My Music And Song's

Posts Tagged ‘musicians’

Jazz music and dance was popular for quite a while and then seemed to go underground except in cities such as Memphis, New Orleans, Kansas City, and St. Louis where it was an ingrained part of the history and culture. We have seen a reemergence of this once popular style of music and dance in recent years however with some notable musicians bringing back the swing and ‘big band’ sound that went hand in hand with jazz as both a music form and a style of dance.

You should understand however, that when it comes to jazz dance, much like the music, there are no definitive rules that you must follow in order for it to be jazz. There are no rigid dance steps that must be adhered to for the ‘jazz’ effect. Jazz dance is often confused as ‘tap dance’ because tap music was often set to jazz music. It is important however to realize that jazz isn’t limited to tap dance and that other styles of dance fall under the rather large umbrella of ‘jazz dance’.

Some of the more common jazz dances include: Black Bottom, Boogie Woogie, the Cakewalk, the Charleston, the Jitterbug, the Lindy Hop, and swing dancing. Each of these styles of dance seems to be making a rather remarkable comeback in popularity over the course of the last two decades and are very interesting to watch, as well as in which to participate should you ever have the opportunity.

When I was a teenager, it took a lot to peel me away from watching MTV music videos. I loved music, and I couldn’t get enough of the flashy videos and the larger than life musicians that populated them. As time went on though, it became more and more apparent that though the M in MTV stood for music, it wasn’t really their main focus. After a while, I saw less and less music, and more and more game shows. I can’t even watch the station today, though I am aware that I am now out of their target age group.

Today, MTV music isn’t want it used to be, if you can find it at all. Their schedule is full of reality shows and specials, and finding actually music videos is hard to do. Even worse, the MTV music of today seem to be nothing more than noise, though I guess that just makes me old right? Most of it I wouldn’t even label as music, but I am aware that this is just my opinion. I know that those who are younger than me enjoy it; it’s just not for me.

I haven’t thought a lot about MTV music videos in a long time, but I have started to think about it again. My daughter is getting older and even though I hate the thought of it, I know she will outgrow groups like the Wiggles soon enough, and she will be listening to music that is made for older kids. What scares me is that I can’t find any MTV music videos that I would really want her watching. I guess you could call me over protective, but I think kids are growing up way to fast, and I want her to enjoy the freedom of childhood for as long as she can before she is aware of things like sex and trying to act and look older.

The first notes to play on your guitar are the ones that get your guitar in tune. Don’t play anything — not a lick, not a rhythm figure — until your guitar is perfectly in tune with itself and the other instruments in the band. Playing out of tune can peg you as an amateur and cause musicians and non-musicians alike to cringe. So learn how to tune your instrument quickly, correctly, and painlessly, and everyone will be happy — especially you.

Basically, you have two ways to tune your guitar:

• To an outside reference: These sources include electronic tuners, a tuning fork, a pitch pipe, or another instrument (such as a piano, organ, electronic keyboard, or even a harmonica).
• To itself: By using the relative method, you tune all the strings to one string. (This method is covered in the section “Helping your guitar get in tune with itself.”)

In the relative method, your guitar may or may not be in tune with another instrument or concert , but the strings are in tune with each other. Anyone who doesn’t have perfect pitch (which is most of the world, including the world of musicians) won’t know.