How To Maintain Good SINGING VOICE

A labeled anatomical diagram of the vocal folds or cords.
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Good professional singers not only have to be fit and healthy to look good for stage performances, but they must also know how to maintain and preserve a good singing voice.

You have only one voice and when your voice is damaged permanently, it will probably spell the end of a singer's. Many singers who have not been through professional singing coaching by good singing coaches or attend any singing schools may not even know that they may be damaging their voice.

Many singers also forget that when their singing voice does not feel right and they are not singing effortlessly as they should be, they will have a tendency to compensate with bad and unhealthy singing habits. These newly created or old bad habits may become stuck unconsciously and will have to be unlearned with the right vocal exercises. That is if the singer is aware that such habits are already in existence in the first place.

There are many things you can do to damage your singing voice and sometimes the damage will lead to permanent damage to your vocal cords. Here are some examples of what can harm your voice and there are many more.

a) Constant screaming or talking forcefully all the time. This happens very often if you are singing in a night club environment where you have to speak above the din to be heard.

Making funny voices may be cute, but you may be doing terrible damages to your vocal folds.

b) Dry air and/or not enough water consumption will dry up your larynx and thus placing too much friction on them.

c) Poor diet, lack of sleep, stress will place more toll on your body and your singing mechanism.

d) Caffeine consumption, alcohol consumption, smoking will also damage your voice.

e) Talking, singing, or whispering when you have laryngitis or sore throat. You need to rest your voice when you have a sore throat.

True professional singers must spend a lifetime working to minimize the stresses on their voices. Why should they want to destroy their singing career by being ignorant about what these bad habits can do to their singing?

What is more, if the voice is damaged because of frequent abuse and polyps grow on the larynx, they may even need to go for surgery to remove the polyps. That will mean an of income and avoidable medical expenses. So you must preserve and maintain a healthy singing voice if you want to have a successful singing career.

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SAXOPHONE Giants: JOHN COLTRANE

A portrait of John Coltrane by Paolo Steffan 2007.
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Woodshedding Monster

One of the undisputed giants of the tenor saxophone was John Coltrane. His total dedication to the mastery of his instrument of choice and his immense, innate talent made him a formidable force in the world of jazz during the '50s and 60's. It has been rumored that he would spend 12 hours practicing just one scale until he exhausted all possibilities with it and that 24-hour practice sessions were not uncommon.

Brotherly Love

John Coltrane was born in Hamlet, North Carolina into a family life full of music. After graduating from high school in 1943 he moved to Philadelphia where he enrolled in the Ornstein School of Music where he was known for his unrelenting work ethic. In 1945 Coltrane was called to military service by Uncle Sam where he performed with the US Navy Band.

With his military obligations fulfilled Coltrane returned to Philadelphia where he played with jazz greats such as Jimmy Heath, Benny Golson, and Ray Bryant. In 1948 Coltrane played tenor saxophone with Eddie 'Cleanhead" Vinson followed by a stint as alto saxophonist with the Dizzy Gillespie Big Band.

Kind Of Blue

In 1958 Coltrane joined the Miles Davis Quintet where according to him he was given "plenty of freedom" to explore his evolving approach to jazz improvisation. As a member of this group, he participated in the recording of what is to be considered one of the greatest jazz albums of all time, Kind of Blue by Miles Davis. Trane, as he came to be known, along with alto saxophonist Cannonball Adderly laid down some of the best jazz saxophone solos ever heard and still studied today by up and coming jazz musicians.

Giant Steps

John Coltrane left Miles Davis and started his own quartet in 1960. However, during his time with Miles, he managed to record his own legendary jazz album called Giant Steps. The title tune became known as a groundbreaking jazz composition because of the new harmonic progression employed by Coltrane. The complex chord progression, later to be known as 'Coltrane changes", and the fast tempo made the song a difficult task even for serious jazz musicians.

The Trane Stops Running

John Coltrane died from liver cancer before his 41st birthday. One can only imagine what can of music Trane would have made had he'd been able to play another 40 years much like his contemporary Sonny Rollins has managed to do. His horn has been silent for many years now, but the music he left us with is thriving and continues to have a major impact on the world of jazz.

By Joel Krett - Article Source: EzineArticles

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METALLICA - St. Anger

Metallica live at The O2 Arena, London, England (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

1. St. Anger 

2. Metallica Reloaded

3. The Early Early Early Days

4. Under The Influence

5. Monsters Of Rock

6. Nabbing Napster

7. Master Of Puppets

8. Ride The Lightning

9. Worn Justice

10. Headbangers' Ball

St. Anger (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

1. St. Anger 

The band that put the Metal in Heavy Metal returns with one of their heaviest albums yet. It is a return to the early days of Metallica, resembling their first album, Kill 'Em All. Unlike their albums of the past decade, there isn't a single mellow song on this new release. It is a simple flat out full throttle metal guitar with the hardest drumming Lars Ulrich has turned out in years. This album is all about, hard and fast, straight down-to-business heavy metal.

2. Metallica Reloaded 

A great addition to the album is the bonus DVD with over an hour of video footage of the band and their recording sessions. Every band should do this, then again not every band is as much fun to watch as Metallica. This album is one of the must-haves of this summer of rock.

3. The Early Early Early Days 

In a recent Rolling Stones interview, Metallica lead singer James Hetfield recounted some of his early days as a hard rock fan, "Probably the most memorable was the California World Music Festival. It was one of those two-day things. The first night was Ted Nugent and Van Halen -- no, Aerosmith. I must have been fifteen or sixteen. I remember following around my buddy, who was selling drugs. He tore up a part of his ticket -- it had a kind of rainbow edge -- and he cut it into bits and sold it as acid. I was like, "What are you doing, man?" He used the money to buy beer."

4. Under The Influence 

In the same interview, Hetfield cited one of his early influences, "I was a huge Aerosmith fan. I could not believe I was seeing them so close. I worked my way up there as far as I could. There was something magical about seeing them as actual live people, not just pictures on an album. The real coolness of Joe Perry, especially. It's impossible for him to be uncool. And I remember I was blown away by the fact that Steven was calling the crowd "*************." I was like, "Whoa -- are you supposed to do that?".

5. Monsters Of Rock 

The Jagermeister days. James Hetfield admits that the days during the Monsters of Rock tour were a big fog. Complete with a Jagermeister shellacking. He says it was okay to feel drunk and messed-up back in those days, but ultimately it just wasn't a great thing. Too many negative ramifications. There were a lot of dads and moms and husbands and boyfriends looking for him when the band came back to those towns. Not good.

6. Nabbing Napster 

Set your CD burners on stun. Metallica rocked the music world when they sued Napster, the company that provided the free-swapping file-sharing app that altered the course of music history. Fans were outraged and felt Metallica was bullying the free system. But, ultimately the industry sided with the band; after all, it was the band that was being hurt by their enthused fans. In the time it would have been the parasite that bled the tuneful turnip dry.

7. Master Of Puppets 

Oddly enough, however, many fans were quick to site that Metallica gained their foothold on heavy metal when the band provided a few tape-trading friends with a demo tape called, "No Life 'Til Leather." The seven-song album was dubbed and redubbed and dubbed some more until the tape had hopscotched across the globe from California to Germany. Within a few short months, the band had risen from obscurity with a legion of worldwide fans, all due to the free trade of their music.

8. Ride The Lightning 

Here's a fanlisting of Metallica's albums in the must-have order:

1. …And Justice For All

2. Master of Puppets

3. Ride the Lightning

4. Metallica (The Black Album)

5. Reload

6. Kill 'Em All

7. Load

Over time, no doubt their latest outing, St. Anger, will join these favorites.

 

9. Worn Justice 

For a recent Ramones tribute album, Metallica has joined the ranks of U2, Tom Waits, Garbage, Eddie Vedder, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Billy Corgan, Offspring, Static-X, Rancid, Motorhead, Green Day, and Marilyn Manson. The whole project was helmed by shock-rocker, Rob Zombie. According to Zombie in an interview with Rolling Stone, "The whole thing started with Johnny Ramone. He really wanted people to do the tracks in their own way, not like they're trying to imitate the Ramones. Everyone who ever heard the Ramones started a band, and this record demonstrates that."

10. Headbangers' Ball 

Hetfield concludes, "We're looking forward to spreading this new lust for life we have. There's a new strength in Metallica that's never been there before. There are still fearful parts, too. But I'm pretty well set up. And I'm really proud of the new music. I think we did something where the pedal does not let up."

More updated information on Wikipedia

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Joseph HAYND's PIANO Sonatas

Portrait of Joseph Haydn by Ludwig Guttenbrunn, ca. 1770.  (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Haydn's musical education began as being a choir boy at the St. Stephen Cathedral of Vienna. Still, the turning period inside his musical instruction has been the encounter with Porpora who tutored him in singing and musical composition.

In 1757, Haydn penned his first quartets, op.1 and op.2. Those early creations created his fame inside the Viennese nobility. His primary consistent work had been proposed by Count Morzin in 1758. In 1761 he was hired by the Esterhazy family as music director at the castles of Eisenstadt and also Eszterhaza, palaces branded as "little Versailles". Both having two theatres. He remained in that standing up to 1790. Haydn has written for the Esterhazy all his operas, lots of symphonies, and an important quantity of chamber music.

Joseph Haydn met with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in the course of the winter months of 1781-1782. A significant companionship, full of shared appreciation will bind the two composers. In 1791, the year of the passing of Mozart, Haydn, free from his engagements at the Esterhazy court, travels to London. He possessed a triumphal welcome. He authored the initial series of his "London Symphonies" (n.93 to 98). An additional stay in London, 1794-1795, again having a large achievement saw the publication and performance of six new "London" symphonies (n.99 to 104).

Returning to Vienna in 1795, Haydn composes a series of six Masses, a wide variety of string quartets, and most importantly, his two big Oratorios: "The Creation" and "The Seasons". His very last public appearance took place in 1808 on a public performance of his "Creation", this is an apotheosis. He will pass away the subsequent year.

Franz Joseph Haydn possessed a long, productive professional career, he had been a commendable composer with complete of sense of humour. His numerous production has embraced almost all types and types. Aside from the excellent symphonic works and the two delightful Oratorios one should not ignore the magnificent chamber music works; 68 string quartets, a good number of trios and "Divertimento"s. He also composed a variety of religious creations including the gorgeous "Last seven terms of Christ at the Crucifixion", cantatas, lieds and operas.

The piano works by J. Haydn, that felt a little bit neglected for a time, is now regaining favour among primary pianists. Performers like Wilhelm Backhaus, Lili Kraus and Glenn Gould include mixed lots of sonatas and variations. Paul Badura-Skoda offers an "authentic" performance on a "pianoforte" of that epoch.

Inside the sizable productivity of Franz Joseph Haydn, compositions for the piano is solely overtaken in quantity by symphonies and string quartets. Compared with 106 symphonies and 68 quartets we have got "only" around sixty sonatas for the piano. The earliest ones are definitely meant for the "clavicembalo".

One needs to add into the list those pretty valuable works that are: the variations, a "Capriccio", a "Fantaisie" and particularly the 45 trios for piano, violin and violoncello upon which the piano has got the best part.

Guaranteed, Joseph Haydn did not formulate the sonata form nor the symphony. But his expansion and emancipation of those musical types provided the style for all future composers. The constitutional frameworks produced by Haydn are even now alive. For this brilliant composer, the musical form had been by no means a pre-set rigid mould.

The "Haydn-Sonata" has by no means been a quickly arranged invention. The composer continually stated his references towards the "real" father of the sonata-form: Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. Since the years 1760 the style of C. Ph. E. Bach, typical with its "Empfindsamkeit" (sensitivity) and rapidly changing moods did impress rather very much Haydn. Even so, the Austrian master did infuse in those surfacing musical forms and styles a coherence, a balance that had been missing inside his famous Nordic forerunner.

One additional powerful influence is Domenico Scarlatti, even though in no way referred to specifically by F.J. Haydn. This is often to some degree evident in the melodic melody lines, but Scarlatti did not adhere to the emancipation of the "sonata" musical form.

The "new" edition of Haydn's works, published in 1960 by Christa Landon, enumerates some 62 sonatas. Most of those can not be genuinely attributed to Franz Joseph Haydn. The definitive listing made by Anthony van Hoboken is created on the Breitkopf und Hartel publication and chronology. This Hoboken directory is counting 52 sonatas for the piano.

By Mehmet Okonsar - Article Source: EzineArticles

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ORGAN MUSIC: About Piece Heroique by CESAR FRANCK

« Monument à César Franck » 1891
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Cesar Franck (1822 - 1890) was the composer, organist, and pedagogue of Belgian and German descent who lived in France. He is considered one of the most influential figures of the late Romantic period in the second half of the 19th century. In 1858, he became the organist of the famous Basilica of Saint Clotilde where he worked until his death.

The first compositions of this composer were published only in 1868 when he was 46 years old. From 1872 until his death Franck was a professor of organ at the Paris Conservatoire. Among the most famous of his students are Vincent d'Indy, Ernest Chausson, Louis Vierne and Henri Duparc.

As an organist, Franck was mostly appreciated because of his notorious improvisational talent. Although he wrote only 12 major organ works, Franck is considered by many as the most important organ composer after J.S.Bach. His compositions laid the foundation of the French symphonic organ style. Among his organ compositions, perhaps the most influential was Grande Piece Symphonique, which paved the way to the organ symphonies of Charles-Marie Widor, Louis Vierne, and Marcel Dupré.

Piece heroique, M. 37 was composed for the organ of the concert hall of Trocadero. For this reason, it is not a religious composition. It continues the tradition of Beethoven, Berlioz, and other Romantic composers. Two major thematically contrasting ideas dominate the piece: the first is written in minor (the heroic theme) and the other is in major (lyrical theme).

At the beginning of the work, these two themes are presented one after the other. In the middle of the piece, these two different ideas have a musical fight. Franck develops the themes and reveals their true melodic, rhythmic, and harmonic potential. At the last major episode, or Recapitulation, both themes are brought back, only this time the second theme becomes a triumphant and is performed with a Tutti registration.

Because of the clash of the two themes, this composition has many similarities with the Sonata form. However, in a classical sonata concept, at the exposition, the second theme is presented in a secondary key, usually in the Dominant (or in the relative major). It is important to point out that both themes here first appear in the Tonic key of B minor.

Nevertheless, Piece heroique fascinates listeners and organists because of its chromatic harmonic language, sudden modulations which explore the range of major-minor scale, and very balanced form.

By Vidas Pinkevicius - Article Source: EzineArticles

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