Monday, November 9, 2009

The basic drum patterns

The Basic Drum Patterns
Take a look at the first exercise below. It has a single measure of eighth notes. The count is listed above each of the eight notes in the measure. The "x" symbol above the top line of the measure indicates that these counts are to be played on the hi-hats. Start by counting out loud (one and two and three and four and), and then play the hi-hats along with your counting. Loop this a few times, and focus on playing at a consistent pace.
In exercise two, you'll learn how to play the bass drum on the one and three counts. As you can see below, the bass drum is indicated with a solid note in the bottom space of the measure. You can watch the video lesson for tips on how to play the pedal with control.
Next, exercise three includes the snare drum on counts two and four. The snare drum is indicated by a solid note on the middle line of each measure. As with the bass drum, you want to focus on playing these right with the hi-hats. The strokes should line up perfectly, so it sounds like one complete sound.
Finally, exercise four brings everything together. The previous patterns were all leading up to this. As you can see below, this beat includes the hi-hats, snare drum, and bass drum - all together in one complete beat. This is how to play the drums in a real band setting.
Be sure you really focus on playing this beat steady and in time. It is highly recommended that you play along with a metronome - especially when first learning how to play on a drum set. Everything needs to sound even and consistent. Just loop the pattern over and over until you are feeling very confident.
If you did not see exercises in tab click the link below.
http://www.freedrumlessons.com

Monday, November 2, 2009

Meditation on Music

Meditation music can help you find all of these benefits with calming sounds. Meditation and other anxiety reducing wellness practices are critically important in today's world. By making these healing arts easily accessible, people will attain abundant health, balance, and peace in their lives; we have developed a manifest mix of music that can help you obtain the very culminating meditative state as possible.This unique healing, meditation music uses resonance to wash away stress, and impeach your body with strong, positive force. This in turn opens your mind to creative encouragement and visions, even peak experiences. Remember, meditation is a personal wayfaring and it is up to you to choose which tools you are going to take along. In addition to soothing approach, hypnosis music and meditation music often consolidate natural elements such as the harmony of ocean waves, passably flowing streams, or birds chirping. Ideal for relaxation, meditation and bodywork, Meditation reveals a new petal in the lotus blossom of Tibetan/Nepali meditation music, a vehicle for cogitative journeys inoculate with the healing aspects of an age-old tradition.

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Why TAB is important in any kinds of instrument ?

Musical notes are very important for every genre of music and instrument. If you know how to read musical notes, then it will become easier for you to learn music. There are mainly two types of notations. One is for the lead instruments and the other is for the rhythm instruments.

Once you know or able to read, creat the tabs for music you can becom excellent musician.

How to be a good DRUMMER ?

To be the good drummer here are some ideas for you.

1. Technique

2. Stick Heights

The first idea is Technique. In drumming, this is how you hold your drumsticks or keyboard mallets while playing a pattern of sticking that is suitable for a particular drumming exercise or drum music. The way that you hold the stick is called grip. There are two types of grip in drumming. They are:

· Match Grip

· Traditional Grip

Each grip is really a matter of preference. Sometimes, the type of percussion instrument you play will determine the type of grip you should use. In many cases it is good to know how to play drums with both types of grips. This will allow for you to always be prepared no matter the situation.

If you are beginning drummer, recommendations are to begin with the match grip. Match grip is exactly what the word match describes; the hands are holding the drumsticks exactly the same. It is kind of like holding bicycle handle bars with a few adjustments to angle and thumbs. This grip is generally held by many concert percussionists, jazz drum kit players, rock band drummers and by marching percussions tenor drummers and bass drummers.

The next grip, traditional grip, is a technical drumming hold that if done properly, can approve your drumming abilities in terms of speed, endurance, accuracy, finger and hand agility and overall aesthetics. When teaching drum lessons, drum teachers should instruct their students to include door knob turning as part of their daily exercise. The reason for this is because the motion that the forearm performs is the same turn that that is used when playing drums with a traditional grip. Furthermore, the fingers are place properly on to the stick. Two fundamental notes to having better control of the stick when playing with the traditional grip:
· Never release the thumb from the index finger

· Keep the pinky and the ring finger together working as one (this can be accomplished by taping the two fingers together)

Traditional grip is often used in marching percussion by snare players. Many jazz drummers, like Buddy Rich performs with the traditional grip as well as Drum Corps drummers like the Concord Blue Devils. There are also many drum videos and drum DVD’s that portray the traditional grip. A great example can be seen at Drumex.com, where the drum video shows a snare drummer auditioning for the UCLA Drumline.


The second idea of drumming is stick heights. In marching drumlins and percussion ensembles, the focus is on uniformity. Meaning everyone needs to look the same including their hand positions (grip) and levels of heights. There are two types of stick heights that should be required for anyone playing drums, especially when playing snare drum rudiments. They are:

· Accents

· Taps

There is a distinct difference between the two. Bottom line is accents are played higher than taps. Drum teachers usually explain this by saying taps are all the inside notes, the low notes. Accents are taught to be played vertically. The common misconception is that accents and taps is just for marching drumlines, but it can also be played by drum kit drummers too. The benefit to playing drum music with proper stick heights is that it sounds and it looks good. One of the best books that could teach you how to play proper stick heights is Accents and Rebounds by George Lawrence Stone. Stone is well-known for his first book, Stick Control.
The two golden rules, technique and stick heights will improve your drumming abilities. Pay close attention to each of the two in detail when playing drums. You get the most benefit of your drum lessons by practicing and researching. Review drum videos and watch a lot of Buddy Rich and Mike Portnoy to better your drumming. Good luck and don’t use drum tabs, read drum music.

Saturday, October 31, 2009

Wanna Learn GUITAR?

Frankly, there are no shortcouts to learn guitar. But bascially it need hard labour to learn it, you are going to have a hard time when you try to learn guitar but you absolutely have to stay with it. Although sight is a great way to learn, when trying to learn guitar material you can’t get very far without being able to hear the guitar pieces being strummed or picked so you can compare yourself to a professional. Maybe you have thought should you learn guitar set pieces, guitar scales, and guitar music theory before playing your favourite guitar songs. Well it is all good practice. When choosing guitar pieces to learn, it is important to consider the song itself, someone with little to no previous guitar skills may not be able to play a heavy rock guitar solo,county style picking, or fast paced Spanish music. Keeping to one’s skill level will help playing ability as well as technique; how easy to learn guitar tab are depends on the tab itself and the person’s personal abilities.

Jazz's scales



In this series of articles we'll take a look at some of the most important jazz guitar scales that you need to know. Mastering these scales will help you become more fluent and confident with your jazz guitar improvisation. So without anymore delay, let's take a look at the first jazz guitar scale..




***Jazz Guitar Scale #1: The Dorian Mode***




--The Dorian Mode: Some Basic Theory--




Mastering this scale is vital for improvising in a jazz style. Unless you master it, you WILL struggle playing jazz. Yep...it'sTHAT important. It is hard for me to imagine a jazz song where I wouldn't need to use it!




The dorian mode has the following formula...


1 2 b3 4 5 6 b7


This formula tells us what we need to do to the major scale in order to create the dorian mode. Let's work out the notes ofthe D dorian mode to make things clear...




Step 1:




Write down the notes of the D major scale. Doing this gives us these notes...




D E F# G A B C#




Step 2:




Flatten the third and seventh notes of the D major scale. We have to do this because the formula of the dorian more has a b3and a b7. Flattening these notes gives us this...




D E F G A B C




These are the notes of the D dorian mode.--




The Dorian Mode: Where To Use It--




The dorian mode works really well over minor 7th chords. So in our example above, we would use the D dorian mode over D minor7th chords. The reason why the dorian mode works so well over minor 7th chords is because the formula for minor 7th chords is1 b3 5 b7. Notice how these chord tones are also in the formula for the dorian mode.To help you learn the dorian mode, here is a cool sounding four bar chord progression. Your goal is to master soloing over it...




// Dmin7 / Dmin7 / Fmin7 / Fmin7 //


To improvise over this chord progression use D dorian for the first two bars, and F dorian for the last two bars. It can bequite challenging to switch between the two scales fluently. Especially if you recorded the chord progression at a reallyfast tempo. But that's what makes jazz fun!

Expressive Guitar Playing and Tab

One of the guitar's greatest strengths is the expressiveness you can achieve with the instrument. Techniques such as string bending, hammer-ons, and pull-offs extend the emotional power of the instrument and give you a powerful arsenal of tools. And, luckily, guitar tab has conventions for showing when these tools are used. You might not run into them very often in beginner guitar tab, but you'll definitely encounter them sooner or later, and they're excellent techniques to practice from the beginning.String bending involves fretting a given note and then bending the string, causing the pitch to rise to a higher note. For example, you might fret a D note on the G string at the seventh fret:

fig 1

E ---------------

B ---------------

G ------7-------

D ---------------

A ---------------

E ---------------

You would then bend the note up to E, two steps above the D. This is indicated in tab with a 'b' symbol:

fig 2

E -----------------

B -----------------

G -----7b9-------

D -----------------

A -----------------

E -----------------
Note that this doesn't mean you should fret the note at the ninth fret; your finger stays on the seventh fret. It's only the pitch that rises.Hammer-ons and pull-offs allow you to play legato (smooth, flowing) passages where you don't pick every note. To execute a hammer-on, fret a note and pick it. Then, without picking again, sharply fret a higher note on the same string with another finger, 'hammering' the string with that finger. This can take time to learn to execute properly, but it's an absolutely essential skill for every guitarist regardless of musical style. Practice until the second note is the same volume as the first. The tab looks like this:

fig 3

E -----------------

B -----------------

G -----7h9-------

D -----------------

A -----------------

E -----------------

Once again we're moving from D to E, but this time with a hammer-on. You should have your index finger on the seventh fret and use the third finger for the ninth fret. Alternate between the bend and the hammer-on and pay attention to how different they sound. You can then also pull off your third finger, pulling down toward the floor a little bit to make sure the D note sounds:

fig 4

E -----------------

B -----------------

G ------9p7------

D -----------------

A -----------------

E -----------------

Again, strive to make the second note sound as loud as the first note. Also be careful not to hit the surrounding strings as you pull your finger away.A final technique you'll often come across, even in beginner guitar tab, is tapping. Tapping refers to the practice of fretting a note with a finger (usually either the pointer or index finger) of the picking hand. Fret a note with your left hand, pick it, and then hammer down on the same string at a higher fret with your pick hand. This is an advanced technique that can take a lot of time to learn, but you should at least know what the tab looks like:

fig 5

E ------------------

B ---5--t9---------

G ------------------

D ------------------

A ------------------

E ------------------

In online tab the tapped note is indicated with a 't', while tab in magazines usually circles the tapped note. You'll often see long lines that combine bends, hammer-ons, pull-offs, and tapping:
fig 6
E ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

B ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

G --2-h4-b5-4-2-4-5-4-5-h7-p-5-h7-t9-7-t10-7-t12-7-t14-12-10-12-17-14---

D ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

E ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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