, like much of this material, was far beyond her technical competence to perform. Composer and Lizst specialist Humphrey Searle scrutinized Grubelei and found it to be remarkably characteristic of Lizst's last few years. It is highly chromatic, he later recalled, and one hand is written in 5/4 time against 3/2 in the other. The latter is not a thing that Liszt ever did as far as I know, but it is the sort of thing he might have done.

I'm no expert here but from what I've heard of Rosemary Brown's music it certainly sounds convinci ng. At the very least we have a stupendous volume of splendid musical parodies in front of us, and it remains to be explained how someone of such prosaic means could have produced them non-Supernaturally. I am rather surprised that Ms Brown reported no contact with Sir Edward Elgar, her country's most cherished composer, whose unparalleled orchestrations would have been supremely difficult to mimic. Or, similarly, Ralph Vaughn Williams or Sir Charles H.H. Parry or Fritz Delius (who once snarled, Grieg had more music in his little finger than Stravinsky has in his whole body.). In any case, you the living can contact Romana-Hamburg and judge for yourself. They offer the documentary Music from Beyond on DVD and a corresponding CD compilation of 40 of Brown's Piano pieces, 38 of them performed by Gerhard Helzel.

The preceding article comes from the Curious Thing of the Week section of my website. http://www.curiousnotions.com

Author:: Peter Blinn
Keywords:: P iano, classical music, Supernatural, Ghosts, Composers, Liszt, Schubert, Bach, Beethoven, CDs
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Tara Slone from Joydrop to INXS: Tara Has Opted to Hit the Road Alone

Whisky Rocks Tara Slone!

Whisky Rocks Unplugged is a four-week promotion that runs into November 2005, in 600 LCBO (liquor) stores across Ontario, highlighting the worlds finest whiskies (including 20 new products in Canada) and one of Canadas own: songstress TARA SLONE!

Tara Slone is the former lead singer of the Toronto-based band Joydrop. The band had their first release with Metasexual which included the hit single Beautiful. Joydrops juno-nominated follow-up, Viberate, contained the single Sometimes Wanna Die. The song was a hit at rock, and pop radio and won the band best new group at the Canadian Radio Music Awards. The video, featuring Tommy Lee, went to #1 on Much More Music. In the process of promoting their music, Joydrop toured North America extensively, playing hundreds of shows and making a name for themselves across the continent.

Having the LCBO support her is a wonderful surprise to Tara. Its nice to have had the exposure and the LCBO did call me up based on the INXS ROCKSTAR show, so its nice to have this chance to showcase my songs. Other opportunities are now starting to come my way and hopefully when my record comes out (which is?) who knows? The record is done, mix, mastered and ready to go. I could have sworn that Tara Slone was a bit more of a beer connoisseur, but Tara insists, I am all for alcohol. I am not as much of a whisky connoisseur, but I definitely recognize that whisky is all about the rock 'n roll lifestyle. I am really happy to have the LCBO promote whisky and then show a little love with music. This is a great opportunity for me to showcase my songs and there is a lot of press that is associated with this too. Spoken like a true rock 'n roll gal!

Taras first performance at the LCBO on the QueenQuay went of without a hitch! A media circus ensued the talented Torontonian, but it went unnoticed by her as she belted out the tunes from her new album and a few from her former band THE JO YDROP. I have to say though, that everyone that attended the event seemed more interested in networking than listening to her. A heralded applause accompanied every set, but I just think if you are there to listen to an artist, that perhaps you should...I dont know...listen? Anyway, unlike many other performances that we seen of Tara on television, the INXS songs of choice paled in comparison to hearing her sing her own! She really is Beautiful inside and out.

Tara was seen around the world this past summer on the hit CBS show Rockstar:INXS. Chosen from thousands of candidates, Tara was one of fifteen singers handpicked by INXS as a potential singer for their band. Tara sang her way to the top ten and picked up an international fan base along the way! Sugarcain Entertainment was one of the first to feature her along with the other 3 Canadian hopefuls, before she headed off to compete. When asked if she enjoyed the experience, Tara had this to say, Well, I got back in August and then I went back for the finale of the show. Towards the end I felt that JD FORTUNE was going to win. No particular reason, it was just more of a vibe than anything. I would have been happy to stay longer if I had felt like it was an easier experience for me, but the whole process was pretty stressful. I am a songwriter and the process of being molded into something other than what I felt I was, helped confirm to me that I was doing the right thing now.

Tara is excited to be rocking the musical waters as a solo performer. Her debut album, My Little Secret is set for a 2006 release. Tara explains who is on this album and the differences between Joydrop and the Tara Slone album, Joydrop had a lot of programming and this is a bit more raw, guitar based, drums - more so, this was an opportunity for me to write. In Joydrop there were 4 Writers and with my project there is me and a guy named Jordon Zadorozy of Blinker the Star, whose drummer just happens to be Ton y Rabalao. She goes on to say, It was an easy process Writing with Jordon, and for me it was just the right fit. Two of the former JOYDROP members Tony Rabalao (drums - who is touring with a few bands now across Canada) and Tom McKay (producing with a variety of artists) will be accompanying Tara on her tour along with a couple of newcomers - Trent (seen in photo at LCBO) and Chris.

Author:: Orlena Cain
Keywords:: article submission, Articles, Writers, Writing, Publishing, Ezine, Email marketing, Email newsletter, Email
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