Category Archives: musics

Positive Effects Of Music Education For Your Child

Posted on by

Over the years, documented studies have confirmed the benefits of music education on new born and children. Music education benefits include everything from changing a students’ mood to helping them solve math problems. In general, it helps a student become successful in the school environment. Music has immediate effects on brain activity which scientists are still studying today.

For example, a study was done that involved second graders and math. In this study, the school kids were divided into two groups. One group used newly-designed math software to augment their mathematical skills. The other group also used this software but in addition the kids in this group received piano keyboard training. What are the results?

Both groups were tested and the second group of students scored twenty-seven percent higher on the math exam than the first group, which seem to show the positive effects of combining music teaching into other studies. Numerous studies have shown that learning and exposure to music results in improved communication between students. Fights and arguments are reduced. Also students who play in school bands are less likely to use tobacco and alcohol.

Ongoing research at the University of California-Irvine and the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh (2) demonstrate that learning and playing music builds or modifies Neural pathways related to spatial reasoning tasks, which are crucial for higher brain functions like complex maths, chess and science.

The first studies showed that listening to a Mozart sonata temporarily improved a child’s spatial abilities. Further studies compared children who had computer lessons, children who had singing lessons, children who learned music using a Keyboard and children who did nothing additional. The children who had had the Music classes scored significantly higher – up to 35% higher – than the children did Who had computer classes or did nothing additional
Benefits of music education also include enhancing interpersonal communication skills. This result has also been proven by some of the many studies done throughout the years. A student who is having difficulty concentrating may find it easier when music classes have been added to the curriculum. Playing music helps a student become more self-disciplined and able to control their behavior better, because it provides an acceptable form of self expression.

If students learn to study music successfully they can use the same method to help them study in other classes. They will find it easier to understand instructions. Added benefits of music education include increasing a child’s creativity and helping him or her learn to cooperate with other students. Their social interaction skills improve after playing music together in a group.

In newborns, exposure to music is proven to help develop intelligence. Exposure to classical music helps develop reasoning and language skills in children when begun at an early age. In older children, music education helps them extend their knowledge of the world around them. Music education gives children an avenue to contribute to society, which in turn helps them in life. They are more likely to become well-rounded individuals.

Musical Instruments Of Colombia

Posted on by

Everybody deeply appreciate the great treasure that is Colombian musical instruments, such as Colombian tiple, made in coral wood, with clear lines and awesome authentic color, with twelve metal strings arranged in four courses. Any professional or student guitarist will find it easy to use in Colombian folk music, and in many Latin American songs. Musicians can use it in Latin American folk jazz music, but also in original songs as well. Tiple’s ethereal and clear sound is also used in classic guitar music creations.

Colombian Cuatro is concert grade guitar; it is made of slices and blocks from curly maple. It has a violin shape and has a great pitch accuracy and finish. The ‘seis’ is a hybrid of the cuatro and a supplementary sixth course tunes a fourth below the usual fifth bottom course. It is also a very popular Colombian musical instrument. This feature allows an expanded bass range. It can be used also for guitar intervals as well, and it makes a awesome music, It sounds as a guitar, but sweeter, faster and louder.

Original Colombian music instruments
Spanish and African traditions are strongly represented in Colombian music. Traditional quena, a king of flute, and Spanish guitar are very popular. Colombian bandolina has fifteen strings and its sound is beautiful, sweet and clear. It is usually made by hand, of unexcelled quality. The marimba is another Colombian musical instrument; it looks like a xylophone and its keys are made in wood. The arpa is a local version of the harp, the guassa is a rattle. The songs from the Pacific coast are using drums and are tinged with Spanish influence. Due to the Spanish influence, piano music is also very popular in Colombia. The newest music style in Colombia is “valenato”, based on the European accordion.

Many Colombian musical instruments are beautifully crafted, from the ancient times until our century. The charango, a kind of guitar made in wood, the vessel whistle, the erkencho, a kind of clarinet, the chirimia, an oboe, are carefully made and original Colombian folk music sounds great with them. There are six ethnic zones in Colombia; the music is a hybrid between Indian roots and Spanish traditions. In some regions, there is also a strong Negro influence. Guitars, flutes and drums are always necessary; in the Caribbean zone the most important Colombian musical instrument is gaita, a kind of oboe. In Colombia, music is a tradition. There is a habit to pass folk songs from one generation to the other.

Background Music – Royalty-free Music

Posted on by

Having Background Music within your internet site or together with your video is a superb way to make your website feel all that more professional to your visitor.

If you take a look online, it may be a video or
a large company business or maybe someone promoting their small internet site with an initial video revealing what their site is all about and what the viewer can expect from their web site. Almost all of the big web pages or top viewed youtube videos have Background Music.

The great thing about utilizing Background Music, is that you can buy and download it instantly. You should definitely look to purchase Royalty-Free music, You could of course use renowned popular music but it would cost a small fortune with royalties, and if your a small business you certainly dont require that as an extra cost.

Royalty-Free Background Music certainly is the way to go, there are some brilliant web pages out there, with literally 1000s of pieces of music on. Royalty-Free signifies you can use this piece of music in your videos as many time as you wish and not have to pay anyone a single penny more. You pay once and you can use again and again, and with prices starting from as little as $4 you will be on to a winner.

Have a look around and Im certain you will find something to suit your requirements, with all genres covered from Ambient to World Music. Typically the Background Music will be available to purchase in two ways! Complete length track or a loop, The good thing with loops is that they can be extended over an indefinite length of time so you can have it any length you need.

Get some Background Music for your webpage or videos to make them really stand out from the rest.

Including background music to your site is indeed cool and simple. It does not only draw visitors, but in addition gives it a personal touch which will sets it apart from the competition.

Sensible website owners invest loads of hours optimizing their websites for the search engines like google and yahoo, linking, book marking and article marketing, to be successful. Injecting traffic to a website is definitely an ongoing reality of an internet business. Therefore using all the resources available to keep visitors on the site is crucial. Background music is one of those tools.

Podcast Safe Music

Posted on by

Podcasting is the new thing in broadcasting nowadays. Practically anyone can create his own podcast and make himself known to the world. Perhaps the best thing about podcasting is that it is meant to be free. In addition to that, podcasts transcend the boundaries of traditional broadcasting. You may be from the US but anyone with access to the internet can listen to your podcast. A person may be in Timbuktu and yet have access to your podcast.

Music is inherent to the success of any podcast. It adds spice and flavor to an otherwise bland broadcast. That is why a large pool of resources has been developed by people in the podcasting community. Beginners and veterans a like search for the perfect background music or filler sounds for every podcast they make. So how do you go about looking for that spice?

Despite the freedom provided by podcasting, there are some issues you must address before jumping into the bandwagon and creating your own podcast. Copyright and intellectual property rights have been a main concern in all aspects of broadcasting for some time now and podcasting is not exempt from that. As a result, the term podsafe has come into existence. What exactly is podsafe? This term encompasses any material that may be used for podcasts without violating any copyright or license. A special thing about podsafe material is that the very same material might require some sort of license in other media but totally safe for podcasting. Due to the open community nature of podcasting, many songs, music, and other type of materials are allowed to be used for free exclusively for podcasts. While you might have to acquire the permission of the copyright holder for other broadcasting media, with podsafe material, you can use it freely in podcasts.

Some specific kinds of work are inherently podsafe. Works that fall under the public domain or some works with Creative Commons licenses can be used in podcasts without any issues. They are meant to be used, and used freely.

There are some entities on the web that license music especially for podcasts. Their podcast safe music is generally available to anyone for downloading and for use in free broadcasts over the internet. The only restriction they have is for the user to duly acknowledge the source. Anyone may also post music on their sites as long as the piece of work is totally original.

Some sites make their music available for no fee at all. On the other hand there are sites which promote artists particularly independent ones and charge a small fee for downloading their songs. Notably, these sites also offer labeled artists and are supposed to split the downloading fees with them.

The important thing to bear in mind when looking for podcast safe music is that most of the groups offering materials make them available to the general public for free. The caveat is that your podcast must not be used for commercial purposes. If that is the case, then you will have no problems finding the right track for your podcast.

The Midnight Funk Association, The Last Great Radio Show

Posted on by

The Midnight Funk Association was the 12 a.m. segment of the legendary late night Detroit radio DJ Electrifying Mojo, a.k.a Charles Johnson.
An entire generation of faithful fans and listeners from the late 70’s through the early 90’s recognize the radio show for shaping the musical tastes of listeners in the Metropolitan Detroit Area, Northern Ohio, and Eastern Ontario Canada.

Mojo broke many artists in the Detroit market including Prince, The J. Giles Band, The B-52’s and turned audiences on to classic legends like Pink Floyd and Peter Frampton, artist previously unheard on radio stations that were labelled as “black”, or “R and B” .

Nightly at 12 a.m., Mojo called to order The Midnight Funk Association, an homage to some of the great funk bands of the day and of all time. He frequently played original long versions, and entire sides of albums by George Clinton and Parliament / Funkadelic, Prince, Rick James and many other all time great bands and artists, as well as local groups like Ready For the World.

At the top of the show, Mojo opened membership to the MFA, and members new and old were asked to stand up to show solidarity.

* If you were driving you were to flash your headlights.
* If you were at home, you turned on your porch light.
* If you were in bed listening to the show, you were required to dance on your back.

And every night for years, people did it !

To become a card carrying member of the MFA, listeners wrote in the radio station and would receive their official MFA I.D. card.

Electrifying Mojo, and the Midnight Funk Association was one of the last great radio music shows of our time. Many fans of the radio show credit Mojo for being fans of music that they would have otherwise never heard of. He was a huge influence in turning millions of listeners into Prince fans, and many say was responsible for a six show sell out at Cobo Hall in Detroit in the late 80’s.

It is common to speak to fans of the show that will credit him for turning them on to Peter Frampton, The B-52’s, Pink Floyd, and many other artists that were never heard on Detroit’s “R and B” stations, yet he also supported emerging rap artists like Eric B and Rakim, Run DMC, Whoodini, L.L. Cool J, and the many styles of music heard of the show fit together semmlessly as if they were mean to be enjoyed together.

The Godfathers and Originators of Detroit House and Techno Music, Juan Atkins, Derrick May, Kevin Saunderson, now known and respected around the world as groundbreaking, credit Mojo and the Midnight Funk Association as an early influence in their musical development and he frequently supported and played thier early and history making tracks that launched Detroit techno to the entire world including Inner City’s “Good Life”, Derrick May’s “Strings of Life”, Cybotron’s “Cosmic Cars”, Model 500 “No UFO’s”, “Technicolor”, “R9” and so many others.

Mojo was known to support and embrace electronic music in it’s early stages and frequently played artists like Africa Bambaataa, Kraftwerk, and New Order as part of his nightly radio show.

Common segments of the legendary radio show included:

* 10:00pm – The Landing of the Mothership. This was the intro to each show with spaceship sound effects and related dialog. Sometimes the music heard during the first hour was indicative of what you’d hear that night; sometimes it would be completely random.
* 11:00pm – Awesome ’84, ’85. In the mid eighties, Mojo played an hour of brand new music (hence the year in the title) and a lot of new songs were introduced.
* 11:30pm – Lover’s Lane. A half an hour of “slow jams” for lovers.
* 12:00am – The Midnight Funk Association. Consisted regularly of Parliament-Funkadelic, The Gap Band, Zapp and other funk bands of the era.

From 1:00am to 3:00am (2:00 am on Saturday nights), Mojo’s show was different every night. Sometimes, the MFA would stretch well beyond 1:00am, other times Mojo would introduce segments such as:

* Star Wars – A classic “artist vs. artist” set, where Mojo would alternate selections from two different groups or artists, and the listeners would call in to vote for their favorite.
* Journey – Sometimes a multi-night segment, where Mojo played songs by a single artist or group, spanning their entire career. This usually included a mix of hits and obscure songs by that artist.
* Shout-out – Everyone that called into the station during his show was the recipient of a “shout-out”. He would go on for as long as it took rattling off the first names of every single person who had called in to the show.
* 35-35-35 – Mojo would take suggestions from listeners about their favorite artists and bands. He then would choose the three most popular groups that night and play thirty-five minutes, commercial-free, of each group. This segment often gave airtime to groups that no other radio station in Detroit played.

At other times, Mojo would spend the last 2 hours of his show showcasing live mixes on two turntables, by bringing in local DJs to do the same. One such DJ, Jeff Mills, began his career with Mojo as “The Wizard.” Mojo also would air music by local groups at this time.

In the Metro Detroit Area, The Midnight Funk Association was more than a nightly radio show, it was an event that listeners looked forward to every night for years.
It was common to see cars flashing thier lights at midnight and horns honking on the streets all over town at Midnight.

Mojo crossed color lines and did not adhere to a play list like today’s prepackaged radio stations and while broadcast on stations marketed toward the African-American market, his programming was an inspired blend of the best soul, funk, New Wave, and rock that defied standard radio industry formats and genres.

He believed that good music had no color, and should not be packaged into “Black” stations, and “White” stations, a concept still lost on today’s radio station owners, and program managers.

Electrifying Mojo and his Midnight Funk Association was the last of the great radio shows, and the last show that had any originality, and independent thought outside of a prestructured play list or carefully crafted demographic studies.

By following his love of music and adhering to a standard of just playing what was good, Mojo accomplished something that radio has been unable to do since. Capture a cross section of music lovers that encompassed every age, race, and finacial demographic, and create listeners andloyal fans that tuned in simply because they loved the DJ and the music.

Most recently, Mojo is serving as Program Director for a handful of Detroit radio stations – he does not publicize which ones – and he was in negotiations to bring his show to XM satellite radio in 2006, but so far nothing has been heard about it.

Fans from all over still speak of the legendary radio show, as well as, others who have heard about it and what it meant to so many, for so long.

For those of us that were there, The Midnight Funk Association will live in our hearts forever, and we will always be card carrying members.

It was truly one of the last great radio shows of our time.