Songchords4u: Music

Hot

Showing posts with label Music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Music. Show all posts

Friday

Billy Talent Frontman Rock Music Is At A Low

Rate This Song:
{[["☆","★"]]}
10:16 PM 0


Billy Talent frontman Ben Kowalewicz has offered his thoughts on the declining state of guitar based music in a recent interview. As the Edmonton Journal reports, the singer sees comparisons between the state of music in the late 1980s and the present day situation:
"Rock music is at a low right now, you know what I mean?"
"I kind of feel like we're in the late '80s, early '90s, where it was the same thing... And all of a sudden, you have bands like Nirvana and Pearl Jam and Soundgarden and Rage Against The Machine and Tool and Offspring and Green Day and the Beastie Boys, all this stuff, and it was this tidal wave that just destroyed everything that was going on.
"I feel like there's something that's going to happen musically that's going to rival that. There's going to be this huge resurgence and people going to see rock 'n' roll shows and feeling that connection."
Billy Talent?s fifth full length record "Dead Silence" is set for release tomorrow. Speaking about the recording process Kowalewicz noted that guitarist/songwriter Ian D'Sa pushed his voice into higher registers than he had before managed:
"Ian's the main songwriter of the band and he came up with all these ideas, and it just happened that the melodies... Were definitely in a higher register," he said.
"We worked pretty closely together, so if there's something that's absolutely unattainable - like Sebastian Bach style - then I tell him I can't do it."
The singer also noted that tracks such as "Stand Up And Run" from the new record are a diversion from what fans might expect. He described the track as left-of-centre for the band, comparing it to ?50s pop.
View the original article here
Read More
Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , ,

Thursday

King Crimson's Robert Fripp Quits Music Business

Rate This Song:
{[["☆","★"]]}
1:57 PM 0


King Crimson's Robert Fripp has granted a rare interview with the UK Financial Times to explain why he has given up on the music business. "I couldn?t concentrate on music, so I made the choice to give up my career as a musician in the front line to deal with the business".
Apparently, this all stems from a recent altercation with music giant the Universal Group, who recently bought up a series of independent labels that own parts of his back catalog. Fripp believes this action has led to the release of unauthorized releases under his name.
He cites other examples of his music being used without his consent, notably in the Kanye West single "Power", which freely sampled the King Crimson classic "21st Century Schizoid Man". The video scored one million plays on YouTube before Fripp was reportedly consulted. Fripp has been in a tangled legal dispute with Universal for the past five years, and now refers to his life as a professional musician as "a joyless exercise in futility".
Over the last few years, the King Crimson catalog has been getting the royal treatment with expanded and deluxe editions. In thinking on his past endeavors, Fripp said "Going back to early King Crimson, the remarkable explosion of the creative impulse came from these young men who didn?t know what they were doing, yet were able to do it". However, the legendary guitarist and musical visionary thinks this spirit is certainly lacking in the current climate. "What has changed in 40 years? It?s very simple: 40 years ago there was a market economy. Today there is a market society ? today everything, including ethics, has a price".
It shouldn?t all be about money, says Fripp. "Do you believe that Rostropovich was playing a cello just for a living? Do you believe that Hendrix was playing for money? Music is a language in which we can express our struggle with what it is to be a human being. This is at the center of what created King Crimson. Today I remain responsible for that... how can I lie to that? If I do, I cease to be human".
A multi-disc deluxe edition of the 1973 Crimson classic "Larks' Tongues In Aspic" is set for release in October and will include 13 CD's, a DVD and a Blu-Ray disc.
Thanks to Ultimateclassicrock for the report.
View the original article here
Read More
Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , ,

Linkin Park And Incubus Survive Music Biz Changes

Rate This Song:
{[["☆","★"]]}
6:46 AM 0


Incubus and Linkin Park have seen a significant upheaval in their chosen profession over the past few decades.
Let?s face it: When both bands first came up in the '90s and 2000s, the music industry looked nothing like it does today. As they often say, the Internet changed everything, and Incubus frontman Brandon Boyd thinks the evolution of the music industry is far from over.
"Linkin Park and Incubus were two of the very few bands who kind of like got a gust of wind out of the old paradigm of the music industry, but survived out of it", Boyd said during a press conference for the two bands' current Honda Civic Tour.
"There are so many bands that, bands in a traditional sense, bands who write their own music, and perform their music, that didn?t survive that transition", he added. "That fell by the wayside with the industry".
Boyd believes change is the only constant in music. But, Incubus are ready and raring to go.
"Our technologies are a living system just like we are and our communities as human beings, and for us to expect them to remain constant is really just quite foolish", Boyd said. "I mean, anybody that?s going to come to rely on the way that our music consumption is looking now is going to have the same hard lesson in less time than you think".
"I think that the technology is going to shift probably sooner than any of us really realize. And that?s a really cool thing, because it keeps everyone on their toes... I personally, when all is said and done, I really welcome these changes. And they excite me. And they scare me at the same time, but I?m choosing to focus on the excitement".
Incubus and Linkin Park?s Honda Civic Tour runs through Sept. 10 in San Diego, Calif. A recent tour stop in Detroit turned out a nearly sold-out arena crowd, all there to see two bands that have somehow survived and thrived amid the industry upheaval.
Back when Linkin Park?s 2000 debut "Hybrid Theory" was released, Linkin Park seemed dead set within the confines of rap-rock, along with contemporaries such as Kid Rock and Limp Bizkit. But at the Detroit gig, it was obvious Linkin Park have broken out of the clutches of rap-rock. The band?s newer, electronic-tinged, alternative rock songs such as "Burn It Down" and "Waiting For The End" - off 2012?s "Living Things" and 2010?s "A Thousand Suns", respectively - garnered plenty of cheers and fist-pumps from the crowd. Of course, the biggest reaction still came from Linkin Park?s early, angst-y anthems, such as "One Step Closer", "In The End" and "Crawling", comprising the material of their initial albums, 2000?s "Hybrid Theory" and 2003?s "Meteora".
Incubus offered up a psychedelic hour-long opening set, packed with hits spanning their entire career. For some at the show, it was 2003 all over again. But for a whole new crop of fans, Linkin Park and Incubus proved strong acts of today.
For more information on the Honda Civic Tour, head to the tour?s official website.
What are your thoughts on how the music industry has changed over the past decade? What have you done to stay current? Let us know in the comments below!
Thanks for the report to Gibson.com.
View the original article here
Read More
Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , ,

Wednesday

Friday Fun: 4 Common Music Arguments

Rate This Song:
{[["☆","★"]]}
2:57 AM 0

                                   Friday Fun: 4 Common Music Arguments 

 People are passionate about music. It's why we're all here.
But sometimes these passions can erupt during a discussion and lead to full-scale arguments. It's never pretty, and people are rarely willing to back down when they think they're right.
Cracked recently posted a breakdown of four common music arguments, then translating them to expose what they really mean. We're giving it a fresh lick of UG paint to help arm our younger readers with a sensible open-minded attitude to the music world and its many facets.
Translation: "I'm old and don't know how to use this computer thingy."
We've all remember hearing our parents say it. If they're a classic rock fan it might be true, but that's because classic rock has a specific historical meaning. But even so, there's plenty of awesome new music being made, and sweeping modern tracks under the carpet because you haven't heard them is a big fat fail.
Do you long for the psychedelic 1960s? Try Tame Impala. Miss the riff heavy 70s? Get some Black Moth on. Anyone longing for 80s style hardcore will probably get a kick out of Daughters. There's plenty of great new music out there if you can put some effort and time into using music services like Last.fm, Soundcloud or Spotify. It's easier than complaining.
On the other hand, old recording techniques worked really well, and the prevalence of digital recording has lowered the barrier of entry so that bad producers can pump out music too. There's a plus side to making production accessible, but it's fair to say old recordings had really high standards.
Translation: "There is nothing interesting about me other than the music I listen to."
It's perfectly normal to align yourself with one area of music. A lot of people here are rockers, for example. But when people rant about how their niche collection of Radiohead b-sides is the only collection worth hearing, or how their Aphex Twin acid bass rarities are the greatest thing since a TB-303 and they only listen 24-bit master files to preserve all the original lo-fi nuances (groan), they're really saying one thing: "I have nothing interesting that defines me other than a snotty elitist iTunes catalog that no-one else will ever care about."
Translation: "I only care about myself"
Some popular bands really do suck, but plenty of them deserve credit for achieving their long held dreams of being a rock star.
Take Green Day for example; they started out as many of us did, writing catchy punk songs as teenagers. They made their fame in the 1990s, but over the last decade they really hit the big time and became an all-time classic act. So why do people still complain about how they used to be better? A lot of these moaning losers seem to forget that Green Day were already popular before they knew how to hit a play button.
How about this: last weekend, Green Day played an impromptu set at Reading Festival. It was an immense display of showmanship from a band at the top of their game. Would a younger Green Day be able to pull that off? Not a chance. Sometimes the pressure of fame makes performers better, whether you want to acknowledge it or not.
Translation: "Seriously, American Idol ruined music."
We're not going to counter this one. Cracked argues that it takes talent to get on these shows, and it helps the winners become real stars. That much is true, but the fact remains that American Idol (and its ilk of dead-eyed talent shows like X Factor) have done a world of damage to the music world.
How could it be so bad? Two particular problems come to mind.
First, millions of young talented singers start to believe that the only way to 'make it' is to get through these auditions and make it on the show. Anything that counters the reality of hard work and networking is bad for the real music economy ? it's like that condition where millions of people genuinely believe they're destined to win a lottery to make their millions, and idly wait for it to happen rather than get up and put any effort into improving their life.
Second, it makes a parody of people who can't sing. We all know some entrants are bad, but to mislead them into getting through to a second round of the show after passing an off-camera initial audition, only to have the celebrity judges slam them is genuinely cruel. It's no way for a modern society to entertain itself and should stop.
Do you disagree with any of these counter-arguments? What music myths would you like to dispel? Share your comments below.
View the original article here
Read More
Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , ,

Monday

Useful Music Theory Part 3: The Three Minor Scales

Rate This Song:
{[["☆","★"]]}
6:19 AM 0

                                                       In the first lesson

we learned the major scale and how to name intervals. In the second lesson, we learned how to build chords based on the major scale. In this lesson, we'll learn about the three minor scales.
The three minor scales are called as follows: the melodic minor scale, the harmonic minor scale, and the natural minor scale. I will address each one individually, explain why they are called what they are, how they are used historically, and what sweet new chords can be learned from them. But before I do that, we must know how minor scales relate to major scales.
Most music has a key, be it major or minor. When written on sheet music, these keys are indicated by the key signature - which is to say, the sharps and flats that go over the lines. These indicate which notes are in the key (for example, G major has one sharp - F#. The # goes on the F line. Makes sense, right?)
The reason I mention this is because, the term "relative key", "relative major", "relative minor", "parallel major", "paralllel minor", and "parallel key" will be used in this lesson.
A relative key is when a different key shares the same key signature. (C major and A minor, for example.)
A relative major is when that key is major. (C major is the relative major of A minor.)
A relative minor is when that key is minor. (A minor is the relative minor of C major.)
A parallel key is a different key based on the same root note. (A minor and A major are parallel keys.)
A parallel major is when that key is major. (A major is the parallel major of A minor.)
A parallel minor is when that key is minor. (A minor is the parallel minor of A major.)
With that out of the way, we can dig in. First off, the natural minor scale. In the key of A minor in one octave, it looks like this:
e--------------------b--------------------G--------------------D---------------5-7--A---------5-7-8------E--5-7-8-------------
In the key of A minor, these notes are, A B C D E F G A. This is the simplest minor scale to understand, as its origins are... natural. What I mean is, the natural minor scale has the same key signature as C major. It effectively is the C major starting on A. (To more advanced students, this means it is also the same as A Aeolian... but that's a different lesson.) The natural minor scale has the same notes as the major scale of its relative major.
The pattern we used to form the major scale, Whole Step Whole Step Half Step Whole Step Whole Step Whole Step Half Step? That same pattern, starting at a different point, is the natural minor scale. (Whole Step Half Step Whole Step Whole Step Half Step Whole Step Whole Step.)
The intervals that make up the natural minor scale are the Root, Major 2nd, minor 3rd, Perfect 4th, Perfect 5th, minor 6th, minor 7th, and then octave and so forth. How did it come to be and what is its purpose? More on that in a second. Secondly, the melodic minor scale. In the key of A minor in one octave, it looks like this:
e--------------------b--------------------G--------------------D-------------4-6-7--A---------5-7--------E--5-7-8-------------
You may notice this starts out the same way as the natural minor scale, but ends the way its parallel major scale would. In the key of A mior, the notes making up the melodic minor scale are A B C D E F# G# A.
The intervals that make up the melodic minor scale are the Root, Major 2nd, minor 3rd, Perfect 4th, Perfect 5th, Major 6th, Major 7th, and then octave and so forth. SO why are the natural minor and melodic minor scales called as such, and how are they related? In classical music, the natural minor scale and the melodic minor scale are the same scale. Huh?
You see, in classical music, the melody almost always ends with the major 7th going up to the root ("Ti - Doe" if doeing a deer is your scene.) This is true even in minor keys, but jumping from a minor 6th to a major 7th sounds awful (as you'll see in a bit.) Because of that, in classical music, the scale played up is the melodic minor scale, and the scale played down is the natural minor scale. Some guitar teachers will lightly acknowledge this, and say such silly things as "Melodic minor ascending" for the melodic minor scale as I just showed it and"melodic minor descending" for the natural minor scale.
In a lot of jazz music, people will player the melodic minor scale as I showed it both up and down (so if you have one of those silly teachers who uses the term "melodic minor ascending", you can play the ascending scale even descending. Oddly stupid, right?)
So that's WHY those scales are the way they are. And it should also give you the idea behind the names: the natural minor scale is called such because it doesn't change the key signature, and the melodic minor scale is called such because it changes the scale for the melody.
So what is the harmonic minor scale and why is it called that? In the key of A minor in one octave, the harmonic minor scale looks like this:
e--------------------b--------------------G--------------------D---------------6-7--A---------5-7-8------E--5-7-8-------------
The intervals that form the A harmonic minor scale are the Root, Major 2nd, minor 3rd, Perfect 4th, Perfect 5th, minor 6th, Major 7th, and then octave and so forth. Remember when I said jumping from the minor 6th to the Major 7th sounds awful melodically? Just trying play that part over and over for a bit. e--------------------b--------------------G--------------------D----6-7-6---6-7-----A--8-------8---------E--------------------
It sounds unusual, and kinda cool in a way... but as a scale to just go up and down? Yuuuck. The harmonic minor scale literally exists only so pianists can practice chords. What?
You heard me. It has become a gimmick in certain situations with soloing, and has its own place now that we're in the year 2012 and that melodic jump that irks me has become more acceptable to the modern ear. But in terms of historic origins, the harmonic minor scale exists so that pianists can play all the common chords in minor keys without changing scales.
So in my second lesson, we learned that the diatonic chords of a major scale were I, ii, iii, IV, V, vi, vii?. Because there are a wide array of different intervals in the minor scale in the classical sense (between melodic minor and natural minor, you have major 6ths and minor 6ths and major 7ths and minor 7ths), one can form a ton of different chords. But the most common chords based on each root note appear in the harmonic minor scale, and that's why it exists.
Thus, the chords of A harmonic minor are:
i (A C E in A minor. That shouldn't be surprise anyone.)
ii? (B D F. A diminished chord!)
III+ (C E G#, )
iv (D F A, the minor four.)
V (E G# B. This is why the G# is really there: the V chord goes to i in classical music, and the G# makes it a V.)
bVI (F A C.)
#vii? (G# B C)
With minor scales, with roman numeral naming, we must also indicate what note the sixth and seventh chords are based on. This is to say, even though the harmonic minor scale shows the most common harmonies, it's possible to build a chord based on the minor 7th of the natural minor scale... so we must say #vii? or bVII, rather than just saying "vii?" or "VII" like we could with the major scale.
And just as a little extra tidbit: if you recall in my second lesson, I said there were four types of diatonic chords, but I only displayed three in the major scale. The fourth kind was the augmented chord: A Root, a Major Third, and an Augmented 5th. C E G# in A minor. Look at the harmonic minor scale, and then the third chord. You now have the only diatonic example of the fourth kind of triad.
So that's your minor scales. My next lesson should be about chord functions, and finally getting into how the theory works and what its uses actually are, rather than just clearing the air on common misconceptions.
If you want a lesson on anything in particular, just comment or ask for it! I hope to be writing lessons for UG for a long time. It would be sweet to get the UG writing job.
View the original article here
Read More
Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , ,

How Music And Playing Guitar Have Helped Me In My Life

Rate This Song:
{[["☆","★"]]}
9:15 AM 0

For first, I must say that this is a totally real story; my story. It happened a time ago, but it is still beating in my life, but now with a smile in my face. I'll start in the point where everything happened:
When I was 14 years old I had a musical taste based on punkrock (which my folks didn't like I must say), with Rise Against in the top of it. I really liked their songs, not in the usual way of "hey, it like this, it's cool", no; the lyrics, the sound and the rhythm easily entered inside of me. In these times I just had a very little idea of music (do re mi etc.) but when I was listening to the music, something strange used to happen to me; I could feel the guitar's bass' and drums sound in a special way. So one day while listening to "Heaven Knows" (by Rise Against) I decided that I wanted to start playing electric guitar. At first my parents feel quite happy but I could see that they would have preferred I liked more quiet and acoustic songs... But I didn't mind. My neighbor borrowed me an acoustic guitar for my begginings, and I started going to music lessons in an academy. There for first I learnt the basic chords and some rhythm from songs such as "Hey Joe", "All Along The Watchover" or "Zombie". After a month my cousin gave me his old Strat-sembled electric guitar and a little 2watt amp. Passing from an acoustic to an electric was great! Now I could feel like my heroes! And also my teacher said I was improving my skills.
It all seemed great, but the truth was that I had too much time to practice... My family members weren't at home all the time I needed, and my friends; yes, the friends I had had for years, weren't so near to me as before. I used to think the problem were the new girls who have entered into the friends group, but all still was more or less ok.
The summer arrived and it was gone too fast. I didn't have a lot of time, and the time I had I spent in improving my skills, learning to play the songs I liked and also looking for a brand new guitar in the internet because I started to realize that my teacher was right when he said that my Chinese Strat was "the worst guitar he had ever used". So by the end of the summer I could play some easy solos and my best friends and I were as we were before. And in the last day of holidays, my parents bought me the guitar I wanted; an Ibanez RG 350DX.
And I was at school again, it all seemed well among us but... Bit a bit, also that hateful girls I talked about before and a guy who (I don't know why) hates me were also among us and... Bullying started.
That guy and some more were practicing that against me and that girls made my friends don't help me and abandon me, and when I came home from school, I didn't want to tell anything because all the psychological pain would re-appear.
Luckily, I had the key to my personal paradise in my room, in this paradise all I had were my mobile phone with the songs of my favorite bands, my lovely shiny guitar (I felt in love with her and I still am) and the amp. It was all I had and all I needed to be happy, no pain, no hateful people, no sadness, all was music. Some ordered sounds which can help you and change your life.
But I arrived to a point where there were no more forces to go on, because the situation was going worse. Yes, I?m talking about thinking about suicide, what ironically thing; finishing my life just in the same way as the protagonist of Heaven Knows, the song which encouraged me to started playing.
But don?t be sad, because the best things are in the way, and they came all together. A new shiny summer was coming; my parents knew all the trouble and know the hateful haters were in a big trouble. It could be better? Yes! My marks and all my guitar skills had improved a lot, I had a new Peavey amp and my friends and I were as before because they apologized and now that girls and that haters are far far away (and I don?t care about where are them now). And my fate was becoming even better because? girls now were interested in me, what a surprising idea for me!
Now I?m 17 years old, the beginning of the end of this summer is here, but life now smiles at me. I?m still with my friends, sometimes we have really good afternoons and other times I?d like to kill?em (they don?t want to date with me because of their laziness but if a girl tells them to date they don?t refuse, for example). I?m really happy with my love life, I have a great family and a great future. As you can imagine I still have bad days (as all the people) but the people and things I love are with me.
Well, this is the story of my life and my bad times and how music helped me. To finish this article, I want to render thanks to the music in general, this website and all the people who selflessly helped guitar rookies as I was, my favorite bands, Rise Against specially, and of course, my family.
BTW, if you are wondering which my favorite bands are, here they are:
Anti-Flag
Bad Religion
The Bouncing Souls
Bullet For My Valentine
Chevelle
A Day To Remember
The Distillers
Flogging Molly
Funeral For A Friend
Green Day
Lagwagon
My Chemical Romance
Nirvana
The Offspring
Pennywise
Rise Against
System Of A Down
The Unseen
View the original article here
Read More
Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , ,