Thursday, June 26, 2008
Reality Stars Singing
Why oh why do some people who have had their 15 minutes of reality fame feel the need to try to stretch it into an awkward singing career? The latest to attempt this feat is Heidi Montag of The Hills. If you've been fortunate enough to miss her first video I'll fill you in: you know when you watch someone try to pick up at a bar and it's so painful you're embarrassed for them? Yeah, well, that's the only way to explain this video that could very well have been a drunken day at the beach shot on a cell phone. The only good thing about her acting is it distracts you from the singing.
But really, who could blame her? She probably took one look at the gems put out by Paris Hilton and though, hey I can skank around in a bathing suit, too! The sad thing is, some people will go out and buy an album put out by Heidi.
If she was talented, I wouldn't give a hoot that she was on a reality TV show and used that as a jumping off point for her musical career. But the girl has no real talent. Yet her video and music are out there. The same can be said for Paris Hilton, even though her videos are a bit more professional. She also has minimal to no talent. It's painful to listen to her and watch her in her videos, but because she's a celebrity for well, being a celebrity, her music and video get airtime.
There are plenty of wonderful singer song writers who can't get any airtime. Very talented artist. I can only imagine how frustrating it is for them. And it ticks me off. Maybe they should try out for The Hills and go from there.
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Wedding Day Entertainment
After the ceremony, everyone of your wedding guests is in a great mood and want to start letting their hair down and enjoying the rest of the day. First thing after the wedding ceremony usually comes the wedding photographer's main time to snap the happy couple. This means plenty of standing around for all the wedding guests, just waiting for their call to jump into one or two of the official photographs.
Why not hire a magician to wander round entertaining the wedding guests whilst they are standing around waiting for the photos to finish ? This is a great time for a close up magician to really show off his (or her) skills - gathering small groups of guests together and making the guests that don't know each other have something to discuss already. Assuming the wedding photographer spends an hour or so on the official photographs, the magician could also spend a further hour entertaining the wedding guests once they have taken their seats for the wedding breakfast.
If a magician is not your cup of tea, why not consider hiring a live musician to entertain the wedding guests during the meal. A solo guitarist or harpist can really set a beautiful scene and make perfect background ambience for your special day. Pianists are also a very popular idea for music to entertain your guests also. And once the drinks are flowing, the wedding guests will find themselves requesting their favourite songs from the pianist.
Without being obtrusive or in the face of any wedding guests, a live musician playing soft music during your meal will make a perfect accompaniment and allow the conversations to keep flowing during your wedding day.
After the meal, come the inevitable speeches from the bride's father, the best man and the groom himself. Even the groom's father gets involved quite often these days. If you really want to make the speeches have that extra special touch, then consider hiring a professional toastmaster to introduce the speeches. A toastmaster's role at a wedding not only covers the speech introductions, but they will ask the wedding guests to be seated and guide them through the meal. Not only that, a toastmaster on your wedding day makes a fantastic photo opportunity as well as adding a touch of class to your big day.
During the speeches, you may want to think about your younger wedding guests - kids really don't have the patience to listen to schoolboy stories about the groom from his best man, or how the bride's father spent years worrying about his daughter. Hiring children's entertainment such as bouncy castles or children's mobile crche can keep all the kids entertained leaving the adults to enjoy themselves and not worry that the young children are bored and moaning at the wedding.
After the speeches, the evening guests will arrive and the wedding party really begins to start. The bride and groom need to decide whether they want a wedding DJ to keep the guests dancing the night away or maybe a live wedding band or duo to play great cover versions of popular music. Make no mistake, the Wedding DJ or Wedding band can really make or break your wedding reception. Which ever one you choose, they will be
entertaining your wedding guests for around 5 hours of the day - this is the longest part of your wedding day, so ensure you choose your wedding DJ or wedding band wisely. Don't just ask "how much do you charge" really try to get some background on these entertainers. Have your friends used the DJ for their wedding disco ? Try and see the wedding band play live music at a wedding or other function before you book them.
You want to be confident and relax knowing that your wedding reception will go with a bang and keep all the wedding guests entertained.
Alongside the buffet for the guests, a fantastic little touch is to hire a chocolate fountain. These can stand up to 50" tall and the cascading chocolate is enough to make any of your wedding guests want to try.
Pure indulgence, but they look fantastic and give your wedding guests something to try and certainly something to talk about. Hiring a chocolate fountain from a professional chocolate fountain company will ensure you receive smartly dressed staff to assist with the fountain as well as a range of premium dipping options from fresh strawberries and other fruit, as well as chocolate fudge brownies and a variety of other tasty ideas! Give your wedding reception a little wow factor and hire a chocolate fountain to treat the wedding guests.
Hopefully these are a few ideas to help keep your wedding guests entertained throughout your special day. There really are dozens of great wedding services to help ensure your wedding planning runs smoothly and provides a lasting memory of your wedding day for all the guests.
The author runs Essex Wedding Services a website that can help you find a great Mobile DJ in Essex or locate wedding venues in Essex
Guitar Lesson: How To Improvise The Classical Guitar Way
When I was a fifteen years old guitarist playing rock solos and classical guitar pieces I remember that I had a desire to be able to improvise on my guitar in a classical manner.
Nowadays I have developed this skill and I love to improvise in the style of composers like Sor, Tarrega, Paganini or others or just trying to find myself somewhere among the notes. These special moments are a form of meditation. They clear my mind and also helps me as a composer to stimulate my creative abilities.
The most important reason for learning classical guitar improvisation is that it's fun!
If you learn classical guitar improvisation it will benefit you in many other ways too:
1. It will be easier for you to memorize classical guitar sheet music.
2. You will find it easier to compose your own guitar pieces in a classical guitar style.
3. You can make up your own techniqal exercises on your guitar on the go.
4. You will understand your guitar better.
There are many ways to develop classical guitar improvisation. How?
You can start with major scales, experimenting with easy chords, or easy classical guitar pieces. The most basic requisite is that you want to learn this art and with this desire you will find ways to practice classical guitar improvisation in all your guitar playing.
I will just mention using classical guitar pieces in this article. But how do you begin?
May I suggest that you begin with an easy melody with just one voice or maybe a two voice piece with bass notes on open strings. Learn a couple of bars by heart and play the melody over and over again and try to change the melody slightly without losing the classical touch.
The ultimate exercise is to use advanced classical guitar solos.
If you think about it you will realize that classical guitar pieces are filled with wonderful licks, more or less complicated.
These licks can be developed and added upon to give you material that will help you developing your improvisational skills.
For example, take a two bar passage in a classical guitar piece that you like and practice it until you master it and then memorize it.
Now you can play around with the passage, break it down, change it, analyze it and so on. If you want to improve as an improvisational guitarist and musician you can regard classical guitar pieces as collections of very musical licks just waiting to be used.
I hope these hints will motivate you to reap the benefits from improvising the classical guitar way.
Peter Edvinsson is a musician, composer and music teacher. Visit his site Capotasto Music and download your free sheet music and learn to play resources at http://www.capotastomusic.com
Playing Slap Bass
Playing bass is great, but learning to play slap bass can open up a world of new opportunities, regardless of what style you play. Stereotypically, slap bass has been relegated to funk music, but bassists in many other genres utilize this technique to their advantage as well. Perhaps the most well known example is Les Claypool. He has created a virtuosic style all his own, many times using a "double slap" technique using both his thumb and pinky to increase the speed at which he can slap.
(This is the same idea as a double bass pedal on the drums). Metal bassists, such as Fieldy from Korn and Ryan Martinie from Mudvayne have also found ways to incorporate slap bass into their sound.
And of course, who could forget the almighty Victor Wooten. Perhaps one of the greatest electric bass virtuosos of all time, Wooten has created his own techniques that give him a completely unique and characteristic sound, whether he is playing solo, or holding down the Flecktones' rhythm section.
The idea behind playing slap bass is very simple. Instead of plucking the strings with your fingers or a pick, the side of the right hand thumb is used to literally slap the string, creating a percussive sound. As with many things, this takes a minute to learn and a lifetime to master. Refining your technique comes with practice, watching, listening, and learning to the greats, such as Wooten and Claypool, or Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
So try some slap bass today and see how it can broaden your musical palette.
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Acoustic Guitar Reviews - A Must Before You Buy
If you'd like to buy a new acoustic guitar, check out the reviews first. You'll want to look at two different kinds of reviews: expert reviews and user reviews. The experts will tell you how the guitar compares to other similar models, while users will tell you how satisfied they are with their purchase.
An expert acoustic guitar review should be one that is written by someone who has had several years of guitar-related experience. The reviewer should also have several different models from several different manufacturers. The reviewer should be able to put aside personal preference and objectively point out a guitar's pros and cons. Should a bias be present, it should be admitted and explained. A degree in music is not necessary for evaluating acoustic guitars. Applicants should really know their stuff, and should be able to explain why their opinion is valid and should be taken into consideration when buying a new guitar.
When you look for user reviews, you should locate web site containing a few reviews of each guitar written by a variety of musicians. Many music stores have web sites with user reviews. Every guitarist plays his or her own unique type of music at different kinds of venues with different arrangements of band members. A classical guitar player who plays at wedding receptions has different needs and preferences than a rock guitarist who performs in nightclubs. Be sure you find reviews from individuals who play the same style of music and who are at the same level of playing that you are or that your aspire to.
Searching for acoustic guitar reviews online will bring millions of results. Here are a couple of tricks to use, no matter what type of review you are looking for. Put the search term in quotes, like this- "acoustic guitar reviews". If you were to do this trick on a Yahoo search, it decreases the hits from about 17 million for acoustic guitar reviews to about 6000 for "acoustic guitar reviews".
When searching for specific individual acoustic guitar reviews, this trick will also work. Let's say you want to find reviews about the Martin DX1. Typle in that phrase in Yahoo search and you'll end up with about 38,000 results. But if you type in the same phrase using quotes like this "martin dx1" you'll get only about 10,000.
To narrow your search for specific acoustic guitar reviews down even more, try adding a plus (+) sign after the phrase and the word "review". That will give you only the sites that contain that exact phrase on the website.
If you change things up and type "martin dx1" +review into your search bar, you'll get nearly 500 hits. If you want specific information about something like guitar action, then put that in with a plus sign (+) next to it without using a space. Utilizing these hints for performing web searches can assist you in locating practical and precise acoustic guitar reviews that will make your choice of guitar easier.
Acoustic guitar playing can be more than just good music. To read more about Acoustic Guitar Reviews ....follow here at http://www.acousticguitarguide.net
Beyond Beginner Guitar Chords
So... is it time to move on? Are you bored with just knowing open chords like C, G7, E, Am, and D?
Don't fret. There's a really easy way to turn one chord into 12.
You take a chord that you know in open position. Let's use E major as an example. Re-finger it so that you aren't using your index finger. Now pretend that your index finger is fretting all of the strings right behind the nut. Scoot all of your fingers up one fret. Your index finger will now be laying across the first fret.
That's an F chord.
Now strum it. A lot of the notes probably sound dead. It happens. Play the notes one at a time to find the ones that aren't clear. There's a 99% chance that the bad notes are on the low E, B, and high E strings. Those are the strings you are barring with your index finger.
Experiment with how hard you press and where you position your index finger to find the place that works for you. Don't worry, it'll take a few tries, and everyone's hands are different.
Now scoot that entire shape up until you're index finger is on the fifth fret. Play it. It should be easier to press down than the F chord. This chord is A major.
Practice playing the bar chord at every fret.
That's it. Bar chords take a little getting used to but the payoff is enormous.
Scott Anderson is a guitarist and writer. Check out teammethodguitar.weebly.com
Learn to Play the Guitar
If you ever wanted to learn to play the guitar, why not start to learn it now. Famous musicians and rock stars all had to start somewhere, right? No one was born with a guitar in their hands.
If you are serious about learning how to play the guitar like the pros, a good guide training is the way to go. Although some people have tried to learn this themselves, it would be a better idea to get some sort of a guide that will help you get started and on the right path to playing the guitar well.
In order for you to play the guitar, there are about 4 things that you must master first. The 4 things are:
1. The Chords
2. Tuning
3. Picking
4. Strumming
When you play the guitar, you will be either strumming the guitar or picking the strings. When you first start, don't try to do both. Take your time and master the first step. Doing this is like when you teach your child how to play baseball. You first teach them how to catch the ball with a glove. Once they start to master that, you then teach them how to hold the bat and hit the ball.
Once you start to feel that you got the hang on strumming the guitar, you can then start to learn to pick the strings. Either way, you have got to take it step-by-step.
Strumming involves raking your thumb across one or more of the guitar strings gently and this causes the guitar to make a sound. Picking is all about when an individual string is held down with your fingers to make a different sound.
If you already know to play the guitar and just know the basics, you can improve your skills and confidence when you actually bring in some of you friends or family and show them what you can do. Doing this will make things much more fun for you and give you more confidence.
If you are new or have been playing the guitar for a while and you want to learn from a real pro, I suggest that you visit my website below. What I have included there is a step-by-step Guitar System that will show you exactly how to play like the pros.
To learn more about guitar playing, grab your copy of the "Insider Secrets to Playing the Guitar!" system right now: http://www.guitar-playing-guide.com/
