We have a guitar we need to give away. Follow this link, answer three easy multiple-choice questions, and you’re in the running to win a free Ovation guitar. You don’t know if you don’t try. Good luck!
http://www.makingmusicmag.com/freeguitar/index.html
~ MM
You read about Calypso in the July/August Accents section of Making Music, now you can hear it!
Trinidad had no recording equipment anywhere on the island in the early 20th century, so calypsonians had to come to the states to lay down their tracks. Lord Invader was one of the first – here’s “My Intention is War” from a session in New York:
A Carnival tradition since the early 20th century, calypsonians battle for kaiso supremacy. Here’s David Rudder performing “Calypso Music” in 1987. He ultimately lost to challenger Black Stalin, but a classic performance nonetheless:
And here is “Sugar Bum Bum” by legendary calypsonian Lord Kitchener. This is widely considered the first song in the soca style, an offshoot of calypso:
~ MM
Some singers really want to push themselves beyond their vocal range or that place in their voice where they sound best. Besides supporting the breath with your diaphragm and ensuring you keep your vocal chords loose and warmed up, try this interesting trick from an Expert Village vocal teacher to hit those high notes without going on your tippy toes.
July 1, SYDNEY –– An amateur Australian orchestra successfully communicated with a pack of Humpback whales off the coast of Sydney through song. The group traveled several hundred yards into the Pacific Ocean by raft and began to play an original composition, thought to match the soothing tones preferred by Humpbacks. Just a few seconds into this “Love Song,” the whales responded with a song of their own and began to jump in a synchronized pattern around the musicians’ vessel.
“We’re so excited by this development,” said conductor Steve “Crocodile” Hunter. “This calls for a shrimp on the barby.”
See the video below for evidence of the incident:
JUST KIDDING. Of course, this didn’t really happen, but the video is a cool advertisement from Australian telecom company Optus touching on the deeper theme of music as a universal language.
Gotta love these foreign companies and their elaborate commercials. They even set up a companion website, where visitors can summon the deep sea mammals with a song of their own (composed right from the computer keyboard).
~ MM
Jonathan Coulton, Internet musician whiz-kid, talked with Making Music Magazine recently and offered some tips on how to transform the World Wide Web as your personal marketing rep.
Q: How did you draw attention to yourself using the Internet?
A: Every Friday I would post a new song on my website that I recorded that week and I planned to do that for a year. I thought it might attract attention—the sheer lunacy of a guy doing a new song every week. It was an opportunity for me to stretch myself, force myself to take chances, force myself to write every week. I had to write songs based on ideas that I didn’t always thing were perfect, got lucky, had a couple of songs that took off and people were linking to my site or e-mailing the songs.
Q: Do you have any advice for someone wanting to post songs on the web and start attracting fans?
A: The best advice I can give is that you need to be as accessible as possible. Figure out how are people going to hear your songs. Post free links to mp3s, publish the whole thing as a podcast, set up an account with the iTunes store so people can subscribe.That is the thing that makes the internet so powerful, it’s cheap and easy to publish in a way to make it possible for millions to hear.
Q: How would you describe yourself as a songwriter?
A: I’m definitely a perfectionist. Sometimes I have a hard time finishing songs. After the first couple of phrases, I decide, “Oh this is no good, I might as well stop.” That’s just what I learned. For me, writing is a natural part of the creative process. It’s a valley I descend into early on. I think it’s terrible but I need to keep working through that, make it so that it’s not bad. When I come out on the other side it is usually something worthwhile. They are not all masterpieces, some of the songs that I thought were going to be awful are some of my favorites now.
Q: What’s the most valuable tip you can offer for someone wanting to get their music heard?
A: Set up your own website. Ultimately, when you’re out there posting music on Myspace, last.fm, or iTunes, which is a good way for people to discover you, you need a home base that represents you. It should be your own website rather than a Myspace page or Facebook account. The thing that’ I found the most compelling and supportive was set it up like a blog. I could write, people could comment, and discussions would pop up.
—Coulton plays the guitars, claims he can “fake a lot of other string instruments,” like the mandolin, bass, and banjo, and plays the piano poorly.
To hear about Jonathan’s newly released DVD, visit www.JonathanCoulton.com
To hear
If you’re a gearhead but need a reason to learn an instrument, here are ten from the Yanko Design blog. Us musicians love new toys –- sorry, “gear” –- and these are some of the sharpest, freshest-looking musical gadgets to ever hit the market.
I’m not sure if some of these are commercially available. The Maestro Laser and MP3 Guitar Learning Aid, for one, looks too good to be true. The description claims to turn MP3s into guitar tablature, then project the tab, via laser, onto the fretboard. Whoa.
Maestro Laser and MP3 Guitar Learning Aid
Others, like the Feast of Music dining table, are a near-perfect marriage of form and function. The tabletop is actually a marimba. Each block of wood creates a different pitch in a soothing, woody tone. Even passing the sweet potatoes is a musical experience.
Better living through technology indeed.
~ MM
PBS has launched a companion website to their “Music Instinct” documentary, which aired on June 24. From the site:
Researchers and scientists from a variety of fields are using groundbreaking techniques that reveal startling new connections between music and the human mind, the body and the universe. Together with an array of musicians from rock and rap to jazz and classical, they are putting music under the microscope.
It features dozens of clips with said researchers, scientists, and artists demonstrating how music affects the primal parts of our brains. Lots of interesting stuff is available, including a few short interviews with Stephen Mithen, author of The Singing Neanderthals: The Origins of Music, Language, Mind, and Body about the role of music in evolution. We can’t embed the videos here, but head on over to the site for countless hours of surfing.
~ MM
A little dirt never hurt. On June 15, Sabian unearthed their One of 100 project, in which they buried 100 Artisan Vault cymbals for eight months on a farm near their headquarters in Meductic, New Brunswick. Legend has it that soil-aging adds a certain je ne sais quoi to a cymbal’s sound, a supposed indefinable complexity. Sabian decided to see for themselves.
Cymbal coffin
According to a series of blog posts on the Sabian website, it is indeed a definable difference. For one, the cymbals sound drier with fewer highs and lows and less of a ‘roar’ than the regular Artisan Vault models. They also, predictably, look a bit like they’ve been sitting in dirt for eight months.
Unearthed!
About 60 of the 100 cymbals were sold at a smooth $800 ($200 more than the non-aged counterparts) before they were even excavated, reports Kate Wallace of the New Brunswick Telegraph-Journal. The rest will surely go quickly, probably to jazz players. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Make A Wish Foundation.
Pics from the Sabian unearthing blog
~ MM
As you may recall from our story on Heroes star/music maker Greg Grunberg (cover story, May/June 2009), Band From TV is a supergroup of television actors playing tunes for various charities, including the National Epilepsy Foundation, The Conservation Fund, and others. They’ve even recorded a CD, Hoggin All The Covers.
On the Tonight Show, January 2009
Members seem to come and go from time to time, but according to their official website, the current lineup (alongside Grunberg on drums and backup vocals) features Hugh Laurie (House) on keyboards and vocals, Jesse Spencer (House) on violin, Adrian Pasdar (Heroes) on guitar, James Denton (Desperate Housewives) on guitar, Teri Hatcher (Desperate Housewives) on vocals, Bob Guiney (The Bachelor, many seasons ago) on vocals, and based on their clips, what looks to be about a dozen other musicians.
Performing on American Idol, April 2009
Dr. House will never seem so cranky again.
myspace.com/bandfromTV
Hoggin’ All the Covers on Amazon
~ MM
Our Staff writer Jackie introduces us to a Jumbie Jam Steel Drum made by Panyard. She shows how to use the drum in it’s most basic form.
