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George Gershwin: Prolific Songwriter And Musical Maestro by Duane Shinn

George Gershwin was born on the 26th of September, 1986 in Brooklyn, New York. His roots were a mix of Ukrainian and Jewish roots, from Russia. The key to his interest was a violin recital by his childhood pal Max Rozen. He liked what he had heard. His parents bought a piano for his brother and future lyricist, Ira Gershwin. He took it from there and took to it more than his brother Ira.

Gershwin came from a family that had music in their blood. In addition to his brother getting into music, his sister too, started taking it up early in life, but gave it up in favor of a family life. Gershwin was tutored by a number of tutors who didn’t make much of an impact on him and his music until he met his last piano teacher - Charles Hambitzer. Hambitzer taught him to the proper way of playing a piano.

Paving his knowledge of European music history, introduced him to the music of the past and encouraged him to attend a concert when he could. When he eventually did this, he was quick at reproducing the same music note of note after returning home after the concert. He also studied with Rubin Goldmark and Henry Cowell.

When 15, George quit school and started working at Jerome H. Remick and Company as a “song-plugger” where he took a salary of $15 a week. His first commercial success was tasted with Rialto Ripples in 1917 but he really hit it big time in 1919 with his composition Swanee, which shot him to fame all over the United States.

In 1916, he worked with Aeolian Company and Standard Music Rolls doing the recording and arranging piano rolls. There is no official count of the rolls that he came up with, but it is said that he has hundreds of piano rolls to his credit. He credited his work here with number of aliases - some which were Fred Murtha and Bert Wynn. He made rolls for reproducing pianos made by Duo Art and Welte Mignon. He had a small little stint getting into vaudevilles playing pieces by Nora Bayes and Louise Dresser most often at the vaudeville shows that he performed at.

In 1924, he and brother Ira worked on their first musical together - a comedy - Lady be Good. The songs from Lady Be Good - Fascinating Rhythm and the title track Lady Be Good - were soon to be standards. Then on, a string of musical followed with most of them being very successful. Some of them are Girl Crazy, Strike Up the Band, Funny Face, Show Girl and Oh, Kay!. From among these, Girl Crazy became the first ever musical to win a Pulitzer Prize apart from spurning the hits I Got Rhythm and Of Thee I Sing.

The same year he made music for a musical, he also composed his first classical piece - Rhapsody In Blue. The piece was, orchestrated by Ferde Grofe, played by Paul Whiteman’s band. He tried a hand at learning something from greats like Nadia Boulanger and Maurice Ravel, but Ravel rejected the proposition to teach him saying that bring his technique mainstream would ruin his jazz specialty.

His stay there inspired the piece An American In Paris. The piece didn’t do well at the press and with critics, when he played for the first time on the 13th of April in Carnegie Hall. But it, like some of his other early hits, became many jazz band’s standard repertoire.

After getting fed up with the music scene in Paris, he decided to return home to the United States. His best was yet to come. Two years before his death in 1937, he composed his most appreciated work yet. Porgy and Bess premiered on Broadway in 1935.

In 1937, Gershwin began complaining of being able to smell burnt rubber and of headaches. He was diagnosed with a condition of a brain tumor called glioblastoma multiforme. Despite the condition, he continued to work. He played with the San Francisco Philharmonic Orchestra in the same year. This was his last performance before he collapsed and died and dies while working on the score of The Goldwyn Follies.

Two months after his death, the score of They Can’t Take That Away From Me, from the film Shall We Dance won the Academy Award for Best Original Song.

A free email newsletter on exciting piano chords and chord progressions from Duane Shinn is available free at “Piano Scales”

Article Source: AamRas.com - Articles

Ray Charles: Pianist, Singer & All Around Musical Genius by Duane Shinn

Ray Charles was born Ray Charles Robinson on the 23rd of September, 1930 in Albany, Georgia. He was the son of poor parents. His life was a tragic story. He and his family were plagued by poverty. His mother had to bring up both him and his brother on her own. When he was five, he was witness to a mishap due to which his younger passed away after he drowned in a laundry tub.

Ray Charles started becoming blind when he was five. Two years later by age seven, he was completely blind. Though there is no confirmed reason, as to why he lost his sight, the two probable reasons why he could have lost his sight is either due to glaucoma (an optic nerve disease) or from an infection in his eyes from soap water that was not treated in time.

He studied in St Augustine School for the Deaf and The Blind. During his school years, tragedy stuck when his parents died - his father two years after his mother. Before he was out of school, he was able to write music and play a number of musical instruments. Well before he was out of school, he was gigging with bands which played varied styles of music. One such stunt with a band called The Florida Playboys is from where he caught on with the style of always wearing shades.

In 1947 at age 17, he moved to Seattle. He was signed to Swingtime Records and had his first hit Confession Blues with them in 1949. Confessing Blues was his only hit with Swingtime Records other than the 1951 recorded number Baby, Let Me Hold Your Hand. Confession Blues reached the no 2 spot on the R&B charts.

In 1952, he signed with Ahmet Ertegun’s record label Atlantic Records. He scored big early in the deal with two huge hits in 1953 - Mess Around (composed by Ahmed Ertegun) and It Should Have Been Me. His 1955 song I Got A Woman topped the charts. A string of hits - Drown in My Own Tears. This Little Girl of Mine, The Night Time (Is The Right Time), Mary Ann and Lonely Avenue - which were released all the way up to 1959. He conquered more group with his improvised hit What I’d Say when it made the top ten on the pop charts.

After four years with Atlantic, he got a better deal with ABC which made him switch labels. His time with ABC saw him make a successful crossover in pop music with Hit The Road Jack, Unchain My Heart and Georgia On My Mind. It was with the ABS that released the landmark album in 1962 Modern Sound in Country and Western Music and its sequel Vol. 2.

He was arrested of heroin possession in 1965. He managed to get himself out a jail sentence, by opting to go to rehab. While recuperating, he continued to have hits. Crying Time reached the No. 6 spot on the charts. Georgia On My Mind was made the state song of Georgia. He further etched himself into history by rendering America The Beautiful on TV - the version of the song which is the most revered.

In 1980, he made a cameo in the film The Blues Brothers. He appeared in a Coca Cola advertisement in the early 1990’s and said “You Got the Right One Baby”. He graced two Presidential occasions - Ronald Reagan’s second and Bill Clinton’s first inauguration.

Ray Charles continued to be active until his death on the 10th of June, 2004. In 2002, he was part of a Rome peace concert - the first event in the Colosseum since AD 404. Ray Charles was inducted into the Songwriters Hall Of Fame by his fan blues singer Van Morrison with whom he sang Moondance. He gave his last performance on the 30th of April, 2004 singing the two songs he is most known for - America The Beautiful and Georgia On My Mind, at the dedication ceremony of his music studio in Los Angeles.

His album aptly titled “Genius & Friends” was released two months after he passed away. It had him collaborating with many singers whom he personally choose. An album with the accompaniment of the Count Basie orchestra followed - Ray Sings, Basie Swings.

A free email newsletter on exciting piano chords and chord progressions from Duane Shinn is available free at “Music Terms”

Article Source: AamRas.com - Articles

Tips To Help You Learn Lead Guitar by Brent Thomason

To learn lead guitar begins with Knowing where to start. When a student wants to learn lead guitar, the best places to start is by first practicing scales, patterns, and right hand left hand coordination. Ultimately to learn lead guitar you will want to become highly familiar with the fret board from a music theory point of view.

When you learn lead guitar, I can not stress enough the importance of working to master patterns and scales. There is a box set available for fret board training called Fret board Logic. This box set will shave years of lessons and practice off of you, and help you master the fret board with very little effort, and very quickly. As a student that wants to learn lead guitar, you will also most likely look at getting speed. Most of my students that come to me to learn lead guitar, have a very strong desire to master the art of becoming a shred guitar player.

Shred guitar is a style of lead guitar playing that utilizes various forms of picking and motion to create a very fast style of playing. When you learn lead guitar, it is imperative that you master right hand left hand coordination. Right hand left hand coordination is accomplished through variations of exercises and techniques specifically designed to increase your coordination along with your speed. If you want to learn lead guitar, it is imperative even if you have a good teacher and or coach, that you also have a system in which you have a systematic measurable approach with specific drills to practice with on a daily basis that will measure your advancement as you learn lead guitar.

Also you must learn concepts such as how guitar speed really works, picking strategies, and types of motion. Also as you learn lead guitar, you need to focus on simple but effective drills. Focus on different types of Fingering and Phrasing (e.g scales, patterns, chromatic, etc.) Another form of practice to utilize as you learn lead guitar is practicing along with other musicians. I have found that one of the best methods for this is by utilizing what is known as backing tracks and or Jam Trax. Backing tracks are simply recorded tracks of other musicians playing noted rhythm tracks that allow you as the lead guitarist to practice along with them.

When you purchase the tracks, they will typically give you the key that each backing track on the cd is in, and you just practice playing lead guitar over the tracks. This is actually a much more effective way to learn lead guitar than by playing with other musicians. The reason for this is that when you practice with other musicians, quite often the musicians you are practicing with are not well developed, and can actually mess your practice session up because you began to get used to practicing with say a drummer that cant keep good timing.

You can Google the term backing tracks or Jam trax and you will find a ton of web sites out there where you can purchase these backing trax for a very low price, and most of these sites offer immediate downloads. Also while you learn lead guitar, the absolute most important part is that you get maximum benefit from every single minute of practice, this requires utilizing an Ideal Speed Curve. Training while in the Ideal Speed curve ensures you always train “in the zone. Training in the zone will make every practice, and every minute of practice count. I hope this information helps you to get a good start as you learn lead guitar.

Brent Thomason writes various articles related to different aspects of the music industry

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Article Source: AamRas.com - Articles

Ipod Car Accessories Allow You To Bring Your Favorite Music On The Road by Joel McLaughlin

Maybe you remember what it was like to roll down the windows of your favorite muscle car and crank up the radio listening to music that “motivated” you in ways that generally meant applying extra pressure to the gas pedal.

We all have a strong emotional attachment to music. It could be music that was introduced to us by family members or an almost inner calling to a certain music style that seemed to speak to our very souls from the moment we first heard it.

Is it any wonder we see so many individuals with iPod ear buds nestled inside the ear being whisked away to a place of sensory expanding joy?

Private reception has been the primary means of musical enjoyment via the iPod. These were meant for personal fulfillment, yet there are times that joy must be shared.

Accessories have been made to allow the iPod to be played in the home, but the need for portability has been taken into consideration in the form of car adapter kits that allow music lovers to share their musical buffet with others.

We’ve all become very used to hitting that scan button on the radio. We do this because we rest in the hope that someone in the radio world will be playing a song we actually enjoy. A commercial comes on and we change the station, a song is played that we swore we heard five minutes before and we change the station - we get tired of a song and we put in a CD until we get bored.

Either we are a very unhappy group of people or we’ve simply been waiting for the right answer. That answer may well be the portability of our own personally programmed radio station. We choose every song placed on our iPods. We can shuffle the music or have it play in a very specific order. The point is every choice is ours and we never have to suffer through repeats unless we want to.

Those who exercise often have iPods strapped to their arms, students listen to them privately in the school bus and parents listen while working on the computer. We have become a culture that loves music delivered in a way that fosters memories, evokes positive feelings and allows us to enjoy our daily life journey.

There is no reason this idea can’t make the jump to your personal mode of transportation.

When you go out for a night on the town you accessorize your attire. When the holidays come around you accessorize your home. When you watch too many home improvement shows you accessorize your garage. Doesn’t it make sense to accessorize your vehicle when it allows you to find positive emotional connections to the music you love especially in long commutes or distance traveling?

Accessorize and bring your favorite bands on the road - Enjoy your music to the best of your ability.

Joel McLaughlin
Visit AutoSoundCentral for Ipod Car Adapters, Interface Kits & Ipod Accessories, Ipod Adapters, Interface & Audio Installation Kits & more. They also carry a wide array of Car Stereo Kits, Installation Equipment, MP3, Zune Adapters and more.

Article Source: AamRas.com - Articles

Canary Islands Music Festival: A Classical Music Lover’s Dream Vacation by Roger Munns

Held yearly, the Canary Islands Music Festival event has been drawing the world’s best classical musicians since 1985, and helps to attract thousands of tourists to both Tenerife and Gran Canaria, producing extra tourist Euros for the islands.

The Canary Islands Music Festival boasts events stretched over a period more than a month. Concerts and cultural events take place on both the islands of Gran Canaria and Tenerife from January 9 to February 16, 2009.

Festival organizers are recognising some important milestones that will influence the festival’s theme. This celebration of classical music has reached the quarter-century mark. The 25th anniversary will be marked with much fanfare amongst organisers, visitors and local business owners.

Many of the works of classical pianist and composer Franz Lizst will be featured. The Hungarian musician would be nearing his 200th birthday. Lizst was highly regarded during his lifetime, even by his own contemporaries. He is still considered by many to be the greatest pianist in the history of the world. Festival organizers have chosen to focus on his work during its 2009 series.

The upcoming New Year also marks the 250th anniversary of the death of Georg Friedrich Handel. The Canary Islands Music Festival will pay fitting tribute to the German Baroque composer.

Handel is probably most well-known for his oratorio ‘Messiah.’ Handel’s ‘Messiah’ is a holiday favourite the world over. Handel wrote over 40 operas, more than 25 oratorios and hundreds of songs, cantatas, duets and other musical works.

The Canary Islands Music Festival has grown since its debut in 1985. It was begun by likeminded avid classical music lovers. They wanted the Canary Islands to be recognized as a symbol of culture. They recognised the rich history of the islands as a magnet for tourists seeking culture in addition to sun and surf.

Hundreds of thousands of tourists have flocked to the festival since it opened its doors and boosted the number of holidaymakers taking holidays - it boasts some of the finest performances by modern classical musicians in one grand event. It has featured in past years names such as Claudio Abbado, Carlo Maria Giulini, Sir Colin Davis, Frans Bruggen and many more.

Events take place in various venues in the capital cities of the islands of Gran Canaria and Tenerife. Concerts and cultural happenings are spread over more than 35 days. Tickets for various events range in price from 20 to a hundred Euros, depending on the artist and the venue.

Music loving tourists can come for part or all of the festival. Local hotels, apartments and bed-and-breakfasts are booking quickly. Tour packages are also available through a number of travel agencies. Many include hotel stays, concert ticket bundles and admission to other local attractions for one inclusive price.

The Canary Islands may still be best known worldwide for sand and sun. However, the Canary Islands Music Festival has done much to promote the region as a place rife with culture. Thousands of tourists have come to appreciate the islands for the history they boast. Getting a little bit of winter sun with the music is a bit of a bonus as well!

Music lovers can find out more about Gran Canaria at yourgrancanaria.net

2009 Gran Canaria holidays information is included on the Canary Island travel site along with airlines who have flights to Gran Canaria

Article Source: AamRas.com - Articles