In-Tune News You’ll Want To Use

Mp3 music is audio that has been digitally encoded and compressed to make the amount of data smaller without compromising the overall sound quality. It’s a revolutionary technique with incredibly good results; mp3 music is frequently indistinguishable from music found on a CD (though some audiophiles with very sensitive ears dispute that statement).

The popularity of mp3 music made available on the Internet is a trend reaching gigantic proportions; these encoded songs are everywhere. Websites called mp3 blogs offer rare or hard-to-find mp3 music and avid fans sometimes spend hours at a time sifting through the piles of downloadable material. Newer recording artists that would often fall under the radar without the help of a well-known label are now able to convert their songs into mp3 music and make them available on the Internet, allowing huge numbers of people the chance to hear songs that they otherwise wouldn’t have been exposed to. It’s an extremely popular thing, mp3 music, one of those rare pop-culture phenomena embraced by nearly everyone.

But regardless of its massive popularity, mp3 music is surrounded with controversy. Many programs that allow users to transfer mp3 music directly from computer to computer offer the services for free, eliminating the possibility of royalties for the artist and label. Fearful of losing tons of money to fans downloading records instead of buying them, large factions of the music industry fought to make free mp3 music illegal — and succeeded to a degree. The laws, however, have loopholes, and many websites or P2P programs have exploited them for all they’re worth.

Additionally, laws regulating mp3 music in the United States aren’t necessarily applicable to other countries, so new websites and programs (particularly, for some reason, in Russia) have popped up offering the free services railed against in America. Because of the hotly argued ethical issues surrounding mp3 music, many shy away from the topic (and practice) completely. Others embrace it, citing huge record costs as justification enough for free mp3 music. It’s an argument not likely to end anytime soon; the ethical issues will be debated as long as free mp3 music is available somewhere.

In any case, MP3’s are here to stay, and wise is the musician who learns about them and takes advantage of them.

(With Mollie Wells)

Duane Shinn is the author of over 500 music books and music educational materials such as DVD’s, CD’s, musical games for kids, chord charts, musical software, and piano lesson instructional courses for adults. His book-CD-DVD course titled http://www.chordpiano.com/>”How To Play Chord Piano In Ten Days!” has sold over 100,000 copies around the world. He holds advanced degrees from Southern Oregon University and was the founder of Piano University in Southern Oregon. He is the author of the popular free 101-week online e-mail newsletter titled “Amazing Secrets Of Exciting Piano Chords & Sizzling Chord Progressions” with over 57,400 current subscribers.

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has launched a second wave of lawsuits against users of internet2 (a specialized high speed version of the internet that makes it ideal for file sharing). By adding 20 new schools to the list, RIAA has greatly expanded the number of students involved in the case.

“As long as students continue to corrupt this specialized academic network for the flagrant theft of music, we will continue to make it clear that there are consequences for these unlawful actions,” said Cary Sherman, President, RIAA. “With the multitude of legal music alternatives available to students today, there is simply no excuse for this ongoing, illegal downloading on college campuses.”

RIAA is the trade group that represents the U.S. recording industry. Its mission is to foster a business and legal climate that supports and promotes our members’ creative and financial vitality. Its members are the record companies that comprise the most vibrant national music industry in the world. RIAA members create, manufacture and/or distribute approximately 90% of all legitimate sound recordings produced and sold in the United States.

“Whether it’s done on a computer at home or one in a college dorm room, the act of theft is one and the same,” said Sherman. “These lawsuits have had a significant educational impact on the public and have helped to arrest the staggering growth of digital music theft. We will continue to aggressively pursue them.”

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Sometimes parents of piano students think all they need to do to support their children in piano lessons financially is to pay for their piano lessons. This is wonderful, but your financial support shouldn’t stop there.

Don’t be afraid to invest a little extra in your child’s piano future. Inspirational items including musical stories about piano lessons that build character and inspire students to achieve their goals are an important part of piano lessons. Reading to your child is an important activity that kids enjoy because it helps them feel close to you. Stories about the experiences of other musicians give depth to student’s perspective and help them set goals that are meaningful. Musical games that the whole family can play are another great way to support your child in piano lessons with a fun activity.

Another great activity for the family is to keep a Musical Memory Book with photographs and journal entries your child can look back on as well as look forward to filling up with more musical memories. Another fun activity is to record your child’s favorite songs as they learn to play them.

Enrolling your child in a piano club for kids is very beneficial activity that will challenge and support your child in piano lessons in a fun way. Enrollment in a quality piano club would include special gifts such as books, games, musical stories, piano lessons, a piano bag, free sheet music you can download, and free mp3s, etc.

You can also give your child a subscription to a Piano Magazine. A Piano E-zine, or Internet Magazine, will include articles about piano lessons written for kids, and also include midi files of classical music and sheet music that is safe to download. Today’s kids are part of the computer age and need to know how to use technology to advance their education. This is a great way to give kids a head start with technology as well as supporting their music education.

So don’t be afraid to spend a little extra on your child in piano lessons. You’ll be glad you did. Kids need as many resources available to them as possible to support their piano journey and to fulfill their musical promise.

For great home piano activities parents can use to help children ages 5 to 11 develop their musical talent, visit Piano Adventure Bears Music Education Resources You’ll find a treasure box filled with piano resources to create an exciting musical adventure for your child - right in your own home! Visit their website and subscribe to their f’ree internet newsletter so you can download f’ree piano sheet music and mp3s of original piano compositions.

These exciting stories, games, piano lessons, and inspirational gifts feature the Piano Adventure Bears, Mrs. Treble Beary and her new piano student, Albeart Littlebud. Young students follow along with Albeart to learn what piano lessons are all about in a fun way that kids readily understand appreciate. Click here to visit PianoAdventureBears.com For a wealth of information about piano lessons, visit tallypiano.com

Running an oboe reed business and all, I often get requests or inquiries about reeds and the desired tone they’ll produce. And while I agree that reeds play an important part in determining your sound on a given day, I am old-fashioned and in favor of hard work to get the tone you want!!

I’ll always think of my teacher, Richard Killmer, who could take your most crude, unfinished reed and make it sound amazing.

So, what’s the secret?

The secret is that your tone is your voice, and it can be developed and matured like any other voice.

As oboists, we are always so quick to blame the reed, or let the reed become our personality.

But your tone is your personality, and it will come through in your playing pretty much no matter what you do. But there certainly are steps you can take to refine your voice and make it sound more like the ideal sound you hear in your head.

The hard work you have to do is long tones!!

Not just any long tones, but mindful long tones. That means that for 15-30 minutes a day you concentrate and listen and notice all the subtleties of your sound.

You’ll spend hours (although they’ll fly by) trying to stop and start a note just the way you want it, and hours more slurring up and down between notes to get that seamless buttery-ness that comes from you, and not your reed.

Plugging in a great reed will never do you justice if you haven’t spent time on identifying your voice and refining it. The best part about working in this way is the rewards you will see slowly, but consistently over time.

You’ll probably struggle daily with long tones for a while, have bouts of frustration…..and then finally it will happen!!

You get to perform a Bach cantata, and you still feel like you are struggling. Someone gives you a recording, and although there is always stuff you’d like to do over, you notice a transformation of your sound!

It sounds effortless and liquid, just what you have been hearing in your ear for the last few months. Those moments make it all worth it because you have somehow transferred the voice you’ve had in your head to your oboe playing!

Just remember the rewards that you will reap from working hard to “find yourself” the next time you are in a reed slump. The reed is just the vehicle for a sound - your voice is what you make it.

1. You Can’t Always Get What You Want
2. Only Rock ‘n Roll
3. Get Off My Cloud
4. She’s A Rainbow
5. Under My Thumb
6. It’s All Over Now
7. Don’t Stop
8. Happy
9. The Last Time

1. You Can’t Always Get What You Want

Mere days after their release of “Beggar’s Banquet” in 1968, the band pulled together a real-life circus of a show. Designed as a television spectacle consisting of real circus performers, and some top rock acts of the day. Jethro Tull, The Who and Eric Clapton were in attendance, as were lions, trapeze artists, John Lennon and Yoko Ono. The kind of show you might only now see on the very best of David Letterman.

The idea was to produce a unique showcase, but the footage was eventually shelved and hidden away for nearly 3 decades due to what was deemed sub-standard performances. It was not shown publicly for 27 years, except for brief excerpts in home videos. The Who’s performance of “A Quick One” was used in their own film/career documentary, “The Kids Are Alright”. The true landmark of the show for The Rolling Stones was it was Brian Jones’ last performance with the band.

2. Only Rock ‘n Roll

Before the Rolling Stones had galvanized their name as the World Greatest Rock & Roll Band in the late ’60s, they had already laid a handsome claim to the title. The Beatles had paved the way for the British Invasion, but the Rolling Stones pioneered the gritty, hard-pounding blues-infused rock and roll that now defines the genre. Mick Jagger might be a tiny little man by many standards, but with no question he is the biggest front man to ever grace a rock stage. Wild. Macho. Campy. Sexy. He created the role of the rockstar.

3. Get Off My Cloud

To nightcap their hugely successful 1969 North American tour, the band planned a large, free concert in San Francisco similar to a successful concert they had done in London’s Hyde Park earlier that summer. But between permit denials, greed and a last-minute change of venue, the event spiraled from what was potentially a West Coast Woodstock to a jumbled chaotic mess.

Things turned for the worse with their bad choice of security, the biker gang the “Hell’s Angels”, contributing to a day-long sideshow of brutal violence and truly bad vibes. By the time the Stones took the stage that evening, things had already come undone with a dramatic stabbing of spectator by one of the Hell’s Angels. The stabbing was captured on film in the documentary, “Gimme Shelter”.

4. She’s A Rainbow

The band’s longtime acquaintance with law enforcement started with an infamous ‘pissing’ incident in March of 1965. Bill Wyman needed to use the restroom at a gas station, but was refused admittance and told to promptly vacate the premises. Mick Jagger and Brian Jones joined Bill in pissing against a wall, and the Rolling Stones’ image as bad boys was firmly established. In a remarkable show of solidarity and opportunism, which was not to be repeated, all five-band members showed up at court, several weeks later.

5. Under My Thumb

How can you be the next Keith Richards? Well, asides from several obvious personal decisions, to get his legendary sound, first you’re going to need to go out and get yourself a Fender Telecaster. Keith plays in open G tuning with his own customized 5-string version. Take your low E string off the guitar and then tune it low to high as GDGBD. You can always tune the low E string to D as well if you’re not into removing the sixth string. Keith sums up his approach with a simple phrase that only he could truly relate, “5 strings, 3 fingers, and one ***hole.” There’s no one like Keith Richards.

6. It’s All Over Now

The famous tongue and lip design and countless variations of such has graced countless official and unofficial Rolling Stones memorabilia and products since it first appeared when the band formed “Rolling Stones Records” in 1971. Credit for the creation of the original design has been mistakenly given to several people over the years. Many have stated that Andy Warhol was the originator. He did design two album covers for the band, but not the tongue design. In 1995, Billboard Magazine printed that it was from the mind of Ruby Mazur. Discovering their mistake, they later corrected their statement, identifying Mazur as the designer of the first official variation of the tongue design. With further research later that year, Billboard definitely uncovered that the original classic design came from John Pasch. Two years later, Mick Jagger confirmed that Pasch was the originator of the fabled logo.

7. Don’t Stop

Rolling Stones museum, anyone? Former Rolling Stones member, Bill Wyman operates a restaurant entitled, “Sticky Fingers” in the well-to-do Kensington section of London. The food is nothing to write home about, unless you consider the cuisine at the Hard Rock Caf© something to die for. The prices are so-so, no more than the one-two punch inflicted by Planet Hollywood fare.

What’s special here is that the whole place is a shrine the legendary rockers. Jam-packed with posters, magazine covers, guitars, gold discs and the like. Most of time, as you might imagine, you’ll be enjoying the soothing sounds of Stones tune while you munch your fish and chips.

8. Happy

If you never get a chance to stand live in the crowd and soak the sound waves as they emit straight from the wall of loud speakers, then the next best chance at the excitement is one many films made from their various shows. Perhaps the most famous is from their 1972 North American tour. Titled, “Ladies and Gentlemen, The Rolling Stones”, unfortunately the screening of it can prove difficult. Originally released in Quadraphonic sound, the original soundtrack, record as it is on the film in an unusual manner requires considerable labor to view properly. The effort is occasionally undertaken, as it was done in a September 1996 screening at New York’s Lincoln Center. Hmmm, maybe it would be easier to just see them live after all.

9. The Last Time

Is this their last world tour? They’ve been fielding that question ever since they were first asked it way back in 1966. Mick Jagger turned 59 this past July 26th and Keith Richards turns 59 on December 18th. Jagger will be 60 by the time they wrap up their European tour, perhaps that’s old enough to retire, but we’re betting that they’ll be back as long as they’re around. Why stop now?

To read more articles by Chad, please visit the American Pop Culture Encyclopedia at: www.americanpopcultureencyclopedia.com. If you would like to read this article, or others like it, on American Pop Culture Encyclopedia: www.americanpopcultureencyclopedia.com/rolling%20stones.htm