Where to Find the Greatest Christian Music Online

January 26th, 2012



Welcome and God bless! Finding good Christian Music can be a daunting task, but have no fear! Read on!

Christian Worship Songs

The main reason why they are written and performed is to honor Jesus Christ. Modern day Christian Music Songs are performed and related to soft rock, usually under a contemporary Christian music label. There are many genres and sub genres (styles) such as Southern Gospel, Christian Country, Pop, Metal, Hardcore, Rock, and Hip-Hop.

Some popular Christian Songs are:

1. Awake and Alive by Skillet
2. Our God by Chris Tomlin
3. Get Back up by tobyMac
4. All of Creation by MercyMe
5. Before the Morning by Josh Wilson
6. Healing Begins by Tenth Avenue North

Christian Artists

Many Christian artists have aspired to great things. Jeremy Camp a successful Christian artist gained a big break while at BibleCollege in California. The worship leader of the college heard him playing guitar in his dorm room and recommended he play in the music ministry opportunities. From then on, he became a successful Christian artist spreading worship around the world!

Where to hear Christian Music Online?

One of the best resources to hear this kind of music is through Pandora. Pandora.com is a website which finds songs similar to your interests and then plays those songs! It creates your own very personal “internet radio station”. However, not all songs are on there, but Pandora is good to get an idea of an artists talents and abilities are.

Where to buy?

You can buy from Amazon mp3 downloads, iTunes, and even Pandora itself! Most songs cost around $0.99 but you can occasionally find deals on $4.99 full length CDs!

If you are a talented musician I recommend you use that talent to spread the Word through worship music from your local Church ministry!

How to Play Unaccompanied Bach on the Violin

January 26th, 2012



The Sonatas and Partitas for unaccompanied violin by Johann Sebastian Bach are a staple of the literature. They are also notoriously difficult to play. The music is laced with double stops and chords, many of which span three and even all four strings. These chordal masterpieces present an enormous challenge to the modern violinist.

However, J.S. Bach himself probably would not have anticipated our current difficulty playing his music when he wrote it over 300 years ago. In his day, the bridge of the violin was quite flat. Thus, playing chords did not require the advanced technique used to cross multiple strings during a single chord.

The modern violin, however, has a highly sloped bridge that sets each string at a different height. Thus, chords must be at least partially rolled rather than merely brushed — which greatly raises the level of difficulty beyond what Bach might have anticipated in his own time. Some of his more difficult compositions, such as the fugue from Sonata No. 1 in G minor and the beautiful but torturous (for the violinist) Chaconne in D minor, are at times written in true four-part harmony. Translation: four-note chords played one after the other, for measure upon measure, alternating up bow and down bow, often at a fairly quick tempo.

When first beginning to study unaccompanied Bach, students often slow down the bow and press with the hand. The resulting “crunching” sound often leads to tightness in the bow arm and hand, which causes even more crunching. Pretty soon, the left hand also becomes tight and the next thing to go is intonation, as the tense left hand begins to grip the neck of the violin and refuses to move with its usual elasticity. No wonder so many violinists avoid performing unaccompanied Bach as much as possible!

So, is it possible to play the Bach Sonatas and Partitas with great tone and a comfortable feeling of relaxation? I believe that the answer is yes, but it may require a rather different approach than the student is accustomed to using for other music. First, it is necessary to understand that most of the chords will need to be rolled to some extent. It is virtually impossible to play all four (or even three) strings simultaneously and produce anything approaching a good sound.

In addition, the bow must glide over the strings using bow speed, rather than pressure, to achieve breadth of sound. Although the dominant “American” school of violin relies partly on pressure from the arm for great tone, this just does not work as well for chordal passages in unaccompanied Bach. A little bit of extra bow speed and a lightening of pressure greatly opens the sound and allows each chord to speak without a crunch at the start of the stroke. Using less pressure for chords is also permissible because, with more notes played at once, comes proportionately more volume (or perceived volume). It can help also to pretend that the bow is playing only one note, rather than a four note chord.

In sum, rolling the chords, lightening the bow pressure, increasing the bow speed, and keeping the right hand relaxed will keep the sound open, clear, and clean.

Good intonation is also critical to acheiving a great sound on Bach Sonatas and Partitas. When played in tune, the violin rings beautifully as it picks up shadow tones from the other strings. This ringing sound also helps chords to sound cleaner and speak more clearly.

Working through each chordal passage for intonation slowly and with precision is of critical importance. Some of the chords are truly awkward, and sometimes there is no magic solution or perfect fingering.

Another difficulty is the prevalence of perfect fifths that require the same finger to depress two strings at once. It may be tempting to simply roll the hand and finger under the violin to reach both notes with a flattened finger, but this approach disrupts the hand position and can add loads of tension to the left hand. Instead, it is best to find a position for the finger in between the two strings that catches both notes at the same time without moving the finger at all during the fifth. Every student’s hand and finger shape is different, so it is necessary to experiment to figure out the optimal placement of the finger for playing fifths in tune. In any event, it is far better to have a slightly imperfect fifth than to modify the entire hand position to accommodate this interval.

Unaccompanied Bach is difficult for another reason — precisely because there is no accompaniment, and thus no pianist or orchestra to help maintain a steady tempo or to provide a framework for intonation. Rather, the beat and tuning must come entirely from within. It can be helpful to remember that many of the movements are in fact “dances,” and thus often sound best when played with steadiness, grace, and a certain calm.

Unaccompanied Bach, while difficult, offers some of the most rewarding music for violinists when played well. After all, this music is complete in and of itself — there are no other parts or players necessary to fill in gaps in the harmony. A good place to start is with the first movement of Sonata No.1 in G minor. The rhythm is tricky but the chords are spaced fairly far apart and are connected with recitative-like lines that sound almost improvisatory.

Taking a Look at the History of Karaoke

January 26th, 2012



Karaoke has its roots in 1970s Japan. The Kobe City port was an international mecca, often referred to as “the gateway of fashion and trend.” In fact, instant noodles, automated ticket gates and saunas all stemmed from this region. Whenever a strolling guitarist canceled a gig, bar owners would bust out accompaniment tapes for their patrons to sing along to, which would up becoming a popular pastime not just in Japan, but around the world. Perhaps it was the suppression of individualism, the pent-up frustrations of working such long hours or the exportation of it around the world that ensured the karaoke party never stopped.

In the 1980s, Pioneer started churning out karaoke songs on laserdisc. Japanese companies like Victor and DKK followed suit to produce English karaoke hits. When CDG karaoke came out, playing accompaniment tracks and bouncing lyrics across TV screens, the karaoke craze had officially hit America.

Hudson marketed one of the earliest mainstream karaoke machines, the “TurboGrafx-16,” which sold for $400 and enjoyed a very short shelf life before dying off. In the early nineties, DK Karaoke produced a collection of ninety-nine karaoke hits, containing everything from Bel Biv Devoe to Lenny Kravitz, which became the standard in every venue. Entertainers hired for parties, weddings and other events added it to their rosters, thus solidifying the pastime as a fun party activity.

At the turn of the millennium, it took on a more serious note in American culture. With the advent of shows like “American Idol,” aspiring talent saw the opportunity to sing karaoke as pop star or rock star practice. In the past, the best singers would occasionally receive a standing ovation, a free drink at the bar or a small pot of prize money.

Today, however, singers can get recruited by agents hidden in the audience and awarded with lucrative multi-million-dollar contracts. Everyone enjoys a good sing-a-long these days and Numark was quick to revolutionize karaoke equipment with the KMX01, KMX02 and CDN25+G, which make performances even more professional-sounding.

Since many Americans still feel a bit timid about belting out in public without practice, websites like Karaokeparty have popped up to revolutionize the industry. Friends can get together, create a play list, sing free online karaoke songs and upload the good ones to share.

Songs can then be rated by other karaoke enthusiasts. Boasting a worldwide community, the site has partnered with Facebook to let users include their karaoke party widget to their profiles. Over the past forty years, it has moved from the Japanese box to the American stage. Who saw it coming?

Violin Basics For the Beginner Player

January 25th, 2012



Have you always wanted to learn how to play the violin? Many people take up the musical instrument no matter how old they are, or if they have any kind of musical experience. The violin is a great instrument choice for anyone who has experience in playing a stringed instrument, but with the right kind of lessons and practice anyone can learn what they need to be able to play the violin. Learning the violin scales and notes is one of the first things that a person learning to play violin will have to be familiar with.

Some of the best ways to start out learning more about how to play the violin is to either take lessons that are offered by a violin or music teacher in your area, or to research online any kind of lessons that are available for you to take and learn how to play. Once you have the basics of how the violin works, how to hold the instrument and the parts of the instrument, you can then learn the notes and the scales to be able to learn how to play the music. After you have learned how to play the instrument, you will need to practice a lot and keep up with lessons to help keep yourself improving.

Everyone has a different amount of time that is required to learn how to play the violin; some people are able to pick it up quickly, while others may take a while to learn how to play it and to read the notes to be able to play the music. You can further your lessons and study once you have learned the basics and you can find a lot of great information online to also help you with finding the best lessons, teachers and resources that will help you play better and keep improving on your skills with the violin.

The violin is a beautiful instrument that anyone can learn how to play as long as you take the time and dedication to learn how to play it and commit to taking the lessons or learning how to play online to be able to get better and learn how to play the kind of music that you have always wanted to play. There are a lot of people who learn that they can really enjoy playing the violin and are happy that they have taken the time to learn how to play. If you are ready to get started playing, you can go online and find out what you need.

How Many Worship Seminars?

January 24th, 2012



Worship seminars are commonplace in the Christian world, and many churches send their praise and worship leaders to these worship seminars thinking that they will pick up that magic piece of information that will catapult their church worship to new levels. However the more worship seminars you attend, the more you realize that there is no magic bullet that will help you become a great worship leader overnight.

Please do not misunderstand me; I am not suggesting that worship seminars have no place in helping and training praise and worship leaders. All I am suggesting is that worship seminars are not the be all and end all of learning how to lead worship effectively. By nature worship seminars feature a number of speakers, and cover a variety of topics, and are crammed into just a few hours or days so they cannot be the title and exclusive training package for praise and worship leaders.

Experience is one of the great training tools for praise and worshiping leaders, and that also was one of the strengths of worship seminars, where a number of experienced leaders can share their thoughts and techniques as well as their experience to bolster the young praise and worship leader, exciting than and helping them to move forward in their craft.

The fastest and most effective way of becoming great praise leaders is to undergo training in specific areas which can make a difference. If you can sit under another more experienced praise and worship leader then this is probably the ideal training ground, whether this is unavailable to many leaders around the world who are themselves the only praise leader in their church.

Worship in a nutshell is a training course that is available on the Internet specifically designed to help young praise leaders quickly gain the skills, ideas and techniques that will set them apart as great leaders of the future. Bush are bleeding is not simply about singing or playing an instrument: it is also about key areas such as the management of team members, a selection of songs, the arrangement and production of songs, sound, lighting and a whole host of other areas that impact worship in the church.

So while there are many worship seminars held around the world each year, none of them cover the scope, complexity or variety that the right online course can cover for you. What is more, to attend worship seminars delegates have to set aside specific times, travel to the host church or location and be accommodated and fed there just to obtain the information they need. This is where a course on the Internet can provide a massive boost for praise and worship leaders who are in many far-flung places around the globe. It is available to you 24 hours a day, seven days a week and it is as near as you or computer screen.

For great information and training that is having a huge impact on praise and worship leaders around the world, you do not need to attend more worship seminars, or sit under the authority of a more senior worship leader for years on end. If you want to learn how to lead praise and worship quickly and effectively, worship in a nutshell and the Internet could be key tools that make all the difference for you. These simple tools could make you the praise leader you long to be.

Adult Piano Lessons – Playing Piano is Not Limited to Kids

January 22nd, 2012



One of the misconceptions about playing piano is that it is more suitable if the person would start learning at a young age that is why some adults may find it awkward to learn piano because of their age. Some will say that playing piano is not for them anymore because their fingers are already brittle. Here are few of the things you need to know regarding adult piano lessons:

• Try to find a piano teacher just within your area. You do not want to spend your time driving looking for piano lessons when you have your work waiting. Seriously take your piano lessons. Even if you are an adult now, some piano teachers may be very strict to even asking you to cut your nails. This is done to avoid the clacking of your nails against the piano keyboard.

• What is more, if you are entirely new to piano playing, then you may want to ask your teacher for a piano book to serve as your guide. On the other hand, if you do not want to spend some time reading, you can buy CD’s or DVD’s with piano tutorials on them. Like children playing piano, set aside a portion of your time, like 30 minutes every day, to playing piano. It is important for you to do this to harness you skills in playing the instrument.

• Also, it is important that you try your best to participate in recitals. They are one good way to show off what you have gone through in practicing the piano. When you are prompted with praises, and then this must encourage you to further work hard on your piano lessons. However, if you are confronted with criticisms, you should take them intelligently and perceive them as challenges instead of discouragement.

• Set your reasons straight. It is important for you to find out the very reason why you are taking adult piano lessons. Some may be pursuing it because of enjoyment and relaxation while others may be enrolling because it is a requirement for work. No matter what your reasons are, you should stick to them and must be your driving force towards finishing the course.

• Most piano lessons for adults are more expensive than the ones being offered to children. This may be due to the extensiveness of the tutorial and that more of the adult students are expecting a lot from the teacher. Also, most adults would like to learn piano in soonest time possible that is why payment for this piano tutorials are more expensive but relatively shorter than the ones held for kids and always see to it that playing piano is a way to stretch your imagination and your creative side. Besides, this should be the main purpose of why you want to learn to play piano aside from requirements, if there are. Do not be frustrated if you are going to take adult piano lessons. The thing is, this is an avenue to widen your horizon and enrich your creative side as a person.