When I saw this title, I was afraid and Im still afraid regarding my opinion about the subject. The subject is complex and difficult so I cannot resolve it overnight. I am an African. I do things the African way. I cannot write about African American music like a Western scholar. In my culture we live the past and the future in the present. When I listen to some African American music I can feel the past, the present and the future all at the same time. Now, the best way for me to handle this subject is to work by questions and answers.

[Question Yaya! Who do you think you are?

Yaya Diallo – I don’t think! I am Farafin, which means I am a dark skin man. The word Africa is the Arabic name for our continent. In Bambara we call the so-called Africa Farafina. Farafina means the land of dark skin people. I am from Farafina and I am proud of it. I don’t want to be somebody else. People in general say African American. I would say American Farafin, which means dark skin human being who lives in America.

[Question What is your African background?

Yaya Diallo – I come from far away. I was born in 1946 in Fienso (French Sudan), now Mali. My parents were nomadic. When I was very young I used to travel a lot. I grew up in the bush far from any western civilization. The music that I heard was very traditional and played live. I did not have a radio or TV. I had the opportunity to listen to the music of the different ethnic groups from the Ivory Coast, Burkina and Ghana. In some villages I heard Muslim songs coming from the mosques. By night, I would enjoy the frog symphonic orchestras. From 1946 to 1960 I was living in complete nature. My musical training is a long story but you can learn more from my book The Healing Drum.

[Question What are your feelings about the civilized world?

Yaya Diallo – In the city I had strange feelings. I saw people listen to music through what I thought was two kinds of boxes. The first was a radio. You could change the singer with the tuning button, I thought. The second needed records. It read 78, 45 and 33 1/2. You had to adjust everything with something but I did not have a clue as to what. Even still, the only music that I heard was the Beatles, Rolling Stones and Johnny Holliday.

[Question What do you think about the word African American?

Yaya Diallo – Dark skin people living in America are not different from people I met in Africa (Farafina). To me they are just different ethnic groups like the Yoruba, the Bantou, the Zoulou or the Touareg. Africa is not one culture. We have thousands and thousands of languages and different music. My wife is an African American from Louisville, KY. Her mother is from Dark Corner, MS and her father from Jackson, TN. Like my wife and family there was one African American man, James Brown, who saved my life with his music.

[Question How can an African American man save the life of a traditional African?

Yaya Diallo – In 1967 I left my country to go to Montreal, Canada. On my way, in Paris, I saw a big picture of James Brown in the Olympia Theater. In my mind I thought, Oh! A black man in Olympia in Paris, France. In Montreal I was looking for a place to dance or listen to the music that I loved. One day I found a radio station that played black music. I heard James Brown and felt at home.

[Question What do you think about African American music?

Yaya Diallo – I always say that I don’t think, I feel. When we talk about African American music we talk about Spirituals, Blues, Funk, Jazz, Gospel, Rap, dance music, etc. I want to talk on each one by one.

When people in Canada were dancing the twist, jerk and go-go, in my country a French man named Johnny Holliday was playing bad versions of Wilson Pickett and Ray Charles music in French. In America I found out this French man was a robber. He stole the music, sang it in French and looked like a genius for us Africans.

[Question What did you feel when you started to dance?

Yaya Diallo – I used to go out to dance to Wilson Pickett, James Brown, and Sly and the Family Stones music. For me they were Africans. They had good beats, good feelings and most important, African Soul. I did not feel that from Chinese or European music. In the 70s I discovered the Funk music, The O’Jays, Parliament, Ohio Players, Kool and the Gang and JR Walker and the All Stars. I felt I was at home when I knew the Motown Family (Smokey Robinson, Diana Ross and the Supremes, the Temptations and Stevie Wonder). I could survive because I had those kinds of musicians.

[Question In terms of music, what is the link between African and African Americans?

Yaya Diallo – African Americans are Africans from the village and sadly they just don’t know it! When you listen to the music you can find out. Kool and The Gang played Funky Stuff. When you listen to the drum part you will get the Dounouba part of the dance Sounou. Sounou was played in the 15th century and today is the dance young people love. In Africa we learn the past in the present and teach it to the next generation. The African Americans sometimes do not know how African they are.

[Question Why can you say that they are African?

Yaya Diallo – The first time I heard the Four Tops I thought I was listening to the Bambara Farmers in the evening after a hard working day. The Temptations reminded me of the men Fire dancers and singers. I can listen to Temptations but I am afraid to see them. I am not initiated to the Fire dance and the music brings out memories about the secret ceremonies that happened afar in the village. Aretha Franklin is for me a great Djeli-mousso coming from the Empire of Mali in the 13th century. When I listen to African American music I don’t worry about the meaning, only what I feel.

[Question What do you think about Jazz?

Yaya Diallo – Really, to tell the truth, I don’t feel jazz. Many people coming from Africa feel the same way. I learned about jazz in 1980 when I recorded my first album, Nangape, on Onzou Records. That opened the door for me with jazz. Jazz magazines like Cadence and Down Beat wrote articles on me like I was a jazz man. I was invited to do workshops at the Creative Music Studio in Woodstock, NY. I met jazz big names like Art Blakey. He said, Yaya is the only African that I can jazz, that I can play with and be comfortable. I completed a trio with Don Cherry and Ed Blackwell in the Symphony Space in New York.

[Question What about Gospel?

Yaya Diallo – To me gospel means religion or church but my father-in-law changed my mind. When going to church with him I saw a big band and a big choir. People were singing and I forgot that I was in church. I was surprised; I saw ladies in a trance like in my village but they called it shouting. This reminded me of the Mania Secret Society where only woman go into a trance when praising god (See The Healing Drum).

[Question What is rap?

Yaya Diallo – I love rap! I use to lie about buying rap and say that it was for my children. Rap is the old tradition of the Fulani people in Mali. It tells life stories through poetry that is recited quickly. Nomadic people have to explain their daily journey through this same quick form, but without the foul language. Today, the young people think that they have reinvented the wheel.

[Question Yaya, what is wrong with African American music today?

Yaya Diallo – Today everything is easy. Instead of buying a drum set you buy a drum machine. Computers do everything. You can get almost every sound by pressing a button. This is the type of world that we live in today. The young Africans love it like we used to love James Brown. Time is the only thing that has changed!

[Question How did African American music change American Society?

Yaya Diallo – We changed everything! We changed the style of dance; we created new sounds, new styles, and new way to dress … EVERYTHING! Country music is the white version of the Blues. Rock-n-roll comes from our music. People forget that Jimmie Hendricks was a Blues player that just changed his sound and look. Without James Brown, Sly and Family Stone and the Motown Family there would be no Madonna, no Celiene Dion, no techno, and no disco. African Americans brought this to the world. It is sad because people do not recognize it. We changed the world and it will never be the same again.

[Question How do people know you in America?

Yaya Diallo – I am the author of two books, The Healing Drum and At the Threshold of the African Soul. I have four CDs, Nanagape, The Healing Drum, Dombaa Folee, and Dounoukan. I thank Onzou Records, the first company that trusted me to make my first album in 1980. That was not easy!

The History of African American Music by Malian musician/author Yaya Diallo was written to celebrate Black History Month. The article is translated into English by LaKesha Churn and edited for English grammar and clarification by Stephen Conroy, Producer/Publisher of the independent label to first produce Yaya Diallo in 1980 on Onzou records, http://www.onzou.com

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During its initial stages, a DJs job was a difficult and expensive career option. It required amateurs to purchase expensive equipment that needed to be carried along to every event. The development of computer software and hardware proved to be a boon for most businesses. Similarly, becoming a DJ became much simpler with the introduction of a virtual disc jockey.

Virtual disc jockey is a popular MP3 mixing software available in the market. It is ideal for all DJs, from beginners to professionals and helps create great mixes in a short span of time. This recent technological breakthrough is designed to help mix beats and create any new rhythm by mixing any particular song with a variety of beats. The beat lock feature makes it intelligent software. It can automatically alter a pitch to match the BPM (beats per minute). The software can speed up or slow down the discs in order to match a rhythm and can continue to do so with any type of music.

Virtual disc jockey software has a song-positioning feature that helps control a song. Users can click on any part of a song and hear that part before they are actually played. A pitch control feature helps modifying the speed of a song. Sample buttons permit users to listen to small trials and jingles. The software can be used efficiently to create innovative remixes.

The mere mixing of a song in a few minutes does not make a good DJ. It is important that songs should be matched for tempo and beats before being played aloud. Virtual Disc Jockey has made the art of disc jockeying a simpler task and has revolutionized the music scene.

DJ provides detailed information on DJ, DJ Equipment, Virtual DJs, DJ Software and more. DJ is affiliated with Cheap DJ Equipment.

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This lesson can open for you a secret of high-speed guitar playing. If take the given technique for 2-3 weeks you’ll feel progress in high-speed playing of complex passages.

The given principle of development of techniques was tested not by one generation of guitarists and not only guitarists…

In this lesson we shall concern high-speed technics. Skilled guitarists alredy know that the basic brake in development of guitar high-speed technics is the right hand. Therefore when playing the most ultra-high-speed passages for simplification guitarists play legato (i.e. the right hand does not take some notes, it is done with fingers of the left hand by receptions pull-off, hammer-on).

How to achieve speed?

For this purpose it is necessary for guitarist to develop technics of the right hand – fast alternation of pick stroke upwards-downwards (a variable stroke). The more quickly the right hand will make alternating strokes, the quicker the playing will be.

It is necessary to begin from the most usual tremolo (fast recurrence of one note).

Triplets are the most effective way of learning to play a tremolo. Try to begin each of your lessons with a tremolo. It develops (and well warms up) the right hand. The tremolo notes must sound dynamically equal (all sounding notes of equal loudness) and with equal tempo.

For example, you wish to learn a high-speed passage. I offer the following simple blues phrase in A as an example:

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First you need to learn in slow tempo and in convenient key with rational pick strokes.

After you’ve done it, play a tremolo of each note, i.e. each note in a passage it is necessary to take three times (if it is the eighth) like this:

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The tremolo should be loud (a silent tremolo does not make effect). Play thus 10 – 15 minutes (with small breaks) up to feeling of weariness in your right hand. The weariness speaks that muscles work as they must do. In my experience each student playing given technique, develops his own nuances. The right hand as though itself finds the most convenient position while playing, – it is only necessary to force it to work. When you are good at playing this passage with tremolo, try to play it in the original.

I often hear a question: How many it is necessary to be engaged so that to come to high speed? – It’s individually. For someone it’s necessary 2 hours, for another 2 days, and for someone it is not necessary at all (i’m kidding . Here introspection is necessary, that is you should feel improvement of technics. Clearly one, that the most effective way – gold exercise for the right hand.

Play your own passages by this principle, solos, improvizations, rock, jazz and blues phrases… If you have great patience, you will see huge advantage of this technique and feel the results. If you do not see any result most likely you were engaged either incorrectly or insufficiently long. Though it is possible to play legato or tapping, but it sounds less brightly and energetically.

Yuri Nikitin guitar instructor, music writer and webmaster. Find more free guitar lessons in varios styles at http://www.guitar-lesson-online.net

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Developed as an amalgamation of various musical forms, country music has a huge fan following across the globe. Country music enthusiasts are divided loosely into two sects. The first contains those people who listen to this melodious form for entertainment. The second and the more serious are those who follow country music as a form of art.

Country music lyrics have played a huge part in bringing the music to its present successful stage. The simple and flowing words of country music describe the day-to-day lives of the average American. Not every body identifies with Brad Pitt or Madonna, but you can empathize with the simple characters described in country music. An average working class American citizen relates to the beautiful depiction of relationships, touching loneliness or poverty.

Earlier commercial forms of country music copied ballad or folk music. The lyrics depicted the lives of Americans in earlier days, using a fiddler to deliver the message. A good example of this was fiddling John Carsons 1924 hit Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane.

Country music lyrics beautifully portrayed the romantic version of a vast span of lonesome prairies. People loved the image of a singing cowboy galloping on a steed singing and working hard on a sunny day. Singers like Gene Autry and Roy Rogers boosted the image of country music tremendously by including beautiful lyrics in their songs.

The lyrics in country music are often repeated as a catchy melodious phrase by a chorus, and composers usually write tunes that are 150 words or less.

Country Music provides detailed information on Country Music, Country Music Lyrics, Country Music CDs, Country Music Videoes and more. Country Music is affiliated with Classical Music Downloads.

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Custom drums are specifically designed to fit your musical needs and go with your specifications. Typical drum kits come pre-constructed with a snare drum, at least one cymbal, bass drum, and toms. But, what if you want control over the types of drums that go in your kit? Custom drums are the perfect option for you. When you purchase custom drums, chances are you a serious drummer with specific musical tastes.

Handmade Custom Drums

Building a drum set made entirely of handmade custom drums can be rewarding. Handmade drums tend to have a more complex and interesting sound than generically manufactured one. To find handmade custom drums, look for companies or people that specialize in this craft. You can locate the companies online or obtain information using word of mouth. Having drums custom made for you by hand allows you the unique opportunity of providing your own specifications to develop a one of a kind percussion instrument.

Custom Drums for the Handicapped

Besides that, custom drums can also be created to accommodate drummers who are handicapped. The drummer from Def Lepard, for example, has only one arm. His custom drum set includes more foot pedals to compensate for his missing arm. You can also find custom drums that use different materials or have different sounds.

Making Your Own Custom Drums

Another option is that you can make your own custom drums. Before you start doing this, keep in mind that people who make drums by hand are incredibly skilled. The slight abnormality can alter the sound and integrity of the instrument. If you are series about making your own custom drums, it is best to take lessons, especially if you are a serious player.

Final Thoughts

Having your own custom drums and custom drum set can make you stand out from other players. Your own custom drums can help you develop your own unique sound and style. Though handmade and custom made drums are usually more expensive than regular drum sets, they are definitely worth it.

Drums provides detailed information on Drums, Drum Sets, Steel Drums, Custom Drums and more. Drums is affiliated with Electronic Drum Sets.

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We all want to be in the moment. That’s where real transformation takes place. For some, walking gets them there. Others like to play sports or watch movies. For me, it’s playing the piano. When I’m in the moment, letting the music speak, it’s like the world is new again.

The notes flow out of the piano into the air and I know that something magical is taking place. It may last a minute or a half-hour. No matter how long it lasts, I know that I’ve been transported to a special place. Many musicians know of this place – especially musicians who know how to improvise. There is no planning – only spontaneous invention.

Zen music in particular has an ethereal quality that seems to grow organically. It starts and ends yet there seems to be no starting or ending point. The music just is – like a living being it just is there. It’s like a fine perfume in the sense that it lingers in the air but does not overwhelm or grow tiresome.

Any instrument can be used to create this kind of music but certain instruments lend themselves more readily to it. Flutes, the harp, the piano, the Japanese Koto – these instruments are often used to create atmospheres that linger delightfully but really do not want to go anywhere. Here in the West, we are used to a music that must pursue an ending course. We must have a climax or a big finish or we are not satisfied. Like a fireworks show, it begins and ends with a bang.

There can be a struggle between creating a music that comes from spirit or making music that pleases the crowd. We can be torn between pleasing the ego or pleasing ourselves. To play piano in the new age style is to understand a music that isn’t planned but allowed to become. Once this concept is understood, the music will flow.

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/pianolessons.html for a FREE piano lesson!

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Country music is an amalgam of popular musical forms that has its roots in traditional folk music from the South. Country music is a catchall for the Nashville sound, bluegrass, western ballads, swing, Cajun, honky tonk, Appalachian, rockabilly and jug band music.

Although there are various styles of country music, it is unique in the way its style is executed. Many songs are recorded to fit the style of country music and those who sing it. Famous country music singers include Bob Wills, Willie Nelson and George Strait. Country music listeners are mesmerized by the rhythms and the structures of the chords. In fact there are many songs that are adapted to suit the country music style like the Milk Cow Blues tune an early blues tune composed by Kokomo Arnold. Famous singers like Bob Wills, Willie Nelson, and George Strait have all sung their own versions of the Milk Cow Blues Tune.

It was in 1924, when Vernon Dalhart recorded The Wreck of Old 97, that Country music really took off. At that time other singers like Riley Pucket, Fiddling John Carson and Charlie Poole joined the country western scene, further popularizing the music. The popularity of country music continues to grow.

Country music has its share of male and female singers who, through the years, have contributed greatly to the long-standing popularity of this music. They include well-known artists like, Johnny Cash, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Dixie Chicks, Faith Hill, Tim McGraw, Patty Loveless, Barbara Mandrell, Lonestar, Shania Twain, Dwight Yoakam and many others.

Country Music provides detailed information on Country Music, Country Music Lyrics, Country Music CDs, Country Music Videoes and more. Country Music is affiliated with Classical Music Downloads.

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Songwriter’s notes: I wrote this song a few years ago. My Mother and I sat at her kitchen table as she told me this real life story. I listened to her as another woman, not as a daughter. We both wept as she shared her sad end of her dream of finding love later in life. If it tells us anything at all, it tells us to take a chance; dive into possibility; recognize opportunity and NOT WAIT…. ‘Til The Time Is Right.

Till Time Is Right

a song:

1)
We sat at the kitchen table
as her tears most freely fell.
She said she’d like to tell me
of a friend she’d never met.
Her husband had left years ago
upon her own request.
but since that time she’s been alone
and alone is a lonely plan.

Chorus:

‘Till time is right
’till time is right
we only have one life to live
but still the rules apply.
We’ll wait
’till the time is right

2)
She had spied a stranger
while sitting in the sun.
The moment that their eyes locked
she felt her soul
undone.
A friend had planned a dinner
to introduce their lives.
Formal invitations
she waited
’till the time was right.

3)
One night she was out driving
along a lone ravine.
A car crash did seem suspect
a car that she had seen.
And when she called
and asked her friend
if what she feared was true
she said that yes..
he left a note to say
I’m lonely too.

Bridge:

Who knows why or when we’ll meet again.
If we’ll crawl or if we’ll fly.
But I know one thing
that’s clear fell from my mother’s eyes.

About the Author:

Kathy Ostman-Magnusen Hawaii, United States

Aloha! I am a figurative artist and Illustrator. If you check out my website you will see that I am very prolific in oils. My paintings are collected worldwide. I also do sculpture; images available upon request. I have illustrated for Hay House Inc. , Neil Davidson, who was considered for the Pulitzer Prize in feature writing, and several other publications. I also enjoy story writing and poetry. All of the paintings,stories and poems on my blogs and website are written by me.

Check out my website http://www.kathysart.com or one of my blogs at: http://kathysart.blogspot.com/

Aloha

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Music arises when dissonant sounds are made to sound in unison. Musical variety consists of the various attempts of people to open their multicultural and multidimensional souls to the world and express them through the musical tradition of a certain culture.

Perhaps we may best begin by taking a glance at folksong, where we are not cumbered by any theory or convention. We know our own: it is a little square in structure compared with the more fanciful Irish, homely compared with the adventurous Highland Scot, of extended compass compared with the French songs, which are almost talked, nave as compared with the sophisticated German, smooth compared with the angular Scandinavian, cheerful compared with the melancholy Russian, busy compared with the leisurely Italian, vocal compared with the Spanish, in which we hear the constant thrumming of the guitar.

In India the plains and the hills seem to contrast. In the plains we hear the Irish fancy, chiefly rhythmical; an ultrasmoothness which creeps from note to note scarcely risking a leap of any kind, and, like the French, with a short compass thoroughly well explored; lugubrious, not unlike the Russian according to our views though not perhaps according to theirs, for that is a thing that foreigners never can really judge; decidedly leisurely, as one expects in a country where kal means both yesterday and to-morrow; and purely vocal, without a hint of the influence of any instrument. In the hills it is more cheerful; the steps become leaps, the rhythm is accented, though it has not so many resources; it is as busy as you could wish, almost breathless in its excitement; it is pure singing, revelling in the sound, though one song is very much like another. But there is one characteristic of the hill tribes which should be noticed: they sing in the pentatonic. We think at once of the Scottish Highlanders and the Swiss yodelers and say it is the mountain air that makes these invigorating leaps in the melody; but when we find these same leaps equally in the plains of China and among the Sioux along the Missouri we think there must be some other explanation. Perhaps it is that instruments are not easily to be had in the mountains; for it is the instrument that first makes possible the division of the tone into two semitones. At any rate, whatever the reason, the fact is that the pentatonic, though not confined to, is characteristic of the Himalaya.

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Im always amazed at how some musicians can come together, count-off a tune, and create music on the spot that really swings. How come some can do this yet others simply cant? Why is it that some music grooves a lot and some grooves less or not at all?

While there may be a number of reasons to this problem, Ill focus on one of them in this article. The beat

What is the beat? You may define it as: A common denominator, in the form of a pulse, used by a group of musicians in order to be able to play music together.

Now, if the individual musicians of a band or ensemble have different pulses, or beats, how can they possibly be on the same page? Even if someone is loudly marking the beat for everyone to hear, that doesnt mean that people are closely following it. Some may place their music exactly around the beat while others dont. All the individual notes that are being played dont line up the way they should which results in sloppy music. More carefully placed notes by the musicians result in a tighter sounding band.

Lets take a moment and use target practice as analogy.

The target is the beat. The arrow is the note. If we all shoot our arrows at the target at once, chances are that the arrows end up all over the place. Experienced professionals, however, have a much higher chance of hitting the bullseye. Well, the same applies to music. The more musicians hit the beat right on the head, the more the music will sound together. So how do you go about getting better at this? How can you get a better feel for the beat and make sure that your feel of the beat doesnt fluctuate as you are playing music? This, I believe, is the crux of the matter. The more difficult the music gets, the more musicians have to concentrate on mastering their part, so that they pay less attention to the beat.

This happens all the time on the bandstand, and it is really easy to observe. Next time youre on the bandstand, keep an eye on a musician thats tapping his foot to the beat. As the music gets more syncopated, the foot may skip a beat, speed up or slow down, it may attempt to play the part that the musician is trying to play, or it may stop altogether!

As this happens, the common denominator, the pulse or beat, the foundation thats supposed to keep the band together is now no longer stable. Of course, the musician may argue that the part that he played was exactly in sync with his foot, but that is all relative. His playing may have been right relative to his foot but if his foot moved, his playing was not right relative to the pulse of the band.

This can often lead to all kinds of discussions and disputes not all of which end on a happy note!

A common response to the above-mentioned problem is that we would all sound like robots or machines if we played exactly like the metronome.

Let me respond to this by looking at one of the masters of time or groove, the legendary drummer Steve Gadd. He is known as one of the drummers that has mastered time. This means that whatever he plays, he is always exactly with the metronome. You could shut off the metronome for a couple of bars and switch it back on and Steve would still be in sync with it. Yet, Mr. Gadd does not sound like a machine, far from it. His playing is some of the most grooviest youll ever hear. Why is that? Why can he be in sync with the metronome so much and not sound like a machine?

The answer is in where he places his notes. Lets look at a simple rock patten where his snare drum would fall on beat two and beat four of the bar. Now, he can decide to hit these two beats exactly on the head, or he can decide to lay them back a bit. This means that he would hit beat two and beat four just a tad after the metronome hit those same beats. These are tiny differences and only schooled ears can make them out. But these tiny details are what make music groove or not. The key is that if Steve decides to hit these two beats just a bit behind the beat (meaning a fraction of a second later than the metronome), he needs to be consistent and hit the two and four of consecutive bars at exactly the same spot as before.

Let me use the target practice analogy again to make this a bit clearer. If Steves decision to hit beat two and four a fraction of a second later than the metronome, would be equivalent to hitting the target just a bit to the right of the bullseye, everytime you shoot an arrow.

Notice how Steve would not change the beat or the common denominator at all, he would simply, consistenly place his note just after the beat, where the novice would move the beat and make playing music together impossible.

Does that make sense?

So how can we make sure that we dont loose the beat? Is that something we have to have naturally or can we acquire this skill through practice? Well, I believe that we can all improve our ability to keep the beat better by internalizing the beat. This will help you to place your notes exactly where you want them placed even when the music is difficult and requires a lot of concentration. This does not mean, however, that youll swing more, because, remember that the swing comes from knowing where to place your individual notes relative to the beat and doing so consistenly.

By knowing where to place your individual notes Im not implying that this is something that every musician is doing consciously. I believe that large amounts of talent are responsible for the fact that some people will just naturally place the notes in a way that makes them swing. This is what puts a Charlie Parker in a different league than the average college saxophone player.

Ok, so how do we do it? How can we solidify our sense of the beat?

The idea is to internalize the beat.

Internalizing the beat means to be able to sense the beat regardless of how much attention you have to pay to the music.

I firmly believe that you can only achieve this by using your voice. Tapping your foot is not an option as weve seen from my example above. You can always feel the vibrations of your voice, no matter how loud the music gets, not matter how many distractions youre dealing with.

I thus suggest the following exercise:

Exercise #1:

Sing quarter notes out loud and play rhythms with your hands.

You can do this along to with a metronome and without. Just start the metronome, sing the same quarter notes, and play the rhythms that you sightread with your hands. Dont just play rhythms that you know and are comfortable with. I usually grab just about any music I can get my hands on and play the rhythms with my hands while ignoring the melody.

Youll find this challenging at first, but once youve got the hang of it, it will become surprisingly easy.

At first there will be a tendency to stop counting out loud, or lower the volume gradually, some mumble. Focus on counting out loudly and clearly for the whole duration of the exercise. I suggest you count 1-2-3-4, not just any sound. However, if youre a horn player, you obviously cant count out loud. In this case I suggest you do the exercise without your instrument.

This exercise will most definitely help you build a more solid inner clock provided you practice it religiously.

In order to challenge yourself a bit more once youve mastered the first exercise, you add the following exercise:

Exercise #2:

Start off counting the click out loud just the way you did in exercise #1, then switch to singing the rhythm that youre reading from a book and play the quarter notes.

Let me just point out that this exercise will merely add independence skills and I dont believe that it is nearly as important as the first one.

The nice thing about this exercise is that it will become second nature and once you get back to the bandstand you wont have to consciously think about it. It will truly build a stronger sense of the beat which youll benefit from enormously.

Only thing left for you to do is convince your fellow band members to practice the same exercise.

Good Luck!

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