Archive for June, 2009

The Old Way: In Person Violin Lessons

While you can make great progress with in person violin lessons there is a major consideration that makes online violin lessons a much better choice and that is of course, money. Having your own personal violin teacher can quickly become far too costly for most people. In fact, a single lesson with a violin teacher costs more than all of the lessons with an online violin playing course.

Another problem with a personal violin teachers is that sometimes they aren’t very good teachers! They may teach the wrong methods or perhaps they are not very patient. None of these things is of course an issue with online violin lessons. With these lessons you know you are learning the right methods and of course they are as patient as you want them to be. You will work at your pace.

Finally, you may not feel comfortable playing in front of someone else until you improve your playing. That’s perfectly natural. It’s just another reason to choose online violin lessons instead of a personal violin teacher.

The New Way: Online Violin Lessons With Violin Master Pro

With these online lessons not only will you be saving a ton of money, you’ll also be learning from the best. Your teacher will be Eric Lewis of the Manhattan String Quartet and he is one of the best violinists in the world.

You will be able to work at your pace and regardless of your current playing ability (beginner, intermediate, or advanced) you will have the tools you need to improve your playing in the most effective way possible.

For the average church goer, praise and worship leaders might seem like a crazy bunch, but there is a lot more happening behind this public exterior. I know because I have been one of these crazy praise and worship leaders for over 20 years, so allow me to give you an insight into the world of praise and worship leaders and what we are thinking inside our crazy heads!

Firstly, praise and worship leaders are not just song leaders, they are people of influence and responsibility. When we select songs we pray, take time and seek the Lord, and each one is selected carefully and with a purpose. It looks easy from the pews, but it is not ease to make the right choices every week!

Next, praise leaders generally do not simply tell the band to play and the singers to sing, they have to work with them and construct the musical platform of the songs. Great leaders are serious about their craft and their skills, and construct the songs with much thought and creativity. I know when I lead I really want the entire service to be a masterpiece in its own way!

Also, leaders have to manage the personalities in the band and singers, the egos, the conflict and the insecurities. This is never easy, but tremendously satisfying when you are able to meld this collection of individuals into a well oiled team. Such leaders need to show a high level of leadership skills.

Praise and worship leaders also must be constantly in touch with the Spirit, moving with the Spirit, reading the congregation and directing the service in the direction they feel it should be going. After 20 years of being a praise and worship leader, I know that we never get it 100% right, but over time we learn to follow the Spirit humbly and get it right more often than not.

Praise leaders also have to bear responsibility for anything that goes wrong in worship, from a failure to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit to a complete breakdown in the personalities in the band. The buck stops with us in the area of worship! This one fact alone is enough to drive anybody crazy!

Finally, these leaders are generally fun, happy and sanguine people, so when you look from the audience they can seem a little crazy. However, inside their fun-loving heads they are also bearing great responsibility, so their fun demeanor covers what is really going on in their heads, and hearts!

So if you believe that you are called of the Lord of become one of the world’s crazy praise and worship leaders, you need to realize that there is a lot more to the position than just singing, playing and having fun. To become a great praise leader takes time, experience and training, and that is where an exciting praise and worship leaders course can set the scene for great success in the field.

The world of karaoke machines can be very complicated. Adding to the confusion is the fact that there are so many different types of karaoke machines. They do not all use the same type of equipment. Different machines have different features. Plus they don’t even use the same type of technology on their song disks! How do you make sense of it all?

Here to help you is Karaoke Machines 101: Everything You Need To Know! So let’s get started. The first thing to be clear on is what all those terms mean that you hear bandied about.

Karaoke System – The karaoke system is the karaoke player, the monitor, the speakers, and can include the library of karaoke songs played by the player.

Karaoke Machine – usually this term is used to mean the karaoke player, or the machine that plays the karaoke music. However, some karaoke systems are all-in-one units which include the player, the speakers, and the monitor all on one machine. In this case, the karaoke machine is the entire system.

Karaoke Player – the machine that physically plays the karaoke songs.

Karaoke Monitor – the screen where the lyrics to the songs show up. The all-in-one units include this screen on the machine. Other systems use your TV as the monitor and for the speakers, too.

So that also explains your 2 basic types of karaoke systems. You have the all-in-one units, and you have the karaoke machines that hook up to your TV, similar to a DVD player.

Now let’s look at the different types of karaoke song disks. The mainstream, and most popular, types of disks include DVDs, CDGs, CD+Gs, MP3s, and in-built songs. Most karaoke machines are built to accept one kind or the other, instead of all the different kinds.

DVDs – These are regular DVDs which include the music sound track and then the pictures on your screen are the lyrics. Most of the time you have the lyrics against a solid background. A lot of the newer ones, though, include moving, scenic backgrounds or videos.

CDGs, CD+Gs – Both of these terms mean the same thing. Basically, it is a CD for the sound track, but the CD is also embedded with the graphics, which are the lyrics to the songs. So the “G” simply stands for graphics.

MP3s – These are usually for your computer, MP3 player, or Ipod. You can find software which will strip the vocals from your MP3s so that you can then use the sound tracks for karaoke.

In-built – Some karaoke machines come with their own libraries of karaoke songs, so they are already built into the system.

Lastly, let’s look at the various features available on your karaoke machines. Karaoke machines have different features you can use to make the singer sound better and more professional. These features include being able to change the pitch of the song, the key, the tempo, the volume. Being able to add echo to your voice is pretty standard, but some machines also include different ways to adjust this feature also, such as setting different echo lengths. Some machines call the echo feature “reverb”.

All karaoke machines have an input for a microphone. But what if you want to sing duets? For this reason, many of the machines now include two microphone inputs. But only some of them have the capability to adjust each microphone separately for pitch and volume.

Another feature that you might like is a scoring system. With this feature you can have karaoke contests or see how your own routine improves with practice. The few machines that have this system usually score your performance on how well you control things like your pitch, tempo, volume, and tone.

There is one other feature that only some karaoke machines include, but it could be an important feature to you. These machines have the capability to let you play the songs with the vocals included to learn the songs, and then you can turn off the vocals to sing karaoke style.

So basically, all those different models, all those different features, and all those kinds of disks, boil down to just a few key concepts. Understanding these concepts will take you a long way towards understanding pretty much any model of karaoke machine. Now that you know them all, have some fun with your karaoke machines!

This article presumes that the reader is familiar with several different types of guitar scales, and has a good working knowledge of guitar chords (triads and extended chords). Further, this article presumes that the reader is familiar with some basic music theory (key signatures, chord and scale function within a key signature, etc.).

In general, guitar scales and guitar chords are a must-know for every guitar player. The depth of each player’s knowledge is relative only to the desire of each individual guitarist. For example, some guitarists can play a few guitar scales and guitar chords, but have no desire to truly understand the music theory behind those scales and chords. Other guitarists thrive on scale and chord construction, diatonic and chromatic relationships, and usage (including substitution principles).

This article is intended for the intermediate and professional guitarist. It is also intended for the advanced beginner who has decided to advance to intermediate and then on to professional levels of proficiency.

Learning and practicing guitar scales is essential to one’s growth on the instrument. If one truly desires to learn to play guitar, then guitar scales must become part of the learning process. Of course, the exception is for the campfire type of guitarist. Playing a few songs at the beach doesn’t require an in-depth study of guitar scales.

As the title of this article suggests, one can practice guitar scales and have fun with music theory at the same time. In fact, if one is practicing correctly, recognition of music theory should be occurring simultaneously along with the mechanical practice. Let’s play a game with guitar scales and music theory. This is an easy game to play, yet extremely profound in application.

First, we must establish the foundation for the game. Therefore, we’ll utilize the major scale along with it’s construction and function within a diatonic tonality. Further, and in the spirit of simplicity, the C major scale will be referenced for explanation purposes.

The C major scale (diatonic scale) consists of eight notes (scale tones) to the octave. For example, C (1)-D (2)-E (3)-F (4)-G (5)-A (6)-B (7)-C (8) represent the notes and degrees of the C major scale. In theory, these notes are represented as I-II-III-IV-V-VI-VII-VIII or I (VIII always means I). All of these notes and numbers represent the players in our upcoming game.

The purpose of the game is simple. However, an explanation for playing the game is appropriate in order for one to fully understand the essence of the game.

Years ago, one of my students asked me how many different ways the major scale could be played. At the time, I was teaching in Hollywood California. I instructed my student to go grab the Los Angeles phone book (sitting on top of an amplifier in my recording studio), and bring the phone book to me. Baffled, my student complied with my request. I opened the phone book and asked my student what the population of Los Angeles was. Of course, the answer is millions of people. Millions of people results in millions of telephone numbers. Hence, the name of the game is Playing The Phone Book.

The rules of the game are as follows. The numbers of any telephone number are matched with the corresponding degree of the major scale. For example, the telephone number 576-3321 would translate into playing the following notes V-VII-VI-III-III-II-I or G-B-A-E-E-D-C (5-7-6-3-3-2-1). When the number 9 is encountered, it means to skip to the next note. When a Zero is encountered, it means to repeat the previous note or command. When the number 8 is encountered, it means the same as the number 1. How would you play the phone number 236-5431? How about 652-3800? How about 871-9056?

How many phone books would you suppose exist in the United States? How many phone numbers would you suppose exist in the United States? How many different ways (presuming you understand the phone book game) do you think the notes of the major scale can be played? Millions! That’s right, millions.

By playing the phone book, one develops an awesome awareness of note location and note function. There are hundreds of variations of this game that I teach to my willing students (for scales, chords, and substitution principles). The results are staggering for both fingerboard awareness and knowledge of music theory.

The next time you find yourself with a little time on your hands, pick up the phone book and play it. However, be ready to receive a few strange looks from your loved ones and friends when you attempt to explain your actions. That’s also a part of the game. You know, it’s called consequence. Just kidding! Have a great time playing the phone book.