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You’ve written a few good songs, made a dollar or two jamming with a few bands or busking on the corner. Now, you’re no longer satisfied: dreaming of stardom, you’re hungry for the big time. The worst thing to do is to hold out for the big break that never happens: Better to play for the love of music. With no false hopes and no illusions, start from zero. Somewhere, there’s an audience for you. Let someone hear you - mother, daughter, friend, lover - and listen to what they have to say. Drink in the encouragement and consider their criticism. It’s all good. Just get someone, anyone, anywhere, anytime to listen to you. Sing in the dark, sing in the park. Play for friends, for strangers, for young and for old.

All you need is a song and a crowd; the rest comes easy, one step at a time. The day will come when you’ll earn a place of respect. People will notice when you walk into a room. You won’t hear a pin drop when you begin to play at a local coffee house. The whole room will “rock” when you plug in and play at your neighborhood blues cafe.

But, if that’s not enough and you still want to get signed to a major record. Pet your dog. Kiss your wife or girlfriend goodbye. You’ll be away for a long, long time playing for people you don’t know in places you’ve never been before. Your chances of becoming a rock star are about as good as winning a lottery. Call it a glass ceiling. Call it a brick wall, mainstream success is rare.

They say the Beatles started their career playing in strip joints in Hamburg, Germany. Forty years ago, Hamburg’s infamous red-light district was where some of the world’s most popular rock musicians paid their dues. One day Brian Epstein discovered the Beatles when they packed the Star Club with whores, pimps, transvestites, sailors and fans of “beat music” swilling alcohol and dancing until dawn. Epstein saw something in them that no one else could see. Somehow he knew one day their raw sound would thrill audiences with a magic that will never return again.

Maybe someone will notice you one day. All you’ve got to is get the right people interested in what you’re doing and hold that interest long enough for them to “buy” what you’re doing. The more interested they are, the longer they stick around, the more ideas they’ll get for selling what you have to offer.

‘The cream always rises to the top’ doesn’t mean the best rise to the top. Without at least some marketing savvy, the average musician won’t make it very far alone no matter how good he is. Which brings me to my next thought. A performing career isn’t for most people. Most so-called pro musicians live below the poverty line spending their daylight hours watching TV in a dingey downtown apartment waiting for the phone to ring with a booking for your next paying gig. When you’re a seventeen year-old drop out, playing bar songs for a crowd of rowdy drunks might be someone’s idea of a good time but there are better ways to make a living.

If you want a life, think again. With a strong regional presence, it’s possible to make a name for yourself as an artist. If you travel a circuit, and stay around long enough your audience will grow and your CD sales will climb. If you’re good, you might become a cult hero or even a regional icon.

Dennis Walsh progressofmusic@hotmail.com

Online video search engine blinkx launched a new tool Tuesday to find and watch music videos on the Internet.

Freshly launched blinkx Music has indexed more than 33,000 hours of music videos from over 10,000 artists.

“There are hundreds of thousands of music videos available on the Web today, which makes it nearly impossible to navigate and find what you are looking for,” said blinkx founder and chief executive Suranga Chandratillake.

“We built blinkx Music to help our users find their favorite music videos quickly, easily and in one place.”

Blinkx allows searches by artist, album, genre or song. Search results include information about artists and their careers.

The online tool founded in 2004 boasts more than 35 million hours of video and audio content in its index. The company is based in San Francisco.

Radio is apparently rallying against falling listeners (damn you Spotify and internet radio) by circling the wagons on a catch-all website for UK stations. So it probably doesn’t want to hear about another online music venture that will see blinkx launch a new universal jukebox that gives users access to over 33,000 hours of music videos from over 10,000 artists.

“While MySpace and GoogleBox have launched services in the US and Australia, blinkx is the first to bring a music jukebox to UK audiences,” the spokeswoman tells AG.

blinkx Music allows users to find and watch music videos online, “putting the biggest collection of online music videos in the hands of consumers.”

Adolphe Adam (1803-1856), composer of “O Holy Night,” once observed, “In Paris, at the hub of the arts, one cannot enter a church without being followed by one or sometimes two serpents.” Most believe the bewitching instrument he was referring to was invented around 1590 by French priest Edmé Guillaume of St. Steven Auxerre Cathedral to add a fuller baritone/bass voice to his choir. The serpent consists of a wooden tube carved as two half-rounds, glued together and then firmly wrapped with a coil of veal skin or other leather to make it airtight. The most common version needs to be about six feet long, so in order to make it compact enough to hold they give it several crooks. Classically there are six holes for the fingering and an angled metal tube ending in a wooden or ivory cup-shaped mouthpiece similar to that used for a trombone. Indeed, people taking up the serpent nowadays are more often than not trombonists or other low-register brass players. It emits a rounder, more organic tone than a metal instrument, somewhat bassoon-like yet also rather human. It’s fiendishly difficult to play in tune, plus you need exceptional dexterity to negotiate its holes swiftly and unerringly.

As musical instruments go, the serpent enjoyed a distinguished career about 300 years until it was phased out first by the ophicleide (a less zigzaggy version made of metal and employing keys rather than simple holes) and then finally the euphonium and tuba by the late nineteenth century. George Frederick Handel employed the serpent in his Royal Fireworks Music (1749), Beethoven in at least one of his marches, Berlioz in Messe Solennelle (1824 but lost until 1991), and Wagner in his opera Rienzi (1842). Christopher Monk, Alan Lumsden, and Andrew van der Beek founded the London Serpent Trio in 1976, which continues to perform in a wide range of musical genres to this day with a newer generation of players.

Aside from the Trio, two of the serpent’s strongest exponents are currently Douglas Yeo and Michel Godard. Yeo has been a bass trombonist with the Boston Symphony since 1985 and a hands-down authority on the subject, but when it comes to virtuoso serpentry he’s clearly a Man on a Mission. Check out his newest CD Le Monde du Serpent (with free MP3 excerpts). Says Fanfare Magazine, “It’s obvious Yeo meant to entertain as well as to educate, and this lively CD succeeds at doing both brilliantly. The performances are expert and loving, and the production values demonstrate the utmost in care and discernment.” Michel Godard’s CD, Sous Les Votes le Serpent, is a different reptile entirely but intriguing in its own way, featuring selections such as “Tuba Chant” and “A Black Dust Cloud and Stars Embedded in Gaseous Nebulosities (For Carl Sagan).” I’m afraid Garrison Keillor won’t be standing in line for either of these, though, having said of the serpent, “The urge to perform is not a sign of talent.” To each his own, I guess.

This article comes from the Curious Thing of the Week section of my site Sui Generis at http://www.CuriousNotions.com where you’ll find only the world’s rarest, best, oddest and most legendary. If you crave the exotic and march to your own drummer, or serpentist as the case may be, please stop on by!

I’ll never forget the time I took my first piano class. It was at the Community College of Philadelphia 1984. It was a group class with 20 or so electronic keyboards arranged around the room. We each received a class text book titled “Class Piano.” No shocker there.

I opened up the book and saw that I would be learning how to read music and play triads. I also saw that I would be playing very simple classical pieces. Now, while I enjoyed this and learned how to play these easy pieces, it just didn’t do it for me. It was because as I soon as I put the book down, I was dumbfounded! I didn’t know what to do on the piano without the book!

I soon realized that I didn’t want to become a professional note reader. No. I wanted to be able to sit down at the piano, place my fingers on a chord that called to me, and just play. I wanted to express myself at the piano in the same way visual artists are able to take pen and paper and artfully color their inner worlds. Why was this so difficult to do?

It was at this time that I started to look for new ways to play. I came upon a book that taught a modern chord position which could be used right away to make music with. Amazing! No note reading. Just chords. And once I learned a few chords, I was able to create my own music. This open position chord structure allowed me to improvise music quite easily.

Another book influenced me as well. This one showed how to play chord progressions using 4, 8 and 16 bar phrases. With this chord charting technique, I could see that I could create my own pieces. It taught me the principles of repetition and contrast - the cornerstones to musical composition.

A few chords arranged for 8-bars is repeated 2 or more times giving you what is called an “A” section of music. Another few bars of different chord changes and the “B” section is produced. And all of this was taught within a very slim volume. Maybe 46 pages or so.

After a few years of working with this material, I synthesized both methods so beginning piano players can take a modern sounding chord and work with it within a set framework. The result is a method where students are able to improvise their own music right away!

Edward Weiss is a pianist/composer and webmaster of Quiescence Music’s online piano lessons. He has been helping students learn how to play piano in the New Age style for over 14 years and works with students in private, in groups, and now over the internet. Stop by now at http://www.quiescencemusic.com/piano_lessons.html for a FREE piano lesson!

There are several websites that provide guitar lessons, some even for free. The modules are usually designed by guitarists that have already found success in music and are now trying to provide some useful tips to beginner guitar players. There are both advantages and disadvantages if you want to learn guitar fast online.

The Good

Many of us don’t necessarily want to learn to play the guitar like pros. They just want to learn a few chords to play at campfires and impress their friends or family with their music playing skills. These people are not interested in investing time and money into a more complete learning program, such as private guitar lessons. For them, being able to learn guitar fast online is a great thing.

Even if you would like to learn how to play the guitar well, you might not have the time and resources to do it. If you have a job, a family and various errands to run every day, traveling back and forth to guitar classes might not be for you. Being able to learn guitar fast by practicing whenever you find some free time without having to leave the house is a good thing.

Online lessons are often more dynamic and successful in keeping you focused than a theory book. They usually include graphics, animated images and demo sounds to make it easier for you to learn. If you get stuck, you usually can ask the guitarist providing those lessons for help.

And last, but not least, online guitar lessons are very inexpensive, sometimes even free. In contrast, private lessons are often expensive and you have to pay per hour. Not everyone wants to invest so much money into learning to play the guitar.

The Bad

As tempted as you might be to learn guitar fast online, you have to consider the drawbacks as well. If you are serious about playing the guitar, nothing compares to a good teacher. Online lessons can only provide a standard teaching program, while a teacher can tailor his/her method on your learning style.
Online lessons can not actually focus on your particular learning needs. You might want to focus more on certain aspects, but a teaching program is standard and tries to respond to the needs of average guitar players. In contrast, a private teacher will give you personal attention and respond to your specific needs.

With online lessons, no one will applaud you when you’re progressing and get you motivated. A private teacher can provide you with positive feedback and knows how to increase your motivation when necessary.

Finally, you might be making some mistakes you won’t even notice and end up playing badly. With online lessons, no one will be there to correct them. A private teacher will spot your mistakes fast and correct them in time before they turn into long-term habits.

If you want to truly learn to play the guitar well, it might be better to dedicate a little more time and work to the learning process. However, for many people who don’t want to become superstars or don’t have the time to do it, the opportunity to learn guitar fast online is actually great.

Fame Ahmed is a well known author worldwide. He has written numerous works on various topics. He is an expert in research and writing reviews and articles based on his findings.
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The Beatles may well be arguably the worlds biggest ever band. Musically from the early 1960’s to the end of their career they covered an array of different music styles from the jangly pop of their early days to the psychedelia of their latter albums. To cover all these different sounds they needed a broad range of instruments.

Throughout their career they used a variety of guitars and you can see many photographs of the Beatles with Rickenbacker’s (325’s in particular) various Gretch, Fender and Hofner. However they are also linked with Epiphone Guitars and often choose Epiphone guitars over all other guitars for recordings and live performances.

The first Beatle to own an Epiphone guitar was Paul McCartney who bought his first, an Epiphone Casino,during 1964. Influenced by the sound of this guitar John and George bought theirs soon after. The Epiphone Casino is a hollow-body double cutaway electric guitar. Although available in a variety of colors, George Harrison stripped his down to bare wood saying that he liked the sound of the guitar being able to breathe.

John Lennon favored the Epiphone E230TD Casino and used a variety of these guitars from 1966 onwards. Lennon painted this guitar and it appeared during the White Album sessions and in the Film “Let it Be”. During that film Lennon can be seen playing his Casino while rehearsing new material. Lennon’s Casino also features during the celebrated performance on the London roof top of their office building. Lennon is synonymous with the Casino, so much so that Epiphone recently re-released a John Lennon signature Casino. This faithful reproduction is of the guitar as John originally purchased it with the vintage sunburst finish and stock hardware.

The Beatles also used Epiphone’s acoustic guitars. Paul McCartney favored the Epiphone Texan acoustic guitar and it was used to record the epic track Yesterday. McCartney still uses Texan’s to this day.

Clearly the Beatles have been one of the (if not the) biggest influences in popular music over the last 50 years. Their sound was distinct and this was bought about both by their playing and their selection of instruments. Thier Epiphone guitars contributed to their sound and a number of guitars have become iconic in their association with arguably the worlds biggest band.

ShanzuGuitars.com is a reference site for guitarists everywhere. The site features guitar news, resources, guitar gear reviews, online lessons and free tools.

What exactly is a Gong?

The gong is a musical instrument in the percussion family.
A gong can have either a definite or an indefinite musical pitch. Usually gongs that produce a definite, specific tone are played with other specific-tone gongs in a setting like traditional Gamelan, or an innovative rock concert like the Grateful Dead.

Are there different types of gongs?

Gongs come in a variety of sizes, styles, and shapes. Like dialects of language or sects of religion, the instrument evolved differently in each location and culture it was used.
Many gongs are flat, but some have a central dome, also called a nipple. The outside rim of the gong is usually turned down; it is not sharp-edged like a cymbal.

Generally, you can think of gongs as having two basic styles: Suspended and Bowl.

Suspended gongs, which are more flat, are called such because they are literally suspended. They are hung vertically using a chord that is passed through holes close to the rim. Suspended gongs are played with a mallet or bamboo stick.

Bowl gongs are called such because they are literally bowl-shaped. They can rest on the ground or special cushions. Bowl gongs can be played in several different manners. A musician can bang a bowl gong with a mallet, but might also rub the rim with his or her finger to elicit a whole other sound.

How are they made?

Gongs are constructed of hammered metal. Most are made out of bronze or brass, but with an amalgam of other metals.

Although a lot of gongs are made in China, they are not mass produced like televisions or plastic toys. Each one is handmade.

If you hear a particular gong, like it and order that style, you must expect that the one you get may not sound exactly like the first one you heard. Minor differences are to be expected, and should be embraced. Don’t worry though! Most gong styles, thanks to design specifics, maintain a similarity of tone to the untrained ear.

Andrew Borakove is a media writer and gong aficionado. He also is the proprietor of the internet store, Gongs Unlimited. http://www.gongs-unlimited.com

You can find more info on Gongs there, and all kinds of gongs and related instruments for sale.

There’s a reason Apple Computer dominates the legal 99-cents-a-download digital music scene: It does it right. Apple’s iPods set the style and ease-of-use standards that other portable music players must try (so far unsuccessfully) to match. Its iTunes Music Store and iTunes software are equally unparalleled.

Still, as I wrote in a column on the Napster To Go subscription service, Apple’s path isn’t the only one that makes sense.

I remain an unabashed iTunes junkie. But an alternative model the “portable” music subscription is growing on me. Now, with the addition of RealNetworks Rhapsody To Go service and especially with the debut this month of Yahoo Music Unlimited I imagine it’ll grow on others, too.

I did encounter some sour notes with the two services. Yahoo Music is still in “beta” testing, though the more serious snags actually occurred inside Rhapsody. But overall, both Yahoo and Real left a melodious impression. Each claims more than 1 million songs in its catalogs though they’re light on classical. (Apple says iTunes exceeds 1.5 million tracks.)

I’m guessing that Apple will eventually introduce a subscription service of its own.

Why? Under a subscription or rent-a-tune model, you can listen to a boatload of music for a lot less loot than on a buy-only download site. And you can carry those tunes in your pocket, via compatible portable digital music players. Buying 2,000 songs on iTunes would cost nearly 2 grand.

Under Yahoo, you could rent those same tracks for a fraction of that sum. And you can’t beat Yahoo’s introductory price of $59.88 a year, equal to $4.99 a month. If you prefer to go month to month, you’ll fork over $6.99. Subscribers who wish to buy, instead of rent, certain tracks will pay 79 cents each, non-subscribers 99 cents.

At $14.99 a month, Rhapsody To Go is costlier than Yahoo but still a bargain, on a per-song rental basis, compared with iTunes. RealNetworks subscribers can buy downloadable songs for 89 cents a pop. Nice touch: Those who don’t subscribe can still listen to 25 full-length “streams” and 25 radio stations a month.

(Napster To Go fetches $14.95 a month and 99 cents a track.)

As with Napster, there’s a catch to Real’s and Yahoo’s rental plans: You must remain a paying subscriber, or the songs you’ve rented will no longer be playable.

And forget about transferring Yahoo or Real rental tracks to an iPod. (You can still transfer to an iPod songs ripped from CDs and, in Real’s case, songs you buy.)

Why rent when you can buy? Aside from the cost savings, you may want to listen to something on a whim. Maybe you’re just curious about an emerging artist.

Renting can be complex, though, reflecting conflicts over digital rights. You’ll have to buy tunes to burn them to a CD. But some songs can’t be bought. Others can be streamed but not downloaded. Some can be downloaded but must stay tethered to a PC. And some can be downloaded and moved to a portable device. Got it?

I prefer Yahoo to Real, and not just because of the lower prices. Yahoo jukebox software (called Yahoo Music Engine) also worked more seamlessly than its Real counterpart. Using both services, I synchronized music with iRiver H10 and RCA Lyra RD2762 devices, though not all tracks ended up on the Lyra. That’s because, for now, this model can receive only purchased music, not rented tracks.

When I downloaded or transferred tracks to a portable device, Yahoo displayed a helpful status bar on the Music Engine screen to show the download progress. On Rhapsody, you must visit a separate screen.

Yahoo boasts other sweet touches. Yahoo Music is integrated with Yahoo Messenger. So you can see the music your IM pals are listening to and legally listen along.

You can also search for members who have similar tastes. Members can control who gets to see their collections. People you follow are called “influencers”; their highly rated songs will play on your personalized “LAUNCHcast” radio station. Those who seek your recommendations are deemed “followers.”

There were a few annoyances. Yahoo lets you search by album, artist, song or member, though not all at the same time. When I searched Yahoo for certain albums the soundtrack to the movie Fever Pitch, for example Yahoo showed a picture of the album cover and listed the songs. But there was no way to stream any of the album tracks. It happens that Yahoo lacks the rights to play those songs or to make them available for sale. Still, I felt teased.

I ran into bigger trouble with Rhapsody, at least at first. Real’s software kept freezing and crashing on an HP Pavilion notebook computer. I called Real for help. Disabling a feature in which Rhapsody is supposed to automatically search for and import new tracks into your music library fixed the problem. But that feature is one that many users will want. Real says a fix will be included in the next release.

What’s more, if you decide to buy a track as a Rhapsody subscriber, good luck figuring out how. I had to call the company to determine one way: I right-clicked on a song title and then clicked on the menu item “buy track(s).”

Though Rhapsody doesn’t have an instant-messaging component as Yahoo does, there are ways to share and discover free MP3 music. You can press a share button to publish a playlist on Rhapsody, e-mail that list to friends or write a blog about the contents. Rhapsody can show an instant playlist based on songs you’ve been listening to.

Microsoft’s digital rights software underpins both Rhapsody and Yahoo Music. So when something goes wrong with the software, it affects all the music services at once. When “licenses” on my machine somehow became corrupted, rental tracks on Rhapsody and Yahoo failed to play. I had to reinstall Microsoft’s software.

I don’t expect Apple to slip off the online music throne anytime soon. But Yahoo and Real are at least giving digital music fans plenty to think about.

Mary works in US for a media company, occasionally writing for the biggest MP3 music news portal, and drinking too much coffee.

Bruce Springsteen has released his latest CD offering entitled We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions.

It’s a tribute to Folk Music Legend Pete Seeger and is a different kind of music for The Boss, but I must say it is very well done. With Springsteen’s gravelly voice this CD took me back to the days when folk music reigned supreme.

From my first listening, this CD has become one of my all time favorites.

I really like the way it’s presented with a comfortably loose, live feeling that makes it even more enjoyable. The word is the entire collection was recorded in just 3 days which is probably what accounts for the spontaneous feel of the tracks.

Overall We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions is an outstanding release, one you shouldn’t hesitate to purchase if you like Springsteen’s rock stuff. I’d also recommend it to anyone who may not be a Springsteen fan but likes folk, country or acoustic music.

The standout tunes on We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions are Jesse James [track 2], Mrs. McGrath [track 3], and Pay Me My Money Down [track 11]. My SmoothLee Bonus Pick, and the one that got Sore […as in “Stuck On REpeat”] is track 12, We Shall Overcome. Very nice rendition!

Release Notes:

Bruce Springsteen originally released We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions on April 25, 2006 on the Sony record label.

CD track list follows:

1. Old Dan Tucker
 2. Jesse James
 3. Mrs. McGrath
 4. Oh, Mary, Don't You Weep
 5. John Henry
 6. Erie Canal
 7. Jacob's Ladder
 8. My Oklahoma Home
 9. Eyes On The Prize
 10. Shenandoah
 11. Pay Me My Money Down
 12. We Shall Overcome
 13. Froggie Went A-Courtin'
 14. Buffalo Gals (bonus track)
 15. How Can I Keep From Singing (bonus track)

To listen to samples of each song on We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions by Bruce Springsteen go to:
Bruce Springsteen CD - We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions MP3 Samples

Clyde Lee Dennis, a.k.a. SmoothLee is a life long music fanatic. In addition to writing CD Reviews like this one for several music related websites he also hosts an internet radio show, and invites you to join him daily for some of the best soul soothing smooth jazz you’ll ever hear at http://www.SmoothJazz247.com

When most people think of piano lessons, they think drudgery. Beethoven, Czerny, scales, etc. What most people want, however, is to be able to express themselves creatively.

It’s a fact that if you decide to learn how to play in the classical style, you can pretty much forget about creating music. Instead, you’ll be recreating works that were inspired centuries ago and bringing them to life.

This is fine for most people and the curriculum usually stops here for them. For those who aren’t satisfied with this routine, there is very little in the way of creative music instruction - except for jazz. In jazz, you learn theory, harmony, etc. But even here, it is suggested that you really not attempt anything creative until you get enough technique under your belt.

Then there is New Age music - my favorite genre. Why? Because it is heartfelt yet not sanguine. It is honest, yet not sappy. In short, here is a music that is contemporary and likable AND EASY TO LEARN!

I’m always amazed that teachers want to start their students with repertoire that dates back as far as the 16th century. While there is no question this music is “good,” it’s also dead. And while a beginning writer who wants to learn the art of fiction will read the best authors of the past, he or she also wants to create something modern! Something that has their own voice. Why should music be any different?

Piano lessons don’t have to be the dull, lifeless exercise we know they can be. They can actually be FUN!

Edward Weiss is a pianist/composer and webmaster of Quiescence Music’s online piano lessons. He has been helping students learn how to play piano in the New Age style for over 14 years and works with students in private, in groups, and now over the internet. Stop by now at http://www.quiescencemusic.com/piano_lessons.html for a FREE piano lesson!