Converting Mp3

Mp3 digital music is one of the most popular forms for music to take these days.  Digital music just seems to make sense, and is a natural step forward in the music world today.  Everything else is digital these days, why wouldn’t our music be?

While music is still purchased in the form of CDs, it is very often converted into mp3 digital music for use on a computer or mp3 player.  Indeed, sometimes it seems like CD players are all but obsolete now, and I almost never use mine anymore.  However, it is nice to have music backed up on CDs, and I try to keep my CD collection current even if I’m not listening to them directly very much.  I have a sort of inherent distrust of computers and all things purely digital, and I’m just waitng for my digital music players to explode one day.

Mp3 players have a lot of nice advantages to them over CDs.  First of all, they are of course much smaller.  Most mp3 players can easily fit into your pocket, unlike bulky CD players.  Even the smallest portable CD player is enormous compared to the average mp3 player.  Also, mp3 digital music can be stored on a hard drive of an mp3 player or computer, and so no CDs are needed.  You can load up all the mp3 digital music you want on your computer, and never have to worry about losing or scratching any of it.  

One of the most popular portable digital music players today is Apple’s iPod, and since it’s made by Apple it just has to be different.  Therefore it does not use the mp3 digital music files other players use, and instead uses its own spiffy Apple format exclusive to iPods.  As an owner of both an mp3 player and an iPod, this fact continuously frustrates me, as it is nothing short of a pain in the ass to transfer music from one player to the other. 

Mp3 digital music is also of a fairly small file size, which is handy.  My laptop has a 120 GB hard drive on it, and I can fit my entire music collection on it in the mp3 digital music format without making a dent in the overall space available.  The mp3 digital music format poses some serious threats to the music industry, as it is so easy to share and pass around.
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Practising Music - What To Do Outside Your Music Lesson

Practice makes perfect. These three words are heard every day and time after time these words are ignored. But why? Music is such a vast subject that for anyone, even the professionals, mastering it is near impossible. With years of work one can be very knowledgeable in specific areas of music but it would take more than a lifetime to fully understand every aspect of an instrument or music theory.

With that in mind hopefully people should start to understand that having a one hour lesson once a week is not even close to enough to gain substantial progress and development on a musical instrument. 

This series of articles offer tips on practicing music which will hopefully demonstrate the benefits, enjoyment and fulfilment that can be gained through practicing music.

1. Goals are key. It is human nature to take pride in reaching a goal whether a promotion at work or winning a competition. If you have a set goal to reach you will be more willing to put in the work required to achieve it. Some examples of goals could be to learn the latest song you’ve fallen in love with, to be able to sight read in a certain key, to develop faster, more technical playing or to reach a certain exam grade before a certain period.

2. Little often is better than a lot occasionally. One key point to remember is that repetion is the quickest way to learn something due to your brain and muscles ability to develop and store a so called ‘muscle memory’. It will take a substantially longer time to learn and retain your new knowledge if you practice for a long period but only occasionally. See tip 3 on how to easily incorporate regular practice sessions into your daily routine.

Another benefit of practicing a little often is that your concentration levels are kept up throughout your practice session. Brass players will understand this the most – after playing a trumpet or any brass instrument for approximately an hour your lips start to feel numb which in turn begins to restrict your playing abilities. The knock on effect of this is that the longer you practice without a break, the more harm ultimately you will cause yourself – both mentally and physically – it will knock your spirit and could even do damage to your embouchure. Obviously this applies to all instrument groups; as is well documented repetitive strain injury is common among musicians. The primary cause of this is improper technique but as the name implies too much repetition through a movement can create serious effects. Therefore if you are practicing for longer periods be sure to take regular breaks – 5 to 10 minutes for every 50 minutes for adults and 10 to 15 minutes for every 25 minutes for children.

3. Routine. Imagine this – every morning you wake up, maybe make a cup of coffee or sort through the post and eventually at some point you will go to the sink and brush your teeth. Now most people do this without any thought – it is just something that gets done. This is the effect of getting into a routine. If you set aside a time each day to practice, away from distractions if possible, you will get into this routine making it much easier to practice, it becomes a part of your day to day life.

4. Practice with a partner. Most humans love competition – especially if you know you are the winner – and by tapping into this you’re making your practice session less of a chore and more of a game. Set challenges between you both and find some reward for the winner. The other benefits are that you gain an outsiders opinion and criticism on your playing, the opportunity to practice duets and you will have some company rather than being locked away in your bedroom.

This is just a glimpse at the different methods you can adopt to improve your practice and in the next article I will demonstrate some more music based tips to help you improve; using a metronome to develop your internal body clock, a fun method for scales and arpeggios and how and why you should be incorporating sight reading and music theory into your practice sessions.

For now just focus on your desires and on the reasons why you started music and give the tips above some thought.

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The Care And Maintenance Of Your Guitar Strings

Metal guitar strings are subjected to many conditions that shorten their life. The life of guitar strings can be extended with care and proper maintenance. This article will help you extend the life of your guitar strings.

Guitar strings can lose their tonal quality prematurely due to factors that include:

*Stretching

*Wear

*Corrosion

Stretching: Guitar strings naturally stretch during tuning and while playing the guitar. Over time strings slowly lose their elasticity and their tone quality. Guitar strings that are stretched no longer produce rich tone or harmonic overtones. As a result, the guitar becomes difficult to tune and the sound of the strings become dull and lifeless.

Wear: Guitar strings wear during the process of playing. This process comes from moving the metal strings against the metal frets on the fretboard. Of the two most common types of strings, wound and plain steel, wound strings are more susceptible to fret wear. Wound guitar strings tend to "flat-spot" more rapidly than plain steel strings. If left unchecked, the flat spots can create breaks in the windings of the strings. Flat spots and broken windings will decrease tonal quality and can also cause the strings to "buzz".

Corrosion: Metal guitar strings are subject to tarnish, rust and corrosion. Metal guitar strings are also subject to the body chemistry of the individual guitar player. Individuals with higher acid levels in their pH will get less life from their guitar strings due to an accelerated rate of string corrosion. 

There are several things guitar players can do to get extended life from their guitar strings. Taking the time to follow these simple steps will ensure that you get the most from your strings and reduce the cost associated with premature string failure.

*Do not over-stretch your strings during the tuning process.

*Be careful not to crimp the strings at the tuner peg when replacing the guitar strings.

*Periodically, check the condition of the guitar bridge and bridge saddle to avoid breaking a string during the replacement process.

*Monitor the condition of your guitar frets and replace any frets that develop excessive wear or sharp edges.

*Always clean your guitar strings when you finish playing the guitar.

It is impossible to say how long a new set of guitar strings should last. The life of guitar strings depend on many factors and variables. It is possible to extend the life of guitar strings through proper care and maintenance. Be sure to take the time to care for your guitar strings and you will get the longest life from each set. 

When the time comes to replace the strings, choose quality replacements and change the strings carefully.

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The Life And Heartaches Of Ludwig Van Beethoven

If you turn on the TV in any country in the world, and listen for a while, you will hear a bit of Beethoven played. OK it may be a parody of it in a soap opera but the tunes written 200 years ago are still good today.

If you get Classic music from the UK on FM and the net you will know that every Easter a poll is taken of the 2 million or so listeners who decide which are the ‘top’ 300 classical pieces of music that people want to listen to. Ludwig van Beethoven came second this year, with Mozart first. He would have been pleased if he was still alive, of course, because Mozart was his original inspiration. Mozart, despite the fact that he died at a much younger age, was a prodigious composer. Rather like Bach he could knock out a sonata before dinner-time or a whole quartet in a few days (when pressed). Beethoven, on the other hand really grafted hard to put together something new in the musical community. He would often, particularly in more complex music, have many draft ideas written down before finalising orchestration, which could take months.

Beethoven, once he was able to get away from his family, went about things in a different way from his mentors. (Haydn, his teacher, helped him to be one of the foremost pianists of his time, the forte-piano being a newly invented instrument whose refinements lead to the pianoforte we know today).

Ludwig van Beethoven became a known name in music at the time. He was one of the first ‘independent’ composers, making his money from concerts, music and conducting, rather than from the patronage that many previous successful composers enjoyed (or worked very hard to keep). However his music inspired several people over his life to sponsor him both before and after his deafness created new problems. Money was difficult at times purely because he would spend whatever he had and either hope for more or have to work very hard for it. During his several depressive periods a shortage of money could not have helped. 

After a spell of, perhaps understandable, depression at his deafness he studied hard to be able to keep composing. He was familiar with Bach’s keyboard works, and having studied composition and counterpoint with Handel, he went ahead to change music, in its classical form, into new music for the 19th Century. 

His music is generally thought by music critics nowadays to be the transition between the ‘classical’ and ‘romantic’ genres, but of course these apparently sacrosanct terms belie the truth. Beethoven gave to other composers the ability to develop music for the new century whilst giving his audience something to really enjoy. Some of his later works could not really be called ‘romantic’ perhaps? Different though.

Early works, if not known by the listener, could be confused with Hayden and Mozart, but his ‘middle’ period showed a vast development of the symphony as well as his technique on the piano (an instrument still in its comparative infancy), whilst at the same time taking music for small ensembles such as quartets and sonatas to new heights.

By 1811 he had stopped performing, his deafness being too severe, but his genius and musically technical brilliance did not in any way prevent his composing ability. He was able to ‘hear’ the music in his head and his mind. He even went on in his ‘late’ period to compose new styles of music which were greeted with great accolade by contemporary composers, although initially less so by some of his audiences, perhaps because they did not appreciate the subtleties of these new forms. This would come later.

This great composer, and indeed Ludwig van Beethoven was one of the truly ‘Great’ composers of all time, died at the age of 57 after a lifetime of illness and during a thunderstorm. If you listen to his music you may consider this an appropriate finale to a somewhat tempestuous life.

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Introducing Music For Little Mozarts

Music for Little Mozarts is a program designed to help your little ones develop a love of music. Learning music at an early age helps develop little minds and expands their cognitive ability. While listing to music can certainly help your youngster pick up songs, actually learning to play the piano can expand areas of the mind that are responsible for fueling later leaps in the childes education development.

This program was developed for the little ones attention spans in mind. It focuses on little creatures that both entertain and teach. By grasping the attention of a young child's mind and engaging them with stories along with hands on experience, you can provide them with a positive experience that just may fuel a little Mozart in later years.

What Does This Program Offer?

Within this multi-book and multi-year lesson plan there are ten little characters that help draw the child into the lesson plan. These little creatures actually can be used to help the child grasp basic concepts n music. The series starts out in the preschool years and provides day by day lessons that can aid the child or a classroom of children right through early adolescence.

The series is a designed for both classroom and preschool use and for those at home with homeschoolers. It contains a series of books along with audio CD's, flash cards, and other visual aids that can help very young children develop an ear and an eye for music.

Developing a Love of Music Quickly

It can be hard to hold the attention spans of children for very long. However, with the right creativity and the proper attention along with simple, easy to master daily lessons, most children will not only grasp music rather quickly, they will also develop a love of real music, not just banging on a piano keyboard and making sounds.

The short, daily lessons are planned out so that children learn to play music by ear. They focus on short, easy to master songs or song parts and gradually add more song elements in a quick progression. Children find that they learn to play real songs and master real passages quickly and easily. This element keeps them involved. They also master playing by ear and then later by reading rather quickly. 

We all know how in wonder children's minds are, and we know that if they feel they have accomplished something then they quickly learn to love performing that task again and again. This sense of accomplishment with easy to learn lessons helps children to develop a love and desire to play music. Music for Little Mozarts is designed to engage the child through the use of play and quick accomplishments while repetition and small victories over time help the child maintain the interest.

Adapting the Program for Home or Preschool

•    If you are homeschooling your youngsters or have preschool age children whom are not attending preschool you can still use the lesson plans. The books are designed for home or classroom use. You may find that your children at home can easily handle a few minutes every morning while their minds are still fresh, to learn music.

•    If you own a preschool or day care you may find that adding a few minutes into your daily routine to stop and go over the lessons with your charges will prove very rewarding. You can easily fit in these short and fund lesson plans right into your daily activities.

Music for Little Mozarts was developed and designed by a team of expert pianist who have experience teaching young children and classrooms of students. It is designed for children ages 4 to 6 years old. The books not only teach piano, but also singing and a general love of music. They help develop listing skills and impart an appreciation for many different musical styles. If you decide to use the system in a preschool, day care, or at home you will be delighted to find how much fun your children find in playing music.

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Why Tribal Zebra Chi Flat Iron Stands Out

If you simply do not have time to go to a salon in order to maintain that beautiful straight and smooth look of your hair, then you have to equip yourself with the right beauty tools that will help you keep those hairs in their current state. The tribal zebra chi flat iron is a product that can help you effectively in this aspect. Being part of the lines of excellent hairstyling products manufactured by a company which is considered to be among the leaders in the industry, makes this flat iron a trusted tool that will truly give the perfect looking hair that you want.
What make this chi straightener such an effective hair styling tool are the innovative and ground breaking ceramic plates incorporated in its design. Unlike the other products which use copper coils, these plates allows for the heat to be evenly applied to the area being straightened. It also adds to and keeps the moisture of the hair in order to keep them straight and smooth. Using this product is very easy to use since it can heat up very easily and can reach the desired temperature quickly. Its ergonomic design allows it to be easier for the wrist and hands to use even if it extends to beyond the normal duration of usage.
Other features include a 10 foot cord which allows you to move in a wider area while using this tool. The good thing is that with a swivel feature, being entangled in the cord is a remote possibility. This flat iron is also light weight so it would be easy for the hands especially if you are doing flips or curls at the end of your hair. These make it versatile since its uses go beyond the straightening tool that it is primarily design for.
Its very fun design include the very popular zebra print, hence its name, and the can be had in white, pink, blue, and purple colors.

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Music Articles And Life Enrichment

Whether you admit it or not, music imbeds our daily life, weaving its beauty and emotion through our thoughts, activities and memories. So if you're interested in music theory, music appreciation, Beethoven, Mozart, or other composers, artists and performers, we hope you'll spend some time with here and learn from these music articles of note for all ages and tastes.

When I first started studying the history of music, I did not realize what I was getting into. I had thought that music history was somewhat of a trivial pursuit. In fact, I only took my history of classical music class because I needed the credits. I did not realize how completely fascinating music history is. You see, in our culture many of us do not really learn to understand music. For much of the world, music is a language, but for us it is something that we consumed passively. When I began to learn about the history of Western music, however, it changed all that for me. I have had some experience playing musical instruments, but I have never mastered one enough to really understand what music is all about. This class showed me.

When most of us think about the history of music, we think of the history of rock music. We assume that the history is simple because the music is simple. In fact, neither is the case. The history of music, whether you're talking about classical music, rock music, jazz music, or any other kind, is always complicated. New chord structures are introduced bringing with them new ways of understanding the world. New rhythmic patterns are introduced, bringing with them new ways of understanding time. And music reflects all of it.

Even when the class was over, I could not stop learning about the history of music. It had whetted my appetite, and I wanted more. I got all the music history books that I could find. I even began to research forms of music that had not interested me before in the hopes of enhancing my musical knowledge further. Although I was in school studying toward something very different – a degree in engineering – I had thought about giving it up and going back to get a degree in musicology. That is how much I am fascinated by the subject.

If you have never taken a course in the history of music, you don't know what you are missing out on. The radio will never sound the same to you again. Everything will seem much more rich, much more luminous, and much more important. A new song can reflect a new way of being, and a new way of imagining life in the world. This is what learning about the history of music means to many of us.

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