Music Articles and Reviews

Music history is an important subject for any musician or composer who hopes to perfect their craft and produce the best music possible. Not only can it help you get a better historical understanding of music and its purpose, but it can also help you understand the structure of musical systems and how they can be used. This is very important information for anyone looking to make a living or hobby out of making music, so it stands that a long-term study of music history should be undertaken. With this in mind, how should one go about structuring and motivating their study of music history?

Most people who own an electric guitar will never think to modify or customize it in any way. It may not seem important to change an instrument that you buy, and with most instruments this is true. The electric guitar, however, can be a much different issue. Unless you are buying a top of the line model, you will most likely end up with a decent instrument that includes a few not so decent parts. Guitar mods can be a low cost and rewarding way to improve and maximize your instrument.

If you are planning on learning how to sight read, there are a few key techniques to remember. One of the hardest parts of learning to read music is staying interested in it and keeping to a normal practice routine. Although this may seem easy at first, it’s also easy to take a few days off and then not get back into it for a while, and when this happens, it is easy to forget what you have learned. The key to sight reading is to practice it consistently, and this means doing a few different things to stay on top of it.

The first question that comes to mind is, “What the hell is a moderndayfreak?” Recently I heard of chicano rap, but chicano rock? C’mon isn’t that kinda of pushing it a little on the whole broadened music genre? Even though these guys don’t categorize themselves as chicano rock, but if you see these guys they look more like thugsters instead of rockers…

But alas- theres more than meets the eye. Looks can be decieving.
These guys are literally talented and I had the chance to sit down in one of their recording sessions with a few other promoters/reviewers…

Evolution and natural selection are concepts that most people encounter in their learning of biology. Still debated and rejected mainly by religious circles, these theories about the development of life on this planet apply to much more than people first realize. It is easy to see how everything from the formation of planets to the spreading of ideas can be explained and better understood with evolution in mind, and even music in general is subject to it.

One of the most talked about music “compositions” of all time is John Cage’s 4′33″. People discuss its effects on modern composers and what it means for music going forward, but all of this discussion is irrelevant because 4′33″ is not music.

For those who do not know, the piece in question is performed by having a pianist walk out on stage, open the piano lid, and sit there for four minutes and thirty three seconds, occasionally turning pages of sheet music. John Cage “wrote” it in 1952 and it has been constantly dissected ever since by everyone from curious bystanders to music professors in universities.

The internet can provide film composers with all sorts of new self-promotional opportunities, and the benefits of this fact can be great for individuals determined to make it in the film music industry. Not only has the internet expanded the reach of composers to connect with filmmakers around the world, but the cheapening of video equipment and other factors have lead to more films being made and more directors looking for music. In order to take advantage of this fact, the modern film composer must be apt to promoting themselves on the internet.

YouTube has been the premier video site on the web for some time now. Other sites may compete with its quality or special features, but no one can match its user base and traffic, which make it the most profitable video site to be a part of. One of the reasons that YouTube is so great, is that they look for ways to let video producers make money off their uploads, and this includes letting the owners of commercial music videos profit from them. Although some people see it as a bad thing that YouTube is trying to legitimatize the online music video business, it will be a benefit to everyone in the long run.